Blizzard: Topps Football Cards

Let's begin with some utterly horrifying news. According to the Ghosts of Wayne Fontes, Upper Deck is trying to buy Topps. As Topps is by far the best sports card company out there, and as Upper Deck ruins everything, and as Upper Deck seems to be striving for a completely monopoly over the sports card industry, I AM HORRIFIED. Pack-bustling fans that love to collect cheap (but quality) cards of the players they love should be very wary of Upper Deck getting its hands on Topps.

Viking News
From the Star Tribune:
"Signals might be changing on play calling": a look at offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell's role in playcalling.

"Vikings hope Jackson has what it takes to be QB": bad columnist Jim Souhan writes a non-bad column on Tarvaris Jackson.

"Greenway Update": Access Vikings gives a brief report on how Chad Greenway feels.

From the Pioneer Press:
"Williamson dropping the past": expect a lot of features on Troy Williamson this offseason.

"Vikings' receivers short on experience": actually, expect a lot of features on Viking WRs, period.

From Vikings.com:
"Rice in a Familiar Situation": a look at rookie WR Sidney Rice's learning at OTAs.

Other sports news
The AJC's latest on the Vick-dogfighting story lets us know we're not getting any quick answers:

"Poindexter has said there was evidence of dogfighting in a two-story house on the property — 66 dogs, mainly pit bulls, were seized — but there might not be enough to file charges at this point. Poindexter emphasized that the investigation is far from over."

...

"There is no timetable in making a decision to bring charges, Poindexter said."

...

"In a recent federal dogfighting case in Ohio, it took investigators 14 months to file charges. It took 11 months for investigators to gain the conviction of Stacey A. Miller of Richmond, Va., for dogfighting and animal-cruelty."

Nobody can accurately make any claims about what is found. I'll continue to read reports in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Virginia Pilot, for those reporters are basing their news on what the investigators actually say rather than speculation.

When I saw this picture of Jerry West at Sports Law Blog, I thought about how West as GM just missed out on LeBron James (and by missing out on #1, lost #2) and now misses out on Greg Oden or Kevin Durant. And that made me think of West the player, who consistently got the Lakers into the NBA Finals where they consistently lost (until '72, finally). I'm not sure that there's an all-time legend--as player and as front office guy--that has faced as much frustration in a brilliant career as West.

"Oh, yeah, the Bears do suck."

Check out Dr. Z's latest mailbag.