Currently loving Common’s new record, Finding Forever. Simply put the guy is one of the most clever and talented lyricists in history. The beginning of the record reminds me of the Black Star and Common’s collaboration with Lilly Allen is amazing and infectious and as always Kanye’s appearances on this record are memorable and bump-worthy.

Monday I mentioned seeing the trailer for The Kingdom and being really excited about it. One of the other trailers before the Bourne Ultimatum was for Ridley Scott’s American Gangster staring Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe and… Common. Check it out.

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No, seriously…

A 10-year-old accidentally locked himself in a gun safe at a Massachusetts’ Sam’s Club.

An Australian cattle rancher spent a week in a tree after falling off his horse in a swamp chock-full of alligators.

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ESPN has launched bracket-style tournament to decide which conference will be strongest in 2007.

• ACC vs. Big 12
• Pac 10 vs. Mountain West
• WAC vs. Conference USA
• WAC vs. SEC

SI writer says USC freshman Joe McKnight is the second coming of Reggie Bush.

Fanhouse’s Pac 1o preview.

• Coaches on the hot seat.
• The teams not named USC or Cal.
  
• Top 5 games.
  
• Most underrated players.

A member of the Rutger’s Women’s Basketball team is suing Don Imus for defamation of character. This woman doesn’t have a snowball’s chance of winning this suit because her attorneys will have a very difficult time showing that she was specifically damaged by a comment that was made about a group of individuals, comments where no one was named individually. It would be the equivalent of someone saying that all Destin Log reporters were illiterate and possibly in-bred and then me trying to sue that person for defamation. You can’t sue someone for hurting your feelings — at least not yet.

John Smallwood on why it’s ok to overreact about the Eagles’ preseason snooze-fest. The Eagles are apparently not worried.

The New York Times says the greatest threat to Michael Vick’s future in the NFL may not be dogfighting specifically but rather the money he may or may not have gambled on dogfighting.

Giants rookie wideout Steve Smith has the Giants very excited.

Indiana football players will wear a helmet decal and a patch on their jerseys in memory of Coach Hep.

Photo: Sam Riche/ Indianapolis Star

The AJC’s Tony Barnhart lists his must-watch games of 2007.

With a bunch of youth and inexperience, the Orlando Sentinel’s Dave Curtis says Florida will experience some growing pains in ‘07.

Going to Broncos’ games help Darrent Williams’ mother cope with her son’s death.

Ankle problems seem to be plaguing Florida wide receiver Percy Harvin.

An interesting piece on hetero-lifemates, Urban Meyer and Billy Donovan, which features this photograph:

Whoever pranked neanderthal tight end Jeremy Shockey is officially my new hero.

Dan Patrick is back on ESPN radio for the next three days and word is Colin Cowherd will not be taking his place.

Peter King’s All-Future team.

Apparently there was a confrontation at a UCLA pick-up game between Baron Davis and USC FRESHMAN O.J. Mayo. You don’t think this kid’s going to be a total headache, do you Tim Floyd? Good luck.

The AJC’s Terence Moore thinks if Michael Vicks takes a plea deal, he’ll likely be banned from the NFL for a long time.

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Well-rounded news… 

An interesting take on journalistic objectivity and politics.

Peer-to-peer file sharing network Lime Wire appears to be going legit.

My So-Called Life movie not likely, says Claire Danes.

The Knocked Up dvd will hit stores Sept. 25 with three editions.

Daft Punk is looking to release a live CD.

Site of Coachella 300 years overdue for a massive earthquake.

In her 2nd column today, new Worldwide Leader ombudsman Le Anne Schrieber (at least I think she’s a woman, take a look at the picture, it’s a little iffy) blasts weasel-faced radio personality Colin Cowherd for his part in flooding the sports blog, thebiglead.com, with so much traffic that it shut the site down for 48 hours. Just a little of Cowherd’s idiocy:

“‘We shut it down in 90 seconds,’ Cowherd boasted on air. ‘We don’t even know thebiglead.” After a bit more gloating, he said ‘We apologize — but just don’t screw with us.’ Then he asked his listeners to ‘knock it out again, just for fun.’ The attack launched over the airwaves by Cowherd kept thebiglead.com shut down for more than 48 hours.”

In the column, Schreiber agrees with those who wrote her calling Cowherd’s actions, “immature, irresponsible, arrogant, malicious, destructive and dumb.”

In response to the incident, the Worldwide Leader has adapted a “zero tolerance policy” to similar incidents.

There are a couple things worth noting when reading this column. The first of which is that does anyone really think that anyone at the Worldwide Leader did anything but smirk when Cowherd urged his listeners to shut down the blog, which had been critical of the network on several occasions before (I can’t imagine why — it’s not like ESPN is the most self promotional network of any kind on the planet … oh, wait).

I appreciate Schreiber calling Cowherd onto the carpet for acting like a child, which he does on an almost daily basis but I’m not sure this is anything other than posturing and trying to look offended about an incident that you know the suits at the Worldwide Leader are high-fiving over.