Spurious thoughts and idle musings from the world of sports …

There’s no need to fear, Underdog is here. And it’s about time too. For the first time in the 100-year history of the Westminster Dog Show, a beagle took Best In Show. Uno, a noisy 3-year-old champion and a huge crowd favorite, kicked major kibbles and bits at the top shelf show. This is good … The Westminster should reward regular breeds and cut back on all the frou-frou poodles and the other exotic toy dogs. Maybe next year they’ll really wise up and give it to a golden retriever named “Doobie” wearing a Grateful Dead bandanna with a wet frisbee in his mouth.

I still don’t understand why NASCAR touts the upcoming Daytona Five Hunnered as the Super Bowl of its long season. Okay, so it’s the richest and most coveted race on the schedule. And true, if you’re gonna start your season in February, the Florida coast blows doors off of New Hampshire or Michigan. But how can the first race of the season be the biggest and the best ??? I mean, if you follow that logic, why not just wave the checkered flag after the first lap and call it a day.

I am sorry to see HBO’s “Inside The NFL” show go puff daddy after 31 years but they have no one really to blame but themselves. Oh, the highlights were still superb. Nobody does game footage better than NFL Films. But this year, the one-hour show averaged about 27 minutes of highlights with many teams often left out altogether. The other 33 minutes ??? A painful mix of show host banter, meaningless predictions, fuzzy rumors and, worst of all, sappy human interest stories straight out of Oprah Central. I mean, really, as a sports fan, would you rather see Jon Kitna visit a children’s hospital wing or Jon Kitna throw four interceptions ???  The prosecution rests.

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