FanHouse

I always feel a little queasy on the Monday after the first Sunday of the NFL season, when the injury news starts rolling in. A torn ACL here, a broken arm there, a ruptured Achilles tendon in another place. The first NFL Sunday is so much fun, and that injury news is such a downer.

All of us -- fans, media, players, coaches, owners -- accept that such injuries are part of the cost of doing business in the NFL, and we just hope we'll get through the weekend without any serious spinal cord or brain injuries. But we know those injuries are part of the NFL, too.

Of course, if I felt that queasy about it I could always stop watching football, just as the players, who know the risk, could stop playing. That's not going to happen.

I'm not really sure why it took until Friday afternoon, but NASCAR and Richmond International Raceway's staff have pushed what-was-to-be Saturday night's Chevy Rock & Roll 400 to Sunday thanks to Tropical Storm Hanna.

The bad part? We're not getting to watch NASCAR on a Saturday night.

The good part? FanHouse will be live bloggin' the race Sunday afternoon at 12:45pm/ET to make flipping between opening weekend NFL and the Sprint Cup Series easier to follow.

Just in case you thought the Europeans needed another advantage in the upcoming Ryder Cup, good news, they got it. Thanks to trusty Jack Nicklaus, they can hang this article above their lockers in Valhalla for a little extra motivation.

The President Cup captain said that he thinks the Americans will win the Ryder Cup easily, even without Tiger Woods.

"Even without Tiger, (the Americans) should win easily".

The 18-time major winner, twice a Ryder Cup captain, told Golf Digest: "I just believe we have better players.

"I think American golf is better than perceptions based on recent Ryder Cup results."

You know, all this is true. The American golfers are better than most of the world probably thinks and just because we choke like Pierce Brosnan in "Mrs. Doubtfire" when the Ryder Cup rolls around doesn't mean they can't play. It just means they aren't good Ryder Cupers. Big difference.

Here's the latest video from UFC President Dana White, chronicling his preparation for UFC 88:

The most interesting part of the video is when Rashad Evans talks to White about his thoughts on fighting Chuck Liddell in the main event.

"Chuck has good range, very accurate punching, but I'm not afraid of his power," Evans said. "I'm not afraid to be hit, I'm not afraid to exchange."

Between Evans saying he's not afraid to exchange and Liddell saying he plans on striking, this promises to be an explosive fight. I think Liddell's superior striking will be the difference.

FanHouse's Tom Ziller argues his ranking of the top 50 players in the NBA.

Shawn Marion, he of simply otherworldly skills and a painfully shy persona, has landed outside Phoenix. That's old news, sort of: we saw him play about a month in Miami. It wasn't really real basketball. It counted in the books, but not in our hearts.

We've seen Matrix play a million minutes though, as Phoenix's undersung axle all those years, through Starbury and Steve Nash. Endless rebounds, steals like wine at a wedding in Yountville, that giggly threeball from the wing. He's been like a bottle of chloroform to the traditional worldview of a small forward, forcing us to expect more than just range, size and skills. Marion makes us dream of a League of LeBrons.

But now, with Nash so far away, has the feature film ended? Is Marion on the fast track to disappointment in Miami, and where ever he lands next summer? Let us peer into the mime's eye.

Lots of things have threatened the MOST AMERICAN SPORT OF THEM ALL lately -- steroids, Bud Selig discussing steroids, Roger Clemens taking steroids, and steroids. Also, HGH, kind of.

But nothing is more dangerous to our nation's official pastime than the random wanderings of a squirrel in left-center field. Oh, you think that sounds innocent and cute, but that fur-covered weapon is two full pounds of unrestrained fury:



Look at him ducking! Look at his evasive manuevers! This squirrel is trained in the finest of fake-government-agent acting techniques. Tom Cruise would be proud. But let's just pray he's on our side.

When you're famous, anything goes, and that includes hitting females with a fake penis while moseying around the business district in Melbourne.

Australian Football Player Brendon Fevola, obviously wired with a different style of humor than me and my friends, was just walking around Fed Square in Melbourne, Australia on Monday wearing pink lingerie and a sex toy strapped around his waist. You know, for the fans.

Carlton AFL star Brendan Fevola has escaped without even a slap on the wrist after he flung a fake penis at women near Melbourne's CBD yesterday. Police spokeswoman Mia Paterson said they were not investigating the incident because no one had issued a complaint.

"Fev had a foot-long dildo hanging out of his pink muu-muu in full public view outside the bar," said a witness who asked not to be named. "I saw him hit a couple of girls on the head with it. It was a bit off-putting."

Ah yes, in years to come, when robots take over the planet Earth and we are all subjected to slavery, the conversations will turn to the good old days when we could just roam the streets hitting girls with dildos. These acts will never die in our hearts.

Lucky for everyone still reading this story, there is actually a short video of the event someone captured on their cell phone. This is the first time I've ever been excited cell phones have the video feature. It is after the jump, and be warned, it is NSFW (or Thanksgiving dinner).

You've got questions. I've got answers. If not, I'll make them up. Each Thursday at 1 p.m. EST, I answer your queries on all things related to the NFL. If you have a question, send it over to NFLMailbag@aol.com. Don't forget to include your name and location. Click here for the archives. Rock'n'roll.

I know that this feature is slated to run on Thursdays, thus making this a day late. The Thursday season opener threw things off this week, but the mailbag will be running every Thursday from here on out. I wasn't hung over and I didn't forget. OK, I was a little hung over. Anyways ...

Was it a good move for the Carolina Panthers to dump Brett Basanez, a QB who'd been with the team for some time, knew the offense, and was relatively young with some upside, and instead bring in Josh McCown, who very well may be a decent backup but shouldn't be starting in this league, whereas Basanez possibly could have one day been a starter?
- SoulCitySigma1914, Greensboro, NC

Basanez did make a solid impression entering this year after two years mostly on the Panthers' practice squad, enough that a few teams gave him a look when the Panthers released him. That being said, the Panthers have a "project" quarterback that they like in Matt Moore, and they want to win now. Jake Delhomme is no sure thing, performance- or health-wise, so the Panthers probably wanted a backup with game experience who could come in if needed without disturbing too much. Basanez isn't that guy. Neither is Moore. Plus, I have to say, I've always liked McCown. Though four teams disagree. But what do they know? One of them was the Raiders ...

The internet is full of creepy, seedy, sexual predators. There's so many out there that Chris Hansen just can't stop them all by himself, no matter how hard he might try. In the day and age of 40-year-old men picking up 13-year-old girls on the internet, the authorities are turning to the only person capable of stopping such a menace: Mr. Met.

Advocates trying to warn kids about the threat of online sexual predators trolling the Internet have a new ally - Mr. Met.

The mascot has been recruited to get the word out at the first-ever Internet Safety Day at Shea Stadium. The event kicks off before the 3:30 p.m. home game against the Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday.

The program is part of a two-year, federally funded project by a task force from the U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn, with help from the Queens District Attorney's office and sponsor Time Warner Cable.

All kidding aside, this is actually a pretty good idea. As part of Internet Safety Day, the Mets are doing things like putting up scoreboard quizzes and handing out baseball cards with online safety tips for kids. It's unclear what the role of Mr. Met will be in all this, but I personally hope they deck him out in a pedo-stache and have him drive around the stadium in a bullpen car with "Free Candy" painted on the side of it to show kids just who they're giving their address out to online. Or, you know, just pass out the cards.

Buffalo Bills left tackle Jason Peters, who skipped all of the off-season, training camp and the preseason in a contract dispute, has finally decided to report to Buffalo -- without a new contract in hand.

Adam Schefter of NFL Network reports that Peters informed the Bills on Friday that he plans to end his holdout and report to the team Saturday.

The Bills' first game is against the Seahawks on Sunday, and the team has already decided that Peters won't play. He likely will play a week later at Jacksonville.

Schefter reports that while Peters hasn't gotten the new contract he wants, he and the team have agreed that they'll keep contract talks open during the season. Still, the team is in no hurry to get a deal done -- he has three years left on his current deal.