It's that time of the year!

I must say, this is my favorite time of the year! The sun is going down later, the days are getting warmer, and I just filled out five brackets for four different pools. I'm pretty stoked. It's NCAA March Madness - probably the most fun any sports fan can have in two weeks time. It's when we stop paying attention at work in attempt to listen to games on the radio or hold up bandwith to stream them online. I'm not allowed to do the latter in the office anymore. *Tear*

The #1 seeds in the tournament have well earned their places on the charts, but there are some teams to keep your eye on in the first round. There might be a few dark horses in the running. I had to split a couple first round games between brackets because I was pretty torn on some matchups. Cal and Louisville being the most questionable game of the tournament. Having attended school at Cal, and learned to love college basketball in Louisville, this was an emotional toss up for me. Louisville has mass potential if they go balls out, but Cal is definitely favored in this game if you're not a Cards fan.

Another game that could turn out a huge upset is Purdue and Siena. Purdue is without their top dog, Robbie Humell. Although Purdue proven to be a winning team throughout the season, they could easily be toppled by the team now being nicknamed "The Kings of Upsets," Siena. This will definitely be a game to watch that could possibly flip many peoples' brackets upside down.

I'm hoping to see Kansas, Kansas State, Villanova, and Kentucky in my Final Four (my favorite Final Four of the five brackets), with Kentucky taking it all against Kansas in the finals. Yeah, I know it's the most likely game when you look at the numbers. But I have money on this stuff.

I could go on and on, but we'll all have to just tune in this Thursday and hope we don't get too reamed for our lack of productivity over the next two weeks. Good luck!

Athletes are getting funny again!

The world is once again turning, and the stars are all misaligned. At least that's what I feel like when I start receiving awesome news about athletes doing dumb shit.

Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Vicente Padilla was reportedly treated for a minor gunshot wound in Nicaragua. It was earlier believed that Padilla shot himself, but Padilla's reps confirmed that it was actually his shooting instructor who shot him. I'm willing to bet that lesson was free.

Reports say that Ned Colletti is checking out the extent of Padilla's injury before deciding whether or not the Dodgers will bring him back this season. I mean, jeez, the bullpen is already so crowded....oh, wait.

Linsecum has a huge reason to party hard this weekend.

Just minutes before two time Cy Young award winner Tim Linsecum's arbitration hearing, the San Francisco Giants camp changed their tune a bit and the parties came clean with a $23 million, two year deal. Timmy gets $8 million this year, $13 million in the 2011 season, and $2 million in bonuses paid out in between.

Known to make records, Linsecum's deal is the largest ever signed by a player eligible for arbitration for the first time.

With that settled, Linsecum is said to be back at camp, focusing on his A-game. Hopefully he's not smoking any of that money up just yet. If you know what I mean.

Bills RT retiring at 26?!

Buffalo Bills RT Brad Butler shocked his team, and lots of other people, by announcing his retirement after 4 years in the NFL at the ripe old age of 26. Yes, that is correct. 26 years old.

Those paychecks must have been nice.

Butler says he is turning his focus toward "education, country and community." That means politics and public service. No comment.

Tiger's conference in a nutshell.

The room was quiet with very little fidgeting, and much anxiety, as we all waited for Tiger Woods to appear. He walked out to a silent audience and delivered his pre written and rehearsed speech from the podium. No waterworks came out, and he showed very little emotion as he addressed more questions than it was presumed that he would.

He first said that he and Elin have "started the process of assessing the damage" to their relationship. He admitted to checking in to "inpatient therapy" over the past 45 days he has been absent. He also cleared up the rumors that Elin beat the crap out of him when he wrecked his Escalade on Thanksgiving night.

He gave no further details of his strange crash, how many women were truthful in their coming out about him, or if him and his wife were actually still together. These details are said to be private, between husband and wife.

He was very apologetic, and repeatedly claimed his activities were selfish and foolish, and that he had convinced himself that "normal rules didn't apply" to him. Um, hi, you're Tiger Woods. Of course they don't. I don't care what people say.

He also apologized to Accenture, the sponsor who dropped him first, and the one he notably stole press from at their big Arizona PGA tour event today. Another jab?

Next year, no one but his wife is going to remember this anyway. Someone else in sports will have done something equally stupid by then.

Asking for his friends, peers, and family to one day believe in him again, Woods closed his speech and went to give a long hug to his Mother. Elin was noticeably absent from the conference.

What some of us really wanted to know is how much she is getting paid to stick around while Tiger repairs his good boy image. Maybe he'll answer that one at a later date. Speculations commence.

Danica lost in the action.

I've got to be honest when I say that I didn't watch a single lap of Danica Patrick's debut NASCAR race at Daytona last weekend. I was having a lot more fun in San Francisco. But at brunch the next morning, I was lucky enough to catch a video of the 12 car pileup she managed to mangle herself in partway through the race.

Patrick managed to stay out of the top 20 cars throughout most of the race and avoided an earlier 7 car wreck before she dropped out of the top 30.

She did remain lucky. None of the big boys plowed her into the walls, and the wreck she was involved in wasn't her fault. Her teammates stated to just be glad that she got a few laps in before she wrecked. Experience.

Team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. totaled his car after going airborne later in the race. The estimated damages to replace his car and repair Patrick's are over $200,000. I'd rather have a Maserati.

Hi, my name is Tiger, and I'm a sex addict.

Tiger Woods is scheduled to break his three month long silence tomorrow at the PGA Tour's home in Ponte Vedre Beach, Florida. Although we have many questions, Woods will apparently not be answering any of them as this is "not a press conference."

Only a handful of colleagues and close friends have been invited to attend, along with one camera, and a few news outlets.

AP Golf reporter Doug Ferguson suggests the curious timing of Tiger's coming out, as it coincides with one of his former sponsor's main events. How calculated.

That is LOVE.

Minnesota Vikings fans have taken it upon themselves to woo their new favorite quarterback to come throw for another year by purchasing billboard space near Brett Favre's home in Mississippi! I have never seen anything like this in my life, and I know that as a Jets fan, we weren't going to pull any crap like that.

Vikings fans collected over $2,600 in order to keep the billboard up for the month. Bravo!

However, Favre did play a much better hand for the Vikings than he did for us.

I don't know why they spell things with R's in places they don't belong either. Inside joke that I missed? Someone explain that one to me.

I wonder if he will respond. What do you think?

NASCAR is about to get a little bit sexier.

I read a Woody Allen quote that said, "seventy percent of success is just showing up."

Not to take away from the success that Danica Patrick has seen over the years, but the fact that she has a pretty face, a pair of boobs, and that she just showed up in what seems to be the most male infested sport known in this country really takes at least seventy percent of the cake. I'm not trying to cut her down. She seems like she has a good time with herself. She's a hot chick that drives fast cars. That's downright ballsy. I drive like a grandma.

Patrick is shifting her gears a little higher this year, and taking a break from steamy internet commercials and swimsuit modeling, to make her NASCAR debut at the Daytona Speedway this weekend. Of course there are some critics (mainly the guy who she beat out for her seat in the race), but her sponsors and teammates are extremely thrilled and confident that she is ready for the drive.

I know little about NASCAR, but I will make sure to ask dad how she did. Watching cars race for any longer than a minute at a time doesn't seem too exciting to me. Regardless, NASCAR must be stoked on the buzz this is creating. And not just because she's a woman who just showed up. The other thirty percent of her success comes from being pretty badass behind a wheel.

And...the commercials!!

I found most of the advertisements this year to be pretty mediocre. I mean, they were funny. They just weren't Super Bowl status. Except for this Bud Light commercial (sorry to my Miller team!). This had me in a fit of tears. There's a really great inside joke amongst my friends in regards to white people and autotune, so this just really takes the cake for me.