It's the Free Agent Pool. Jump In It

130-odd days. 19 weeks. Between 1000 and 2000 combined blank stares from Roger Goodell. But now it's over. A new CBA is officially in place for the next 10 years, ensuring labor peace for a long time to come. Football is back. Now that the lockout is over, months' worth of NFL's business as usual must be resolved in one month. The only thing lost in the work stoppage were the minicamps, OTA's , the Hall of Fame game, and months of free agency. The first three cant't be made up for. Free agency, however, can be made up for. We're about to see a process that takes a whole offseason, usually six months or so, be condensed in to three weeks. Free agent signings can be filed starting Friday night, but deals are in the works already. The Jets have recently resigned Santonio Holmes and are reportedly interested in Nnamdi Asomugha. The Titans have reached an agreement with Matt Hasselbeck, and the Vikings have reached a similar agreement with Donovan McNabb. But what about the people who don't have a deal yet? Where are they gonna go? That's why I'm here. Friday night is when the free agent pool starts to splash. I will be surrounded by multiple six packs of Gatorade, a TV with ESPN blaring, and a computer with fantasy football projections on it. Let the fun begin.

KEVIN KOLB

Right now, it seems like Kevin Kolb would be heading to Arizona. The Eagles owe it to Kolb, who patiently waited behind McNabb, only to get injured and have Michael Vick take his starting job. Kolb deserves a chance to start, and Arizona has some weapons that Kolb can take advantage of. Larry Fitzgerald also deserves the chance to have someone with actual depth perception throwing to him. Every time Derek Anderson underthrew him or zipped one over his head at light speed, Fitzgerald would look like he was looking for an opportunity to break Anderson's arm so they could put Max Hall in the game. When your quarterback is so bad that you would be better off with an undrafted rookie in the game, that suggests a quarterback upgrade is in order. The only problem with Kolb is the Eagles' asking price. The Eagles want a high draft pick plus immediate secondary help, and I'm not sure that the Cardinals are ready to give that to them. The Eagles had counted on the Cardinals and the Seahawks to get in to a bidding war to drive the price up for Kolb, but Seattle has settled their QB situation with Tarvaris Jackson (Which is like saying that you satisfied your hunger by picking up a rock and eating it, but whatever.) Now that the Cardinals don't have a lot of competition for Kolb, they can try to wait the Eagles out for a lower price. My call is that Kolb eventually signs with the Cardinals for a 3rd round pick plus a corner.

DOZENS OF AVERAGE WIDE RECEIVERS PLUS PLAX

This might be the deepest free agent pool for wide receivers in the history of the NFL. The big prize (Santonio Holmes) is off the market, but there are plenty of other wide receivers to be had in this offseason. Sidney Rice, Braylon Edwards, Malcolm Floyd, Steve Smith, Terrell Owens, and Randy Moss are just some of the average wide receivers you can get for a decent price. This wide receiver free agent market is like the food on a cruise ship, unlimited quantities and average quality for a good price. Any team looking for a second or third wide receiver can easily find what they're looking for in this year's cruise food special. In addition to the cruise food wide receivers, Plaxico Burress has gotten out of prison and is mulling where to go next. I think that a team like the Rams or the Eagles makes a lot of sense. He can be a viable weapon for either team and take advantage of the third corners that will be covering him. There has been discussion of him going back to the New York Giants, but there isn't a place for him there anymore. I think that a Giants return would be akin to (wait for it...... wait for it......) shooting his career in the foot (I'm sorry, I couldn't resist.) As for the cruise buffet, it feels like half the league could pick up a new wide receiver. Teams that are loosing wide receivers such as the Jets and the Vikings are candidates to pick one up. Teams who don't have great receivers, such as the Chargers, could pick someone up. The Titans or Jaguars could help out their new rookie quarterbacks. The only teams that aren't in the running to help themselves to the cruise buffet are teams that are cutting players to get under the cap (like the Ravens) or teams that are set at wide receiver (like the Eagles or Packers).

 NNAMDI ASOMUGHA AND OTHER CORNERBACKS

It's tough to say where Asomugha is going to land. The logical conclusion would be the team with the most cap space looking for secondary help would be the front-runners. If that were the case, then Tampa Bay and Houston would be leading the chase for Asomugha. However, this is not the case. The Jets are reported to be very interested in Asomugha, as are the Ravens and the Cowboys. The Jets are a mere one million dollars under the cap and don't have a lot of money to give Asomugha without restructuring a lot of deals and parting ways with Edwards and others. The Cowboys and Ravens just cut a lot of players to stay under the cap, so I can't even figure out a logical reason why any of these teams are included. The cap space is somewhat like extra time in soccer. The referee decides how much extra time to allow the game to continue with no rhyme or reason. I think the game is over, and then I see +4 minutes or +2 minutes pop up in the box. The cap is the same way. There are a billion different cap loopholes to exploit. These include, but are not limited to, backloading deals, incentive contracts, large signing bonuses, restructuring deals, etc. Before the past few days, I followed a very logical line of reasoning as to why the Jets could not get Asomugha. Asomugha wants 10 million per year. We have 1 million per year left on our cap. Unless we frame Edwards and Cromartie for a crime, we can't get Asomugha. I never even knew all of these loopholes existed. It's kind of like paying taxes, only with superstar cornerbacks at stake. In the end, I say that Asomugha lands in either Tampa Bay or Houston, with the Jets moving on to a different corner. As for the second-tier cornerback section of the cruise buffet, there are a lot of options. Jonathan Joseph is the next best prize in free agency, and there are no shortage of second tier corners out there to round out the list. Corners such as Chris Carr and Drayton Florence can be had for reasonable prices. I could see every team that expressed interest in Asomugha (that missed out on him) grabbing a corner. If the cap is a problem for the Jets/Ravens/Cowboys, there are plenty of other corners to be had. Only teams that are either set in the secondary (like the Packers) or teams that have a billion more pressing needs (like the Cardinals) are out of the market for a corner.

BRETT FAVRE AND CEDRIC BENSON

(Quick note before the final breakdown. I would have reviewed every free agent in detail if they were each unique, but they're really not. After Asomugha, the cornerback market is essentially the same. Ditto for the wide receiver market after Holmes. The rest of the free agent class ranges from good yet unremarkable to Tim Thomas level awful. Also it's too time consuming to review every free agent when 95% of them are forgettable).
It's that time again. Turn the mics on, prepare a different team's baseball cap, fire up the chartered plane to Hattiesburg, and make sure to focus the camera in on the gray hairs in the beard. That's right, it's BRETT FAVRE time. I personally hate the guy for stabbing every single Packers fan alive in the back, but he always makes things interesting. Rumors are swirling about Favre returning to back up Michael Vick on the Philadelphia Eagles. I can tell you right now that's not going to happen. His ego is too huge and his likely price tag too ridiculous to allow a relegation to a backup role. His "silent ego" is in the model of a Gary Payton, somebody who didn't know when enough was enough and continued to act like a star well in to his 30s. I think that Favre signs on to start with whatever team ends the bad QB scramble without a quarterback and ends up panicking days before the season. I can see this happening with somebody like the Bills (no true QB) or the Jaguars (still looking for Blaine Gabbert insurance).
Now that DeAngelo Williams is off the board, Cedric Benson is the marquee running back in a free agent class that has no depth at RB. Benson could end up going to any number of teams. Off the bat, I think of the Seahawks (could use a true running back) and the Ravens (Need replacement for Willis McGahee) as potential candidates. That wraps up the review of the cruise food free agent pool. Thanks for reading

10 Things I Would Miss About Football

It's almost at an end. The owners voted to ratify the new 10 year CBA by a vote of 31-0 (The only abstension was the Oakland Raiders. Even in unanimous CBA voting, you can count on Al Davis to screw things up. Do you think he tried to trade his next three first round picks for Reggie Bush while the voting was still going on? Me too.) Now the vote goes over to the players, who could have ratified the CBA on Wednesday. The players are taking their sweet time on the vote because they know that they won. The extended season essentially got dropped, free agency swung in their favor, and the revenue sharing agreement came out to essentially a 50/50 split. I'm both overjoyed that the lockout is over and angry that it took both sides so long. I always knew that the regular season would be salvaged, but prepared myself for the day that talks broke down and the season was cancelled. Somebody asked me a few months ago what I would do without football. I would probably switch over to college football for a season, catch up on some of my SAT prep, and eventually put my head in to a blender. Now that things are working themselves out, the purpose of this column has changed. When I planned to write this a month ago (but was too lazy to do so), it was going to be one of those complaining columns that irate fans write on hundreds of blogs like this. It was more for me than it would have been for any of my readers (all 15 of you). This column is now more of an expression of my 10 favorite things about football. I encourage any of my readers to send me your 10 favorite things about America's game (Just to clarify: America's game is football. Anywhere from 10-15 other countries do baseball better than we do. Football is only popular in America. No game where some people in the crowd are on their iPhones for one-third of the time should qualify as a national sport. Sorry.)

10. Monday Night Football. One of the biggest traditions in American sports. I go through most Mondays thinking in terms of when Monday Night Football is coming on. 2nd Period, 12 hours to MNF. End of the Day, 6 hours to MNF. The games are almost always good, it salvages what would otherwise be the worst day of the week, and we get to hear Chris Berman's voice before the game. Just a win-win all around.

9. The Routine. Yes, I have a routine on Sundays during football season. It is as rigid and unbreakable as an actual athlete's routine. It consists of getting up at 7:30 sharp, walking the dog, doing all my homework in record time, setting all of my fantasy football teams, making my picks, and then devouring as much info as I can about each game. It keeps me lively and purposeful during The Fall Void. This occurs from the time that school starts to Thanksgiving. Summer has ended, everybody is semi-depressed for a week or two, and the Holidays don't come for two and a half more months. The Routine gives me something to look forward to every Sunday. After football, there is a very manageable 4-6 weeks to fill until March Madness. Then, Spring comes and I'm not as grumpy. The only thing I'm sure of is that I would not be able to handle 5 months of The Void.

8. Fantasy Football. I will admit that I have not done a great job of taking care of my fantasy football team. Let me rephrase; I did not take care of my fantasy team at all last year. I had both Ryan Grant and Jermichael Finley starting after they went to Injured Reserve months before. To be fair, I was keeping up with a few other leagues, but that's besides the point. Fantasy Football is just a great way to get involved with the game and an avenue to make fun of your best friends. Ray, Markau, and I have had discussions that have lasted hours about fantasy football. I am a registered DORK (Dude Obsessed with Ranking Kickers). It gives friends away to compete against each other. After all, two teams can only play a maximum of three times a season (including playoffs), and even that rarely happens. The Jets only get to play the Eagles once every four years. However, I go up against Ray three times per year just about every year. The fantasy team names are also another positive component of the game. Ray's team name, Clever Name Pending, was a hyperintelligent nickname that he may or may not have stolen from Chris Masselli. Sadly, that's the only team name that's appropriate enough to include in the column.

7. Each TV Channel's respective Pump-Up Music. I always thought that this was an underrated part of the game. The Jets are always on CBS, so their football music (Duh-dah-dah-dah-dah-duh-DUUUUH-dah-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-DAH-DAH-DAH) might as well have been playing on a nonstop loop in my head all season. I remember that from ages 5-8, the sight of the FOX Football robot would get me unimaginably excited. Two of my favorite songs came from the NFL Network promos for Thursday Night Football. I go throughout school humming at least one of them every few days. Speaking of NFL Network.....

6. The NFL Network anchoring team. I don't count Michael Irvin because he shouldn't be on TV and he sounds like somebody stuck sandpaper in his throat. The announcing team of Rich Eisen, Steve Marriuci, and Deion Sanders is comparable to the Big Three of Miami, only the NFL Network crew actually shows up for the full hour. Rich Eisen always comes up with the best one-liners at the most appropriate times. His comedic timing is actually off the charts. Mariucci is the one guy who cares about the X's and O's of football and gets technichal about all the plays. And then there's Deion. He's tops on my list of Favorite Celebrities that I would never want to meet. Sure, his personality seems overbearing. He might have been a bit of a jerk when he was playing football (Understatement Alert). But when the camera starts rolling, nobody is better at mixing announcing and unintentional comedy than Deion. You can predict most of his jokes before he says them if you've watched enough episodes of NFL Gameday, yet it's still funny every single time. The anchor desk of NFL Gameday alongside cagey NFL Network veteran Rich Eisen is my number two choice for a sportscasting job.

5. Crazy NFL People. The NFL has been the source of legendary press conferences (sponsored by Budwesier. Or Miller Light. Or whatever beer company ran a commercial of Jim Mora's "Playoffs?" press conference for two months straight). Who could forget Dennis Green's "WE ARE WHO WE THOUGHT WE WERE!!!!" press conference? Or Herm Edwards' "YOU PLAY TO WIN THE GAME!" rant? Press conferences aren't the only avenue for NFL players to act like everything from movie stars to angry drunks.  Football players choose to give their press conferences in varying states of dress. From 2,000 dollar three-piece suits to outfits that might have been purchased for 5 dollars at the local Party City, we've seen it all throughout the years. One of the wierdest reasons I miss football is seeing quarterbacks give press conferences in their Armani suits and baseball caps. Somehow, agents and PR people haven't figured out ways to coach their less sensible clients on postgame attire. Thus, we get treated to Steve Johnson trotting out a 15$ muscle shirt that exposes his 9 billion tattoos. Could we educate agents in this? Can we at least get an Outside the Lines episode? I aslo miss the trash-talking that goes on between Jets and Patriots, Steelers and Ravens, or any other high profile rivalry. No other sport allows this. Baseball players don't do it. David Stern has definitely killed it in the NBA, where vital bench players on the Suns got ejected for standing up after Steve Nash was body-slammed to the ground. Since that series against the Spurs in 07, any form of trash talking has been virtually non-existant. The NFL is the exact opposite. It encourages players to talk trash. It makes money off the bad boy image. That's how you get intense rivalries and bad blood between teams. Good times all around.

4. Football conversations with friends. I actually look forward to these, even when the Jets lose. I always know that Markau will have something insightful to say, no matter what happened on Sunday. OK, that's a lie. Most of the stuff is just chanting "Jets suck!" (very creative). But it's enjoyable. It's a huge discussion topic in a time period (September to November and then the Playoffs in January) when not a lot happens. Conversations also lead to sports betting, another thing that I miss about football. The inherent heckling that goes along with betting is wildly entertaining and probably not healthy for an early teen such as myself. Sadly, Princeton High is not exactly Vegas. I usually wait months for payment from Markau, and the bets almost never go beyond twenty dollars. Oh well. It's still a great way for people to talk and yet another excuse to heckle each other.

3. Free agency and trades. Since this year has a bunch of big names and even a few noteworthy medium names (Vincent Jackson, Peyton Manning, and Nnamdi Asomugha are just some of the bigger names being floated around for possible transitions) on the block, this offseason promises to be even more exciting than the last. However, because of the lockout, no offseason moves could be made. Now that the lockout is in its final stages, what you're about to see is an active offseason of transactions condensed in to a few weeks. It's going to be crazy. One of my favorite parts of football is checking the rumors page every day to see who's been traded. Smart trades and free agent pickups are part of the foundation of a championship team. I enjoy watching that foundation be built and refined. Free agency and trades are my excuse to try and get a little closer to being involved in football in some way all year round. Yes, it's possible.

2. One Day 15 Games. Only in football is it interesting and engaing to flip between multiple games. Some still do this, some have embraced the Red Zone channel. I like to get the best of both worlds and flip between NFL Sunday Ticket and the Red Zone. I also set up my phone to receive text messages when a team scores. It's the most intense thing you will do while wearing pajama pants on your couch. In today's 52 inch LCD/ESPN8/ cell phone era, staying home is an infinitely more enjoyable experience than going to a game. Of course, you don't get the tailgate atmosphere or the stadium vibe at home. But for keeping track of games and a great view, you can't beat the LCD/Red Zone combination. If Chris Johnson runs for an 80 yard touchdown, I know about it. If Devin Hester muffs a punt, I find out very quickly. Football has integrated technology seemlessly to allow fans a more comfortable and info-packed viewing experience. And the number 1 reason why I miss football is........

1. Any Given Sunday. It's been called many different things. Whether it's parity, equal opportunity, or equal stupidity, any given team on any given Sunday can win. In baseball, the worst team beats the best 2 out of 6 times. In football, an upset means something. It may happen multiple times in a Sunday, multiple times in a month, or not at all in a season, but upsets are what makes the NFL great. However, the concept of Any Given Sunday can't be magnified in to a simple football game. It affects all of football. The NFL is the league where any team can go from worst to first through some clever free agent moves and a lot of guts. It's been proven that the same can't be said of baseball. In basketball, that's only true if you play in a big city, have a superstar, or play in a state with no income tax. The concept of Any Given Sunday is football's version of the American Dream. Any Given Sunday is why football exists with no teams in big market cities such as Los Angeles. Any Given Sunday is what makes football great. Every single time I turn on a game, I hope for something special to happen. Not the just the NFL, any sport at all. Most times, I get a forgettable but entertaining  game. Once in a while, I see a moment that will stay with me for a long time to come. That's why every football fan will forget about the legal maneuvering going on with the lockout. That's why every football fan will continue to watch a league where the owners and players did everything but yell "We don't care about the fans!" in to a megaphone. Every football fan will still watch the NFL when play resumes. Because we don't just want Sundays back, but we want our Any Given Sundays back.

Sports Now and Welcome Back!

It has been a dark time. I have made the executive decision to delete all of the previous sports according to slice columns. They can be compared to the first 20 years of the NBA. Good things happened during the first run of Sports According to Slice, but it's time for a new era. I took a break from writing and really scrutinized it. Consider the first columns a test run. To the people who have read my columns from the beginning: I would like to quote Chris Berman: "You've been with us for the beginning. But now that's all about to change." Sports has changed a lot in the last few months, so let's get to the topics of the past week to bring us up to date.

JAMES HARRISON: HIS HARDEST HIT

The great writer Richard Wright once said that words could be used as weapons. These weapons were more damaging than any tangible item when used correctly. James Harrison certainly used words as his weapons in a May interview with Men's Journal. During this interview, he posed shirtless holding two pistols to imitate the pose on the cover of the video game Mortal Kombat. He described teammates and competitors in an extremely negative light, calling Rashard Mendenhall a fumble machine and telling Ben Roethlisberger to stop thinking that he is Peyton Manning. Harrison saved his most venomous words for commissioner Roger Goodell. He described Goodell as a devil and a puppet dictator. He directed a homophobic slur at Goodell among other obscenities. Other than the actions described in the last three sentences, it was a pretty normal interview. Harrison has apologized since the magazine feature and claimed that his words were taken out of context.
I don't buy that at all. How can "devil" and "puppet dictator" be taken out of context? It can't. I already had a negative opinion of James Harrison for his whining about illegal hits earlier this season. I don't like it when an NFL Player glorifies himself, I hate it when an NFL Player glorifies harmful and illegal actions, and I despise it when an NFL Player glorifies himself by promoting his spine crushing illegal hits. So what if they land people in the hospital? So what if people end up dying from those hits in a decade or two? I want to have a good clip on the Sportscenter Top 10! That attitude has led to my hate of James Harrison. However, this is really too much. Harrison is spitting in the face of his teammates an anybody who has ever respected him as a player, not to mention the man who is fighting to have a season so players like Harrison can make his millions. The only thing worse than Harrison's comments are the people who applaud them by saying that he is "voicing what other players feel about Goodell." I get it. It happens all the time. There have been times when I have hated how people I know have acted. Every sane person knows that the way to solve everything is to run up to them, grab them by the shirt collar, and call them a dictator and a devil. Very few other players feel that strongly about Goodell. Why have Brady, Manning, and Brees calmly stated "It's time to get a deal done" while Harrison is ready to snap Goodell's head off? My take is that Harrison is trying to play up the "I'm a freak of nature!" angle during interviews and went too far this time. Once the lockout ends, strong punishments will come down on James Harrison and it will not be pretty. I would expect a four game suspension and a heavy fine. Of course, he's getting off easy. Because if I were Roger Goodell, I would prove to Harrison that I am a dictator and suspend him for more than half the season. That kind of behavior would not be tolerated if I ran the league. It would not be tolerated by Bud Selig and it certainly would not be tolerated by David Stern, who would have Harrison disappear faster than Don Imus. For the sake of the NFL, let's hope Goodell does not tolerate it either.

MLB: ALL STAR EVENTS IN THE DESERT AND THE ESPYS

All-Star events have come and gone in Arizona. I give the Home Run Derby a solid B and the all-star game a B-. The ESPYS get an A.
The Home Run Derby was entertaining as always. Highlights from the Derby include Robinson Cano belting 12 home runs in the finals (a derby record for the last round) to narrowly defeat Adrian Gonzalez. The enduring moment from the derby will be Cano hugging his father after the last home run, just overcome with pride and happiness that his father could be there to share in the moment. Another enduring image was the fan who dove in to the pool to catch a foul ball. He caught the foul ball while in mid-dive and yet he still managed to save his beverage (Priorities!). The two other things that stood out for me were Prince Fielder's 474 foot shot (amazing even when Fielder had just started to swing) and the kid's diving catch of Cano's pop-up (good effort, kid). Of course, only the most unathletic and uncoordinated kids are picked to chase the non-home runs. It's the baseball equivalent of the out of shape people picked to shoot a half court shot at halftime of a basketball game. Among these kids, there are always two or three people that are stronger, faster, and more coordinated than everyone else. They look like those guys in a baseball movie that hit the game winning home run. The smaller kids look like the happy to be there 9th hitter in a generic baseball movie that always strikes out until the championship game. Basically, they are there to make the hero look good. That's what the outfield at a home run derby is like. The lowlights of the Home Run Derby was that it was not exciting until the last round. Nobody hit a particularly memorable homer or hit a lot of them. Since the stadium was enclosed, there was a limit to how far the ball could actually travel. This caused ESPN's presumably high tech distance tracking device to keep giving inaccurate readings. Big hitters like Matt Kemp and Jose Bautista did not do as well as originally anticipated. What uneducated fans don't get is that some people have swings that are great for succeeding at batting practice and some players have swings that are great for actual pitches. Some of the greatest power hitters in batting practice are contact hitters in the real game and vice versa. Despite this indisputable fact, some people around the Sports Broadcasting Camp that I attended were saying that Baustita was awful and predicting a second half collapse. These are the same people who probably think that Chris Johnson is slipping because he didn't get 2000 yards this past year. Anyways, Home Run Derby was not bad.
The All Star Game was a B-. There were entertaining moments, however. Prince Fielder's home run was an exciting part. And don't forget about...... wait, that's it? Fielder's home run was the only entertaining moment? Besides Heath Bell's running slide in to the mound and Brian Wilson attempting to grow Sasquatch off his chin, it really wasn't an entertaining all star game. Besides Fielder's home run, nothing else happened that really got people excited about the game. The NL won for the second year in a row and Brian Wilson had a forest on his face. You know it was boring when I re-use the same joke from two sentences ago. All I can say is that I don't know what I or anybody else would do without Brian Wilson's beard.
              AN EVENT WITH SPORTS AWARDS AND MORE BRIAN WILSON JOKES
I loved this year's ESPY awards. I would have rated them as a perfect A+, but they hit one little bump in the road. This bump is that they let Justin Beiber in to the ceremony. Even at the ESPY Awards, you can't get away from Justin Beiber. Other than Beiber, I loved the guests at this year's awards. You had every relevant athlete from this past year. Dirk Nowtitzki, Aaron Rodgers, and Serena Williams were there among others to attend the night of honoring our greatest athletes. I would argue that you can determine what happened, who mattered, and why they mattered in any given year (at least the raw facts, maybe some of the details) by watching any given ESPY Awards ceremony. Not only were the athletes there, the entertainment stars were there. I mostly noticed Brooklyn Decker, Drew Barrymore, and Erin Andrews. Um, not for any particular reason. We also had Seth Meyers hosting the ESPYs and cracking jokes about the Miami Heat (never gets old) and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Also in attendance for the show was Brian Wilson. Not only was Sasquatch (his official beard nickname as given by me) in full bushiness, but he was sporting a spandex suit. He completed the ensemble with a cane and a bow tie. He looked like a homeless guy who raided Mr. Peanut's wardrobe. In other words, he's exactly the kind of guy you would want to have at your party. However, the most vivid memory of this year's ESPY awards was not Brian Wilson. It was not Dirk Nowitzki and the Mavs (who cleaned up on this year's awards). No, this awards show belonged to Dewey Bozella and Anthony Robles. Bozella won the Arthur Ashe courage award for refusing to admit that he committed a crime that he did not commit in exchange for freedom. Bozella fought for 26 years to be free, finally being liberated by the Innocence Project after spending half of his life behind bars. That story was awe-inspiring. Celebrities who are practically in the businuess of self-absorption shed a tear. Crowds were riveted by Bozella's story. I was shocked at his determination and iron spirit. The story of Dewey Bozella is something that will stay with me forever. So too will Antohony Robles. Robles won the Jim Valvano award. Robles was a champion wrestler for Arizona State. He put in countless hours in the gym and never surrendered to his critics. He was literally always standing on his last leg. He was born without his first one. Having one leg never hampered Robles. Naysayers took Robles as a joke and a living cautionary tale. Robles never let the negativity affect him. He rose to the occasion and won the state wrestling championship. The story of Anthony Robles and the image of him standing on one leg with his arm raised to the sky is the one shining moment from this year's ESPYs.