If I make it rain, it rains Boone's Farm, not Don P

You could make the argument that Javon Walker received the richest contract ever given a wide receiver this offseason, as the Raiders gave him a more attractive package than the Patriots gave Randy Moss. You could have assumed that after teammate Darrent Williams died in Walker's arms after a drive by shooting about 18 months ago that he would avoid putting himself in that situation again. But here's Walker spraying champagne recently

despite the fact that champagne spraying directly led to the confrontation that ended in Williams' death.

Javon Walker was found robbed and unconscious with a fractured orbital bone in Las Vegas Monday morning. I imagine Al Davis will get his lawyers to try to find a way out of this contract, but I can't see that happening when essentially he was simply robbed. The Raiders could cut him, but he'd still pocket his $16 million guaranteed. I was critical of Major League Baseball running the Expos/Nationals for multiple seasons, but maybe it's time the NFL took over the Raiders, because these personnel moves have been so consistently ridiculous since they went to the Super Bowl a scant five years ago.

The Story of Bo Diddley

One of the true giants of American rock and roll passed away yesterday. Bo Diddley's iconic trademark baseline is featured in Not Fade Away by The Rolling Stones and Buddy Holly, Born to Hand Jive from the soundtrack of Grease, and I Want Candy by The Strangeloves and Bow Wow Wow. He also starred in the greatest commercial ever. The Tony Kornheiser Show played The Animals' The Story of Bo Diddley in its entirety, so I looked up the lyrics.

Now lets hear the story of Bo Diddley
And the Rock n Roll scene in general
Bo Diddley was born Ellas McDaniels
In a place called McComb, Mississippi about 1926
He moved to Chicago about 1938
Where his name was eventually changed to Bo Diddley
He practiced the guitar everyday and sometimes into the night
Till his papa's hair began to turn white
His Pa said "Son, listen hear, I know
You can stay but that guitar has just got to go"
So he pulled his hat down over his eyes
Headed on out for them Western Skies
I think Bob Dylan said that
He hit New York City
He began to play at the Apollo in Harlem
Good scene there everybody raving
One day, one night, came a Cadillac, four head lights
Came a man with a big, long, fat, cigar said,
"C'mere son, I'm gonna make you a star"
Bo Diddley said, "Uh..whats in it for me?"
Man said, "Shut your mouth son,
play your guitar and you just wait and see"
Well, that boy made it, he made it real big
And so did the rest of the rock n roll scene along with him
And a white guy named Johnny Otis took Bo Diddleys rhythm
He changed it into hand-jive and it went like this
In a little old country town one day
A little old country band began to play
Add two guitars and a beat up saxophone
When the drummer said, boy, those cats begin to roam
Oh baby oh we oh oh
Ooh la la that rock and roll
Ya hear me oh we oh oh
Ooh la la that rock and roll
Then in the U.S. music scene there was big changes made
Due to circumstances beyond our control such as payola
The rock n roll scene died after two years of solid rock
And you got discs like, ah...
Take good care of my baby
Please don't ever make her blue and so forth
About, ah, one year later in a place called Liverpool in England
Four young lads with mop haircuts began to sing stuff like, ah...
It's been a hard days night and I've been working like a dog and so on
In a place called Richmond in Surrey, way down in the deep south
They got guys with long hair down their back singing
I wanna be your lover baby I wanna be your man yeah and all that jazz
Now we been doing this number of Bo Diddley for quite some time now
Bo Diddley visited this country last year
We were playing at the Club A Gogo in Newcastle, our home town
And the doors opened one night and to our surprise
Walked in the man himself, Bo Diddley
Along with him was Jerome Green, his maraca man,
And the Duchess, his gorgeous sister
And a we were doing this number
Along with them came the Rolling Stones, the Mersey Beats,
They're all standing around diggin' it
And I overheard Bo Diddley talkin'
He turned around to Jerome Green
And he said, "Hey, Jerome? What do you think these guys
Doin' our..our material?"
Jerome said, "Uh, where's the bar, man? Please show me to the bar..."
He turned around the Duchess
And he said, "Hey Duch...what do you think of these young guys
Doin' our material?"
She said, "I don't know. I only came across here
To see the changin' of the guards and all that jazz."
Well, Bo Diddley looked up at me and he said,
With half closed eyes and a smile,
He said "Man," took off his glasses,
He said, "Man, that sure is the biggest load of rubbish
I ever heard in my life..."
Oh Bo Diddley
Yeah Bo Diddley
Oh Bo Diddley
Yeah Bo Diddley
Yeah Bo Diddley
Yeah Bo Diddley
Oh Biddley
Yeah Bo Diddley

The most hyped movie ever?

It's very sad that Heath Ledger, a talented 28 year old actor and father of a two year old girl, passed away yesterday. It's foolish and pointless to provide conjecture over what caused his death, but I'm going to focus on his final project, and the unimaginable buildup that is sure to come. The Dark Knight was already being on it's way to becoming one of the most hyped movies ever, and now there will be this macabre pall over the release, bringing out the curious along with the fanboys.

The Crow would be a forgettable movie, were it not for the accidental gunshot death of it's lead actor, Brandon Lee, son of martial arts legend Bruce Lee. It would have to be considered a box office success, though, as well as in terms of rentals. Other movies associated with tragedy on set are Twilight Zone: The Movie and Apocalypse Now. Apocalypse Now managed to be of enough quality for the production issues to be a footnote, but Twilight Zone is primarily known for the three actors who died during production.

Apocalypse Now is a great movie, despite the difficulties encountered during filming. The Dark Knight hasn't really run into any apparent problems during filming, so Ledger's death shouldn't have an effect on the quality of the film. It will certainly have an effect on the way it is marketed, however. Although Warner would never come out and say it, but it's possible that there will be overtones of "the role that killed Heath Ledger" in advertising, no matter the autopsy findings. Or they could deemphasize Ledger in trailers and print, much like Miramax did in promoting Bad Santa with John Ritter. Ritter played a sizable role in the black comedy, although certainly not a lead like Ledger, but wasn't featured in trailers.

But the billion dollar question is whether or not this movie will gross a billion dollars. This movie was receiving the best promotion money can buy, and just received promotion you can't buy. When the Super Bowl ads roll, and you see however much of an unhinged Ledger that Warner decides to show, there is going to be an atmosphere around this movie that no one has ever seen. It isn't unreasonable to think The Dark Knight beats out Titanic ($600 million domestic). I'll guarantee it beats out Spider-Man for the all time comic book box office haul ($404 million). I will go so far as set the over/under for where it ranks all time in the all time box office at third.

One of the most researched things in the history of sports

Sean Taylor, dead at 24, will be remembered as one of the fiercest hitters the NFL has ever seen. Coming out of Miami, he was maybe the greatest position prospect I've ever seen. Showing elite recognition in the passing game and a rare ability to deliver the open field kill shot, it was like he was a combination of Ed Reed and LaRon Landry, other elite safety prospects.

Mel Kiper's scouting report, rating Taylor as the #2 prospect behind Larry Fitzgerald, dated January 28, 2004.
2. Sean Taylor (jr.), S, Miami-Florida (6-2¼, 225) | previous ranking: 6 Taylor is to the safety spot at Miami what Ray Lewis was to the middle linebacker position. He follows in the footsteps of former Miami safeties Bennie Blades, Darryl Williams and Ed Reed (all were first-round picks). I expect Taylor to be even better. In fact, he could be the best safety in the NFL early in his career. Taylor is the prototypical Pro Bowl safety: tremendous speed, a nose for the ball, aggressive, a great tackler and terrific in coverage (team-leading nine interceptions). He has such tremendous instincts and awareness. Worthy of being a top-five pick.

Taylor held Fitzgerald to 3 catches for 27 yards in a 2003 matchup and led the country with 10 picks as a junior.

Joe Gibbs called the Redskins decision to draft Sean Taylor over Kellen Winslow, Jr. and Ben Roethlisberger "one of the most researched things in the history of sports." This was in response to what was previously his most serious of a myriad of off the field issues - his armed assault charge for pointing a handgun at someone he suspected of stealing two all terrain vehicles in June 2005. The charges were dropped as part of a plea agreement in June 2006, and Taylor went on to make his first Pro Bowl as an alternate, where he memorably annihilated Bills punter Brian Moorman on a fake punt. Taylor was playing like an All Pro in 2007, leading the league in interceptions before missing the last two games with a knee injury.

Bill Walsh passes away

Three time Super Bowl winning coach Bill Walsh passed away today at the age of 75. Some people regard Vince Lombardi, George Halas, Paul Brown, or Chuck Noll the greatest coach of all time, but none had the impact on the modern passing game that Bill Walsh had, with the popularization of the West Coast Offense. Centered around short, quick, accurate passes, the passing game became diagonal as opposed to vertical. Explosive plays did not suffer because the goal was to get the ball to the receiver where he had some momentum to run after the catch. Joe Montana and Steve Young, the two QBs Walsh had for most of his career, have the two highest passer ratings for retired quarterbacks. Arguably the biggest innovation to the passing game since Knute Rockne employed the forward pass, the West Coast Offense is visible on basically every team over the last decade except last year's Raiders.