STARTING FIVE

1. The Son Bowl

Barry Sanders, Jr., (Stanford) at the Rose Bowl. Jerry Rice, Jr. (UNLV), who scored a touchdown, at the Heart of Dallas Bowl. Ken Griffey III (Arizona), a.k.a. “Trey”, who caught two touchdown passes in the Advocare V100 Bowl. Austin Collinsworth (Notre Dame), who had an interception on the final play of the Pinstripe Bowl and who is teammates with Corey Robinson (the Admiral’s son) and Torii Hunter, Jr. Jerry Neuheisel (UCLA), the injured backup QB who watched the Sun Bowl from the sidelines.

I’m sure there are many more sons of former pro athletes playing college football right now. Most of whom realize who their fathers are.

If you are an unfettered fan of Darwinism, as I am, then you can appreciate that with each succeeding generation the percentage of progeny of pro athletes playing college football (and hoops–the leading scorer in Division I is Antoine Mason, Anthony’s son) will only increase. It’ll never be 100% –outliers will always exist–but there will come a day where an “athlete class”, entirely separate from the rest of society, will exist and collect most of the major scholarships. Although by that time scholarships may be obsolete. Not that these children will need them.

2. Heroin Nerdness

Peter King meets Artie Lange on SI Now. How did I miss this when it first aired?

3. Talk Talk

During the Capital One Bowl Brian Griese is asked, I believe by Dan Schulman, what level of concern he’d have if he were an NFL GM about Jadeveon Clowney’s two recent speeding tickets, one of which had the South Carolina defensive end matriculating his vehicle down the filed at 100 mph: “Zero. I have zero concern about his speeding tickets.”

Let’s clip and save that one.

Immediately after the Gamecocks defeated Wisconsin, ESPN’s Tom Luginbill caught up with Clowney on the field and asked him if he had NFL plans. “Yes sir,’ Clowney replied.

Wondering if that was prearranged. Nothing wrong with it, but Luginbill is ESPN’s National Recruiting Director, after all. One assumes he has forged a relationship with Clowney over the years, and this was a good get.

4. The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing of Wall Street

Excellent letter by Christina McDowell, a victim of Jordan Belfort’s crimes. If you think large-scale Wall Street fiscal crimes don’t ruin –and end — lives, you’re willfully ignorant. Martin Scorcese and Leo DiCaprio might as well have made a film about puppy murderers (that script is probably in turnaround in Burbank right now).

5. Toronto Rapture

Toronto opens the calendar year with a 95-82 win against Indiana, who only had the NBA’s best record. The Rapture reach the .500 mark (15-15) and have now won nine of 12 since trading Rudy Gay, with two of the defeats coming to San Antonio (no shame there) and a third by two points in overtime to Charlotte. Demar DeRozan, who scored 26 last night, and Kyle Lowry are becoming a premier backcourt in the East. Yet another team without big contracts that is better than both the Knicks and Nets.

Reserves

This still happens??? Iowa defensive back John Lowdermilk releases the ball from his grasp a split-second before scoring off an interception against The Hat and LSU in the Outback Bowl. Lowdermilk would have been able to gloat about a 71-yard interception return. Instead, one of his Hawkeye teammates recovered and Iowa scored a few plays later. They still lost, though, because LSU’s Jeremy Hill is a beast.

So, if you’re scoring at home, Times Square ball drop >>>>> Lowdermilk ball drop.

*****

The Weather Channel’s website, weather.com, put together a pretty good feature on the Yarnell fire in Arizona last summer that killed 19 volunteer firefighters, i.e. the Granite Mountain Hot Shots.

My Dantonio

The 100th Rose Bowl: School with twentysomething alum who made obscene amounts of cash by winning the World Series of Poker defeats school with twentysomething alum dropout who made obscene amounts of cash by developing SnapChat.

Also, the few remaining college football fans who didn’t already like Mark Dantonio were won over yesterday. Hard to root against the guy. Sure, he comes across as so laconic that he plays “Word With Friends“, but he’s genuine. Which doesn’t mean that you have to hug him the way Tom Rinaldi did after their postgame interview (above), but you can at least feel good for him.

****

The Year in Murder

As Bill DeBlasio accepts the baton from Michael Bloomberg yesterday, we can report that New York City had a record-low 333 murders in 2013. That’s, obviously, less than one per day. And then on the first day of 2014 we had two. So, please, no one murder anyone today in the five boroughs. We have an average of < one per day to maintain.

****

Fun With Twitter: When the Stanford band took the field yesterday at halftime, I joked about how seeing them in an open field reminded me of that scene in “The Great Escape” where the captured Allied prisoners are allowed out of the trucks to stretch their legs. Of course, in that scene the POWs are all gunned down. For me, that was wishful thinking for the Stanford band and obviously a joke.

Seconds later I receive a reply from an irate follower who informs me that I am an ass (already knew that) and that his father died in that escape. My first thought was, “The Great Escape” was based on a real story? Did not know that.

So, I’m sorry.

My second thought? I have a follower who is at least 70 years old. Besides my mom. That surprises me even more.

The Bank

Yesterday: Took Stanford minus-seven. Lost

Total: $945 ($50 wager plus 10% vigorish)

Tonight’s Wager: $50 on the Phoenix Suns minus-6 at home versus Memphis Grizzlies. Tempting to take either San Antonio at home versus New York Knicks or Oklahoma City at home versus the Brooklynettes, who cannot even be bothered to remain on court for an entire game, but the Suns are an NBA-best 22-7-1 against the spread. And I recall some idiot in late October wondering if it would be brilliant to simply bet against the Suns every game (raises hand).

Remote Patrol

Sugar Bowl

No. 11 Oklahoma vs No. 3 Alabama

ESPN 8:30 p.m.

Nick at night. Imagine how many times Nick Saban has been reminded of playing Utah in the Sugar Bowl five years ago. A.J. McCarron’s final college game. The Tide are 17-point favorites, but it’s always fun to watch two programs that are Top Ten all-time in wins and who festoon themselves in the same uniforms they were wearing when Nixon was president.