Throughout the world of sports, there is no shortage of people and teams that tick fans off. It could be due to a lack of effort, an "I don't care" attitude that reflects in the player's or team's performance, an overpaid player, etc. I found many sports figures that ticked me off this week. So I'm throwing them Under The Bus (Jerome Bettis Limited Edition, 850 hp). This is a forum for you, the sports fan, to call out the object of your ire and throw them under the bus.

NFL

Oakland Raiders: they overpaid to resign Tommy Kelly and to sign Gibril Wilson via free agency. While Kelly is a decent player, he’s NOT one of the top DE’s in the NFL. Yet the Raiders paid him a king’s ransom. If Wilson were that good, the Giants would have kept him. Overpaying by the Raiders further exposes their inability to draft quality players. The front office is a mess. Lane Kiffin could be on the way out, replaced by James Lofton, who Al Davis DESPERATELY wants as his head coach. For making an unnecessary big splash in free agency and spending money like drunken sailors (I apologize to all the drunken sailors out there for lumping you in with the Raiders) the Raiders are to be thrown under the Bus.

San Francisco 49ers: for overpaying to sign DE Justin Smith away from the Cincinnati Bengals. Smith was a good player on a very bad defense in Cincinnati. He may end up being a good player, who knows? But for overpaying a slightly above average DE, the Niners get thrown under the Bus.

MLB

Sam Zell: this Nimrod wants to sell the naming rights of Wrigley Field. You GOTTA be FREAKING KIDDING!!! This is Wrigley Field we're talking about! The Friendly Confines. One of the last bastions in the entire country to remind us of a purer and more honest era. If some bozo owner wants to sell the naming rights for 30 pieces of silver, he's become the Judas Iscariot of sports. Nothing is sacred anymore in this era of corporate greed. When will it stop? At least I give the City of San Francisco kudos to restoring Candlestick Park back to its original name. No wonder the Cubs are destined to lose for the next 100 years while this Nimrod runs the team. You're messing with the baseball gods, and if you do, they don't take kindly to that. So Under The Bus you go, Sam Zell, being thrown under by baseball fans everywhere.

Roger Clemens: enough said.

ESPN: for showing Clemens' mug during the Rockets-Nuggets NBA game on its network.

NBA

New York Knicks: see Isiah Thomas.

Phoenix Suns: for their effort, or lack thereof, against the Philadelphia 76ers. Philadelphia was coming off a loss against Golden State the night before. They were playing their second game in as many nights. Yet it was the 76ers that looked like a playoff team and the Suns a lottery team. This was a game the Suns should have won handily. Suns fan, time to beat the panic button to a pulp. For this dispirited effort, the Suns get thrown under the Bus. At least Steve Kerr will have a TNT gig waiting for him starting next season.

NHL

Bryan Murray: let me preface this. He was the head coach for the Ottawa Senators last season, when they came up short in the Stanley Cup Finals to the Anaheim Ducks. He then became the Senators' GM and hired John Paddock (the head coach of their AHL affiliate at the time) to be the Sens' head coach. Fast forward to last week. The Sens are second in the Eastern Conference and first in goals scored. They are going through a rough patch. Every team does at some point in the season. So what does Murray do? He FIRES Paddock and takes over the head coaching duties and bogarts all of the credit for any success the Sens may have. What a greedy, selfish, Machiavellian son of a ####. Machiavelli thinks that's messed up. I will be rooting for every team the Senators face, until Murray is no longer in the Senators' organization. Even if I have to root for the other teams in the Atlantic Division that face the Sens. For this Machiavellian stunt, Bryan Murray is to be thrown Under The Bus. I'm giving the keys of the Bus to John Paddock. 

Those are the objects of my ire in sports for this past week. What were the objects of your ire for the past week? Come in here and tell us!! 

As I sit on the patio, my lapper fired up, I just thought I'd muse randomly about things in sports and culture.

• The subhumans that burglarized Marquise Hill's mother's house as she was burying her son are the worst people on the planet. Satan is preparing a room for each of them.
• Is Michelle Wie becoming the Paris Hilton of the LPGA? Or the Anna Kournikova of the LPGA?
• We have another sports soap opera, this one NOT involving the Los Angeles Lakers for once. (The Lakers have their own SERIES)
• We are roughly six weeks away from NFL training camps. WOOHOO!
• Has anyone noticed that every year in the MLB draft the same three teams draft 1-2-3 (the order varies from year to year): Tampa Bay, Kansas City, and Pittsburgh? Get the GMs from those NFL teams to run the MLB teams and see how quickly they improve!
• If you suffer from insomnia, just tape a few soccer games and watch them and time yourself nightly on how quickly you'll fall asleep.
• USC will play in the BCS national championship game. Unofficially, they are the NFL's 33rd team. They are LOADED this year.
• Prediction for the NBA Finals: Spurs in 6, Tony Parker wins Series MVP. A perfect wedding gift for him.
• If not for Kobe Bryant, the Lakers would be a lottery team for years to come. Maybe it's time for Jerry Buss to relinquish control of the team and retire with a 23-year-old (or younger) hottie of his choice. Hmmmm, is Buss the Hugh Hefner of the NBA? I've got to know.
• The Philadelphia Flyers are stuck in a time warp. They're slow, stodgy, and can't put the biscuit in the basket. That style worked in 1975, the last time they won the Stanley Cup. Today's NHL is free-flowing, with a lot more scoring. Gooning it up no longer works. Buffalo exposed them big-time in last year's playoffs.
• MMA is for real. It's not a fad that will go away. At UFC 71 there were plenty of good action-packed fights. I was surprised how quickly Quentin "Rampage" Jackson KO'd Chuck "Iceman" Liddell.
• Boxing is on the ropes. (Pun intended)
• Last but not least, congratulations to the Anaheim Ducks for winning the Stanley Cup. They earned it. Ottawa has nothing to be ashamed of. The Sens simply ran into a better team. They'll be back.