5-at-10: Happy Thanksgiving, pass the 2012 sports turkeys

Thursday, November 22, 2012

We wrestled with what to write today. It's a holiday, which means a quick top-five list of some sort. We got some great input from you guys during the week.

Last year we did great college football rivalries http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2011/nov/24/5-10-great-college-football-rivalries/. We wrestled with doing the five games we wanted to see. We thought about doing the five famous Thanksgiving football moments. We thought about a lot of stuff, but in the end, we're going with the predictable five turkeys of the year (and please feel free to vote for your favorite or submit a write in candidate):

The first annual Peter Filandia* Awards to the 5-at-10's five biggest turkeys in 2012

(* - Peter Filandia deserves this honor since it's been 10 years since the famous Australian Rules football player was involved in fracas that ended with Filandia getting suspended for 10 days for biting an opponent's testicles. Happy Thanksgiving. MA! Meatloaf!)

- Randy Travis, the former country music legend who has battled police twice in 2012, including his most famous run-in with the law in August. Travis, who has a slew of hit records and No. 1 singles, threatened to kill the officers involved when they found him drunk and naked after wrecking his 1998 black Trans Am. Wait, maybe this research for a new country song, right Randy? And if you're thinking, "What does this have to do with a F-O-I-B sports column, well, not much. But dude was naked and driving a Trans Am - if that's not enough to get your attention, then the terrorists have won.

- Matt Shaner, the owner of the Pittsburgh Arena Football franchise, fired his entire team at a pregame meal at the Olive Garden.So, Sallozzo gets from Michael at Louis' in the Bronx; the Pittsburgh Power got it at the Olive Garden. (Side note: Looking up how to spell "Sallozzo" on the Google produced this gem: there's a Bruno-Montesi-Tataglia-Salotzo collection agency in Tampa. Seriously, if you needed the services of a collection agency, would you not call on the services of Bruno-Montesi-Tataglia-Salotzo.)

- Lance Armstrong. He belonged on this list for years and years, now the stuffing has really come out. Liestrong.

- Gary Bettman. Yeah there are a lot of folks to blame for the NHL labor debacle that is threatening the entire hockey season. But it would seem that the exact thing that caused the same labor discord less than a decade ago would have been solved then, no? Oh, yeah, that would require leadership and vision. Oh, if only the NHL had a commissioner or someone, wait, what's Gary's job again?

- The Bobby patrol - Bobby Petrino, Bobby Valentine, and a slew of others whose name could be Bobby because they deserve to be on the list like Davis "Bobby" Love III, Alex "Bobby" Rodriguez, "Bobby" Gene Chizik, Derek "Bobby" Dooley, Roger "Bobby" Goodell and all of the replacement referees who amazingly were each named "Bobby."

Happy Thanksgiving gang. Enjoy the food, family and football and if you have a mailbag question, send it along.