Daily Loaf

For decades, athletes from Walt Frazier and Joe Namath to Derek Jeter and Dwyane Wade have graced us with a sense of style and pizzazz off the field. Due to uniform restrictions in most professional sports, it is much more difficult for athletes to fashionably express their individuality on the field. Some athletes, however, have still managed to find a style uniquely their own, simply by using their heads. From hats to facemasks, eye black to visors, these 12 have established their own personal trademarks by sporting headgear that makes them utterly recognizable. Where do they rank on your list?

12 ) Brett Favre’s Stained Baseball Cap – Nothing screams John Deere quite like a Brett Favre press conference. The on-again, off-again, gun-slinging, formerly retired quarterback of the Green Bay Packers…. I mean New York Jets…. wait, no, the Minnesota Vikings made a lot of press lately with his most recent return to the NFL. When Minnesota officially announced his latest comeback, Favre looked like he had just gotten off his riding lawnmower. A slave to fashion he’s never been, but don’t tell that to the marketing brass at Wrangler jeans. Favre has a style all his own, no matter how tired we all are of seeing it. What other Hall of Fame athlete could get away with wearing a torn, oil-slicked baseball cap while announcing he was about to earn $12 million at the age of 40?

11) LeBron James’s Headband – LeBron James has made the sweatband fashionable again in the NBA. Never before has a man wearing a headband been so intimidating. Only King James could rock the headband and make it look cool. Well, he and John McEnroe back in the day, but LBJ has considerably less hair. You go ahead and tell the league’s brightest talent that headbands are lame. Just be careful he’s not dunking over you in the meantime. Read the rest of this entry »

In Lake Tahoe, a casino waitress alleges that a two-time Super Bowl champion quarterback forced himself on her in a hotel room. In another hotel room elsewhere in the country, someone sneaks a video camera through a keyhole to record a female sportscaster as she strolls around her room. In Alabama, a reporter asks a former Heisman trophy winner about his sexual behavior. In Kansas City, a well-respected journalist faults a female tennis champion for being too fat.

Somewhere we have crossed the line.

In this country, as in many others around the world, we deify the modern athlete, often to a fault. Read the rest of this entry »

In honor of Obama’s brief mention of Clean Coal Technology, here is an ad for an air freshener based on this breakthrough of modern science-fiction. Have a good weekend, everyone.

• Obama takes the wraps off the budget …
• … Let’s hope it goes over better than the Iraq withdrawal plan.

• Read the rest of this entry »

Comedian Louis CK puts our current economic crisis in perspective.

• What’s another $634 billion among friends?
• When it comes to their guns, Mexican drug cartels buy American.
• Pick a diet, any diet …
• The Obamas have selected the First Dog … maybe.
• Tiger Woods is frickin’ incredible.
• The Arrested Development movie is a go.
• Good bye, Derrick Brooks, Warrick Dunn. Hello, rebuilding year.
• R.I.P. Philip Jose Farmer.

Slow news week: At the risk of going back to the SNL well once too often, here’s Andy Sandberg as Rahmbo, a Web-only offering from NBC.

• Obama reaches across the aisle to work with … George W. Bush?
• Gov. Crist ponders a foreclosure freeze financed by a cigarette tax hike.
• The Obama economic team is Dr. Doom approved.
• Buy! Buy! Buy!
• Tiger Woods gets laid off by GM.
• Might Cancer just go away on it’s own?
• Hannity and Colmes are splitting up.
• Chuck Klosterman reviews Chinese Democracy.
• “That’s I-75 going through rural Lithia.”
• Don’t bother sending that manuscript you’re pitching to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
• Will Obama disappoint those who want pot reform?
• YouTube goes widescreen.

Is it just me or has September sucked big time? Wall Street is in shambles, Main Street is even worse. Creative Loafing files for Chapter 11. This message is brought to you by MasterCard, the official card of the Second Great Depression.

• Now that the bailout has failed, it’s time to go Banana.
• Obama has the lead, but now’s not the time to get overconfident.
• CNN compares Tina Fey’s Sarah P. and the real thing — with disturbing results.
• The Rays rally at North Straub Park.
• And the Everglades just keep getting worse.
• Newspaper company doing worse than CL: The New York Sun locks its doors.
• Give me the God damn remote!
• Bad news golf fans: Tiger Woods may be out two years.