This week we have unveiled the fantasy-only portion of the site, our Fantasy Football 3-2-1 video series (Click here for Episode 1 and Episode 2), and later today we’ll have our first fantasy football Friday live chat.

This morning we add to that list our weekly Friday Football Preview Podcast.

Each week on Friday morning I’ll be giving you my NFL locks of the week (ATS, of course), the must-watch game, and an upset alert. I’ll also be bringing in guests to preview the biggest games and storylines for that weekend.

And if the first episode is any indication, the Friday Football Preview is going to be a hell of a lot of fun on a weekly basis.

Listen to this week’s Friday Football Preview Podcast:

• You can also listen to the MSF Podcast on iTunes and subscribe to future episodes.
• Podcast Intro Song credit: “Superstar Struttin’” by .Records. (Indianapolis)

Note of correction: On a couple of occasions I refer to the Dallas-Washington game as being the Monday nighter. This is incorrect. It’s the Sunday night game. The Jets and Ravens play Monday. night. I would have realized this had I paid more attention to the NFL TV schedule that I posted earlier this week.

This is what we cover in Episode 1:

• 3 NFL lock spread picks, my must-watch game of the week, and the upset alert
• Ohio State-Miami discussion with Robert Littal of Black Sports Online and our very own KVB, who wrote the Ohio State-Miami preview earlier this week.
• We discuss the Dallas-Washington Sunday night game with Matt Lawrence of Dallas Sports Fans.
• Finally, we bring in a surprise special guest expert to discuss the Kansas City Chiefs.

I hope you enjoy the podcast. Feel free to use the comment section to provide your thoughts on any of the topics discussed, as well as to suggest features for future editions of the Friday Football Preview.

Have a great weekend of football everyone.

Will has a new book that recently was published called Are We Winning, which chronicles a Cubs-Cardinals game that he and his father went to. Will uses the game as a vehicle to touch on many bigger issues of baseball, life, and relationships, especially those between fathers and sons.

You can buy the book via Amazon here: Are We Winning [affiliate]

I think you’ll really enjoy our conversation, which is wide ranging on a number of topics related to baseball.

Have a listen:

• You can also listen to the MSF Podcast on iTunes and subscribe to future episodes.
• Podcast Intro Song credit: “Fame” by KontraBand (Atlanta)
• My thanks to KVB for editing everything together.

If you’d like a quick preview of the topics we discuss, here are a few:

• What it’s like cheering for the great Albert Pujols.
• How Will became a Cardinals fan.
• What is the mysterious magic of Dave Duncan? (And is it more perception and than reality?)
• Why baseball is better today than ever before.
• How Cubs fans should have reacted to the Steve Bartman situation.
• What it is about baseball that inherently makes it such a perfect sports for men, especially fathers and sons, to relate to eachother through.
• Does Will have designs on challenging Bill Simmons for his Amazon-reviewer-awarded throne as “America’s best sportswriter”?
• And why Jason Whitlock is a big, fat, idiot (okay, Will doesn’t go that far, but he certainly takes exception to me referring to Whitlock as one of America’s most popular sportswriters.)
• And a lot more.

As for the somewhat freaskish picture over there to your right, that is my goofy head on Bill Simmons’ body. Here is the original picture. As you know, for every article and every subject, I always try to use the funniest, goofiest picture I can find to serve as a humorous accoutrement to whatever post I’m writing. Since Will was nice enough to give me 45 minutes of his Sunday, I figured I’d opt against trotting out some of the funnier images that typically make their way to the front pages of Deadspin. (Like this one.)

In regards to our conversation, I really enjoyed it. I make mention during the podcast that he and I were able to jump right into talking about baseball like we’d spoken many times before. That’s the beauty of sports, and of baseball in particular. It provides an immediate common ground and common interest upon which you can talk and ultimately get to know someone. This is one of the themes of Will’s new book.

Have a listen and enjoy it. I really appreciated the opportunity to conduct the interview and my thanks go out to Will.

By the way, here are a few related links you might be interested in after the interview:

• Will Leitch Interview with Richard Deitch — (SI.com, February 2008)
• Excerpt From Are We Winning: A Prayer for Steve Bartman — (Deadspin)
• My Roger Ebert Story — (by Will Leitch)

Also, there is a special guest appearance by MSF’s own KVB, who tells us about the best custom jerseys he saw at a recent White Sox game after convincing me not to jump off a bridge because of my frustration and disappointment at the White Sox start to the 2010 season.

And one more plug for the book. Get it for Father’s Day and read it yourself first. Or get two copies so you have your own. But get it. It’s good.

The fact of the matter is that I am in Internet junkie and come across stuff all the time that I think readers will enjoy and, well, until I have another site to post this stuff on, it will continue to get dumped on MSF…and hopefully you will continue to be entertained by it.

Today, I stumbled across a video of some dudes doing an a capella version of “The Final Countdown” by Europe. This song has one of the most unique and recognizable synthesizer openings in the history of music and, for whatever reason, has always caused KVB and I to giggle like idiots whenever we hear it.

Because I am a blogger, which means I am trained to aggregate and create lists, I decided to spend a few productive moments this morning rounding up the greatest moments in the history of “The Final Countdown”.

Enjoy, and submit your vote after the final video for which moment you think is the greatest in the history of this iconic (and amazingly cheesy) song.

Also, if there are any great moments that I missed, feel free to drop links in the comment section so we can all click through and enjoy.

1. A Magician Named Gob

For me (and I know KVB will agree) this moment trumps all others. You may not appreciate it if you aren’t Arrested Development fanatics like he and I are (in which case, well, you suck), but even without context the combination of the song, Will Arnett’s goofy dancing and facial expressions, and the audience reactions makes this one a classic.

2. Awesome Orchestral Interpretation

This is actually a great version of the song from a purely musical and can-I-actually-listen-to-it standpoint, as interpreted by an orchestra and its energetic, head-banging lead cellists. For whatever reason, the juxtaposition of this goofy song with an orchestra, and then how into the cellists are, make this a must-watch video.

3. A Capella Version

I assume that this is at some sort of talent show. It places #2 not necessarily because it is a particularly listenable version of the song, but because it obviously required a lot of practice and one guy gets to recreate the infamous “ba-da-ba-bum, ba-da-ba-ba-bum” using only his high-pitched voice. We’ve all done that…in the car, while out for a Sunday stroll, or – if you’re KVB – while leaning in for your first kiss with a girl you really like. (Just kidding on that last one…I think.)

4. “Kazookeylele” Version

You will smile and chuckle when you watch this guaranteed. First of all, kazoo sounds are funny. Second of all, ukeleles are funny and always make me think of Tiny Tim…who is funny in a strange, disturbing way. Thirdly, you have to give the person doing the performance here credit for really getting into it and actually doing a pretty damn good job.

5. Air Band Interpretation

Air bands can be funny. Lip syncing, when done well, can be funny. 20-something college dudes with extra time on their hands and a camera can be funny. And pretty much anything set to the tune of “The Final Countdown” is funny. So here you go.

And now, it is your opportunity to cast your vote. Which of the five videos above stands out above all the rest?

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

And then there is this…

1,276. Terrible Cover of “The Final Countdown”

This one pretty much sucks, is why it was not the in the running for the greatest moment in the history of “The Final Countdown”. But watching it will help you the appreciate the great moments above.

Yesterday I brought you Sarah Spain’s photo diary of the Sports Media 360 tailgate before the Browns-Packers game.

Today, MSF’s own Ryan Russell has released his video diary of the weekend, which has way too much of me in it…but is hopefully still entertaining for everyone.

It certainly provides a taste of what tailgating in the Muni Lot is like.

So while you may be familiar with this Cleveland tourism video, Ryan’s shines a much nicer light on the city. And that’s how it should be.

The weekend was fantastic and I’m already looking forward to my next trip.

[Quick note: When I mention "Kevin and Nate" at the end, I'm referring to KVB and the guy singing the both songs used in the video. They were supposed to come, and now Ryan and I are publicly outing them for flaking at the last minute. Bet you'll think twice before you do that again!]

Enjoy the video. Music courtesy: The Franchize.

And here are your daily links:

Sports:

• Peter King thinks the NFC North is the best division in football, and that the Bears are going to the Super Bowl — (Not Qualified to Comment)
• Which SEC team will win the BCS title? — (MoonDog)
• Angry Jay Cutler fan stars in weird video — (Jay Cutler Superstar)
• Derrek Lee Shined in a Season to Forget — (Baseball Reflections)
• Jason Whitlock goes off on Mike Lupica, Jay Mariotti…okay, everyone — (Jason Whitelock, Fox Sports)
• Michael Vick will be eligible for Eagles’ third game — (PFT)
• Why we love college football – a photo gallery — (Busted Coverage)
• T.O. had a show, here are some others I’d like to see — (Black Sports Online)
• What do Thome, Contreras trades mean for White Sox – (Sox Machine)
• Who is baseball’s chattiest announcer (Hawk Harrelson is waaay down the list) — Wall Street Journal
• LeBron drains another 3/4 court shot — (NESW Sports)
• 2009 NFL Previews: The NFC East — (Sparty and Friends)

Non-Sports:

• Dude, seriously, turn to your left — (Spewf)
• Is friending your doctor on Facebook a good idea? — (CNN)

In fact, in its list of the 25 Douchiest Colleges in America, Ohio State came in at #19, right between other notable instidouchions of higher learning Morehouse (#20) and Boston U. (#18).  

And wouldn’t you know it, the tagline for Buckeye douchiness according to GQ is “The Excessive-School-Pride-Douche.” GQ also says:

Affectations: Dressing for class each morning as if you were the offensive-line coach; writing prison letters to Maurice Clarett.
Overheard at Buckeye career-building workshop: ”You can put ‘Won a national championship’ on a résumé, right?” 
Most likely to: Suffocate a hapless Boilermakers fan with a giant foam Number One after offhand comment about how the marching band’s “Script Ohio” wasn’t all that impressive.
Honorable-mention excessive-school-pride institutions: Duke, Michigan, Texas, Penn State, Yeshiva University.

For the record — and this should surprise no one — Indiana did not make list.  Purdue, however, somehow escaped GQ’s wrath.  How about the “Wears-Plaid-Every-Day-Douche”…that would have worked.

Other notables on the douchy college list:

• #25 Virginia
• #24 Texas
• #17 Chicago
• #16 USC
• #15 Notre Dame
• #14 Arizona State
• #13 Georgia
• #12 Phoenix
• #10 Colorado
• #4 Harvard
• #3 Princeton
• #2 Duke
• #1 Brown

* – Kirk Herbstreit photo credit: Year 2

Thanks to the good folks over at CollegeFootballTalk.com, we were informed tonight about a potential cheating scandal involving Charlie Weis, head coach of Notre Dame. (Of course, he should already be brought up on charges of fraud for taking so much money and putting such a crappy product out on the field this year and last year.)

Anyway, apparently officials had to remove a laptop from the coaches’ box during today’s Flailing Irish drubbing at the hands of stud Javon Ringer and Michigan State. Laptops are not allowed in coaches’ boxes (just as videotapes are not allowed on NFL sidelines, for the record). Weis offered what seems like a reasonable excuse and explanation, but considering his background with Bill Belichick, I am definitely taking it with a grain of salt and withholding judgment until we get more information.

This seems to still be a developing story, so there is not much more to write about at this point. But this was a great excuse to use the famous Charlie Grimace picture, created originally for Flash Sports Tonight, and unquestionably the greatest photoshop creation of our very own KVB. It is also an excuse to use this picture (after the jump), and to answer the question of what exactly Charlie Weis sees in quarterback Jimmy Claussen that gets him so excited:

(Make sure to pay special attention to Touchdown Jesus…it’s the funniest part of the picture.)

Anyway, I am now done humoring myself with funny photos of Charlie Weis and Jimmy Claussen.

Wait, no I’m not. Here’s one more. (This is not an original creation of one of our writers, as the two above are, but no less hysterical):

Not sure where the original picture came from, or if this is photoshopped at all. Either way, it’s funny. And what’s with Notre Dame QBs having all these ambiguous photos floating around online?

by Jerod Morris

I had to post this picture of KVB on the front page to cheer myself up because I officially feel dirty, slimy, and like a complete and total loser. Why? Because I just bit the bullet and updated the Purdue, Michigan, and Cubs pages with the live news feed widgets. We’re starting to get a little bit of traffic and I wanted all of the pages we have up so far to at least have the news feeds. Get to them by clicking over there on the toolbar. I’m just happy I’ll never have to visit those pages again.

On a positive note, we cracked 1,000 page views today and have had 210 unique visitors. Not bad considering I just released the site to search engines about a week ago. We even had one visitor get to our site by typing “Scott Stapp” in google! All because I described Aaron Rodgers as looking like Creed’s former singer and douche bag. Not sure how I feel about a search for Scott Stapp bringing people to the site, but any exposure is good exposure I guess. We even cracked $1.00 in total ad earnings! So keep clicking on those ads and visiting our sponsors! (like the ones below…)

To everyone who has written so far, I appreciate your excitement and involvement in the site. If you’re a visitor, don’t forget to register and contribute with comments, suggestions for site content, or even posts of your own. We were the ones who started this site, but we want it to grow into a comprehensive community of Midwest sports fans covering as many teams and topics as people desire.

Have a great Friday…and if you like this site, don’t forget to Digg it or Stumble it or bookmark it (links below). And come back soon.

UPDATE: To make myself feel better I just created a Tennessee Volunteers page. Much, much better. And no, Florida will not be getting a page. They are from the south. Even though the Vols are in the SEC, they border Kentucky. That’s enough for me. I guess at some point I’ll have to create a Notre Dame page. Ugh…