The buildup, the dip
And the chips are nothing to…
Super Bowl Haiku

This week on Only A Game, our 16th Annual installment of gridiron, er, poetry. Also, a big game preview, and bringing together bikes and beer in Boston.

The Milwaukee Bucks have found a possible solution to their attendance woes…have a star player purchase season tickets for enthusiastic fans! This week on Only A Game, Andrew Bogut’s attempt to fill the home arena. Also, the best tales of the Stanley Cup, and Bill talks with Kelly Kulick, the first woman to win a PBA Tour title.

This week on Only A Game, bounce the ball once, twice, breath, set and…shoot the 105,400 something free throw for charity. We’ll meet a guy who’s hoisting up 1,000,000. Also, Vikings? Saints? Jets?

This week on Only A Game, a small golf course in Aceh, Indonesia reopens five years after the 2004 tsunami. Also, Mark McGwire gets all teary-eyed remembering that really great summer of ’98, and Charlie Pierce dissects the week’s sports news.

This week on Only A Game, a spin around the rink with US Ice Dancers Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto, who hope to capture Olympic gold in Vancouver. And, we’ll discuss which NFL teams will have winning hands on Wild Card Weekend. Join us.

We’re ringing in 2010 with a fully loaded show! Bill and Gregg Doyel of CBSSports.com will discuss the college football bowls. Plus, the touching story of basketball prodigy Elena Delle Donne choosing Delaware over the mighty UConn; an NFL playoff preview with Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports; and the phenomenon of outdoor hockey!

Before 2009 becomes a thing of the past, Only A Game presents some of our favorite stories from the last year or so. There’s something for everyone: Santas in Speedos; dancing doctoral candidates; soccer at the Vatican; Dungeons and Dragons; golfing in Vietnam; and a collegiate logging competition. Enjoy! And Happy Holidays from all of us at Only A Game!

Tiger, Tiger, burning…ahhh, never mind. This week on Only A Game, sponsors bail on Mr. Woods while PGA tour members fret about golf’s future. Also, remembering the first African-American All-American, and putting the spin on some serious dreidel competition.

Will the Bearcats become college football’s Buffalo Bills equivalent? This week on Only A Game, Northwest Missouri State looks to end its four game losing streak in the Division II title game. Also, the 17th Annual Only A Game Sports Holiday Gift Guide!

The Cleveland Browns have been beaten and befuddled. This week on Only A Game, how have their fans handled the humbling? Also, I’ll be speaking with the author of Onward Christian Athletes, who suggests that stars who point to the sky…should reconsider. Also, is President Obama leaving the hardwood in favor of the green?

This week on Only A Game, meet the travelling Harpers, the husband and wife coaching duo currently enjoying basketball bliss at NC State. Also, a college football roundup, and hut, hut, hike those garters up, ladies…it’s the Lingerie Football League.

This week on Only A Game, we celebrate a half century of mask making and some of the goalies who have benefitted from that craft. Also, generations of women come together on the hardwood, and a history of the Spartak Moscow soccer team.

Will he goad the NFL, propose marriage or change his name yet again? This week on Only A Game, Karen Given fills-in for Bill and talks with Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver and provocateur Chad Ochocinco. Also, college basketball with Pat Forde and Indonesian bull racing.

This week on Only A Game, will the Duke Blue Devils finally earn respectability? Hint: we’re not talking about their basketball teams. Also, remembering Sheboygan’s one and only NBA season 50 years ago, and ESPN columnist Bill Simmons joins me to geek out on basketball stats. And oh yeah, New York celebrates the Yankees’ 27th World Series title.

This week on Only A Game, World Series trophy making with the fiery silversmiths of Tiffany and Company, which also produces championship trophies for the NFL and the NBA. Also, knives and mollusks fly at a Cape Cod oyster shucking competition.

Recognize that tune? This week on Only A Game, a celebration of the 100th anniversary of college football’s most famous fight song…oh, the letters we’ll get from South Bend. We’ll be talking baseball, too, and then the show will go to the dogs for the sport of beagling.

It’s lovely Los Angeles against frigid Philadelphia and agreeable Anaheim versus nippy New York. This week on Only A Game, the latest in Major League Baseball’s Climactic Shock Series. I’m getting the sniffles just thinking about it. And chills, too.

This week on Only A Game, the on-again/off-again winter migration plans of the NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes. Also, the latest divisional series baseball news, and a look at the best sports movies, unless they’re the worst.

This week on Only A Game, Minnesotans, most of them shedding no tears, say goodbye to the Metrodome, a high incidence of brain injuries in the NFL, the NHL cranks up the slap shots and poke checks again, the basketball poetry of Jack Ridl, and in the Palestinian refugee camps of Lebanon, girls just wanna play soccer.

This week on Only A Game, a cultural history of Montreal Canadiens great Maurice Richard. Also, a pennant race update, and you’re invited to chortle, chuckle, howl and bellow along with the Only A Game staff as we attend a laughter yoga class.

This week on Only A Game, a look back at the 1968 Summer Olympics with SI Senior Writer Richard Hoffer. Also, the Los Angeles Angels try to regain their 2002 form, and…Here ye, Here Ye!…a competition featuring Town Criers.

The oxen of the autumnal equinox are back on the fields! This week on Only A Game, an NFL season preview. Also, recalling Staten Island high school football when Staten Island was still an island, a US Open update, and a bicycle race for donut lovers.

Shiver me timbers, matey, there’s nothing left in Pittsburgh’s treasure chest! This week on Only A Game, weary Pirates fans walk the plank…again. Also, a college football preview, and knit one, purl two, strike three…a trip to the ball park with some very nice knitters. Join us.

Well the year isn’t over, but is it ever too early for a “best of” show? From zombies to plumbers, fight songs to fighting for a purpose, Only A Game has compiled some of the year’s best for this week’s show.

This week on Only A Game, why people would rather sweat for charity than write checks. Also, a football equipment manufacturer feels the heat eight years after the death of Vikings lineman Kory Stringer, and moth sailing takes wing.

This week on Only A Game, a look at the impact of the Special Olympics, after the death of their founder, Eunice Kennedy Shriver. Also, the latest on baseball’s pennant and wild card races from ESPN’s Tim Kurkjian. Plus, delivering the goods at the 2009 North American Cycle Courier Championships.

This week on Only A Game, a conversation with the author of a new biography of late Yankees catcher Thurman Munson. Also, taking in all the weirdness at a Washington Nationals home game and all the trash at a rodeo featuring front-loaders, side loaders and all manner of garbage trucks.

This week on Only A Game, Lou Holtz comes out of retirement to coach on a Japanese gridiron. Also, remembering Jeff Blatnick’s unlikely 1984 Olympic wrestling gold medal, and a conversation with the author of a new book about golfer Michelle Wie.

This week on Only A Game, Rickey Henderson and Jim Rice prepare to take their places in Cooperstown’s gallery of heroes and rogues. Also, humans compete with equines at the Vermont 100 Endurance Race, and a tour of the lavish swimming complex commissioned by Benito Mussolini.

This week on Only A Game, the David Beckham experiment: boom or bust? Also, a Tour de France update, and the story of the Veteran’s Cup. It’s a soccer tournament for players over the age of 30, and over 40, 50, 60, 70 and yes, even over 80.