Provine High football players drink water to combat the heat during high school football practice Monday, Aug. 3, 2009, in Jackson, Miss. (AP Photo/The Clarion-Ledger,Vickie D. King)

Brett Favre is back.  Again.  And this time he’s donning a purple Vikings jersey in an attempt to further alienate himself from his former devotees in Green Bay…err win another Super Bowl. Yahoo! Sports columnist Dan Wetzel joins guest host Karen Given to go over this story and more for the upcoming NFL season. 

There have been 125 heat stroke deaths in the game of football since 1955. A total of six high school and college players died in 2008 in one the deadliest years on record. As teams practice in sweltering summer weather, Only A Game’s Doug Tribou reports on the dangers of heat stroke and the ongoing legal battles about the only NFL player to succumb to it.

The Pan-Mass Challenge began modestly, but has since grown to provide a staggering amount of money for cancer research.  Going through the PMC’s history and business model is Only A Game’s Karen Given, who found it a lot easier to unearth inspiration than to keep her eyes dry. 

Jeffrey Marx, author of “The Long Snapper,” and his subject Brian Kinchen, former long-snapper for the New England Patriots, join Karen to discuss how a Bible teacher many years removed from football got a chance to snap in the Super Bowl. 

Only A Game analyst Charlie Pierce joins Karen to discuss the multitude of legal issues surrounding NFL players, the spectacle that is Usain Bolt, and the falling of another storied world record. 

It’s often compared to Formula One racing, yet there are no engines.  The races take place in the water, yet the boats fly … literally.  Only A Game’s Sadie Babits was at the Moth Sailing World Championships in Oregon to cover a sport that is full of surprises.

NASCAR racing isn’t just about checkered flags and celebrity drivers. Only A Game’s Ron Schachter learns the ins and outs of NASCAR mechanics from the car design team at the Roush-Fenway racing complex in Concord, North Carolina.

MLB’s Shopping Season

As the holidays peek around the corner, Major League Baseball is gearing up for its own shopping season. Bill Littlefield talks with Tim Sullivan of the San Diego Union- Tribune about the possible roster shake-ups and trades during this year’s MLB off-season.

Women’s College Basketball Season Preview
Will head coach Pat Summit and the Tennessee Lady Vols come back for another NCAA Championship in 2009? Bill Littlefield talks with Michelle Smith of the San Francisco Chronicle about the possible favorites for the women’s college basketball season.

A “Killer” Tribute

Only A Game’s Michelle Seaton pays her respects to late pro wrestler Walter “Killer” Kowalski at his memorial wrestling show in Malden, Massachusetts.

Saying Goodbye to Herb Score
Bill Littlefield talks with former ESPN executive Dick Glover on the recent passing of baseball phenom and broadcaster Herb Score.

The Mighty Tennessee Titans and More with Charlie Pierce
Bill and Only A Game analyst Charlie Pierce discuss the Tennessee Titans road to perfection, Tony Romo’s return, and the New Jersey Nets tackle unemployment.

“Giants Among Men”
Bill Littlefield talks with author Jack Cavanaugh about his new book, Giants Among Men: How Robustelli, Huff, Gifford, and the Giants Made New York a Football Town and Changed the NFL.

In his new book, Giants Among Men: How Robustelli, Huff, Gifford, and the Giants Made New York a Football Town and Changed the NFL, author Jack Cavanaugh captures the essence of Giants football in the 1950’s and 1960’s. Bill Littlefield comments on this fun and entertaining read.

 
On December 14th, 1958, the New York Giants beat the Cleveland Browns in the last game of the regular season on a Pat Summerall field goal to force a playoff game – also against the Browns – the following week. During the locker room celebration that followed the win, Tim Mara, the head of the family that owned the Giants, raved “How about that Summerville?” Then he said, “But what the hell, I’m paying him good money, and he doesn’t even play. All he does is kick.”

That’s one of my favorite stories from Jack Cavanaugh’s new book, Giants Among Men: How Robustelli, Huff, Gifford, and the Giants Made New York a Football Town and Changed the NFL. I love Mara getting the kicker’s name wrong. I also like the fact that the “good money” “Summerville” made in 1958 amounted to $15,000.
    
And here’s another thing I like. In his discussions with the players from those Giants teams of the late ‘50’s and early ‘60’s, Cavanaugh found that those players don’t like the contemporary game. “I hate it,” Sam Huff told Cavanaugh. “Guys jumping up and down after they make a tackle. Hell, they’re paid to make tackles.”
 
Fans of the contemporary NFL may feel Sam Huff is being unnecessarily cranky, but even they are likely to enjoy Giants Among Men.

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It’s time to test the Pierce postulate: “The Super Bowl is good!” This week on Only A Game, analysis from Phoenix, a look at all the anti-Super Bowl activities for nonbelievers, and some good 17 syllable fun with Super Bowl Haiku XIV.

The Super Bowl with Mike Reiss
This Sunday in Arizona, the New York Giants and the New England Patriots will play a game of football. Eli Manning will try to shed the label as an inconsistent quarterback, while Tom Brady will try to lead the Patriots to their place in history. The Boston Globe’s Mike Reiss joins Bill to discuss the most significant single event in the history of human competition.

Our Lady of the Super Bowl Bargains
Everything is bigger at the Super Bowl, especially the costs. A single ticket for tomorrow’s game in Glendale, Arizona can run as much as $20,000. It’s nearly impossible to find a hotel room in the Phoenix area for less than $500 a night. But a handful of relatively thrifty fans have found what might be the best deal in the valley of the sun, and its just 10 miles south of the University of Phoenix stadium. Only A Game’s Gabe O’Connor reports.

Doping in the PGA?
As the 2008 PGA season gets underway, the league is in the “educational” phase of its new anti-doping policy. During last week’s Buick Open, Tour Commissioner Tim Fincham had the opportunity to address about 100 players regarding the new policy, and most of them were not pleased. AP Golf Writer Doug Ferguson joins Bill to discuss the policy and the players’ reactions.

Champions in Search of Competition
Just over four years ago, the University of Maryland began its varsity cheerleading program. At the time, Terrapin tumblers, tuckers and tick-tockers had every reason to believe they’d soon go up against some serious intercollegiate competition. That hasn’t been the case. Sarah Richards has the story.

Letters
Bill reads through some listener mail.

Super Bowl and More with Charlie Pierce
Bill Littlefield and Only A Game analyst Charlie Pierce discuss: The Super Bowl is good, Plaxico Burress is confident, and the Smurfs got … smurfed.

Super Bowl Haiku XIV
No one believes more strongly than the Only A Game players in the power of the haiku to reduce football to its essence, and we’ve tried to prove it for the past 14 years with our annual Super Bowl Haiku. This year, the team gets a little extra help from 4th graders at the Dale Street School in Medfield, Massachusetts.

The Steelers and the Titans are among the eight great names

Of teams still playing with a shot a football’s Super Bowl
The Jets, the Raiders, and the Eagles – each is on a roll,

The Falcons, 49′ers, and the Bucs of Tampa Bay
Have all endured so far, and each will play another day

At least. But not the Giants of New York, who lost last week,
And Giants’ fans for days have been so mad they cannot speak

Without the spice of expletives. The pepper of their ire
Has burned the ears of those who’ve heard them with a righteous fire.

The Giants, as it happened, should have had another try
To knock off San Francisco, which, down 24, went by

The hapless Giants when official sight was less than keen,
By which, in laymen’s terms, I’ll say precisely what I mean…

They blew the call. They failed to note a Niner on the on his knees,
A Niner who, as sure as sin and neatly as you please,

Pulled down the Giant target when the pass was in the air,
As six officials stood around as if they didn’t care,

And interference was a matter of no great import…
So now the Giants’ fans would like to take the league to court,

Where they would win, because the NFL has lately sworn
That it is sorry. More, it is entirely forlorn

At how the call was missed, and how the New York team got jobbed;
That is to say, pick-pocketed, bamboozled, stung, and robbed.

And so the Meadowlands is quiet, all the lockers cleared.
The NFL has no do-overs. Niners need not fear…

And if the champ in football’s game of games should be the Niners,
We’ll all be drowned out ’til next fall by New York’s wounded whiners…

But New York will forgive, perhaps, all Boston, where this rocks…
We thought this sort of curse could only fall upon the Sox.