This week on “Only A Game,” the latest from the NHL playoffs, and the science behind what makes a slapshot, well, slap. Also, we’ll speak with the author of “Outcasts United: A Refugee Team, An American Town.”

This week on Only a Game, our fifteenth offering of Super Bowl Haiku poetry. Also, how Super Bowl TV ads went from superstars to underachievers, and two music critics help us decide the winner in a battle of the Super Bowl fight songs.

With the Super Bowl just days away Bill blogs about the Eastern Service Workers Association’s Winter Survival Campaign and it’s Super Bowl Sunday Tamale Benefit.

On the eve of the Super Bowl, two new cases of chronic traumatic encephalopathy – the brain damage associated with multiple concussions – have been in the news. Commentator Bill Littlefield remembers – sort of – one of his worst days as an intramural athlete – and wonders why it’s taking so long for physicians associated with teams to acknowledge the obvious.

This week on Only A Game, the sound of Arizona pinching itself as the Cardinals prepare for Super Bowl XLIII. Also, Trinity College squash tries to extend its title run to an astonishing eleven straight, and Sports Illustrated’s L. Jon Wertheim on the rise of Mixed Martial Arts.

With the Super Bowl just 11 days away, commentator Bill Littlefield offers a few humble suggestions for improving the event.

This week on Only A Game, we’ll preview the pre-Super Bowl games involving, among others, the Arizona Cardinals. Strange days, eh? We’ll explore the grim fates of some former NFL greats, and we’ll visit a college where women wrestle. Officially.

This week on Only A Game, the Arizona Cardinals have made it to the second round of the NFL playoffs. No, that’s not a type-o. Plus, we’ll meet an 11-year-old goalie who’s already stopping slap shots from her high school opponents, and hear the reflections of a former role playing addict now departed from the world of Dungeons and Dragons.

The NFL’s second round of playoff games will transpire on Saturday and Sunday. Commentator Bill Littlefield acknowledges that his attention will be on one particular player…and how hard he gets hit.

This week on Only A Game, the Arena Football League punts its 2009 season. Also, the big, bad, Bruins come out of a decades-long hibernation, and rambling holiday revelers bare almost all in sub-freezing temperatures for the ninth annual Santa Speedo Run.