Over/Under on Fitzgerald's health?

Hopefully Larry Fitzgerald has invested in some of that Nike Pro Combat gear Adrian Peterson is hawking.

After watching Steelers safety Troy Polamalu, his Madden 10 cover partner, go down with a sprained MCL (could miss 3-6 weeks) Thursday, Fitzgerald has to be questioning the validity of the supposed “Madden Curse”.

Polamalu is the latest player to get bit by the video game hex, joining such bad-luck charms as Michael Vick, Shaun Alexander and Vince Young.

But curse or no curse, Polamalu was due for an injury.

When you play as reckless as he does – which is also why he’s a great player – you are bound to get hurt. And if you watched the start of Thursday’s game, Polamalu was out of control. On top of an interception, he also had six solo tackles and two penalties in just under one half of football.

Fitzgerald should see an equal amount of face time against a ho-hum pass defense when the Arizona Cardinals host the San Francisco 49ers this weekend. Betjamaica.com has the defending NFC champs as 6-point home favorites.

What’s the over/under on games Fitzgerald gets in before the curse claims another cover boy?

Does the punishment fit the crime?

Not since Kermit Washington broke Rudy Tomjanovich's face has a punch made such waves in the sports world (besides boxing, MMA and Woody Hayes).

Oregon senior running back LeGarrette Blount has been suspended for the season after giving Boise State DE Byron Hout "a rap on the Jack Johnson" following the Ducks' opening loss to the Broncos Thursday night.

In Blount's defense, the bad blood has been boiling between these teams since last year and Hout's postgame trash talk deserved to be checked.

That said, did Blount's punishment fit the crime?

It was a cheap shot – no doubt – but the entire year?

A player can beat up a girl at a campus party, get arrested by the police and still make practice the next day. These crimes, which outweigh smacking some doucher upside the head, go unpunished most of the time because they happen off the field and outside of the public eye.

But when Blount landed a snap right hand square on the Hout's glass jaw (he went down like a sack of potatoes), it was in front of a national audience – not to mention Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott, who was in attendance Thursday. Besides giving Hout's jaw that annoying clicking sound, the punch was a black eye on the NCAA's recent push on sportsmanship.

My favorite scene from the postgame melee was the when Blount was leaving the field in front of a crowd of BSU faithful.

There is an older gentleman in a white polo who channels the spirit of 2PAC, poi... [More]