Vasco da Gama says, “At least girls gone wild take off their tops. What are these guys giving back?”

Lordy, Lord, Lord, Lord. This was not a good month for Falcons quarterback Michael Vick, Titans cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones, Bengals wide receiver Chris Henry, Islanders defenseman Sean Hill and Panthers goaltender Ed Belfour. All deserved what they got. As for Belfour, he did learn from the last time he tried to bribe police with billions of dollars. This time he toned it down and offered Miami police a more plausible amount reported to be in the thousands. I kid. What a bunch of nappy hea….um, losers. 

Giovanni Caboto teaches,  “They say history repeats itself…”

Barcelona’s striker Lionel Messi scored one of those timeless goals we will continue to hear about and see for years to come. What made the goal he scored against Getafe in Spain’s La Liga was so interesting was how close it mirrored a goal 21 years earlier by a fellow Argentine. Soccer fans will forever remember Diego Maradona’s stunning work of art against England during the 1986 World Cup.

These Argentinean’s sure know how to score goals. Recall the 24-pass masterpiece they scored in Germany 2006.

Jacques Cartier has a suggestion: “Why not do the same for basketball, hockey or soccer?”

I read Jerry Kramer’s Instant Replay this past week. I was in a bookstore and headed for the sports section and stumbled upon it. I had no intention of buying a sports book – I wanted to buy Calvin and Hobbes or the complete works of Jeremy Bentham. Anyway, I don’t regret it for a minute. What a wonderful piece of sports lore.

Reading about Vince Lombardi and the Green Bay Packers sent shivers down my spine. It got me thinking. As far as I know, there are two sports classics in the form of a diary. Jim Bouton’s Ball Four and Kramer's Instant Replay. By the way, diaries kill autobiographies by a mile. They are more raw. Anyone can look back and sugarcoat in an autobiography. I’m surprised basketball, soccer, nor hockey have done the same.

For soccer, I would ask a player to keep a diary during the World Cup. In fact, I would suggest the following to a publisher: why not do the same thing again for the NFL and MLB but with two different players? It would give fascinating insights as to how the game has changed – if at all - over the years.