Great seeing the guys today. What was up with Tony and the "send Kit Kats."

Oh, they got a bunch of new sponsors, and Tony was just running them through their paces today. He did the same thing with the MSN butterfly. Maybe he'll do Guinness tomorrow. ("Wilbon, I'm gonna whup you again in Toss-Up. Why? Because I'm BRILLIANT!")

The Good: Upgrading from Smirnoff Ice to Guinness as the main sponsor. Brilliant!

The Bad: Giving the "Mail Time" segment its own sponsor (the evil MSN).

The Ugly: Tony's alleged resolution to refrain from any more Beano Cook comments.

(Mike's Muhammad Ali impression was funny, though)

I cracked up when Wilbon did his Muhammed Ali's impression also. I'm such an Ali fan.

hee. The boys came back from vacation rested and ready to rumble, huh? (though I admit, I ff'd the entire Packers segment; I was in no mood to listen to a Favre blowjob)

I was a little surprised that 5 Good Minutes was devoted to football instead of Pete "I'm a Lying Gambin' Fool" Rose, though.

Still. Good stuff. Especially Tony admitting that he was a dope! hee.

Me neither. If I hear the folks at ESPN, FOX, et. al. use the word "destiny" one more time...

I am also glad that Tony and Mike spent relatively little time on Pete Rose yesterday. He's probably the worst famewhore in sports, even worse than Dennis Rodman.

Well, if the show's on this afternoon, it'll pretty much be wall-to-wall Joe Gibbs coverage. They had a bomb scare in the building, though, so there may not be a show at all.

Yeah, I heard that the building was evacuated. Hopefully, they were able to get back in on time to shot the show or able set something up with the local ABC affliate.

Is Around the Horn taped in DC too?

I'm pretty sure ATH is taped at the same place as PTI.

I realize this post comes a few days late, but had to comment on Tony and Mike's comments about USC and the BCS. When are these two going to figure out that the BCS already looked at the "win your conference to play for the national championship" argument? After the Colorado-Nebraska fiasco a few years ago, the BCS looked at this argument and knew they couldn't do it since not every conference played for a conference championship. I was SOOOO waiting for Stat Boy to point this out in errors, but it didn't happen.

PTI and Around the Horn are taped in the same studio - you can tell on the days when Stat Boy appears on ATH - he's usually wearing the same outfit.

Does anyone know if "F" is Donovan McNabb's actual middle initial? The way Tony said "Yao F. Ming" yesterday makes me suspect that "F" is merely a letter that he uses generically on the show.

Nah, it isn't. I actually looked that up the other day out of curiosity and his middle name is something like Jamal... Hold on... I'll check...

Yup. It's Jamal.

Nice call silentbob. I heard the "Yao F. Ming" and actually started to think what F might be.

Thank goodness for TWOP's smart people because I actually thought that Donovan's middle initial was "F." I'm a bit worried that I am beginning to live in the scewy world of Tony Kornheiser.

Feng Shui?

Word. I am so sick of the constant hype and backstories around games. The game is enough. Yes, it is sad that Farve's Dad died. Does that mean we have to see 7-10 camera shots of Farve's wife every game? The Packers barely made the stinking playoffs, and would not have made it if the Vikings didn't lay an egg against Arizona. They also played an easy schedule (Bears twice, Lions twice, Arizona once). Why does everyone think they are so f'ing great?

Hee. the "F" thing amuses the crap out of me. There's a reason it's F and not some other letter, but for the life of me, I can't recall why.

I like it when Tony and Mike toss in carryovers like that. Like when they suddenly break into an imitation of Herman Edwards, "Hello?!? You PLAY to WIN the GAME!!!" hee.

and I am deeply sick of all the Favre crap-o-rama. And as a believer in conspiracy theories, I have to wonder if the NFL might have made certain suggestions to the refs in AZ that it would be best for all concerned if the Vikings lost. after all, the final TD wasn't caught in bounds. It was ruled a TD only because the ref declared it a force-out (a non-reviewable call); the player never got his feet in bounds. (where was Tony screaming about a conspiracy about that!? right up his alley, I'm tellin' ya.)

Re: Donovan F. McNabb, Yao F. Ming:

Tony is being polite with the F; it stands for the f-word. The expression is sort of a grudging acknowledgment of the talent/skill of the opposition, i.e. Saints fans saying, "Michael F------ Vick!" after he's just run for a touchdown or whatever. So since Wilbon is such a huge McNabb fan, Tony calls McNabb that in part just to tease Mike. Tony also predicted that Yao would be a total flop in the NBA, but he was pretty good, last year anyway, so Yao F. Ming. You'll never hear Tony talking about, Tom F. Brady, for instance, because he's been impressed with Brady for awhile.

So you're saying it really doesn't stand for feug shui? Total. Bummer.

No really, Mamalita thanks. It all makes sense now.

I was kinda surprised they didn't talk more about Tug McGraw. Isn't Tony a New York guy? Jeez.

This is gonna sound awful, but Tug McGraw just picked the wrong week to die. He wasn't even the biggest newsmaker on the '80 Phillies' WS Championship team. Not only did Pete Rose upstage Dennis Eckersley and Paul Molitor' HoF inductions, he pushed his old teammate's death to the back pages. Besides, I think Tug was better known in recent years as Tim's dad, not as a once-decent relief pitcher.

Tony and Wilbon did give him a Happy Trails the other day, though.

Should be an awesome show today, coming off of all those great playoff games. Hopefully, they'll extend Headlines to two segments if they have to.

And I'm guessing Mikey's gonna be pumped about his boy(and mine too) Donovan F! Mcnabb.

Wilbon seemed to be amusingly irked that Clemens will be in the Nat'l League with his beloved Cubbies.

Somehow I hadn't made the connection between Clemens playing for the Astros and Clemens having to actually hit! I enjoyed the brief but gleeful discussion about who would be the first to plunk him.

Whoa! Tony quoted Big Daddy Kane. You know something's fundamentally wrong with the universe when that happens. I didn't expect to hear the words ho's and balls on this show. Not that it's wrong; I just didn't expect to hear it.

Tony was too funny yesterday with the whole 'Humpty Dance' motif. It was so, so wrong, yet so, so funny.

Did they actually explain the whole Donovan F McNabb thing? They said they were going to in the tease, but I missed the rest of the show.

I listened over the radio and no I don't think they mentioned it again.

But Tuesday on his radio show Tony actually did read an email from fan who helpfully pointed out that Donovan's middle name is actually Jamal so Wilbon should stop with the "F." business. Tony just laughed and went on to the next one. (It was doubly funny to me seeing how we just covered that here...)

I think we ALL know what the F stands for. Don't we?

RE : Donovan F. McNabb nee Donovan J. McNabb: I feel like we are all in secret society or accolytes of Tony's. We should have secret handshakes.

I now have this terrible vision of Tony getting busy in a Burger King bathroom in my head.

Sure we do, I just want to see how they would explain it during the family hour on a Disney owned network.

Tony k in his hip-hop gear?

Hilarious.

Another brilliant show. PTI can even make Stephen A. Smith mildly entertaining.

It's so cruel to air this show right after Around the Horn. The juxtaposition of a show that is 1) perfectly conceived 2) perfectly cast and 3) perfectly executed with a show that couldn't possibly be more wrong on all three counts? Brutal.

I'm torn. I would like to see the brother advance on the Bachelor, but I really don't want to see Mikey commit seppuku on national TV.

If he does, Tony would probably figure out a way to throw in a Beano Cook reference beforehand.

Now that we've cleared up this whole "Donovan F. McNabb" matter (thanks, Mamalita), here's my next question -- how do the producers determine whether we get the "PTI" chyron at the end or have to hear Mike shilling for the upcoming SportsCenter? Clearly, Tony knows in advance since he doesn't bring the sign when it's not needed.

More likely than not, it's determined by whether the show is running long.

I think they shill for SportsCenter if it's coming on next. If they rerun it on ESPNews or The Deuce, they edit out the shill, show a shot of their desk, and have the Chyron.

PTI and TB: Constant source of inspiration.

Flipping to the NFC title game...think the guys will be saying "Donovan F'd McNabb" tomorrow?

More like Ricky F. Manning.

That was a painful game for me to watch.

Tony and Mike will never give the Panthers a chance, if they even talk about them at all, they'll start talking about the Panthers being a "team without a big name player and yada, yada, yada the Patriots will kill them because the Panthers were 1 and 15 two years ago and they shouldn't even be in the Superbowlcakes."
It really works out better for my Panthers when they are the underdogs.

Tony probably won't, but I'm not so sure about Mike. He keeps insisting that the Patriots' streak has to end some time. They'll probably talk about how the Panthers were like the 2001 Patriots and go on about defense and disrespect.

(It doesn't matter if the Panthers are the underdogs. The game will be close because the Patriots like to give me heart attacks on an almost weekly basis.)

Will Mike even be able to make it in to the studio today? He's not going to be able to sing the praises of Donovan F. McNabb. Who's butt is he going to kiss now?

Probably the collective butt of the Panthers. Also, McNabb wasn't the problem with the Eagles yesterday. Everybody on offense other than Donovan, Duce Staley and Freddie Mitchell came up embarrassingly real small. Now, Peyton Manning was awful. McNabb just had awful help and he got injured.

No, no, no please don't let him do that. If he does that I will drive to wherever they tape and kick his butt.

That certainly makes sense, tgr. Still, the "PTI" chyron only saves at most 20 or 30 seconds over Mike shilling SportsCenter. I don't know squat about television production, but haven't networks pretty much stopped adhering to the "start exactly at the hour or half-past" convention? Or maybe it depends on whether or not Dan Patrick is working that night.

Anyway, it will be interesting to see if Tony and Mike turn on Peyton Manning today. Everyone one seemed prepared to anoint him as the second coming last week.

That's very plausible, but keep in mind that that 20-30 seconds saved can be turned into an extra highlight that would have to be killed if SC runs heavy (which happens quite a bit when they have live guests) or an extra commercial to throw in (and therefore more ad revenue) if the show's running light.

Trampoline Bear! Yay!

Also, Tony, you really need to lay off the Man vs. Beast thing. It's gonna be just like Joe Millionaire: fun once, and only once. And for future reference, I do not require pre-game analysis of a leopard.

Props to Warren Sapp for making the Trampoline Bear request.

I'm torn about "Man vs. Beast" -- the show probably needs to go away, but Tony's pseudo-analyses are always hilarious. He did get a little too excited about it on yesterday's show, however.

Glad to see Stanford basketball getting some dap from Tony and Mike (no way in hell should Dook be ranked #1) in "Role Play!" but they need to stop dissing the Tree!