Happy 4th of July people.

Yes, it’s that time of the year again when the proud U – S – of – A celebrate its day of independence. And while some of the more patriotic Americans wave their little flags and light up a firecracker or two on the 4th of July weekend, some will watch two men make a fool of themselves by eating a butt-load of hot dogs while they bet on it as if it was the freakin’ Super Bowl.

Since everybody was so into this entire thing last year, (you have ESPN to blame for that…) Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi will once again try to find out who loves ‘em hot dogs the most in the now 94th Annual Nathan’s Hot dog Eating Contest.

This eating contest has become a tradition in New York, gaining international exposure and impressive spectator numbers with 30,000 people showing up to watch the entire thing last year. And with the popularity, the sports betting world has taken notice and bettors look forward to having a little fun with it this year and basically every other year as well.

Online sportsbook SPORTSBETTING.COM is offering up a number of prop bets and wagering options for the event, with some very cool betting offers. As you might expect, most of the betting focus surrounds the rivalry between the two top contestants (the only two people who have won the competition the past eight years) Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi.

As it stands, Joey Chestnut is listed as the…

Ty Lawson is starting to feel better, just in time for UNC.

But will he be enough to carry UNC past Gonzaga and advance to the Elite Eight of the 2009 March Madness bracket tournament?

The speedy point guard said his troublesome toe is still achy after returning to the lineup over the weekend, but he plans to play against Gonzaga this Friday when his North Carolina Tar Heels resume their campaign in these bracket battles.

Will he be at 100 percent? For what it’s worth, Ty Lawson is optimistic about it and UNC coach Roy Williams is too, that the ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference) Player of the Year will be ready for the NCAA tournament’s round of 16.

Lawson had missed three straight games with a jammed right big toe before helping the top-seeded Tar Heels (30-4) rally past LSU in Saturday’s second-round game in the South Regional. He experienced some minor swelling afterwards, but thankfully, it was nothing like what followed the regular-season finale against Duke.

He participated in the team’s shootaround Monday and went through some drills during practice this week. But the team has been cautious, keeping him out of practice for almost two weeks, in addition to missing both of the…

You read it, NFL football will be seven weeks old come Sunday and teams have already started to jockey for playoff position.

And coming to Week 7 of the 2008-09 NFL football season, we learned that the Raiders still suck no matter who coaches those fucks, the Cowboys can’t punt in overtime, Matt Cassel won’t be Tom Brady anytime soon and the Browns can surprise football fans once in a while.

There sure were a lot of surprises last week, which makes this brand new week of football even more exciting to watch. Looking for another underdog to win this week? If there’s one game that just might be able to give you that, we have to go with this game between the Cowboys and the Rams just because Dallas just might visit St. Louis without franchise quarterback Tony Romo.

You read it, Romo could be out for their game against the 1-4 St. Louis Rams. After losing two of the last three games, the Cowboys found out that Romo will be out for at least four weeks with a broken right pinky finger on his throwing hand. He suffered the injury on the first play of the overtime loss to the Cardinals last Sunday. And although Romo plans to play hurt this weekend, we don’t know for sure if he’ll still be the same guy when he suits up for St. Louis.

However, the Dallas Cowboys still have a playmaker in Terrell Owens and…

It’s the trading deadline, hopefully, trading here will be waaay much better than the fucked up stuff we have in the stock market today.

The 2008-09 NFL football season resumes this Sunday with Week 6 and after five weeks, we learned that the Washington Redskins want a title, Matt Cassel can throw to Randy Moss after all and Sage Rosenfels is a dumbass.

Coming to Week 6, we have quite a few good games for you as always. Starting with this game between two of the hottest teams in the league. Would you believe it? The Chicago Bears and the Atlanta Falcons are winning. Go figure. The Bears won their last two games to find themselves atop the NFC North. They managed to beat the Eagles before routing the Lions last Sunday to end up at 3-2. But as impressive as that has been for Chicago, the Falcons have done better.

Falcons runningback Michael Turner has been having one heckuva’ season, leaving football fantasy owners scratching their heads. He already has six rushing touchdowns at this point of the season, making him the best halfback in the game today and I have a feeling the Bears defense won’t be able to stop him.

Pick the Atlanta Falcons to win by three.

Next, we have the struggling 2-2 Indianapolis Colts. The Colts don’t look as impressive as they were the last few seasons and while their running game continues to struggle this year, they could’ve been easily sitting at a miserable 0-4 mark. It doesn’t get any easier for the Colts too as…

It’s the third week of the football season people and it only gets better.

The 2008-09 NFL football season continues this Sunday with a whole lot of games you can sure win some dolla’ dolla’ bills yo. Yes, we’re trying to be cool. Sorry, we can’t help it.

Starting things off for Week 3 of the NFL season, we begin with the game between the Atlanta Falcons and the Kansas City Chiefs. After a rather awesome debut in Week 1, Falcons QB Matt Ryan looked more like a what he should, a rookie, as he made several rookie mistakes in a 24-9 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The Kansas City Chiefs on the other hand, were even more miserable. The Chiefs have been unable to find anyone to stabilize the quarterback position this season with quarterback Brodie Croyle still out with a separated shoulder. They dropped their second straight game last week and while the first one was to the New England Patriots, losing to the Oakland Raiders 23-8 last week definitely raises reasons for concern.

Our pick? The Atlanta Falcons by a field goal.

Speaking of the Oakland Raiders, they will visit one of the league’s…

And in case you haven’t heard, they haven’t awarded Team USA with the Olympic basketball championship just yet.

And while Team USA looks primed to win gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, one team that may shock the rest of the world yet again is Australia. They are set to meet on Wednesday and the Aussies sure look the part of show stoppers.

After pounding Germany 106-57, Team USA has been the poster child for dominance in the Olympic Games. Other than Michael Phelps, the US basketball team gives the United States a better shot of winning a gold medal in Beijing.

Of course, with NBA stars like LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Chris Paul, that gold medal is for Team USA to lose more than win it. Hell, Olympic officials could just hand them the gold medal already and none of the countries competing in this already one-sided basketball tournament will contest.

But then again, there’s Team Australia.

After beating then undefeated Lithuania in emphatic fashion, winning by a whopping 31 points, the Aussies showed the dominance on the hardwood you’ll…

The Pistons sure pulled off a fast one last Monday…

The Pistons took a 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven second round series of the 2008 NBA playoffs after beating Orlando for the second straight game, winning Game 2, 100-93, in a contest where home cooking was more evident than the sun on a hot and humid day.

You see, Detroit Pistons guard Chauncey Billups just made a three pointer without taking virtually any time from the clock in the third quarter. Although that probably did not affect the outcome of the game, (since it was in the third quarter anyway…) what Chauncey stole from Orlando during that play was momentum as it put the Pistons ahead 78-76, breaking the Magic’s spirit in the process.

How long does dribbling, two passes and shooting a three-pointer take Chauncey Billups anyway? Apparently, not much as the Orlando Magic saw Billups OFFICIALLY made that very play with 0.5 seconds left in the third, ending a play that started with 5.1 seconds and seemed to take a fraction of a second longer using replays the officials didn’t use during a 5-minute delay.

NBA referee Steve Javie declined to be interviewed by a pool reporter during a timeout, and just decided to ignored another reporter shouting to speak with him after the game ended as if he heard nothing. ”They had to estimate how much time…”

This year, Memphis, UCLA, Tennessee, North Carolina and Duke are forces to be reckoned with come the Final Four.

As the 2008 NCAA college basketball regular season winds down and conference tournaments tip off, North Carolina, Memphis, UCLA, Tennessee, Kansas, Duke, Stanford, Xavier, Texas and Wisconsin became the top ten teams this year and it looks like there will be no easy picks.

Most of these teams have very long standing traditions specifically in basketball. With this being said then we know how much hard work goes in and out of these schools gyms.

One of the most impressive players this year comes from Kansas State in the name of Michael Beasley. A player averaging 12.6 Rebounds, 26.7 Points, 1.6 Steals and 1.4 blocks a game who by far has the potential to be dominant in the professional league as well.

Not far behind is Tyler Hansbrough from North Carolina averaging 10.4 rebounds, 1.6 Steals and 23.4 points a contest. Not to shabby on his 2nd year at the helm of the Tar Heels. Being next in voting to J.J. Redick last year for the ACC player of the year has to bring pressure this time around, naturally Tyler is taking it head on.

Another impressive year as usual and kudos to one of the best coaches in basketball history is Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski. Another year and another team rich in teamwork and fast paced offensive…

Yes, and to fuck them up HARD too…

Perhaps this Monday morning was the best feeling these retards from Miami felt the past few weeks since we started virtually dogging them around this 2007-08 NBA basketball season.

Why? Well, for one, the Miami Heat, yes, that team composed of old farts, a head coach who thinks he runs the Mafia and one silly little bastard who just can’t seem to spell his first name right, finally won one.

100-94 was the final tally as the struggling Miami Heat won their fifth game of the season after beating the Los Angeles Clippers. Dwyane Wade, aside from the fact that he still has no fucking clue where should he jam that Y on his stupid name, scored a game-high 35 points after going to the foul line in every single minute of the contest.

The win, (and it doesn’t come by often for Miami these days… IN ANY SPORT…) ended Miami’s five-game losing streak, finally giving them their first road win in nearly a fucking month.

And get this, Wade is actually comparing this win over the Los Angeles Clippers to his very first experience fucking a woman. How sick is that?

Wade, who has scored 30-plus points in four of the past nine games, said he told head…

It may not sound like a real sports championship to you. But as much as Nathan’s famous hot dog eating contest, held annually since 1916, is an Americana novelty, we should all remember that this undertaking was created out of deep patriotism.

And you thought it was just one of those crazy Fourth of July activities concocted by some drunk gluttons in the park.

So I’m thinking me and my friends ought to ho into Coney Islands this year and finally watch this hot dog eating spectacular. Yeah, haven’t seen one myself. Was content to see them on the tube because well, I pity those hot dogs. Really.

Mostly I’d like to see this Takeru Kobayashi guy who has held the record since 2001. People call his the Tsunami, probably exactly how the hotdogs feel that hit them once Kobayashi is through with them.

In the championship of 2006 alone, he downed 53 and 3/4 total of hotdogs, setting a new world record. The runner-up, California’s Joey Chestnut ate 52 hot dogs in 12 minutes.

Chesnut is posing to become Kobayashi’s nemesis for the second straight year. Because in the Southwest regional qualifiers for the 2007 Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest, Chestnut shattered the world record by eating 59 1/2 hot dogs and buns in 12 minutes. Meaning it beats Kobayashi’s championship record the last time.

The odds are even for these…