I wrote a couple of days ago that I thought that betting on the 200m world record being broken at +200 was an attractive bet. Even though I had obviously thought about it happening, and even thought it could happen, I was amazed how thrilling it was to actually see it happen. Usain Bolt is in a small handful of the biggest freaks I have ever seen in my life. His 100m win was impressive, but winning the 200m and breaking an seemingly unbreakable record at the same time is even more eye-opening. The guy is an uber-freak, and I count myself very lucky to have been able to watch both him and Michael Phelps make a mockery of their sports this month. Incredible.

I have read numerous notes out of Carolina that Dwayne Jarrett isn’t impressing anyone, and that he is plummeting down the receiver depth chart for the team. That makes me wonder what it is about being an offensive star at USC that doesn’t seem to translate to the pros. I’ll give Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush incomplete grades, but they clearly have work to do to live up to their monster hype. LenDale White put up a lot of yards last year, but his average wasn’t impressive, and it was much more by brute force than grace. Mike Williams has been a disaster. Keary Colbert is nothing special. The list goes on. Not every player can turn into a star, but it seems that USC has had more than its’ share of costly disappointments in recent years. Or maybe I’m just biased by the fact I really don’t like USC.

Steven Jackson has ended his holdout with the Rams, and seems poised to sign a fat new contract. As seems to be the case in these situations, the size of the contract will be inversely proportional to his contribution to the team this year and in the future (for reference see Alexander, Shaun). It must be tremendously frustrating to teams that they have to retroactively pay stud running backs for what they did in the past.

I’m not at all convinced that BMX is worthy of being an Olympic sport.