Don’t worry, this site won’t be my personal playground to talk about random stuff, but I feel compelled to mention some of the best news I have heard in a long time:

“Though it is one of the lower-rated series on network television, the widely praised NBC drama “Friday Night Lights,” has received yet another reprieve: the show will not be canceled and will have at least two more seasons of 13 episodes each. NBC completed a deal with DirecTV on Monday in which the two will share the next “Friday Night Lights” season as they did this season. The new episodes will play first on DirectTV in the fall and then be rerun on NBC in the winter and spring. The deal — terms of which were not disclosed — almost didn’t happen, mainly because of the price of DirecTV’s license fee. Eric Shanks, the executive vice president of entertainment for DirecTV, on Tuesday credited Ben Silverman, the NBC entertainment co-chairman, with saving the deal. “Ben called and said he was yelling at a lot of people,” Mr. Shanks said.”

Awesome. FNL is the 21st century’s version of “The Wonder Years,” and one of the highlights of my week. Kinda sad, I suppose, but true. If you aren’t watching it, which is likely, you are really missing out on something special.

OK, now back to our regularly scheduled sports talk.

(PS. After jump, an interview with FNL’s Minka Kelly aka Layla Garrity)

(PPS. Here’s an SI interview with Zach Gilford  aka Matt Saracen)

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The NCAA men’s basketball Final Four is set, and besides fielding a deserving quartet of teams, I thought it was interesting that all four schools are known for one specific tournament “shining moment.”

Let’s take a look:

Villanova: Defeated Georgetown in 1985 in one of the greatest upsets in sports history. I worked on a documentary about this game for HBO Sports several years ago, and when you really study what VU went through to achieve this victory, it makes it that much more special.

University of North Carolina: Defeated Georgetwon in 1982 thanks to freshman Michael Jordan’s game-winning shot. Poor Hoyas.

UCONN: Defeated Duke in 1999. Truth be told, I missed this game because I went to see my wife-to-be in some high school fashion show. The sad part is, we weren’t even going out at the time! Anyway, I have seen the replay, and truly believe that what Khalid El-Amin, Ricky Freeman, Richard Hamilton & co. were able to pull off in Tampa is one of the more underrated upsets in NCAA history.
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Keeping in line with yesterday’s commercial theme, MMAPayout.com has found a little feature on Georges St-Pierre Gatorade spot. Pretty damn impressive for a French-speaking MMA fighter.

Cool, but this whole “G” campaign confuses me. Do the drinks taste any different, or is it just a different label?

I used to be really into sports commercials, and lately I have been digging the ones that are out. These four new ones made me feel like revisiting some of my favorites. First, the ones that triggered it:

4.)

3.)

2.)

1.)

The last one really hits near and dear to my heart.

Anyway, here are my top five favorite sports commercials of all-time (in no particular order). Or at least the ones I can remember right now.

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OK, maybe the “how’s taste?” title doesn’t work ALL the time.

Anyway, since I seem to be in the minority when it comes to giving props to Mr. Okami, here’s a fun little highlight reel showcasing his brilliance.

Our pal Ben Fowlkes is reporting that Demian Maia has been tabbed as the UFC’s #1 middleweight contender. According to his report on CagePotato.com, the Jiu-Jitsu wiz is slated to face the winner of next month’s Thales Leites-Anderson Silva fight in late August.

Obviously a ton can happen in the span of five months, but the first thing that came to mind when I heard this news was: what does Yushin Okami have to do to get a title shot?

Truth be told, I’ve been on the Okami bandwagon for a while. Since losing to Rich Franklin at UFC 72 (a fight he agreed to on short notice) the Japanese fighter is 3-0, picking up wins over Jason MacDonald, the late Evan Tanner and Dean Lister.

Prior to the Franklin loss, Okami (23-4) defeated the likes of Mike Swick, Alan Belcher, Nick Thompson…oh, and some guy named Anderson Silva. You’ve heard of Anderson Silva, right? He’s the dude currently holding the UFC middleweight title. Sure, Okami won via DQ at Rumble on the Rock 8 in January 2006 (evidence above), but that just makes things all the more interesting should Silva defeat Leites next month. Silva’s last loss was against Okami, he’s looking for revenge, he was wronged, etc. It makes perfect sense.

Now while Maia gets to hang out for five months, Okami has been booked against Dan Miller at UFC 98. Not exactly a walk in the park.

Don’t get me wrong: Maia (10-0) certainly deserves his shot, perhaps even more so than Silva’s next opponent, Leites, but not before Okami. Simple as that.

If you have a few minutes to spare, read this article by Kevin Coughlin about his experiences working with Lenny Dykstra. Just a taste:

That feeling lasts exactly three days. At about 3:30 p.m. on the Saturday before Labor Day, I receive a call from Lenny. Speaking in a voice even more slurred than usual, he says: “Hey, bro, a guy from this jet company is going to call you in a few minutes and ask for your credit card.”

“What the hell for, Lenny?”

“He’s not going to charge your card, bro. It’s just an authorization on it so I can reserve a private jet to get me to Atlanta, where I’m going to pick up half a million dollars in cash.”

This is pretty much the precise moment when things begin to go wrong—when I should’ve realized that no matter how enthralled I was with the idea of working for Nails and his high-rolling magazine, I should’ve simply said no. I ask why a supposed multimillionaire needs an employee’s credit card for his flights. He mumbles something about having “high-limit cards off the charts” that, for reasons unknown, do not allow him to make telephone authorizations.

“Lenny, I’m trusting you to do right by me. I don’t want to be stuck with these charges,” I say.

“You can trust me with your life, bro,” he replies. And then: “Don’t tell anyone about this, okay?”

On the Tuesday after Labor Day, I receive a call from the charter-jet company that my credit card has been denied for new authorizations over $22,000. I correct the man on the phone: “No, there should be only one authorization, for $13,000 or $14,000.”

“Mr. Coughlin,” he says, “Mr. Dykstra has requested another flight from Helena, Montana, to Atlanta, in the amount of $22,937.”

Lenny, it turns out, has made a personal stop in Montana, on my credit, to spend some time with his son Cutter, who plays for the Helena Brewers, a minor league affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers. I call Lenny, who assures me that it’s only an authorization, not a charge. I remind him that using my credit card information without my permission is credit card fraud.

Plenty more insanity HERE. The Lenny Dykstra post-retirement financial wiz fairy tale always struck me as being very odd. This seems to confirm those suspicions.

I have been a little down on The Ultimate Fighter since, say, the fifth season. The show has simply felt like one long rerun: same house, same personalities, same format, same jerseys, etc.

Well, now here comes a sneak peak at the upcoming ninth season, and I must say, this feels like a breathe of fresh air.

You see, you don’t have to tweak this format all that much. All it takes is a theme (USA vs. UK), a new location (Wolfslair Gym) and new jerseys (football). Ok, maybe I don’t care all that much about the jerseys, but I do think it was interesting to see both Rich Franklin and Dan Henderson at the top of the show before they competed in their TUF eliminator fight at UFC 93 (won by Hendo).

Hopefully, they don’t simply fly the eight UK winners back to Vegas and everything returns to status quo.

First he nailed this one:

Then this one:

And finally, on perhaps the biggest stage yet, this one: