The Week That Was ... Opulent

It means "costly" and "excessive," like this gosh darn free agent market.

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"I have given you everything you have ever wanted." "No, you have not. You haven't given me your heart."

Manny Ramirez, who is potentially the greatest right-handed hitter of the past twenty years (if not ever) but is also thirty-six years old, is about to clean up. CC Sabathia, who is younger and essentially willed the Brewers into the playoffs last season, could potentially exceed Johan Santana money. With the NFL still eight weeks from January, college football's next "game of the century of the week" not being until next Saturday (Oklahoma vs. Texas Tech in Norman) and the NBA still being new, we were consumed by hot stove rumors this week. As a result, we were consumed by opulence. Get it? Indeed. Meanwhile, the most opulent dude of 'em all baseball-wise, Alex Rodriguez, is consistently in the news regarding his reported flings with another opulent young (ha!) lady, Madonna. As for our content this week, well, it was "abundant" and "plentiful" (other definitions) and here's a look at it.

The 2009 NEXT voting trucks along. You have until Monday to vote right here.

Speaking of opulence, here's a good piece by ESPN The Magazine senior deputy editor Chad Millman on sports gambling.

Bowl game names can be fun.

You might not have heard of all these guys, but they're ballers.

We talked to the dudes behind FreeDarko about life, love and hating Shaq.

Nate Clements of the San Francisco 49ers did a video for us.

So did Oklahoma Sooners big man Blake Griffin. And it's good. Really good.

Speaking of guys making videos for/with us, here is Brandon Jennings showing us his new life in Italy. Opulent, indeed!

These rookie running backs are definitely rich, but they might hit the wall soon.

Mike Singletary, meet Joe Clark.

This needs to be seen again.

Hey, do you like college basketball?

Rick Reilly's new column: sad, but touching.

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