The Morning According to Us

The Iditarod is where true March Madness takes place.

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Just follow the street signs.

Sixty-nine thousand bucks and a shiny new pickup. Is sounds like a booster's gift to one of the top ballers in the NCAA tourney. But it's actually the first place purse claimed by musher Lance Mackey and his tenacious team of canines, champions of a third straight Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. Mackey has again come first in the harrowing and heroic journey through Alaska's unforgiving landscape. The "Last Great Race on Earth", it seems, is the Least Paid Race on Earth. What's with the alarmingly low payout, especially to the only true team dynasty going? You just don't see anymore three-peats these days, do you?

And this is a true team. One musher, 15 dogs, 1,100-miles, two weeks time. It's true March Madness. Think of Mackey as the veteran coach leading his young players to another championship run. Coach Calhoun is trying to drive his team of Huskies to the Promised Land for a third time, too. (Just not a three-peat) The financial rewards are vastly different; there's no circumventing this currency chasm. Calhoun stands to make millions for himself (and "not a dime back" either) and his school. Mackey will put his earnings back into his dogs.

A good weekend of PGA golf nets you a cool half million; a great weekend at Nome gets you frostbite and a phone call to your employer telling him you'll be a little late to work on Monday. It's all so wildly disproportionate, no? We can coin a new phrase: "It's all so AIG'd."

Of course Mackey's much more about mettle than money anyway. The throat cancer survivor, dubbed "the people's musher", credits his dog team as being the "real heroes". Honor and tradition take precedent over everything for the often hardscrabble life of a dog musher.

Limited corporate sponsorships, limited media exposure, and largely provincial popularity are the main contributors to the rather anemic prize money. Of course, critics of the historical dog sled race don't make it any easier. Put a muzzle on it, PETA; this isn't the Bad Newz Kennels. Canine-abuse incidents are more remote than the harsh terrain that's raced upon. The overwhelming majority of mushers sacrifice their own health and well-being to ensure their dogs are properly cared for in the gelid conditions.

All for $69,000 and new pickup. Sounds like the name of a damn country music song, doesn't it?

Elsewhere…

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A golfer looking for his errant tee shot finds a grenade instead.

Strippers and a $20 all-you-can-drink at a hockey game? Yeah, but what will the fans do? Hey-oh!

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