Josh Q. Public:  I used to watch Dr. J, come through in the clutch.  Remember New Zoo Review, and Starsky and Hutch.  I remember lunchtime, we used to rhyme out loud.  Peace to the Wop and the hip-hop crowd.  -Coolio 

Public Service Announcement:  OK, here we go!  Like my main Nas always says:  “I’m takin’ y’all on a trip straight through memory lane.”   Here comes the Super Bowl.  It’s coming fast.  It’s coming furious.  Dominic Toretto has nothing on this game.  Who’s gonna be the star?  That’s what we want to know.  Who’s gonna be the star?  Who’s gets themselves the big cigar?    Who gets all the cookies in the cookie jar?  That’s what we want to to know.  Everybody from here to Qatar.  Is it going to be Devin Hester, the very bester?  Are you planning on Peyton Manning?  Who’s gonna come up big in the big game?  Who’s gonna stand tall in the superest of them all.  I’ll tell you one guy who came up biggo.  A man they called Riggo.  What you don’t like that rhyme?  Come on, Sandy Baby, loosen up. You’re too tight.

You remember John Riggins.  You remember him at Kansas.  Breaking all kinds of rushing records.  Breaking all kinds of Gale Sayers’ rushing records.  You remember he played for the Jets.  J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets.  Had that Mohawk with the J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets.  That Travis Bickle Mohawk with the J-E-T-S Jets Jets Jets.  You remember he signed with the Skins.  Signed with the Skins and voluntarily sat out one year.  Came back.  Came back with a vengeance.  The 6-2, 230-pound Riggins was not a spectacular running back.  Not a flashy running back.  Lunchpail.  No Barry Sanders, he.  But he was a classic workhorse ball carrier.  A Clydesdale.  A beast.  One of the the toughest summamabitches to ever put on cleats.   He carried 2,916 times for 11,352 yards and 104 touchdowns during his career.  He also caught 250 passes for 2,090 yards and 12 TDs.  His 13,435 combined net yards are among the best ever.  So are his 116 total touchdowns.   He was the second player ever to run to the hizzy over 100 touchdowns in NFL histizzy.  The first to do it since Jim Brown All American did it in 1965.  But where he excelled.  Where he excelled where others have failed, was gaining the tough yardage in the big games.

The original Diesel came up big in 1982.  Came up super.  Came up super in Super Bowl XVII.   Came up super in Super Bowl XVII versus the Dolphins.  He had 38 carries for 166 yards and a touchdown.   He had 38 carries for 166 yards and a touchdown along with a 15-yard reception.  A record breaking 38 carries.  Against the Miami’s vaunted No. 1-rated defense.  And that’s such a small part of the story. 

Fourth quarter.  Ten Minutes to go.  Skins down four.  Fourth and a Lilliputian.  Theisman. (Used to be pronounced Thees-man.)  Theisman hands off to Riggo.  Riggo heads left.  Here comes cornerback Don McNeal.   Steamroller baby, steamroller.  There goes Riggo.  There goes Riggo down the sideline.  Riggo at the thirty.  Riggo at the 20.  Glenn Blackwood in hot pursuit.  Yes, I’m running down the railway track.  Could you help me?  Police on my back.  They will catch me, if I dare drop back.  Wont you give me all the speed I lack?  He…could…go…  He does.  Touchdown!  Touchdown!  Touchdown!  Redskins win!   It was longest touchdown run from scrimmage in Super Bowl history.  If you were from DC, it was the biggest  touchdown run from scrimmage in Super Bowl history.  No other back had ever run for 100 yards or more in four straight playoff games.   No other back has gained more than 158 yards in a Super Bowl.  No other back had ever run for 610 yards in four playoff games.  Nobody came up as biggo as Riggo.

Public Spectacle: I love the way the Cowboys used to bob up and down on the line.

Peace out homies.  Six two and Even!

Josh Q. Public:  I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught. -Winston Churchill

1.  When my fantasy baseball draft comes around, I’m picking D-Nice.  Gy-Ro-Mite!  I may even pick him too early.  I don’t care.  I haven’t been this excited about every fifth day since Pedro left town.

2.  More Sox talk?  Sure, why not.  Beltin’ Todd Helton.  Hasn’t been beltin’ for a couple of years now.  My first thought goes to steroids.  It’s just gross that’s the way we have to think now.  Just like it’s gross every time there’s a power outage or gas truck explosion we think terrorism.  Oops.  Just got political.  Sorry folks.  Todd Helton.  That’s a lot of lefties, no?  Papi, Drew and Helton.  I don’t care.  I like it.   A batting order with David Ortiz, Manny, J.D. Drew and Helton.  Goodness.

3.  The Super Bowl is getting closer and closer.  I find myself caring less and less.  Is that wrong?  Tell me there’s gonna be some Terrible Terry Tate commercials and maybe I’ll start to care a little more.

4.   When is the Shield coming back on?  C’mon guys, the joke is over.  We’ll be good.

5.  Vee Dot Carter.   Finally playing harder.  Competition is nada.  Filled it up for forty on Saturday.  Twenty in the fourth.  Nets end their record tying, three game, lose by one point, on the other guy’s last possession streak.  Carter just had thirty-three versus the Clips and a career high thirteen assists against the Wiz.  Nobody beats the Wiz.  Nobody.

6.  Stanford bears down.  Bears down to beat the number three UCLA Bruins.  Maybe its because I’m an East Coast guy.  I dunno.  I never believed in UCLA from the giddy-up.  As good as Arron Aflallo is, I just don’t see it.

7.  Seven-time Cy Young winner Roger Clemens isn’t prepared to say whether he’ll be back for another season.  Here we go.  Here we go again.  Here comes the Roger Clemens dog and pony show.  The Roger Clemens dog and pony show coming soon to a town near you.  Between him and Ted Stroehmann’s boy Brett Favre, I’ve just about had enough. 

8.  I know I’m gonna get killed on this one but, the Tiger and Federer stories don’t move me.  Don’t groove me.  Don’t J-Schmoove me.  I understand they may be the most dominating athletes out there, but I’m just not feeling the country club sports.  Never have.  I need action.  I need action for my satisfaction. 

9.  Here keep coming the Suns.  Again and again and again.  The Suns defeated the Cavs 115-100 on Sunday for their 33rd win in their past 35 games.  Only three other teams in NBA history went 33-2 over a 35-game span in one season: the Kobe and Shaq’s Lakers in 2000; Michael and the Jordanaires in 1995-96; and Jerry West, Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor of the ‘72 Lakers.  How did that ‘72 Laker team ever lose?

10.  Here you go Dusty.  The Mamba scored six of the Lakers’ 14 points in overtime against the Spurs.  He now has accounted for a total of 50 of his team’s 106 points in OT this season. The Lakers have 38 games to play this season, but number twenty-four has already scored more OT points than any other player in any season since Fab Fiver Jalen Rose tallied 51 points in overtime in 2000-01.

Peace out homies.  Six Two and Even! 

Josh Q. Public:  I got a hundred guns, a hundred clips, I’m from New York, New York.  I got a semi-automatic that spits next time if you talk, you talk.  -Ja Rule

Public Service Announcement:  Ok here we go!  What’s crack-a-lacking sports fans?  To my Harlem crew, my Brooklyn crew, true New Yorkers wear orange and blue. How ’bout them Knicks?  Now first off, you should know, I’m no Knick fan.  In fact, I loathe Zeke more than any other figure in the NBA.  His Bad Boy comments about Larry Legend are unpardonable.  And know this, I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again.  I’ll say it ’till the cows come home.  I’ll say it, then I’ll say shalom.  I’ll say it from here to the Astrodome.  If Kevin McHale doesn’t get hurt, there are no Bad Boys.  There.  I said it.  Having said it, I’ll say this:  Zeke is making this a fun team to watch.  Who woulda thunk?  Isiah ruined the CBA.  Isiah ruined the Raptors.  Isiah ruined the Pacers.  Isiah, bizzaro Midas.  I thought Isiah was going to ruin the Knicks too.  Run them into the ground.  It sure looked like it.  Didn’t it?  But here we are.  Here we are forty-six games into this season and Thomas only needs five more wins to better Larry Brown’s efforts of last year.  How did this happen?  How did they beat the Nuggets, the Cavaliers and the Pacers on the road?  How did they beat the Pistons, the Bulls and Miami at home?  Huh? How?  Tell me.  I need to know.

I’ll tell you.  They’re tough.  Ram tough.  Mentallly tough.  On their last leg, just gettin’ by.  Halos round their heads, too tough to die. Tick-tock they don’t stop, and to the, ah tick-tock they don’t quit.  No they don’t quit.  They don’t quit on the road.  They don’t quit on the road when they’re trailing.  They don’t quit on the road when they’re trailing better teams.  They’ve got a swagger now.  Since the brawl they’re ten and nine.  They play hard all the time.  Like Johnny Cash, they walk the line.  Jamal Crawford’s walking the line.  Walking the line and hoisting up fifty-two against Shaq and the Heat.  Walking the line and hitting sixteen straight.  Just tearing it up in the World’s Most Famous Arena.   Stephon Marbury’s walking the line.  Walking the line and playing defense.  Tough defense.  Dare I say it?  Tenacious defense.  Walking the line and filling it up.  In the first 25 games, Starbury put up just one 20-point-or-more game.  Just one.  Since then, he’s blown up for 20-or-more nine times, exceeding 30 once and 40 another.  Walking the line and making the pass.  He made the pass thirteen times to Crawford in that fifty-two point ridiculousness.  Eddy Curry is walking the line.  Walking the line while averaging 19.4 points.  19.4, tops among Eastern centers.  Tip-tops.  His .586 shooting percentage is fourth in the league.  David Lee is walking the line.  Walking the line and crashing the boards.  Crashing the glass with reckless abandoned.  Walking the line and coming off the bench for eleven points and eleven boards a game.  Big Nate Robinson is walking the line.  Walking the line with his his heart on his sleeve.  If you’re a Knick guy, how can you love this cat. Jumping out of the gym.  Diving for the loose ball.  Quentin Richardson is walking the line.  Walking the line and knocking down threes.  To my uptown crew, my downtown crew, true New Yorkers wear orange and blue. The New York Knicks.  Walking the line and making things frantic.  Making things frantic in the Hot Lantic.

Public Spectacle:

Peace out homies.  Six Two and Even!