Michael Vick/Brett Favre:
These two nuisances of the NFL offseason go hand-in-hand. And despite the fact that both players have found their way onto a roster, ending that particular bit of “drama,” don’t expect them to go away anytime soon.

In fact, the saturation coverage is only going to get worse. Since Vick has returned, we’ve been inundated with all kinds of stories detailing what plays the Eagles are going to run, how upset PETA is, whether or not McNabb and Vick can co-exist and the soft-focus “60 Minutes” piece in which the QB stuck very carefully to his script.

With Favre back in the fold, however, Vick will drop to No. 2 on ESPN’s obsession list. I’m looking forward to finding out what Brett had for breakfast before his first practice with the Vikings.

The “play or retire” debate will give Skip Bayless something to rage about for days, and I’d expect a special or two about the network’s favorite quarterback in the next day or two.

And yes, we’re talking about a backup QB and a washed-up 40-year-old.

Whining About the BCS:
Every year toward the end of college football season, people start getting up in arms about the inequities of the bowl system and how it only rewards the big boy conferences, leaving teams like BYU out of the national championship picture.

And every year, people start clamoring for a playoff system, much like the one used at the Division I-AA level, only to be met with deafening silence by the powers that be.

Using a playoff to crown the best team makes complete sense, but when does anything the NCAA ever does make sense? The only thing it cares about is making money off its indentured servant college athletes, and the BCS brings in megabucks from its fat TV contract.

So forget about ever seeing a playoff system in our lifetime. Sorry, BYU. Maybe you should have thought about that before you became Mormons.

U.S. as a World Soccer Power:
I know there are people that care passionately about soccer, but they make up about 2% of the sporting fan base, and yet are constantly going on and on about how the U.S. is on the verge of becoming a major player in the sport.

No. This is never going to happen. Please stop trying to convince us it will, because no one believes it.

The U.S. will forever be a middle-of-the-road squad, for the very simple reason that Americans don’t care about soccer except for a couple of weeks every four years during the World Cup. Plus, the best athletes in this country will always be drawn to more lucrative sports.

So yeah, every once in a while, we’ll get lucky and knock off a halfway decent team, but England, Spain and Brazil aren’t exactly quaking in their cleats.

Steroids in Baseball:
Before you know it, another name will leak from the infamous steroid list, and the media will go nuclear about it... while fans will greet the news with a collective yawn.

We all know that some baseball players have used performance-enhancing drugs. We’ve all shown that we don’t particularly care by still supporting baseball to the tune of record-breaking attendance and solid TV ratings.

At some level, it’s disheartening to realize that some players aren’t above cheating, and it may be difficult to explain to a kid why A-Rod had his cousin stick him in the butt with a needle, but what can you do? That’s the culture those guys live in, and they do what they have to do to get ahead.

The 2010 NBA Offseason:
Do you realize that the media has been talking about what’s going to happen in the summer of 2010 for more than two years?

There’s always speculation when it comes to sports, but this is taking it to an entirely different level. What’s more, it seems as if the NBA has bought into it as well, as teams have been making moves for years to clear up cap space for the alleged bounty of free agents scheduled to hit the market.

But who knows what LeBron is going to do? Will the economy support all this lavish spending? Will the NBA move Memphis to Seattle by then? The point is, no one has any idea what’s going to happen this season, much less next summer.