What's going on outside of the NFL?

I have been so immersed in football that I had to take a timeout from the pigskin posts to blog about some other happenings making news now.

Also the Monday Night game was so lopsided I had to get my mind off of it.

-One hiker found dead & two still missing on Mt. Hood
This story is gripping the nation right now, mainly because it's the kind of heart string-tugging emotional event that wolves like Nancy Graceless and Fox News can pounce all over.

We all know the story by now: 3 experienced hikers set out to scale the dangerous north face of Oregon's Mt. Hood, only to be snowed in after a sudden vicious storm swept through the region.

The men had been missing since last weekend before one was discovered deceased yesterday in an ice cave near the summit, some 11,000 feet above the ground.

Military personnel and volunteers have searched feverishly for over a week to find the missing men, but the discovery of Kelly James body apart from the other two was not what anybody had expected.

Now experts believe that the other two men fell from the point they were anchored just near one of two ice caves where James body was found and perished in the snow below. Ugh.

Being an earth bound guy who never in a million years would climb a mountain like that I sit back fascinated at what makes people try to temp fate and defy nature by doing things like this.

Do I feel sorry for these men? Yes. But time & time again when people decide to take their life in their hands, either sky diving or base climbing, cave diving or mountain climbing, people are so quick to act like it's a national tragedy.

It isn't. It's an unfortunate turn of events that is a result of someone's desire to push the envelope, live life on the edge, and dare to do something that is extremely dangerous.

And for all the people who say "yeah, but you could get hit by a bus tomorrow", I say I'd rather be splattered by a bus than freeze to death in an ice cave at 11,000 feet.

Did they ask or deserve to die during this trip? Of course not. But they knew that could be a possibility. No risk, no reward as they say.

I say no risk, no gruesome death.

-NBA commish lays down the law for Fight Night at the Garden

Carmelo Anthony won a national championship in his one year at Syracuse, then went on to be picked 3rd overall in the 2003 NBA draft by the Denver Nuggets, 2 spots behind LeBron James and 2 ahead of Dwyane Wade.

Ironically ever since then he has been smack dab in the middle of one controversy after another, and while his draft contemporaries have enjoyed the success that comes with being an NBA champion (Wade) and money-making global phenomenon (James), 'Melo has soiled his reputation forever after yet another careless act.

Commissioner David Stern suspended Anthony, the league's leading scorer at 31 PPG, for 15 games for his part in the brawl at Madison Square Garden at the end of the Nuggets win over the Knicks. Six other players were also suspended, two from Denver and four Knicks.

Anthony has been making national news programs for his sucker punch that caught New York's Mardy Collins square in the jaw; Collins, who instigated the whole thing by clotheslining J.R. Smith on a layup attempt, was suspended for 6 games. Smith will sit out 10 games, meaning Denver will be without its top 2 scorers for the near future.

But Carmelo's future could be even cloudier. Although he has finally burst out of the shadows of his buddies by leading the NBA in scoring, controversy has followed him like a cloud since he came into the league.

First it was an incident at the airport where he was found with pot in his bag. He avoided trouble when one of his lackeys, errr posse members, took the fall and said the stash was his (wink wink.) Then came his appearance in a bootleg street video from his home town of Baltimore talking about how snitches end up in ditches in the 'hood they all come from. Not exactly the image Mr. Stern wants to project for his multitude of millionaires.

He's also had numerous on-court flare ups, including walking off the court before the end of a game, tossing his headband and getting ejected in the season opener and stripping to his skivvies while on the way to the locker room after a loss in Atlanta.

And now this. Not only did he throw the punch while Collins was being held, he ran like a chicken bleep after he dished it out. Real street of you 'Melo. All very immature acts from a guy who is supposed to be a leader both on and off the court, someone the Nuggets have invested a ton of cash in to be the face of the franchise.

Time to grow up and mellow out Anthony.

-File under 'strange but true': runner DQ'd for failing gender test

I'm pretty jaded, being from Boston and a hardcore sports fan all my life, so I thought I had pretty much seen it all, or at least nothing could surprise me.

Then came this story. An Indian runner who won the women's 800 meter race in the Asian Games has been stripped of his/her medal after failing a post-race gender test.

Excuse me, a what? You mean a drug test, piss test?

No I mean a test to see how he/she pissed. And evidently the answer was standing up.

This story is disturbing on so many levels, not the least of which is WHY THE HELL SHOULD ANYONE OUTSIDE OF A RED LIGHT DISTRICT HAVE TO DO A GENDER TEST?

And how did they test him/her? Certainly not by bringing in Danny Bonnaduce or Eddie Murphy, I can guarantee that.

I need to move on before I throw up.

-Let's end on a positive note: Miss America may be so bad she's good

Nobody knew the name Tara Conner before last week. But today everyone in the country will know her name and face because she is going to be plastered on every tabloid rag and program for the foreseeable future.

Miss Conner is the artist formerly known as Miss America 2006. But in true Trump style she has decided to become her own entity. How? By embroiling herself in a drug/sex scandal so juicy it makes Lindsey & Britney look like former Mousketeers by comparison. Wait a minute...

Anyway, it appears that ever since the gorgeous Miss Kentucky was crowned in April she has been hitting the nightlife hard and fast, breaking about 75 of the pageant no-nos including underage drinking, coke use, dating sleazy actors and even shacking up with Miss Teen USA Katie Blair.

Reeeaalllyyyy now?

And they also share a place with Miss Universe.

Pinch me please.

The best part about the whole thing is that Trump, owner of the pageant (along with almost everything else) let the situation simmer for a few weeks, according to TMZ, in order to let it generate enough buzz for the Donald and his many properties, including his new edition of The Apprentice.

But my bet is that it succeeds in gaining Tara a boatload of instant fame and notoriety, the kind that will get her a Penthouse spread (already offered) and a free ticket into Hollywood hot spot Hyde (sure to be coming to TMZ soon.)

And let's hope the Donald's Apprentice: L.A. tanks and he decides to make a reality show out of the three beauty queens living together. Maybe contestants can vie for the right to have a sleepover with the girls. Can you imagine the ratings that would get? It would blow Hef's Girls Next Door out of the water.

I've even got the perfect title:

Pick Me. (kidding honey)