- RED’S ARMY says that people should forget about LeBron James joining Kobe in Los Angeles. Are there actually those who think this might happen?

- PRO FOOTBALL TALK reports that the 7-1 Minnesota Vikings face potential blackouts after this week’s bye. Seriously. That’s pathetic.

- LARRY BROWN SPORTS wonders if the sign that the Chiefs posted is aimed at a certain running back with the initials “LJ.”

According to a report by ESPN.com, eight-time Grand Slam champion Andre Agassi admits to using crystal meth in 1997 in his upcoming autobiography. He also admits that he lied to tennis authorities when he failed a drug test, saying that he “unwittingly” took the substance.

According to an excerpt of the autobiography published Wednesday in The Times of London, the eight-time Grand Slam champion writes that he sent a letter to the ATP tour to explain the positive test, saying he accidentally drank from a soda spiked with meth by his assistant “Slim.”

“Then I come to the central lie of the letter,” Agassi writes. “I say that recently I drank accidentally from one of Slim’s spiked sodas, unwittingly ingesting his drugs. I ask for understanding and leniency and hastily sign it: Sincerely.

“I feel ashamed, of course. I promise myself that this lie is the end of it.”

According to the Times of London, Agassi writes in his book that “Slim” was the person who introduced him to crystal meth, dumping a small pile of powder on the coffee table.

“I snort some. I ease back on the couch and consider the Rubicon I’ve just crossed,” Agassi writes.

“There is a moment of regret, followed by vast sadness. Then comes a tidal wave of euphoria that sweeps away every negative thought in my head. I’ve never felt so alive, so hopeful — and I’ve never felt such energy.”

“I’m seized by a desperate desire to clean. I go tearing around my house, cleaning it from top to bottom. I dust the furniture. I scour the tub. I make the beds.”

I always find it interesting how athletes and celebrities are so willing at times to share the skeletons in their closet in order to sell their books. Here’s a guy that is one of the more popular stars to every play tennis and he outs himself as a crystal meth user in order to drum up some sales. It’s amazing, although not entirely dumb if you want people to flock to the stores to buy your book.

Maria Sharapova, who’s been mired in a horrific slump since returning from an injury 10 months ago, won the Toray Pan Pacific championship earlier today in Japan.

Sharapova was leading 5-2 in Saturday’s final at Ariake Colosseum when the seventh-seeded Jankovic took a timeout to have her right arm examined by the trainer.

The Serbian player returned to the court and lost the first two points of the eighth game before retiring.

“It’s disappointing,” Sharapova said. “It’s toward the end of the year and there are a lot of injuries so I wish Jelena a speedy recovery.”

It was Sharapova’s first title since Amelia Island in April, 2008, although she has spent long periods of the tour in the interim.

Even if Jelena Jankovic did have to retire in the first set, everyone on the WTA Tour is so broken down by the end of the year that nagging injuries are expected. I wasn’t able to catch this match for obvious reasons, but I would’ve liked to see how Sharapova looked coming out strong. She hasn’t been atrocious, but lately she’s tended to lose her rhythm rather quickly. With her performance today, Sharpova proved she’s down but not out. Anything is possible. Just look at Kim Clijsters, who won this past U.S. Open after taking two years off to start a family. Sharapova is only 22, so she has plenty of time to regain her authority.

This last U.S. Open was both entertaining and dramatic. Kim Clijsters and Juan Martin del Potro, both underdogs, captured the Grand Slam championship in their respective competitions. Getting the most press, however, was Serena Williams’ tirade against a lineswoman. (Serena was later fined $10,000.) Tennis had been fairly stable the past few years in terms of competition, top players, and sportsmanship. As of the U.S. Open, however, that sentiment is changing:

- Roger Federer, of all people, was docked $1,500 for using profanity while arguing with the chair umpire open during the men’s final. Was the expletive in Swiss-German?

- Led by Radek Stepanek and Tomas Berdych, the Czech Republic have reached their first Davis Cup final in 29 years after beating Marin Cilic and Lovro Zovko of Croatia in doubles.

- Spain also advanced into the Davis Cup finals, only without the services of Rafael Nadal. Spain owes a big thank you to Feliciano Lopez and Tommy Robredo. To his credit, Nadal is still suffering from abdominal pain.

- Can you believe Juan Martin del Potro is only the seventh male not named Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal to win a Grand Slam in the last seven years? Crazy. The others were Andre Agassi, Gaston Gaudio, Juan Carlos Ferrero, Marat Safin, Andy Roddick, and Novak Djokovic. In breaking it down that means, between those 28 Grand Slams, only nine champions have been crowned.

10. The scoring system in tennis
Love? 15? 30? 40? Deuce? Actually, I kind of like “deuce.” But why not just go to four, win by two. It’s the exact same thing and a lot easier to follow when you’ve already thrown back a couple of Bloody Marys.

9. The overkill of NASCAR
Does it really take 500 laps to figure out which car and driver are the fastest? Here’s an idea: Make every race 50 to 100 laps and limit the number of pit stops. Every decision will be magnified and second-guessed and strategy will become an even bigger part of the sport.

8. Offsides (in soccer and hockey)
Anytime that you have defenders trying to encourage offsides calls by pulling up as they run/skate back to protect their goal, it’s not a good thing. There’s no offsides in basketball and it works just fine. When Randy Moss outruns a cornerback, play doesn’t stop because he has a clear path to the endzone. Why not reward anticipation and speed, and make soccer and hockey that much more exciting by creating a flurry of one-on-one situations between the striker/forward and the goalie?

7. The Pro Bowl
Why? What’s the point? For years, the Pro Bowl was played in Hawaii after the Super Bowl, which is like going to a concert where the headliner plays before the supporting act. To its credit, the NFL finally realized it had a wet turd on its hands and moved the game to Miami to take place before the Super Bowl. This should help, but football is a violent sport, so why play the game at all? Guys don’t want to get hurt, so they’re only going to go half speed. Plus, with all the guys scratching due to injury and the players that won’t play because their team made the big game, the rosters aren’t nearly as good as they could be. Just forget it — hand out All-NFL awards and be done with it.

6. The NBA age limit
I was once a proponent of an age limit, but not anymore. It’s not that the NBA doesn’t have every right to restrict who can and cannot join the league — they do — but the age limit (19) is wreaking havoc on college basketball. Many of the top freshmen that would have otherwise gone straight to the NBA are making a mockery of the term “student athlete.” They know they only have to stay eligible for one season, so they only really have to attend class for the fall semester. Coaches are burning hundreds of man hours trying to recruit players that they know are only going to play for one season before bolting for the NBA. Players that went straight from high school to the NBA have a higher success rate than any other sub-group, so why not let them in? The NBA wants to improve the quality of its product, and that’s commendable, but this is not the way to do it. Maybe they should expand roster sizes to 18 or 20 to allow rookies to develop in practice. I think that if a player is draft-worthy when he graduates high school, then he should be able to enter the NBA. If a player isn’t draft-worthy and goes to college, he should be required to stay for a minimum of two years. This format would allow surefire stars to enter the NBA immediately, and would increase the continuity of the college game while at the same time giving borderline NBA prospects an opportunity to develop in the collegiate ranks.

5. The seven-game series
I get it. Professional sports is a business and leagues like the NBA and NHL need to squeeze as much money out of their playoff systems as possible. (The seven-game series makes sense in baseball; teams need to be able to take advantage of a strong pitching rotation.) But playoff series in the NBA and NHL don’t truly get exciting until a team is facing elimination, which is why the single-elimination format is by far the most exciting. (March Madness and the NFL playoffs are two great examples.) While single-elimination is too much to ask for, how about a three- or five-game series? The fewer the games, the more that each game will mean. This creates drama and interest (and, ahem, ratings). There is still the opportunity for the much-ballyhooed “chess match,” but there will be a better chance that an underdog could pull the upset. I know this isn’t going to happen, but a guy can dream, can’t he?

4. Exclusive rights to Sunday Ticket
I live in a condo with no view of the southern horizon, so every Sunday, I have to pack up my laptop and head over to my buddy LaRusso’s house to watch Sunday Ticket on his DirecTV. Don’t get me wrong — I like hanging out with my friends, but this Sunday ritual is a pain in my ass. And it’s not a technology problem — it’s all about money for the NFL. They realize that Sunday Ticket is a valuable product, and they know that the package is the lifeblood of DirecTV. But enough is enough. DirecTV now has 18 million subscribers, so it’s time to offer Sunday Ticket to cable subscribers as well. I have no problem with the NFL’s desire to make a profit, but it’s not wise (or fair) to leave a good portion of your fan base out in the cold. Most of what the league garners in exclusive rights fees would be covered by a huge increase in its subscriber base. Enough.

3. Seasons that are just too long (MLB, NBA, NHL)
People say the NBA regular season doesn’t matter, and for the most part, they’re right. The NBA’s postseason is so inclusive that sub-.500 teams regularly make the playoffs, so the regular season becomes a grind because the good teams know that they’re going to make the postseason come hell or high water. Baseball has a less inclusive postseason, but a 162-game season makes each individual game fairly meaningless. Who wants to go to a game when it doesn’t really matter who wins? Of all the leagues, the NHL has the least to lose. They should toss out their current format, cut the regular season in half and drop the number of teams that make the postseason from 16 to eight or 12. Suddenly, every regular season game would be crucial to a team’s playoff hopes.

2. No salary cap in baseball
The top four payrolls in MLB — Yankees, Mets, Cubs and Red Sox — combine to spend more than the bottom ten. The Yankees alone outspend the Marlins, Padres, Pirates and Nationals combined. The Yankees’ payroll is 5.5 times the lowest payroll in the league (the Marlins). How can there be a level playing field when certain teams can afford to spend three or four or even five times as much as the competition? Sure, a small market team with savvy management can make a run every so often, but they can’t afford to keep their stars because the big market teams can simply outspend them. Forget ridiculous — this is ridonkulous. Yeah, I said it.

1. The BCS
The BCS is like a bad marriage. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but somewhere along the line, you realize that it’s an awful mess. You don’t know when it’s going to end, or how, but you know that one day it will be over. And that will be a fine, fine day. We ran a poll a while back and 90% of fans want to see some sort of playoff system in college football. The current system is so asinine and flawed that there’s no point in rehashing all that is wrong with it. I’m a proponent of an eight-team playoff where the six BCS conference champs get an automatic bid (unless they are ranked outside of the top 15). The first round of the playoffs would be held at the home stadiums of the higher seeds and the two semifinal games and title game can be rotated amongst the four BCS cities — Pasadena, Miami, New Orleans and Phoenix — so that they don’t lose any revenue under a new system. Television ratings for the non-title games would go through the roof. That would be like true love — everybody wins.

Those are my top 10…what is it about sports that drives you crazy?

Argentine Juan Martin del Potro beat five-times defending champion Roger Federer 3-6 7-6 4-6 7-6 6-2 on Monday to win his first U.S. Open title.

First and foremost, I want to commend Novak Djokovic for giving it his all. He played an incredible match, neck and neck with Federer in every set. However, while Djokovic was in top form, he’s no Roger Federer. Neither made many mistakes, earning points with well-placed shots after volleys rather than relying on aces.

After defeating Djokovic 7-6 7-5 7-5, Federer is now one match away from capturing his sixth consecutive U.S. Open Championship and sixteenth overall Grand Slam. He will face Juan Martin del Potro, the 20 year-old Argentine who defeated Rafael Nadal in straight sets earlier today. Del Potro has never made it to a Grand Slam final; Federer has been in 17 of the last 18. Who do you think is the favorite?

Djokovic and Federer provided several entertaining and clever drop shots, lobs, and lengthy volleys. Fed’s final winner in the twelfth game of the third set was just an extension of his dominance at this Grand Slam. But it was during the second to last point, seen in the video below, that caused Arthur Ashe Stadium to gasp in amazement. It’s the shot Federer is calling the greatest of his career.