Watch the final minutes of Wednesday’s Villanova/Rutgers game where the Scarlet Knights came back from a nine-point deficit with just 2:00 to play. In fact, they were down five with just 0:16 to play and still managed to win the game in regulation.

Per the Chicago Sun-Times…

A few Fox honchos’ ears were burning Sunday night in Dallas — and it had nothing to do with the action on the Cowboys Stadium field. Turns out Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez wanted to slug a few folks after he spotted himself and his girlfriend Cameron Diaz being shown to the 111 million people watching the game.

America saw the actress lovingly feeding popcorn into A-Rod’s mouth.

“He really went ballistic — thinking the cameraman was out to get them in a paparazzi-like shot. … That’s so crazy,” said my source. “Anyone who knows anything about producing a live sports event — especially something as huge as the Super Bowl — would know that those celebrity shots are purely random.

“A-Rod, of all people, should know that.”

After that one shot — which frankly was totally innocent and kind of sweet — Rodriguez got a guarantee that he and Diaz would not be televised any further.

Here’s an idea — if you don’t want the camera to catch your girlfriend feeding you popcorn, THEN DON’T LET HER FEED YOU POPCORN AT THE F#$%!NG SUPER BOWL!

This is it — this is where ego and idiocy converge.

Just because he complained to Fox, I’m going to post the video here, in case you missed it:

As part of his championship tour, Aaron Rodgers appeared on the “Late Show with David Letterman.” Here’s Part 1 and Part 2…

Think that Howie, Terry and Jimmy spend an inordinate amount of time laughing at and with each other? They do, if you think 11% is too much.

Per the Wall Street Journal…

…an analysis of the CBS and Fox pregame shows before Week 5 shows that the hosts do spend a lengthy amount of time laughing—sometimes at nothing, sometimes at their own jokes and, occasionally, at things that are funny.

The amount of time they laugh, though, is what sets them apart. The five hosts on Fox’s show—Curt Menefee, Terry Bradshaw, Howie Long, Michael Strahan and Jimmy Johnson—had a combined laughing time of two minutes, 22 seconds. That’s about 11.6% of the 20 minutes, 27 seconds they were shown on set together. Mr. Bradshaw was easily the laughing leader, going for about 92.4 seconds—including 2.5 seconds at the start of the show before anyone said anything.

I don’t watch the Fox pregame show that much anymore. I’m usually watching the ESPN fantasy football pregame, listening for any late-breaking fantasy news while trying to avoid making any last-minute decisions based on Matthew Berry’s advice. Part of what turns me off about the Fox pregame show is its size (there are too many commentators) and how they’re always fake-laughing at each other. Now we have numbers to prove it.

For years, the passion they shared for winning made Earvin “Magic” Johnson and Larry Bird the most bitter of rivals. It also made theirs the most compelling rivalry in sports, driving the NBA to new heights of popularity in the 1980s. Narrated by Liev Schreiber, this all-new documentary tells the riveting story of two superstars who couldn’t have been more different — until they forged an unlikely friendship from the superheated rivalry that had always kept them apart.

And that’s how “Magic & Bird: A Courtship of Rivals” is described on its back cover. HBO Entertainment did a nice job outlining the duo’s relationship starting with their joint appearance as part of Team USA’s warmup to the 1976 Olympics and their clash in the 1979 NCAA championship game all the way through their respective retirements.

By now, most basketball fans are aware of the rivalry/friendship that Magic and Larry developed over the years, but this 90-minute documentary digs deeper into each man’s personality and puts their relationship into context based on what was going on in the country at that particular time. Bird was extremely introverted and for much of his career it wasn’t his style to be friends with an opponent. Meanwhile, Magic was an extrovert and loved being loved, so when Bird snubbed Magic before the NCAA title game, the relationship was purely adversarial for several years. That loss bothered Bird for years, and it wasn’t until Converse convinced the two players to shoot a commercial (in French Lick, Indiana, on Bird’s request) did the two men actually become friends.

The documentary also covers each player’s childhood, Larry’s first day with the Celtics, how their rivalry became fodder for racists in Boston and around the country, Larry’s reaction to Magic’s HIV revelation, and how their unselfish style of play effectively saved the NBA. The film relies heavily on interviews with the two players, and it’s refreshing to hear them describe the different milestones in their relationship in their own words. It’s funny, emotional and for those of us that grew up watching the two superstars battle in the Finals — plenty of nostalgia.

The only knock is the complete lack of bonus features on the DVD, so for viewers who have already seen the film on HBO, there isn’t any extra content to dig into. But that’s just a small gripe — on the whole, “Magic & Bird” is an outstanding production.