With Iron Man 2 opening today to the delight of RDJ fans – including this one – wanted to give Downey Jr. the same treatment that we gave Johnny Depp a while back and poll the sports blog intelligentsia: Which Sports Biopic would you like to see Robert Downey Jr. star in?

Now I’m no David Rubin (casting director on Less Than Zero, film moguls), but here are some of Downey’s traits I sent around:

• Can play unhinged (citing: Natural Born Killers, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Charlie Bartlett)

• Can dial it back, and play still unhinged, but repressing it (citing: A Guide To Recognizing Your Saints)

• Can Will play black (citing: Tropic Thunder)

• Can make ill conceived career decisions (citing: the 22 episodes of Ally McBeal from 2000-03, and his foray into music)

• Can take his shirt off (citing: Sherlock Holmes)

• Can play British (citing: Natural Born Killers, again)

Realistically, we’re far closer to seeing Downey star as Hugh Hefner, then any sports personalities (H/T Dan Adams). However, I got some great submissions from the sports blogosphere’s finest, all of whom I even sent a picture of 80′s hot Jami Gertz as a source of inspiration. Check out the Top-5 suggestions below, and feel free to add your own in the comments.

Mark Cuban

My quick take is Mark Cuban. We’ve seen him play the brash billionaire quite well in Iron Man, so Cuban’s a natural fit for him. (Ben Q. Rock/Orlando Pinstriped Post)

Theo Fleury

His rise to stardom, fall due to substance abuse, and the recent come back attempt, feel good ending. (Adam Kingsley/The Hoop Doctors)

Helio Gracie

Since Robert Downey Jr. has martial arts training (specifically jiu-jitsu), only fitting that he play the Godfather of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu in an MMA origins movie. (Adam Best/Fansided.com)

Lance Armstrong

Ill-advised? Dude was awesome in Ally McBeal.  How bout Lance Armstrong? (David Chalk/Bugs & Crank)*

*I’m pretty sure David couldn’t care less if Downey Jr. plays Lance Armstrong, and just responded to defend his performance in Ally McBeal.

Roberto Clemente

Tweet This Post

In honor of yesterday’s consumer product unveiling turned thinly veiled menstruation bruhaha, I give thee the top five pads of all-time (in photos) – found a bacon connection for numero uno too!

#5 Nintendo Power Pad

#4 Brad Pitt’s Bachelor Pad

#3 Padma Laksmi

#2 Goalie Pads

#1 Pad Thai

Bacon pad thai, get it? Leave your favorite pads in the comments…

Tweet This Post

C/O @moneyries, sent after his highly, highly, highly obligatory Ipad joke (something about ‘heavy data flow’).

This YouTube upload itself dates back to November 2007, Jobs – you owe the nerds (and the fans of gross-out humor alike) an explanation.

Other hilarity re: Ipad from around the web:

(but not necessarily in reference to heavy data flow, #iperiod and/or #ibleed)

10 Other Uses for the Apple Tablet (Esquire)

Apple’s 9 Biggest Flops (The Daily Beast)

Apple Tablet is the Kindle in Technicolor (Tech Crunch)

Report: Sliced Bread Unimpressed with Apple Tablet, But Will It Impact Blogging? (How-to-blog)

Tweet This Post

Mostly posting this to remind everyone that Andy Gray is killin’ it with the SI Vault Twitter. If you’re not following, you’re missing out on an epic stream of classic sports content from the Sports Illustrated photo, er…vault.

Thought the above photo of a 17-year old Sarah Palin (#22) hooping it up for Wasilla High merited a create-a-caption contest – bonus points if you can identify the model/brand of sneakers on her feet (are those the original Nike Dunks?)

I posted it here and on Facebook, leave your captions in the comments and I’ll post the best submissions to round out the week tomorrow.

Tweet This Post

Remember when the Beatles said Everybody had a hard year, Everybody had a good time…and them some other stuff about wet dreams, etc.? You were probably too young. God knows I was, but I have heard that song, and I think that lyric pretty well sums up those of us who grinded it out on the blogging circuit in 2009. Guess we’ll have to wait until 2010 to quit our day jobs, comrades (kudos to those who actually did quit their day jobs).

To close out 2009, I asked a few of my fellow members of the sports and pop culture blogging intelligentsia to send me their best post from 2009. I’m proud to say that I at least retweeted most of these when they first went live, and had a chance to go back and re-read. This list revisits Barry Bonds, Brett Favre, cartoon characters who juiced, and the seemingly insurmountable number of Harry Potter-lookalikes in the sporting world.

Kind of makes the Huffington Post Year in Review look like remedial English, amirite?

I didn’t pick a best post myself, but my favorite post – or should I say community organizing effort – by another blogger came from Yardbarker’s Alana G back in late November, who through her site campaigned MTV Jams to air a Tiger Woods video playlist. I never did follow up, and ask if they played my submission (Usher – Confessions, Part II), did I?

Check out the rest of the links below. I hope this leaves you feeling good, looking towards the future.

Big League Stew (Jan. 16, 2009) With your help, we can bring Barry Bonds back to baseball

Gunaxin (Jan. 21, 2009 ) 2010 Winter Olympics Ice Hockey Preview

Major League Jerk (April 3, 2009) The WonderPets Teach Joe Flacco How to Avoid Double Coverage.

P.S.A.M.P (April 10, 2009) Everyone’s Getting Playoff Beards For The Penguins

Bugs & Cranks (April 27, 2009) The Wizard Of Copping A Feel: Ozzie Smith & Alyssa Milano’s Boob

Pippen Ain’t Easy (April 28, 2009) KG: Got the Ring, Still No Class

Sports Rubbish (June 14, 2009) Harry Potter Look-A-Likes In The Sports World

Midwest Sports Fans (June 14, 2009) What I Learned During the Most Bizarre Week of My Life

Paneech.com (June 19, 2009) Top Ten Cartoon Characters That Juiced

My Sports Rumors (June 23, 2009) Transformers – Revenge of the MLB Fallen

Yep Yep (June 25, 2009) Before They Were Music Stars

Zoner Sports (June 30, 2009) “The Real All-Time Home Run List”

Babes Love Baseball (July 16, 2009) Voodoo Sabermetrics: Milton Bradley

Joe Sports Fan (July 20, 2009) The United States has a National Slow-Pitch Adult Softball Team.

Global Sports Fraternity (August 5, 2009) Mets Trap

Hugging Harold Reynolds (Sep. 17, 2009) D.C BUREAU EXCLUSIVE Special Investigative Report: Mark Grace = Life Coach

Fansided (October 1, 2009) A Beer For Every NFL Team

The Viking Age (Oct. 2, 2009)  Smack Talk Friday: Burning [Brett Favre’s] Jersey? Really?

Epic Carnival (Oct. 8, 2009) The 25 best Sports Illustrated swimsuit videos of all-time

7th Inning Stache (Dec. 1, 2009) Barry Bonds MLB HOF Mustache

NESW Sports (Dec. 8, 2009) Luc Longley Craves Attention, Shrimp

Guyism (Dec. 2009) Couple making porn to pay for their wedding

….


If I missed you, leave a link to your best post from 2009 in the comments. Happy New Year folks!

Tweet This Post

Taking this opportunity to wish everyone good tidings, and comfort and all that jazz. Hear one of my favorite Christmas tunes from the Kinks below, but first…

For the young and impressionable and those looking to write among you, wanted to announce that I’m looking to add contributors to Steady Burn in the new year. Even wrote up a fancy job description for it:

Position: Steady Burn Contributing Blogger

Requirements: Cursory knowledge of the English, and the ability to quasi-piece its wordage into sentences, w/o pissing people off too hard; good writing skills. Additionally, should have a strong knowledge of social media, particularly how to navigate and promote content using social news sites (Digg, Reddit, Stumble Upon, etc.). Additionally, moderate (…to obsessively heavy) usage of Twitter and Facebook a must. A strong rapport with other sports and entertainment bloggers a plus. Oh, and if you morally or otherwise object to using the WordPress platform, stop reading now.

Responsibilities: Contribute 3-5 blog posts (300-500 words) per week to the site. Topics to vary from sports, pop culture and entertainment, music, film <<< ya know, sh#t people are engrossed by. Writer is responsible for researching and developing their own posts – there will be no assignments whatsoever. Person will also be expected to share and syndicate their own content via their social networks.

Compensation: A share of the proceeds from ad revenue (I’m not joking)

About the Website:

Steady Burn is a site dedicated to sports, pop culture and rock n’ roll. I started Steady Burn in late 2007 as a personal blogspot sports blog, and it has since grown into a visible entity in different sports and entertainment social media communities online. Initially focused on fringe sports culture (roller derby, kickball, etc.), in recent times, we’ve grown to encompass a wider range of topics – pop culture, web culture/social media, entertainment, music, bacon, white collar boxing, etc.

Steady Burn has been linked to by leading online websites including SI.com, Yahoo! Sports and Yahoo! Music, ESPN.com, USAtoday.com, as well as sourced in traditional media outlets (Arkansas Press-Democrat, Chicago Tribune).

I’ve worked vigilantly the past 18-months to increase the visibility of the site, and am interested in working with enthusiast individuals who want to help continue to do so through helping to generate more content on Steady Burn.

Apply: If you want this, if you really want this, you call me on Monday and we’ll talk…ok, email me and we’ll talk: mikeehayes@gmail.com


On applying, if I know you or you’re referred by a close confidant, you won’t actually have to apply (like this gentleman). Just email me that you want in, and it will be made so.

Happy Holidays! Enjoy the yuletide stylings of The Kinks performing ‘Father Christmas’.

Tweet This Post