On September 14, 2009, the great Patrick Swayze lost his battle with pancreatic cancer and passed away too young at the age of 57. Swayze had a prolific acting career, one that inspired his devoted fan base to believe that if anyone could beat this disease it was him (Swayze played a bank robbing surf ninja and villainous sky diving enthusiast in Point Break. Cancer? No problem, compadre). He was diagnosed in January of 2008 with a sickness that most people will succumb to in under a year – he held on for 20+ months. During that time period, his 1989 film Road House was the most broadcast movie on American television in the past year according to Rolling Stone – airing 45 times on AMC, A&E and CMT. Maybe you were lucky enough to flip it on and catch a riveting scene like this…

In lieu of burying Swayze with Dalton’s medical dossier, each Tuesday during football season I’ll be awarding one player the “Pain Don’t Hurt” Award to honor Swayze’s memory. This week’s recipient…Before we get to this week’s award winner, let me just say one thing: dammitall.

One week after Frank Gore rumbled for…well, let’s be honest, what I care about is that he rumbled for 40 points for my fantasy team, Gore pulls – as LL might say in an NFL ad spot – a Frank Gore and goes down for 3 weeks. The curse of the Pain Don’t Hurt Award strikes again.

These recent unfortunate events* for both myself and the San Fran Niners (who become more tragic every week it seems) does make it easier for me to select a player this week from my most hated franchise in the league – the New Jersey Jets.

Mark Sanchez stayed efficient, went for 171 yards passing and two TDs, including that unreal 14-yard rushing TD that was full of both hard-nosed determination and rookie poor decision making.

We’re gonna give Mark the award (cause I’m sure as hell not giving one of these to Favre. Not in this lifetime), but since it really grinds my gears the Jets are a shuttering 3-0, I’ve also got a foolish pic of him up on the SB Facebook page – GO CREATE-A-CAPTION!

*In no way am I rooting for anything physically unfortunate to happen to Mark Sanchez that would jeopardize his playing career, or even further jeopardize his ability to grow a mustache. If, the PDH Award can in anyway cause him to get scolded more (check out: Jets scold Mark Sanchez for putting San-chize at risk with head-first dive), well that I’m all for.

The 2010 “Pain Don’t Hurt” Awards:

Week One: Brandon Meriweather

Week Two: Frank Gore

This poll is inspired by the tumultuous weather (mostly, the murky side effects of) endured at All Points West festival this weekend. You know it’s bad when you’ve only been at the concert for two hours and you have a woman’s scarf draped around your neck in the rain in an attempt to influence the blood flowing to your head to keep you warm… and you’re listening to Vampire Weekend. Or, on Day Two, when I was forced to sock @melfi in the right rotator cuff to counteract the agonizing pain in his foot from smearing Purell on an open wound (great moments in staving off infection). Day Three was by far the muddiest (made Friday and Saturday’s terrain look like a white sand beach), but it was also the day I stayed the most dry. Check out the attire (I’m the grey guy)…

(Photo c/o NYHoosier)

I’m no longer the owner of any of this clothing.

On the other hand, All Points West was also completely awesome (Jay-Z, The Black Keys, The National, Fleet Foxes, Tool). Just like the first NFL game I went to see live. Dec. 12, 1993, Foxboro Stadium. The 2-11 New England Patriots vs. the 1-12 Cincy Bengals. Drew Bledsoe leads the Pats to a 7-2 triumph, a combined score that equals the number of layers of clothing my nine-year old self wore to the friendly tin confines of Foxboro that day.

To get there, my dad, my uncles and I piled into a Tioga winne… there’s no amount of antifreeze that would have got that beast started after the game. We had to call in a reserve Minivan for the ride home. Giving up no less than 140 lbs. to everyone, I had the added bonus of sitting between the driver and the shotgun seats on the floor. The moral of the story, the Patriots never looked back. Bledsoe rattled off 4 straight wins to finish ’93 at 5-11.

This week, send me your memory of The Most Treacherous Weather You’ve Encountered at a Sporting Event. I’ll post the best on Friday. Special consideration will be given to submissions with photo evidence of ridiculous, yet element-braving, clothing – not unlike my grey baffoon suit pictured above.

Send submissions here.

As you might have seen on here last week, my inspiration for this blogger poll came from a signed b&w 8×10 of Mo Vaughn.

I’d now like to publicly and humbly apologize to Mo. Not only did he win a MVP way back in ’95, but a autographed photo of his is not even in the same stratosphere as what some members of the sports blog intelligentsia were willing to claim ownership of.

Check out some of the best, and help select the piece de resistance by voting in the comments.

Alana G (AlanaG.com)

I jokingly bid on this [1992 Dream Team Raft] from ebay after I saw a blog post about it during the Olympics on Fourth Place Medal. As it turned out I was the only bidder, so now I own it. As advertised, it has a slow leak, so is not usable as a float. I thought about making my living room a little Nacho Cheesier by hanging it on my wall, but I simply can’t decide which side to display: Scottie Pippin’s head or David Robinson’s armpits…

Michael Rand (Randball)

That’s an easy one: this summer, I went with some friends on our annual baseball road trip. This year included a stop in Kansas City, where we were the “lucky” recipients of Larry Gura bobbleheads on his special night. Career record of 126-97, mostly for the late 70s-early 80s Royals. But hey, it was a bobblehead. So I kept it.

Matty I (Phinsider)

About 13 years ago, there was a Sports Authority opening in my town. They advertised that a “Nets player” would be at the opening. It turned out to be Armen Gilliam. So I got his autograph on a basketball…which is now stuck in my garage somewhere.

Isaac (World of Isaac)

I’m just gonna go ahead and post our gchat conversation for this one…

Isaac: I own a Fennis Dembo autograph
he was one of the most useless NBA players of all-time
but he won a championship with the Pistons

me: who in god’s name is Fennis Dumbo?

Isaac: star college player out of wyoming
played on the bad boys
he’s a janitor now

me: that’s pretty sweet

Isaac: its easily the most useless thing I own

Chris Illuminati (Nine to Fried, Hugging Harold Reynolds)

About ten years ago, my uncle went to a celebrity golf event and John Elway was one of the participants. My uncle ran into him on the course and got him to sign a hat. He gave it to me along with the guest pass that allowed my uncle all-access to the celebs. My uncle gave me the pass as proof he was there and it’s really John Elway’s signature. First off, I’m not an Elway fan. I mean it would have been cool if I met Elway but someone else meeting him does NOTHING for my life story. Second, I can’t prove Elway signed. My uncle’s word of honor does nothing for me in the world of eBay and memorabilia selling. I can’t send it away to get authenticated because it’s not on a ball or jersey or something recognized as an object that sports stars would autograph. It’s a freaking hat. So it sits in my closet next to a small framed picture/sports card of Elway that my mom bought me to go along with the hat. All of these mementos for probably my 143 favorite player of all time. I guess it’s payback for the Super Bowl against the Giants when as a 9-year-old child I kept screaming on every Giants’ defensive stand to ‘break Elway’s legs!’

Steve Melfi (NY Hoosier)

You’re going to be flabbergasted when you find out what this is. That is a signed Nordstrom’s bag with the Hancock of a one Khalid El-Amin, former UCONN point guard. He totally wrote 99 Champs! on it too.