Unnecessary roughness ...

Football is a violent sport where a lot of bad crap can happen to you. Just ask Joe Theismann, whose legendary career was prematurely ended on national television when Lawrence Taylor sacked him and shattered his leg so badly that Taylor, as fearsome a player as there ever was in the NFL, was the first player on the field to wave widely for medical assistance. Or ask Darryl Stingley - or, rather, the relatives of Darryl Stingley, the New England Patriots wide receiver who was paralyzed by Jack Tatum, the Oakland Raiders defensive back (and avowed headhunter - his autobiography is called They Called Me Assassin), during an exhibition game in 1978. Stingley was left a quadriplegic by the vicious hit and would, nearly 30 years later, of complications from his injury. But both Theismann and Stingley suffered their injuries on the field of play at the hands (if you want to put it that way) of other players, and both men knew the risks of that happening. But I doubt if Patrick Edwards, a talented freshman wide receiver for the University of Houston, thought that his season, and perhaps his career, would be ended by a piece of non-football related equipment during a game.

Edwards and his Cougars were on the road against Marshall University last night when he was set on a pattern into the Marshall end zone. At full speed, he ran through the end zone and, before he could stop, collided with a band equipment cart that was parked there. The impact snapped his right leg virtually in two, a compound fracture that was captured by ESPN's cameras and may have made a few people lose their dinners (so you are duly warned):



It's not clear what, if any, recourse either Edwards or Houston can take regarding this, but you can bet your bottom dollar that this will be investigated by the NCAA or others, and that many teams will think twice before they place equipment like carts in harm's way. (If you ask me, Marshall should have to pay all of Edwards' medical bills, and perhaps the balance of his scholarship.) Meanwhile, I hope Edwards stays in college and gets his degree, just to be on the very safe side.

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The Major League Baseball season hasn't even started yet (OK, it kind of has, if you really want to count the Trans-Pacific junket that the Red Sox and the Athletics were forced to endure took this week to Japan), and already I think we have a winner for the most unusual trip to the disabled list of the year. The unfortunate champion is Houston Astros second baseman Kaz Matsui, who will miss the first two weeks of the season after undergoing surgery for an, er, anal fissure.

Yeah, you read that right. And no, if you don't already know what it is, I'm not telling you. Go to Wikipedia if you're so curious.

There are no details about how Matsui sustained his injury, other than it took place on no less than St. Patrick's Day. Obviously the luck of the Irish was not with him that day. And, just as obviously, the Astros training staff may want to invest in some extra soft Charmin in the coming days.

BREAKING: Charlie Rose assaulted by new Mac laptop!

Yeah, that was actually Charlie Rose hosting his ubiquitous PBS chat show last night (for those of you who can watch his broadcast without getting annoyed by his habit of interrupting his guests mid-answer) - and no, he didn't have a tragic run-in with a truculent Mike Tyson. According to the tech blog Endgadget, Rose's facial injuries occurred when, while carrying his brand-new MacBook Air, he tripped on a pothole on 59th Street in New York and, in an effort to keep his ultralight toy from becoming a casualty of the mean streets of the Big Apple, fell flat on his face. Fortunately, the Air is bloodied (Rose's blood) but just fine, and the host can count on getting a few free rounds at his local bar thanks to his battle scars - until they find out how he got them, that is. Meanwhile, Steve Jobs should send Rose a few Apple Gift Cards for his heroism.

Yikes!

Word tonight that Icy-Hot, the pain-relieving treatment that works via a combination of, wait for it, cold and heat, has been recalled. Seems that some of the current batch of the product are light on the icy and heavy on the hot - to the point that more than 200 people who've used it have reported suffering from various degrees of burns, from first to third. Here's hoping that some of those burns aren't affecting the more, er, tender parts of the human physique. I smell a lawsuit - along with the smell of burning flesh.