I hear tell there was a Super Bowl today. Apparently, it was pretty exciting. That's all well and good, but there are other important things going on in the world of sports. And while you might be able to content yourself with one-hour game summaries on the NFL Network (they are cool, aren't they?), I prefer the joy of a live sporting contest, myself. Eases the mind in these troubled times, to be sure.

College basketball is the one sport where upsets are guaranteed, almost on a nightly basis. That's why the first two days of the NCAA tourney are so golden. Princeton can backdoor UCLA to death, and George Mason can get started on a most improbable Final Four run.

Or take what happened in the ACC last week. On Wednesday, Wake Forest beat #1 Duke. No great shock, as the Demon Deacons are ranked #4. Yesterday, Georgia Tech won its first ACC game of the season--by beating Wake. The Yellow Jackets improved to 10-10 on the year with the win. They will not be participating in March Madness, but they kept Wake from ascending to #1.

But as "March Madness" implies, the college basketball season hasn't really heated up. There are plenty more events to sate the sports-starved mind.

The United States begins final qualifying for the World Cup on February 11. The U.S. plays Mexico in Columbus. The U.S. is expected to win relatively easily. Mexico snuck past Jamaica into the final group on a goal differential tie-breaker. This may make no sense to you, but Mexicans are right to be concerned when their team couldn't even beat Canada. Okay, it was October and it was in Edmonton...but this was Mexico against Canada!

More interesting is the fact that Honduras and El Salvador are both in the final qualifying group. The two countries fought a war the last time they met in final group qualifying. Okay, so that was 1969, and the two nations have played a few matches since then without significant problems. Indeed, the two teams faced each other twice in the last week in the UNCAF Cup (a Central American tourney) in Tegucigalpa. As often happens, the Hondurans won both games in their capital.

All that recent friendly history doesn't mean there won't be some fun on June 10 in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, when the two meet up. More interesting will be the final match of qualifying on October 14, when the two teams will meet in San Salvador. Contact your local pay-per-view provider now.

Will football junkies transfer their affection to futbol? No, probably not. And they'll be even more bummed when they realize that the Arena Football League shut down for the season--possibly forever. When was the last time a league took a season off and then managed to come back good as new? Don't tell me hockey...things are very dicey in the world of ice and pucks. But I don't want to write about the recession. I want to blather on about sports

Right. I wouldn't put too much effort into following the NBA. The playoffs don't start for almost three months, and just like the games, an NBA season isn't interesting until the last five minutes.

I actually watched some rodeo the other night. The bull riders were wearing helmets and flak jackets. Call me a macho poseur, but do you really get the chicks if you dress up like a SWAT team member just to sit on the back of an animal? Is this a lawsuit issue? Are riders suing the owners of bulls these days? Lord have mercy. I guess all the real men are playing poker now.

Poker's okay, but it's never live. It does have two good qualities, though: It'll ease your mind and put you to sleep.

One last bit of advice for the football starved: If you really need to watch sweaty guys punt, pass and kick, Australian Rules Football kicks off its 2009 season at the end of March. Do drink something other than Foster's, please. The oil can may be stylish, but the brew blows.

You may think all this sports blather is dull. It is. That's the point. If I didn't write a lame column about sports, I'd write something about the recession.

Trust me. Sports are way better.

Jon Worley appreciates the narcotic effect of viewing sports. It eases the mind much better than drugs alone.