Pens Lose, Top Football States, Media Awards, Most Annoying Players, Frat Pack Circle of Trust

NHL:
Pens lose, Pens lose. That's 0 wins in their last 5, for those of you scoring at home.

FOOTBALL:
ESPN ranks the top football states...PA comes in at #4, behind Texas, California, and Florida. PA ranked #1 among pro teams, #7 among college, and #6 among high schools. (Thanks to reader John for the tip)

MEDIA:
SI hands out their 2006 Media Awards, giving Chris Fowler and James Brown person-of-the-year honors. I know he was a great singer and I'll miss him dearly, but did he really have that much to do with the sports media?

NFL:
A player's poll ranks the league's most annoying players. Surprise, surprise, Terrell Owens is #1. Do editors and producers sit around and think of ways to inject him into the news? And by the way...Joey Porter was voted #2.

Chris Simms parlays his 46 passer rating into a 2-year extension in Tampa.

Jason Taylor calls out cheater Shawne Merriman

McCLATCHY:
As noted in yesterday's comments, here is the story on the McClatchy Co's sale of the Star Tribune newspaper in Minneapolis. McClatchy paid $1.2 billion for paper in 1998, and is now selling it for $530 million. Clearly this is the worst investment by a McClatchy since Kevin Young...or Pat Meares...or Derek Bell.

HOCKEY:
The world's oldest hockey stick, carved in the 1850s, sold for $1.9 million dollars. No truth to the rumor that it only became available after John LeClair was out of hockey.

RANDOM FUN STUFF:
The Frat Pack Circle of Trust, fully illustrated.

How the mighty have fallen: Worldofbritney.com is shutting down on January 31.

Yahoo lists the biggest movie bombs of 2006, including All the King's Men, The Wicker Man, and Basic Instinct 2, which took in $5 million and cost $70 million to produce. Ouch.

TMZ gives us their 2006 Celebrity Bad Behavior Photo Gallery