We're approaching one of the ugliest weekends of the year--that terrible time midway between the two-week break between the AFC and NFC championship games and the Super Bowl. Football season is about to come to a close for the season, March Madness and spring training are still just beyond my radar screen, and April's NFL Draft may as well be half a lifetime away. Blech.

　　I spent a portion of yesterday mulling around www.nfldraftcountdown.com and that's when it really hit me: I can read articles about whether or not Jay Cutler deserves to go above Matt Leinart in the draft, or just whom the Texans plan on drafting all I want, but it's not going to bring back football any sooner. In fact, it's probably just going to make things worse. Best rip the band-aid off quick and put it all aside for a few weeks and start focusing on those other sports--you know like the NBA, and the NHL, and (God help me) the Winter Olympics. Perhaps I'm in the minority here, but I'm a much bigger fan of the Winter Games. Downhill skiing, cute girls doing the figure skating thing, the luge and all of its wonderful opportunities for grievous bodily harm, and the biatholon (or skiin' n' shootin' as us Alabama-natives refer to it). What's not to like? I mean, besides the videogame, that is...

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　　If you're a fan of basketball videogames, today's your lucky day. Not only do we have an updated look at And 1 Streetball, but we've got the first in our series of designer diaries for HoopWorld, a madcap Xbox Live Arcade hoops game that looks to be a strange cross between NBA Jam and Power Stone. If that's not enough to get your b'ball blood flowing, you can always try to outdo Kobe and get on the front page of NBA.com. Just make sure you're wearing the right gear when your big moment comes...