For the past ten years the New England Patriots have been the definition of a NFL powerhouse. Five Superbowl appearances and three wins are not anything to laugh at. But this year, things are different, even if their 2 and 0 record does not show it. Sloppy play in the first two games are not a good sign. Dropped passes and sloppy turnovers haunt this New England team, and the off-season issues are to blame. Drama. That is the only way to sum up what we've seen since January to September with this team. Gronk and Hernandez are both out for the time being. This has impacted Tom Brady. Brady has no receivers. There is no Randy Moss or Brandon Loyd there. He has no Tight Ends, Gronk and Hernandez were (in my opinion) the best TE duo in the entire NFL. But the sky is not falling for the New England Pat's. Tom Brady is still under center, and Belichick is still their coach. That should be enough to escape the season with AFC East, but will it be enough for a playoff push?

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Resting comfortably next to religion and politics, what you put on your hot dog remains one of the most polarizing things anyone can discuss.

Sadly, we must have that discussion today, as word comes that the Detroit Tigers have dismissed their singing hot dog vendor because he chided fans who would dare put ketchup on their hot dog.

Tony Paul of the Detroit News (h/t For the Win) reports Charley Marcuse—a man known as the Singing Hot Dog Man because he, well, sings—has been fired.

Paul's report states there is no specific cause given from concession vendorSportservice, but he has sources who believe they know the reason:

There are rumblings the real reason was ketchup — or Marcuse’s disdain for it. Marcuse, at the ballpark and on Twitter, has been a strong crusader for only putting mustard on a frank. And some fans thought he got combative when they asked for ketchup. There were complaints filed.

Asked whether condiments actually were behind his dismissal, Marcuse was vague.

“It was general employee conduct,” he said, relaying the reason he was given. “I’ve vended the same way for the past 15 years, so there’s nothing new to any of this.”

To put a face to such villainy, we present a video of the hot dog man in action:

Full disclosure: I'm a big ketchup guy. I put it on my burgers, eggs, hot dogs, corn dogs and anything else I can think of that might make you mad.

Look, it's 2013, and people are putting fries on burgers. It's time to get off our high horses and accept that some people just like their dogs with ketchup. It's amazing that in this day and age we can still be so intolerant to one another.

It makes me sad.

GIF Credit: hectic-children

And really, the lot of you who hate mustard just end up looking like a grumpy Dirty Harry (video NSFW):

With that said, Marcuse does say he has been working in much the same manner for 15 years. As Ted Berg of For the Win notes, selling hot dogs during the summer is hardly the easiest job in the world. It's hot, boring and monotonous, unless you think outside the box and bring some spice to the job.

Perhaps Marcuse gave fans a lighthearted hard time about asking for ketchup. There's nothing wrong with that.

However, if he stepped across the line and made them feel like they couldn't eat their collection of pig parts in tube form like a civilized human being, he should be taken to task.

As a brief aside to this story, we should warn that it's never a good look to have two shticks. You can be the singing guy or the mustard curmudgeon, but not both.

Fine, I will listen to you regale us with an operatic "Hot dog!" but then I want my overpriced hot dog and extra packets of ketchup, and I want them now.

When it's all said and done, we are all just people. Some of us put ketchup on hot dogs, and some of us eat our candy bars with a fork and knife.

At some point, we just have to accept and move on. Only then can we concentrate on things that truly matter, like figuring out why everyone freaks out over beach balls at baseball games.

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Tiger Woods got off to a reasonably strong start at the 2013 BMW Championship, but a roller-coaster finish prevented the world No. 1's five-under round of 66 on Thursday from being closer to the top of the leaderboard.

Tiger began the day with a birdie off the 10th hole at Conway Farms Golf Club in Lake Forest, Ill., and proceeded to par his way through seven of the next eight holes. Back-to-back birdies on Nos. 2 and 3 got him to minus-four:

However, two three-putt bogeys in the next three holes put a damper on his day. Brandt Snedeker held the lead in the clubhouse at eight under par when Woods finished.

The margin is only three strokes, though, thanks to a closing birdie by Woods at the par-four ninth, which was his final hole.

It had to feel good after a myriad of short misses that preceded that relatively long-distance putt.

Golf Channel's Tiger Tracker supplied Tiger's thoughts on the round:

Tiger post round: "I'm not exactly real happy. I played well, just didn't get much out of it."

  The tracker also unsafely assumed Woods would tap in for par after a birdie miss at the sixth, but it was ultimately mistaken after a shocking miss on an automatic putt for most players—especially Woods:

Being second in the FedEx Cup standings in the third leg of the PGA Tour postseason leaves Woods in wonderful shape and easily in for the season finale. What really made this round encouraging was that he bounced back strong from a poor tie for 65th in the previous Deutsche Bank Championship.

Tiger Woods BMW Championship Round 1 Scorecard*

Hole	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Out
Par	4	3	4	4	4	3	4	5	4	35
Score	4	2	3	5	3	4	3	5	3	32
Hole	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	In	Total
Par	4	3	4	4	5	4	4	3	5	36	71
Score	3	3	4	4	5	4	4	2	5	34	66

Note: Started on No. 10, via PGATour.com

A week off between the last tournament gave Woods time to presumably rest up, as he struggled through back spasms at The Barclays and was presumably affected at least somewhat in light of his lackluster effort in Boston.

It all looked to have paid off on the first day at Conway Farms. Woods didn't play his very best, but he shook off any notion of rust from an idle week by recording seven birdies.

His approach shots and distance control were spot-on for the majority of the day, as many of his birdie conversions came from close range. One of those came at the par-four fifth hole, where he stuck it to four feet in the midst of his run of three-putts:

Kelly Tilghman of Golf Channel pointed out the way Woods' day trended near the end:

he mistakes Woods made down the stretch were essentially unforced errors with the putter, which has been extremely solid for him all year long, as he ranked first in total putting entering this tournament.

Even after those two three-jacks, Woods still managed to bounce back with a birdie at No. 7. Though he was disappointed to miss a short one at the par-five eighth to get to minus-five, he ultimately achieved that number with his putt at the last.

Sam Greenwood/Getty Images

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To nitpick an otherwise solid day on the course, Woods' lack of a birdie on any of the par-fives is somewhat of a red flag.

When Woods is on top of his game, he's almost always capitalizing on those scoring opportunities. If he can get two out of three in Round 2 and avoid the uncharacteristic three-putt pitfalls, the 14-time major champion should figure into the hunt entering the weekend. 

By hitting 10 of 14 fairways and 15 of 18 greens in regulation on a blustery but favorable scoring day, it will take only a bit of cleaning up with the flat iron for Woods to prevail if his ball-striking stays this sharp.

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Via For the Win, this was a sign outside Qualcomm Stadium last night. Coughing up a three-touchdown lead in the second half wasn't the only weclome the Chargers would extend to their fans.

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A charity soccer match took an ugly turn when a real player took out a pop singer on the pitch Sunday. For the Win (via the Guardian) brings us this video that proves the most polarizing things in the sports world are usually the stupidest.

In a recent charity friendly thrown by Stiliyan Petrov—a football player who retired from the game because of his battle with acute leukemia—Aston Villa striker Gabriel Agbonlahor went to dispossess One Direction star Louis Tomlinson, and knocked him to the ground.

As you watch Agbonlahor take out Tomlinson with a hard but hardly egregious tackle, you will either cheer or boo with ferocity. I'm just upset we had to watch a few seconds of a charity match to see a tackle that didn't result in a flop. 

The singer left the pitch to puke, which is when the footballer was hit with death threats from fans of the boy band.

The Daily Mail reports Agbonlahor enjoyed this kind of filth after the match: "@gabby_10 This guy hurt Louis knee. I shall hurt your face. I better hear that you apologized or I will find you, and I will kill you."

Ah, there's nothing like a complete overreaction to warm your heart and remind you that people can indeed be the worst. You really have to love the logic that a hurt knee demands the ultimate price be paid. 

As FTW notes, the two exchanged pleasantries and are doing just fine after the match. This really could have been just an unfortunate hit but instead resulted in fans wishing the ultimate of tragedies on Agbonlahor. 

Martin O'Neill served as manager of the day for Tomlinson's side and offered this assessment of the young man after getting rocked to the ground (via the BBC):

Agbonlahor smashed into him and he picked himself up and then was ill in the dressing-room area, but he's not too bad now I think.

He had to rush off, but I think he's fine.

He doesn't know where he is, but he's fine. He was genuinely ill, but he's OK now.

Remind me never to play football in Europe, because they take "rub some dirt on it" to a whole new level. Let's hope a vomiting and confused Tomlinson got some medical attention.

Now, the hit didn't look vicious compared to what we normally find during the season, but his symptoms have me worried. Then again, you don't need to know how many fingers someone is holding up to sing, so we move on.

Let this serve as a friendly reminder that death threats are never warranted, especially after a charity match that had so much goodwill surrounding it. 

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Texas A&M head coach Kevin Sumlin says star quarterback and reigning Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel requested to avoid interviews after speaking with his family and attorneys.

George Schroeder of USA Todaypassed along comments from A&M's second-year coach, who's preparing his squad for a marquee matchup against No. 1 Alabama this weekend.

Of course, Manziel is coming off an offseason highlighted by controversy. The NCAA investigated him for potentially accepting payment in return for autographs in January, which led to a month of negative publicity for the Aggies quarterback.

He eventually served a half-game suspension for what was deemed an "inadvertent violation." Both the school and the NCAA found no direct evidence he actually received money in exchange for signing items, however.

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Manziel's return to the field hasn't completely turned the attention back to football. In the team's opening-week victory over Rice, the quarterback seemed to make a money gesture after throwing a touchdown, drawing further attention.

Later in the game, Sumlin benched Manziel after he earned an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, and speculation stirred that he ignored his coach while heading to the sideline. Sumlin, however, backed Manziel and cleared up the situation, per Sam Khan Jr. of ESPN.com:

When he came off the field, basically I made two statements to him, neither one of which should he have responded to. They weren't questions. They were direct statements that I can't repeat right now. So what's amazing to me is the perception that he ignored me. The worst thing that could have happened was for him to reply, based on what I told him.

Manziel's actions have been met with scrutiny, which he apparently doesn't want to face from the media. Avoiding interviews is the easiest way for him to avoid making any comments that would open him to further criticism.

It hasn't stopped him from being the center of discussion, though. In fact, he was even on the cover of Time magazine recently as the poster boy for an article about whether college athletes should be allowed to get paid.

Although doing interviews ultimately is up to Manziel, choosing against facing the media as one of the team's stars only puts more pressure on his teammates to handle those situations—and often the questions being asked are about him.

That said, it's clearly a decision made over time, having sought out the opinions of legal representatives and family members. Whether he consulted his Texas A&M teammates before making the request is unclear.

His choice certainly isn't going to do anything to help his budding image problem, though.

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September 10 may not be the actual birthday of too many Miami Heat fans, but it's going to feel like it after LeBron James' quotes about staying with the defending champions. 

Much ado has been made about the four-time MVP's upcoming free-agency decision, as he has the ability to terminate his contract early (as do Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh), opting to become a free agent earlier than originally expected. If that happens, there will certainly be a massive scramble by the entire NBA to land his services, with the Los Angeles Lakers and Cleveland Cavaliers functioning as the de factofavorites. 

But not so fast. 

As reported by ESPN's Chris Broussard, James said the following when asked about free agency: 

"I have absolutely no idea. I would love to spend the rest of my career in Miami with this great team and great organization as we continue to compete for championships. That's ideal."

Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

So far, the Heat have given James no reason to call them anything other than a "great organization." He has yet to bow out before the NBA Finals, has adorned his fingers with two championship rings and is poised for a three-peat while joining Michael Jordan and Bill Russell as five-time MVPs. 

But that said, it's still important for Heat fans to temper their expectations. While the first part of that quote sounds perfect, it's far from a ringing commitment from James. 

Here's how he continued his answer: 

But we don't know what may happen from now to the end of the season. That's the nature of the business. It's the nature of not knowing what tomorrow brings.

I mean, as a kid, I never thought the Bulls would break up. Never. If you'd of told me as a kid that [Michael] Jordan and [Scottie] Pippen wouldn't play together for the rest of their lives, I'd have looked at you crazy. And Phil Jackson wouldn't be the coach? I'd have looked at you crazy. But sometimes the nature of the business doesn't allow things to happen like you would want them to. But we'll see.

To me, it sounds like LeBron wants to stay with the Heat but is managing expectations by allowing for the possibility that he could leave. And, as much as Miami might hate to admit it, it is a possibility simply because so much could go wrong during the upcoming season. 

What if Chris Bosh suddenly decides he wants more than a tertiary role and demands a trade? What if the OssaTron shock therapy doesn't work, leading to a serious decline from Dwyane Wade? What if the injury bug takes hold of South Beach?

Possibilities like these allow for continued speculation about LeBron leaving. Take CBS Sports' Gregg Doyel as an example: 

I believe he will leave the Heat only if the product on the court heads south in the next 13 months. I believe he's the best basketball talent of all time, but not a guy who hangs around for the heavy lifting. When the going gets tough, LeBron gets going. To another franchise.

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Personally, I think that's selling LeBron's mentality and dedication short, but the NBA season is indeed an uncertain beast. There are too many factors that are beyond the control of just one player, even if he's a once-in-a-generation talent like LeBron. 

All in all, this should be considered positive news for the Heat. Even though the team's best player and biggest name is giving himself an out, he's still saying the right things and sounds fully committed to a run at a third title. 

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