At last, we have a winner!

Over 10 days, 32 mascots competed on the field of battle (a.k.a. the BLS Facebook page) and marshaled armies (a.k.a. you folks, the voters). From the shredded rainbows of flying polyester, a victor at last emerged.

Would it be the dominant Phillie Phanatic? The crowd-favorite Racing Sausages? The surprising sentimental favorite Stomper? Or would a surprising new challenger step up and take the crown? Ladies and gentlemen, drumroll please ...

Yes, friends, Orbit the ... whatever Orbit is, the mascot of the Houston Astros, is our first Mascot Madness champion! The lowly #7 seed worked his way right up through the ranks, finally defeating the mighty Phanatic for mascot supremacy! Way to get out the vote, Houston!

Congrats to Orbit and his many fans, and thanks to the thousands of you who voted. Next year, we're going to do this "Hunger Games" style. See you 'round the ball yard!

[MLB Full Count: Watch live look-ins and highlights for free all season long]

(Getty Images)"There's no tipping point where you become what you are. Character development starts when you're growing up. Your socioeconomic background contributes. The attitude that gets you through some communities doesn't work in corporate America. It's not an excuse, but it does help explain."
– Maurice Clarett, March 29, 2013

These days, Maurice Clarett speaks in paragraphs – long, unfurling stretches of dialogue that cover multiple topics, then end as quickly as if he were dropping the ball to the turf after scoring a touchdown. Only one question trips him up: Imagine it's 2003 and you have a chance to talk to this Clarett kid who's just led his team to a national championship. What do you tell him?

"Oh, man," Clarett says, then pauses for a moment. "I don't know. I don't know that there's anything I could tell him. It's all a process, how you get to where you are."

And where Clarett is right now is training for a comeback, only this time it's not in the NFL, but … in rugby.

Gotta love this: J.J. Watt stepping into the batter's box during BP at Minute Maid Park on Friday afternoon. And while he started slow, he ended up belting five into the cheap seats, including three in a row. Watt played a little baseball in high school, but the 6'5", 295-pound defensive end hadn't swung a bat much since then. Didn't matter, though, as he put on a show for the fans.

In an unrelated note, Watt is now officially the best current Astro on the Houston roster.

-Follow Jay Busbee on Facebook and Twitter at @jaybusbee.-

Florida Gulf Coast University's Cinderella run ended the way most bad dates do: with anger, frustration, self-loathing and and a vow to never speak of this night again.

Wow, was this an ugly game. Like, "delete from your DVR and smash your DVR" ugly. FGCU's in-state rival Florida "won" this 62-50, and by won we mean "finally remembered who was the 3 seed and who was the 15 seed." This is the kind of game film that coaches regard the same way the rest of us regard our high school yearbook photos: as a vow that their players should never, ever, ever look that wretched again.

Riding a national wave of goodwill, Florida Gulf Coast University jumped out to a 15-4 lead, throwing down a couple trademark alley-oops along the way, and surely some Eagles fans began thinking that maybe, just maybe there was a chance they'd surprise the Gators. Happened twice already, right?

But it wasn't to be. Florida remembered that it was, well, Florida, and used a combination of suffocating defensive

McNabb and Romo in 2010. (Getty Images)

You work hard in your career. You try your best to rep your city well. You take your team to the Big Game, and sure, you don't win, but you try your best. And then you become a punch line. Bad enough, right? And now this: somebody who's demonstrably worse at your job than you were getting a contract that defies belief.

[Report: Packers, Aaron Rodgers nearing long-term extension]

Welcome to the world of former Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb. When he heard of Tony Romo's new contract extension, he offered up a succinct assessment on Twitter:

Tony Romo 6 yr 55 million dollar extension. Wow really, with one playoff win. You got to be kidding me

— Donovan McNabb (@donovanjmcnabb) March 29, 2013

(He later clarified that the guaranteed portion was $55 million, with a total of $108 million. That doesn't help much.)

McNabb's name is now synonymous with underachievement, but the truth is that throughout the 2000s, he was a pretty damn reliable quarterback. He took Philadelphia to the

Bobby Knight knows the first line of his obituary will involve a thrown chair. But rather than run from that ugly little episode in his past, he's embraced it, and on a special college basketball-themed "Feherty" on the Golf Channel he teaches David Feherty the finer elements of chair-slinging.

In the episode scheduled to air April 1 on the Golf Channel, Knight discusses his life, legacy and coaching philosophy. And he also reveals his favorite golfer, one Jack Nicklaus: “When Jack was playing, I always rooted for him. There was something about him that I felt that very, very few great athletes had, and that was a real humble approach to the sport and a great individual humility in what he accomplished.”

“These days the polarizing bear of a coach is a lot more cuddly than he was in his growling, grizzly days on the bench," Feherty says in introducing the show. "He’s actually now just one big, lovable teddy bear … usually. But he still scared the living crap out of me.”

Memorable

Ric and Reid Flair.Tragic news from the world of wrestling: Reid Fliehr, 25-year-old son of famed wrestler Ric Flair, has been found dead in a Charlotte hotel room.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg County police received a call about 10:30 ET Friday morning about an unresponsive man at a Marriott Residence hotel. The current police report indicates that foul play is not believed to be involved in Fliehr's death.

Fliehr, who wrestled under the name "Reid Flair," had been working in Japan and was scheduled to tour with his father this weekend. Ric Flair had recently rejoined the WWE, and Reid was expected to follow in his father's footsteps.

"We are heartbroken to confirm that Ric's son, Reid Fliehr, has passed away today March 29, 2013 in Charlotte, NC," Flair's agent, Melinda Morris Zanoni of Legacy Talent and Entertainment, said in a statement. "The investigation into the cause of death is ongoing. Reid was 25 and an incredible son, brother, friend, and professional wrestler. No words can describe the grief that

Linebacker Connor Barwin is leaving Houston for the Philadelphia Eagles, and, as is the custom, took a moment to thank the team which gave him his first shot at an NFL career. But Barwin went a step further than the traditional blanket thank-you newspaper ad, thanking everyone from the city of Houston and his teammates all the way down to Shaun Cody, whoever he is, way down at the bottom.

This looks, as NFL.com pegged it, like one of those huge festival posters, with big names at the top and here-today-gone-later-today flashes down at the very bottom. Still, there are some gems in here, from media and doctors that Barwin respected to restaurants ("my delivery guy Tim from Bombay Pizza") and other important individuals ("my cleaning lady Vilma"). Best of all? Blaine Gabbert, whom Barwin absolutely owned during one game in 2011 in which he sacked the Jaguars QB four times.

Nice job there, Connor. Hopefully someone can fill Tim and Vilma's shoes in Philly.

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