Colt McCoy (Jared Wickerham/Getty Images)In February, retired football player Dave Duerson committed suicide. He pointed a shotgun at his chest and ended his life, asking in his suicide note for his brain to be given to an ongoing study of the effects of football on the human mind. He was 50 years old.

Last Thursday night, Colt McCoy took a mind-numbing hit from James Harrison. Though any onlooker with a working set of eyes could see that McCoy was not right after the hit, he was back in the game two plays later. The Browns claimed that they had followed procedures, even though the lights had to be turned down in the postgame press conference to accommodate McCoy's concussion symptoms. He is 25 years old.

The brain is an unknown frontier. Though what doctors and researchers know about the brain is infinitesimal, they do know that repeated hits to the brain can result in chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a type of brain damage that can cause a person to act erratically, suffer chronic and painful headaches, and lose impulse control.

An ongoing study at Boston University is researching CTE, and though they have much to learn, they know that repeated concussions are a factor in developing CTE.

Earlier this week, Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta were named to the Sports Business Journal's list of the top 50 most powerful people in sports. In case you ever wanted to know how they took over the UFC, here you go.

Good luck getting that song out of your head. To see more videos of the hilarious, MMA nature, check out Lookoutawhale's YouTube page. You will spend hours giggling.

Thanks, Cage Potato.

New England players spent their day off by spreading a little holiday cheer, getting wrapped up with their teammates as a part of an annual tradition with the Kraft Foundation. Julian Edelman said that the worst part of being wrapped with Tom Brady is the quarterback's odor.

In the last 20 seconds of the video, Zoltan Mesko said how he loved this tradition, but then told a lie so egregious that it may not be forgiven.

He claims that Santa Claus isn't real. Where does a man come up with such a terrible lie? At least this lapse in truth won't go unpunished. Shutdown Corner had an exclusive interview with Kris Kringle on the subject.

"It's disappointing," Santa said. "I've been working around the clock to ensure a nice Christmas for children around the world, and then this guy can't even believe in me. Obviously, there's no room for him on the nice list."

Mesko does have a chance for redemption. His apology is a good start, both on the video and on Twitter. A North Pole source told

nastialiukin1After winning all-around gymnastics gold in Beijing, Nastia Liukin decided to take a break from competing full-time in gymnastics to decide what to do next. After the U.S. won team gold at the world championships, Liukin announced that she was going to give the 2012 Olympics a shot. She took a break from training to talk with Fourth-Place Medal about the challenge she faces, the stacked U.S. team, and Morgan Freeman.

Fourth-Place Medal: What made you decide to give the Olympics another shot?

Nastia Liukin: I never lost the passion for the sport of gymnastics, and what's important is to be doing it for the right reasons. I knew that the passion was there, but I also knew that I needed a little bit of time off after training for so many years. I made my final decision earlier this year when I realized that, first of all, I missed it. I missed being in the gym, I missed training. I missed having something to feel like I had a fulfilling day.

Second of all, I knew I'd be in London if I'd be out on the competition floor or not, and I had an image of me sitting in the stands, wishing and hoping I had given it one last shot. I didn't want to have that image become a reality. I owed it to myself to give it one last shot, and enjoy the journey and the whole process behind it. It's definitely a challenge. It's harder than last time because I am four years older, and gymnastics is not one of those sports that gets easier as your get older! At the same time, it's been a really fun journey. I'm testing myself, and the challenge of it has been incredible to see how far I can go.

FPM: Did it inspire you to see that Alicia Sacramone and Shawn Johnson came back to competition?

NL: It was neat to be able to see Alicia and Shawn come back. I guess it made me believe that it's possible to get back to top shape and top form after taking off. It is really cool that we're all trying to make that Olympic team again, but it just makes it harder because there's only five girls making the team this year, instead of six. We're all fighting for that one spot.

Jon Jones stopped by ESPN's campus in Bristol, Conn. on Tuesday, dropping in at Sportscenter, Sportsnation, and other ESPN shows. He also sat with someone wearing a Pittsburgh batting helmet and a catcher's chest protector who told bad jokes. Stay tuned to the end to hear Jones get one little needle in at Rashad Evans.

phildavisPhil Davis has not even been in the UFC for two years. The national champion wrestler for Penn State fought for the first time in February of 2010, earning a decision over Brian Stann. Less than two years later, he will challenge Rashad Evans as the main event on network television at UFC on Fox 2.

For Davis, that journey meant using every day to improve on his game. He talked to Cagewriter about how much his style has evolved in the past year.

"I've been working on refining my technique, learning more technique. At that point, I hadn't really discovered my style yet. I had my skill set, things I was good at, things I wasn't good at, but I didn't really have a style yet. So now I feel more comfortable in my style and what I'm capable of doing."

Though he is comfortable with that style, he struggled to find the words to describe it.

jackpotThe UFC is inextricably linked to gambling. Owners Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta also own Station Casinos, and several of the promotions biggest events took place in Las Vegas casinos. Soon, you'll be able to see fighters as you gamble your millions away on online slot machines.

SportsBusiness Journal reports that the UFC struck a deal with Endemol, a company that creates online slot machines. Though the deal will only be in the United Kingdom to start, they're hoping to expand to more places where online gaming is legal.

"Everybody wants to make money, but even more important than that, this is a great extension of our brand," Lawrence Epstein, UFC executive vice president said.

I can't wait to see how this turns out. If you hit the jackpot, does Dana White come on to congratulate you? If you bet conservatively, does he ask, "Do you want to be a [expletive] fighter?" When you bust, does an Anderson Silva punch come at your monitor?

Marshawn's mom, look what you started. In the early days of Marshawn Lynch's career, she would give him Skittles for every touchdown. Cameras caught him indulging in this sweet treat after the Seahawks running back scored a touchdown against the Eagles, and a phenomenon was born.

At Monday night's win over the Rams, fans who packed CenturyLink Field held up signs with Skittles bags glued to them. When Lynch did get to the end zone, they showered him in Skittles, making every marketing executive for the fruity candy tear up in joy.

After the game, Lynch said that the candy connection was his mother's.

"I think a lot of people have it mixed up that it's a prize, or that I get Skittles for scoring touchdowns. If you want to know the truth, you've got to ask my mama."

But Seattle fans, think twice before throwing any more candy onto the field. Not only can it get you thrown out, but the offensive linemen were also not happy about having to pick Skittles out of their cleats.

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