Since the Boston Red Sox don't have to worry about any of that pesky 'playing in the World Series' nonsense, they can fully devote their attention to other, more pressing matters. Like the 'Sex Rod' case.

An interesting copyright/patent case for the ages. The background is that back in July of 2005, Brad Francis Sherman from New York, (which I'm sure didn't help the matter at all. Although in this interview he gave, he reveals he is a die hard Sox fan for life.), applied for a patent and trademarked the term 'Sex Rod' written in the stylized font similar to the above 'Red Sox' logo. His intention was to satirize the Red Sox trademark and brand clothing items for sale with his 'Sex Rod' logo.

He intended to put the logo on cardigans, t-shirts, lingerie, night gowns and other clothing items.

The Red Sox organization has been fighting to oppose Sherman's use of their logo arguing that it is immoral, scandalous, and could imply a false endorsement from the baseball team.

One of the funniest parts of this whole thing is reading through the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board's testimony where the Red Sox lawyers argue that 'rod is a euphemism for the male anatomy.' Say it ain't so, guys!?!? There's nothing more ridiculous than imagining a bunch of nerds in suits arguing over whether 'the public' would reasonably assume that 'rod' would be understood to mean 'an object with phallic qualities'.

Wide swaths of empty seats at Talladega. Acre upon acre of the same at Charlotte, NASCAR's spiritual home and the backyard of virtually all of the sport's teams. True, attendance has been off for much of the year and the second Charlotte race rarely sells out, but so many empty seats? Things are bleak. That bit of rocket science aside, that times are as tough as they are is especially troublesome to image-conscious NASCAR, which must absolutely crap its proverbial pants when it sees stories like this one. Or this one. Or this one. Or this one. Or even this one.

For almost a decade, an unquestioning public has given NASCAR the freedom to bill itself as "America's fastest growing sport" -- never mind the obvious logical flaw that, according to NASCAR's own literature, the sport's fan base has remained relatively constant at 75 million for that same time period (and let's not even get into the contortions used to arrive at that undoubtedly impressive number). But, a financial meltdown of epic proportions that's crippling everybody -- Wall Street and Joe Six-Pack and, apparently, even Joe the Plumber -- just might be enough to bring some of NASCAR's own overheated rhetoric to its knees and force the sport to reconsider how it does business. 

University of Idaho Vandals Football was embroiled in some controversy this week when it announced it would be getting rid of their 'too skimpy' cheerleader outfits (above) in favor of something more modest.

According to the school's dean of students, many fans complained that the new cheerleading outfits were too revealing. They will now delve into a $3,000 'private fund' to buy the cheerleaders some outfits with longer skirts and shirts. I don't really see any difference in the Idaho cheerleader uniforms compared to today's NFL cheerleader uniforms though, but I guess Idaho is a long way from the NFL. (Even if Boise State's blue turf is screaming for attention.) What is U of Idaho's problem? Aren't they supposed to be 'Vandals'? Real vandals wouldn't care what people thought of skimpy uniforms, they would be too busy raping, pillaging, and sacking Rome.

Darren Rovell at CNBC postulates that the swap for more modest clothing could lead to some surprising revenue loss:

Manchester United, the reigning champions of the English Premier League and the Champions League, are having a pretty terrible week.

First, they lost a game over the weekend to hated rival Liverpool, their star player Christiano Ronaldo is out with an injury, and now they find out their main sponsor (who's logo is emblazoned on all their gear) may be hitting the financial skids. Just in time for the release of their new 'blue' jerseys today. Ooo, bad timing.

Man United is still the world's most valuable sports franchise, worth over $1.8 billion (ahead of Real Madrid, all the NFL teams, and the NY Yankees), and accordingly they hold the record for most valuable team sponsorhip with an AIG jersey deal worth over $100 million (56 million British pounds). 

Sorry if the image is blurry, but here's the text anyway:

“My Butt is big and round like the letter C and ten thousand lunges have made it rounder but not smaller and that’s just fine. It’s a space heater for my side of the bed, it’s my ambassador to those who walk behind me. It’s a border collie that herds skinny women away from the best deals at clothing sales. My butt is big and that’s just fine and those who might scorn it are invited to kiss it. Just Do It. NikeWomen.com”

This ad is part of Nike's new ad campaign called 'Here I Am' launched at women in Europe who might not be 'totally comfortable' with their gorgeous, curvy, and bodacious bodies. I guess Sir Mix-A-Lot doesn't get a lot of air time over there?

I'm all for ads that feature great butts in tight shorts. Some chicks are ranting over at Gawker about it being sexist and 'lame', but it gets two nice big thumbs up from me.

Give us a shout in the comments with your take on this spot.

via DeadSpin: Nike's Still Trying To Figure Out How Best To Infiltrate The Womanly Athlete, September 11, 2008

Qatar's capital city of Doha is planning one of the strangest and most inventive new stadiums the world has ever seen.

The soccer venue, called 'The Wall', will be both the first completely 'underground' stadium and the first open-air, air-conditioned stadium.

If you've ever been to Qatar, you'll known that the arid, desert climate would make sitting outside at a sports venue an absolutely miserable endeavor. That is why the unique underground design of 'The Wall' will be implemented to keep spectators and players in a cool climate. It will also save a ton of money on air-conditioning bills.

The design makes the structure resembled an opened laptop popping out from the ground. The stadium is expected to be complete in 2010, although these are just initial plans released by the architect and no actual construction has begun yet. The cost of the stadium is estimated to be $20 million. (More pictures after the jump):

Today Forbes magazine released one of their fancy 'Top Ranking' lists. This time, rather than it be about the Top Most Expensive Boring Jobs, 500 Most Unattractive Rich Guys, or some other garbage, it was actually something we could relate to. The NFL, baby!

Forbes knows that ever since the season officially kicked off last week, our appetite for some smash-mouth, full-contact numbers has never been greater.

In this year's list, the eggheads over at Forbes take a look at which of the NFL's team are the most valuable. The list follows some general preconceived guidelines, but also has a few surprises. For instance, did you realize that despite sucking so badly, the Washington Redskins have consistently managed to be one of the league most profitable and valuable teams? Neither did we!

And because we hate how Forbes has all their lists in an annoying slideshow format, we've assembled all the important details in a handy list format below. You don't have to thank us, really you don't.

1.) Dallas Cowboys - $1.612 Billion

 Not really a surprise. They have the nickname 'America's Team', so it's probably a safe bet that they're 'the most capitalistic'. However if Jessica Simpson keeps running her mouth about her QB boyfriend 'skills', they'll writing checks they can't back up.

We knew Michael Phelps was big, but this is just unprecedented.

Phelps has become the most highly sought-after living being to endorse a product on the planet.

The Davie-Brown Index, which keeps track of these rankings, had Phelps all the way down the list at #1,111 just before his historic Olympic medal run in Beijing.

Now, after D-B released their latest rankings since the Olympics concluded, Phelps has shot up to the #1 spot overall.

According to Darren Rovell over at CNBC's Sports Biz, here's how the rest of the list finished up behind the Aquaman:

For anyone that isn't a big tennis aficionado: Rafael Nadal is the world's top player with the weird/Eurotrashy clothing selections.

You'll often see him sporting long hair held back with a colorful bandanna, sleeveless tank top/t-shirts, and his go-to just-past-the-knee, tight-fitting capri pants.

I wouldn't give the dude a hard time for any of this because 1.) he's got the muscles to show off ("he must work out"), 2.) the top ranking in the world, 3.) and tons of sponsorship money. Plus 4.) he's European (Spanish), so what would you expect?

But the big wigs over at Nike aren't taking too kindly to their top tennis pitchman's wardrobe choices. As the US Open unfolds, the American audience is getting a good look at all the clothes worn during the matches. And the sport of tennis has a much more affluent and participatory audience compared to many of the other major televised athletic events. Bad news for Nike.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Nike announced Nadal will be wearing some more conservative polo shirts and looser, more traditional shorts for the US Open. They referred to it as him 'growing up'.

But everyone's favorite CNBC sports business reporter, Darren Rovell, has the other, darker side of the story:

Seeing this ad really disappointed the hell out of me. Do the advertising gurus at Ortega have no common sense at all? Or maybe they've just never heard of looking stuff up in Urban Dictionary?

"My tacos ... the best! I love Ortega's taco sauce, it makes my taco pop."

I'm not sure what the worst part of this commercial is - having an underage gymnast talk about popping her taco or having the Hamm twins seductively 'make eyes' at each other.

Shawn Johnson and Paul - Watch more free videos