The large number of phonies and hypocrites in the sports world is infuriating if not amusing.

If you have ever eaten meat but are one of the phonies up in arms about Pedro Martinez attending a cockfight -- such an awkward word, by the way -- then you are a big, fat phony.

I think fighting animals is dumb. Fighting chickens or dogs is something people with small brains do.

Fighting chickens, specifically, might be the single most asinine thing I have ever seen. What thrill do you get from watching a two-piece brawl? What's next? Snail fighting?

While cockfighting is utterly idiotic, we are also hypocrites about it.

If you have ever been to Kentucky Fried Chicken but are now looking down your nose at Martinez, you're a phony.

If you're criticizing Martinez while snacking on a chicken sandwich, you're a phony.

What's worse: fighting a chicken or cutting of its head and eating it?

Hmmm ...

I'd rather be sent into a ring like Snake Pliskin in Escape from New York than be served with mashed potatoes.

Just sayin'.

So while cockfighting is stupid, brutal and insane, unless you're a vegetarian, you really should have very little to say about it.

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- It was some eight weeks ago when I first heard about the New England Patriots possibly taping the practice of the St. Louis Rams the night before the Super Bowl.

Eight weeks ago.

I contacted the PR person for the Patriots who said he had never heard of such an accusation but would check into it. He said he later did check into it and the team vehemently denied it.

Next I contacted one of the PR guys for the NFL and he said they knew nothing about it.

I contacted four head coaches, 12 assistant coaches and several players from across the NFL. The coaches all said they had heard of the accusation of taping the Rams' practice but had no proof.

There have been, for months now, approximately five or six main rumors alleging Patriot film shenanigans, including one where the Patriots allegedly signed a Rams player to the team in the weeks before the Super Bowl in order to learn the Rams' audible system. I found the player. He wouldn't talk.

Rumors and innuendo and more rumors.

But so far, no proof.

I'm not saying the rumors are false; they might all be true.

Maybe Matt Walsh, who worked in the video department, has that proof.

Or maybe he doesn't.

It's just extremely curious that the Rams accusation comes out now, of all times, just hours before the Super Bowl.

PHOENIX -- Paul Tagliabue deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, but he didn't make it on Saturday and might never make it. The reason why is a disgrace.

The former NFL commissioner was one of the more vital leaders in sports history. He spent nearly two decades as commissioner and under his watch there was no labor stoppage, something David Stern and Gary Bettman can't claim.

Under Tagliabue there was almost unprecedented expansion and revenue generated for the sport. He brought the NFL to places like Jacksonville and returned it to Houston. Tagliabue was also the first NFL commissioner to greatly emphasize and push for more minority hiring among the league's front office and coaching staffs.

Tagliabue belongs in the Hall.

But he might not get in for years, if at all. You know why?

Because many of the old farts in the media didn't like him and they're punishing him for what the geezers perceive as his aloofness and arrogance.

This was a sentence written in the Associated Press story about the Hall of Fame announcement regarding Tagliabue: "... many, including some reporters on the 44-member selection committee, found Tagliabue unapproachable and uncooperative."

So they're sticking it to him for being "uncooperative" by keeping him out of the Hall of Fame.

Basically, Tagliabue is being punished because he didn't kiss media ass.

It's wrong, it's boorish and it's juvenile.

Hopefully some of the old goats will regain their senses but I fear their stubbornness will last for a long, long time. Meanwhile, a man who deserves to get in will wait. And wait.