Let's admit this is a bit of a dated debate, what with none of the three EPL center-backs in question—John Terry, Nemanja Vidic and Vincent Kompany—anywhere close to the players they were in the past. 

If the question is who of these three is the best Premier League defender, the answer depends on how far back we go. 

Terry has been one of the great defenders in the history of the Premier League, but his play over the last few years—because of injuries and, shall we say, other matters—has been less than stellar for Chelsea. At times, he has been a liability on the field for his team. Certainly, if we are looking for the best center-back now, it cannot be Terry. 

It should be Vidic, who has been one of the great center-backs in the world while in his prime and certainly one of the best players in Manchester United history...when he is healthy. Vidic has been unable to stay on the field for United, though, so it is hard to choose him as the best of the group as well. When he plays, there aren't too many players better than him. When he plays...

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In the last two presidential elections, several members of the Philadelphia Phillies openly campaigned for Barack Obama. Jonathan Papelbon was not one of them.

Yesterday, Papelbon was talking to CSN Philly about the bombings in Boston—Papelbon used to live near the blast area—and he said how unsafe he feels at sporting events, specifically being so close to the fans. 

On that notion, Papelbon and I agree, stadiums and the players (and fans) are not nearly as safe as we should be. The thing is...Papelbon took his clearly emotional yet justifiable fears and went...off book. Via The700Level.com:

OK, look, I know that gun control is a big issue in society right now and I know that there are a lot of people in this world who actually believe the president is trying to take away their guns. I also get that Papelbon is legitimately scared after a street he walked down for years was bombed. But to somehow correlate the two into a sound bite about the safety of being in a stadium is severely wrong-headed for a baseball player in that situation.

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"Feels like we lost football's grandpa." 

That line came from the Twitter feed of Sarah Sprague, football foodie and diehard NFL fan. There's really no better way to explain the feeling of millions of football fans after hearing of the passing of Pat Summerall.

My generation never knew Summerall as a player. As a kid, I didn't even know Summerall was an NFL player until one Thanksgiving when his booth partner, John Madden, made a quip about Summerall being able to hit a big kick one of the teams was about to attempt. 

Funny joke, I thought. Madden was always the guy to crack wise in the booth and Summerall was the perfect foil—serious and stern from whistle to whistle.

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The story of the explosions that rocked downtown Boston near the finish line of the Boston Marathon is not a sports story, so writing about it in a sporting context is incredibly difficult. 

Yes, the explosions that caused more than 170 injuries and at least three deaths occurred during the Boston Marathon. But clearly, even given the context, this is not a story about sports. It's a story about life; about how precious each moment can be.

As a sports writer and a sports fan, an event like this is my worst sports nightmare.

If you've seen the video footage more than once, which anyone watching the news coverage in the wake of the blast undoubtedly saw on a loop for hours, that split second before the explosion feels like slow motion as we witness a regular sporting event—and an annual celebration of athleticism in one of our countries oldest and most revered cities—turn into something so horribly unrecognizable.

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The 2013 Masters was consumed with stories about the rules of golf. 

Tianlang Guan, the 14-year old Chinese phenom who earned the honor of low amateur, received a one-stroke penalty for slow play on Friday, nearly pushing him below the weekend cut line.

Tiger Woods was the story of the tournament after being retroactively penalized two strokes for an illegal drop on the 15^th hole Friday that had many demanding he disqualify himself from the Masters.

Rules, rules, rules. Golf is full of them.

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There is something about stepping onto the course at Augusta National for Fred Couples that brings everything back. The old swing, the old feel around the greens, the old swagger.

At 53 years old, Couples is heading into the weekend of the 2013 Masters one stroke off the lead, in the final pairing for yet another Masters Saturday. 

That's pretty cool.

Couples, himself, is pretty cool too. You'd have to be cool to play your entire career with a nickname like "Boom Boom" and somehow make it work. After his second-round 71 on Friday, Couples was asked by a reporter what it's like to be so, well, cool (via Masters.com):

He really is cool. And so, too, is the idea that for yet another year at Augusta, Couples is one of the biggest stories heading into the weekend. Allow yourself to think about where we might be on Sunday evening: Couples winning a green jacket more than 20 years after his miraculous victory in 1992 would just be so damn…cool.

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Every major golf course in the world has at least one signature hole. Augusta National has a signature corner.

Amen Corner, a term coined by Herbert Warren Wind in his 1958 Sports Illustrated article chronicling that year's tournament, is the stretch of play on Augusta's famed back nine that starts with the second shot on the 11th hole and continues through the tee shot on the 13th hole.

The Mystique

There has long been a certain lore to Amen Corner for the players, Augusta patrons and those watching at home. We anticipate the importance of Amen Corner every year, hoping for each shot to be a factor in the tournament's outcome. The stretch has rarely, if ever, failed to deliver.

My first vivid memory of Amen Corner growing up had to be the 1992 Masters when Fred Couples, my favorite player at the time, stuck his tee shot into the bank of Rae's Creek on the 12th hole. For some reason, Couples decided to go directly at the pin, a rather ridiculous plan for any player with the lead on the back nine on Sunday.

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It's an amateur golfer's dream to play Augusta National Golf Club.

I have never been fortunate enough to play Augusta, but I do know a few members of the media who won the annual lottery to play a round the Monday after the tournament. Their memories of the course, the history and the feeble attempts at recreating some of the great shots in Masters lore have been my own personal lifeline to every inch of the course. 

Well, that and video games.

My game is not up to par, if you pardon the pun, to actually play a course like Augusta, but I sure as hell would like to slap on a pair of white coveralls and lug a bag around for 18 holes. Yeah, caddying a round at Augusta would be pretty cool.

The question becomes, of course, who would I most want to caddy for? Whose bag would I most like to carry? And to make the game even more fun, let's expand the hypothetical to not just one golfer, but a foursome. 

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