UP AT 6: WORLDS ARE COLLIDING

As you were enjoying a Banana Kaboom.

• Is Bill Simmons becoming Rick Reilly, or vice-versa? Simmons couldn't get through the first two paragraphs of a column Monday without name-dropping, a classic Reillyism. Then within 48 hours, Reilly mailed in published a worshipful column about Tom Brady.
  
  Regardless, quoting either iconic sportswriter hasn't been cool for about three years. No word of a lie, right as that was typed, a Canadian sports anchor quoted Simmons.
• Great quote from Canada's Tomasz Radzinski after the 1-1 tie with Costa Rica on Black Wednesday: "If I am in the stands next time I am going to wear a black shirt as well."
• Whites hanging nooses from trees, district attorneys threatening African-Americans with retribution if they didn't toe the line, and trumped-up jail terms handed out to blacks who got only a token legal defence. Sounds like 1957? Try Louisiana, in 2007.
• Cory Murphy, the veteran Finn-league defenceman from Kanata who played in the world championship last season, could be a top-4 blueliner for the Florida Panthers, writes SI.com's Allan Muir.
• Heads-up: Co-blogger Neil Acharya makes his season debut as hockey play-by-play man for Rogers 10 in Toronto tomorrow night, Vaughan Vipers vs. the St. Mike's Buzzers, live at 7:30 p.m.