Was Bruce Feldman Arrested? By ESPN?

What else are we to believe? He looks drunk enough. He looks sorry enough. By God he looks dirty enough.

Of course you will infer from the inclusion of this picture and the title of this blog that we have taken issue with Bruce Feldman's swarthy new look.

Buddy Dave (to whom credit must be given for unearthing this latest offense on ESPN.com) writes:

"When did Bruce Feldman's pciture change to look like this? And, what the fuck kind of picture is this? Did he just find out his wife was cheating on him, sit on the couch, not shower or shave for six days and then go in for his picture?"

Seriously. I mean, you'd think for a high-profile picture like this that he probably had days to contemplate and prepare for, he'd get gussied up a little. Nothing major you know, wash your hair, wear a collared shirt or at least take a razor to the fortnight of unkempt, Appalachian Trail stubble. I know all sportswriters are frustrated athletes, but someone's got to tell Feldman that the hockey playoffs ended for him years ago. And we're not asking for Kirk Herbstreit, necessarily, but just a little more professionalism - something, anything, to suggest a little more respect for our readership.

Unless of course Feldman's apparent regression is a sign of something deeper, as Switters suggests:

"His picture definitely didn't look as bad during the season, maybe he just gets more and more fucked up until the next season comes around and his life changes for the better. Practically the same thing happens to me."

I love this idea of the rejuvenating approach of the college football season. It's happening to Switters and Buddy Dave and me. With each passing day our strength is growing and Feldman, in an effort to commune with his fans (whom he resembles, I confess), is chronicling this rehabilitation by the restorative power of college football by showing us the face of its healing - the face of his healing. His worst days in late January and February a distant memory, he has picked himself up off the floor, applied deodorant and changed out of the beer-strained t-shirt he wore for the six-month bachelor party he's apparently just returned from. By August he will be twice the man he is today and we will hardly recognize his refound glory.

Now let's all genuflect on a moment of silence for the new dawn of college football.