I'm sure you have seen the stories or videos of Dennis Rodman in North Korea.  When the worm, that bastion of all what is right with the United States, returned stateside, he had a message for President Obama from Kim Jong Un.

"He wants Obama to do one thing -- call him," Rodman told ABC's resident hobbit George Stephanopoulos on This Week.

Call him what?  A dictator?  An opponent to human rights?  A jack-ass?  A proponent of nuclear war?

All fits. 

What puzzles me is why Rodman did not dye his hair green, don a wedding dress and kick a photographer in the groin area while he was in North Korea?  They are obviously things we celebrate here. 

And kicking a photographer who you don't like in the private parts may not be too far removed from what Kim Jong Uh and his loving family have done in their country.  I am sure among the 200,000 political prisoners there are a few photographers, and a kick in the groin may be just what they get on a daily basis.

All if this is as a result of a trip Rodman and members of the Harlem Globetrotters recently took to the communist country to record video for an upcoming HBO documentary.

What we have here is the case of a retired athlete trying to become relevant again.  And you know what?  It worked.  He made the front page of our website as well as many others.  His image was splashed across many television networks over the past week; it's something that would have never been done otherwise.  So, I got to give him credit for that.

Rodman ended up his interview with Stephanopoulos by saying, "Don't hate me."

Too late, worm.

And now...Lauren Silberman
Just when you thought there was nothing happening in sports this weekend, Lauren Silberman walks into our lives.

Silberman, a young lady who went to M.I.T. mind you, was going to break the gender barrier and get a job with an NFL team as a kicker. 

But she was in obvious pain as she attempted her first kickoff.  A rousing kick that traveled only 19 yards.

She grabbed at her right leg.  Oh, my God!  She's hurt.  But she regained herself tried again!  And this time, it went about 13 yards.

"They certainly didn't go as far as they were in practices," Silberman said, "but I tried to work through the pain."

By the way, Lauren, how far did those practice kicks go?  "It's still hard to exactly say, but I just got better day by day," she said with a smile. "The distance is getting there."

In a related story, on Sunday I tried out for the Miami Heat, but my knees gave out when I tried to dunk over LeBron.

A few things here.  Spending 15 glorious years in pro wrestling has given me a keen sense of being able to separate sincerity from gimmick.  All the hard work that someone like Danica Patrick has done for the progress of women in sports can be undone by the sham that the NFL and Silberman laid on us this past weekend. 

Danica wrecked at Phoenix while busting her ass to get better.  Silberman flubbed two kicks in New Jersey while busting ours.