The storyline in far too many sports these days goes something like this:

Athlete A sets a record of some form or another in Sport B. Athlete A has never failed a drug test mandated by his/her sport. The general public can’t believe that a performance like this is possible without the use of performance-enhancing drugs. Questions start to accumulate, and people start to wonder if their much-beloved Sport B has been tarnished by a drug cheat.

The governing body of Sport B doesn’t have very good drug testing policies, or perhaps doesn’t enforce them very stringently, or perhaps just doesn’t really care when everything is said and done. Those that run Sport B are pleased that tickets are being sold, or TV contracts are being negotiated – or both.

Performance-enhancing drug use in Sport B is only illegal based on the rules of Sport B, not the fact that they are illegal to use in the United States. Now we introduce Group C – those with their own agendas that don’t want Sport B to be soiled - try to dig up the dirt on suspected drug cheat Athlete A.

Anything sound familiar here? Name the sport – and read on. The storyline has just begun.

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If there was ever a reason for Direct Access to Physical Therapy to exist – in ANY state of the US or country of the world – it would be back pain. There is no doubt that back pain could become the poster child for this consumer initiative. It also provides plenty of evidence-based reasons to counter the claims of physician naysayers.

First things first – back pain will affect 50 - 80% of the population at some point in their lives, and 40% of the population will have an episode of back pain within any given year. This amounts to about 31 million Americans that are afflicted with low back pain at any given point in time, or approximately 10% of the population.

The estimated costs of back pain in the US exceed $170 billion annually. Yes, that is BILLIONS of dollars.

In the world of back pain, evidence-based practice (via clinical practice guidelines) is going to be critical in order to increase access to care and to decrease the cost of care. I would like to think that physicians, chiropractors, and physical therapists alike would agree on this. So let’s try to weed out “conjecture” from “data” as it applies to the claims regarding back pain and patient direct access to physical therapy.

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I might as well warn you now - expect a little bit of sarcasm in this post. Somehow, the BCS always seems to bring this out in me. Surprises? Seriously though, more of the same insanity, just a different day.

It's two days post-"National Championship" game, so I thought it would be time to reflect on that which is the BCS these days. A good departure point is the "game" we witnessed on Thursday night. Some things never change. Bob Stoops loses another BCS game - "Big Game Bob" is getting pretty consistent on that one. What's the record now, Bob? Oh, right, 0 - 5 in the past 5 BCS games. That isn't even best in the Big 12 South Division. That would be on par with - Baylor.

Florida beat Oklahoma by ... 10 points. I think we saw something like that, on another neutral site, back in October. It was ... yes ... Texas ...

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It all started with Jerry Maguire and Rod Tidwell ... or should I say, Tom Cruise and Cuba Gooding Jr ... in "Jerry Maguire".

To Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Tidwell, "quan" meant "love, respect, community, and money".

To the Texas Longhorns last night, "Quan" meant "one hell of a senior wide receiver".

In last night's Fiesta Bowl, Quan Cosby was the go-to guy. He had a career night ... 14 receptions ... 171 yards. Add to that Colt McCoy's 41 of 59 for 414 yards, and you would think it was a blow-out.

Well, it wasn't ... 24 - 21 Longhhorns over Buckeyes, for those of you who missed it.

The first 30 minutes gave us a good hockey score - 6 to 3 - and not much more than that. This was the #3 team in the country? Somewhere on the way to the game, the coaching staff simply forgot what got the 'Horns there in the first place. Then at the start of the second half, the real Horns arrived. They logged in a solid 15 minutes - and pounded the Buckeyes with their two minute offense. Fortunately, a total of 20 minutes of great football (and coaching) was all it took to win the game last night. The rest was a bit of a living nightmare for a team that called itself a true number one candidate - before last night. Sorry folks, that will have to wait until next year.

So what happened?

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