His Page 2 columns and podcasts for ESPN (Sports Guy’s World) are a must for every sports fan. 

His executive producer title on ESPN’s excellent 30 for 30 shows that he has a deeper understanding of ESPN’s core audience than his bosses – who have put their network ahead of many of the stories they cover, to the detriment of the games and the athletes themselves.

And his new book, The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to The Sports Guy, is a New York Times bestseller.  At 736 pages, you might still be working your way through it at this time next year.

But, truly, this guy was meant to be an NBA General Manager.  Simmons has campaigned publicly (though with tongue-in-cheek) on his blog and through ESPN for years.  Despite his unabashed love of the Celtics, he has an understanding of the game that could clearly and successfully be applied to any NBA team’s front office.

Exhibit A is this gift – today’s column, Page 2′s The VP of Common Sense – that Simmons gives to those who appreciate the NBA game off the floor as much (or in some cases, more) than the game on the floor.

Yes, it’s an intense read, but how can you not appreciate the depth of knowledge that comes through when Simmons gets serious about the game that he so obviously loves? 

Me, I’d take the college game over the professional game anytime.  But, it wasn’t always so and if there were more like Simmons who actually had a say in the state of professional basketball, there’s no reason that the NBA couldn’t find its way once again.

The man has serious comedic chops, which is essential in everything he touches, but maybe it overshadows his basketball expertise. 

Someday, an owner somewhere is going to take Simmons seriously.  And, if nothing else, the book about the experience will be amazing.

As omnipresent as her name is when those of the greats of the rock era are tossed around, most music fans know little about Patti Smith beyond a few key songs from her discography.  And it’s not been to easy to figure out where to turn for insight into Smith’s aura.

Patti Smith

You can read her allmusic biography, which lists her as “among the most influential female rock & rollers of all time”. 

You can, of course, explore the critically acclaimed music with remastered releases and comprehensive compilations.

But now, to – theoretically – shed some light on what exactly makes this woman so special, you can see the documentary as part of the PBS series POV.  The film, Patti Smith: Dream of Life, has been around for a while - screening (and winning awards) at film festivals over the last couple years.

But now the doc is set to receive its network premiere next week, December 30th.  Check out the trailer here and be sure to check local listings for airings.

Smith, who opens up in this New York Times interview with Edward Wyatt, is embarking on a number of new projects and the film appears to be part of a greater effort to expose her to larger audiences.

We’ve heard of her all these years and some of you are clearly hard-core believers.  The rest of us are glad to get an opportunity to start to discover what the fuss is all about.

But the fact that the Stanford running back is even in the mix – gaining the attention of even the New York Times in this extended feature – lets you know that his is no ordinary story.

Toby Gerhart

And, honestly, with a BCS title game that was seemingly pre-ordained before the season between Texas and the winner of the SEC title game (Florida or Alabama), college football fans have no choice but to look for other, more interesting storylines to define the 2009 season.

Without a doubt, the Gerhart story is gaining steam, challenging even the riveting saga of the BCS wanna-be duo of Boise State and TCU in giving college football fans something to discuss while waiting for that predictable national championship game on January 7th in Pasadena.

Fortunately, Gerhart remains grounded (as shown in this profile by the local San Francisco Chronicle).  Additional proof can be found in this Stanford-produced video that has fun with his elite two-sport status.

Yes, it is refreshing to see a breakout star with professional potential in both football and baseball rise into the national consciousness without all of the prefab hype that usually accompanies such success.

And, oh yeah, if this sports thing doesn’t work out, Gerhart will only have a stinkin’ degree in management sciences and engineering from Stanford to fall back on.

Great, great story that rebuilds a little faith in the modern student-athlete.  Heisman or not, his success (and the not-so-coincidental accompanying success of his team) deserves our full attention now and into the future.

Fortunately, the director’s legacy will live on with a collection of movies that could only have been attributed to him: M.A.S.H., Nashville and Short Cuts perhaps among the most notable.

For a true appreciation of the man behind the camera, check out Robert Altman: The Oral Biography. 

The New York Times has a detailed review of Mitchell Zuckoff’s fantastic new study of what drove this great auteur.

And go fire up the Netflix account to catch up on some of the great catalog of Altman films that you may have missed the first time.  Nobody will ever again make the movies like he did.

So says writer and director Eric Simonson, who is working on a play based on the life of legendary Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi. 

The play is being adapted from the fantastic biography by David Maraniss, When Pride Still Mattered : A Life Of Vince Lombardi and, according to the New York Times, plans for the staging of “Lombardi” will be announced on Monday.

Vince Lombardi's story is headed for Broadway

The Times notes that the play should debut on Broadway late next year and, thankfully, will be devoid of any singing or dancing. 

The concept has a shot – almost 40 years after his death, the Lombardi legend is as strong as ever.  The biggest question is who gets to play the role of ESPN’s “Coach of the Century”.  My guess, though I hope I am very wrong, would be this guy.

Meanwhile, Lombardi’s old team hopes not to incite any grave-rolling by their old coach when they take on the winless Buccaneers this weekend in Tampa.

Well, maybe not so fast.  That lead paragraph from this great New York Times feature on the use of the freecreditreport.com URL by leading credit bureau Experian is shown to be misleading at best and the Federal Trade Commission is taking matters into their own hands to combat the confusion.

The FTC has set up a new website (freecreditreport.gov) specifically to provide information on free annual credit reports. 

For the record, the official site for checking your annual credit report is annualcreditreport.com.  Imagine that…

One year ago, at this time, Rolle was earning AP third team All-American honors as a safety at Florida State University.  He would have been a high draft choice this past spring, but deferred those plans to earn an M.A. in medical anthropology at Oxford before entering the 2010 NFL Draft.

Pete Thamel of the New York Times has authored an excellent feature on Rolle, who would like to become a neurosurgeon and philanthropist at the conclusion of his football-playing days.

Myron Rolle has put off the NFL for one year to study at the University of Oxford

Be sure to check out the accompanying Quad Q&A for an even more revealing look at what makes Rolle’s story all the more fantastic.

Needless to say, there are enough negative sports-related stories to fill the blogosphere on a daily basis.  It’s a real treat to have a legitimate reason to highlight one of the good guys.

In a decade filled with momentous advancements in the world of recorded music, the efforts of Pandora (along with their patented technology) may ultimately create the longest-lasting and most significant developments  in this area as the methods by which we, as consumers, are exposed to new music continues to evolve.

Pandora claims a catalog of more than 700,000 songs, by 80,000 artists that have, to date, been analyzed by their “musicologists” since the creation of the project in 2000. 

As Rob Walker of the New York Times writes in this fascinating article from The Times Magazine, “the idea is to figure out what you like, not what a market might like.”

Meaning that “the taste of your cool friends, your peers, the traditional music critics, big-label talent scouts and the latest influential music blog are all equally irrelevant.”

This is a great read and really makes you want to root for these guys at Pandora, whose founders spent one three-year stretch working without salaries while they scrambled for investors.

I get a laugh out of all of the music industry insiders who are quick to point out that the industry is dying and that major changes are needed for its “survival”. 

This cry comes from the same people who got it there in the first place.  Well, then get out of the way and let some new blood into the game.

Pandora may not have all of the answers but the genesis of The Music Genome Project and the core reason for Pandora’s existence comes from a very good place.  Read the article and give them or one of their brethren a shot. 

There’s a ton of good music out there just waiting for you to discover it.  Don’t buy into the traditional notion that you need someone to tell you what to listen to.  Those days are – thankfully – over.

Not only has Perkins renewed his association with the Village Voice after a lengthy absence due to cost-cutting measures, but he picked up a pretty sweet gig in the interim.

As detailed in this feature in today’s New York Times, his friend Eddie Vedder unexpectedly hooked him up with the prize gig of designing the album cover for Pearl Jam’s Backspacer, due in stores on September 20th.

Vedder says, “I wasn’t sure if our politics were hard-core enough for him,” but apparently this mutual admiration society is now in play for the long haul. 

In his role as “part of the family”, Perkins is now designing Pearl Jam concert posters as well as the cover of the October issue of Spin Magazine – on sale two days after the album release and obviously featuring the band, embarking on a tour in support of the new record.

If you’re not familiar with the work of Tom Tomorrow, be sure to check out his collected works of political satire at salon.com.

And for some alternative bedtime reading for the kiddies, be sure to check out Tom Tomorrow’s first book for children, The Very Silly Mayor.  This just-released little story looks something like this:

A look at the electric guitar and an exercise in collaboration between world-class guitarists Jimmy Page, Jack White, and U2′s The Edge, the reviews have been stellar. 

Now open in a scant seven theaters in New York and Southern California, those fortunate enough to catch this production on the big screen will vouch for the reviews written up by such critics as A.O. Scott of the New York Times, Betsy Sharkey of the Los Angeles Times, and Entertainment Weekly’s Owen Gleiberman.

Should you exist on terra firma somewhere outside the entertainment bubble, fret not.  The full list of theaters and opening dates nationwide can be found here.

And be sure to check out the official trailer in the meantime.  It’s probably wise to set aside any feelings you may have about the recorded output of Messrs. Page, White, & Edge and just enjoy this movie for what it is.  As Scott points out:

…“It Might Get Loud” is more than a narrowly focused fan artifact. It gives us a chance to linger in the presence of serious artists with formidable chops and big, if not always clearly expressed, ideas about what they do. And it will put you in the mood to listen.