Give yourself credit...

...you found this blog. It is dedicated to the most overused phrase (aside from "Boom goes the dynamite) in sports. Every game in every sport, we are asked, nay, begged to give credit to someone or some team for some goal they have reached. We are told to give the refs credit for getting a call right. We are told to give the coach credit for sending in a good play.

But does anybody keep track of this credit? And where does the credit accumulate? In our hearts? In the hearts of the pure? And how many hookers can Michael Irvin by with his credit? Does he lose any credit when he tells me Jake Delhomme will be a Top Performer against the Cardinals? Does Jake lose credit? Do you? Do I?

Whatever. Here's a short sample of how this works.

Give Kobe Bryant Credit... he has the best quote of 2009 by anybody, inside or outside of sports.

From this month's Complex magazine:

Complex.com: Talk to me about a private failure that wasn't in the headlines, the thing that just keeps you up at night. Something people can relate to. Not necessarily a public thing, but a thing you twist and turn over.

Kobe Bryant: [Long pause] Dog----? Like, I hate dog----. I have a dog and I do not clean the crap outside. It's a phobia. It drives me crazy. You wake up in the morning and you think, Damn, this big ol' German shepherd probably just took a crap outside in the yard, and I gotta wake up and go pick it up. That is something that keeps me tossin' and turnin'. Does that qualify?

Extra Mustard