Funny Or Die has done a lot of things to warm my heart — pissing off Tom Brady, making Kris Humphries call himself a douchebag and threatening to kill Blake Griffin with a miniature puppet version of himself — but none have made me quite as happy as watching 1996 Olympic gold medalist and pro wrestler Kurt Angle trying to get back into the 2012 games.

The best part is that it’s based on real events … the 43-year old Angle tried his best to make the 2012 team, but came up short due to hamstring and knee injuries. Actually, I take that back. The BEST part is watching him Angle Slam a badminton player through a totally unexplained freestanding table and/or bashing a fencer in the face with a steel chair. God knows I would’ve been one of those random wrestling fans who showed up with signs to watch Kurt Angle play table tennis if I could’ve been.

Video is below. It’s more Funny than Die, but there’s a lot of dying going on anyway.

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Welcome to the first edition of With Leather’s newest, least cool weekly feature ever: SPORTS ON TV, where we countdown the greatest sports-related moments from your favorite, mostly not sports-related television shows.

This week’s edition tackles ‘Saved By The Bell’, an UPROXX network favorite about early 90s southern California high school kids who get to do anything they want whenever they want and face zero consequences. The show ran from 1989-1993, but existed in one form or another before that and afterwards until 2000. I’m not too proud to admit that syndication eventually showed me every ‘Saved By The Bell’ episode five times over, so we’re starting there. Maybe we’ll get to those clips of Urkel playing basketball next week.

Anyway, pre-column notes:

1. I only included moments from the primary run of ‘Saved By The Bell’, so that means no ‘Good Morning Miss Bliss’, ‘Saved By The Bell: The College Years’ or ‘Saved By The Bell: The New Class’. The TV movies feature the most popular cast, so I included those.

2. I really wanted to include video of each moment, but you know how the Internet works. I don’t want you to read this in two weeks and not be able to see what I’m talking about. Besides, the entire run of the show is currently available on Netflix.

3. Big thanks to the special guests who contributed commentary on some of their favorite moments.

And now, in no particular order, the 20 greatest sports moments from ‘Saved By The Bell’. If you’ve got a favorite sports moment that didn’t make the list, be sure to drop in on our comments section and let us know.

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Such is the itinerary for Nebraska’s Tara Mueller…Mueller? Mueller? Busted Coverage caught wind of the Scottsdale (AZ) junior dabbling in the pro beach circuit as a sort of de facto collegiate “sand volleyball” preview. Sadly, a lot of previews turn out to be a giveaway for the feature attraction. I doubt that’s the case here. See the whole gallery at BC. My favorites are here.

The NCAA has granted “sand” volleyball emerging sport status, paving the way for colleges to compete at the varsity level in 2010-11.

The organization will spend the next year developing rules that will govern play, including regulations on financial aid, playing dates and recruiting. [...]

The sport, known on the professional and Olympic levels [and everywhere else on the planet] as beach volleyball, will be called sand volleyball to make it more attractive to landlocked schools.

The real question, of course, is whether the NCAA will allow women to wear bikinis.  Because if so, this chick is on the varsity team.  And if you thought there were a lot of beach volleyball posts during the Olympics, buckle up for 2010.  This place is gonna be ground zero of college beach volleyball pictures.  Er, analysis and insight.  College beach volleyball analysis and insight.  Yeah, that’s what I meant.

|The Sporting Blog|

In April, the NCAA’s Division Legislative Council will likely approve a measure that will integrate beach volleyball into fabric of college sports.  In fact, the only reason that it hasn’t already been added appears to be administrators’ unease with the notion of girls in bikinis.  Mary Buckheit at Page 2 elaborates (emphasis mine):

Would the NCAA really allow a college freshman to hop off the bench, rip off her tear-aways and take to the sands in a bikini — in front of a bleacher full of roommates, boyfriends, girlfriends, grandmothers, protective fathers and mortified mothers?

Kathy DeBoer, executive director of the American Volleyball Coaches Association, laughed as I sheepishly delivered the million-dollar question. “Are you kidding? That question was asked so much so early in this process we literally had to take it off the table… You’re not the only one wondering about this. You say college girls and beach volleyball at a table of administrators and immediately it’s, ‘Umm, what are they going to wear?‘”

Oh, I don’t know… HOW ABOUT BIKINIS???  Jesus Christ, what puritanical colony are these people from?  “Oh my God!  College students!  In bikinis!  Whoever heard of such a thing?!?  How can we allow them to wear the same gear that professionals in the sport wear?  Oh no!  Watch out, it’s a male baring his pectorals!”

Also — and I’m not making this up — the NCAA would change the name of the sport to sand volleyball.  Because beaches are where people have fun, and the NCAA doesn’t want to give you the wrong idea.

Previously in Pussyfooting Around Sexuality in Beach Volleyball: NBC’s Olympic Coverage of Asses

Here’s a quick update on Dancing With The C-List Celebrities: Olympian and occasional object of underhanded lust Misty May-Treanor bowed out last night with a leg injury. So ballroom dancing is now officially more dangerous than beach volleyball, but still significantly less sexy. Look how bundled up she is!

“I heard a pop,” said May-Treanor, who was practicing the jive on the show’s ballroom set when she ruptured her left Achilles tendon. “I was doing the Lindy Hop. I thought I flew out of control and hit the judges’ stairs, or it felt like I got hit in the back with a baseball bat. Then, I just couldn’t put weight on it.”

May-Treanor, who had a previous knee injury from playing volleyball, and her professional partner, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, had been a formidable dancing duo, scoring a 21 out of 30 for their previous foxtrot, mambo and paso double routines. Co-host Samantha Harris said what May-Treanor’s early exit means for the competition would be revealed on Tuesday’s show

Thank God she has a good body. That picture almost looks like somebody tried to put lipstick on a shark. A goth shark…that likes European men. Whoa, I think I just wrote the treatment for the next Underworld sequel. And it’s not even noon.

[The AP]