Pictured L to R: Mark Sanchez, Tim Tebow

“Here’s the story, of a lovely lady…”

‘The Brady Bunch’ is one of my favorite shows of all-time. Its reruns were my first real, sustained exposure to popular culture from before I was born, and something about a house full of lingo-spewing, disco-monster siblings appealed to an only child from the 80s. And hey, thankfully for me (and the Sports On TV column) the show is full of sports content, be it memorable (like Joe Namath showing up in a dream sequence to reveal he couldn’t have won the Super Bowl without a buck-toothed 8-year old) or the obscure (Wes Parker? Really?).

If you’ve never watched ‘The Brady Bunch’, flip through the column anyway. I’ve included applicable clips when possible, and at the very least you’ll want to see a Pony League game set to funk music. Show it to your parents or something.

And now, the 20 greatest sports moments from ‘The Brady Bunch’. Keep on, keep on, keep on, keep on clickin’ on through the post.

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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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An election year is the perfect time to point out that the people of the United States can’t agree about anything. We can’t agree on whether or not people should have human rights, we can’t agree on what constitutes conception or murder and we let ‘The King Of Queens’ run for 9 seasons and keep shows like ‘Parks And Recreation’ on the cancelation bubble. We’re emotionally and socially f**ked, but the one thing I think we can all agree on is that the NFL Pro Bowl is the most worthless thing we do annually and nobody would be sad if they kicked it in the ribs and tossed it in the garbage.

It looks like garbage day has finally arrived.

Here’s what ESPN’s Chris Mortensen said to Mike and Mike this morning on ‘Mike and Mike in the Morning’:

“The league is moving toward suspending the Pro Bowl, possibly this year. As one person told me last night, it is DOA, Dead on Arrival. At the same time, the league, I believe, will instruct teams to continue to put Pro Bowl incentives in contracts; if players have Pro Bowl incentives, to go ahead and pay them so they don’t have a problem with the union.

“Right now, the Pro Bowl is on the calendar for the week before the Super Bowl, but there’s no game site that is listed, if you look at it closely. The reason why is, after a lot of discussion, I think this commissioner Roger Goodell and other league people, and even some of the players, are basically saying, as Aaron Rodgers criticized last year’s performance, that there’s no reason to play in the Pro Bowl.”

Everyone’s so okay with this that even the commenters at Shutdown Corner have taken a break from demanding the firing of everyone with blogging privileges to post “yeah the pro bowl sucks get rid of it”.

And Aaron Rodgers is totally right — there is no reason to play in the Pro Bowl, unless you want to add a tiny amount of additional money to your Football Guy moneybin. If they’re going to keep doing it, they need to fun it up a little and make it like an episode of ‘GUTS’. Give everybody flags and nerf balls and maybe kayaks and see who can score the most points before Mo blows the whistle. At least then you’d have the aging ironic viewership, and SOMEBODY would be watching.

Just like the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Pro Bowl had to tarp sections to avoid a blackout.

The 2012 Pro Bowl took place yesterday, in case you were glued to TNT’s broadcast of the Celebrity Drinking Contest annual SAG Awards, and it was basically everything you would expect, as the AFC defeated the NFC 59-41. The defenses played down, allowing the offensive players to do their things, and that’s why Philip Rivers only had one interception, instead of the standard 7. But I also commend rookie Can Newton for selflessly getting the defense involved by throwing 3 picks as well.

The star of the game, though, was Miami Dolphins wide receiver Brandon Marshall, who had 6 receptions for 176 yards and a Pro Bowl record 4 touchdowns, as he scored once in each quarter. Of course, the controversial wide receiver’s moment in the figurative sun didn’t last long as he eventually opened his mouth.

“Since Jay Cutler I’ve had a few different quarterbacks and being in the Pro Bowl you have these elite quarterbacks and it’s all them,” he said. “They put [the ball] in the right spots and make it easy for me to make the catch. It’s all the quarterbacks.” (Via the Miami Herald)

While he’s right – in the last two seasons, he’s had four QBs in Matt Moore, Chad Henne, Chad Pennington and Tyler Thigpen – some have misconstrued Marshall’s words as an attack on Moore. That would be true if the Dolphins hadn’t already made it clear that they’re looking to upgrade at QB. But I digress. At least the Pro Bowl gave us something to talk about.

In the meantime, people will continue to question the need for the Pro Bowl, and those people need to shush. The Pro Bowl is great for what it is – a chance for guys who get their asses kicked for 18 weeks to f*ck around and have some fun. The NFL just needs to move it back to after the Super Bowl so the players from the eventual championship team can attend and remind all of the other players how much worse they are. That’s the true NFL spirit.

Now enjoy some of the game’s best moments before everyone goes back to airing David Tyree’s catch over and over for the next 6 days.

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This is from last year's Pro Bowl, but you probably didn't even notice. Good job.

You know how every year, when the Pro Bowl comes around, you and your friends are always saying “PSH NO WAY I’M WATCHING THAT IT’S NOT REAL FOOTBALL”? Well, some of you are lying, because this year’s Pro Bowl was the most-viewed one in 14 years. WHY ARE YOU MAKING ROGER GOODELL LOOK COMPETENT?
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The Pro Bowl rosters in the National Football League were released, and there aren’t many big deals. Oh wait! Mike Vick’s the starting quarterback for the NFC! He’s finally redeemed himself!

Let me give some recognition to some of the guys on the list who might have not been there before. Congratulations to you, Atlanta Falcon John Abraham, because your 13 sacks and interception qualify you to make your first Pro Bowl since 2004. Also, let’s give a round of applause for Cleveland’s Joe Thomas, who’s always been a beast on the offensive line. Finally, Maurkice Pouncey, a rookie center for the Steelers, made the Pro Bowl. Good for you! I could keep going on with all these admirable entries this season, but you’d probably get as bored as actually watching the Pro Bowl.

I make it a yearly ritual to do my part and vote in the Pro Bowl. I try to give the trip to Hawaii to the players who actually deserve it and don’t just have a flashy name. Although I make the effort to this, I have never actually watched a minute of it. Why? It looks really boring.

There are sometimes incentives for making the Pro Bowl in player contracts, which is why it still holds some meaning, but besides that, I have no desire to watch some guys have fun in Hawaii playing football with attractive girls cheering them on while I’m stuck in cold-ass New England. I guess I could sum this up by saying, “F–k the Pro Bowl.” Put THAT on your Hawaiian t-shirts.