The CheckerBoard

1. Thoughts on Arsenal's pickups of Giroud and Podolski?

2. Starting safety opposite of Brian Randolph to start the season?

3. Newcastle, Guiness, 1554, or Sam Adams Octoberfest?

Three.

All boys.

Swain and Rucker is broadcast every day from the Pepsi Next studio, and callers call use the Mountain Dew hotline to get ahold of us.

Chicken, for three reasons.

1) Versatility.
2) Fried chicken. My favorite food EVAR.
3) Chicken N' Dumplins. My other favorite food EVAR.

You're gross.

I also would like to see every MLB stadium. I'd also like to do a London trip of pub crawls and soccer stadium crawls. I'd also like to step foot on every continent. Except Antarctica. Because cold weather sucks.

I'd also like to run a marathon. Just kidding. Running sucks. And it's boring.

1a) Not kidding: Uncovering/writing stories about kids who have overcome a lot on and especially off the field to get where they got. I love those stories. My absolute favorites.

1b) The lack of time off. I never get to turn off my brain. Makes you feel like going crazy sometimes. I have nights occasionally where I cuss and yell a lot and say, "I'm over this (ish)." Then I get up the next day and realize I love what I do. But I'd like more time off.

2) Books. I don't have time for anything else these days. I read a lot between midnight and 3 a.m. It's my me time. I'm rarely happier than I am when I'm at a baseball field, though — whether it's an MLB game or college game or minor league game or my brother's HS games. I just love baseball. Always have, always will. It's the best.

3) Yes. I like covering college hoops more than I like covering college football. I don't dislike college football at all. I like it a lot. I just like college hoops more.

Nope. Her parents made two boys and one girl — one really, really, hot girl. And she's all mine.

I recommend Colin Powell's new book to you - "It Worked for Me - In Life and Leadership", where he talks alot about your answer to 1b - not being able to turn it off.

I like to spend he spends all his free time finding athletic women to mate with and produce Cubs OFs for several generations.

In reality, though, he's been working with the Marlins. That's what he was doing last I heard, anyway.

1) Best part: Learning just how good of a guy/husband/father he is. Just a genuinely good guy. We become better friends all the time, but we're too busy to schedule too many cookouts and stuff because we're never free at the same time. Gotta get the Swains over to the new house for a BBQ, though. His ribs and chicken were fantastic — I mean, the dude can grill — but I will find a way to beat him. Even if I have to hire a ringer.

2) Worst part: People disagreeing with me just because they don't like me, and people agreeing with Swain just because he's a former Vol. That VFL card is BS, man.

(Note: I'm kidding on No. 2. Nothing bad about getting to know Swain.)