5 Stories Worth Reading On ESPN.com

Not that there aren’t more than five, I’ve just picked five in recent memory that I thought were good reads. These are in no particular order.

The Fans: This was the one that actually inspired me to write this post. Stories From The Stands profiles NFL fanatics from every town. Having gone to college in Tampa, the picture of the Bucs' biggest fan on the front page got me to click. "Big Nasty" really is a legend in the Tampa Bay area and is well known for being a truly nice guy. He’s been featured in the area at charity events and a fixture in local news. One of the coolest thing about him is that you won’t hear any profanity coming from his direction as he cheers on the Bucs. All this and a role model too!

The Bag Man: I never gave much thought to Steve Williams until I read the lengthy profile on ESPN. Better known as caddy to Tiger Woods, he’s got a pretty remarkable story of his own. A New Zealand native, he decided he would be the world’s best caddy at a very young age. In fact, he fibbed about his age in order to get his first gig. Now he’s into auto racing on the side when he isn’t carrying the bag for the world’s number one golfer.

The Cheater: Whenever we hear about bad behavior in sports (or otherwise) we don’t often get the whole picture. This story focuses on an individual that was likely hurt more than anyone else in the Tim Donaghy scandal. Gerry Donaghy – his father. He was also a referee earlier in his life and was commenting that the NBA should shoulder some of the blame. We may never get the full story about the cheating involved in the NBA but some have a hard time believing that merely one person could be involved. Of course, Tim Donaghy’s acts were terribly despicable and I hope he was an isolated example.

The Sumo Wrestler: I don’t mean to make light of a violent outburst, but when I saw the headline that read "Sumo wrestler has to take pay cut after hitting apprentice with ladle" I had to click it. The good news? A change in culture. Apparently there has been a long-standing tradition of hazing in the Sumo world. Recently, one apprentice died after such beatings. The guilty party in the utensil case was disciplined as a measure to confirm that the sport will no longer tolerate this nonsense. The regulators hope that this will attract more recruits to Sumo if they clean up their act.

The “Whiner”: We all know Terrell Owens for his attention-seeking behavior. One writer was fed up and decided to highlight the other side of this seemingly high-maintenance star. Read this one and see that, “It's all a bit irritating to me. Because for all the press this guy has received during the past four years or so, the words "arrested," "domestic violence," "rape," "assault," "DUI," "steroids" or "phone calls to the Minnesota Vikings using a Green Bay Packers telephone" have never been attached to him.

What I do know is that Owens has been an advocate in the fight against Alzheimer's disease, volunteered in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina without any Manning-like fanfare, donated a game check to the Sri Lanka tsunami relief fund, signed a waiver saying that the Philadelphia Eagles would not be financially responsible if he got hurt playing in the Super Bowl against doctor's orders, and opened his offseason home in suburban Atlanta on Saturday mornings to the guys at Crunch who could play with their mouths shut.”

What are some of your favorite stories on ESPN.com?