jblair,

that might be the most hilarious soccer picture I've seen - TJ poised with chainsaw next to goal as home team sets up for a corner...

The possibilities are endless, but I think a movie with the tag 'Bend it Like Beckham meets Saw III' would pull em in.

How convenient that the Duke case wraps up on the heels of the Imus flap so that all the media (Broadsheet included) don't really have to bend at the waist doing their collective mea culpas. They can sniff the air, shake their heads and like Belushi in Animal House after destroying the guitar, hand it back and mutter 'sorry'. Move on to Imus, fresh meat, we got HIM on TAPE.

Even your headline, 'botched case', gives off the air of "well it could have been true, if not for Nifong's bumbling and malfeasance". Listen to the NC AG's words. No credible evidence. Complete exoneration. Stop saying or intimating (talking to you Serena Roberts) we will never know for sure what happened in that house.

We know there was underage drinking, not a felony and I daresay an activity every single contributor to Salon under 40 has engaged in.

We know they hired a stripper (again not a crime, even if you and I don't like it), but did NOT specify race.

We know the two strippers showed up, danced, got paid, and left.

There is no credible evidence (again the AG's words, not mine) that ANYTHING else occurred, other than party cleanup and everyone leaving soon after the strippers left.

From Raleigh NewsObserver.

http://blogs.newsobserver.com/editor/index.php?title=why_we_re_naming_the_accuser&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

Crystal Gail Magnum for those too lazy to go to url.

apologies for serial post...

facts don't fit your version of reality, JC and Linney?

those two posts were complete garbage. 10 innocent men in prison equals one valid victim? Spare me. I thought being a liberal democrat in this country meant respecting the justice system.

And can I stop hearing about how they were spoiled and rich because they are white and play a sport at a top university. To me spoiled means undisciplined and lazy and having life handed to you, as in the Current Occupant. The CO would never have had the discipline or drive to play a varsity sport that demands so much. The accused come from successful families, yes, but since when it that a negative in our society?

There is no 'universal hate' of Duke students in Durham. I was in Durham for 4 years and had nothing but positive interactions in the local community. I'm not saying its a Lake Wobegon love-in, but c'mon can we get some reality here?

2 *'s out of 115. awesome.

1) I don't blame the families for wanting to celebrate their son's proclaimed innocence after spending more than a year under this daily cloud. To their credit, they are being circumspect about it and not publicly demanding the apologies they are so sorely owed, unlike some other recently wronged victims.

2) A lie is untruth. C'mon people, we have had six years of practice spotting them. The AG said no credible evidence. No DNA. Solid Alibis. Testimony so conflicting and tortured as to be useless. INNOCENT means she had to have been lying. There is no other way around it.

3) No doubt about it, there were agendas at stake here. Does the fact that Crystal Gail Magnum is a promiscuous, mentally unbalanced, and in this case, lying woman mean that she could not have been raped? No. But it just didn't happen this time.

Does the fact that male college students, who just as easily have been attending YOUR precious alma mater, got drunk and hired a stripper mean they are rapists? Obviously not.

Have rapes occurred under similar circumstances on college campuses in this country? Of course they have, and I agree 100% that those guilty of such behavior should be prosecuted and sentenced.

The Rutgers womens' team gains the Finals, thereby catching Imus's eye and forked tongue, in part because a Duke University All-American missed two deciding free-throws that would have eliminated Rutgers in an earlier round.

The Attorney General of the State of North Carolina pronounces 3 Duke student-athletes unequivocally innocent, puncturing the dogmas of many who had reacted with righteous certainty that these charges must have been true.

There is undeniably a strong overlap in those who are rejoicing in Imus's forced exit and those who this week had to temporarily sheath their swords drawn a year ago to slay the big bad dragon of the Great White Collegiate Male Athlete.

As a Duke alum, I am thrilled that my alma mater can continue to play a vital role in America's encounter with its racial and sexual tensions. I understand we are putting together a symposium of Ozzie Guillen, Ann Coulter, and Larry Summers on sex, race, and sport in the 21st century.

Well, Al and Jesse, some here on the sports blog would say that batting .500 in one week is good enough for Player of the Week. But you might consider that the longball you hit against the Imus fastball comes against your colossal whiff on three pitches in Durham, where fans are still wondering why you can't admit you can't hit the breaking stuff.