Thanks, ESPN

Those who follow college football may know about the fine work of Bruce Feldman. He has a regular blog on ESPN Insider (you have to pay to read that stuff). If you have the service, it's well worth your time, as are the Insider blogs of Buster Olney (MLB), Chad Ford (NBA), and Seth Wickersham (NFL).

Feldman has recently chronicled his move back to New York, and the standoff with his moving company that has ensued. He says he's still waiting for his stuff to arrive, and it's (shockingly) late. He used this "standoff" to create a contest for his blog readers, in which he created a spread related to college sports and the number of days it's taken his movers to get him his stuff.

As an example, the line "NORTH CAROLINA +6 Moving company" means that "It took the Tar Heels seven less days to give up 100 points last season than it's taken for your movers to deliver your stuff".

A recent posted line was "OKLAHOMA +4 Moving company". Yours truly threw in a guess, hoping to steal some free ESPN stuff. Low and behold, Feldman posted the following late last week:

Congrats to Bruce Ciskie from Proctor, Minn., who correctly answered that OU +4 was "Oklahoma's average margin of victory over Texas the last five years is four points lower than the number of days it's now taken the movers to deliver your stuff." For his genius, Bruce will receive a copy of the ESPN Sports Almanac; a Romain Sato Russian nesting doll; a Starter foam Bruinhead (donated by ESPN The Mag writer Eric Adelson); an official Fox 40 referee whistle (unused!) donated by my colleague The Skunk, and a special mystery prize plucked from some unsuspecting stooge in my office.

I arrived at home with my son today to find a box outside my door. My stuff has arrived! And, yes, Bruce Feldman was serious about sending me a Romain Sato Russian nesting doll. This proves, once and for all, that anything can be cool when it features the likeness of Romain Sato.

Thanks, ESPN. The Bruinhead might be lame (it's UCLA and not hockey's Boston Bruins as I had hope), but my son really likes the whistle, and he's not opposed to wearing the Bruinhead around the house, even though it's only been here for 20 minutes.