Couch Potato Saturday

I'm a sports fanatic — not quite as bad as I used to be (I don't watch the NBA,MLB, or the NHL any more…at all) — but I still love amateur sports and racing sports.

My upstairs man cave

Which means that once I'm done with my CrossFit garage gym workout (today's WOD: 5 rounds for time of: Row 500m + 12 x 135lb hang power cleans + 15 x 95lb thruster) and taking the dogs for a hike in the canyon — I'm going to plant my butt in my recliner up in my man cave to watch today's slate of great sports:

• NASCAR — Danica Patrick makes her NASCAR debut today in the Nationwide Series Camping World 300 from Daytona International Speedway. I'm a big NASCAR fan, but I'm glad to see the gender barrier being torn down in the all-boys club of stock car racing.

Of course Danica isn't the first women to ever race in NASCAR (that distinction goes to Sara Christian who competed in the 1949 NASCAR Strictly Stock series, running 6 of the season's 8 events.

But most women drivers in the past were never given an even-footed chance to compete with their male counterparts. They were often hindered with under-funded operations and in many cases harassed by their competitors.

This has definitely changed for Danica, and I wish her luck in today's race.

• Nebraska vs. Texas (#14) (men's basketball) — The only sport I love more than Texas Longhorns football is Texas Longhorns basketball. When this team was 17-0, I thought this might be the most talented and deep team that Texas has ever had on the court. They still might be. But they are struggling with team chemistry, losing 5 of their last 7 games.

The line up change today, with freshman Guard JaCovan Brown getting the start, might be the change the team needs.

Before the UT games starts (at 3:00), there's also the Tennessee (#12) vs. Kentucky (#1) game, which should be fantastic shootout.

• The Olympics — While I definitely prefer the summer games, I'm still a big fan of watching and rooting for our nation's athletes competing on the world stage against international competition.

I was not that impressed with the Opening Ceremony last night — other than the Parade of Nations, which is always great. I guess following up the Opening Ceremony from Beijing in 2008 was just too high a bar to match, so instead Canada just decided not to even try.

Before the Opening Ceremonies even started, these winter games were already marked with tragedy when 21-year old Georgia luger Nodar Kumaritashvili was killed during a training run on the controversial luge track. I've seen the video of the crash, and wish I hadn't. I won't post it here, either. If you want to see it, it's easy enough to find on the Internet.