DaytonDailyNews.com

It doesn't matter what happened in any of those games Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 27. In my mind, nothing's going to top the 1998 game between the Lions and Steelers.

It went overtime, and the referee asked Pittsburgh's Jerome Bettis to call the coin flip for overtime. Mind you, the ref was miked, so everybody in the free world heard Bettis call "tails." The referee somehow heard "heads," Detroit got the ball, scored on a field goal and won.

Wish my wife would mis-hear some of the things I've said over the years.

What's in a name?

Naming sporting events after commercial companies would not be such a bad idea — if that would mean a reduction in commercials during the games.

Alas, it does not, so I'm generally against it.

I'm also wondering what naming an entire week does for a network, such as ESPN, which is the world leader in this practice. Did you know this was Feast Week Presented by Lowe's?

Remember when football bowl season was upon us and you knew where the bowls were going to be played? Now where's that Capital One Bowl this year?

We've even pulled basketball into the branding fray. There's the Dick's Sporting Goods NIT Season Tip-Off, the EA Sports Maui Invitational, Old Spice Classic, O'Reilly Auto Parts CBE Classic and the 76 Classic.

Other than that Maui thing, got any idea where these events are being held? New York, Maui, Orlando, Kansas City and Anaheim.

Today must be a slip up. ESPN is televising Duquesne at Duke at 3 p.m. That's it. Just a game. No name.

Soccer strikes out

Although I knew it was on, and I had a remote so I could have found the station, I didn't watch the MLS Cup championship, won by Columbus. Apparently, not many others did, either. I'm told it received a .7 rating.

Compare that with Fox's 14.5 rating for the recent New York Giants/Arizona Cardinals regular-season NFL game.

Rain helped ratings

Television runs sports and ratings run television, which is why Fox was happy with that rainy World Series finish.

With the five games running for more than 17 hours, the math wizards at Fox figured that was worth a season's worth of rating points from a top-20 show.