FODDER: Fajardo critical to UNR success

Sports fodder for a Friday morning . . . Cody Fajardo is without question the most important player to the fortunes of the Nevada Wolf Pack football team this season. With Fajardo at quarterback the Pack should have no problem winning eight or nine games. Without Fajardo, well, how does 2-10 sound? The first year in the Mountain West this season will look awfully similar to that disastrous debut in the Western Athletic Conference in 2000 if Fajardo isn't able to play. Fajardo is clearly the MVP -- Most Valuable Pack -- and it's not even close. Fajardo missed a couple practices this week because of a sore shoulder. The nightmare has already started. The Pack needs to wrap him up in pillows and feathers until the opener Sept. 1 at California. Feed him breakfast in bed each morning, give him a limo ride to practice everyday, where he just lounges in a Lazy Boy recliner sipping refreshing sports drinks. The theme of the 2012 Pack is Keep Cody Comfortable. The season depends on it.

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Is Boise State's bubble finally going to burst this year? Is the fun over for the Broncos' football program? Are their days of being the Cinderella story that captures the nation's heart finally over? Well, probably, but the rest of the nation might not notice for another year or two. Boise State has lost a ton of talent over the last few years. They are nowhere near as deep and talented as they've been the last few years. We'll find out a lot about the 2012 Broncos next week when they play at Michigan State. Forget Dec. 1 at Mackay Stadium. The Broncos' national title dreams might be over by Sept. 1.

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It's time we all accept the fact that baseball players will forever continue to use performance enhancing drugs. Deal with it or go watch soccer. The important thing is that the record book is no longer being turned into a book of fairytales. Nobody is hitting 50 homers a year these days, let alone 60 or 70. And the players no longer resemble bloated professional wrestlers. The Bartolo Colons of the world will always cheat because they have nothing to lose. The Melky Cabreras and Guillermo Motas of the world will also cheat because, well, you don't have to become a Jeopardy champion to play baseball.

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Are you over your Summer Olympics hangover yet? What Summer Olympics hangover, you ask? Exactly. The Olympics is like a Reno-area event (Air Races, rodeo, Reno Aces, Hot August Nights, Reno Bighorns, balloon races, rib cook-off, most Wolf Pack seasons). Five minutes after it's over, nobody remembers or cares that it actually took place.

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The Reno Aces are a shell of their former selves. The team that raced to the top of the division is gone. Patrick Corbin, Tyler Skaggs, Jake Elmore, Ryan Wheeler, A.J. Pollock are all now in Arizona with the Diamondbacks. Trevor Bauer might join them shortly. Cody Ransom is in Milwaukee. Randy Ruiz is in another country. Barry Enright is in Salt Lake City. The same thing happened last year when Wily Mo Pena, Collin Cowgill, Ransom and Brandon Allen all left before the playoffs, gutting the team. The Aces aren't Reno's team. They are Arizona's team. That's the reality of Triple-A baseball.

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Don't look now but high school football season starts tonight. There's nothing like getting blown out in your first football game in August and crushing school spirit before the students even report for their first class. Football is not a summer sport. If you have to start the football season in late August before school even starts you are playing too many football games or ending the season way too soon.

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Nike is supposedly going to be selling a LeBron James basketball shoe for around $300. Half of LeBron's teammates can't even afford that. For $300, LeBron should come to your house, cook dinner, mow your lawn and give a basketball clinic in your driveway to the neighborhood kids. LeBron and Nike should be ashamed.