At just before noon, I got a text from a pal who told me some big news was about to break from God's country. Minutes later, he or she filled me in on what was transpiring- Patrick Bade was going to go back to the gridiron and play for coach Hope.

It sounded pretty crazy, but a few years ago, the Tight End, Patrick Bade was offered by the, now retired, Vest at aOSU. Who knows, had a few things been different, maybe Bade would have been in Columbus all along and never had the chance to play on the hardwood for Matty. But, Bade followed JJ from Franklin Central up to West Lafayette, and it probably didn't go as he thought it would. But I'm glad he came to Purdue and am looking forward to seeing him play in Ross Ade.

At 6'8", he'll be one of the tallest Boilers playing for Hope (along with Snapp, Foy and Kelly), but he'll be the tallest TE by quite a few inches. My gut tells me that he'll redshirt this season, get a scholly in '12 and move inside to Tackle. But who knows, he might look pretty darned athletic as a TE...Let's not forget how awkward the athletic, big TE, Charles Davis looked playing for Geno a few years ago.

Just in case you're wondering, people close to the situation seem to believe Painter was pretty surprised that Bade decided to leave the team in this manner.

Custodian's Karma

If you watched the Mavs v. Heat game, you saw Purdue fan favorite, Brian Cardinal play a few minutes. Sure, you could focus on the fact that he scored a few less points than Nowitzki, didn't grab as many boards as Chandler and didn't shoot the ball like Terry...but every real basketball fan can see what I see- when Cardinal plays, the Mavs win...and when the Mavs are winning right now, the detestable Heat are losing.

Clearly, Brian Cardinal's ability to defeat evil is only rivaled by the likes of Chuck Norris, Winston Churchill and Space Ghost.