Marley Shelton ThalĂ­a Brooke Burke Thandie Newton Liz Phair

As we detailed Sunday, one of the final outstanding issues between the owners and players in the ongoing work stoppage everyone hopes will end this week is the $320 million in lost benefits that weren't paid out in the uncapped year of 2010. We've had several questions from readers regarding how those benefits were lost ? after all, it's tough to lose that much money under a seat cushion on the couch ? and Yahoo! Sports has learned that the source of the requested restitution of benefits is less about pure cash and more about actual unfunded benefits.

There were specific benefits in capped years that owners were beholden to pay to players in capped seasons, per the old collective bargaining agreement. When the league turned to an uncapped year in 2010, and revisions to the overall compensation structure were made, benefits lapsed in several different sectors. For coaches, this meant that their 401(k) plans would no longer be funded ? and that move was made by an owner vote in May of 2009. For players, 401(k) funding as well as other similar benefits ? tuition reimbursement, supplemental health plans, and other obligations that would have been set in a capped season ? were off the table for 2010.  

In addition, the loss of performance-based pay as a benefit was huge for both sides ? it prevented many players with low base salaries from earning bonuses based on participation as they had in previous years, and it allowed the owners to pocket at least an additional $100 million dollars in 2010. In 2009, total performance-based pay totaled over $109 million, according to Football Outsiders salary cap expert Brian McIntyre.

Many of the league's best young players received extra benefits based on performance over base salary ? $282,000 to Atlanta Falcons cornerback Brent Grimes, $294,000 to Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker Geno Hayes, $301,000 to Green Bay Packers guard Josh Sitton, $304,000 to San Francisco 49ers safety Dashon Goldson, $306,000 to Seattle Seahawks linebacker David Hawthorne, and $317,000 to New Orleans Saints guard Carl Nicks. Losing those kinds of incentives for 2010 was bad news for players like Houston Texans running back Arian Foster, who's set to make $480,000 base salary in 2011 despite leading the NFL in rushing last season.

In the new proposed salary cap structure, it's estimated that there will be approximately $20 million in benefits per team above the $120 million cap, and that's been standard operating procedure in previous capped seasons ? player costs actually consist of cap spending as well as benefits and other ancillary expenditures. As the NFLPA goes through that series of line items, and both sides wish to move forward with the idea that everyone's able to proceed as if this little work stoppage never happened, reconciling those lost benefits would seem to be a wise move.

It's also been our speculation in the recent past that with Judge David Doty set to rule on damages in the lockout insurance case, the owners might be happy to pay those lost benefits as part of a global settlement that would cause Doty's ruling to be far less a factor. The owners were caught trying to strong-arm television networks into giving them guaranteed broadcast and digital rights fees ? all the better to fund an extended work stoppage ? and Doty held the approximately $4 billion received in escrow while he considered damages.

The judge who has generally ruled in favor of the players over the last 20 years has been quiet while negotiations continue, but he could drop a nine-figure hammer at any time that could further complicate the process, and benefit payments could be the one thing that could ease that transition.

Mia Kirshner Elisabeth Röhm Lily Allen Emmanuelle Chriqui Anna Faris

Part of Mid-Major Week.

Will Goggans was just trying to have some fun.

Last June, Troy's punter looked in the mirror and pictured himself with a long flowing beard. So he decided to grow one. By December it was seven and a half inches long, bleached blonde and a college football phenomenon.

"I've always been kind of weird with what I do with my hair," Goggans said. "I had a mullet for like a month and a half the year before the beard. I've always had long facial hair and I've cut it into just a mustache and I've had some fun with it. And then I decided to grow out the full beard.

"I had no idea it would catch on the way it did. I did it and I was just thinking people were going to look at me a little weird when I was on the streets and stuff, but I had no idea that it would have that kind of success just pop culture-wise. It was ridiculous what people were saying after the game. I had no idea it was going to be like that."

Thanks to the beard, Goggans had the best punting season of his career averaging 42.2 yards per kick to place second in the Sun Belt Conference and 37th nationally. Prior to last season, Goggans' punting average had never cracked 40 yards per kick.

"I had the best year of my career last year and I attribute that to the beard," Goggans said. "The beard is my muse."

Despite the love of the beard, Goggans had to shave it in the spring because it was just too hot.

"I figured I'd just shave it off and just look like a normal human being for a couple months," he said.

But he immediately regretted it and decided to grow it back in May, a full month earlier than he started growing it a year ago, in hopes of achieving the perfect ZZ Top look before he graduates from Troy.

"With this being my last year, I figured I should have a little bit of fun while I can because once I get out of college, where else am I going to be able to have a beard like that?" Goggan said.

But growing the beard is just the beginning. Goggans is considering using different colors in the beard throughout the season. He's contemplating red, white and blue for September and pink in October for breast cancer awareness. He said at the very least, he'd bring back the (above) bleached look around Christmas time.

But for now, it's all about grooming and maintaining the look for optimum growth. He's careful not to get food in the beard. He washes it with Old Spice shampoo and conditions with Head and Shoulders. He also combs the beard out every day to keep it from getting too fluffy.

As for how the ladies feel about his facial hair, Goggans said it's a crapshoot.

"The women either loved it or they hated it," Goggans said. "Some came up to me, ran their fingers through it and loved it. Other girls were just like, 'Yeah, you're going to have to shave it.' And, 'Stand at a certain distance when you talk to me.' It was a love or hate thing."

But the guys in the locker room and the fans love it, and Goggans said he aims to please. He's hoping the beard will propel him to his best season ever and perhaps give him an opportunity to take his talents -- and his beard -- to a bigger stage.

"I'm doing this for the fun of it and I hope people will have fun with me."

Graham Watson is a regular contributor Dr. Saturday. Follow her on Twitter @Yahoo_Graham

Laetitia Casta Claudette Ortiz Julia Stiles Marisa Miller AnnaLynne McCord

Jim Weber runs LostLettermen.com, a site devoted to keeping tabs on former college athletes and other nostalgia. Recently, he tracked down legendary college football play-by-play man Keith Jackson.

Certain phrases uttered by certain broadcasters become so iconic they're bound together for eternity. People will always remember that Walter Cronkite finished his nightly newscast with, "And that's the way it is," and that Edward R. Murrow always closed with, "Good night, and good luck."

When people hear the words "Whoa, Nellie!", they think of one man: Keith Jackson.

But if the retired broadcasting legend had his way, that wouldn't be the case. In fact, he's still trying to figure out how the two got so intertwined.

"I never did use it that much, just a couple times when Grease (Bob Griese) and I were (broadcasting) together," Jackson, now 82, said this week from his home in Sherman Oaks, Calif. "Bob Griese used it more than I did. I don't know how that thing got hung on me. The media likes to hang things on you and that was my bad luck, I guess."

Does he even like the phrase?

"Eh," Jackson replied. "I haven't used it ? I never did use it much ? and I haven't used it in a long time. It's amazing how it's hung on."

It's done more than hang on. It's taken on a life of its own. People ask him how and when it started. He doesn't know, but many claim it was actually coined by a Los Angeles broadcaster named Dick Lane. People have incorrectly speculated that Jackson had a goat in his home state of Georgia named Nellie, and a stranger once approached his wife of nearly 60 years, Turi Ann, and said, "Excuse me, you must be Nellie."

"Whoa, Nellie!" or not, Jackson and his voice are still deeply missed by college football fans, many of whom haven't heard it since his final telecast at the 2006 Rose Bowl between Texas and USC.

Speaking from his home now, Jackson doesn't use the booming baritone voice that he's known for, but his Southern accent and stoic understatement remain unmistakable. He seems perplexed as to why anyone would be interested in knowing what he's doing now and agrees to be interviewed only if it doesn't take too long. Anyone hoping Jackson would reconsider his second retirement after the '06 Rose Bowl aren't about to get their wish. Five years later, Jackson says he has no regrets about leaving.

[Related: College football's Top 10 most unruly fanbases]

Jackson hasn't attended a single game in retirement and doesn't plan on it. When he flipped the coin before the 2010 BCS National Championship Game between Texas and Alabama, Jackson walked out of the Rose Bowl afterward and went home to watch the game on TV.

"I have not ever considered coming back again," Jackson said definitively."I watch some (college football) on television, I'm just not glued to it. It's not a passion that it once was because I did it 54 years."

Jackson still has one broadcasting gig on the side. From a Los Angeles studio, he will be voicing over the Big Ten Network's "Icons" series on the most legendary coach from all 12 Big Ten schools. And of course, people have been nagging Jackson for an autobiography on one of the longest and most pathbreaking careers in sports, which also put him in the booth for the first-ever broadcast of Monday Night Football and the first sports broadcast by an American from the Soviet Union.

"If I could get someone like John Grisham or someone like that to sit down and write a book with me, I'd love that," Jackson said of the best-selling author. "And John might even consider it if I could catch up to him and ask him."

Just don't expect it to be titled, "Whoa, Nellie!"

More popular stories on LostLettermen.com:
? College football's 20 best helmets
? Ohio State Buckeye fan takes O-H-I-O to grave
? College football's most lavish tattoos
? Oregon State player shatters backboard, face
? Gus Johnson 'calls' Abby Wambach's goal

Mischa Barton Jamie Lynn Sigler Stacy Keibler Rihanna America Ferrera

Let he who has not snuck some sleep while watching the Chicago Cubs play baseball cast the first stone.

That's all I have to say about this mini-hubbub that erupted over the weekend when Florida Marlins reliever Edward Mujica fell asleep during Saturday's game at Wrigley Field and was caught by the Cubs' television camera crew.

But though I'd venture to guess that most of us found Mujica's snoozing in the right-field bullpen harmless and hilarious (or at the very least, bemusing and benign), Cubs color analyst Bob Brenly was a bit more offended and said so:

"Boy, that is embarrassing," Brenly said. "Can you imagine any other job in the world where you show up at your desk or your workplace and, oh, take a little nap for the first hour or so of work there. Come on! Sleep at night."

A workplace where you show up and immediately go to sleep?

Is Brenly not familiar with the current state of big league umpiring? Hey-o!

Watch Mujica count Bartmen with his eyes closed (via MLB.com):

If Mujica felt any shame for his nap ? which occurred during the second inning of Florida's 13-3 win, way before he might have possibly been summoned ? he wasn't going to admit it.

He would admit, however, that it wasn't his first time catching some Z's during a game.

From MLB.com:

"It wasn't even five minutes," Mujica said on Sunday before the Marlins' series finale with the Cubs. "I closed my eyes and I looked over and, 'That's it.' They got me right there."

A Venezuela native, Mujica caught up on some early-inning sleep during his years with San Diego. He said he would nap the first three innings before heading to the bullpen ...

If an intrusive camera locates him dozing off again, Mujica is now prepared. He made a sign that reads: "Cameraman, please do not disturb."

Look, this isn't Ken Griffey Jr. reportedly retiring to the clubhouse to sleep during a game and being unavailable for pinch-hit duty. The baseball season is 162 games long and it's impossible for anyone to pay attention to every single minute of action. If you ask me, Mujica's nap is no different than players taking five minutes to find something in the clubhouse, playing a prank on another teammate or locating pretty girls in the stands.

Plus, as Brenly and broadcast mate Len Kasper later acknowledged, other players who enjoy their "evenings-free" road trips to Chicago often have the same problem.

If Mujica had later entered the game and been blown away by the Cubs offense, maybe we'd have a problem. But he never even entered the game and his record in 2011 ? a 3.07 ERA and 0.90 WHIP over 44 innings ? suggests that he should keep his routine in place.

Do you think differently?

Want more baseball fun all season long?
Follow Big League Stew on Facebook and Twitter!

Jennifer Sky Samantha Mathis Samantha Morton Grace Park Jill Wagner

With the white-hot focus on Ohio State, Oregon and North Carolina lately, it's easy to think of The Scandal of the 2010 season as ancient history, if you think of it at all. True, the charges that Auburn quarterback/übermensch Cam Newton was shopped by his father to the highest bidder as the nation's most coveted juco recruit in 2010 came in last November like a tidal wave no college football fan can forget. But they receded again almost as quickly after the NCAA declared Newton eligible to play in the SEC and BCS championship games, leaving no apparent damage. No harm, no foul, right? Auburn passed the test, right?

So thought Tiger fans, and according to the New York Times' Pete Thamel, so thought Tiger coach Gene Chizik. Or at least he did, until an NCAA rep set the record straight during last month's SEC meetings in Destin (emphasis added):

Julie Roe Lach, the N.C.A.A.'s vice president for enforcement, made a presentation to the group, which included every men's basketball coach, football coach and athletic director in the conference. When she opened up the room for discussion, Auburn's football coach, Gene Chizik, raised his hand first.

He peppered Roe Lach with a flurry of questions about the N.C.A.A.'s investigation into Cam Newton and why the N.C.A.A. had not publicly announced that the investigation was over. Chizik complained that the inquiry's open-ended nature had hurt Auburn's recruiting and he followed up at least three times, leading to a testy exchange.

"You'll know when we're finished," Roe Lach told Chizik, according to several coaches who were at the meeting. "And we're not finished."

Three SEC hoops coaches at the meeting confirmed the exchange on the record, including Vanderbilt's Kevin Stallings, who told Thamel that Roe Lach was "serious," and that the NCAA in general is trying to send a message to "bad elements in college athletics" that it's "bigger and more aggressive" about enforcement than it's been in the past.

What no one has suggested, however, is that the NCAA (or anyone else) has actually uncovered new evidence that might lead to a different verdict than the "all clear" it gave Newton in December despite finding Cecil Newton guilty of soliciting a six-figure payment from Mississippi State for his son's services. Then, the decision was based on three improbable conclusions:

a) There was no evidence or direct allegations that Cam Newton knew he was being shopped by his father or anyone else;
b) There was no evidence or direct allegations that Cam or Cecil Newton solicited Auburn for anything;
And, despite the elder Newton's alleged overtures to Mississippi State, c) there was no evidence or direct allegations that Cam or Cecil were actually paid anything by anyone.

To many, many observers, that looked like a copout, or hypocrisy, or ? at best ? an outrageous loophole that somehow tolerates asking as long as it doesn't lead to accepting. But all these months later, the bottom line is the same: Unless evidence emerges that Cam Newton knew he was being shopped, that he or his father solicited Auburn or that he actually accepted improper benefits, the "all clear" verdict will stand.

At this point, we still don't have any way of knowing whether the NCAA has made any headway along any of those lines. But even if he picked the wrong setting, it's hard to blame Chizik for wondering how long it plans to keep looking.

- - -
Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

Alexis Bledel Kim Kardashian China Chow Alecia Elliott Kat Von D

Part of Mid-Major Week.

Far be it from the NCAA, in all its dispassionate wisdom, to play favorites with the fate of its own record book at stake. But when it decided in January to grant Houston quarterback Case Keenum's request for a medical hardship, the announcement might as well have come with condolence notes to Timmy Chang and Graham Harrell and a gallon of whiteout for the publishing department: With a sixth year of eligibility, Keenum is a mere 3,486 yards and 27 touchdowns shy of the career records currently owned by Chang and Harrell, after posting totals in 2008 and 2009 that make that gap look like a short hop over a puddle. If his reconstructed knee holds up, both records will be his long before Thanksgiving.

In other words, Keenum has managed to hit the cosmic "Reset" button, picking up the game almost exactly where he left off last summer, before he was felled by a season-ending knee injury in the Cougars' third game. Then, as now, he was expected to smash every record in sight by force of sheer volume. Then, as now, he was widely expected to lead Houston back to the Conference USA title game in December. Then, as now, he faced the doubts about whether he deserves to be considered anything more than another "system" quarterback lucky enough to play in an offense that keeps the pedal to the floor against inferior defenses.

And then, as now, he can only answer the skeptics with the championship that's eluded him to date.

In the first place, Keenum puts it in the air a lot ? he averaged more than 45 passes per game in 2008 and more than 50 in 2009 ? and a disproportionate number of those throws are of the "long handoff" variety: Short, high-percentage bubble screens, swing passes, slants and quick hitches designed to move the chains with run-after-catch yards, a system tailor-made for a smart guy with a less-than-spectacular arm. Keenum's average completion in '09 covered 11.2 yards, which might qualify as "average" if you're being generous. In the second place, his outrageous numbers came largely under the watch of ex-offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen, a former Mike Leach protégé who proved last year at Oklahoma State ? and hopes to prove again as the new head coach at West Virginia ? that there isn't a Division I quarterback he can't turn into a star.

Outside of the system, Keenum has been made to look like a mere mortal in each of his last four appearances against teams that aren't Texas State. Coming off the regular season from hell in 2009, he subsequently served up three picks to underdog East Carolina in a 38-32 loss in the Conference USA Championship Game, followed by a six-interception effort against Air Force in a straight-up meltdown in the Armed Forces Bowl. Before his injury last year, he failed to throw a touchdown pass for the first time in 31 games in a blowout win over UTEP and was hounded into two more picks in the first half of an eventual loss at UCLA. Altogether, Keenum tossed twice as many interceptions in those four games (12) as touchdowns (6), and has dropped his last four starts outside of Robertson Stadium.
Not that any of those points will keep him from his records, or from lifting Houston back into the black against a shootout-friendly schedule that fails to include a single team ? not one ? that finished in the top 40 nationally last year in total or scoring defense. (Outside of reigning West Division champ SMU, no other D on the upcoming slate even finished among the top 60 by either measure.) After an opening-day visit from UCLA, the next nine weeks should be like shooting fish in a barrel, and the only reason to stop there is the shaky assumption that a veteran SMU outfit will bring some semblance of D to Space City on Nov. 19.

If not, Keenum may not face a respectable defense until the C-USA title game, or even the bowl game. Conceivably, he could go the entire season without coming across a single opponent that rises to the level of "competent" against the pass. That's very, very good news for the box score, and for Houston's championship ambitions if its own defense holds up in the face of a few equally smoldering attacks from the likes of East Carolina, SMU and Tulsa. (See: Brennan, Colt, circa 2007.)

It also means there are no excuses for the kind of struggles that derailed a banner season two years ago. If the Cougars aren't playing for some hardware on the first weekend in December, the red carpet into the record books is going to come with one very bitter pill at the end.

- - -
Matt Hinton is on Twitter: Follow him @DrSaturday.

FSU Cowgirls Abbie Cornish Krista Allen Hayden Panettiere Jules Asner

Anna Faris Lil Kim Kelly Ripa Yvonne Strzechowski Rhona Mitra

Veronika Vaeková Eve Brittany Lee Daisy Fuentes Asia Argento

Kristanna Loken Aubrey ODay Drew Barrymore Marley Shelton ThalĂ­a