Honey Badger Art Arrives in Jackson Square; Herbstreit Would Vote Winner #1

One of my favorite things about arriving in New Orleans for a big football game is seeking out the most outlandish objects for sale to fans in town for the game.

Two years ago at the Sugar Bowl I found a Tim Tebow portrait for sale alongside Jesus and Barack Obama. Florida was set to play Cincinnati in Tebow's final game. After I wrote the story about the game and featured a picture of that artwork, Gator fans emailed -- and I'm not making this up -- for the next six months asking if I knew where they could find the Tim Tebow portrait. 

This year Jackson Square on a Friday afternoon didn't disappoint.

An artist who refused to give his name -- "This is probably illegal, right," -- had portraits of Tyrann Mathieu and Jordan Jefferson for sale.

Painted on stone.

Asked if he planned to put any Alabama players on stone, the artist shook his head.

"God, no," he said, "I root for LSU. I have some standards."

Asked whether or not the art, priced at $65 would sell, our anonymous artist replied, "Of course they will. And fast."

I would have asked more questions, but my three-year old, who stepped off the plane in New Orleans this afternoon and immediately proclaimed, "Where are the alligators?," insisted that daddy book him a swamp tour immediately.

I'll be writing a lot of content for OKTC over the next several days so check back frequently. I'll also be tweeting a ton. And, in a first, the brand new NBC sports network has given me a camera crew on Sunday to report from Bourbon Street. I'll also be doing a live report from the Superdome for NBC SportsTalk on Monday at 5:10. 

So, yeah, this long weekend is going to be pretty outstanding.

More outstanding than this artwork?

I'll let y'all be the judge of that.

In other news, I talked with Kirk Herbstreit yesterday. He did not agree with my opinion that if LSU lost a close game the Tigers should receive votes for the AP title. "I would vote Alabama number one," he said.

Herbstreit also said that he believed two players would decide the outcome of the game -- LSU's Jordan Jefferson and Alabama's Trent Richardson. In particular Herbstreit believed that Alabama got away from running Richardson when the Tide reached the LSU side of the field and said that Nick Saban and crew would not make that mistake again.

Herbstreit, who was forced to leave the first LSU-Alabama game to call Kansas State-Oklahoma State, said he's looking forward to calling this game, which will be his third BCS title game. "I remember taking off and looking at the stadium as we left for Oklahoma," Herbstreit said, "I'm glad we get to see this one."

"Last time I remember telling you as we rode to the (Tuscaloosa) airport I was rooting for a plane delay (to keep him at LSU-Alabama), this time we don't have to worry about that."