It came from the message boards

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So you've traded Babe Ruth. Bought a minority share of the Wiz. Signed a contract with Don King.

And now? You're on a one-way elevator to athletic damnation. Heading down.

Way, way down.

You pass the gluttons (Hello, Mr. Kemp!). The thieves (Mommy, look: It's Ike Austin!). The sowers of discord (Michael Westbrook, are you wearing a black belt?). And finally, good ol' Beelzebub himself (Stuart Scott? Boo-yah!).

But that's not the end of it.

Nope, there's one more floor to go. A tenth circle in the Sports Inferno. The deepest, darkest, most forsaken pit of them all, a place where fiction is fact, rumor is currency and gossip is seldom -- if ever -- idle.

In other words, Internet message boards.

Forget the morning paper. Never mind talk radio. For the nastiest, nuttiest -- and occasionally, most knowing -- sports scoop, look no farther than cyberspace. Try the boards at Rivals.com. Or ESPN. Or Yahoo!. Or hundreds of other team and sport web sites.

On public forums and private boards, from anonymous posters and registered users, you'll see and read the darndest things. Most of it spirited. Much of it spurious. Some of it even sincere.