A look at sports figures who are thankful this year

	Jeff Weaver helped give St. Louis Cardinals fans a big reason to be thankful -- a World Series title. Jamie Squire/Getty Images

I grew up in one of those houses where everyone at the Thanksgiving table had to take a turn saying what they were thankful for before we could start eating. There's a lot of sports left this year, but it's already been a pretty interesting one, and there are a lot of people feeling thankful. I don't have enough chairs for everyone, so I figured I'd just do a quick run-through so we can get to the turkey.

It's easy to be thankful for big victories, whether those victories belong to the Steelers, the Gators, the Italian World Cup soccer team, the Heat, the Hurricanes, the Cardinals, the Shock, or Jimmie Johnson. But here we appreciate the little victories, whether it's George Mason's improbable run in the NCAA Tournament, Andre Gurode's reasonably good health considering the way Albert Haynesworth used his spikes to give Gurode a few new piercings, or Derek Jeter's cologne finally becoming available in stores.

For starters, the front offices of the Twins and Phillies have to be more thankful than just about anyone right now, having both gotten MVP seasons from guys making just a few grand over the league minimum. To get this kind of production out of minimum-wage employees, you pretty much have to own Wal-Mart.

On the other end of the financial spectrum is Terrell Owens, who's thankful that he has 25 million reasons to be happy, at least according to his publicist. Mathematically speaking, however, Terrell is despondent compared to the Seibu Lions, who now have $51.1 million reasons to feel better about letting pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka become a major leaguer.

Of course, money isn't everything. Anyone who isn't morally bankrupt should be thankful that News Corp. pulled the plug on O.J. Simpson's potentially lucrative book and TV special, in which he reportedly details how he would have killed his ex-wife. O.J., meanwhile, is thankful that he is now freed up to concentrate on finding the real killer.

One place that O.J. (or anyone else for that matter) won't likely find much reliable information is the French lab that found synthetic testosterone in Floyd Landis' test samples, and Landis has to be thankful for their continued mistakes. After the lab admitted last week to having mislabeled Landis' samples, their insistence on the accuracy of the test results are quickly becoming as unbelievable as Landis's ever-changing explanations.

The NHL is thankful for electrifying young players like Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, the most exciting thing to happen to the league since the Islanders' locker room got flooded with sewage. Talk about unbelievable: watching these guys play reminds you of why you started watching hockey in the first place. It's enough to make you forget that the whole league almost folded two years ago.

Philip Rivers is thankful that the Chargers sent Drew Brees packing. Replacing the talented Brees with the inexperienced Rivers raised a lot of eyebrows but could not have turned out better for either of the two quarterbacks, who are both playing well beyond expectations. No joke here; I just think it's cool that it worked out so well and everybody walks away happy, which is pretty rare in the sports world.

The Saginaw Spirit are thankful for their new mascot, Steagle Colbeagle the Eagle. The OHL hockey team was 0-3-0-1 before introducing Steagle, whom they named after The Colbert Report's Stephen Colbert. Going into Wednesday night's game, the team had gone 17-3 since Steagle's September debut.

The Spirit may be soaring along with their new eagle, but most New Jersey Nets fans are thankful that the team's newest idea hasn't gotten off the ground just yet. On Monday the team held tryouts for its first-ever "over 60" dance team with hopes of finding men and women with "some dancing capability and coordination." Clifford Robinson has reportedly made it past the first cut. With or without Uncle Cliffy, the senior dance team will perform at six games this season, which is coincidentally the same number of games the Knicks are planning to show up for.

Speaking of dancing, Emmitt Smith must be thankful for being graded on an entirely different scale than Mario Lopez and Joey Lawrence on Dancing with the Stars. "Twinkle Toes" was pretty good, but he seemed to be rewarded as much for his smile and effort as he was for his talent. Although seeing Smith win the cheesy disco ball trophy did bring back find memories of the time that Slater lost the dance contest when Screech and Lisa did "the sprain."

There hasn't been a victory by someone so clearly overmatched since...well, since the Cardinals won the World Series. I'm personally pretty thankful that the Cardinals won, though, if only so that the whining about the vast superiority of the American League can stop. And St. Louis fans are thankful that Jeff Weaver and Jeff Suppan had such good Halloween costumes, successfully passing themselves off as good pitchers this October.

I wonder what Jason Grimsley has to say about those two guys. You know who's thankful that Grimsley's testimony about steroid use hasn't been leaked to the press? Neither do I. We may not know who they are but we can bet that whichever players' names were blacked out of those documents are breathing continued sighs of relief with every paycheck they continue to cash. Especially considering that the BALCO Grand Jury was leakier than the Titanic.

The Titanic is starting to look like a successful voyage, though, compared to the Detroit Lions' Matt Millen era. Thanks in large part to the Lions' CEO, millions of Americans will continue their family tradition of watching the Lions lose on Thanksgiving. Millen should be thankful for having a job. Well, assuming he still has one by the time you read this.

And while we're on the subject of dubious team executives, Rick DiPietro is thankful that his team's new general manager was tending goal so recently. Perhaps overvaluing the importance and longevity of goalies, the newly retired Garth Snow signed DiPietro to a record 15-year deal so ridiculous it makes the team's contract with Alexi Yashin look reasonable.

The Isles won't be rid of DiPietro any time soon, but Gary Sheffield seems to be pretty thankful that he was finally able to rid himself of the stink of losing and incompetence that permeates everything the Yankees touch.

Now can somebody please pass the stuffing?

Adam Hofstetter's column appears every Wednesday on SI.com. Tell him what you're thankful for at ahofstetter@gmail.com.