That time of year when strangers run amok trying to kiss people

New Year’s Eve is my least favorite holiday. It has something to do with strangers running amok trying to kiss people. What kind of tradition is that? Here’s a resolution: try improving yourself by helping others instead of losing weight. I suggest becoming a volunteer umpire at the Little League park. You can start with machine ball and work your way up to live pitching. Behind the plate is so much fun getting to “ring up” hopeful athletes in front of their relatives.

“Strike three! You are outta here, son! You don’t have to take a seat, but you can’t stay here!”

JAMAAL JACKSON - The Eagles’ starting center out of Delaware State tore an ACL in the first half of Sunday’s game against the Denver Broncos after starting 71 straight games and is done for the season. He is replaced by starting guard Nick Cole (6 feet, 360 pounds) who moves to his natural position at center while Max Jean-Gilles (6-foot-3, 360 pounds) moves into the starting guard spot. Jackson looks like a big kid and not a football player until you stand next to his 6-foot-4, 340-pound self.

FAT LITTLE GIRLFRIENDS - Texas Tech football coach Mike Leach, always given too much credit for being some innovative mastermind, may in fact be just out of his mind. Earlier in the season in earshot of reporters with microphones after an October loss to Texas A&M, Leach chastised players for listening to “their fat little girlfriends” thinking the Aggies were a pushover - yes, that is hilarious.

But last Monday Leach was suspended for the upcoming Alamo Bowl game against Michigan State for allegedly isolating the mildly concussioned and unable-to-practice Adam James for three hours in an equipment room, and the next day for two hours in an electrical closet.  

Adam James is the son of ESPN football analyst Craig James, so who tells a player to stay in a closet and who actually stays there?

TAINTED TIGER - “Eye of the Tiger” evokes musical lyrics from the group Third Eye Blind. And now a preponderance of the evidence suggests that Tiger Woods used performance-enhancing drugs as the golfer went from a scrawny 155 to a muscular 180 pounds, and if there are no side effects of this approach to power then we all need access.

That is the danger of all this; not Tiger chasing his tail but those big arms.

All guys want guns or pipes, especially if you don’t have to work to get them. Woods should be thrown off the tour and have his silly little PGA card torn in half.

SAINT PATRICK’S - Saint Patrick’s of Elizabeth, N.J., is currently the No. 1-ranked high school basketball team in the country. Saint Patrick’s was a frequent visitor to Cape’s Little Big House during the years of the Slam Dunk Tournament. Check the Super 25 and you will recognize several teams who spent a Christmas vacation in Rehoboth while playing games in Lewes.

I remember when Red Auerbach, the legendary coach of the Boston Celtics, spoke from the stage at the Baycenter in Dewey Beach and kept asking, “Where am I?” as he flew into Philly, was brought by limousine to Dewey and promptly taken back to the airport.

Hal “High Gear” Greer, the point guard of the 1966 World Champion Sixers, also spoke and caught a ride back to Philly with Auerbach.

And one year it was Frank Layden, Utah Jazz president, speaking about a former player: “I asked him, ‘Son, what is it with you? Is it ignorance or apathy?’

He said, “Coach, I don’t know and I don’t care.”

Layden, a native of Brooklyn, said about living in Salt Lake City: “If you ever go fishing with a Mormon always bring two. If you bring one, he will drink all your beer.”

SNIPPETS - Polar Bear ocean jump in front of the bathhouse at Cape Henlopen State Park in Lewes at 1 p.m. on New Year’s Day. Sign in and get your name in this column. This is year 28 for the Lewes Polar Bears. Stay alive! Don’t dive!

The Eagles are an early three-point dog for the Sunday game in Dallas.