The New York Post is reporting a Harvard study that concludes that sports fans 'binge drink' more than non sports fans.

They needed a study to tell them that?? Drinking and sports go back as far as the Roman games in the Coliseum, and probably much farther in Egyptian and Asian history. Christ a $5 per hour supermarket clerk could tell you that beer and chips sell faster prior to big sporting events. That should be a pretty good clue that sports fans drink more than non sports fans. Besides, the main reason American sports have a 'time out' is so that we can hit the head and the fridge and make it back to the couch without missing any of the action?

As for their study, if you look at their definition of 'binge drinking', it seems pretty tame. The study defines bingers as men who have five or more drinks in a row at least once within two weeks. For women it is only four drinks. (I wonder if it's more than coincidence that a typical wine bottle is four drinks.)

A good number of sports fans pour down five beers before half time, much less in the whole day. I must have a higher tolerance or metabolism than most people. When I graduated college, I was drinking 6 to 8 beers any typical evening. I never considered it a binge. Weekends were saved for binging, when alcohol input was an average 12 to 18 drinks.

Of course, at 6' 3" and (cough) lbs., I'm a bit larger than most people as well. Still, my buddy Russ is only 5'9-ish, and he packs it away just about as much as I do.