I was standing in the pre-packaged sausage aisle of Disco Kroger. And right there at eye level was one of the greatest head-to-head matchups in football history. Yes, I said football. Earl Campbell's Hot Links vs. Vince Young Hot Links.

The blog post wrote itself.

"The taste of Vince Young's hot links was as weak as his sidearm throwing motion."

"Earl Campbell's hot links pounded the tastebuds into submission."

But I was getting ahead of myself. Preconceptions aside, this looked like the perfect opportunity for a taste test.

These are processed "chicken, beef and pork products" (you don't want to know the details). Be advised I am not suggesting you go out and buy these for tonite's dinner.

These sausages are good for one thing: big BBQ events where you need to mass-produce grilled sausages that go in a hotdog bun and get slathered with all kinds of toppings. If you need sausage for a gumbo or paella, definitely look elsewhere.

The Earl Campbell sausage was denser, rubberier, juicier and less spicy. The Vince Young sausage had a slightly rougher texture inside, much hotter/spicier, and had an overwhelming flavor of cracked pepper.

The nutrition facts revealed the difference in juiciness: each Campbell sausage had a whopping 38 percent of the recommended daily allowance of saturated fat. Young came in at 25 percent.

So neither of these sausages should be consumed for their health benefits or subtle flavors.

In fact they both contain sodium nitrite (most processed meats do) which healthy-type scientist folks really, really dislike. And if it were up to those types of organizations, neither Earl's nor Vince's sausage could be served in Houston or Austin schools.

Bottom line, we're not really comparing apples-to-apples here. If you want juicy, go with the Tyler Rose (Campbell). If you want spicy, go with Invinceable TM (Young).

---J.C. Reid