On the ESPN.com home page, there's a link to an Associated Press story about the Minnesota State High School League's decision to ban wrestling competitions and practices indefinitely after athletes from 10 different teams came down with herpes simplex Type 1, the type of herpes that is caused by skin-to-skin contact and causes cold sores. It's a bold move calculated to prevent infections that could lead to blindness, but it was ESPN's headline—"Grappling with Herpes"—that aroused the mirth of several message board posters and bloggers. ESPN isn't the first publication with a sense of humor about herpes and wrestling headlines.

Back in 1988, a study in the American Journal of Sports Medicine sported the same title and noted that 7.6% of college wrestlers tested positive for the disease. In a February 2004 article in Skin & Allergy News entitled "Grappling with herpes gladiatorum in wrestlers," Bruce Jancin wrote that the prophylactic use of valacyclovir could greatly reduce herpes outbreaks at intensive summer wrestling camps. A brief 2003 story in Pediatrics for Parents seconded the valacyclovir notion, but could only come up with the lame title, "Wrestling with Herpes."