PulseCards:Boys will be boys

FROM:   Dana Czapnik at the X Games
DATE:   Wednesday, August 22

Boys will be boys

For 15-year-old girls, heaven exists directly off of I-95 in and around Philadelphia's First Union Complex -- the site of this year's X Games. The Complex is crawling with testosterone-addled male specimens standing in line to get into events, crowding the bleachers, sneaking into press boxes, finagling gate credentials and waiting for Port-a-Potties. Ladies, the odds are in your favor. Wallet chains dangling off their belt loops, cargo-pants that sit precariously mid-thigh, revealing far too many Joe Boxer shorts, cell phones permanently attached to their ears, teenage boys are given the chance to run wild in their natural habitat.

ESPN's target audience is 12-to-25-year-old males. Mission accomplished. Teenage girls: take down those N'Sync and Backstreet Boys posters, trash all your Carson Daly marriage fantasies and tap into this undiscovered resource. It's like striking oil in the North Pole.

It makes perfect sense that teenage boys flock to the X Games like Russian hockey players to Anna Kournikova -- the athletes themselves are just like the fans. Colt Cannon, a 19-year-old skater who made his professional debut at the Games this summer, looked exactly like the boy who was standing next to me in the press box watching Cannon glide through his routine. Both were freckle-faced, tall, bony, and appeared to be caught in that bittersweet phase found somewhere between teen angst and manhood. See, it's not a stretch that young men see themselves as just like their X athlete heroes.

And the young boys there are clearly looking for some companionship, too. As I was chatting with a female colleague at the Skateboarding Vert Best Trick practice, she was approached by two 13-year-old boys who wanted her autograph. I asked them why they wanted her autograph when she was clearly not an athlete.

"Dude! ... She's HOT!" they responded. See, ladies? Like I said -- heaven.

E-mail Dana Czapnik at dana.x.czapnik@espnmag.com.