Amazing Race: Steve Smith Is A Homer...Homer Simpson

Last week on "The Amazing Race" we learned that former Phillies coach Steve Smith was in pain, possibly from having fallen while running or from moving a wooden horse around, but probably because he's 57 years old. This week, the show provided him -- and everyone else -- something to relieve any pain he might have been suffering.

Oh, all right. Spoilers follow. Continue after the jump.

The eight remaining teams flew from Argentina to Germany. Once they got to Hamburg, their first challenge was an "intersection" challenge, in which members of different teams had to pair up and perform a bungee jump together. Steve Smith didn't bungee jump. Instead, his daughter Allie paired with Joe (the Jon Gosselin lookalike) to complete the jump. Once the teams reunited, and had to choose between kicking a soccer ball and hitting 5 targets attached to the goal and eating a big plate of sauerkraut while a band played a polka (if they didn't finish the plate before the song ended, they got a fresh plate and had to start over). Steve and Allie completed the soccer ball task. Next stop: a bar. The next mission: share a large glass boot of beer. Yes, a boot. See photo.

As it turned out, drinking beer was right up Steve's alley. Quoting his daughter: "This is my dad's favorite best challenge in the world!" He polished it off easily, after she took one drink out of it (or at least one that was shown on the air), thus completing the "sharing" component. In the cab on the way to the checkpoint -- the Indra Club, the first club in Germany where the Beatles performed on their rise to the top -- Steve seemed just a little intoxicated. (Maybe we have an explanation for some of those Phils runners thrown out at...I kid, I kid! Please don't sue me!) For the second week in a row Steve and Allie finished second, this week following Louie and Michael, coming all the way from last place to take the lead.

Oddly enough, the cowboys Jet and Cord had trouble with the beer. What kind of manly cowboys don't like beer? That and a struggle on the soccer field dropped last week's leaders to 4th, behind Joe and his wife Heidi. Lesbian couple Carol and Brandy were 5th, Dan and his gay brother Jordan were 6th, and models Brent and Caite (despite both of them struggling with the beer, and Caite's getting on the wrong subway on the way to the bungee jump with "Big Brother" Jordan earlier) finished 7th.

As for BB Jordan and her man Jeff, they got in a cab heading to the sauerkraut challenge and were taken well off course by a driver who input the wrong address in his GPS. They finished last, but in a stroke of luck (or producers wanting the "Big Brother" couple to hang around a bit longer) this week was a "non-elimination leg" of the race, so Jeff and Jordan are still alive. They'll have to finish an extra task, called a "speed bump," that none of the other teams have to do, so they may only have one more week on the show.

If you've read this far, I have a question for you: if at some point the Smiths are eliminated, should I continue to write these recaps?