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TOP STORIES - DECEMBER 9, 2008  2008 FANTASY FOOTBALL (EXPANDED!!!): QUARTERBACKS | RUNNING BACKS | WIDE RECEIVERS | TIGHT ENDS/KICKERS/TEAM DEFENSESEARLY HEISMAN RETURNS - VERY CLOSE: I did not think Tim Tebow would be a major player in this year's award, but I may very much be proven wrong. If the 'very' early exit polling from the STIFFARMTROPHY.COM site is any indication, there will be a ton of suspense come Saturday night at the DAC. Tebow currently has the most first place votes, and is named on the most ballots, but is still projected just behind Sam Bradford in second, with Colt McCoy not far behind those two. What may be known is that Graham Harrell and Michael Crabtree will more than likely not even get invites to the DAC, Harrell is currently named on only seven of the 64 alleged ballots, with Crabtree only appearing on one.  FULL MILT POKER!!! That's right, here is Milton Bradley in action at a celebrity poker tournament involving MLB players held ahead of the winter meetings in Las Vegas. Imagine the possibilities if ESPN were airing such an event. Norman Chad makes reference to Milt's anger management history, Milt bolts from his chair, makes a bee-line for the announcers booth, and gets restrained by two pit bosses. Milt's trick knee then gives out, knocking him out for the 2009 season.IS ARENA FOOTBALL DONE??? Perhaps figuring out that their product is not much different than what Texas Tech and the Oklahoma Sooners have been playing the past several weeks, a published report says that the 22-year old league may not make it for the start of the 2009 season, and the league and some of it's member teams teams are not saying much. Late last week the league announced it was delaying it's 2009 schedule as well as the dispersal draft from the New Orleans team that has already folded. The official company line from the league read 'The AFL is working on long-term structural improvements which have unfortunately delayed some important events', the league declining to elaborate further on that statement. However management for some teams are speaking, with one team executive saying 'The business model for the league is broken' adding that the rug has been fulled from under the league. Players from one team also added that they have received text's warning of the league's possible demise. Commissioner David Baker resigned after 12 years during the summer, with his deputy currently running the operation. MICHELLE WIE IN GOOD SHAPE TO EARN TOUR CARD: Sits in third place two shots behind the leader after three of five rounds at LPGA Tour Q-School. The top twenty after Sunday earn cards for 2009. Of course not only does Wie have to continue to play well, but she needs to sign her scorecard right two more times as well or not do anything else to violate the Rules of Golf.  SEAN AVERY BUSTED FOR TALKING ABOUT 'SLOPPY SECONDS': Gary Bettman hands out 'indefinite' suspension to Dallas Stars idiot Sean Avery for thinly veiled comments he made about his ex-girlfriends. Speaking after a morning skate in Calgary, Avery talks about how happy he is to be back in Canada, and that it is a 'common thing in the NHL for guys to fall in love with my sloppy seconds'. Former Avery girlfriend Elisha Cuthbert is now said to be dating Calgary defenceman Dion Phaneuf and is also said to be romantically linked with a player on the Montreal Canadiens roster. Yet another actress who dated Avery is now said to be linked with LA Kings centre Jarrett Stoll. I say make Avery do a stint in the AHL, plenty of hockey tramps at players disposal in that league - or even better yet, have Avery do a night out with Sarah Palin, or her Saturday Night Live double. Meanwhile the Dallas Stars continue to languish dead last in the Western Conference, with many feeling the distraction of Avery just being on the roster playing a large part.NY GIANTS STEVE SMITH ROBBED AT GUNPOINT: Maybe the impossible has happened, a way to vindicate Plaxico Burress, as it now comes out that fellow receiver Steve Smith was robbed at gunpoint in Jersey last week. Smith was returning home to his gated community around 4 AM when an assailant approached him from behind with a gun, demanding for Smith to hand over 'everything you've got'. Tiki Barber first reported the news on television Sunday, saying that Plaxico was aware of what happened to Smith when he brought that handgun to that Manhattan nightclub on Friday. UCLA WILL BE SEEING RED ON SATURDAY: USC coach Pete Carroll tried to make it happen last year, and now will get his wish as the visiting coach this year, as USC plans to wear their home red jerseys at UCLA this Saturday. The penalty for wearing the wrong colored jerseys in NCAA football is the forfeiture of one time out per half. If you took away all of USC's timeouts and ruled all the team's juniors and seniors ineligible for the game, then UCLA may have a fighting chance. When both USC and UCLA shared the Los Angeles Coliseum, the two teams both traditionally wore their home uniforms for the team's season ending clash - a practice that ended when UCLA moved their home games to the Rose Bowl in 1982, and obviously USC won't look that unusual in red at Pasadena since they get to wear that 50 percent of the time when they play there on New Year's Day. The NCAA did grant an exemption earlier this year to Miami-OH (red) and Buffalo (blue) to both wear their home jerseys in an election night special. FCS Chattanooga also wore their home goldenrod tops for road games at Oklahoma and Florida St. earlier this year. Teams such as LSU and Georgia Tech can wear white at home, but only if the road team agrees to wear the home color jersey - NFL teams have a choice between wearing white or dark at home, with white often worn in early-season games in warm weather. In college basketball, many teams have taken to wearing gold or even orange instead of white for home games, and Marquette occasionally trots out an alternate powder blue outfit for select home games.  THEN THERE WERE THREE: Let's face it, coaching is an near-impossible mission for a man of any background, and a 0-12 season like Tyrone Willingham just went through at Washington or going 21-38, like Sylvester Croom did for five years at Mississippi St., will get almost anyone a pink slip. But the cold hard facts are that following the departures of Willingham and Croom, as well as the firing of Ron Prince at Kansas St., there are now only three African-American coaches out of the 120 FBS membership schools, the three being Miami's Randy Shannon, Buffalo's Turner Gill, and Houston's Kevin Sumlin. That's three for 120 in a sports where roughly half of it's participants are black. And scarily the number could drop even further if one of those three decided to join the NFL ranks - Gill is a fairly warm commodity after leading Buffalo to a division title in the MAC this year, with Syracuse mentioned as a possibility. I might not be overly sarcastic if I were saying that this could be a lateral move. Lack of African-American coaches in the NFL may also become a bigger hot-button topic in the NFL if Romeo Crennel (likely) and Herman Edwards (very possible) were to be let go at season's end - with many speculating Bill Cowher replacing Crennel in Cleveland.MAYOR WANTS THE BOOK THROWN AT PLAXICO: Reportedly fuming in anger, NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg blasts Plaxico Burress yesterday, just not with a handgun. Mayor calls for Plaxico be be punished 'to the fullest extent of the law' for accidentally shooting himself in the right thigh with an illegal firearm, and should not get a pass, especially for being a professional athlete/public figure. Bloomberg is also calling out the hospital for reportedly keeping Burress's situation confidential to police, and is calling for hospital workers to be fired. NYC's gun laws are said to be the toughest in the nation, largely because of Bloomberg. If the mayor gets his way, Michael Vick and Plaxico could end up as teammates at a halfway house near you. SAM'S CLUB - BRADFORD IN HEISMAN DRIVER'S SEAT: Per ESPN state-by-state poll this week, Sam Bradford would be the projected winner with 381 'electoral votes' and carrying 90 percent of the vote in Oklahoma. Tim Tebow carries much of the Southeast with 93 electoral votes while Colt McCoy surprisingly only carries Texas and three other states (two in New England for some reason) for 53 - 11 votes (two states) remain undecided. This is all subject to change of course if Sam were to stink it up in one of the Sooners potential two remaining pre-bowl games.  MORE TROUBLE FOR PATRICK ROY FAMILY: Son Frederick Roy suspended 15 games by the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League for his brutal cross-check to the mouth of an opposing player during the Quebec Remparts' game last Friday night. As other players were scuffling after the whistle blew, Frederick caught his unsuspecting opponent right in the mouth - and the clip has already become a huge favorite on Youtube. If you are thinking you have heard about Patrick Roy, the Remparts, and his family getting in trouble before - you are right. In January, 2007, police investigated an incident involving Roy and the co-owner of an opposing team amidst reports that Roy threw punches at the co-owner as fans were blocking his team from boarding a bus follwing a game. Earlier this year, Roy was involved in another on-ice incident during a first-round playoff series. As his team was getting blown out in the second period, son Jonathan Roy challenged, then skated the length of the ice to attack his goaltending counterpart who did not want to fight, he wound up hitting him numerous times, Jonathan then fought a seconed player who came to his teammates rescue, before being escorted off the ice and giving fans obscene gestures. The latest incident occurred one night before Roy's #33 was retired by the Montreal Canadiens. You can see Patrick in a scene from that night here shaking hands with aspriring netminders who someday would like to start trouble or give up nine goals in half-a-game in their final game with the Habs.STEPHEN CURRY DOUBLE-TEAMED AS HE GETS OFF TEAM BUS: I heard a rumor that Curry was double-teamed by two Loyola (MD) defenders as he got out of bed and headed to class this morning. It wouldn't be a shock after the bizarre game that played out last night. The opposition came out in a triangle and two defense, with two defenders on Curry - a defense that continued to be employed even as Curry eventually decided just to stand far away from the action, with a virtual 4 on three 'power play' on each offensive possession - Davidson would go on to rout Loyola 78-48 despite Curry being 'held scoreless'.  TROUBLED FINANCIAL FIRMS CONTINUE SPORTS SPONSORSHIPS: Even after receiving 150 billion dollars in bailout funds from the U.S, AIG continues it's 125 million dollar sponsorship of soccer power Manchester United. Meanwhile Citi has a 20-year naming rights deal for the New York Mets new ballpark for $400 million plus it's sponsorship with the Rose Bowl. Bank of America has a sponsorship deal with the Carolina Panthers stadium, as well as a deal with the New York Yankees in addition to being title sponsor for Charlotte's fall NASCAR race. Other financial institutions receiving bailout money who have naming rights on various sports venues include Chase (Arizona Diamondbacks), PNC (Pittsburgh Pirates), and Commerica (Detroit Tigers).UT .920, OU .912, UF .875: This is the race for the #2 ranking in the BCS standings - which actually bodes well for Oklahoma since they are liable to get a strength-of-schedule bump if they win at Oklahoma State. The Sooners are already ranked ahead of Texas in both the AP and USA Today polls. Florida is actually ranked #2 in the AP poll, with CBS already promoting the SEC Championship game as a #1 v. #2 showdown. Forget Obama v. McCain - this has become THE hotly contested election. DIVISION 2 PLAYOFF GAME ENDS WITH 93-68 SCORELINE: Whatever madness Mike Leach started on the South Plains has gotten way out of control. I heard earlier in the day that Oklahoma had won a game 80-66, and joked that I was not informed that they decided to play the OU/Texas Tech game during the day - that of course was the score of OU's Men's basketball game, which they got out of the way well before the football festivities started across campus at Owen Field. Turns out there was a college football game this weekend with a basketball score, as Abilene Christian eliminates West Texas A&M with a 93-68 victory. The two teams combined for 1,531 yards of total offense with Abilene Christian scoring on 13 of 14 possessions. In a losing cause, W-TAM-U's QB went 42-63 for 595 yards passing. West Texas A&M was the school Ryan Leaf was working for until a few weeks ago, when he allegedly asked one of his players for a pain pill. SAN DIEGO ST. CANS CHUCK LONG: The school was so eager to dump the former Oklahoma offensive coordinator that they got donor's to donate one million dollars so they could buy out the rest of his contract. Signed originally to a five year deal, Long came to SDSU with high expectations after signing a five-year contract, but the Aztecs were only 9-27 over the past three seasons. Long was given a vote of confidence after an embarrassing 70-7 loss at New Mexico earlier this season, but his bosses were actually working behind his back to raise the money to buy him out. You stay classy San Diego St., Mack Brown or Urban Meyer couldn't save that program right now.  NBA FIRING - P.J. CARLESIMO OUT: After the team was trounced in their 11th straight loss, a 105-80 pasting at home to New Orleans - an Oklahoma City Thunder players pointed out that the players needed to keep their heads up, noting that they are the 'lucky ones', that at least they have jobs while millions are getting axed in a crashing economy. Someone might want to check and make sure the coaches office isn't being cleaned out when saying at. Acting quickly, before the team left for New Orleans for a return match with the Hornets the next night, the Thunder fires controversial coach P.J. Carlesimo, along with veteran assistant Paul Westhead. Yup, a couple of bad days on Wall Street - or a 21-72 record coaching an NBA team in 1+ seasons, will get someone a pink slip any time. Best known for his exploits coaching the Lakers and Loyola Marymount University, Westhead more recently coached the Pheonix Mercury to a WNBA title - that and a token might get you on the subway.MORE DETAILS ON MICHAEL VICK EMERGE: Back in Virginia to answer to state charges, the USDA comes out with a report on just how brutal things got with his dogs - among other things it's now said that Vick put defenseless family into the ring against his pit bulls - I guess the dogfighting equivalent of Virginia Tech playing a Division 3 team. More details were also given on the means of killing under-performing dogs, they were killed by shooting, hanging, electrocution or drowning (heads placed in five-gallon buckets of water, and in at least one instance, according to a witness, a red pit bull was killed by slamming it to the ground several times. BANKRUPTCY RECORDS DETAIL VICK'S SPENDING: Making nearly 13 dollars for the entire month from his prison work, you would imagine Vick is not in the greatest financial shape, and he is not. But he spent plenty before his world came crashing down, giving many gifts to his family and associates - one of his friends tools was given a $31,000 Cadillac, another personal assistant was given a $45,000 Infiniti M45 and a couple of power boats. Brother Marcus Vick can be found riding a $62,000 Land Rover while Vick's sister was given a Yukon Denali. Vick also wrote a $1,000 check to his mother, which he wrote 'chump change' in the left bottom corner. Many of his car payments are now in default, though Marcus's Land Rover as well as another $65,000 SUV, have been paid in full.FATHER OF DONALD DRIVER ALLEGEDLY BEATEN BY COPS: There are at least a couple of versions of this story currently out. The version out of Milwaukee has Marvin Driver being arrested during a traffic stop because of outstanding traffic warrants at 1:30 a.m., and was to be taken to jail. But the family insists Marvin was found by paramedics who saw him lying on the ground bloodied and unconscious with a brain hemorrhage - and that through writing notes in the ICU says at least one of the officers knew who he was and that some sort of pill was shoved down his throat while being beaten behind a gas station. The Houston Chronicle's story has Marvin being arrested at his mother's house, then being found unresponsive when brought to the police station. You will also note the name of Quannell X, he is said to be a noted African-American activist in the Houston area, he is acting as the Driver family's spokesman in this case. Marvin Driver does have a criminal history, doing time in prison during Donald Driver's childhood. Lots of allegations in this story thus far that really should not be commented on until more is known, but if the police did hurt the man knowing he was the father of a very well-known NFL player, then that would be doubly stupid - but their side of the story has to be heard as well. Another recent case involving Houston area police and possible excessive force occurred just last month when Astros pitcher Brandon Backe (who is white) was said to be punched twice in the face by cops during a wedding reception melee in Galveston, which ended with Backe and nine others being arrested.  SHERMAN ABOUT TO MARCH OUT OF COLLEGE STATION??? Here's where you can find Mike Sherman these days, fresh off of sending the Packers straight to the bottom of the NFC standings a few years back, he has now managed to do even worse at Texas A&M. Maybe falling short to Texas and Oklahoma is one thing, but letting the likes of Missouri, Oklahoma State, and Texas A&M bypass you in the Big XII arms race is another, and getting blown out by BAYLOR takes it down even another level. I think they expect at least being ranked #5 or #6 in the nation down there, not being ranked #5 or #6 in the state of Texas. The honeymoon is also ending quickly for Rich Rodriguez at Michigan, who said this week that he feels compelled to tell his fan base to 'get a life' and is ready to play the 'there are bigger problems in the world like the economy' card. Except recessions shouldn't extend to being owned at home by Northwestern - R-Rod could be seeing the Red Ring of Death sooner rather than later if he doesn't turn it around next year.FORMER VIKE WANTS BRAD CHILDRESS IN THE RING!!! After a couple of turbulent seasons in Minnesota, former first-round draft bust Troy Williamson now says he wants to duke it out with coach Brad Childress when the Jaguars face off against the Vikings this Sunday. Troy says that all his bridges in Minnesota burned down last year when coach tried to dock him a game's pay while he was dealing a pair of family crisis's. Actually there are enough problems with Twin Cities bridges without them getting napalmed. But it isn't really like Troy has turned his career around with the Jaguars this year - he has caught all of four passes all year and will miss this week's contest with a lingering groin injury. Perhaps Childress should sign Brock Lesnar back on his practice squad so someone would have his back. MOTHER OF ALL GOLF DQ'S: Earlier this year I compiled a list of the 18 most infamous golf penalties/DQ's of all-time (2/7/08, scroll to bottom of page). This year I can add a few more additions to the list, pretty soon I'll be able to do a list of 18 penalties involving John Daly and Michelle Wie alone. But nothing tops the nightmare of veteran J.P. Hayes, who saw his chances of retaining his Tour card for 2009 go down the drain for a mistake made during a PGA Tour Qualifying event last week. The short version of the incident went like this, caddie hands him a ball before teeing off on a Par-3 hole. After marking the ball on the green, JPH realizes that he had just played a different model of Titleist than usual - Rules of Golf stipulates that a golfer declare the ball model that he will be playing, and use only that model for the entire round. Hayes assesses himself the proper penalty (two strokes) and goes back to his usual ball for the remainder of the round. It appeared that Hayes would survive the penalty, as he was still in good position to finish in the top-20, and advance to the final round of qualifying. But it gets worse, later at the hotel Hayes realized that the ball he played was actually a prototype he tested for Titleist a few weeks back. That ball was not approved for competition, and after contacting an official via the phone in Houston ('Houston, I have a problem...') Hayes disqualified himself. JPH refused to blame his caddie for the mix-up, says he meticulously goes through his bags every night, and usually knows he has the right model by lining it's marking on the tee on Par-4 and Par-5 holes. Guess he didn't check his bags good enough and perhaps he should try lining up that marking before every tee-shot. A good walk can sure be spoiled by missing one detail out of about 200. Hayes says he will still be able to play about half a schedule next year on exemptions, and says the upside is that he has plenty of career earnings in the bank and can spend more time with the family. |
