Tag: media

Categories
Arizona Cardinals

Antrel Rolle says Sean Taylor’s death was deliberate


Sean Taylor’s body didn’t even have time to get cold before people started speculating about the circumstances surrounding the home intrusion and eventual murder of the rising NFL star. And a lot of the assumptions the mainstream media outlets were distributing tended to be rather harsh, basing their claims on his Hurricanes heritage and previous run-ins with the law. Well, the presumptions aren’t limited to the media. Despite the police accounts of a botched burglary; one of Taylor’s best friends thinks it was a deliberate hit.

He really didn’t say too much,” Antrel Rolle said, “but I know he was pretty much scared every time he was down in Miami.”

Rolle and Taylor, whose fathers were policemen in Homestead, Fla., started playing football together when they were six years old. They went on to become University of Miami teammates and NFL first-round draft picks. Both wore No. 21, Rolle for the Cardinals, Taylor for the Washington Redskins.

“There was so much surrounding him,” Rolle said. “Everyone was talking about him bad, so he just had to distance himself from everyone and live a life of his own. … Within the last year, I’ve never seen anyone make such a dramatic change.”

Withdrawing from a bad crowd isn’t easy, though, Rolle said.

“They say it was a burglary. It absolutely was not a burglary,” he said. “Down South, where we’re from, there were many people talking to Sean, a lot of jealousy, a lot of angry people.

“Sean, he had a large group of friends, and he no longer hung out with those friends, so you never know where this came from.

Rolle also said that “They’ve been targeting him for three years now,” and that “At least, he has peace now.”

We kind of thought Taylor was getting a bum rap because he was from the U and got slapped with the “hoodlum” label, but if his own long-time friend is calling it a deliberate murder then the media’s hype might be sincere. But Antrel can say what he wants; he’s not supposed to be unbiased. It just seems a bit callous to us that despite the authorities’ contradictory account, news outlets were determined to create a sensational story.

Links:

[The Canadian Press]: Cardinals’ Rolle vows to honour childhood friend, says death was no burglary
[Rocky Mountain News]: Rolle: Taylor was targeted

Categories
NHL General

The NHL says no to Al-Jazeera

Every time someone mentions Al-Jazeera, we can’t help but think about Mike Wise from the Washington Post’s great line about ESPN evolving into the “Al-Jazeera for Athletes.” Well, it turns out that while ESPN is covering the NHL Finals (barely), Al-Jazeera was denied press credentials.  Who knew the NHL had these kind of standards.

From Rink Side:


Given the paucity of non-aligned (i.e. Southern California) newspapers from the States covering the final between the Anaheim Ducks and Ottawa Senators — the Philadelphia Inquirer, Boston Globe, both Denver papers, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, New York Daily News and the Buffalo News have been spotted through three games — you might have thought the NHL would have been happy to reach a, hmmm, really non-traditional hockey market, but, alas, that didn’t happen. Why Al-Jazeera saw the news value in something that, say, the Detroit News apparently hasn’t is for deeper thinkers than me.
 

At least if Al-Jazeera actually could cover the NHL Finals, we’d know where to find it.

Categories
New York Jets

The media’s muscle is flexing for Thomas Jones

So, we were just surfing along, minding our own business when this article about Thomas Jones and his rippling muscles jumped off the screen and smacked us across the face. Tom Rock spent the whole story slobbering over Jones’ arms like an enamored little school girl. Sounds to us like Rock might have a bit of a man crush going on, kinda like how Mark Cuban feels about his MVP.

With his bulging, tattooed biceps on display below those tucked-under white sleeves, it would be easy to think that Jones was the only Jet wearing full pads during the shorts-and-helmets practice. But it was all him.

Now we know that Jones is a physical specimen but this seems just a bit too Danielle Steel for our taste. But that’s all beside the point; what really got our goat was that this journalist was clueless when it came to the human anatomy. Rock needs to start doing a little research before he just dishes out descriptions like “freakishly large arms.” Sorry buddy, but this is the only guy we can find who is considered to be “armed and dangerous.”

But to be fair to Mr. Rock, he isn’t the only one who is starting to make football seem sort of creepy. We came across this piece on WCBSTV.com and the author seemed to have the same dreamy-eyed approach when describing Jones.

Jones’ jersey sleeves were rolled up to his shoulders, probably because the fabric would be no match to contain his sinewy arms. And it’s hard not to notice them, covered in tattoos and looking as if they should be on a professional bodybuilder.

Are we the only ones who feel dirty reading this?

Links:

[GreggValentino.net]: Home Page

Categories
Chicago Bears

Rush Limbaugh really is a big fat idiot

Who is the biggest idiot?

From RushLimbaugh.com (not worth linking to):


You know, the game was the game, and the game was what it was, but I can’t handle any more press criticism of Rex Grossman. They’re writing his name “W-r-e-c-k-s,” saying he was the worst quarterback ever to play in the Super Bowl, and it’s been like this since the Green Bay game — actually, since the Arizona game. There was a little crescendo of it in the Green Bay game, the last game of the season for the Bears, and it’s just unrelenting. They’re focusing on this guy like they don’t focus on anybody — and I’ll tell you, I know what it is. The media, the sports media, has got social concerns that they are first and foremost interested in, and they’re dumping on this guy, Rex Grossman, for one reason, folks, and that’s because he is a white quarterback.

Wow. Is he really this stupid? Yeah, the reason why everyone dumps on Sexy Rexy isn’t because he stinks and basically cost the Bears the Super Bowl, it’s because the self-loathing white media hates white people. Just like they hate Tom Brady and Peyton Manning… prime examples of great players denigrated by the media for the color of their skin. Whatever hell Rush Limbaugh ends up in will be too good for him.

(via Can’t Stop the Bleeding)

Categories
NFL General

OJ’s book and TV special cancelled



Back to selling cars

In a rare showing of decency (or was it the negative backlash?) Fox has decided to pull the OJ Simpson special and book titled “I killed them and this is how I did it you suckers. Now I’m going to go play golf” … or something like that. Rupert Murdoch, head of Fox pulled the plug on Monday.


I and senior management agree with the American public that this was an ill-considered project,” Murdoch said. “We are sorry for any pain that this has caused the families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson.

Nicole Brown Simpson’s sister (god, we thought we’d seen the last of her) said that News Copr offered them all the proceeds of the television special and book as “hush money” but the family rejected it. Meanwhile, some copies of the book were already shipped to retailers but will be recalled and destroyed… so, uh, look for it on ebay any day now.

Links:
[MSNBC]: Simpson’s `If I Did It’ book, TV special canceled

Categories
Dallas Cowboys

Matt Leinart needs to save us


Where are you Matt? You become a father and all of the sudden you’re too good to make headlines banging a starlet or two? (And in the Paris Hilton case, starlet is a real stretch.) We’ve been reduced to rumors about Tony Romo going on a date with Jessica Simpson — which is based solely on his MNF getting to know Tony Romo segment where he lists Jessica Simpson as his celebrity crush.

It’s pretty interesting how these rumors get started. Bob Sturm from Dallas’ The Ticket 1310AM republishes an email from a reader and all of the sudden, he is linked to a “source” that says Romo and Simpson went on a date. Kind of like how the rumor got started that Chris Pronger got a television reporter pregant and had to move out of Edmonton. Is that how easy it is to start a rumor? He’s a rumor for you: Jessica Simpson looks like a man. Or is that kind of just an opinion? We never understood the fascination with JS. Yeah, she’s got huge cans but if you wanted to look at a man face with huge cans, there’s always Bill Parcells, who’d be a lot more fun to talk to. Here’s a pic of Simpson with her new colagen lips.

Speaking of Matt Leinart, ever since his breakout game vs the Bears on MNF, he’s thrown 5 INTs and only 1 TD.

Links:
[The Big Lead]: Checking in on Tony Romo and Jessica Simpson

Categories
New York Yankees

And this suprises you because?

High and Tight posted this cartoon from the New York Post that mocks Corey Lidle’s lack of flying skills. It’s in completely poor taste but they seem to think that the Post had sunk to a new level of low or something?

We have stayed away from the Corey Lidle tragedy — mainly cause we don’t handle tragedy well — we prefer arrests and trashy chicks but it’s worth noting that the NY Post is a piece of trash that you should only read if you want to laugh at the New York Knicks.