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All Other Sports

OJ Simpson used his one phone call to check his voicemail

Last week we brought you a voice recording that surfaced of OJ Simpson as he went all Mafioso on some sports memorabilia guys. Well, there’s been another incredible find and it just reaffirms the fact that it really sucks to be the Juice.

Sorry, OJ, but if Johnny Cochran’s in heaven or hell then you’re going to jail.

Links:

[Our Book of Scrap]: The Juice Checks His Messages From The Slam

Categories
New England Patriots

Even Roger Goodell bows down to the great Bill Belichick


Don’t worry, you’re not the only one who thinks that NFL commish Roger Goodell just got soft. After Bill Belichick intentionally broke the rules during the very first week of the season, Goodell decided to dish out measly fines of $500,000 to Belichick, $250,000 to the Patriots and took away the team’s first-round draft pick next year if they reach they playoffs and second and third rounders if they don’t.

Talk about a slap on the wrist! He says that the draft picks will hurt the team more than suspending Belichick. Okay, whatever, he’s got his reasoning and who are we to argue. After all, his tenure so far has been pretty spectacular with his gift of Pacman Jones to professional wrestling and his lengthy suspensions of other notorious bad boys. But what gets us are the puny fines. $750,000 combined just seems a bit weak. Just the other day on the other side of the pond, the World Motor Sports Council slapped Team McLaren with a $100 million fine and stripped them of all their points due to a spying scandal! Now, that’s a fine!

It’s blatantly obvious that this isn’t the first time this has happened, regardless of what Belichick says or doesn’t say. So, while it’ll never happen and we all know the comments are in jest, who knows, maybe the Philadelphia Eagles really do have an argument.

I think they should forfeit, man,” said punt returner Reno Mahe, smiling. “We won the Super Bowl. I think we should get it.

I’m going to go trade my NFC championship ring for a Super Bowl ring.

Links:

[KETV.com]: NFL Fines Pats Coach Belichick $500,000
[6ABC.com]: Did The Patriots Cheat in Super Bowl?

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New York Jets

Someone missed Goodell’s personal conduct memo



Can’t outrun the police

New York Jets kick returner Justin Miller might not have gotten Goodell’s personal conduct policy memo but his lawyer certainly has. Miller’s issued apology sounded like a paraphrasing of the remarks Goodell used in admonishing Pacman Jones and Chris Henry when he handed out their suspensions.


I want to apologize to everyone for this situation, including my family, my teammates, the Jets organization, our fans and the entire NFL.

I understand that serving in the NFL is an honor and that I have an obligation to behave in a manner that reflects the privilege I have been given.

Miller was charged with assault after he punched a woman in the face. Now to be fair, he didn’t want to punch her in the face (but the bitch totally deserved it! — just kidding folks, just kidding); Miller’s problem was that he took a swing at a man with fast reflexes. That man ducked out of the way, and the next thing you know, some club ho got clocked in the face, and Pacman Miller got hauled off to the slammer for third-degree assault.

It’s going to be interesting how Goodell deals with this. This isn’t Miller’s first incident but the first was back in college so maybe he’ll get off with a warning. Let’s hope that Goodell doesn’t go all apeshit crazy with his punishment like David Stern did in ruining the Western conference playoffs.

In related news, Broncos WR David Kircus is a person of interest in a weekend assault case in Littleton, Colorado where the victim received several broken bones in the face. We’ll keep you updated on that story.

Links:
[NY Daily News]: Jets KR Miller Charged With Assault
[Denver channel]: Bronco Investigated In Weekend Assault

Categories
NFL General

17 regular season NFL games?

Roger Goodell is wearing bad idea blue jeans again. The NFL is making a major push towards expanding to Europe and beyond (the first regular season game played in Europe will take place in London this year between the Dolphins and the Giants) and the in order to “create more inventory,” the NFL is considering expanding the regular season to 17 games by shortening the preseason.


One negative [to playing overseas games] is you’re taking a game away from fans here,” Goodell said before an annual meeting of sports editors at league headquarters in New York. “We’ve discussed whether to cut one preseason game and add a 17th week. It would create more inventory, and that has some appeal. We’re chewing on that. The issue is: How do you create more inventory?

Translation: how can we line our pockets with more dough? The NFL sees the international appeal of basketball and baseball and wants a piece. But the problem here is that you can’t add European or Asian games without putting a huge burden on the teams that have to travel. Unlike baseball and basketball where you can have a terrible road trip and just shake it off with a nice homestand, the short NFL season and grueling games make it so much harder for teams to rebound.

Some might argue that a trip to Europe would be like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers traveling to Seattle for a game. Yes, it’s about the same distance, but how many times have you picked against a team in your office pool (and we know you have an office pool) because they had to travel all the way across the country in the previous week or had to travel for a Monday Night game? Plus, if you had a team other than an east coast team flying to Europe, it’d be an even longer distance to traverse.

The NFL desire to expand to Europe is a great idea… for the owners. Sure, we’ve been clamoring for one less preseason game, but that was to minimize injury risk in meaningless games, not to create an extra game we can’t even attend. This cash grab is not in the best interest of the game.

And finally, what would 17 games do to all our records? We’d have more asterisks than a Barry Bonds wikipedia entry.

Links:
[Washington Post]: NFL Considers 17th Regular Season Game

Categories
NFL General

Hey Goodell, we’re still waiting on the personal conduct policy



Chris Henry

For all the talk about about Roger Goodell instituting a league personal conduct policy during the owners meetings, it looks like it won’t get done till sometime before the NFL draft in late April. Since sources say that the sanctions might be applied retroactively (which doesn’t make sense at all to us but the NFL has more power than God), it’s liable to affect players who are still getting into trouble now because they don’t know any better, or at least that’s what their agents will say on appeal.

First up is our old friend Chris Henry. The latest incident for Henry is being cited for three traffic chargers: driving with a suspended license, failure to wear a seatbelt, and making an improper turn. All very minor stuff but you can’t get into any trouble if you’ve already been arrested 4 times in the last 14 months.

Second up is Broncos wide receiver Brandon Marshall who was arrested for false imprisonment and domestic violence charges after an argument with his girlfriend at their Colorado home. This seems to be one of those trumped up charges since his girlfriend had no injuries and the “false imprisonment” charge was Marshall blocking her taxi with his car to prevent her from leaving. In a romantic comedy, that’s the denouement, in real life, it’s a crime.

In any case, Pacman Jones is scheduled to meet with Roger Goodell on April 3rd. Here’s how the meeting will go:


Goodell
: Hello Adam, please tell me about all the times you’ve been arrested or questioned by the police since you came into the league.
Jones: Well, there was the assault charge… and the weapons charge… and there was the public intoxication… and then there was the marijuana charge… then there was the spitting incident with the Tennessee State ho… and then of course the NBA All-Star Game…

Goodell (to secretary): Got all that? Good. Clean that up and put everything he did in the “examples of violating the conduct policy” section. We’re done.

Links:
[USA Today]: Broncos WR arrested
[MSNBC]: ‘Pacman’ to meet with Goodell on April 3
[Cincinnati.com]: Traffic ticket terrible for Henry

Categories
Tennessee Titans

Pacman Jones might have less money to make it rain



Take a bite out of crime!

It has been speculated for a couple of weeks now but Don Banks at Sports Illustrated is reporting that the NFL is going to set an example by suspending Pacman Jones, not for his role in the Las Vegas strip club triple shooting, but for failing to tell the Titans about two 2006 arrests in Georgia which violates the personal conduct clause in his contract.

According to a source in the league office:


We can’t tell the Titans that he won’t play for them ever again, because the Titans, at the end of the day, will determine his long-term future. But the league will determine his short-term future. You should see something within a two or three-week time frame, and I would think you could expect a multiple-game suspension, or as much as a year or beyond.

The suspension could come immediately after the owners meetings next week in Arizona. Pacman is unlikely to get any support from the Players Association as commissioner Roger Goodell has worked closely with NFLPA executive director Gene Upshaw on writing the new personal conduct guidelines and has the support of a lot of the veterans.

Links:
[SI]: Time to get tough