When the New England Patriots aren’t in the Super Bowl, they tend to break out into song and dance so gay that Clay Aiken said, “damn, that’s gay!” Shipooopi!
[Random]: Oh my god, it’s an actual song. Thanks Elephants in Oakland
[Warriors Blog]:Madonna/Whore Complex in Sports
[MetsBlog]: Beltran Beats Delgado In Home Run Derby
[Setshot]: useless knowledge – how to pose for a team photo
[Detroit Bad Boys]: Sewer backs up at the Palace
When you get in trouble, the press will stop at nothing to dig up the dirt on you. In this case, a couple of reporters from the NY Daily News tracked down Isiah Thomas’ illegitimate son in Detroit. Good ole Zeke got a woman pregnant 2 months before marrying his current wife. That’s klassy. At least he’s paying for it.
After Marc Dones was born in 1986, Thomas admitted being the father and agreed to pay $52,000, plus $2,764.78 per month until Marc turned 18 – and then a lump sum of $100,000 to the youth.
Not surprisingly, Marc Dones has never met his father and Isiah refuses to return his phone calls.
[Yay Sports!]: Isiah Thomas has a bastard
[NY Daily News]: siah’s 19-year-old love child takes shot at dad he’s never met
The Philly Inquirer had some plot details from Rocky VI aka Rocky Balboa: Adrian is dead, Rocky owns a restaurant in South Philly, his son is a yuppie in Center City, and ESPN instigates the movie’s fight by doing a computer simulation between Rocky and the current heavyweight champion. Rocky signs up for the real thing and away we go.
Stallone is shooting three endings but he says that Rocky won’t go the way of Apollo Creed and croak in the ring.
[700level.com]: Plot Details of Rocky Balboa
[Philly.com]: Hangin’ with Sly Stallone
[Sony]: Rocky Blog
Mostly I hate talking sports with people who don’t know sports. But I absolutely hate talking sports with people who think that athletes are overpaid and whiny. Now, there certainly are athletes stealing paychecks (certain NBA players come to mind) but NFL players certainly earn their paycheck. Anytime you can be paralyzed while playing for the entertainment of millions of people, I say you deserve every penny you get.
According to a report in the Detroit Free Press, 78% of all NFL players are divorced, bankrupt or unemployed two years after leaving the game, and the average career of a pro player is less than 4 years. Afterward, they don’t know how to adjust back to normal lives and blow most of their money on maintaining their lifestyle and trying to get back into shape for another shot in the NFL. It certainly doesn’t suck to be a pro athlete, but it isn’t all money, hos, and Bentleys, either.
[Speaking Sports]: Most athletes living post-NFL aren’t successful
[Detroit Free Press]: Tackling life after the game
Remember the guy who tried to hold Livan Hernandez’s glove for ransom? I don’t think anyone really thought the Doug Floutie drop kick was that historic but apparently the Pro Football Hall of Fame does so they tried to track down the football. Well, some jackass in Boston is trying to hold the football for ransom.
Here are his demands:
1. Payment of ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND ($100,000.00) DOLLARS [lawyer’s capitals] on delivery of the football.2. A guarantee of eight (8) season tickets for 25 years in the end zone (preferably sections 142 or 143).
a. The season tickets will be paid for annually by my client at the then going price for season tickets. The Patriots would not be expected to pay for the tickets.
3. Delivery by the Patriots to my client sometime in September, 2006, of a Tom Brady Patriots’ football jersey signed by all the team members as of the beginning of the next football season.
Thankfully, the New England Patriots told him to go cram it with walnuts. What a moron. If you want to get rich quick, all you have to do is sell an uneaten hot dog from a championship game.
[Boston.com]: A get-rich kick scheme fails
Sorry, I couldn’t resist that as a headline. It’s actually my favorite one from the Cracked.com spoof on ESPN’s coverage of the Super Bowl. They nail ESPN’s ridiculously overhyped recycled coverage. The headline above is “Why is Ben Roethlisberger starting for the Steelers instead of Charlie Batch? Scoop Jackson exposes Bill Cowher’s history of unabashed racism.” You gotta love this. I guess we’re not the only ones who think Scoop Jackson never saw a topic where he couldn’t play the race card.
Sadly, it’s just a front door and none of the links work but here are some of the best:
BILL SIMMONS
An ape could have picked the playoffs with more accuracy than meDetroit Native Jerome “From Detroit” Bettis to Play Super Bowl in Detroit (His Hometown)
Seahawk Punter dedicates game to the late Kurt Cobain
Jagger takes wardrobe precautions to ensure scrotum doesn’t slip out of bottom of pants during halftime performance
Minnesota trades Wally Szczerbiak, Michael Olowokandi, Dwayne Jones, and a first rounder to Boston for Ricky Davis, Mark Blount, Marcus Banks, Justin Reed, and two second rounders.
This trade started off two weeks ago as Olowokandi for Blount, which seems to me like trading a Pinto for a Gremlin, but then blossomed into a multiplayer deal including Wally and Ricky Davis, and trade fodder. The deal gives KG a much needed second scorer who can create his own shot in Ricky “Andre3000” Davis. Meanwhile, the Celtics get rid of the albatross that is Blount and his contract but pick up another hefty contract in Szcerbiak; however, Olowokandi’s contract is up after this year. I think this is a neutral trade (yes, going out on a limb) but let’s see what they’re saying in the blogosphere.
Timberwolves fan reactions:
[Citypages.com]: Is it the perfect deal? No, it isn’t highway robbery. It might not even turn out to be a good deal. But for those clamoring for the Wolves to do something, to shake things up, it does do that.
[
Kevin Garnett Source]: This is a good trade for the Wolves. The way I see it, Davis is slightly better than Wally and Blount is slightly better than Olowokandi. We certainly just lost some shooting and rebounding, but in Davis, the Wolves have acquired the all-around, slasher type player that they need.
[Twolvescentral.com]: Both teams probably washed. But with names like Ron Artest and Steve Francis floating around, you’re going to tell me this was the best that we can do? … I very highly doubt this was little more than a trade between two old friends (McHale, Ainge) making a move out of desperation with both of their jobs on the line.
Celtics fan reactions:
[Johnny Bag O’Donuts ]: Szczerbiak may be the one guy who could disprove the myth that Boston will embrace any white basketball player (Raef and Scal don’t count–I’m talking talented players). Granted, this town does love us some honkeys (nothing necessarily wrong with that), but I don’t think Szczerbiak’s act will fly here. Boston can deal with whining (Ainge, Antoine Walker), nuttiness (Manny Ramirez, Ricky Davis), self-aggrandizement (Curt Schilling, Ty Law) and prettiness (Larry Bird, Dennis Johnson) but all four on a bad team? That might not work out too well.
[Boston.com forums]: scottboy79: Is Danny Ainge the wold’s largest d!ckhead, or is it just me?? Isn’t Kandi Mark Blount, version 2.0?
[BSMW Full Court Press]: This trade adds a player who can space the floor for Jefferson and Perkins, who has shown much more in the post offensively than I would have expected. Wally’s arrival, coupled with Delonte West’s incredible shooting over the past couple months, gives the Celtics a troika of players (with Pierce) who cannot be left alone or their opponents will surely pay the consequences. Forcing an opposing coach to decide between defending the post against talented young big men or the perimeter against dead-eye marksmen can only help the Celtics put up more W’s today and tomorrow.
It’s not just Knicks fans that hit the sauce because of Zeke. Another detail came out in the sexual harrassment suit against Isiah Thomas: Isiah used to work with concierges at hotels where visiting teams were staying to encourage players to go to bars and strip clubs the night before a game. I’m pretty sure NBA players don’t need much prodding to hit Scores but this is tampering and the Knicks could get fined or disciplined. It could be worse, at least he didn’t send hookers to opponents’ hotel rooms like Lawrence Taylor did.
Man, it’s not a good time to be named Isiah.
[NY Daily News]: Isiah booze probe ‘likely’
Isaiah J.R. Rider was arrested yesterday for kidnapping and battery in Marin, CA. Now, when I read the headline, I thought perhaps Isaiah had pulled a Rick James and kidnapped some woman, chained her to the wall, and burned her cigarettes, but it turns out he just got into an argument with a female acquaintance and drove off with her against her will. Police her heard screaming and pulled him over.
Who could have possibly guessed that Isaiah was capable of such a thing. I mean, sure, he used to spit at fans and once kicked a woman in the back at an autograph signing, but, really, who hasn’t? I say let he who has never made a bong out of a Sprite can cast the first stone.
[Marinij.com]: Former NBA player Isaiah Rider arrested for kidnapping
[Naxcom]: Isaiah Rider rookie card = $0.10
I didn’t think it was that big of a deal when Bode Miller said it was hard to ski while wasted. But Bode now seems to suffer from TO syndrome – the inability to keep his mouth shut. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Miller suggested that Lance Armstrong and Barry Bonds are both cheating by taking performance enhancing drugs.
Right now, if you want to cheat, you can: Barry Bonds and those guys are just knowingly cheating, but there’s all sorts of loopholes,” he told the magazine.” If you say it has to be ‘knowingly,’ you do what Lance (Armstrong) and all those guys do, where every morning their doctor gives them a box of pills and they don’t ask anything, they just take the pills.
[CBS5.com]: Bode: Bonds, Armstrong ‘Knowingly Cheat
[Sirius.com]: Ask Bode Anything (“Bode, what % of baseball players are on steroids?”)
[Bodelicious.net]: Bode Miller profile
