Categories
College Football

Odds and Ends: Point shaving at Toledo

Since Friday, the arrest of Harvey “Scooter” McDougle Jr. has sent shockwaves through the sports gambling community.  Actually, no it hasn’t.  We realize that Toledo is DIV I and all but you gotta be pretty desperate to bet on Toledo vs Akron. Still, the question is always whether it could happen at a big time program that garners big time bets.  

According to the Detroit News, a man named Garry Manni gave McDougle cash, a car,  valuables and trips in exchange for affecting outcomes of games.   Although he was only a 4th string running back, McDougle was able to influence other players on both the football and basketball teams.  

Toledo officials held a press conference today to announce that they were unsure whether others would be charged.   Uh yeah… thanks for the staggering info guys.

In other news…

[Still Listen to Gangsta Music]: Another Tony Parker rap video you can’t understand

[NY Times]: Cheerleading responsible for more than half of the catastrophic injuries to female high school and college athletes

[Hockey Rants]: St. Louis blews play strip shootout

[Sydney Morning Herald]: Ian Thorpe to use the I was hammered that night defense

[Our Book of Scrap]: Something about women’s golf… we’re too distracted by Carmen Electra and Joan Jett rumors

And finally, here’s a video of a trick bowling shot.  Yep, that’s right.  Trick Bowling.

Categories
Baltimore Ravens

We hope the men get different uniforms


We’ve never been to a game in Baltimore but apparently they have male cheerleaders on their stunt team. The Ravens recently held tryouts for the squad.


Many of the men participating in Sunday’s tryout had good experience, said Dan W., a new participant. Most of them were cheerleaders in college and grew up playing sports. A big part of their job description includes lobbing their female counterparts high into the air and catching them. Dan W., 24, cheered for three years at University of Notre Dame and played lacrosse in high school

This is exactly what’s wrong with male cheerleading. (“There are 10 things men should never do and cheerleading is 9 of them.”) Most decent high school athletes who can’t make the leap to the next level just accept their lack of athletic ability and go on with their lives and once in a while think back on glory days. However, a small percentage decide that this isn’t good enough and feel the need to be in the spotlight — but as a cheerleader.

The defense for male cheerleaders are “well, they are always looking up the cheerleader’s skirts”. Listen, who cares. They are after the athletes. You are like a eunuch who claps his hands real loud. And besides, it’s just not worth it. The mascot is cooler than you. Have you ever seen a male cheerleader and thought, “yeah that guy is cool, I want to hang out with him”?

Links:
[Examiner]: Ravens cheerleader tryouts attract men, women

Categories
High School Sports

Cheerleaders. Soldiers. Booze. Sex.


That’s the headline from Newsweek. They are either running out of good headline writers or they simply realized that there really isn’t anything more you need to add. Why waste words when that will get everyone’s attention. Hell, if they could have added lesbian to it, I’m sure they would have. Titillating headlines aside, this story has got everything that tabloids love… except it’s Newsweek.

According to the article, two cheerleaders from Ware Shoals High School in South Carolina ditched a school function and instead headed to a hotel room with their coach Jill Moore to meet two National Guardsmen on a recruiting trip to their high school. Moore allegedly gave the girls vodka and then went to another hotel room with one of the guardsmen and left the other one with the two girls. One of the girls admitted to having sex with him.

Oh but wait… there’s more. The principal of the school is being charged with obstruction of justice for trying to cover up what the cheerleading coach did. Oh but wait… there’s even Moore… (sorry)… Jill Moore also is accused of having sex with a male high school student and separately would bring along a cheerleader to the National Armory to distract other employees while she had sex with a Guardsman. Did we mention she is married with two kids. (Jill, you dirty slut.)

Moore is the only one to be charged. The guardsman are off the hook because everyone involved were at least 16, the age of consent in South Carolina. The Newsweek subheader was “A National Guard recruiting mission gone awry shakes a small South Carolina town to its core.” Did it really go awry? This might be the single best thing to happen to the National Guard. What high school student isn’t going to want to join the Guard now? Look at the perks!

Links:
[Newsweek ]:Cheerleaders. Soldiers. Booze. Sex.

Categories
NBA General

Around the Rim: Step Aside Showgirls


1. Vegas Rules
Forget about Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Kevin Garnett and Gilbert Arenas. The real all-stars are performing during the timeouts. So, for the first time, NBA.com is compiling votes in order to assemble The 2007 Las Vegas NBA All-Star Dance team which will be composed of one girl from each NBA team. Now, you can go online and, ahem, entertain yourself with pictures and bios from every babe, I mean dancer, on every team. Finally, the talent and inner beauty of women like Courtney from Boston, Katherine from Miami and Julie from Houston can get the proper recognition they deserve. So, show these ladies how much you truly appreciate them; vote early, vote often and send a thank you to NBA.com for creating a one stop shop for dancing divas from around the league.

2. Way Downtown
The Cavs LeBron James proved on Wednesday that he is capable of hitting the long range bombs in real life, as well as in commercials. When he nailed an 83 footer at the end of the third quarter against Boston, not only did he add three points to his scoring total but he also added his name to the record books. According to a statistician, James’ shot was the third longest in NBA history. Only an 84 footer by Chicago’s Norm Van Lier in 1977 and an 89 footer by Baron Davis (then with Charlotte) had more air time than James’. Kinda makes you wonder if he really was hitting jumpers from the opposite baseline in those ads. Nah, he couldn’t do that. Could he?

3. The Hornet with No Sting
Tyson Chandler isn’t far from becoming a big time player in this league. Chandler cleans the glass with the elite in the league, he’s currently sixth in boards, and he’s been blocking shots with ferocity of late. But despite all of the talent that he possesses, Chandler appears to have absolutely no desire to score. In fact, his season high is only 14 points and he hasn’t taken ten shots in any game this year. The Hornets have got to find a way to get more offense out of his 7-1, 245 pound frame and Chandler must learn to be aggressive if he’s ever going to live up to his second pick potential.

Thursday’s Player of the Day: Kobe Bryant @ Sacramento 48 min, 42 pts (FG: 11-21, 3FG: 3-5, FT: 17-20), 10 reb, 9 ast

Friday’s Game to Watch: Dallas (26-7) @ San Antonio (23-10) It’s probably the biggest rivalry in the NBA and tonight’s game should be another great game between these two division foes. The Mavericks have a 10-4 record away from Dallas this season, as well as a three game lead over the Spurs in the Southwest Division that has been steadily growing during the Mavs current 12 game win streak. San Antonio, on the other hand, has struggled recently; losing two in a row and four of their last seven. This will be the third game between these two with each team winning in the others gym.

Buzzer Beater: The referees in last night’s game between the Lakers and Kings became a bit whistle happy in the second quarter as they sent players to line an astounding 47 times. Talk about a snore fest! By half-time of the game there had been 38 total fouls called and six players had already picked up three fouls each. After regulation and overtime ended, a total of 80 fouls had been called and 102 free throws had been shot. I hope that the NBA front office takes note and remembers this performance when it comes time to assign referees to the All-Star Game. Please Mr. Stern, just say no to Dick Bavetta, Jess Kersey and Robby Robinson.

Categories
All Other Sports

This isn’t going to look good on the resume


Was it George Carlin that said “There are 10 things men should never do and cheerleading is 9 of them”? From BadJocks.com comes these year old pics of some Indiana University of Pennsylvania cheerleading squad hazing ritual that prove being a male cheerleader is just not right.

Here’s a word of advice to potential male cheerleaders (and, well, everyone else): Every single photo or video that you’re in has the potential to wind up on the internet. The more embarassing it is, the more likely it’ll end up on the net. So think before you take that photo. Are you trying to be ironic? Just kidding around? Nobody cares. It’s out there. So while this guy knew it wasn’t a good idea to participate in this event, it looks like the need to be a cheerleader (I GOT SPIRIT, YES I DO, I GOT SPIRIT HOW BOUT YOU!) overrode his common sense. And well, now there’s a pic of him sucking on a condom. His parents must be so proud.

By the way, we’d like to point out that our objection of male cheerleading isn’t because of the stereotype that male cheerleaders are gay (hey we love Michael Strahan!) but because it’s just so incredibly LAME.

Links:
[BadJocks.com]: Indiana University Pennsylvania Cheerleading Initiation

Categories
Boston Celtics

Boston Celtics’ smoke and mirrors


The Celtics finally figured out a way to confuse their fans into thinking that Danny Ainge can build a contender. After a 33-49 season, the C’s decided to add a dance team to their entertainment becoming the last NBA franchise to do so. It’s a very simple rule: put enough hot chicks in short skirts and guys won’t care if you have a 7 foot stiff named Raef who only shoots 3-pointers.

Understably, some old school C’s fans are not happy.


Why do the Celtics want to be like all the other teams? The Celtics were unique with the way they did things. Now all of a sudden they want to be like all the horrible teams. Having dancers is something expansion teams have to do to draw people. I just think the Celtics are messing with their tradition, and I don’t think that’s going to be good for them in the long run.

He’s got a point. All this packaged entertainment has largely ruined the NBA. Escalating salaries meant that owners/GMs had to find a way to fill high priced seats and instead of building a contender, they decided to give us William Hung performing at halftime of a Warriors game or cheesy contests instead. Last year, there was a contest during a Celtics halftime involving layups and tic-tac-toe that was so retarded, the marketing person who dreamt it up was summarily shot behind the arena afterward.

So instead of going to a game to watch your team win or even good basketball, you’re presented with selfish basketball, corporate branded schwag, and D-list pop stars at halftime. Are we not entertained? Actually, we’re not.

A note on the Boston.com “Staff photo illustration” of what a Celtics Dance Team member would look like: It looks like they took a file photo of a stripper and photoshopped on a Celtics logo… which will pretty much be accurate.

Links:
[Boston.com]: Celtics dance into the 21st century