Brats, splats, nom de hoops....
1) Apparently, Rudy Guiliani's son, Andrew, is a bit of a diva. He was dismissed from Duke's golf team earlier this year for conduct issues. Now he's doing the American thing - suing the school.
2) Star chef Gordon Ramsay almost became roadkill over the weekend, thanks to falling off a cliff. Yeah, and I bet he swore up a blue streak on the way down.
3) I wonder if Tayshaun Prince went with an alias? Perhaps Prince Rogers Nelson? Seems the clan of Team USA hoops checked in under some aliases this week during their training camp in Las Vegas.
Look away, duck next time, bye bye bye
1) Note to self: if partying at a Russian rave, DO NOT look directly at the laser show. Some poor ravers have lost some of their eyesight because of the laser hitting them. Ouch.
2) Down goes Canseco. Down does Canseco. In the first round no less. Former baseball player/serial book writer and confessor Jose Canseco got pummeled over the weekend at a celebrity boxing gig. If Jose wants to fight again, I'd bet it wouldn't be hard to find somebody to punch him...
3) Bye bye, Billy Packer. CBS sports is going another direction with its NCAA basketball announcing teams...
Famous kids, famous moms, and famous kitties...
1) See, even ballplayers know Hello Kitty is cool....OK, maybe in the Mets case - not so much. Don't disrespect the Hello Kitty!
2) Now starting at quarterback... either Wayne Gretzky's son or Joe Montana's son. And they're throwing passes to Will Smith's kid. Interesting high school we have here...
3) Uh...today's bizarre tidbit: Brady Bunch mom Florence Henderson is a licensed hypnotherapist. Which is probably how she got through those horrible made-for-TV Brady reunion movies. She tranced herself into it.
Walking, choking, and flee from the dogs!
1) I've heard of teams going to the dogs, but never dogs going to the teams. Run away from the Rottweilers!
2) Aaaaooww! The Ontario Provincial Police have saved a national treasure...a police officer came to the rescue of former/current/former Van Halen frontman "Diamond" David Lee Roth.
3) It's not often that racewalkers become sporting icons, but Jefferson Perez has become big stuff in Ecuador. Walk on dude!
I found Joey Harrington...
I knew there had to be something here on the campus of the University of Oregon. I knew there had to be some kind of shrine to Joey Harrington.
Didn't see anything at the Autzen football stadium (it's like a NFL stadium - wow). But a trip to the student bookstore...and I found Joey.
There is a curio cabinet filled with his NFL stuff, from an autographed Lions jersey (on sale for $295) to Falcons and Dolphins helmets. It's all for sale, with proceeds going to the Harrington family charitable foundation.
There is a typed letter from Joey in the case, saying he's having the Ducks bookstore sell this autographed stuff in response to the demand.
I asked the kid working the cashier counter if there is much demand for Harrington stuff. He told me that there hasn't been much lately, but added, "Joey Harrington is a god around here."
I told the kid I was from Detroit, and his Joey-induced smile went away. Yeah. Lions fans know that feeling.
Real World: Detroit, Don't coach me dad, Adios Toronto
1) If only they had done "Real World: Detroit" (or better yet, Real World: Downriver), then they could have avoided rioting at MTV's offices.
2) Verrry interesting. A lot of coaches dream of having their son or daughter on their team. Gophers football coach Tim Brewster could have had that scenario, as his son Clint, a freshman QB, plays for Minnesota. Buuut, it seems son doesn't want dad yelling at him...he's transferring.
3) Raptors Jorge Garbajosa has rescinded his contract with the team, freeing himself to play for Spain in the Olympics. The Raptors had not allowed him to play for Spain, fearing injury. The Spanish Federation had been dueling with the Raptors over Garbajosa. The parties have been negotiating in Madrid the last few days, and reached the agreement to allow Garbajosa to walk.
Back to school, I see dead mayors, not feeling the DaVinci code...
1) Love these stories, the ones where athletes go back to school to finish their degrees. The latest cool dude is... Atlanta Hawks big man Al Horford. Sounds like he's going to fulfill his promise to his grandfather to get his college degree. Good for him.
2) There's a cautionary tale here for politicians: people in Romania have re-elected their dead mayor because they preferred him to the living options.
3) It sounds like the Pope and the Catholic Church will not be going to see the sequel to the DaVinci Code. And please, no noise or filming in church. And as always, the book (Angels and Demons) will probably be better than the movie.
Wings and Faygo, Flip the switch - german style, We're running out of time!
1) Whooo - the ultimate pain and insult of having to wear a Wings jersey and drink Faygo...ooh. Let's all have a moment of silence for Pa. Gov. Ed Rendell for suffering such a fate due to his Pens losing to the Wings.
2) Take my word for it, this is a big deal in the Europe: the mighty German soccer team lost 2-0 to Croatia in Euro2008 (aka the European Championships, aka the Stanley Cup of pro soccer). Upset Germans are already calling for the coach's head, accusing the team of...flipping the switch-type behavior. Hmm, where have we heard this before? A good team not playing hard every game?
3) For those of us who still love "24", here's some news about the 2009 season: Jon Voight has been cast as the nemesis for Jack Bauer. No word if Angelina Jolie will make an appearance to help Bauer rub out the enemy. (just joking - hopefully she's in a better place with her dad these days.)
Word up Letterman.
As usual, Dave Letterman gets to the heart of the matter, instead of making nice hockey players sing "SexyBack"...here's a good top 10 list on "Signs Top Ten Signs an NBA Game Is Fixed":
10) Game begins 20 minutes before visiting team arrives.
9) Tip-off always goes to the player with the largest salary.
8) At the end of the first quarter, the score is 179 to 2.
7)Missed three-pointers count for two points if they're "pretty close". (This one I think Rasheed Wallace and Chauncey Billups would be strongly in favor of...)
6) One of the Laker Girls looks suspiciously like Pete Rose.
5) Whenever he's open, referee takes a shot.
4) Scoreboard has disclaimer: "All Scores Approximate" (This one applies for Philips Arena = Atlanta Hawks.)
3) The team loses even though it led in points, delegates and the popular vote.
2) Jack Nicholson scores 25 points from his seat.
1) The Knicks win.
Grow up guys....
Shame on all the local sports talk radio types who insist on using slams against women and gays to characterize Paul Pierce's dramatic whining over his whatever knee injury.
Calling him a skirt, fag, using the p-word or other perjorative terms is wrong because A) most women are tougher than Pierce (ahem, childbirth?!?), B) how is it accurate or even funny to rip on half of the population - and let's be serious - a lot of women are sports fans, D) last time I checked, gays are sports fans and athletes too, D) it's just stupid, lowest common denominator radio.
There are a lot of terms that can be used to describe Pierce, without insulting other groups.
Let's try to get beyond using classless junior high locker room insults.
