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Vontae Davis Reportedly Showed Up to Practice with Hangover

November 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Dolphins cornerback Vontae Davis missed his third straight game Sunday because of a hamstring injury. He did not travel with the team to Kansas City for its game Sunday and was upset with that. After the team said his absence was not injury-related, a few reports helped explain why Davis did not make the trip.

FOX Sports NFL reporter Jay Glazer said that receiver Brandon Marshall got into it with Davis at practice Saturday and chucked a football at his head. Considering his past behavior and legal troubles, Marshall would probably get some people pointing fingers at him. Not so here.

According to the Miami Herald, a source said that Davis showed up to practice with alcohol on his breath and was apparently hungover. The Dolphins cornerback was out late Friday night with teammates, but he was the only one tardy to practice the next day.

Professionalism at its best. As if the Dolphins aren’t having enough issues this year on the field, Davis’ behavior, if true, is a sad example of what happens when players become irresponsible. Davis might not have been expecting to contribute much because of his hamstring injury, but that shouldn’t excuse him from being a good teammate.

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Raiders Fans in Black Hole Fan Club Trying to Shed Negative Image

November 6, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Raider fanatics have never experienced an identity crisis. They’ve always been the bad guys. With their painted faces, spikes, masks, tattoos and other scary paraphernalia, Oakland fans have never exuded anything but fear and nastiness. It has come to the point where the rest of the football world looks at them as a bunch of rowdy and rough scofflaws who love to start fights.

The Black Hole fan club is tired of that image. In the wake of Al Davis’ passing and the team’s resurgence, the fans have also taken a different tone. They’re trying to be the good guys for a change.

“We are tired of being the whipping boy of the Bay Area and people thinking we are a bunch of criminals,” Rob Rivera, the president of the Black Hole fan club, said according to The Post game. “We are not.”

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Rookie Quarterbacks on Opposite Ends of Puzzling NFL Attendance Figures

October 30, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Statistics can sometimes be misleading. Attendance numbers are no exception. But that doesn’t mean they are not interesting to examine.

Here are some numbers to think about. As of week seven, the New York Jets are the only team to have totaled over 500,000 fans in attendance — both at home and on the road. No surprise there. The real surprise is the team that follows them. No, it’s not Dallas or Green Bay. Drum roll please. Did you think it would be Carolina? The Panthers have attracted over 482,000 people to their games.

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Transgender Bodybuilder Headed Back to Competition as Another Sex

October 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Chris Tina Bruce is a 42-year-old personal trainer from San Diego whose passion is competitive bodybuilding. At the Border States Classic Bodybuilding competition on Oct. 29th, the 6’3″, 190 pound hulking woman is making a comeback. Sort of.

Bruce was a regular at these competitions in the early ’90s. The difference was that she was up against male contestants, and she competed as Chris Gary Bruce. Back then Bruce was a man.

Bruce had grown up a man and remained so until 2009. She was married to a woman and fathered two children. No one knew that Bruce identified as a woman. Not friends, nor her family. Bruce’s only outlet into his feminine side was through his job in sales, which allowed him to cross-dress. Wearing women’s dresses would later factor into his divorce from his wife in 2007.

It was a year later that Bruce began to make major changes. She starting taking hormones, testosterone blockers, and underwent plastic surgery. Bruce finally became the woman she always wanted to be. Even with these changes, Bruce remains steadfast in her interests.

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Tim Tebow Legend Grows with Comeback Win Over Dolphins

October 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

In case there weren’t enough story lines surrounding the Broncos’ new starting quarterback, Tim Tebow led his team an overtime, comeback win over the Dolphins on Sunday. Down 15 points in the fourth quarter after a Miami field goal, things were looking grim for Denver in what was a snooze-fest of a game to that point. Offensive struggles for both sides showcased the reasons both team entered the game with one win combined.

With a little over five minutes remaining, Tebow had done little to help the Broncos win. He had a few Tebow-esque highlights including some broken tackles and a 21-yard scramble, but his overall performance was unimpressive. Then, a touchdown, a recovered onside kick, another touchdown, and a two-point conversion turned the game around.

After driving 80 yards for a touchdown, Denver recovered an onside kick. Cue the storybook ending. Tebow dinked and dunked his way to another score, cutting Miami’s lead to two. On the ensuing two-point conversion attempt, Tebow somehow surprised the Dolphins by running it in on a draw.

A 52-yard field goal by Matt Prater sealed the win for Denver in overtime. Prepare to be flooded with Tim Tebow headlines.

Perhaps it was the fact that Tebow was playing in Florida in front of the Gator faithful. Maybe it was being at Sun Life Stadium, the field where he won high school and NCAA championships. It’s possible that Miami is just an awful team. Or maybe he is — as his die-hard fans insist — a winner.

It may take an entire season to understand Tebow’s true value. Another interesting aspect of Sunday’s win for the Broncos is that it further removes them from the Andrew Luck sweepstakes. By winning games, Tebow can secure his future in more ways than one.  After all, can you imagine listening to Denver fans if they had Tebow and Luck on their roster?

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Theo Epstein, Jed Hoyer, Josh Byrnes, Ben Cherington Play GM Musical Chairs

October 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Being a baseball GM as of late has become something of a merry-go-round ride. Still in the thick of the World Series, MLB is getting dizzy with management changes within big-name ball clubs.

The official announcement came Friday night: Theo Epstein is leaving the Red Sox to become the Cubs’ president. That was the first domino.

With a big hole to fill, Boston quickly slotted assistant GM Ben Cherington into Epstein’s former seat. Both teams will hold press conferences on Tuesday, the next off day in the World Series, to present their new bosses.

Another domino fell when Epstein decided to poach long-time friend (and former Red Sox assistant) Jed Hoyer, the Padres’ GM, and bring him into the fold. This would be Epstein’s first move as President since he managed to swing a deal where Hoyer comes in as the Cubs’ GM.

So in one decision, Epstein has rocked the executive world of three franchises. And, it seems, a lot of nepotism was in play since Cherington and Hoyer worked together as co-GMs during Epstein’s absence from the Red Sox in ’05. Remember too, it was Hoyer who traded All Star first baseman Adrian Gonzalez to the Red Sox.

The good news for the Padres is that they get a few players in exchange for letting Hoyer go. The San Diego club is turning the reigns over to Josh Byrnes — another former Theo Epstein assistant — who was the Padres’ former Vice President of Baseball Operations.

All this and baseball hasn’t even hit the off-season yet.

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Rod Stewart’s Son, Liam Stewart, Is a Hockey Prospect

October 22, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Mix the genes of a rock legend and his supermodel wife, and what do you get? Would you have guessed hockey prospect? Such is the case for 17-year-old Liam Stewart, a rookie playing for the WHL’s Spokane Chiefs. That would be the son of Rod Stewart and his former wife Rachel Hunter (family pictured at right in 2005).

It was actually because of his father that Stewart first encountered hockey. In New York for one of his father’s shows as a child, Stewart attended a Rangers game. That sparked his interest in the sport.

“From then on I told my mom I wanted to do that. The next day I was skating, not playing hockey, just free skating. That’s how it started,” says Stewart.

At 15 years old Stewart made a strong impression at the Chiefs camp, particularly with his fitness test. He won the 1.5 mile run. Now, the 6’1″, 180-pound defensive-minded forward is skating out of his father’s shadow with his play on the ice.

“I’ve always wanted to carve my path,” Stewart said. “I didn’t want to be Rod Stewart’s son who really does nothing. … I wanted to do my own thing, get out of California, meet new people.”

Stewart is not the only son of a music star trying to make it as an athlete. P. Diddy’s son, Justin Combs, is a rising football talent with offers to play cornerback at several top universities. Much like Combs, Stewart is getting recognized for his ability, not his name. The level of play in the WHL makes sure of that.

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