Brandon Marshall received a Darwin Nominee here at LBS back on October 22nd, 2007 after he was pulled over on suspicion of DUI. This really wasn’t a big deal except for what it added to Marshall’s reputation as a bad citizen. But now that Marshall has requested (demanded?) a trade, the police report from that stop bears some significance. From Pro Football Talk, here’s what was said by Marshall according to the officer:

“I hate Denver. I hope I get traded. I hate this f******* city.”
…
Marshall also berated police for stopping him and not finding the killer of fellow Bronco Darrent Williams.

“Why aren’t you guys out looking for Williams’ killer?” the report says.

To quote Jerry Maguire, there’s no proof of anything except this guy’s a sensational athlete. So the question here actually is whether these were just the words of a drunken nut angered by the stop, or the actual feelings of Marshall. I’m guessing it’s a little of both. And I’m guessing the Broncos may have had a hand in this report being released — sure makes it a lot easier P.R.-wise if they cave in to his trade demands when the fans know the guy hates their city.

The same weekend Lou Piniella admitted he toked the devil’s lettuce but didn’t enjoy it, White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen had to respond to the same question. Ozzie’s answer probably was surprising to most:

“A lot of people think I’m in the [stuff],” Guillen said. “I’m not. I never did in my life. Thank God.”

Guillen said he has been surrounded by too many important people whose lives were influenced by drugs and alcohol.

“I have my brother, who has some problems, and I don’t want to go through those problems,” he said. “Because I have a few friends and a few members of my family with drug problems, I don’t want to go through that.”

Even with that being the case, it’s hard to imagine anyone, especially a pro ballplayer, never having tried it. I guess Ozzie’s craziness is all natural, which is nice to know. The guy’s a natural born nutcase. In case you’re wondering about the line of questioning, it all arose when Cubs catcher Geovany Soto was busted by a WBC drug test and said he would never do it again. Maybe MLB should make an exception for Milton Bradley — that guy sure could use a chill pill blunt or two.

My man HG over at You Been Blinded posted a video of Michael Jackson teaching Michael Jordan how to dance some time last year. Who knew that would become such a time treasure a matter of mere months later? Typically I don’t mix non-sports stuff in here on the site, but even LBS was a fan of the King of Pop (I feel so much more vindicated for having MJ in the iPod all these years now). So when I came across this video on YouTube again I felt I had to post it. Kind of cool to watch two of the best in the world at their specific trades interact:

Is it amazing or what that Jordan could be that stiff dancing and that Jackson could be so uncoordinated at basketball? I always thought athletics and dance moves went hand-in-hand. Guess I was wrong. Man, it’s almost hard to decide who was better at what he did. I’d say they were pretty much equals and bless them for working so hard at what they did for our enjoyment.

When Roger Federer beat Robin Soderling in the finals of the French Open to win his 14th grand slam title, Soderling injected some humor into his runner-up speech. The Swede was just yoking around when he said this:

With the two set to meet once again, this time in the 4th round at Wimbledon, Soderling could be preparing his “nobody beats me 11 times in a row” speech for after the match. Soderling did upset Rafael Nadal on clay so I guess it’s possible he does the almost equally unthinkable task of knocking out Roger on grass. If he pulls it off, he would be ending one of the more impressive streaks in all of sports: Federer’s reached 20 straight grand slam semifinals. That’s like reaching the Final Four in March Madness 20 years in a row. Impressive.

We’ve heard for a while about the possibility that Danica Patrick leaves Indy Car for NASCAR. Even though she signed with Andretti Green Racing, she has signed on with IMG to work her next contract. They’ve been shopping her around to all the NASCAR teams and apparently Hendrick Motorsports and Chevrolet are the favorites to sign her. Now if Patrick has hired IMG to work her next deal it’s pretty clear that she wants to maximize her value and the way to do that is switch to NASCAR from IRL. And if Hendrick takes her on, they’ll need to get rid of one of their drivers.

Hendrick currently has four cars in the Sprint Cup Series. Jimmie Johnson who won the last three Sprint Cups, Jeff Gordon who’s currently second in points, ageless wonder Mark Martin, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Martin’s turned things around recently by winning three races, getting into victory lane for the first time in several years. The only driver of the group who’s been struggling is Little E who even had to fire his cousin as crew chief recently. Translation: if Hendrick signs Patrick, Earnhardt could be odd man out. Could you imagine that? Little E replaced by a girl???

(via Fark) Plus Obligatory Danica pics

There was a pretty odd story that occurred at the end of last week. Pirates young pitcher Ian Snell was sent down to Triple-A at his request. Snell said he needed a change of scenery to get away from the negativity in Pittsburgh:

His explanation basically came down to this: He sought a more positive environment: “Too much negativity. I want to be a positive person if I’m going to be here. I felt like I was going to be negative if I was going to be here, and I didn’t want to ruin this team.” He was asked to explain who actually made the call that he would go down: “I wasn’t going to allow them to say what they want. I told them I wanted to go down. It’s best for the team.”

We’ve known for a while that Snell was never a big fan of the city of Pittsburgh, and I’m sure five straight losing seasons doesn’t help his view of the team in general. Though he comes across as a whiny, soft, head case, I actually feel for the guy. When you’re a pitcher, it starts to wear on you if you’re on a crap team that doesn’t provide run support. You then begin to alter your game, trying to be too fine with your pitches knowing that allowing a couple of runs early means you’re taking the loss. I’m sure it also doesn’t help your confidence every time you see the team trade away one of its better hitters (see Bay, Jason; McLouth, Nate).

Snell is not damaged goods — he just needs a fresh start. I think his 17 strikeout game against the Toledo Mud Hens (I guess Lou Brown wasn’t managing) proves the guy still has something even if Toledo’s stunk this year. Snell’s trying to get himself traded and I don’t blame him. For his sake, I hope he gets a new start so he can maximize his career. He’s nothing special, but the guy can be an average or slightly above average pitcher in the right situation.