8:07 PMGregg Rosenthal of Pro Football Talk reports that Vince Lombardi's life story will soon be adapted into a Broadway Play. Let's just hope Hank Williams, Jr., gets nowhere near the score.
7:57 PMJudy Battista of the New York Times on missed tackles in the NFL: "One trend most exposes how poor tackling is. According to the N.F.L., there were 81 touchdowns of 50 yards or more through Week 8, the most since 1970, great for highlight reels, a nightmare for defenses."
7:36 PMLou Holtz observing Opposite Day on ESPN set today after Navy dominated Notre Dame during 23-14 victory in South Bend today: "It was obvious Notre Dame was the better football team."
7:17 PM Here's a thought: When watching the Yankees ticker-tape parade from one of the adjacent buildings looming over the route, don't toss documents out the window that contain people's social security numbers. Or meatballs.
People around the league were slightly surprised by the outright release of Chris Chambers by the San Diego Chargers earlier this week. While the veteran receiver’s production was down significantly, releases in the middle of a season don’t happen that often, and the whispers were that there had to be something more going on.
(It’s a pretty woman’s mugshot. In the middle of a sports story. That’s never, ever a good sign.)
Boy howdy, was there ever. The woman shown above is one Stacey Saunders, a San Diego woman who, according to the SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, has allegedly been intent on ruining Chris Chambers’ family for the past few months. In police reports and divorce proceedings, Chambers and his soon-to-be ex-wife claim that after a brief affair with Chambers, Saunders has been harassing him and his wife over the phone and via text message, to the point that it led to a divorce and disrupted his ability to perform on the field. So off you go, sir.
If this sounds all a bit familiar, well, it should.
Even as LJ slogs his way through the season & starts fights with everything in sight, objects animate and otherwise, he’s still only 80 yards away from overtaking Priest Holmes for the Chiefs’ all-time rushing record. Chiefs fans have noticed this, of course, and the last thing they want to see if their hallowed franchise’s record books tainted by a guy with such a cloud of negativity following him.
Solution? Empty gestures! Sign an online petition!
Johnson’s agent, however, chose an unusually peculiar tack in his client’s defense. After Johnson started calling disagreeable Chiefs fans “fags” - multiple times - and earning a suspension for his efforts, agent Peter Schafer responded in the most reasonable way imaginable. Just kidding, he expressed shock and amazement that you couldn’t call people “fags.”
So the Chiefs are reeling at 1-6 after a right-painful, 37-7 thrashing by the Chargers, leaving the Arrowhead faithful scratching their heads and wondering where it all went wrong. But thankfully we have the level-headed presence of Larry Johnson to calm everyone down and prevent wholesale panic.
Oh wait, no. As you can see, Johnson (”ToonIcon” on your Twitter scorecard) was busy on Twitter last night, telling the world that his dad is a great football coach with legitimate credentials, while the Chiefs coach, Todd Haley, attended college on a golf scholarship. One of his tweets: “My father played for the coach on “Remember the Titans.” Our coach played golf. My father played for redskins briefley. Our coach. Nuthn.”
And as if calling out your coach on Twitter wasn’t bad enough, how about some homophobic epithets thrown at Chiefs fans? It was a real party in LJ’s Twitterverse. Yep.
Here’s some photos of the AFL Dallas Texans helmets the Kansas City Chiefs wore today. I grew up in K.C., and always knew about Lamar Hunt’s Texans moving to Kansas City. Damn if they didn’t do this after I moved away to NFL-impaired Los Angeles.
(WANT)
Brilliant merchandising idea by the league and the Chiefs. Obviously the team isn’t selling any Chiefs merch these days, but I can promise you that Texans stuff is selling as well as any NFL gear could in the 816/913 today.
Hey, Kansas Citians - did you know that having crappy pro sports teams can cost you not only peace of mind, but a few extra bucks in your pockets? It’s true.
Rick Montgomery of the KC STAR reports on a new study that connects losing seasons with local supporters losing millions of dollars in personal income.
If you’ve yet to open that new Topps Jumbo Pack of NFL trading cards you just purchased (OK, lets face it: Your parents purchased for you), you’ve got an extra surprise in store. No, the Ben Roethlisberger card does not come with a denial of wrongdoing. It’s something better.
There’s one NFL cheerleader card in every pack. Yeah, there’s such a thing as Topps NFL cheerleader cards. Thank you, Topps, for inventing this years too late. Of course, you’re going to have to forage like a crazed homeless person to collect all 15 cheerleaders — there are only one per pack. But thus is the genius of the plan, as far as Topps is concerned.
Look, the Chiefs suck and have for years now. That much is well-understood, even as there’s a glimmer of hope for their season as they welcome Matt Cassel at QB and look to shock an AFC West that’s as close to a one-team division (the Chargers, of course) as possible.
(It goes downhill from here.)
But if the Chiefs really want to make a comeback, they’re going to have to do so on the backs of quasi-indie Gen-Y types, the ones who live in condos, don’t have any kids over 2, and think they’re smarter than anyone else. Or, to put it more succinctly, fans of “The Office.” After all, why else would they make this parody? Video below the break.
Under new GM Scott Pioli, the Kansas City Chiefs have become a sort of western outpost of former New England Patriots this offseason. Not that this is a bad thing, of course; the former Pats VP had what some might call a “pretty good track record” out in Boston, and the Chiefs have been going nowhere for the better part of the past two decades.
One of Pioli’s biggest acquisitions this offseason was Patriots QB Matt Cassel, who was thrust into the spotlight last year after - we’re getting to the point here - Chiefs safety Bernard Pollard became Boston Public Enemy Number One by shredding dreamboat QB Tom Brady’s knee. Earlier this year, SbB’s Tom “5k” Fornelli said that Cassel should be thanking Pollard for giving him the opportunity to show his stuff.
Well, however Cassel went about thanking Pollard, it clearly didn’t impress him, as Pollard almost shredded his new, less-dreamy-but-still-starting QB’s knee last week in practice. Oops.
I guess with all the trade deadline rumors about deals that did or didn’t happen, it’s kind of easy to overlook the most important thing in baseball: the standings. Because the story no one seems to be talking about is the fact that the best records in each league belong to teams in Southern California, setting up a real possibility of the first-ever Freeway Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the…let’s just call them the Angels.
Both teams looked the part of World Series contenders on Sunday. In Atlanta, the Dodgers used a three-run homer by Matt Kempto pound the Braves 9-1; meanwhile, the Angels hammered the Twins 13-4 to complete a three-game road sweep where they scored 35 runs. And while not everything is 100 percent for either team (Chad Billingsley left his start early with cramps during the Dodgers’ win, while Vladimir Guerrero suddenly turned 150 years old this season for the Angels), there’s at least a strong possibility of an all-LA (kinda, sorta) World Series.
And as a baseball fan living in Los Angeles, here’s my feeling on this: I hope to God this doesn’t happen. The first reason is selfish: I have to drive past Dodger Stadium every day for work - it’s almost impossible for a Tuesday night game against Florida, so I can’t imagine what a World Series game against the Angels would be like. A 30-minute commute turning into a two-hour nightmare? No thanks.
But more importantly, I’d have to hear weeks of coverage about the series as if it’s a real, heated rivalry. Which would make my head explode, because it just isn’t. This isn’t Red Sox vs. Yankees, with real, palpable hatred. Or even Yankees vs. Mets or Cubs vs. White Sox, both of which are city rivalries with loads of class, race and societal baggage (in that who you root for speaks volumes about who you are and where you came from).
Dodgers vs. Angels has none of this. People root for one or the other based on which ballpark was closer to them growing up. (Fortunately, the area that is equidistant from Dodger Stadium and Angel Stadium is the mini-mall and warehouse-filled patch of nothingness called Norwalk.) If Dodger fans think about the Angels at all, it’s with a dismissive chuckle. Meanwhile, Angels fans will quickly point out who has the last World Series title while secretly grimacing at the whole “Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim” fiasco.
After having sex with a porn star, the closest most people get to a “cycle” is starting the next round of penicillin in hopes that their genitals go back to normal. But apparently Melky Cabrera defied the odds and got a decidedly more wholesome cycle, in this case becoming the first Yankee in 14 years to hit for the cycle in their 8-5 win over the Chicago White Sox. (Although I can’t comment one way or the other about his need for penicillin, but if he did sleep with former California gubernatorial candidate/drunk/professional sex object Mary Carey, it’s a small miracle if he didn’t catch something.)
Finally, an update on a couple of noted sports underachievers: Michael Phelpsonly managed to win five gold medals at the World Championships, adding his final one on Sunday by anchoring the Americans’ record-setting 400-meter medley relay team; and Tiger Woods won just his fourth tournament of the season by winning (probably last-ever playing of) the Buick Open by three shots. If only those two could maximize their potential, they might really make something of themselves.
Does anyone understand why the Chiefs’ mascot is a wolf? And one that has trouble clearing small fences, as photos tracked down by ARROWHEAD PRIDE from training camp seem to indicate.
If you’re a big NFL fan near Troy, NY tonight, you might want to check out some minor-league baseball as the Tri-Cities ValleyCats take on the Oneonta Tigers. Why? Because SI’s Peter King is going to be throwing out the first pitch and hanging out with fans to talk about the upcoming season, along with a host of NFL experts including NFL.COM’s Adam Schefter, Sporting News’ Albert Breer, NY Giants radio voice Bob Papa and Redskins lineman Ross Tucker.
The CHICAGO TRIBUNE breathlessly reports that Jay Cutlercompleted his first 12 passes during 7-on-7 drills at camp yesterday. Although to be fair, Kyle Orton and Rex Grossman probably couldn’t complete 12 passes back and forth to each other.
Formula One driver Jensen Button spent part of his break from racing competing in the London Triathlon, where he set a personal best. I would have spent the time watching his girlfriend Jessica Michibata giving her personal best while modeling bikinis on a beach in Japan.
We told you last week about Andy Reid’s hellish training camps and love of full-contact drills. Turns out there’s a down side to that: two Eagles players left last night’s practice with injuries.
Letdown City: the rally car racing final at the X Games gets stopped halfway through when Travis Pastrana wrecks his car, handing the win to former Indy 500 winner Kenny Brack. To celebrate, Brack knocked back a tall glass of ice cold Red Bull and milk.
I guess you could say that the Red Sox’s trade for Victor Martinez has paid some early dividends: he went 5-for-6 in Boston’s 18-10 win over Baltimore. Too bad Clay Buchholz is still not very good at pitching to big league hitters.
Finally, BALL DON’T LIE has video of the cheap shot that Italy’s Stefano Mancinellidelivered to the back of Aaron Doornekamp’s head during a “friendly” international basketball game against Canada:
