I hate April Fools’ Day. It’s to being funny what St. Patrick’s Day is to drinking: pure amateur hour. Every office cut-up who thinks that “Two and a Half Men” is God’s gift to comedy decides that this would be a great time to do something wacky - think Michael Scott from “The Office.” And every radio hack in America decides to start a rumor that a certain celebrity died of a drug overdose/car crash/lightning strike.

So as cranky as I am about the whole day, it’s rare when I can appreciate an April Fools’ Day stunt. But I have to doff my cap to Connecticut star Hasheem Thabeet, who managed to pull of a good prank using his (protected) Twitter account. THE ARENA reports that Thabeet Tweeted that he had failed a drug test, and would be not playing in the Final Four this weekend.

Read more…

We aren’t going to get out of here without something April Fools-related, however lame we find the holiday.

(*not impressed* (guttural sound))

Mike Florio of PRO FOOTBALL TALK reported this morning, with a straight keyboard, that Jason Taylor had retired from professional football: “Miami Dolphins defensive end Jason Taylor, currently a contestant on that showcase for show business has-beens and wannabes known as Dancing with the Stars, will announce on Tuesday night’s broadcast his retirement from the National Football League.”

Since it was Florio’s first post out of the box, we found it a little suspicious, and didn’t mention it. Subsequently, the SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL’s Ethan Skolnick, who is covering the NFL owner’s meetings up the road in West Palm Beach, reports that a couple reporters did fall for the *gag* and asked Fins GM Jeff Ireland about it.

Ireland’s response: “HAR HAR!” Read more…