Kobe Stays With Nike Samkon Gado Doctor

• After all the will-he/won’t-he speculation, Darren Rovell of CNBC reports Kobe Bryant is finally re-signing with his old team - Nike:

Kobe Nike shoes


• Your vote counts, as FAN IQ invites you to choose this week’s Stephen A. Shut the F Up Award.

• Yum! BUGS & CRANKS takes a venture behind the counter to work at a ballpark concession stand:

Bratwurst tray


• Color me impressed: DC SPORTS BOG offers up a wartime diary of the fierce battle between the Redskins and Ravens - in paintball.

• LION IN OIL gets a note from Texans RB Samkon Gado, whose studying to become a doctor:

Samkon Gado Doctor Bag


• In response to Scottie Pippen’s comments, MONEY PLAYERS gets a tip from Michael Jordan on how wingmen like Scottie are needed.

• OFF WING OPINION digs up some classic Don Cherry clips, where Grapes is warning women of flying pucks, and wondering why everyone thinks the Russians are so great:

Don Cherry


• GIRLS AND SPORTS finds a way to keep Kobe quiet.

• 100% INJURY RATE compiles the best zingers of the ever-quotable Gary Sheffield.

Armando Benitez Charlie Brown

• Easy-Does-It Rider: WBRS SPORTS BLOG offers you the chance to get your own Joe Paterno motorcycle:

Joe Paterno motorcycle


• DEADSPIN learns you can’t control Gary Sheffield.

• The PALM BEACH POST gives a nice little retrospective on new NASCAR reporter Suzy Kolber:

Joe Namath Kissing Suzy Kolber


• A channel actually wanted them? SPORTS ILLUSTRATED reports the Arab TV network Al-Jazeera was denied press credentials to the Stanley Cup finals.

• THE SPORTS HERNIA has a rundown of the vicious dog fights that took place at Michael Vick’s house:

Cartoon Dogs


• MR. IRRELEVANT raises a glass and gives a toast to the Blog Show Drinking Game.

• Good grief! The McCOVEY CHRONICLES compares Armando Benitez to Good Ol’ Charlie Brown:

Armando Benitez Charlie Brown tattoo


• Giddyap! DEUCE OF DAVENPORT comes out of the gate with the news that Chad Johnson will be racing a horse - not on it, but against it.

• RUMORS AND RANTS knows there’s no ‘I’ in ‘team’, as a minor leaguer who kept his personal hitting streak going also cost his team the game.

Gary Sheffields Wife Admits She Had Sex With RKelly Feds Seize Videotape Of Encounter

SHEFFIELD’S WIFE SEXED UP R. KELLY; FEDS SEIZED VIDEO: Gary Sheffield has a new book out called “Inside Power“.

Gary Sheffield Kiss Not His Wife White Woman


His story is one that every baseball fan knows: Malcontent bouncing from team to team, with no doubt his own version of events that lead to him being discarded over and over again despite prodigious talent.

Gary Sheffield With Woman Not His Wife


But shockingly, there actually is an interesting element to Sheffield’s life story that apparently is chronicled in the book, and it involves his wife, DeLeon Richards:

DeLeon Richard Gary Sheffield Marriage Ceremony


To get some background, SPORTS ILLUSTRATED’s August 14, 2000, issue featured Jeff Pearlman penning a syrupy piece on Sheffield’s courtship of Richards.

DeLeon Richards


The then-Marlins slugger met her in a hotel lobby in New York, and began a courtship that did not include a kiss for SEVEN MONTHS. Pearlman wrote of Richards at the time, “Her wardrobe was conservative. No plastic pants allowed. She was clearly not a jock hawk. In Sheffield’s world, Richards was…different.

DeLeon Richards


During the first seven months of their courtship, Richards didn’t allow Sheffield to kiss her. There were awkward hugs and gentle handshakes and combination hug-shakes, but no lip contact.

Sheffield: “I knew sex before marriage was not going to happen, but I tried. I did my research on DeLeon, and she proved to be everything she said she was.

Oops. Uh, maybe not, Sheff.

Gary Sheffield


Turns out the Richards wasn’t a “jock hawk”, but a “watersports-and-underage-girl-lusting-rapper hawk”. Before she met Sheffield, she had previously sexed up notorious hip-hop artist R. Kelly, who is infamous for his videotaped sexual liasons with underage girls that often included watersports in the encounters (and I ain’t talkin’ bout inner tubing).

To her credit, Richards obviously played Sheffield like a worn-out banjo at a Branson stage show. But inexplicably, Sheffield remains married to DeLeon to this day and hilariously features his relationship with her prominently in his new book.

Gary Sheffield Carmen Electra


Once Sheffield married DeLeon, a street hustler contacted Sheffield and claimed to have a sex tape of Kelly and his new wife.

Sheffield’s reaction: “We were comforted by the absolute knowledge that God’s love for us and His Blessing of our marriage were indestructible. The Calmness pointed to the Proverbs where it says, ‘ Weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning.’ Morning came. Joy arrived. Faith saw us through.

Actually, “joy arrived” when Sheffield was informed in 2004 that federal authorities found the tape of his wife and R. Kelly doing the nasty, and prevented it from being released for public consumption.

Richards also confirmed in an earlier interview with AOL that she had had sex with with Kelly, but didn’t know if their intercourse had been recorded on video.

Sheffield Barry Bonds


Richards: “I was young, I was in a situation that’s no different than anybody else out there that could’ve made the same mistake. And so for that, I’ve asked God to forgive me and having [sex] outside of being married..”

Gary Sheffield With Woman Not His Wife


Safe to say that Sheffield doesn’t go into all the gory details in his book about his wife’s rendezvous with Kelly. It’s also safe to say that the rapper didn’t wait seven months for a kiss.

Sheffield Traded to Tigers for Pitching Prospects

Undeterred by Gary Sheffield’s threats, the New York Yankees traded the malcontent to the Detroit Tigers for three pitching prospects.

Lost in all the shuffle, however, is sensitive third baseman Alex Rodriguez who used Sheffield as a sounding board last season.

Can you imagine that conversation?

Alex Rodriguez and Gary Sheffield


A-Rod: They boo me! They call me A-Fraud!

Sheff: That’s what I’ve been sayin all along! What did I do to be a villain? Because I don’t sit here and smile with everybody, that don’t mean I’m mad. It’s just my personality. I don’t see Randy Johnson smiling, but that don’t mean he’s mad. If I don’t see no difference in a month, I want to be out of here. If not, I’ll leave. I want to be treated with respect. I have mood swings. I like to have fun, but I’m also quiet at times. I just don’t feel like being in everybody’s face talking. That’s not me and it sometimes puts me in a bad mood. I need some time to myself…I’ll just do things in a different way, a more classy way and a more respectful way and hope things turn out. Ya know?

*A-Rod weeps*

Gary Sheffield recent fired agent Scott Boras…

Gary Sheffield recent fired agent Scott Boras and said that he will represent himself in all subsequent negotiations. Sheffield said to the ATLANTA CONSTITUTION that Boras "did not land a contract for then-free agent Barry Bonds as lucrative as many had expected, or get a multi-year deal for Greg Maddux last winter." Boras countered that his employees endured "more than a year and about $200,000 in man-hours preparing a 70-page brochure for Sheffield’s free agency and possible arbitration."

MAXIM recently conducted a frank roundtable …

MAXIM recently conducted a frank roundtable discussion with a few major leaguers and, when asked who’s a great player no one talks about, Gary Sheffield said the first name to come to mind. His response: “Gary Sheffield.” Jim Edmonds said Garret Anderson, our generation’s Eddie Murray or Harold Baines, a guy so “underrated” he’s becoming “overrated.” Sheff, meanwhile, is no fan of fantasy baseball. When asked if he participated, he said, “No. It’s stupid. That’s just a man being childish. I have other things to do than play some freakin’ fantasy baseball.”

Speaking of prima-donnas.. "Game of Shadows,…

Speaking of prima-donnas.. “Game of Shadows,” which is being released today, claims that Yankees slugger Gary Sheffield injected testosterone and human growth hormone in January 2002 and sought to maintain a relationship with Bonds’ trainer Greg Anderson after Bonds and Sheffield had a falling out later in the year.Early this morning, Giambi dropped his Comeback Player of the Year trophy off at Shef’s locker, so he could hold it and get a feel for what’s coming in 2007. He also advised Sheffield on what it will be like to face real persecution from the media: “You’re gonna lose a lot of weight and they’ll ask questions, so you’ll need a good excuse like … Japanese food or even tumors, er, no, MUTANT tumors! Hey wait, that’s mine.”

Team USA released its 30-man roster for the W…

Team USA released its 30-man roster for the World Baseball Classic, and Jeff Francoeur represents one of the outfielders, while a healthy Gary Sheffield — who’s posted three straight seasons of at least .290 BA, 34 HR and 121 RBI — will skip the event to train with the Yankees.

Then again, Mariano Rivera won’t be pitching for Panama, and Hideki Matsui won’t be playing for Japan. But at least we’re gonna settle which country has produced the best players.

A self-described minister was convicted Monda…

A self-described minister was convicted Monday of trying to blackmail Gary Sheffield and his wife by claiming he had a video showing her having sex with R&B singer R. Kelly. Trying to drag the wife of Gary Sheffield through a sex-tape scandal. Yeah, there’s a sports figure you wanna pick on. Next time, someone might consider introducing him to Joe McEwing or David Eckstein.

UGLY AMERICAN: Gary Sheffield on the Baseball…

UGLY AMERICAN: Gary Sheffield on the Baseball World Classic: "My season is when I get paid. … I’m not sacrificing my body or taking a chance on an injury for something that’s made up."