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Matt “Money” Smith of Fox Sports Radio’s Petros and Money Show is calling the Iowa-Michigan game in Iowa City today on Compass Media Networks, and he passed along this lovely pregame photo.
Now where would he get such an idea?
A quick rule of thumb for those of us in the early stages of relationships: if you’ve been told by police not to contact that person anymore, things have gone horribly wrong and you are not in that relationship anymore. It seems blatantly obvious to you or us, but if everybody knew that we wouldn’t have situations like this.
That’s the mugshot of Brittney Mears, a 22-year-old resident of Iowa City. She went to last week’s Iowa Hawkeyes game at Kinnick Stadium, where Iowa faced lowly Arkansas State. As most fans with a mean streak do, she picked out a player to harass for the duration of the game, and sure enough, she got in his head and distracted him. Tiny problem: she did it to a Hawkeye, and she’d already been told to leave him alone. That’s a paddlin’.
Everybody’s been bagging on the Big Ten this offseason, what with the conference’s dismal 1-6 record in bowl games last season. And if the first games of the first weekend this year are any indication, expect the criticism to continue.
First, Iowa - the only Big Ten school to win its bowl game last year - opened up with in-state I-AA opponent Northern Iowa. And the 22nd-ranked Hawkeyes needed not one, but two blocked field goals to survive an embarrassing near-plucking by the Panthers.
Last August, SPORTSbyBROOKS pointed out all the Iowa Hawkeyes football team arrests since 2007, foolishly thinking that being charged with 22 crimes couldn’t possibly be bested. However, that was incredibly foolish as Iowa’s now up to 26 different Hawkeyes being arrested or ticketed since April ‘07, some with multiple offenses (including coach Kirk Ferentz’s son).
(The official drunk Hawkeye image of SPORTSbyBROOKS)
And we have another arrest to add the pile. In this case, we have the added difficulty modifier of operating a moped while intoxicated that came to the police’s attention when Iowa offensive lineman Kyle Calloway plowed into a police barracade. (Gee, wonder how he got that moped…)
It was fun for the Iowa Hawkeyes at last season’s Outback Bowl, where they trounced South Carolina 31-10. It was even more fun for Iowa football broadcaster Ed Podolak, who spent his time down in Tampa taking peeks down women’s shirts.
However, when photos of Ed’s boob viewing hit the web, Podolak decided to retire from the radio gig he held since 1982. Ed’s alleged alcohol problem also had some bearing on his decision to move off the mic, as Podolak sought some professional treament.
But it looks like Ed’s treatment must have worked, because he’s coming back to the Hawkeye broadcasting booth.
• Some overly-obsessed 34-year-old tried to abduct Olympic gymnast Shawn Johnson during a “Dancing With The Stars” taping.
• A girls’ HS basketball team roughs up a roster of Dallas radio guys.
• Apocalypse now? Isiah Thomas could be put in charge of the Clippers.
• White Sox closer Bobby Jenks doesn’t read, but really likes his rear.
• This giveaway’s a gas: Minor league team plans to hand out fart filters.
Transfers happen. They’re every bit the staple of college athletics as cheerleaders or ultra-creepy advertisements for Flo-Max. Maybe the writing’s on the wall that the player’s not going to be getting any game action before he graduates. Maybe the player gets homesick or whatever. They happen.
(Just one of up to five players bidding Iowa adieu.)
But they usually happen A) rarely and B) on an individual basis. So when up to four scholarship basketball players and a top recruit all flee the Iowa basketball team within a matter of days, it is most certainly time to panic for coach Todd Lickliter and Hawkeye fans.
It’s worth noting that Iowa defensive end Adrian Clayborn, a starter in 2008, committed this crime back in January, but after a couple of months of investigation, police determined that the defensive end’s brutal attack on a cab driver at 2 a.m. was worthy of criminal prosecution. As such, he’s now facing charges of assault and, to his credit, he turned himself in … then pleaded not guilty despite a heck of a lot of evidence (eyewitnesses maybe) stacked against him.
(It’s a lot scarier when you realize that he has a history of punching people in the face at close range.)
The story, which we found over at BLACK HEART GOLD PANTS, with a later plea update from ESPN.com, goes something like this: Clayborn was driving home from some Iowa City hotspot (oxymoron? It might be) on Jan. 20 - or 18th, if you take ESPN’s word for it (we’re sticking with BLACK HEART) - when he got caught in a nasty traffic jam. After reaching an outright boiling point, Clayborn attacked a cab driver by punching him through the open driver’s side window, causing facial injuries and utter shock at the fact that he punched a cabbie through a window.
Ask any Iowa State or opposing Big Ten football fan, and they’ll readily point out that you can’t spell Iowa without the letters O, W, and I. Whether that maxim holds any merit outside of coincidence is debatable; after all, you can’t spell “theatrical” without H, I, T, L, E, and R, but that doesn’t mean that every drama major you know is a Nazi*. But it does underscore the fact that as college football programs go, Iowa has fielded a buttload of drunk drivers recently–three recently, and even one by current NFL star Bob Sanders in 2002 (which, for the record, we were unable to verify).
(Herky’s going through a rough time right now, is all…)
Unfortunately for Iowa fans, it’s time to add one more to the list. Shaun Prater, who was coming off a true freshman campaign where he established himself as a quality backup cornerback, was popped for an OWI around 1:00 a.m. Saturday morning. No crash, nobody hurt, but definitely not the right move in a football program where the coach is handing out 4-game suspensions for public intox or even suspending his own son for possession of alcohol.
The devil is in the details, though, and there appears to be more afoot than your typical OWI here. During the arrest, Prater told the police something that shakes this case - nay, society - to its very core: Read more…
You have to give Mike D’Antoni credit for trying something innovative, even if it didn’t work out. For the second straight game, the New York Knicks rolled out their “Box and Zero” defense, which essentially challenges the other team’s best player to beat them by refusing to cover him under any circumstances. But just like against Kobe Bryant and the Lakers on Monday night, somehow it didn’t work out against the Cavaliers either.
Actually, I’m not sure what defense D’Antoni had his team running the last two games, but “none” comes to mind: a game after giving up 61 points to Bryant, the Knicks did the impossible: made another superstar have an even more incredible performance, as LeBron James scored 52 points in the Cavaliers’ 107-102 victory and became the first NBA player since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1975 to score 50+ points as part of a triple-double.
James also joined Michael Jordan as the only players to have multiple 50 points games in the new Madison Square Garden. Any time you’re mentioned in the same breath as Kareem and Jordan, you are doing something right. And did I mention that this was the tail end of a back-to-back? And that the Cavaliers were without three of their players due to injury and illness?
And in case you’re wondering, it doesn’t get any easier for the Knicks. Their next opponent to come into the Garden? The Boston Celtics on Friday night. I can’t imagine what Kevin Garnett could possibly do to upstage Kobe and LeBron - perhaps pick Nate Robinson up and slam him through the basket while clutching the ball?
Raiders running back Justin Fargas wasn’t breaking any records last night, unless it was “Stupidest Appearance in a Hip-Hop Video.” Because if you are an NFL player, and you know the league is on the warpath about its image and substance abuse, I would think that appearing in a video with someone called “Yukman” as he smokes a blunt that would make Cheech & Chong quiver in their tie-dyes isn’t such a great idea.
But PRO FOOTBALL TALK says that’s exactly what Fargas did. And honestly, are we shocked by this? Not that an NFL player would be so brazen about assoicating with potheads, but that it would be Fargas. I mean, his dad was Huggy Bear, for crying out loud. Just look at his dad:
Being shocked that his son is involved with marijuana is like being shocked that one of Bob Marley’s kids has a taste for the ganja. The video is up at WORLD STAR HIP HOP: go grab some Fritos and see it yourself.
While you pick the seeds out of your buds, here’s some more sports wackness from last night:
