4:16 PM Sad, bizarre story out of Germany today where a pro goalkeeper has apparently killed himself by throwing himself under a train. 32-year-old Robert Enke, distraught over the death of his daughter, reportedly drove his car to train tracks and waited for a train to hit him in the vehicle.
3:59 PMVery interesting: After electing to not wear a high-tech bodysuit which will be banned by Fina at the end this year, Michael Phelps failed to make it past the 100m freestyle heats and was also disqualified from the 100 backstroke at the Stockholm short-course World Cup.
3:42 PM The AP reports this afternoon that a "federal appeals court is backing the judge who ruled against the NFL and let quarterback Michael Vick keep more than $16 million in roster bonuses from the Atlanta Falcons." Judge cited Vick being paid the bonuses before his dogfighting conviction.
3:37 PM Yesterday Nate Burleson of the Seahawks made clear that he didn't want to give the Cardinals "any bulletin board material", which explains why he moments later guaranteed Seattle would beat Arizona on Sunday.
We’re all familiar with the Denver Debacle by now - how the WWE was kicked out of the Pepsi Center for Monday, May 25, because the Nuggets were facing the Lakers in Game 4 of their NBA Western Conference Finals series. Well, Vince McMahon vowed he would get his revenge on Stan Kroenke, the owner of both the Nuggets & the Pepsi Center.
And last night from Staples Center, he got it. Sort of. Kind of.
Oh, just see for yourself:
You go, Vinnie Mac! Kudos to you for that funny XBA joke. And who knew Kroenke’s real first name was Enos?
• The Pepsi Center double-books a Nuggets-Lakers playoff game & WWE’s “Monday Night Raw” on the same night. Of course, Vince McMahon is going to have lots of fun with this Denver Debacle.
• Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger is hoping her boyfriend, Formula One star Lewis Hamilton, will soon race with her to the wedding altar.
Say what you will about Vince McMahon (and many people have), but the guy is a marketing genius. When it turned out that the WWE & the Denver Nuggets were both booked for the Pepsi Center this Monday, McMahon let loose in verbally vilifying Stan Kroenke, saying how the Nuggets owner “did not have enough faith in his own team” to leave an open date for a possible playoff game, and how he should be “arrested for impersonating a good businessman.”
(Watch your back, Stan - Vince is ready to cut you down! And he even brought his own clippers!)
But even with a guaranteed sellout, the WWE was told in the end to hit the road. So Vince has moved his “Monday Night Raw” to L.A.’s Staples Center. Still furious with the eviction, McMahon has challenged Kroenke to a steel cage match on ESPN (which would complement well with the AWA reruns ESPN Classic has been showing). Obviously, Stan has declined, with a team spokesman adding, “We’re preparing for basketball games. Whatever (McMahon) does from here is of no concern.”
Well, you may have won the battle, Kroenke, but you haven’t won the war.
(Rocky vs. The Big Show. For the arena, winner take all.)
According to the web site for Denver ABC affiliate 7NEWS, WWE’s Vince McMahon is not the least bit happy about the scheduling snafu, which threatens to send his weekly event to a smaller venue, or outside of Denver altogether, if the NBA doesn’t step in and move the date of Game 4, an outcome which is extremely unlikely at best.
