1:00 PM St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Lance Berkman is expected to miss 8-10 weeks after undergoing surgery on his right knee Friday.
12:45 PM When he entered the team's locker room Thursday, New York Jets QB Tim Tebow was reportedly teased by teammates with chants of "Lolo! Lolo!" - referring to Olympic hurdler & fellow admitted virgin Lolo Jones.
12:30 PM After being suspended indefinitely on Wednesday, Tennessee Volunteers TE Cameron Clear has been dismissed from the team after he was charged with stealing a laptop from a UT baseball player.
“I need to apologize for my actions yesterday near the end of the game. I got caught up in the excitement of a great day, but I do realize that those types of things shouldn’t happen. I need to specifically apologize to the Bills, their fans, our fans and the NFL. I obviously have a great deal of respect for Ralph Wilson and the history we have shared. I also understand there will probably be league discipline for my actions and I will accept those.”
I have one edit for Bud on his statement, he can delete “probably.”
But he should “probably” think about losing the booze in his luxury box.
*UPDATE*: We’ve added video of Bud Adams’ (double) bird flipping after the jump. After watching Adams in the clip, I’ll have what he’s having.
(Bud Adams: Honoring legacy of Frank Wycheck in his own special way)
I think it’s also safe to assume now that Adams will be punished in some way by the NFL’s league office.
Jim Wyatt of the NASHVILLE TENNESSEAN reports today that during the Tennessee Titans win over the Buffalo Bills at LP Field in Nashville, Titans Owner Bud Adams was excited. So excited that he made an obscene gesture in the direction of the Bills’ sideline.
(Photo is an obscene gesture, so if you click through, you’ve been warned)
Wyatt: “The 86-year-old owner made an appearance on the sideline in the closing minutes, and even did a little dance as the Titans capped a 41–17 victory. Then he turned toward the Buffalo sideline and gave the Bills the middle finger. Make that two middle fingers — Adams was using both hands.”
Wyatt’s report references Adams’ gesture coming from the sidelines.
This afternoon I received a photo of Adams also flipping the double bird, but from his luxury box - earlier in the same game.
Today on “Real Housewives of Norfolk County,” Mass., Sally Reese has a few things to say to the management of the Tennessee Titans. And as you know, there’s nothing better than NFL trash talking from wives. Sally, of course, is the wife of Floyd Reese, who was fired as the Titans’ general manager in 2007.
Floyd Reese is now a senior adviser to the New England Patriots, so you can imagine his delight in his team’s 59-0 win over the Titans on Sunday (slide whistle here as we type Tennessee’s record, 0-6). The husband, however, knows that boasting in such situations can come back to bite you in the keister. But his wife has no such qualms. Sally says that her only regret is that the Patriots didn’t “run it to 100.” Wow. Read more…
We tend to get pretty cynical around here; understandable, because there’s only three parking spaces at SbB, and Gaines takes them all up with his used motorhome. But every now and then a story hits us like a basket of kittens, and we must emote. This item about Vince Young and the young sons of the late Steve McNair is one of those.
If anyone wanted to know the difference between college football and the NFL, you just needed to watch the two games last night. (At least the two that anyone cared about - sorry, Florda A&M at Winston-Salem State on ESPNU.) If you like offense, crazy plays and wild comebacks, then the Clemson at Georgia Tech game was for you. But if you prefer low-scoring, hard-hitting football that’s kind of not very exciting until the final five minutes, then the NFL kickoff game between Pittsburgh and Tennessee was for you. (Sorry, is my bias showing?)
First let’s talk about the Steelers’ 13-10 overtime victory. Plainly put, Pittsburgh had no reason to win this game. They could not run the ball, gaining a whopping 33 yards. (Note to the guy in my fantasy league bragging about “stealing” Rashard Mendenhall: eat it.) And between Jeff Reed almost shanking the game-tying 32-yard field goal into the offensive line’s backsides and Hines Ward fumbling after a reception took him inside the Titans’ five with a minute to go, they were teetering on disaster. Read more…
Let’s add punting to the list of things that Jerry Jones knows less about than he thinks he does. And the placement of HD Jumbotrons in his new stadium. And…well, I’ll just stop there, because we could go on all day like this with issues that aren’t really relevant to the story at hand: while the debut of the new Cowboys Stadium might have been a success last night, ESPN says the stadium is a punter’s nightmare because of the enormous, low-hanging HD screen in the middle of the stadium.
In fact, Titans punter A.J. Trapasso managed to hit the screen with a punt in third quarter in Tennessee’s preseason game against Dallas - the debut of the new stadium. And while Trapasso has a leg on him, this wasn’t a display of punting prowess like Ray Guyhitting the screen at the Superdome, either - this seems like a problem that is going again and again.
Video of Trapasso’s punt plunking the video screen after the jump:
Hey, it’s early August, so it’s that time of year to get really fired up about football and be let down again and again by the abyss of suck that is the preseason. The Hall of Fame Game was last night, and it was billed as Terrell Owens‘ big debut for the Bills against the Titans. It’s exciting and all since it’s football, but it’s lame because even before halftime you’re watching guys that even the UFL would reject. Owens was fine in limited action, and both teams only used their starters briefly. By the end of it, guys like Gibran Hamdan and Alex Mortensen (both of whom I think I just made up) were playing quarterback. There was even a Patrick Ramsey sighting.
(I don’t even know who I am)
This particular rivalry is well-known for the “Music City Miracle” back in 2000, and Tennessee pulled another fast one on Buffalo in last night’s games — though the stakes were just slightly smaller. It all started when Titans punter AJ Trapasso took a long snap, and then pulled off one of the best fakes I’ve ever seen:
It’s too bad they can never run that again, since every team has now seen it. Well, except for the Raiders, who I’m sure haven’t figured out this whole “videotape” concept yet.
And how about the jerseys? Both are old AFL teams and were wearing throwbacks that will be brought out periodically during the season. Though for the Titans, the oil derrick image has some uncomfortable connotations. While the Oilers certainly had their moments of success, to the younger generation the logo serves as a reminder of the team’s ugly divorce from Houston (when a couple of thousand people would show up to see the lame duck team during their last year), and their odd welcome in Tennessee (when they played a season in Memphis, wearing the Houston unis and not exactly packing in the fans). When the team switched looks (and the nickname), things started to head the right direction and the Titans have been one of the better teams in the regular season over the last decade.
It’s officially the time in the baseball season when things start getting weird. The Red Sox were held scoreless for 31 innings by the Yankees over the weekend before finally breaking through with a go-ahead homer in the eighth inning last night by trade deadline prize Victor Martinez. But even that wasn’t enough, as Johnny Damon and Mark Teixeira went back-to-back in the bottom of the inning to finish off a 5-2 Yankee victory and a four-game sweep of the suddenly hapless Sox.
The Yanks now lead the AL East by 6 1/2 games with roughly 50 to play. Boston, meanwhile, has allowed half of the AL to creep back into the wild card picture. The Rangers are now tied for the lead with the Rays lurking just a game and a half back. Heck, Seattle, a team that traded away Jarrod Washburn and his sub-3.00 ERA, is only 4 1/2 out and have re-appeared as a contender.
But nothing is as odd as what’s going on in the District. The Nats, a team left for dead in early April, have now won eight games in a row after beating the D’Backs yesterday. Quite an accomplishment for a team that only won 32 of its first 104 games. In fact, it’s the third-longest run ever for a team that started a streak at least 40 games under .500.
By comparison, White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen’s threats to start throwing at every hitter in the AL in retaliation for the Indians plunking three of his players in Saturday’s game between the two teams seems downright mundane.
• So you know that guy the Raiders drafted first that everyone says they were totally crazy to pick that high? You’re not going to believe this, but it seems as if he’s not really very good. Like, the Niners are still glad they took Crabtree over this guy.
• WAG extraordinaire Colleen Rooney (wife of England soccer player Wayne Rooney) talks about her daily beauty routine in the DAILY MIRROR. She’s not really big on waking up with “panda eyes.”
