Gossip Rocks Forum - Sports

LaDainian Tomlinson's Wife's Surprise Fuels Big Game

DeChayz — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:00:48 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- LaDainian Tomlinson's blessings simply flowed on Sunday. Two hours before his San Diego Chargers claimed a share of first place in the AFC West with a 31-23 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles, the NFL's No. 3 all-time touchdown king received a gift from his wife, LaTorsha.

Tomlinson found it in front of his locker at Qualcomm Stadium, a decorative purple bag -- "TCU colors," he explained later -- tied with a bow. The attached note implored "Please Open Immediately - LaTorsha." Inside was a box, and it contained was a pregnancy test. A positive test.

"My wife is pregnant," an emotional Tomlinson announced on a day when one of the NFL's greatest running backs reached two significant milestones: His season-high 96 yards on 24 carries pushed him past Thurman Thomas and Franco Harris for 12th place on the NFL's all-time rushing list with 12,145 yards.

And Tomlinson's two rushing touchdowns gave him 146 for his career, surpassing Marcus Allen for sole possession of third place on the all-time list.

Tomlinson was humbled by and appreciative of his football achievements Sunday -- not to mention the 6-3 Chargers' return to relevancy thanks to a four-game winning streak and quarterback Philip Rivers' career-best 80 percent completion percentage. Rivers was 20 of 25 for 231 yards and two touchdowns.

Tomlinson was also thankful San Diego will get a chance to break that division deadlock with the Denver Broncos -- losers of three in a row -- next Sunday at Invesco Field, and gratified that he was a key part of a victory that confirmed Rivers wasn't out of his mind a month ago when he proclaimed his San Diego team would erase Denver's seemingly insurmountable 3 1/2-game lead in the AFC West.

But that purple bag ...

"It was weird. I thought it was going to be a necklace or something," said Tomlinson, grinning widely. "But it was a pregnancy test in there. It was pretty special.

"Years ago, we lost a child so we've been trying again. God works in mysterious ways, and it's a blessing we're pregnant again."

Follow Nancy GayTomlinson and his wife, who were college sweethearts, already had a name for that baby. She was a girl, due in June 2005. Mckiah Renee's ultrasound picture was so special, L.T. carried it around with him everywhere. The couple eagerly decorated her baby room.

But when Tomlinson returned home from Hawaii following the '05 Pro Bowl, complications with the pregnancy stole Mckiah away from LaDainian and LaTorsha, who had wanted her so badly.

Sunday's news that another baby is coming, after so much heartbreak, was more than motivation for Tomlinson's milestone day. It was like a guiding hand was lifting him past Eagles tackles, and erasing the doubts of anyone who thought the 30-year-old former NFL rushing champion was past his prime.

"It absolutely was," he said, "because there is a special thing about having a child and your wife being pregnant. I can't explain it, but it was."

Tomlinson called LaTorsha as soon as he left the field, just after San Diego's defense held off a fourth-quarter charge by Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb, who threw a pair of touchdown passes in the final period to pull Philadelphia (6-4) to within a touchdown's strike of the Chargers, 28-23, with 7:18 remaining.

"I said 'You're amazing,'" Tomlinson told his wife, who had held back the news for five days. "I actually cried for about five minutes."

How will Tomlinson process everything that happened to him Sunday -- the baby news, the career achievements, the important Chargers victory in which he played such a significant role?

"I don't know. I'm thankful. I'm thankful," he said. "I'm just so excited."
Unexpected Gift Rejuvenates Tomlinson -- NFL FanHouse

This moved even my cold, cynical heart. Good luck to them, they sound like a genuine, down to earth couple

Germany keeper dies in 'suicide'

Chilly Willy — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:28:14 GMT

Germany and Hannover 96 goalkeeper Robert Enke has died after being hit by a train in an apparent suicide on Tuesday, police have confirmed.

Enke, 32, was fatally injured at a level crossing north west of Hanover.
The German football federation (DFB) said in a statement: "The German team has learned of the death of Robert Enke with great shock."
Germany team manager Oliver Bierhoff added: "We are in a state of shock. It is beyond words."
Enke's daughter Lara died in 2006 of a rare heart condition when she was just two. He leaves behind his wife, Teresa, and an eight-month-old daughter the couple had adopted in May.

German police released a statement saying: "The victim is apparently national team goalkeeper Robert Enke from Hannover 96. The first police indications are that it was a suicide."
Enke was struck by a regional train travelling between Norddeich and Hannover at a railway crossing in Neustadt am Rubenberge and died at the scene. Some reports gave the time of his death as "shortly before" 6pm local time (1700 GMT).
He played eight times for Germany and also for clubs Carl Zeiss Jena, Borussia Monchengladbach, Benfica, Barcelona, Fenerbahce and Tenerife, before returning to the Bundesliga with Hannover in 2004.
Enke made his international debut aged 29 and became Germany's number one keeper after Jens Lehmann retired from internationals at the end of Euro 2008.
He had missed Germany's last four matches with a virus but returned for his club at the weekend.
Germany coach Joachim Low had indicated that Enke was in pole position for the number one jersey at next year's World Cup finals in South Africa.
Dr Theo Zwanziger, president of the DFB, said that the football community in Germany "are deeply distressed and in mourning", adding: "All our sympathy goes to the wife of Robert Enke and his family."

The Germany squad is currently in Bonn ahead of a friendly against Chile on Saturday, but Enke had not been called up, having only just returned to action for his club.
Hundreds of fans flocked to Hanover's Niedersachsen Stadion on Tuesday night to lay flowers and light candles for the captain of their club.
A news conference has been scheduled for 1230 GMT on Wednesday.

BBC SPORT | Football | Internationals | Germany keeper dies in 'suicide'

I'm speechless. They just adopted a child in May. Looks like he couldn't get over the death of his daughter. I don't know how the wife is supposed to live with this.

The last time I saw him was Saturday when he gave a tv interview. He was focused and composed, as always. He was my nehpews' favorite player. They were crying so hard when I just talked to them. How do you explain suicide to children?

RIP.

The daughter who died three years ago:

The wife:

Amazing Wheelchair athlete

Wiseguy — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 13:14:52 GMT

Wheelchair athlete ready for Kokoda crawl

PNG correspondent Liam Fox, ABC November 8, 2009, 5:14 pm

ABC � Enlarge photo

Australian champion wheelchair athlete Kurt Fearnley has arrived at the start of the Kokoda Track for what could be his toughest challenge yet.
Less than a week after winning his fourth New York marathon, Kurt Fearnley arrived at Kokoda to begin the 96-kilometre jungle trek.
"Driving over the top looking down, you kind of go this is a little crazy, but I still think it's doable," he said.
The track is not wheelchair friendly so Fearnley has had special pads and gloves made.
After more than decade of wheelchair racing, he has had to teach himself to crawl again.
But he will have plenty of help along the way as two brothers, four cousins and eight friends are trekking with him.
Fearnley and his group hope to reach Owers Corner at the southern end of the track in 10 days' time.

Wheelchair athlete ready for Kokoda crawl - Yahoo!7 News

Catfight at Women's Soccer Game: BYU vs. New Mexico

BITTER — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:58:57 GMT

We're offishullee equal now; women can be aggressive pricks in sports like men. But much hotter :roflnm:

YouTube Video
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discuss.

Michael Vick's unpaid dues: Why dog advocates aren't moving on

celeb_2006 — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:13:25 GMT

(Sorry dog advocates, the general public has already 'forgiven' vickster and moved on, his jersey is selling like hotcakes)

Michael Vick's unpaid dues: Why dog advocates aren't moving on

When football player Michael Vick made his first post-prison appearance in a Philadelphia Eagles uniform, he got a standing ovation from the hometown crowd. His recent reception in the Bay Area was far cooler -- at last month's game between the Eagles and the Oakland Raiders, he was greeted with protestors, picket signs and a plane flying over the stadium with a banner reading "Dogfighter Go Home!"

But even in the dog-loving Bay Area, Vick had plenty of defenders. "Sooner or later you're going to have to forgive the guy anyway," Charles Wright, a 44-year-old Oakland tow truck driver, told protestors after the game. "You may as well get it out of your system."
Another fan yelled, "Come on, the dude paid his debt to society."
In other words, "move on." But however many times dog lovers hear such advice, they're not getting any closer to taking it. That's because not only has Vick not served one minute in prison for animal cruelty, he was far more cruel to his dogs than most of his defenders seem to realize.
Most people are aware that Michael Vick was "convicted of dog fighting." They know he went to prison, and they've also probably seen the news stories, including a moving Sports Illustrated cover story, about the Vick dogs that were rescued and rehabilitated after being seized from his Bad Newz Kennels.
But that's only part of the story.
"What Michael Vick did was not just dog fighting," said Marthina McClay of Our Pack, a pit bull rescue group in Santa Clara, and the owner of one of the Vick dogs, Leo. "It went so far beyond that, and most people who defend him are uninformed. They don't really realize what Michael Vick did."
If you're one of the people McClay is talking about, let me invite you into Donna Reynolds' nightmare.
Reynolds is the co-founder of Bay Area Doglovers Responsible About Pitbulls (BAD RAP), an East Bay organization with a national reputation for rescuing and rehabilitating pit bulls. They rehabbed and cared for many of the dogs seized from Vick's Bad Newz Kennels after his arrest in April of 2007.
She's definitely not what you'd call a fragile flower, and she's been working with ex-fighting pits for longer than a lot of the people reading this have been out of kindergarten. It's fair to say she's seen the worst things that people can do to dogs, but there's still a story she can't get out of her mind.
It was a sweltering day in September of 2007, and Reynolds was in Virginia to evaluate the 49 pit bulls found alive on Vicks' property. A federal agent who had been at the scene when the property was searched was driving her to the various facilities holding the dogs, and they got to talking about what the investigation had turned up.
"The details that got to me then and stay with me today involve the swimming pool that was used to kill some of the dogs," Reynolds wrote on her blog. "Jumper cables were clipped onto the ears of underperforming dogs, then, just like with a car, the cables were connected to the terminals of car batteries before lifting and tossing the shamed dogs into the water."
She continued, "We don't know how many suffered this premeditated murder, but the damage to the pool walls tells a story. It seems that while they were scrambling to escape, they scratched and clawed at the pool liner and bit at the dented aluminum sides like a hungry dog on a tin can.
"I wear some pretty thick skin during our work with dogs, but I can't shake my minds-eye image of a little black dog splashing frantically in bloody water ... screaming in pain and terror ... brown eyes saucer wide and tiny black white-toed feet clawing at anything, desperate to get a hold. This death did not come quickly. The rescuer in me keeps trying to think of a way to go back in time and somehow stop this torture and pull the little dog to safety. I think I'll be looking for ways to pull that dog out for the rest of my life."
Vick did all that and more to his dogs, and even threw family pets into the pit with fighters and laughed while they were mauled, according to a witness who testified to federal investigators.
That's what sends dog lovers out to football games with protest signs: knowing that Michael Vick tortured and killed innocent dogs. That he has never paid for that abuse or even apologized for it.
Because the nation's most notorious dogfighter pled "not guilty" to animal cruelty charges -- charges that were eventually dropped in a plea bargain -- and he was convicted only of bankrolling a dogfighting conspiracy, for which he served 18 months in prison before being welcomed back to the public spotlight.
Even worse, he's shown no sign of understanding of, or regret over, the fate of his dogs.
"Vick has never expressed one word of remorse for what he did to those dogs," said McClay. "Not in any of his public statements, and not in his appearance on '60 Minutes.' Vick said he 'let it happen.' He slammed and beat and hung dogs to death. It's like Ted Bundy saying, 'I let someone murder this girl.' He doesn't take any responsibility for it."
Reynolds doesn't think it's an accident that most of Vick's supporters are so in the dark about his crimes against dogs.
"It worked out nicely for Vick that he never faced his animal abuse charges in court," she told me. "That meant football fans were spared the most disturbing details of his tortures and could go back to their Sunday night ritual with barely a hiccup."
Those who weren't spared those disturbing details, like Reynolds and McClay, aren't finding it easy, or even possible, to move on.
"I look at Leo's big, fat head and wonderful, loving heart," McClay said, "and wonder, how can you kill something like that? And now that's okay because Vick did his time, and we should just move on? How do you move on from that?"
Well, you might say, that's our criminal justice system, and that's professional sports. And you'd be right, as far as it goes.
But before it goes too far -- before you, too, become one of the people saying Vick's done his time and deserves to get on with his life -- consider something other than the heartwarming stories about ex-Vick dogs making visits to cancer wards and schools for troubled kids.
Think about the ones who were buried in the dirt of Bad Newz Kennels, who aren't getting much attention outside the dog world.
The horrific fate of those dogs is why Reynolds is actually glad about the continued debate between Vick's defenders and pit bull advocates -- it makes it harder for what he did to be buried along with the dogs he killed.
"Much of the public still sees pit bulls as willing gladiators rather than the victims that they are," she told me. "We have a long way to go before open debate on the topic of animal abuse is welcome in most living rooms, so the outrage about Vick's tortures is rightfully keeping the subject alive." I suppose that's the silver lining. I just wish I could get the image of those frightened, drowning dogs out of my head. And I wish I believed they were haunting Michael Vick, too.

2 women accuse Raiders coach Tom Cable of violent behavior

celeb_2006 — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 19:45:59 GMT

2 women accuse Raiders coach of violent behavior - NFL - Yahoo! Sports

The former wife of Oakland Raiders coach Tom Cable and a recent girlfriend claim Cable has a history of violent behavior toward women, and asked that he seek help for his anger.
Sandy Cable and Marie Lutz said in seperate interviews on ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” that the first-year head coach physically abused them at various times during their relationships.
Cable’s attorney, Donald Yee, said in a statement Sunday that ESPN refused to provide details about the story when the network asked for comment. Yee also questioned the network’s motives after waiting until Friday to contact the coach.
“In our view, ESPN has quite purposefully chosen not to provide a fair and balanced story,” Yee said. “To us, this represents ambush journalism and utterly fails to meet the standards and practices of responsible journalists.”

ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz said the network stands by its story.
Cable acknowledged striking Sandy Cable with an open hand in a statement released to The Associated Press. Cable said the altercation happened more than 20 years ago and was the only time he’s ever touched a woman inappropriately.
“During my first marriage, I became aware that my wife Sandy had committed adultery,” Cable said in the statement. “I became very angry and slapped her with an open hand. What I did was wrong and I have regretted and felt sorrow about that moment ever since.”
Lutz told ESPN that she remembers Cable hitting her “three, four times,” and said that she visited his house in January and found another woman there. Lutz said she demanded to meet the woman and that Cable grabbed her by the arm and eventually pushed her out the door.
Cable said that Lutz had come over uninvited, and that he cooperated with an investigation by the Alameda Police Department that cleared him of any wrongdoing.
“I never battered her in any way,” Cable said. “It is most unfortunate that ESPN has given Ms. Lutz this forum to revisit this incident when I did nothing wrong and further chose not to provide me with an appropriate opportunity to respond.”
The 44-year-old Cable, a former Raiders offensive line coach, took over as head coach when Lane Kiffin was fired four weeks into the 2008 season.
His on-field struggles as he tries to rebuild the once-proud franchise have been mirrored by off-field problems, including an argument in August in which Oakland assistant coach Randy Hanson accused Cable of breaking his jaw during a coaches meeting.
Napa County district attorney Gary Lieberstein decided not to pursue charges last month.
The NFL had been considering whether to discipline Cable under the league’s personal conduct policy, which specifically identifies workplace violence. League spokesman Greg Aiello said the revelations on the “Outside the Lines” report would also be considered.
“We will carefully review these matters in conjunction with the Raiders and consistent with our personal conduct policy,” Aiello said.

Former Celtics star Antoine Walker is broke and in debt

celeb_2006 — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:45:01 GMT

Former Celtics star Antoine Walker is broke and in debt - Ball Don't Lie - NBA - Yahoo! Sports

In 12 years, Antoine Walker (notes) made more than $110 million playing professional basketball moderately well. Take away taxes, throw in some adidas endorsement money and a "NBA Live 99" cover, and he's left with, what, $60-to-65 million?
Whatever the details, it was a big chunk of change, which, amazingly, wasn't enough.
That's right, during the last several months, the once multi-millionaire athlete has been pursued by multiple financial institutions for unpaid debts.
In fact, according to Shira Springer of The Boston Globe, "Employee No. 8" owes more than $4 million to his creditors and is facing felony check fraud charges in Las Vegas. All of this at the age of 33. Wild.
Now I know what you're thinking: How in the world does somebody — not named Montgomery Brewster — even begin to blow through that amount of money?

The answer: fairly easily.

"[Walker] liked to move in an outsized entourage; his mother estimates that, during his playing days, he was supporting 70 friends and family members in one way or another. And speaking of his mother, he built her a mansion in the Chicago suburbs, complete with an indoor pool, 10 bathrooms, and a full-size basketball court. [...]

Living at the Bishops Forest condominium complex in Waltham during the Celtics season, Walker turned the pavement surrounding his home into a virtual luxury car lot — two Bentleys, two Mercedes, a Range Rover, a Cadillac Escalade, a bright red Hummer. Often, the vehicles were tricked out with custom paint jobs, rims, and sound systems at considerable added expense. He also collected top-line watches — Rolexes and diamond-encrusted Cartiers."

Condos, luxury cars, watches ... I guess that'll eventually force you into bankruptcy. Especially when you're not investing any money or collecting $200 with every fifth or sixth roll of the die.
But Walker's lavish lifestyle wasn't all "me-me-me." He was also a generous friend and teammate who had custom suits made for coaches, routinely picked up giant team dinner tabs and, when there were funds to spare, gave to underprivileged youngsters. He was basically spending money like it was going out of style.
And it did.
I guess Biggie was right after all: mo' money, mo' problems.

2009 World Series

kingcap72 — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 01:25:27 GMT

I figured I would start a World Series thread for those who will be watching the Yankees take on the Phillies. Go Yanks!

2009-2010 Nba

MontanaMama — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 23:47:05 GMT

Finally, a sport a Cleveland girl can work with!!!!

LETS GO CAVS! LETS GO CAVS!

ESPN broadcaster Brian Griese apologizes for Montoya remark

celeb_2006 — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 06:33:47 GMT

(at least learn the cuisine of the ethnicity you are trying to mock, mo-ron, waiting for the IF anyone was offended "apology")

Griese apologizes for Montoya remark - Yahoo! News

MARTINSVILLE, Va. � ESPN broadcaster Bob Griese apologized at the end of Saturday's Ohio State-Minnesota football game for a remark he made about NASCAR driver Juan Pablo Montoya.
Earlier in the telecast, during a promotion for coverage of NASCAR's Chase for the championship, a graphic listed the top five drivers in the points race. Fellow analyst Chris Spielman asked where was Montoya, who is Colombian. Griese replied that he was "out having a taco."
As the telecast was wrapping up, Griese, the Pro Football Hall of Famer and former Miami Dolphins quarterback, apologized for the remark and said that Montoya is one of the best drivers in NASCAR.
In a statement released later, ESPN called the remark "inappropriate" and said Griese plans to apologize again Saturday night during the network's college football coverage.
"ESPN has spoken to Bob and he understands that his comment was uncalled for," the statement said.