Devin Hester Carries Bears On His Back

Devin Hester is the only reason that the Bears are putting up any points this season. He’s coming off of a massive rookie season setting the return touchdown record and also being the first player to return the opening kickoff in a Superbowl. Hester already has 3 return touchdowns this year and an 81 yard receiving touchdown. He’s done this as teams kick away from him and try and discover new ways to try and shut him down. Teams focus entire special teams strategies around Hester and he still manages to get 3 returns at this point in the season. If the Bears can get Hester to be a consistent force on offence, then we could be in for something special. If the Bears stop using him as a decoy and leave him in for more than a play a drive, we could finally see a successful Bears offense, especially without Grossman as QB. We could be seeing one of the most potent players in the NFL become a nightmare for opposing teams. Do you kick away from him on special teams and leave the Bears good field position and face Hester on offense? Do you kick to Hester and let him run at you in the hope that you back the Bears up? These are the questions that will need answering in the coming weeks as Hester is integrated into the Bears offense in a hopefully more permanent way. It should be interesting to see how this turns out and if Hester can take this Bears offense on his shoulders and turn their season around.

Madden Curse Continues

The infamous Madden curse continues. Vince Young injured himself this past weekend against Tampa Bay. Young, who injured his right quadriceps, has not practiced all week and remains a game-time decision for this weekend. Although this injury doesn’t look to be that serious, it still adds to the impressive list of madden cover’s who have been injured in the following year. The list of cursed players is as follows: Daunte Culpepper, Marshall Faulk, Michael Vick, Ray Lewis, Donovan McNabb, Shaun Alexander, and Vince Young. Daunte Culpepper’s season was ended to a back injury in the 11th game of the 2001 season. He was the first madden cover player to suffer a season ending injury in the season following. Marshall Faulk was the next cover player and in 2002 he suffered an ankle injury, missing five games. Michael Vick was the next cover to get injured during a following season. In the 2003 season Vick broke his right fibula in the preseason and missed all but the final five games. The next season doesn’t really follow the madden curse because Ray Lewis wasn’t injured. The only reason he is included is because the 04 season for Lewis was nothing near his previous two. Donovan McNabb was on the cover for the 2005 season in which was ended due to sports hernia surgery. Last year was Shaun Alexander who broke his foot in the 2006 season after one of the best running performances in NFL history in the 2005 season. He missed six starts and has failed to get back to form since that time. LaDainian Tomlinson reportedly declined to be on the cover of Madden, and we all know what kind of start he’s had. I wonder if the Madden curse has affected him in some weird way as well. Vince Young is the newest addition to this “club” or whatever you might call it. Whether or not this injury will affect him at all, we’ll have to wait and see.

Thrashers fire head coach Hartley

After starting the NHL regular season 0-6 the Atlanta Thrashers organization canned Head Coach Bob Hartley. This poor start to the season combined with their first round sweep in the playoffs last year gave GM Don Waddell enough reason in his mind to fire Hartley. Hartley was 136-123-32 with Atlanta during his stay, and he won a Stanley Cup with his previous team Colorado in 2001. In those six games this season, the Thrashers were outscored 27-9. Waddell is 4-5-1 as an interim coach after he fired Coach Curt Fraser during the 02-03 season before hiring Hartley. It’s easy to see why he was upset at starting without a win in six games after winning their division last year and making the playoffs for the first time. It was a concern that the Thrashers have lost all momentum gained from last year’s campaign and Waddell hopes that this move will motivate his team to play like they did last year before the playoffs. Hartley, who has proved himself in Colorado and again in Atlanta, should have no real problem finding a job within the next year or so. Supposedly there is no real time frame for finding a new coaching job in Atlanta. They’re looking for a coach that is less intense than Hartley, so the players can relax more on the ice and have more fun out there. We’ll just have to see how this move affects the Thrashers season this year.

4 Players to Start Season With Suspensions

Josh Howard, who plays Guard/ Forward for the Dallas Mavericks, has been suspended two games (without pay) for being involved in a fight with Sacramento Kings’ center Brad Miller. “Howard’s penalty was announced Friday by Stu Jackson, the NBA’s executive vice president of basketball operations. Howard will begin serving his suspension when Dallas opens its regular-season schedule at Cleveland on October 31.” Howard and Miller got into an altercation with 7:01 left in the second quarter of Tuesday’s preseason game where the Mavericks (Dallas) beat the Kings (Sacramento) by a score of 101-99. The initial situation was between Miller and Mavericks guard Devin Harris. But Howard raised the level of what happened when he ran across the court, hit Miller in the back of the head with his forearm, shoved him in the back, and then began getting into it with other Sacramento players.
Howard is the only one of the four players serving suspensions to start the regular season that occurred on the court. The other three players, James Posey (Boston Celtics), Stephen Jackson (Golden State Warriors), and Ron Artest (Sacramento Kings), had incidents occur off-court. Artest, serving a seven game suspension, plead no contest to infliction of injury on a spouse. Jackson, also serving a seven game suspension, pleaded guilty to criminal recklessness. And Posey, serving only a one game suspension, was suspended for pleading no contest to reckless driving. Again, this is another example of professional athletes acting recklessly, causing trouble, and not using their minds. Luckily for them, all they get is suspended. Had they been a “regular” civilian, then they would have been arrested and at least taken in for the night. These are prime examples of how professional athletes are “above” the law.

Former NBA Player Arrested

Keon Clark, former player for the Utah Jazz and then Phoenix Suns, was arrested this past Thursday for drug and weapon charges. The charges were placed under his name in Illinois, and U.S. Marshals found him travelling on a commercial bus leaving Houston, Texas. Clark, 32, “was scheduled for trial in Vermillion County in Illinois for possession of Marijuana, two counts of a controlled substance and two counts of firearm possession.” He also faces charges for driving while his license was suspended, operating a vehicle without insurance, and on top of that, driving under the influence. Why do people do crap like this? It’s asking for trouble. And so many athletes do it, some caught, some not. But then there’s guys like Tank Johnson who wrecked his Lamborghini into a pole, left the scene, and then fessed up after the fact. On Wednesday, “the U.S. Marshals Service Gulf Coast Violent Offenders and Fugitive Task Force got a tip that Clark was in the Houston area. The next day, they learned that Clark was on a bus going from Houston to Longview, Texas,” said Deputy U.S. Marshal Marianne Matus. “After Marshals stopped the bus in Splendora, about 34 miles northeast of Houston, Clark was arrested without incident.” On Thursday, he was held at San Jacinto County Jail, unclear of whether he had an attorney or not. Clark, who is originally from Danville, Illinois, was originally drafted by the Orlando Magic in 1998, but was then traded to the Denver Nuggets, playing there for three years. He also played, as I said before the Utah Jazz and Phoenix Suns, as well as the Toronto Raptors and Sacramento Kings.

College Athletes are still in College

One thing everyone forgets about college athletes is that they are still in college. They still have classes to attend and they still have grades they need to keep up. Not because they need a certain gpa to be eligible to play but because after they graduate they will more than likely have a normal life that they will have to get used to. Being a star basketball player isn’t going to pay the bills for the rest of your life.

That’s why I was really happy to see that Trent Johnson, Stanford basketball coach, suspend Brook Lopez for missing two days worth of classes and one practice. He will miss the first 9 games of the season. Last year, Lopez started in 18 of the Cardinals games and played in 26. He is an asset to the team and it must have taken a lot of consideration on the coach’s behalf to have suspended this player.

Lopez who is already on academic probation from the team was suspended Friday. Even though he was already ineligible for the start of the season his punishment is a lot greater now. In the end, Johnson was looking in the best interest of Lopez as well the team. A lot of the time, I think that coaches only care about winning but I feel that Johnson realizes that eventually Lopez has to plan for the rest of his life if the NBA doesn’t work out. I feel that other coaches need to care about their college players the way that Trent Johnson does.

Penn State RB Pleads Not Guilty

When are the rape cases going to end for the collegiate athletes?!?
According to ESPN sources, “Suspended Penn State tailback Austin Scott pleaded not guilty Wednesday and was ordered to stand trial on felony rape and sexual-assault charges.” At this point in the season, Scott, a senior running back, has compiled 302 yards on 69 attempts rushing and 12 yards on 2 receptions. He’s already surpassed his rushing results from the 2006 season (273), and has nearly caught up to his results from 2005 (312). His projected rushing yards for the season were 518, according to ESPN, but now that he has these charges on him, he might not even be able to complete the season. At the preliminary hearing, the judge, Daniel Hoffman, “also upheld several misdemeanor charges. Prosecutors withdrew two felony charges of aggravated indecent assault against the 22-year-old because of a lack of evidence.”

Scott, the Allentown, Pennsylvania native, calls it consensual. The accuser, who is a fellow Penn State student, “testified that he and Scott had met once before and had been text messaging each other before getting together at a bar. The rape allegedly occurred in the early morning hours on Oct. 5 at Scott’s on-campus apartment.” He was suspended later on that same day and was charged about a week later. According to his defense lawyer, John Karoly, “Scott will remain in school while he fights the charges.”

There have been many rape accusations connected to athletes, professional and collegiate. Some of the most heard of ones are the Duke Lacrosse players and Kobe Bryant. According to USA Today, there have been 168 sexual assault allegations against athletes in the past dozen years, giving significant results. Out of the 168 allegations, involving 164 different athletes, only 22 of the cases went to trial. Only 6 cases came out with the athlete being convicted. In 46 of the other cases, there was a plea agreement reached. These numbers are alarmingly small, considering how big of a deal a rape charge is. Why is it that athletes are seemingly given special attention? They should be given the same punishment as any regular person who is charged with rape. This is the problem with athletes. It seems that they are above the law, it’s like with drug charges and professional athletes, always getting away with a fine, but never learning their lesson. When is they court system going to be straightened out?

If you don't want bad publicity, then don't pee on a bar

To all famous people of the world (celebrities, actors, singers, athletes, and coaches): You’re actions are watched. People know what you do. They care about your lives. If you do something stupid, people will know. And of course, there will be consequences.

Now that I’ve said that, we can discuss Eric Schnupp’s recent embarrassing moment. Eric Schnupp is Baylor University’s offensive line/tight ends coach and is now in trouble for urinating on the bar at a pub in the early hours of the morning Sunday in Waco, Texas. Fortunately for him, he was not arrested but still has to deal with the $258 fine for disorderly conduct and reckless exposure not to mention the embarrassment he now has to endure.

Here’s the list actions that lead up to this very interesting event. Baylor University had returned around 9 pm back to Waco, Texas from their loss to Kansas. Schnupp went to Scruffy Murphy’s, a local bar, where he drank quite a few shots of hard alcohol bought for him. Sometime around closing, Schupp began urinating on the bar for no apparent reason and thought no one could see him. How about that for an explanation of his behavior?

He must have had one hell of a hangover, right? Well now his poor life decisions have him suspended from the Baylor football team indefinitely according to head coach Guy Morriss. I just don’t understand why people like Eric Schnupp don’t understand that they are in the spotlight and their actions affect other people besides for themselves.