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– via ESPN –/
Say what you want about Notre Dame’s performance against Alabama on Monday, but Brian Kelly seems to have moved on from it pretty quickly. Kelly interviewed with the Eagles on Tuesday, and may also be in the running for other open NFL jobs. Will Kelly keep building on his success in South Bend, or will the lure of the NFL prove too strong?
– via Sexy Beast –.
Monday Night’s BCS Championship had an incredible build up. #1 vs #2. The old Dynasty of Notre Dame vs. The newest College Football Dynasty of Alabama.
How did the game go? Horrible! Notre Dame couldn’t cover, lacked a pass rush, and definitely couldn’t keep up with Alabama’s biggest highlight: Quarterback AJ McCarron’s Girlfriend Katherine Webb.
After No. 2 Alabama shellacked No. 1 Notre Dame 42-14 at Miami’s Sun Life Stadium, the biggest takeaway had precious little to do with college football. Katherine Webb, the statuesque, tanned girlfriend of Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron, was all anyone was talking about.
With 4:22 left in the first quarter and the blowout already under way, veteran ESPN announcer Brent Musburger took it upon himself to deflect attention from the lackluster proceedings on the field by focusing on Webb. As the camera zeroed in on the brown-haired, green-eyed stunner in the stands next to McCarron’s mother, looking like a cross between in-their-primes Denise Richards and Kathy Ireland—Musburger, 73, exclaimed:
“Wow, I’m tellin ya, you quarterbacks—you get all the good-lookin’ women. Wow! What a beautiful woman. Whoa! So, if you’re a youngster at Alabama, start getting’ the football out and throw it around in the backyard with Pop.”
And just like that, a star was born.
The former 2012 Miss Alabama saw her Twitter followers explode from about 2,300 before kickoff to close to 200,000 at the time of this writing, with her legion of fans including NBA superstar LeBron James. The parody Twitter account NOT Sportscenter immediately tweeted, “BREAKING: AJ McCarron’s girlfriend has filed a restraining order against Brent Musburger. That didn’t take long,” which received close to 13,000 retweets. Donald Trump, ever the opportunist, jumped on the bandwagon and tweeted, “We are going to ask Katherine Webb to be a judge at the Miss USA Pageant coming up in Las Vegas.” And, last but certainly not least, Arizona Cardinals defensive end Darnell Dockett achieved instant notoriety with a not-so-enticing invite to the brunette bombshell.
“Aye @_KatherineWebb hit me (240) 464-xxxx when game over, lets go to wing stop then King of diamond,” the NFL star tweeted (and later deleted), according to USA Today.
(For the uninitiated, Wing Stop is a fast food Buffalo wings joint, and King of Diamonds is a well-known strip club in downtown Miami. Classy.)
Dockett later tweeted, “Shit, that was supposed to be DM!”—indicating a private direct message.
After the game, McCarron fired off a few playful tweets to Dockett, including this gem: “@ddockett u better worry ab being in them playoffs, then going to king of diamonds homie.. #betterkeepdreaming like the rest of these dudes.”
Webb was a good sport as well, saying of Musburger’s spirited aside, “I laughed hysterically. I was flattered…and slightly embarrassed…but I thought it was the funniest thing ever. I never expected that.”
Webb, 23, is an alumna of longstanding Alabama rival Auburn University and began dating the 22-year-old QB McCarron in December, after a series of flirtatious exchanges over Twitter. The two finally met in person for the first time when the football star made an appearance at this year’s Miss Alabama USA pageant, held Dec. 7-8 in Montgomery, Ala.
“I had not seen him until I went on stage and saw him in the front row,” Webb told the local Ledger-Enquirer in late December, adding, “We decided to make it official this past weekend.”
According to her Miss USA page, in addition to modeling, Webb “currently works at Chic-Fil-A in Columbus, Georgia, as a training director” and has been involved in numerous philanthropic endeavors, including helping a missionary group open a dental clinic in India. She enjoys “paintballing, fishing, and skeet shooting,” and “works to overcome vitiligo, the same skin condition that Michael Jackson had.” The disease causes depigmentation of sections of skin, resulting in discoloration.
In a radio chat with Carson Daly on Tuesday morning, Webb said of the social media acclaim: “You know what it is? They’re all just guys and they’re thinking, ‘Oh my god, she’s this hot chick! I’m going to follow her because I just want to look at her pictures!”
Later in the interview, Daly, ever the gentleman, posed the million-dollar question: would Webb ever pose for Playboy?
“I’ve been doing modeling for a little bit and you know, coming from the South, from Alabama, you don’t really want to do anything that your grandma might be embarrassed [by],” she replied.
In other words: Dream on, fellas.
– via Fox Sports –
The most sickening part about watching Robert Griffin III crumple in a heap just outside his own end zone with 6:19 left in the Washington Redskins’ 24-14 wild card loss to the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday wasn’t the way the rookie quarterback’s right knee contorted, gruesomely, in a way that knees most certainly are not designed to bend.
Nor was it the chilling silence in the immediate aftermath from a FedEx Field crowd — one attending a home playoff game for the first time in 13 years — seeing the same thing you and I did and shuddering at the thought of what it might mean for their star player’s once-bright future, and, consequently, the outlook of their team.
The most frustrating and maddening — and downright infuriating — aspect of the injury wasn’t that the fumble resulting from Griffin’s injury ended the Redskins’ already-slim chances at a comeback or that one of the league’s most enjoyable feel-good stories came to an abrupt end in the most disheartening way possible, either.
No, the worst thing about the way Sunday’s game ended, both for the Redskins and Griffin, the No. 2 pick in April’s draft and a leading candidate for Offensive Rookie of the Year, was that all of it — the injury, the loss and the mindless babbling to explain it all away afterward — could have been prevented. None of it should have ever happened.
If Redskins coach Mike Shanahan had any good sense about him, he’d have taken Griffin, who first sprained his right LCL on Dec. 9 against Baltimore, out of the game late in the first quarter, the moment he came limping back from the sideline after his knee buckled while planting to throw a pass. At worst, Shanahan should have stripped him of his helmet at the half, following a quarter of startling ineptitude with a visibly hobbled Griffin at the helm.
But because a young player was too competitive to quit in his first playoff game and his veteran coach didn’t have the guts to make the tough decision for him, the Redskins will be watching from home as the Seahawks move on to face Atlanta, and one of the league’s most exciting players may never be the same again.
The extent of Griffin’s injury won’t be known until later this week, but given the way the knee appeared to shred, and given Griffin’s history with his right ACL, which he tore in 2009 while still at Baylor, it’s hard not to fear the worst. And, unfortunately, it was something seemingly everyone but Shanahan and Griffin saw coming.
“I think I did put myself at more risk by being out there,” Griffin said. “But every time you step on the football field in between those lines, you’re putting your life, your career (and) every single ligament in your body in jeopardy. That’s just the approach I had to take towards it. My teammates needed me out there, so I was out there for them.”
As poorly as things ended for the Redskins, it’s easy to lose sight of how well things started. Washington easily scored on its first drive on a touchdown pass to running back Evan Royster, and followed it up with another unabated scoring drive on the next possession, which ended with a 4-yard toss to tight end Logan Paulsen.
But it was a play two snaps before the Paulsen touchdown that should have been a watershed moment in the game that could have saved the Redskins’ season and Griffin’s knee. On first-and-goal from the Seattle 4-yard line, Griffin took the snap and rolled out to his right and eventually, after running out of real estate, threw an awkward, sidearm pass toward Pierre Garçon that fell harmlessly to the turf.
After the play, Griffin returned to the field, and to say he did so gingerly would not do his condition justice. He looked like a wounded animal, to the point where he could hardly walk, much less run the read-option. After the touchdown pass, Griffin retreated to the locker room with Dr. James Andrews, a Washington team physician who, earlier Sunday, publicly expressed concern over Griffin playing, and got his knee taped.
When he came back, Griffin was still something short of mobile, and sure as heck couldn’t move the way he did when he helped lead the Redskins to seven straight wins to close the regular season. But Shanahan looked an ineffective, and potentially already injured, quarterback in the face and told him to strap back up and get on the field anyway.
“I talked to Robert and Robert said to me, ‘Coach, there’s a difference between injured and being hurt. I guarantee I’m hurting right now; give me a chance to win this football game because I guarantee I’m not injured,’” Shanahan said. “So that was enough for me.”
From that moment on, Griffin, who moved the football effortlessly before that incomplete pass to Garçon, could do very little to combat a Seahawks defense that is already good enough without a gimpy quarterback’s help.
After amassing 129 yards of offense, nine first downs and two touchdowns on their first two drives, the Redskins only managed 74 more yards of offense, six first downs and no points. The Seahawks outgained the Redskins 271-38 in the second and third quarters, alone.
Some of that had to do with the Seattle defensive unit, which was among the best in the NFL this season and allowed a league low in points per game. But more of it, if not most of it, was a result of RG3 not being RG3.
“That’s my guy,” Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman said of RG3 after the game. “He’s a hell of a player. He’s one of the best players I’ve ever seen. He presents a lot of challenges. I’m sure if he were 100 percent it would have been a different game.”
Offensively, Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch carried the ball 20 times for 132 yards and a touchdown, and overcame an earlier goal line fumble with a tough 27-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter to give the Seahawks the lead for the first time — and for good. And quarterback Russell Wilson, an Offensive Rookie of the Year candidate in his own right, threw for 187 yards and a touchdown and ran for another 67 yards, only serving to underline what Griffin couldn’t do.
“You saw the difference between a healthy Russell Wilson and Robert not being healthy,” Redskins linebacker London Fletcher said. “I don’t know what percentage (Griffin) was at, but you could tell he just couldn’t do the things that he had done all season long to make those dynamic plays.”
With that in mind, it made little sense to leave Griffin in, regardless of whether he was endangering himself physically by doing so. Backup quarterback Kirk Cousins has proven capable this season, especially in a win over Cleveland on Dec. 16 with Griffin on the mend, and 100 percent of him would have certainly been more effective against Seattle than 50 percent of the starter — maybe even effective enough to win.
In the end, though, the most disconcerting part of Shanahan leaving Griffin in was the safety risk and lack of concern for his livelihood that it represented. Every game is full of players too hurt to play and too competitive to realize it, and it’s up to the coach to know when enough is enough.
After the game, Griffin speculated that, had Shanahan pulled him, he would have run back out onto the field and continued to play anyway, and his equally blind teammates seemed to agree that the decision should have been left up to the player.
“This is the playoffs, it’s a do-or-die situation,” Fletcher said. “Guys have a great deal of intestinal fortitude; never underestimate the heart of an athlete in a competitive situation. I think with Robert, he’s willed himself to be able to play, and he’s earned the right to be able to play if he tells coach he can play.”
But it’s not up to the player. It can’t be. That’s why the dangers of concussions are such a hot-button issue today, and other injures should be treated with equal care. Leaving Griffin on the field, with a tattered knee and a precedent for knee injuries, was reprehensible, and if the news turns out to be as bad as it looked, Shanahan should be held accountable for what he did to Griffin’s future.
There’s a fine line between being tough and being dumb, and RG3 crossed it while his team enabled him. After the game, Shanahan said he would have deserved to get fired had he not taken Griffin out of the game following the fourth quarter injury, but the real shame is that he didn’t take Griffin’s injury that seriously from the start.
– via ESPN –.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Paralyzed Rutgers football player Eric LeGrand has been selected to receive the Jimmy V Perseverance Award at the ESPYS next month.
LeGrand suffered a spinal cord injury in a game against Army in 2010. Initially told he would be a quadriplegic and would remain on a ventilator, the defensive tackle is now breathing on his own and can stand upright with the aid of a metal frame.
“I can relate to that because I am never giving up in my situation,” LeGrand said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. “I am never giving up in my situation. I know I will fight through it. Now getting this, this is a dream come true, especially on the 20th anniversary of the ESPYS. I was even thinking about it last year, thinking that could be me.”
LeGrand plans to make the trip to Los Angeles for the award presentation on July 11.
LeGrand, 21, has vowed to walk again. The New Jersey native resumed his studies via video conferences last year and led the Scarlet Knights onto the field before a game last season.
In May, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers signed LeGrand to a symbolic contract. Bucs first-year coach Greg Schiano, who left Rutgers for Tamp Bay in January, invited LeGrand to address players earlier this month at the team’s training complex.
Since suffering the injury, LeGrand has remained remarkably positive. He has been aggressive with his rehabilitation and works as an analyst on the pregame, halftime and postgame radio broadcasts of Rutgers games. He also will have a weekly show on Wednesday during the season with new Scarlet Knights coach Kyle Flood.
The Jimmy V Award is given to someone in sports who has overcome great obstacles through perseverance and determination. It is named for Jim Valvano, the North Carolina State coach who gave an emotional acceptance speech at the 1993 ESPYS that included his famous words “Don’t Give Up … Don’t Ever Give Up!” He died of cancer later that year.
– via ESPN –
Jamison, 5-foot-8, 200 pounds, ran for 1,075 yards and four touchdowns this season.
“Jawan has been an exciting player for us during his career,” Rutgers coach Kyle Flood said in a statement. “He is a running back with tremendous vision, great balance and has the gift to make people miss in the open field. We wish Jawan well as he begins his journey to play in the NFL.”
Jamison, who considers former Rutgers and current Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice a mentor, broke 100 yards six times in 2012, including rushing for a season-high 151 in a September win at South Florida.
Jamison is the sixth player since 2008 to leave the school early for the draft. Cornerback Logan Ryan also decided to leave school recently.
* Personally, I would like to thank Jawan for the time, effort and dedication that he’s shown our Rutgers Football Program. I’m looking forward to seeing him tear it up on Sunday’s and Monday’s in the NFL
– via Forbes –
Manny Pacquiao has some serious thinking to do.
Despite never examining him up close, neurologist Dr. Rustico Jimenez speculated Thursday that the Filipino boxer might be showing the first signs of Parkinson’s disease. Jimenez, president of the Private Hospitals Association of the Philippines, said he was concerned about Pacquiao’s health after he suffered a hard knockout at the hands of Juan Manuel Marquez at the end of 2012.
Parkinson’s disease is one that has plagued some boxers late into their respective careers and has continued to affect them well after. Muhammad Ali currently suffers from Parkinson’s disease, does as Pacquiao’s trainer Freddie Roach.
Dr. Jimenez isn’t alone in worrying about the boxer’s health. Dr. Raquel Fortun said she was not convinced by the CT scan results from Pacquiao’s post-fight exam, and “expressed alarm” over reports that Pacquiao could have had a slight seizure after Marquez knocked him out.
Pacquiao has yet to make a public announcement about whether he will retire, but there is much hope for him after boxing — whenever the end may come. For one, he is very politically involved and is a member of the Filipino House of Representatives. Many entertainment ventures, speaking engagements, and other similar opportunities could lie ahead.
He is also very secure in the fiscal area of his life, sitting at No. 2 on the FORBES list of highest-paid athletes, behind only Floyd Mayweather, Jr. Not too bad for a man who was raised in poverty and made his fortune with his two fists. That makes him a fighter in the ring, and in heart.
But if Pacquiao does retire, where will he stand in the history of greatest boxers? In a little more than a decade and a half, he has wracked up 54 wins (38 KOs), 5 loses and 2 draws in 61 pro bouts. His record is a little bit better than that of Mike Tyson (50 wins, 6 loses, 0 draws, 2 no contests), though 44 of Iron Mike’s wins were KOs.
Rocky Marciano (49 wins: 43 KOs, 6 decisions) and Mayweather (43 wins: 26 KOs, 17 decisions) never got to 50 wins, but neither one ever lost, either.
Which begs the question of whether Pacquiao and Mayweather could ever fight each other, a potential bout that has been discussed for years and could net to a total of 100 million for the fighters to split, if not more. And even if Pacquiao were to continue fighting, he would probably want to get a handful of wins under his belt to boost his confidence after losing to Marquez and Timothy Bradley in 2012. Pacquiao and Mayweather wouldn’t fight, in all likeliness, until 2014 or 2015, which puts plenty of time between now and then for Pacquiao’s health to be at a greater risk.
Whether he retires now or maybe a couple of years from now, it is almost certain that Pacquiao will not come close to the legendary status of some men who fought long before him, at least as far as total wins are concerned. From 1940-65, Sugar Ray Robinson had 200 fights, winning 173 with 19 loses, 6 draws and 2 no contests. Willie Pep had more KOs (65) than Pacquiao has total fights, and won 229 of his 241 total fights from 1940-66. And Jack Johnson helped make the sport what it is, winning 73 times (40 KOs) in 114 fights from 1897-1945.
Pacquiao’s wife wants him to retire. Doctors suggest he should. Whatever his decision is — to continue fighting or hang up his gloves for the sake of his health — Pacquiao has the the final say, and the boxing community will respect him. Whatever he chooses, he’ll go down as one of the greatest, all stats aside