NFL
Dez Bryant Still Facing Domestic Violence Charges
Written by Jazmine Pendleton Thursday, 01 November 2012 07:19
Yesterday, Dallas County district attorney Craig Watkins announced he is still pursuing domestic violence charges against Cowboys' WR Dez Bryant.
According to Watkins, the Class A misdemeanor family violence charge against Bryant is still under review.
The initial charges stem from a July 14 incident in which Bryant was accused of slapping his mother, Angela Bryant, in the face with his baseball cap.
Although Ms. Bryant eventually decided she did not want to press charges against her son.
Cowboys officials had no comment regarding the reports.
NFL's Bryant McKinnie Owes $375k to a Strip Club
Written by Jazmine Pendleton Wednesday, 31 October 2012 06:30
According to reports, Bryant McKinnie owes up to $375,000 to a Miami strip club after running his tab for over 20 months.
The father of rapper Trick Daddy, Charles Young, manages the strip club and he claims McKinnie made a written promise to repay the debt.
MckKnnie claims the story is "bogus," saying, "He was working at those places and he's tried to borrow money from me," he told a Baltimore newspaper. "People can put anything out there. What strip club gives you a $375,000 tab?"
Steelers Rookie Accused of DUI, Assault in Chase
Written by The Associated Press Sunday, 14 October 2012 20:51
Authorities say a Pittsburgh Steelers rookie defensive lineman fled police and crashed into parked cars while driving drunk, then was arrested.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that authorities allege that 22-year-old Alameda Ta'amu of Kent, Wash., was driving a sport utility vehicle the wrong way on Pittsburgh's South Side at about 2:30 a.m. Sunday. Police say the 6-foot-3, 348-pound Ta'amu fled officers and crashed into four parked cars, injuring a woman, then tried to flee on foot before he was restrained.
Charges against him include felony fleeing police, aggravated assault and aggravated assault by vehicle.
Steelers general manager Kevin Colbert says team officials are "disappointed" but will await more information before commenting further.
Ta'amu was drafted in the fourth round out of Washington. He has yet to play this season.
Should Replacement Officials Get a Bad Rap?
Written by Gregory Kane, BlackAmericaWeb.com Thursday, 27 September 2012 14:32
Everybody and his mama seems to be down on the replacement officials calling National Football League games.
I’m not among them. Truth is, I didn’t care much for the regular officials, the ones who were in a salary dispute with NFL honchos.
While I’m not taking sides in that dispute, I will say this: players are necessary to the game; officials are necessary to the game.
NFL honchos? Not so much.
On the last play of the Monday Night Football game played Sept. 24, the Seattle Seahawks quarterback threw an interception to a Green Bay Packers defensive back in the end zone.
The team affectionately known to its fans as “The Pack” was leading 12-7 with no time left on the clock. The game should have ended in a Packers victory.
But one of the replacement officials saw Seahawks receiver Golden Tate with one measly hand on the ball and signaled touchdown. Seattle won; the Pack got reamed and reamed but good.
Since then fans have been howling in protest about the replacement officials. President Obama even got in on the act, as did Republican vice presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan.
Obama simply urged NFL honchos and referees to return to the bargaining table to resolve their salary dispute. Ryan tried to score political points off the controversy.
Later, it was revealed that some of the replacement officials were fired from the Lingerie Football League.
Yes, you read that right. There is, indeed, a Lingerie Football League, featuring comely young lasses wearing nothing but lingerie playing football.
Now, I’m as horny an old fart as they come, and love nothing more than looking at comely young lasses in lingerie. But even I see something terribly wrong in the entire concept of a Lingerie Football League.
The LFL even has a commissioner. Mitch Mortaza must be the bravest man in America. He ADMITS to being the commissioner of the LFL.
Mortaza, in a story that appeared on BlackAmericaWeb.com, admitted that some of the replacement officials were fired as LFL officials. You might be pondering exactly what an official has to do to get fired from the LFL, but think about it.
The guys were looking at hineys and breasts, not the plays. Men have simple minds. They can only concentrate on one thing at a time.
Either those minds can ogle women wearing lingerie, or they can officiate football. Those minds – most of them anyway – can’t do both.
So replacement officials being fired from the LFL, or having officiated “only” Division II or Division III games, makes me down on them not one iota. The fact is regular NFL officials could have blown the call in the Seahawks-Packers game just as badly as the replacement officials.
When regular NFL officials were calling games, I’ve seen wide receivers get practically mugged with nothing even remotely resembling a pass interference call being made.
I’ve seen calls that can only be described as “c.s.” (the “c” stands for chicken; the “s” stands for that scatological word you think it stands for) many times. Chief among them is the officials’ precious “roughing the passer” call.
Can I be the only NFL fan that detests this call, at least the way NFL officials – and I’m talking the regular guys, not the replacements – interpret it?
I’ve seen defensive players barely touch a quarterback and get flagged for “roughing the passer.” And excuse me, isn’t it the job of every player on defense to “rough the passer,” and every other player on offense?
The NFL’s attempt to “protect” quarterbacks is pathetic. Quarterbacks, as offensive players, should be made to take their lumps the way running backs, offensive linemen and receivers have to take theirs.
But the way regular NFL officials interpret the roughing the passer rule, you’d think quarterbacks were gods, not just players. And don’t get me started on that “tuck rule” thing.
Remember the Oakland Raiders-New England Patriots “tuck rule” game of 2002? Patriots quarterback Tom Brady clearly fumbled the ball; the Raiders recovered.
Then officials pulled this “tuck rule” thing clean out of their rectums. The Patriots got the ball back and won the game.
If that’s the type of officiating we’re going to get when regular NFL officials return, then I say “Thanks, but no thanks.” I’d rather have those bumbling replacements any day of the week.
'Hoop Dreams' Director Takes on Concussion Issue
Written by Nancy Armour, AP National Writer Friday, 21 September 2012 10:41
The North Side Raiders look like little men as they take the field for their Pee Wee football game in the opening scene of "Head Games," their shoulder pads and helmets dwarfing the rest of their small bodies.
Only the Raiders aren't little men and, the film argues, the games they're playing could do irreparable damage to their brains.
"We've got to get past this, 'Little kids involved in a pillow fight' mentality," concussion guru Chris Nowinski said. "If parents knew what I knew, they would not be tolerating a lot of things in the sports world that they are. We are clearly exposing children to needless risk, and we're not upset about it. And we should be."
The concussion crisis that has engulfed the NFL and NHL comes to the big screen Friday with the release of "Head Games," a documentary by "Hoop Dreams" director Steve James. Inspired by Nowinski's book by the same name, the film blends a stark, sometimes graphic portrayal of the science of concussions with personal stories of parents and athletes struggling with head injuries' potentially devastating effects.
"Head Games" opens Friday in theaters in New York and Los Angeles. The 90-minute film also will be available on demand at iTunes and Amazon, as well as from some cable and satellite providers.
"Before making the film, I had the typical fan's knowledge of the issue and shared concerns about its potential seriousness. But I also thought that perhaps it was all being overblown a bit by the media," James said in an email to The Associated Press. "Making the film helped me realize that while there's so much we don't know, it's an issue that deserves to be seen as a huge public health issue.
"It's why we chose to make a film more focused on informing an audience versus my usual approach, which is to focus more on the life or lives of a very few people."
By now, most people know sports has a concussion problem. Research has shown that repeated blows to the head can lead to brain trauma, with a study released earlier this month finding that NFL players were unusually prone to dying from degenerative brain disease. The NFL faces more than 140 lawsuits from almost 3,500 former players, including at least 26 Hall of Famers, who allege the league conspired to hide the dangers of concussions.
Former NHL MVP Sidney Crosby was essentially sidelined for 14 months because of concussion-related symptoms. Enforcers Derek Boogaard, Rick Rypien and Wade Belak, tough guys who made their livings by dropping their gloves, all died in the summer of 2011; Boogaard's brain showed evidence of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a degenerative disease that's been found in other former fighters.
But that drip, drip, drip of information doesn't have the same impact as a 90-minute tutorial on concussion awareness.
"That's where I felt it was most valuable, (that) they were able to present it with the personal touch for anyone," said former NHL All-Star Keith Primeau, whose career was cut short by concussions. "Nobody wants to sit and listen to a guy in a lab coat explain the dangers of brain injury. So the format it was presented in, I was not just pleasantly surprised, I was overwhelmed by it."
The film includes extensive interviews with Primeau and Nowinski, whose own history of concussions led him to write "Head Games" and found the Sports Legacy Institute. It also features interviews with concussion expert Dr. Robert Cantu and parents struggling to decide whether to pull their children out of the sport they love following a head injury.
As easy as the information in the film is to absorb, its details are unflinching, including:
— Dr. Ann McKee, who along with Nowinski and Cantu is a co-director of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at Boston University's School of Medicine, slicing through someone's brain with what looks like a gigantic butter knife.
— Tissue samples from former players' brains with what look like charring, or cigarette burn holes — a telltale sign of CTE.
— Cindy Parlow Cone, a member of the U.S. women's soccer team that won the 1999 World Cup, saying, matter-of-factly, that she always has her GPS on because "I'll be driving around roads I know by heart and forget where I am." Parlow Cone, who retired in 2006 because of post-concussion syndrome, is 34.
— Owen Thomas' mother replaying the voice mail her son left to wish her a happy birthday. The former Penn football captain killed himself a day later at age 21. His brain showed early signs of CTE.
"We wanted to do a film that not only told the story of Chris Nowinski and how concussions became an important public health issue, but also really take viewers through what we do and don't know about concussions," James wrote. "Along the way, we wanted to show how everyone from professional athletes to pee wee football players are being impacted, and give them and their families a foundation to make important decisions about contact sports.
"I hope that the film will generate a lot of interest particularly among parents and their kids who play contact sports," added James, who returns to Marshall High School, the school attended by Arthur Agee of "Hoop Dreams" fame, to shoot the North Side Raiders game. "The film gives a lot of important information but consciously doesn't tell parents a bunch of do's and don'ts. We purposely show parents wrestling with the issue and hope it will generate a lot of discussion."
The professional leagues have made strides in concussion awareness. The NFL and NHL have both cracked down on flagrant hits, and tightened their rules for treating concussions. The NFL now has a trainer at each game whose sole responsibility is to look for players who might have suffered a head injury.
But progress has come slower in youth sports, where parents and coaches have been reluctant to acknowledge their children are as vulnerable as an NFL lineman — maybe even more. In one scene in "Head Games," a trainer accuses Nowinski of scare tactics after he gives a seminar to high school parents and coaches on concussions and head trauma.
Those involved with the film hope "Head Games" can help close that gap.
"I can certainly say there's been a change of mentality. But not a complete buy-in," Primeau said. "We set up a booth at a youth hockey tournament, and a child may stop by to see the information only to have the parent scurry them along so I guess they're not exposed to it. That's a fear and an ignorance we need to overcome.
"Ignoring it doesn't mean it's not going on."
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