Derek Jeter is one lucky man. His girlfriend/fiance, Minka Kelly, was just named Sexiest Woman Alive by Esquire. You might recognize her from “Friday Night Lights” or “Parenthood.”
Here’s a gallery of red carpet and candid shots:
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Here’s the Esquire video:
Finally, click here to see the Esquire photos. (This one is our favorite.)
Nate Lawson of HeavyMMA.com is reporting that a lightweight bout between “Ultimate Fighter” winners Joe Stevenson and Mac Danzig will take place at UFC 124 this December.
Both Danzig and Stevenson have struggled as of late to live up to the expectations their success on the reality series earned them. They have gone a combined 9-9 since each won his respective season of “The Ultimate Fighter”.
Stevenson, however, has had the greater success of the two, even climbing the ranks years ago to earn a title shot. He followed his “Ultimate Fighter” with four wins to only one loss, but fell short to B.J. Penn when he fought him for the 155-pound title. In his last outing, Stevenson fell short to George Sotiropoulous at UFC 110 on the judges’ scorecards.
Like his upcoming opponent, Danzig has struggled immensely as of late, winning only once in his last five showings. He dropped three consecutive fights between September of 2008 and July of 2009, but snapped the downslide with a unanimous decision victory over Justin Buchholz at UFC 109. However, a controversial submission loss to Matt Wiman at UFC 115 derailed a potential winning streak.
The lightweight bout is set for UFC 124 on December 11 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The main event of the card features a welterweight title bout between champion Georges St. Pierre and top contender Josh Koscheck. The only other fights to be made official by the promotion are Matt Riddle vs. Anthony Waldburger and Mark Bocek vs. Dustin Hazellet.
According to a report by the Chicago Tribune, the concussion that Bears’ quarterback Jay Cutler suffered in Week 4 against the Giants was actually his fifth since college.
A November 13, 2004 article in the Tennessean reported that Culter had suffered three concussions while at Vanderbilt and a fourth occurred on the final game of the ’06 season when he was with the Broncos. If that’s the case, this is certainly something that the Bears will keep a close eye on going forward.
The NFL did a great service to its players by making it tougher to return to games or play the next week if they suffer a head injury. They now have to pass a series of concussion-related tests and if the player is still showing even the slightest signs that the injury is still prevalent, then he can’t play under any circumstance.
Of course, if the league is so stringent about head injuries now, it makes you wonder how many players have played with concussions before. It’s almost sad that it has taken this long for the NFL to recognize that it needs to be stricter when it comes to players’ noggins.
But at least they did figure it out and players like Cutler (who is expected to return to action this week after missing Chicago’s win over the Panthers last Sunday) aren’t putting themselves even further in danger than they already are. After all, football is a contact sport – injuries happen. But if they can be avoided, then the league needs to take the steps necessary in order for that to happen.
Every manager would love to have the problem Bruce Bochy currently has. He has to set his rotation for the NLCS (which starts this Saturday in Philadelphia) and even though Matt Cain is arguably the Giants’ second best pitcher, he won’t be starting in Game 2.
That responsibility falls on Jonathan Sanchez, one of two lefties San Francisco will throw at the Phillies’ struggling lineup in the best-of-seven-game series. (Rookie Madison Bumgarner is the other.) Sanchez will get the nod over Cain because Bochy prefers to go righty (Tim Lincecum), lefty (Sanchez), righty (Cain), lefty (Bumgarner), when laying out his rotation.
It’s the right move given the Phillies’ lineup and the ballpark they play in. Chase Utley is a left-handed hitter, as is Ryan Howard and Raul Ibanez. All three of them can hit for power and given the Little League stadium that they play in, they can do some damage against a hard-throwing pitcher like Cain who relies on his fastball.
But Sanchez’s go-to pitch is his slider, which is much harder to hit out of the ballpark than a fastball. In other words, he’s the better pitcher to throw at Citizens Bank Park (where Game 2 will be played) and considering he took a no-hitter into the sixth inning against the Braves in Atlanta on Sunday, he obviously doesn’t have any qualms about pitching on the road in a pressure situation. (Although that certainly wasn’t the case earlier in his career when he was an emotional roller coaster in every start.)
The Giants have a huge mountain to climb if they want to reach the World Series. The Phillies have the best collection of talent of all of the remaining teams and their pitching staff is expected to put the clamps down on San Fran’s offense, just as the Braves’ starters were able to do in the NLDS. That means the Giants’ spectacular pitching staff will have to be even more spectacular (maybe even perfect) if this club hopes to move on.
But Bochy can only put his players in the best position to win and then trust that they’ll execute. There’s a possibility that Sanchez could get destroyed in Philadelphia and then Cain blows it in Game 3. However, in setting his rotation the way he is, he’s arguably giving the Giants their best chance to win. Now they just have to go out and execute.
In the end, Vincent Jackson’s situation was rather predictable.
The player’s union has been telling agents for months that players who held out will be unrestricted free agents after season, even if they sat out all of 2010. However, players still have to be on the roster for six games in order to get an accrued season and thus become unrestricted.
That’s why it isn’t surprising to hear that V-Jax will report to the Chargers by the end of the month. He wants a new contract and if he holds out all year, he may never get one because he would still be under the Chargers and GM A.J. Smith’s thumb. If he’s on the roster for six games, he becomes an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season and then he can seek his millions elsewhere.
But nobody really wins here. People will say that Jackson and his agent got one over on Smith, but the GM isn’t dumb – he knows what they were going to do and I doubt he even cares at this point. Smith has made it clear that Jackson has no future with the Chargers so he might as well sign off on his return (Smith has to agree to Jackson returning to the roster), get six weeks out of him (Jackson isn’t eligible to return until Week 12) and then bid him ado at the end of the year.
What happens if Jackson blows out his knee in the final six games of the season? Then what would have this all been about? What if other teams have been turned off by the way he handled things in San Diego? Then there wouldn’t be a big market for him and thus, he may have to accept less than what he and his agent think he’s worth.
V-Jax may get his big contract next year but as of this moment, he rolled the dice and he came up snake eyes – for everyone.
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