Category: NFL (Page 695 of 1282)

Lawyer denies sexual assault allegations against Roethlisberger

According to Profootballtalk at NBC Sports, a civil lawsuit alleging sexual assault has been filed against Ben Roethlisberger, although the quarterback’s lawyer is denying that Big Ben has done anything wrong. A Nevada Harrah’s employee named Andrea McNulty filed the lawsuit.

Lawyer David Cornwell acknowledged the suit but defended Big Ben to PFT, releasing this statement: “Ben has never sexually assaulted anyone.”

He also underscored that no criminal charges were pending. “The timing of the lawsuit and the absence of a criminal complaint and a criminal investigation are the most compelling evidence of the absence of any criminal conduct,” Cornwell said. “If an investigation is commenced, Ben will cooperate fully and Ben will be fully exonerated.”

Roethlisberger is potentially staring at one civil count of assault, one civil count of sexual assault and battery, one civil count of false imprisonment, one civil count of false pretenses, one civil count of fraud, and one civil count of intentional infliction of emotional distress.

According to the PFT article, McNulty alleges that Roethlisberger asked her to come to his hotel room to fix the television and thereafter forced her to have sex with him. But who knows? Is she telling the truth or is she making things up because he’s a star athlete with an exorbitant amount of money?

It is important not to jump to conclusions here. Big Ben hasn’t been convicted of anything and until more details are released, we shouldn’t assume anything. For all we know, this is just a huge misunderstanding and Roethlisberger will be cleared of any wrongdoing.

Childress: ‘Brett’s throwing motion looks fine.’

Vikings’ head coach Brad Childress said over the weekend that he hasn’t spoken with Brett Favre in a few weeks, but also noted that the free agent quarterback’s throwing motion looked fine when he recently viewed him on video.

“I liked his throwing motion, the little bit that I saw on tape,” Childress said. “It looked fine to me.”

Childress has received first-hand reports on Favre’s throwing from offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell and head athletic trainer Eric Sugarman, who both made the trip to visit Favre in Mississippi two weeks ago. Favre is recovering from arthroscopic surgery in late May to release the partially torn biceps in his throwing arm and how his arm feels is going to be the key factor in his decision on playing another season.

“I think [Bevell] thought he was progressing,” Childress said. “I think Suge felt the same way.”

Childress said he liked Favre’s throwing motion…I think I’ll wet myself.

Favre is supposed to make a decision by July 30 on whether or not he’s going to play this season. Until then, all of us continue wait on pins and needles, at the edges of our seats or grasping to our computer screens for him to announce his decision.

Driver rips Bears’ receivers…I guess.

Several media outlets including SI.com and ESPN.com have reported that Packers’ receiver Donald Driver “ripped” or “trashed” the Bears’ receiving corps on a recent radio interview. But further examination of his comments might suggest otherwise.

This is what Driver said in the national radio interview last week on Sirius NFL Radio:

“I think Chicago did a great job, and Lovie Smith went out there and got Jay Cutler to lead this team, but one thing they don’t have is they don’t have the receiver group,” Driver said. “They have the running back, they have the offensive line and they have a great defense. But you’re going to have to need receivers to make plays down the field, and they don’t have that right now. So I can see on our end we have all of that on our offense. And then you go back to look at Minnesota. Minnesota has a great running game, but they just don’t have the top-of-the-line quarterback that they need. So I’m hoping my guy doesn’t go over there, but if he does then I wish the best for him.”

Does that sound like Driver was trashing the Bears receivers to anyone? He’s essentially saying what everyone already knows – the Bears don’t have the best set of receivers. In fact, one would even dare to say it’s a weakness for them.

When I first read that Driver “ripped the Bears receiving corps” on SI.com, I saw the quote and said “meh,” and moved on. But then I was recently in my car and a couple of Chicago radio hosts were talking about the topic and one of them (you’ll have to excuse me for not catching which jockey it was on which station but I was merely skimming through the AM dial looking for a ballgame) suggested that Driver shouldn’t provide the Bears with any bulletin board material and essentially should keep quiet. Then I read a similar headline to this story in ESPN’s “rumors” section as I did on SI: “Driver trashes Bears receivers.”

Seriously? Driver’s comments were the skim milk variety of trashing an opponent. Again, he’s not stating anything that we (including probably the Bears) don’t already know and I hardly deem what he said as “bulletin board material.” I’m shocked that this has caught fire as much as it has.

Aikman, Holtz, Cooper inducted into College Football Hall of Fame

Along with 21 other ex-coaches and players, former UCLA and Dallas Cowboys’ quarterback Troy Aikman was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame on Saturday. Former head coaches Lou Holtz and John Cooper were also inducted, as well as ex-players Thurman Thomas and Sam Mills.

Among the others honored Saturday were former UCLA quarterback Troy Aikman, former Oklahoma State tailback Thurman Thomas, former Army quarterback Arnold Tucker and John Cooper, who coached at Ohio State, Arizona State and Tulsa.

Jim Donnan, who coached at Marshall and Georgia, poked at Holtz for choosing an overseas opponent.
“One thing about Lou, he knows how to schedule,” Donnan said. “Playing the Japanese he has a good chance of winning.”

Holtz and Cooper agreed that the key to their successful careers were great players.

“The difference between a good coach and a Hall of Fame coach is players,” Cooper said. “You win with people. Show me a winning coach and I’ll show you a coach that has good players.”

Check out the entire list of inductees by clicking here.

Carson Palmer completely healthy?

After missing virtually the entire 2008 season with an elbow injury, Bengals’ quarterback Carson Palmer says that he is 100% again.

“I’m great. I feel great. I’m 100 percent healthy, throwing, lifting, running all that stuff,” said Palmer, who played in just four games in 2008 after opting to forgo reconstructive surgery to repair a partially torn ligament and tendon in his right elbow. Instead, Palmer chose to let the tissue damage heal with rest and rehabilitation.

And while he admitted his arm strength wasn’t where he wanted it to be during a late June minicamp, Palmer told FanHouse this week he’s now 100 percent physically, and confident in his belief that the elbow shouldn’t hamper him in 2009.

“It’s just a big weight off of my shoulders. I didn’t know if I was going to have the ‘Tommy John’ surgery – I still wouldn’t be able to throw, to this day, if I had had that,” Palmer said. “I’m just thankful I didn’t have to go through that. The doctors who said that it would heal were right and it did heal. So I’ve been throwing, just doing everything to get geared up for the season.”

The Bengals aren’t as bad as they appear to be – they’re just incredibly dysfunctional. The defense has a couple of young, talented pieces to build around (i.e. Keith Rivers, Leon Hall, Rey Maualuga, etc.) and if Palmer can stay healthy, he gives this team a chance to stay in ballgames.

Of course the offensive line is a bit of a mystery and if this team is relying on Cedric Benson to be a consistent (key word: consistent) every down back, then it might be in for a rude awakening. Throw in Chad Ochocinco’s daily antics and it’s hard to get a good read on if Cincy is a potential dark horse or heading for a 4-12 season.

Either way, the Bungles will certainly be an interesting team to follow in ’09.

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