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No fine for Tiger Woods

As it turns out, the report that surfaced yesterday about Tiger Woods being fined by the PGA Tour was erroneous. Tiger, although still peeved about what went down over the weekend at the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational, said that the PGA Tour has not fined him.

From the Washington Post:

“I’ve heard from the tour, and there’s no fine,” Woods said. “That was an erroneous report.”

Ty Votaw, a spokesman for the PGA Tour, said the original report of a fine was “inaccurate.” Votaw said Commissioner Tim Finchem had read and considered Woods’s remarks.

“There has been no process started with respect to any disciplinary action,” Votaw said by phone.

“The commissioner has reviewed the reports, and based on the reports that he read, Tiger’s comments related to the impact of the decision. He did not read them as an unreasonable attack or as being disparaging.”

We linked to a report by the Examiner yesterday about Woods being fined, although we’re not sure where the original report came from.

The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if the PGA received backlash for the supposed fine and decided to renege. But if Tiger is even saying that it was an erroneous report, then maybe there really was no fine to begin with.

Either way, it’s still a lame rule. You can’t have golfers worried about a game clock when they’re dealing with a tough shot in the rough. It takes away from the excitement of the tournament and it puts unnecessary pressure on the golfers.

Related Content:

– Tiger Woods fined by PGA

Rick Pitino paid for mistress’s abortion

Per ESPN…

Louisville coach Rick Pitino told police that he had consensual sex with and paid for an abortion for the woman who has been charged with trying to extort him, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported on Tuesday.

Karen Cunagin Sypher was federally charged in April with demanding cars, tuition for her children and finally $10 million. Police interviewed Pitino, who is married, regarding the incident last month, and according to the newspaper, he said that he gave the woman $3,000 to have an abortion.

Police records obtained by the Courier-Journal show that Pitino said he had sex with the then Karen Cunagin at a Louisville restaurant where he had been drinking on Aug. 1, 2003. He denied Cunagin Sypher’s allegations that he raped her at the restaurant and then again later at a different location.

A couple of weeks later, Cunagin Sypher called Pitino and told him she was pregnant.

They arranged to meet at the condominium of Louisville strength coach Tim Sypher, whom she did not know at that time but would later marry.

Sypher and Cunagin Sypher are now estranged and divorce proceedings have begun.

Regarding the alleged rape…

In one of her interviews, Cunagin Sypher did not disclose that there was a witness to the event at the restaurant, Vinnie Tatum, an executive assistant to Pitino. According to Abbott’s report, Tatum said he didn’t see what happened but heard “only the sounds of two people that seemed to be enjoying themselves during a sexual encounter.”

Pitino does not plan to take a leave of absence from coaching at Louisville.

Lawrence Phillips faces up to 25 years in prison

Well, it’s good to see that Lawrence Phillips hasn’t changed one bit since getting out of the professional football business.

From ESPN.com:

Former NFL running back Lawrence Phillips was convicted of assault and other felony charges in San Diego.

A Superior Court jury found Phillips guilty Tuesday of seven counts. He had been accused of choking his girlfriend on two occasions in August 2005, once into unconsciousness.

He faces up to 25 years in prison when he is sentenced next month. Phillips already is serving a 10-year sentence for hitting three teenagers with his car in Los Angeles.

Here’s hoping Phillips drops the soap in prison and gets taken advantage of by some inmate nicknamed “Butt Plug.”

What a substantial waste of talent.

Jets shopping Thomas Jones?

The National Football Post is reporting that the Jets are gauging interest in running back Thomas Jones, but the Newark Star-Ledger and New York Daily News dispute that report.

A rumor on nationalfootballpost.com that the Jets are shopping veteran running back Thomas Jones to an NFC West team is not true, according to a person with knowledge of the club’s plans. That person spoke on the condition of anonymity because he’s not authorized to speak on the matter publicly.

Jones, the defending AFC rushing champ, is unhappy with his contract and missed most of the team’s offseason workouts. He’s scheduled to earn $900,000 this season in the third year of a four-year, $20 million contract.

The Jets seem content with going into the season with Jones, Leon Washington and Shonn Greene on their depth chart and seeing who emerges from the pile. Jones doesn’t become a free agent until 2011, so it’ll be interesting to see what the Jets do after the season if Greene (who is a rookie this year) flashes some potential.

I would assume that the future of the Jets’ backfield is Washington and Greene, although the team isn’t going to part with Jones until they see Greene in live action.

2009 Fantasy Football Preview: WRs

All 2009 Fantasy Articles | 2009 Position Rankings

As more and more leagues have tweaked their rules to try to even out the importance of other positions with respect to running backs, wide receivers have become increasingly valuable in the last few years. In leagues that award one point per reception, it’s a completely legitimate strategy to draft a WR in the back half of the first round. In fact, after the top five or six PPR backs – Maurice Jones-Drew, Adrian Peterson, Steven Jackson, Matt Forte, LaDainian Tomlinson and Frank Gore – are off the board, we wouldn’t snicker at someone who decided to pull the trigger on Larry Fitzgerald or Andre Johnson instead of going choosing a player from the second tier of RBs. (If you’re wondering about Michael Turner, we love the guy, but he isn’t going to catch any passes and it doesn’t look like he’ll approach 376 carries again this season.)

Wide receivers are a little dicey because of the inconsistency that is intrinsic to the position. WRs have to depend on plays being called for them and on their QB to deliver the ball. There’s a better chance that a top RB will get his 20 touches (handoffs, dump offs) than there is that a top WR will get his 7-8 catches. As an example, last year’s top RB, Matt Forte, only had one game where he scored fewer than 14 fantasy points, and that was in Week 17, when it didn’t really matter. Conversely, the top WR, Andre Johnson, had four games where he scored fewer than 10 fantasy points (including Week 16, when it really mattered).

This year there appear to be a group of 12 stud fantasy wideouts: Fitzgerald, A. Johnson, Steve Smith, Calvin Johnson, Reggie Wayne, Randy Moss, Wes Welker, Anquan Boldin, Greg Jennings, Roddy White, Dwayne Bowe and Marques Colston. These are proven players that are in stable situations, or saw their situations improve over the summer (i.e. Matt Cassel in for Tyler Thigpen is an upgrade for Bowe). Anyone not on this list changed teams (T.J. Houshmandzadeh, Laveranues Coles), had a downgrade at QB (Brandon Marshall, Jerricho Cotchery), has an attitude problem (Braylon Edwards, Chad Ocho Cinco), or some combination of all three (Terrell Owens).

This, coupled with the relative depth at the RB position – there are a number of backs going in rounds 3-5 that are good bets to crack the top 20 or top 15 – makes this a year when drafting a WR or two in the first three rounds a pretty compelling strategy. Would it be better to have Steve Slaton, Brian Westbrook and Terrell Owens or Larry Fitzgerald, Reggie Wayne and Ronnie Brown? We’d feel better about that second group.

Regardless, it’s always good to have a few guys targeted in those middle rounds (5-9) so that you can build depth and maybe even find a guy that develops into a starter-caliber WR. There is a tendency now to always look young at wideout, and this is causing some proven veterans to slip further than they should.

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