National sports writers rejoice to hammer A-Rod in the wake of SI.com’s report that he tested positive for steroids in 2003:
Jayson Stark says that Rodriguez has destroyed the game’s history. (ESPN.com)
Bruce Jenkins writes that even tarnished stars like A-Rod will shine in the Hall of Fame. (San Francisco Chronicle)
Bill Madden says the Yankees should cut Rodriguez loose no matter the cost. (New York Daily News)
Tom Verducci breaks down how the steroid report will affect A-Rod, the Yankees and Major League Baseball. (Sports Illustrated.com)
Todd Jones plays devil’s advocate in this situation and tells fans to think about some things before condemning Rodriguez into steroid/baseball hell. (Sporting News)
So much for Rodriguez legitimizing the home run record writes Tim Cowlishaw. (Dallas Morning News)
Bob Klapisch writes that Derek Jeter better not fail us, too. (The Record)
Drew Sharp goes as far as to say that we can’t even call baseball a sport anymore. (Detroit Free Press)
Tim Marchman notes that nobody like A-Rod before the report and nobody likes him now. (Slate)
Just like a guy trying to burn the remains of anything pertaining to an ex-girlfriend, the Lions are cleansing themselves of anything having to do with the Matt Millen area – including the uniforms.
President Tom Lewand has confirmed that the Detroit Lions have discarded their black uniforms.
Under the league’s “third uniform program,” the Lions will go back to using their throwbacks as their third uniform (home and road uniforms account for the first two).
“I love our throwbacks,” Lewand said.
The black uniforms were introduced by former Lions president Matt Millen in 2005. Because last season was part of Detroit’s 75th anniversary, the team was allowed to substitute their throwbacks for their black uniforms in two games. That switch is now official and permanent.
It’s possible that minor changes could come to the team’s standard jerseys as well as the team’s logo, but Lewand refused to comment. No changes are expected to be made for the 2009 season.
The Dallas Morning News is reporting that the Rangers have signed outfielder Andruw Jones to a minor league contract.
An official announcement is expected soon, general manager Jon Daniels said. Jones will make $500,000 if he makes the big-league roster and can earn another $1 million in performance bonuses.
Jones, a 13-year veteran who turns 32 in April, is another low-risk, high-reward signing by the Rangers. Overweight last season, Jones hit only .158 with three home runs for the Los Angeles Dodgers, and he had knee surgery in May.
But Jones has lost weight, perhaps as much as 25 pounds, and the Rangers hope that Jaramillo can help him find the powerful stroke that produced at least 25 homers for 10 consecutive seasons from 1998 to 2007.
This was a solid signing by the Rangers. If he’s brutal in spring training, then the team could cut ties and not lose much in the deal. But if he’s in shape and ready to compete again, then maybe Texas just got one of the better bargain deals of the offseason.
Either way, this is probably Jones’ last chance to make an impact at the major league level.
An eye-witness describes the incident after the video.
He spat in the girl’s face, and called her a “f—ing bitch.” The woman spat in Jericho’s face. Jericho started cursing out the woman some more, and was getting ready to go back into his vehicle (as all of this is still happening in the middle of the road). While he was turning to go into his vehicle, one of the guys he was fighting shoved Jericho against his car. Another guy then shoved Jericho, and that time he bumped his head on the top of his vehicle. This was where Jericho seriously snapped.
After bumping his head, Jericho went into a sh*t storm, throwing and swinging at everybody around him. He knocked one guy to the ground, told another fan that he was going to “f—ing kill you.” The woman who got spit on was still yelling at Jericho, so he pie-faced her away from him (because the arena security couldn’t keep them separated). As soon as he put his hands on the woman, another fan jumped in and started swinging at Jericho. Jericho grabbed the guy and started throwing him to the ground, and at this point I had to yank my girlfriend out of the way and into some other people because Jericho had literally thrown himself and the other guy into our direction and we would of been knocked down by the scuffle.
The arena security try again at this point to regain order, and two of them grabbed Jericho and started yelling at him to calm down. Jericho responded by taking a swing at one of the security guards and yelling at them to “do your f—ing job and get the f—ing police here.” Then he shoved the second guard to the ground and told him to “stay the f— off me”.
Well, as that happens, the chick lunged at Jericho AGAIN, and this time Jericho actually punched the woman in the face, and shoved her to the ground. This stunned everyone, and the girl’s friends ended up jumping in trying to fight Jericho, to which he fought all of them off, then stormed into his vehicle swearing and sped off, running through a stop sign in the process.
Apparently these fans were upset at Jericho for making statements on the WWE show and decided to attack him in mob-like fashion. Let’s rewind. Jericho’s character made remarks on the show that pissed fans off, so they decided to attack him.
Punching a woman in the face is unacceptable in any circumstance. But these security guards clearly offered him zero help in getting him off the premise and Jericho took matters into his own hands. This looks like a case of complete self-defense.
A note to wrestling fans: IT’S NOT REAL. What these characters say on the show isn’t real – they’re acting. Get a grip.
The Jets are in the same position the Packers were in the last several years and it’s not comfortable. They are waiting for Favre to tell them what he’s doing.
When the Jets made the trade in August, they got the entire Favre package: The leadership, the excitement, the improvisation and the interceptions. But they also acquired the aggravation of their life being put on hold as Favre takes his time deciding whether he’s going to play in 2009. The Jets need to be pro-active rather than playing nice and feeding into Favre’s diva act.
But the Jets need an answer. Freeing up Favre’s $13 million cap number would give them free-agent flexibility. Even if he plays, they still have some room to maneuver. The greater issue would be who plays quarterback? If Favre is done, the Jets can’t go into camp with Kellen Clemens and Brett Ratliff and pray one of them turns into Matt Cassel.
At least when Favre was doing this to the Packers the last few years they knew Aaron Rodgers was next in line. The Jets don’t have quality options. That’s why the Jets are being patient. They might feel they need him more than he needs them.
Hindsight is always 20/20, but you can’t help but get the feeling that the Jets made the wrong decision to acquire Favre last year. He made them competitive, but they still missed the playoffs and now they’re at the mercy of his pending decision. Worse yet, if he doesn’t return, they either have to hope Clemens or Ratliff emerges next year or take a shot at selecting a quarterback in a week draft class.
Maybe it would have been better if the Jets allowed Clemens to get another year under his belt instead of taking a shot on Favre.
National sports writers rejoice to hammer A-Rod in the wake of SI.com’s report that he tested positive for steroids in 2003:
