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Ortiz, Nogueira to headline UFC Fight Night 24 in Seattle

Jeremy Botter of HeavyMMA.com writes that a light-heavyweight bout between Antonio Rogerio Nogueira and Tito Ortiz will go down at UFC Fight Night 24 now instead of UFC 128 like it was originally scheduled.

The event is expected to take place March 26 in Seattle. The news was first reported on Tuesday by MMA Junkie.

Fight Night 24 will air on Spike TV. It will be the UFC’s first trip to Washington, and will likely take place at the KeyArena.

Ortiz teased the possibility of the fight on Monday night via his official Twitter account. “Big news,” he said. “I’m not fighting in New Jersey. But I am still fighting ‘Lil Nog’ in March.”

Ortiz is winless in his past five fights and has not scored a win in more than four years. Nogueira, meanwhile, is coming off a tough loss to Ryan Bader at UFC 119 in September.

Read more MMA headlines.

Did Coughlin kick Dodge out of locker room following loss to Eagles?

Giants’ punter Matt Dodge had himself a rough day last Sunday. First he had to watch his team blow a 21-point fourth-quarter lead to the Eagles and then he helped them lose the game when he punted the ball right at dangerous returner DeSean Jackson (who returned the gift for a game-winning touchdown).

Following the game, Tom Coughlin saw Dodge crying and told him to get out of the locker room, or so says local Philadelphia sports radio loudmouth Howard Eskin via his Twitter page.

After Eagles game learned that NY coach T. Coughlin saw his punter in tears. Told him get out of locker room. No longer on this team.

If the report is true, hopefully Coughlin kicked his defense out of the locker room, too. After they left, hopefully he proceeded to kick out his punt return team, his offense and all of his assistant coaches as well.

Then when he was the only one left standing in his locker room, here’s hoping Tom Coughlin booted himself out. Because it doesn’t take just one man to blow a 21-point lead in the fourth quarter with only eight minutes remaining in the game. Did Dodge screw up? No doubt. It was a bad mistake and he cost his team dearly. But with the way Coughlin and his coaching staff was handling the game at that point, there’s little doubt that the Eagles would have won in overtime anyway.

Maybe the report isn’t true. After all, it did come from Howard Eskin, who isn’t above Tweeting something like that just to rub the Giants noses in a loss to the Eagles. But again, if it is, Coughlin owes Dodge an apology.

2010 Fantasy Football: Week 16 Rankings

I’m happy to report that I finished #2 in the FantasyPros expert accuracy contest for Week 15, which means I am still #1 on the season (and I expanded my lead over the second-place expert, so that’s good). If you have had success using my advice, please take a moment and give me rating and/or leave feedback at my FantasyPros profile page.

Also, FantasyPros has asked me to participate in their Week 16 FanDuel contest. If you’d like to give it a shot, click here for details. Half the spots are already gone and it’s $5 to play. (There are cash prizes.)

Below you’ll find my first stab at the Week 16 rankings. Be sure to check back as the week goes on because they’ll surely change as the news trickles in.

If you have single-position questions (i.e. you are trying to decide which two RBs to start) please refer to the rankings. You can ask your PPR or flex questions in the comments section below and I’ll do my best to answer them. (It is the holiday season, after all, and I have family in town, so get your questions in early.)

If you’re having trouble seeing the FantasyPros ranking widget, click through at the bottom to a text listing of the rankings. Use common sense when making decisions on Sunday morning because I don’t know if I’ll be able to update these rankings before kickoff.

Off we go…


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And the most bizarre sports story of the year goes to…

I almost didn’t post anything about this but it was just too bizarre not to.

Deadspin recently posted a report that shows a number of videos with a woman that looks very much like Rex Ryan’s wife. In the videos, the woman is showing off her feet while a cameraman, who sounds very much like Ryan, talks to her about her feet. (You can watch the videos here.)

ESPN.com now reports that Ryan won’t address the report.

“I know you need to ask, it’s a personal matter,” Ryan said, according to the Chicago Tribune, when asked if the situation could snowball into a distraction.

He said it was between him and his wife and he would not elaborate beyond that.

The Jets had already issued a statement: “This is a personal matter and Rex will have no comment.”

The story already made the front page of the New York Daily News and has gone viral. Ryan is scheduled to meet with the New York media Wednesday afternoon, although he’ll probably repeat what he said above.

On one hand, I almost feel bad for Ryan. He’s not the only one in the world who has a fetish like this (uh, assuming of course that that is him and his wife in the videos) and now he’s going to be judged by people who would die if their personal obsessions got out too. It’s not fair to judge.

That said, don’t post the videos online if you want to keep the matter private. The sheep essentially invited the wolves to dinner in this instance and the entire situation could have been avoided with a lot less candor. I still don’t think people should judge, but then again everyone isn’t posting videos on YouTube of their personal fetishes either.

Of course, is anyone really surprised by this? When I read the story I thought, “Yeah, I could see it. Oh, that Rex Ryan…”

Eli Manning’s one-man press conference [video]

This clip is making the rounds, but this wasn’t as unusual as the Monday Night ESPN crew made it out to be. The footage shows Eli Manning waiting around for the media to arrive at his post-game presser.

But, per ESPN, this was nothing unusual:

But this wasn’t a slight by the media or a case of reporters ignoring Manning, who didn’t have to wait too long. And it was nothing unusual. Following every game, Manning and other Giants stars such as Justin Tuck conduct their news conferences at the same time as the rest of their teammates are talking in the locker room.

Reporters in the locker room are alerted by the Giants public relations staff multiple times when Manning is heading to the podium. Although the players can walk directly to the podium area from their locker room, reporters have to take a roundabout route.

And Manning typically walks into a near-empty room at the start of his postgame news conferences and patiently waits for reporters.

Ok, so you’re straight — the ESPN Monday Night crew made a big deal out of something that wasn’t a big deal, per ESPN.com. Glad that’s settled.

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