Endweek Downrun

Long day tomorrow . . . and the rest of the weekend. I received a nice comment on the Kenny George article from someone who works at his school. I hope to be able to follow up on his story at some point down the road.

Unfortunately, the following stories don't quite inspire the same hope (well, I guess that depends on your perspective), but I believe in balance. Jumping right in:



1. Michael Beasley has now been fined $50,000 for unspecified conduct during the rookie orientation program in which his fellow rookies, Darrell Arthur and Mario Chalmers already coughed up $20,000. I had heard rumors about his involvement but nothing was ever substantiated so I certainly wasn't going to write anything unless it seemed credible. (It's tough enough being in the public eye without people writing untruths about you and presenting it as fact.) But it seems something went down, and the punishment appears to be just that - punitive - since Beasley didn't cooperate with the investigation. Something else seems to be going on, though, since Beasley canned his agent last week, too. I'm sure we'll find out more about this shortly . . .


2. The WNBA playoffs have started. What? You didn't know they were in season? Maybe you couldn't find their tab on ESPN.com. It's kind of hard to find under "mixed martial arts." What happened to that big marketing push they started when Candace Parker came to the league? I haven't seen her or anyone else on TV since the night she was drafted. SportsCenter very rarely mentions the league unless a fight or other controversy occurs. Did they even compete in the Olympics? I'm going to tune in to the playoffs, though. I watched them last year and was quite entertained. I just wonder how long the NBA will continue funneling money to this league without doing more to promote it. It's like they don't want to end it and face criticism that they're being sexist, but on the other hand, they want to see it fail so they can say "I told you no one was into this." We'll see who wins.

3. Just a day after talking about both Adrian Peterson and LaDainian Tomlinson (AP and LT, respectively), neither was able to practice today, and it's not clear they'll play this weekend . . .and the fantasy football bust just keeps moving . . .

4. Speaking of busts, the Detroit Lions have been "interviewing" several former high-profile running backs this week who are looking for jobs, including Cedric Benson (da Bears) and Shaun Alexander (Seahawks), among others. The Lions claim that they aren't hiring immediately and are only window shopping in case of injuries. Sure, I buy that. Now, they probably have a greater need at just about every other position, so more RB's may not make sense, but the Lions are at (or past, depending on whom you ask) the point of no return, so I say anything is better than stagnancy. Whoever gets his luggage lifted first has been signed.


5. Alex "A-Rod" Rodriguez and his (now former) wife Cynthia reached an amicable settlement of their divorce proceedings. No dirt and public mud-slinging? That's definitely a first, especially considering how the events surrounding their divorce were splashed across the New York dailies for the better part of a month until she finally decided to file. So this relatively quick settlement can only mean one of two things: 1) the prenuptial agreement was air tight, fair to both parties, and contained no terms which could be disputed by either of their lawyers . . . or 2) whatever he's trying to hide is worse than we imagined. I know, I know, this is a tough one.

Have a great weekend!

I'm Winning!!!

I know some of you cared more whether your favorite team won or lost (mine won), but the only thing I really cared about this Sunday was whether I'm winning in my Fantasy Football league. Which I am, thus far. I don't believe in jinxing, I believe in talent.

Here's a run-down of what I consider to be the top events in the NFL (recognizing my Fantasy Football bias):

1. Carson Palmer!! He threw six touchdowns. His opponent threw 5. Most TD's thrown by two QB's in almost 38 years. And Palmer and the Cincinatti Bengals still lost to the Cleveland Browns . . . but Palmer gained me 44 points, compensating for the dump LT took on my scoreboard. Yes, LaDainian Tomlinson played, but he might as well not have for the numbers he put up. The Bengals don't have to play defense at all this season as long as they keep scoring. Even better, nobody had the Browns' QB, so I didn't get "Romo'd" this week.

2. Old man Favre (Brett, that is) is not just hanging on, he's playing out of his mind. Not only did he catapult the Green Bay Packers over Eli Manning and the NY Giants, but he set the all-time record for wins by a QB. The previous owner of that record was none other than Coach Elway. As I told my cousin, I know he had that painkiller addiction, but I'm inclined to think he must be taking a whole lot of them right now to still be playing like he is. In any event, way to stick it to all the critics who said you should retire with dignity, Favre.

3. Vince Young is Cool Hand Luke on the football field. Cool as a cucumber, or the underside of the pillow, there's no panic from this guy. At least he doesn't show it. Even though I don't have him on my team, I like his style. And he has one of the best QB names around. And he and the Tennessee Titans almost swiped another one from Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts. Someone should tell him to stop taking naps in the locker room during halftime.

4. Jamal Lewis has gone from pleading guilty in 2005 to using his cell phone to help his friend set up a drug deal (oh boy), and spending 4 months in jail as a result, to rushing for over 200 yards (that's good, NPT) today in the Browns' win over the Bengals. His offense may top the list of "What were you thinking? Or maybe you weren't, and that's the problem." I just hope he found better friends. Keep fighting the good fight, Jamal.

I was at an ESPNZone watching most of these games, and the one thing I concluded is that ESPN is making a killing off of football season. They have a policy that if they have a "sell out" (meaning no tables "indefinitely" as I was told) you have to spend $10 per person, per hour.

I asked my friend what ESPN does when there's no football on, and he said that he would come there to watch a NASCAR race. Apparently, he didn't understand that I was asking about other sports that one would watch there.