Quote Of The Week: Dean Lombardi

After some alledgedly shady dealings with the Edmonton Oilers, Los Angeles Kings General Manager Dean Lombardi had some words for the Oilers organization. This all comes on the heels of the Ryan Smyth trade, where Lombardi initially agreed to take forward Gilbert Brule in exchange for left wing Ryan Smyth but balked when he said the Kings’ lawyers determined Brule had not been procedurally cleared following a concussion. Unwilling to void the trade because Smyth had asked to leave Los Angeles -- and because Smyth’s departure would take a huge burden off the Kings’ salary cap -- Lombardi agreed to instead take center Colin Fraser and a seventh-round pick in the 2012 draft.

Fraser had yet to be medically cleared to play, but Oilers General Manager Steve Tambellini led Lombardi to believe Fraser was close to being cleared. However, Lombardi said the Kings’ doctors found not only an unhealed fracture but an alarming cyst in Fraser’s foot and a blood disorder. Lombardi said Fraser will require surgery that would keep him out four months.

Talk about getting robbed. Of course Lombardi wasn't too pleased about this.

“The bottom line for me, I would have rather invested my money with Bernie Madoff than invest in Edmonton’s word.”

Of course Tambellini happened to be traveling and has no response.


 

Sweet Bling

When Mark Cuban said he might not get the Dallas Mavericks championship rings, no one saw this coming. The Bazooka Candy Company has stepped up and provided the Mavs with some sweet bling for all their hard work.

“Bazooka Candy Brands, the iconic confectionary company and manufacturer of Ring Pops, believes that the Dallas Mavericks should be rewarded for all their hard work and their NBA finals win,” the company said in a statement that was posted on CBSSports.com. “That is why they will be stepping in and saving the day, creating Swarovski-encrusted Ring Pops in the team colors of Blue and White for the team to wear to celebrate their feat. The Ring Pops will be shipped to the team shortly.”


Of course these aren't official, but they are creative, fresh, and sweet. Props to the Bazooka Company for this idea. Even though i had to give up Ring Pops and candy of that nature due to personal reasons, I would love to get one of these for myself.

White Sox's Beckham Apologizes For Calling Chris Getz Gay

Here we go again. Another athlete says something politically incorrect and is making an apology for it. This time it's the Chicago White Sox second baseman Gordon Beckham. This comes after the Philadelphia Eagles' DeSean Jackson gave a caller on a radio show a homophobic blast.

Beckham is good friends with former teammate and Kansas City Royals second baseman Chris Getz. During a game between the White Sox and Royals, Beckham scrawled a message in the dirt saying "Getz Is Gay!" GB. It wasn't picked up by cameras, but it was picked up by some of the fans. All in all it was harmless fun, but in the big scheme of things it's not funny. That point got across to Beckham and he knows that he should've known better.

“Wow,’’ said Beckham again, looking as if he had seen a thousand ghosts and Bob Gibson on the mound. “Chris is one of my best friends. It was a joke. I didn’t know anybody could see. I didn’t mean anything, you know?’’


“I just want you to know that that’s not me,’’ he said. “I don’t use slurs. I have a lot of gay friends. I didn’t mean it as anything ­— you know, like gay as in . . . happy! Or, you know, an alliteration — ‘Getz is gay.’ ’’


“It’s the first time I’ve ever done anything like that with Chris,’’ he said. “And I didn’t even see his reaction. I asked him afterward if he was going to write anything back, and he said no. It was wrong. It was stupid. If I offended anyone, I apologize. I wish I could take it back, but I can’t.’’


Beckham seems pretty distraught about the incident and probably wishes he could turn back the clock. The worse thing in his apology was saying he has gay friends. Usually that means he doesn't care for gays. Kind of like when someone says something racist and then says I have lots of (insert race here) friends. I do buy his apology and believes he is truly sorry for it. Next time send him a note like in elementary school.

Joey Porter's Dogs On The Loose Again

Four dogs owned by NFL star Joey Porter got loose early July 2 from his northwest Bakersfield residence and killed a neighbor's dog.


Porter, who plays for the Arizona Cardinals, was cited for not having his dogs on a leash. This isn't the first time Porter's dogs, which appear to be half mastiff, half pit bull,  have been in the news for violent behavior.
In 2006, two of Porter;s dogs escaped and killed a miniature horse at a nearby farm.

Animal control spokeswoman Kim Rodriguez wasn't sure how the dogs got out of their kennel. She also doesn't know what arrangement Porter made with his neighbor. Porter did apologize and was upset about what happened.

Nothing says more than I'm sorry. Porter should receive a heavy fine and based on his dog's past, should be owning a less violent breed. I'm not trying to say he's a bad dog owner, but this is the second time his dogs have escaped and inflicted harm on other animals. Maybe they just snapped or he's raising them to be prone to violent behavior.

On The Sneak Tip

I'm not knowledgeable about drug smuggling but there are lots of different ways to do, so I've heard. Former Tampa Bay Rays prospect Cristian Vasquez Martinez went a different route when he tried to smuggle drugs into the United States.

Martinez was busted trying to smuggle six pounds of cocaine through JFK Airport via the Dominican Republic. When the authorities searched him, they found the cocaine stashed in four pairs of sneakers. I guess good old odor-eaters weren't good enough. He could've at least tried to convince customs that it was shoe powder.

Apparently martinez turned to the drug trade since the Rays terminated his contract last month. In guess he'll never get a shot at the Major League dream.

DeSean Jackson Makes Gay Slur On Radio Show

You would think that the backlash  NBA players Kobe Bryant and Joakim Noah recevied after spewing homophobic slurs towards fans and referees, athletes would think before they speak. They even made a public service announcement about it. Apparently Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson didn't see it because he had some unkind words for a caller on  Sirius XM radio's "All Out Show" with Rude Jude and Lord Sear .

 There was a call from ‘Troy from Tennessee who said something about Jackson getting his “d*** knocked in the ground.”

Jackson replied by saying “What kind of question is that? Say ‘no homo’, gay-a**. Fa***t.”


Fill in the blanks on this exchange.


I think Jackson might want to rethink his bad choice of words. He's entitled to his opinion but that was something that should've been said off the air. The ironic thing about this is that he helped a Philadelphia area youth deal with bullying which included homophobic slurs.

Maybe Jackson should watch an endless stream of the PSA.
 

Matt Leinart Sounds Defensive

Even though Matt Leinart wasn't a top five NFL draft pick there are some who give him the dreaded bust label. That'll happen when you have a celebrated college career (Heisman Trophy,national championship, Manning Award, Johnny Unitas Award, Walter Camp Award and two Archie Griffin Awards). I wouldn't call him a complete bust, more like a flop which to me is a notch below bust.

After flaming out with the Arizona Cardinals, where he was beaten out by Kurt Warner, Leinart landed with the Houston Texans in a backup role. He's now a free agent and personally I don't think this joker will get a legit shot at a starting job again. It never helped that he had an image as a "party guy", something he picked up while he was starring at USC.

In an interview on ESPN Los Angeles Leinart talks about his days in Arizona and the bust label that has been bestowed upon him.

“I’ve heard everything. I’ve heard everything. I’ve seen everything. For me I haven’t proven anything, so I haven’t proven that I could play game in and game out. I understand that. I believe I can play and I’m not one to make excuses. I’ve never made an excuse with my time in Arizona. It just didn’t work out for whatever reason. Those are reasons people outside of the organization won’t understand, but it didn’t work out and it wasn’t a right fit, so you move on. You kind of look at the timeline of what has happened to me and with having a pretty good rookie year and the second year getting the injury and Kurt Warner played himself into the Hall of Fame in the last 3 years. There’s not a lot I can do about that. I battled with a Hall of Famer two training camps in a row. I thought I competed as well as he did and obviously Kurt was a great player. He took us to a Super Bowl. I truly believe he got himself into the Hall of Fame those last couple of years. Last year with everything that happened it just didn’t work out. I said what I said about the situation and I moved on, so there’s people thought I never got a fair shot. People that think I can’t play. There’s a lot of things. For me I’ve worked hard this off-season and I’m always work hard. I’m always ready. I’m always prepared and like I said it’s just always about being a quarterback, but being the right situation. For me hopefully that situation comes up this year and I can thrive and show I belong in the league and I can play because I know I can and that’s what I plan on doing.”


Sounds like he's on the defensive throughout the interview. I guess I would hate being labeled as a bust when you really haven't been given a chance to play. But the stats will tell you why he's been glued to the bench. I do agree that Warner played himself into the Hall of Fame while he was with the Cardinals. When you watched them play last season they looked lost without him.

For Leinart it's just not going to happen.