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.

Kobe Bryant Sued By An Ohio Woman

Kobe Bryant just doesn't have it when it comes to women. First there was the rape case in Colorado now Bryant is being sued by an Ohio woman for breaching a marriage proposal.

Selina Miller who claims residence in Columbus, Ohio and Santa Ana, California, filed a lawsuit in Orange County on June 24 claiming that on May 1, Bryant gave her "a completed and signed agreement" and that his subsequent behavior "comports with unfair business and no good faith efforts."

Ok Kobe how do you explain this one to Vanessa. I don't know if a trip to Zales is gonna bail you out if this has any shred of credibility. I don't think it does, but in this crazy world who knows.

"The plaintiff, Selina Miller, request [sic] breaching party, Kobe Bryant, to correct his failure to provide plaintiff with the purchase of a ring," reads the four-page suit.



Miller also stated why the National Basketball Association (NBA) superstar might not have given her a ring: "The defendant, Kobe Bryant, states he communicated with person [sic] stating Selina Miller is a prostitute."

When Miller was contacted she says Kobe repeatedly visited her for "intimate relations". She seems bitter that there were other women Bryant frolicked around with and got more of a reward than she did. She even mentioned that someone had an STD but wouldn't mention any names.

"He likes playing games with women more than people know," said Miller. "I'm upset because he promised me a ring [during one visit], and then some other people influenced him, and I didn't get it. He thinks he can stop by my house any time he wants to. There are other women, too. One of them got a ring."


Miller says she wants to sue Bryant for some money he owes her. She filed a previous lawsuit against Bryant and the NBA for invasion of privacy, but an Ohio judge ruled that the lawsuit was "frivolous" and "not plausible".

I know Bryant isn't this stupid to travel down this road again. and I don't he would put anything in writing so it could come back and bite him in the ass. 






   




 

Captain Jack Says The Bobcats Shut Him Down

The biggest deal of the NBA offseason so far has been the draft day deal that sent Stephen Jackson  from Charlotte to Milwaukee. That nay be the biggest for a while since the NBA will be heading for a lockout.

The question I asked myself when this trade was made was, why does Jackson keep getting traded to these middling teams? Nothing against the Bucks, but they aren't going to win a title or contend for one anytime soon.  

Jackson doesn't seem fazed by getting traded to Milwaukee. He says he's surprised by the city and had some words, not hateful, for the Bobcats.

"The only perception that I've had from other teams is coming to a boring city," Jackson said. "That's what they always say. But since I've been here, the weather's been great. I didn't expect the weather to be so great. When I come, there's snow everywhere."

I have a friend who visited Milwaukee and he said it wasn't that bad, so Jackson may want to explore what they have to offer.

As far as the trade, I feel the Bobcats could've gotten more for Jackson. But he's not bitter or holding any grudges. He just feels that they could've made a playoff push last season, but they decided to shut him down and go in a different direction.

"I didn't want to be on a team where they're going younger and they want to win three years from now," Jackson said. "I'll be at the end of my career. So winning now is important to me, and this is a great place to win now."

"The last 10 games, I could have played," Jackson said. "But they shut me down. The team shut me down. So I kind of assumed they didn't want to make the playoffs."


I do like Jackson as a player, but he's not a difference maker. He seems supremely confident in his abilities, which is the confidence you need to play in the NBA. He feels that he can be the player that can make the Bucks a contender in the Eastern Conference.

"I know what I can bring to this team, and I know what it takes to get to the playoffs," Jackson said.

"For us to win, we have to be all on the same page," Jackson said. "And I'm pretty sure that coach is going to give me the room to police all that. If guys don't want to play, you need to let us know that, because you're not going to be a part of us. And I'm going to make that known."


The Bucks could be scary if they're healthy, I'll say that much. But the unknown dynamic is whether Jackson and coach Scott Skiles will be able to get along. 










 







   

Donovan McNabb Isn't Too Fond Of Twitter

I thought I was the only one that is anti-Twitter. I actually don't mind it, it's just that I really don't care to hear about every detail of someone else's life. I also feel that it gets athletes and entertainers in trouble. When they say something that's on their mind they often speak before they speak.

Apparently current (at the moment) Washington Redskins quarterback Donovan McNabb thinks along the same lines as myself. I'm not trying to give myself or McNabb any credit, but I just find it strange that we have the same feelings about Twitter.

McNabb feels that athletes shouldn't use it. In an interview on ESPN 1000's Waddle & Silvy, McNabb let his feelings be known about athletes and Twitter.

“First of all I’m not a fan of Twitter,” McNabb said, via a transcript provided to PFT by ESPN 1000. “Nothing against their program or what they have, but as an athlete I think you need to get off of Twitter. All these social networks of you tweeting about you watching a game when you wanna be playing in it but you’re mad you’re not playing in it, so you’re gonna criticize someone that’s playing in it. I don’t believe that that’s the right deal. That’s not professional by any means and, you know, we’re all in a fraternity, so if you see a guy who’s struggling, this isn’t the time to jump on him or kick him while he’s down, you know, because that same guy will come against you and kinda blast your team out the water. So I think for an athlete to be Twittering is the wrong move, it’s one that [athletes should] leave to the fans and let them comment on certain things, but athletes need to get off Twitter.”


I agree with McNabb to a certain extent. Some of the Twittering actually is entertaining, like the tweets done by the Cincinnati Reds' Brandon Phillips, Shaq, or Chad Ochocinco. But a lot of it is unnecessary, excessive, and makes them backtrack on a lot of things they said.    


    

Louisville CB Ashley Suspended Indefinitely

Louisville junior cornerback Darius Ashley recently received his second DUI in six months  and usually that spells doom for a student-athlete. You know how it goes, player committs crime or in this case gets a second DUI and gets kicked off the team and is left trying to find a school and convincing the adminstrationn that he's worth the risk.

Louisville coach Charlie Strong is taking a different stance with Ashley. Instead of giving Ashley the boot, he's suspending him indefinitely. This doen't mean that Strong will let him back on the football field. Instead Strong sees this is a bigger issue. The issue of fighting alcohiolism and trying to get Ashley's life back in order.

“He may not ever run down that field and make another tackle; he may not make another interception on this football field,” Strong said at a Friday news conference. “But our major concern right now is to help him tackle what he is fighting right now, and that's the issue of alcoholism.”

“Any time you talk about do you dismiss a young man,” Strong said, “when you see what has happened, two within seven months, you dismiss him from the team — What does he become? Just another statistic in society? So what did we accomplish and how did we help him? You have to help people. Here’s a young man who has never been an issue on our team until those two issues that he had, which are two serious issues, but he’s a young man, he went to class, never had a class issue with him, did all the right things. … We have to help young people.”

I won't agree or disagree with what Strong is doing here. I do think what he's doing is pretty noble. He doesn't want to leave the young man on an island and take away his support system which is the sport of football and the football team. On the other side is that Ashley did this to himself. He knew what he was doing when he went and got loaded and decided he was going to drive home or wherever he was going.

All in all let's hope Strong can turn this negative into a positive and Ashely can beat his alcoholioc demons.

Romar Unlikely To Leave Washington

When the Minnesota Timberwolves fired Kurt Rambis one of the names floated out there to be the new coach was the University of Washington's Lorenzo Romar.

However Romar has no plans on leaving Seattle anytime soon and it sounds like he has no desire to coach in the NBA in the foreseeable future. In an interview in the Seattle Times, Romar sounds comfortable in his current position and knows he has it good where he's at.

"No. 1 I went to school and played here. I've been pulling for this university and the athletics here and the basketball program for over 30 years. I'm invested in this program. I've always been a fan of the Pac-8, the Pac-10 and now what will be the Pac-12. I love Seattle. My wife loves Seattle and it's a place that when we first got here even though some were very skeptical, I thought it was a place where we could be successful. To take a place where you attended, played and went to school and to take that program potentially to great heights is a great, great fun challenge."



"I did play in the NBA so that mystique of what it would be like up there doesn't exist. I know things have changed. It was a long time ago that I played. ... Even though it was eons ago, I still played and saw a little bit of what it was like up there. I'm still fairly close to it because you have your own players on NBA teams. There's guys that I played with that are coaching or in management so I still have an idea of what's going on. So I don't have that itch to go do that."


Sounds like someone that has a lot of pride in their alma mater and loves the area. He knows the grass isn't greener on the other side, especially in this case. Only a fool would take the timberwolves job and that fool will be named in the next few months. As long as David Kahn is running things up there in Minnesota things aren't going to get a whole lot better and they'll be going through a a bushel of coaches if the win-loss record doesn't improve.  

The Army Needs New Trophies

When I saw the picture of this trophy, my inner juvenile humor kicked in.

It's the third place trophy for the 2010 Army National Guard Combatives Championships. This is just wrong from all angles. It's funny and highly suggestive at the same time. Only if you have the humor of an 8th grader.