Tigers Bring Back Brandon Inge

At the conclusion of Detroit’s 4-1 victory over the Cleveland Indians on Friday night the club announced that they have purchased the contract of third baseman Brandon Inge and have sent outfielder Andy Dirks back down.


As expected, Tigers manager Jim Leyland indicated that Brandon Inge will come in and play primarily against lefties and be a late inning defensive replacement while Wilson Betemit will get the call against right-handed pitchers despite being a switch hitter. No word yet on tomorrow’s lineup but given what Leyland said you can make the assumption that Inge will start at third since the Indians will turn to left-hander David Huff.

I don't agree with this one bit. Inge has been struggling all season and now that he's feasted on some minor league pitching and he's ready to go. The Tigers need to let go of 2006,  move forward.and stop trying to keep the band together.

They just traded for Delmon Young and elected to keep Magglio Ordonez on the roster. And now they trade for Betemit, platoon him with Don Kelly and Ryan Raburn, bring back Inge and send down a functional Andy Dirks. Just to keep Ordonez and Inge on the roster. At some point this team has to get younger, it might as well be now.

Former Miami Hurricane Highsmith Plans To Sue The NCAA

Alonzo Highsmith was one of the greatest Miami Hurricanes and one of the cornerstones of what made the University of Miami football team what it was in recent memory. His son A.J. is now on the team and that team might get hit with the hardest NCAA penalty since the SMU scandal that resulted in the death penalty.

The elder Highsmith is now threatning a lawsuit if the Hurricanes get hit with NCAA penalties coming from the Nevin Shapiro booster scandal. Highsmith's beef in this matter is that the current players shouldn't be penalized for sins of the past or the current 12 players that received extra benefits. I know a lot of former Hurricane greats are taking this hard but this might be borderline ridiculous.

“This lawsuit will be on behalf of all the kids who have done nothing wrong and would be being deprived of what they came to college for,” Highsmith said. “Look at the Reggie Bush situation. Look at what he did to the USC program. All those kids that went to USC for all the right reasons had to suffer the consequences.



“This has been going on for years and years. If someone at General Motors does something wrong, they don’t shut down the company. Nobody ever challenges the NCAA on this. Why? Why?”


“If you have a family and one child does something wrong then he can’t go to Disney World. But you don’t make all of the rest of the kids stay home too.”

“There are at least 70 kids on that team that have absolutely nothing to do with Nevin Shapiro, and you are going to tarnish their image over the actions of a few?



“You want to punish those kids that did something wrong, fine, I understand. But it’s a total travesty to punish the other kids who made good decisions. I’m going to sue if they try to ruin these kids’ college experience. I’m going to sue somebody.”

Well Alonzo, I understand what your getting at here, but if the NCAA let schools get away with illegal booster activity, this kind of stuff would be running rampant. School presidents and athletic directors would have a reason to turn a blind eye to players receiving gifts, money, cars, etc.

Of course Highsmith does have a dog in this fight with A.J. being a member on the team, so it's natural for him to want to see Miami get off light or receive no penalty at all. Sorry Alonzo, but the Canes are going down and they're going down hard.

Jimmy Johnson Takes His Shots At Shapiro

In the aftermath of Nevin Shapiro's damning interview to Yahoo! sports about former and current Miami Hurricanes players receiving improper benefits, it looks like the "old school Hurricanes" are circling the wagons, speaking out against Shapiro.

First former 2 Live Crew frontman, Luther Campbell, a well known Hurricane supporter came out to speak about Shapiro and his shortcomings as a person. Now former Hurricanes boss Jimmy Johnson has some words to say about Shapiro, boosters, and the state of the program.

Former University of Miami football coach Jimmy Johnson called into the "Paul & Young Ron Show" Wednesday morning to weigh in on the allegations of improper benefits involving former booster and convicted felon Nevin Shapiro.


On the "Paul & Young Ron Show",  Johnson called Shapiro a "jock-sniffer wannabe" and offered perspective on a number of the aspects of the story:


On Shapiro: "This little scumbag is in prison for bilking a billion dollars from a bunch of people and obviously he's going to embellish the truth a little bit, but I'm sure he took advantage of some of these kids and I hate it for the program."


On boosters with their own agenda: "These parasites hang around every program and the players have got to be smart enough to know that they want something, that they aren't giving out free drinks to them unless they get something in return."


On current UM football coach Al Golden: "He wants to do it the right way. He's very thorough, very detail-oriented. He's gonna be fine, but I hate that he inherits some of this mess."


On the temptation to student-athletes to accept extra benefits: "A lot of these kids come from the inner-city without a penny to their name and some booster wants to buy them dinner. It's hard for them to say 'no'."


First of all I hate to see this go on anywhere, especially one of the true heavywieghts in college football (I know some will disagree with that). There are some saying that Miami should get the death penalty. That's not gonna happen. I have plenty of reasons why, but not all night to discuss them. I don't see how they shouldn't since there were coaches and administrators that knew what was going on. They might get a bowl ban and loss of scholarships but that's it. I still don't see how the Canes escape with a light penalty. They better hope that Al Golden has the nuts to stick around, because I'm sure he didn't see this coming when he signed up for this job. He was sold a bad bill of goods.

Also, Ohio State might want to start kissing up to Terrelle Pryor, especially if he doesn't get admitted into the NFL supplemental draft. It's always the disgruntled athlete/booster that was promised something and didn't get it or never went pro.

Another thing is with the NCAA. Their rules about improper benefits are outdated. I know college athletes are "special". But I'll use this as an example. If I'm a well off individual helping a kid out because his home life isn't that great and I become influential in his decision on where he goes to college, then I'm giving improper benefits. Just because I let him use my expensive car or take him and his family out to dinner or loan him a few dollars to get by, those are improper benefits. Not everyone wants something in return, they just want to see a kid succeed. 

Don't get it twisted, I don't feel sorry for Miami. They did this to themselves. I know it goes on damn near everywhere, but to be honest it's almost what you have to do to win big in college football. But you know what happens in the end. Miami or some other big name school gets caught and Fresno State goes on probation.

I wonder how many ex-players will speak out against Shapiro.








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Kimbo Slice Wins By KO In His First Boxing Match

Kimbo Slice has gone from a YouTube backyard brawling sensation to a MMA washout to boxer. For Slice's sake (Kevin Ferguson) he better hope this foray into a legitimate sport goes a lot better than his last one.

Well Slice/Ferguson has gotten off to a good start with a win over James Wade by knockout. Wade was not an impressive opponent, he came in at 0-1 with a loss by KO. But remember, Slice's first MMA fight was against a so-called tomato can and he was taken to the limit in his first bout.  



Just knowing that Slice is in the boxing game might get some of the diehards to watch. I doubt it, but stranger things have happened. As you can see he has a long way to go to be legitimized as a contender.

Warren Moon Wants Newton To Start In Carolina

When you draft a "franchise" quarterback there usually is some pressure from fans to start the rookie right away, even if he might not be ready to handle the rigors of the NFL. I'm sure the Carolina Panthers felt that way, especially since their only quarterback with any kind of experience is Jimmy Clausen. They probably didn't need Hall of Famer and Cam Newton's mentor, Warren Moon, popping off about Newton being the starter in Carolina.

“Cam has a chance to start day one just because of where they are right now at the quarterback position,” Moon told Burns and Gambo of 620 KTAR in Phoenix. “No really strong incumbent starter there, and then the fact that they have a new coach, new scheme, might as well start with a new quarterback.”


I can see his point since Clausen is only a second year player with limited experience. But it is a new scheme that neither one of them knows very well due to the lockout, which puts both of them behind the eight ball. Also I wouldn't sell Clausen short. He could give Newton a run but I feel the Panthers will bow to the pressure and have Newton as the starter.

“There is a good chance that could happen,” Moon said. “I just don’t know what the organization’s thinking is right now. Do they want to throw him out there game one of the season or do they want to wait a few games into the season? That’s just a decision that they’re going to have to make, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he was the day one starter because he was drafted number one overall to be their guy for the future and why not make the future now?”


I know Moon probably knows what he's talking about and has more football knowledge in his big toe than I ever will. I just would like to see the Newton era last more than a few games. Put him in with the first teamers in the preseason and see how things shake out. If he beats Clausen with a superior perfromance, put him in. If the Panthers start Newton just because Moon and the fans think he should be the starter from day one, they'll be in for another long season.   

 

    

Another Bad Investment

You can count former NFL quarterback Ty Detmer among the scores of athletes that have made bad financial investments. The former Philadelphia Eagle and Detroit Lion says he lost $2 million dollars in a scam headed by Kurt Barton, the former chief executive of Triton Financial.

The Austin American-Statesman reports that Detmer was the first witness called Monday. He fought back tears while testifying that he had lost about $2 million since investing with Triton in 2005.



"You lose money, that's one thing," Detmer said from the witness stand. "But I feel like all I've ever tried to do was just do the right thing."

Prosecutors said the Ponzi scheme ran by Barton targeted former athletes, like Detmer and fellow former Heisman winners Chris Weinke and Earl Campbell. Sounds like he had a thing for former Heisman winners.

Prosecutors said Barton wanted to hang out with NFL players and used money that investors thought was for real estate deals to pay for a luxury box at University of Texas football games, a $150,000 car and family trips on private jets.

The worse part of this is that Detmer met Barton through his church and gave Barton control over most of his savings, taking a penalty for cashing out a $1.2 million annuity because Barton told him he could quickly earn it back.


"I trusted him with everything," Detmer said.


Detmer, who now coaches football at a private school in Austin, said he had to cash out the college savings plans for his two youngest daughters and sell his house.

Locally I know Detmer's name brings up some ill feelings among Lions fans, since he did have a seven interception performance, but this is bigger than football. True indeed the Detmer has earned more than I'll ever see in my life, but he seemed like a good honest man and I actually feel sorry for him. I think he was taken advantage of since he was honest and trusting. I hope he can bounce back from this setback.





 





 








 

Jones-Drew Won't Apologize To Jay Cutler

When Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler missed the second half of the NFC championship game due to a fringe knee injury, Jacksonville Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew led the brigade of NFL players ripping on Cutler and calling him soft, a jake, anything that you can say that can insult a player.

Today Jones-Drew says he's not backing down from anything he said about Cutler. Jones-Drew took to Twitter when he learned that Cutler was sitting out the second half with a trip to the Super Bowl on the line. I'll say this about Jones-Drew, at least he hasn't went back and said his account was hacked or he reflected upon it after x amount of time and felt he should make amends about the situation. In an interview with the NFL Network, Jones-Drew said he has no regrets.

“I don’t regret anything I do,” Jones-Drew said. “You think about everything you put out there. I’m not going to be one of those guys to say, ‘I shouldn’t have done it.’ Because I did it. I knew what I was doing when I tweeted it. I just didn’t know that many people were following me at the time.”


Asked if he had apologized to Cutler, Jones-Drew said he hasn’t seen Cutler but sees no reason that he would need to reach out.



“I haven’t gotten a chance to, but I wouldn’t apologize because I didn’t do anything wrong, I don’t think,” Jones-Drew said. “I didn’t commit a crime. I didn’t kill anyone or rape anyone or anything like that. I mean, I stated my opinion, and it seems like you get more backlash for that than committing a real crime in some sense. I feel like I didn’t do anything wrong, I just said what everybody else was thinking.”

Jones-Drew didn't do anything wrong. If he hadn't said it maybe someone else would've. I'm just glad he didn't go back on what he said and claimed it was a mistake made by someone else. Clubber Lang would be proud for being a real man in this case. The only thing I might would be disappointed with is when he said that he didn't know that many people were following him.

You're a celebrity/entertainer/athlete, you have more followers than the average person.