Kobe Bryant calls Floyd Mayweather "Bobby Fischer with gloves"

After his victory over Robert Guerrero Saturday night, Floyd Mayweather impressed another fight fan from afar.

Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant was impressed with the way Mayweather handled his business. Bryant tweeted: @FloydMayweather is like Bobby Fischer with gloves #vino".

Bryant is referencing the great chess master, who many considered to be the greatest chess player of all time.

"I told him this is chess, not checkers," Mayweather said.  

Lakers teammate Metta World Peace agreed with Bryant's assesment of Mayweather.


"They have a lot in common," World Peace told Yahoo! Sports. "When you get great athletes and look at them you see these similarities in the way their mind works.

"There is this focus and mindset that comes from knowing you have the physical and technical ability to outperform your opponent, that you are starting out with that advantage already in your pocket. From there it is about executing when it matters and they have both done that time and time again."

Even after the layoff and having to shake the ring rust, Mayweather is still at the top of his game.

Packers' Aaron Rodgers to appear in NBC's "The Office"

Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is adding more to his acting resume'. He's going from State Farm commercials to "The Office".

This will be Rodgers' prime time acting debut as he'll be appearing on an episode of NBC's "The Office".

Rodgers will be playing a judge in an a cappella singing competition.

Acting isn't new to Rodgers as he also appeared in local television commercials for personal injury attorney David Gruber.

The episode airs this Thursday night at 8:00 p.m. CT.

Mike Ditka would take a chance on Tebow

Mike Ditka once traded an entire draft for Ricky Williams when he was coaching the New Orleans Saints. So it doesn't seem far fetched that Ditka would have Tim Tebow on his roster if he was still coaching today.

Ditka thinks there is a place for Tebow at quarterback or another position. Tebow has scoffed at switching to tight end or H-back, preferring to try to make it as a quarterback.


From the Sun-Times' "4 Downs with Ditka" column on Sundays: 

“I think [Tebow] can play quarterback in the NFL, but whatever offense you run might have to be tweaked a bit. This kid is a talent and he proved it in college. He is an outstanding leader. Now, does he have an unusual throwing motion? Yes. But there a lot of quarterbacks that didn’t have a perfect throwing motion. Some of them turned out to be great quarterbacks because they were great leaders. I really do think there’s a place for him. If not at quarterback, I think he could play tight end. If I was in the league and coaching today, I would take a chance on him at quarterback.”

That's why Ditka is a studio analyst today. If you recall, when he coached the Bears he had a hard time settling on a quarterback. That's part of the reason the Bears only have one Super Bowl to their credit despite being one of the dominant teams of the 80's.

Ditka comes from the old school where wins, leadership and heart were valued more than yardage, 40 times, and arm strength.  A lot of those old school guys didn't pan out either but you wouldn't mind going to battle with them. That's why he said he'd give Tebow a shot.

But before all the Tebow fans paint him as a winner, a Mark Sanchez led New York Jets team beat the  New England Patriots in a road playoff game and nobody calls him a winner.

Stoudamire leaving Memphis for Arizona

Memphis assistant Damon Stoudamire will be leaving to take an assistant coaching position at Arizona.

It'll be a homecoming of sorts for Stoudamire, who played at Arizona from 1991-1995 under former coach Lute Olsen. After spending 14 seasons in the NBA Stoudamire got into coaching.  He spent two seasons on the Grizz bench under Lionel Hollins. Stoudamire has been on Josh Pastner's staff the past two years at Memphis.

Stoudamire fills the vacancy left by the departure of James Whitford, who left Arizona to become the new head coach at Ball State. Prior to his two seasons at Memphis, Stoudamire was an assistant coach for the Memphis Grizzlies from 2009-11.

The hire will help Arizona but will hurt Memphis, especially in recruiting as he was well liked by the local AAU and high school coaches.

Memphis coach Josh Pastner now has two vacancies to fill on the sidelines before next season.

Pacers' Jeff Pendergraph first player fined in the playoffs for flopping

Jeff Pendergraph of the Indiana Pacers has been the first player to be fined under the NBA's anti- flopping rules. The league fined Pendergraph $5,000.

Pendergraph was fined for his Game 5 flop while defending the Atlanta Hawks' Josh Smith. In the regular season players get a warning for flopping. In the playoffs there is no warning given. Players automatically receive a $5,000 fine and the amount goes up for each offense.

Odds are Pendergraph won't be trying that again.

Petition wants President Obama to force Jaguars to sign Tim Tebow

Out of all the things a President has to worry about I'm sure making a NFL team sign a particular player is at the top of the list.

Jacksonville Jaguars general manager David Caldwell has no interest in signing New York Jets castoff Tim Tebow.  Since Caldwell won't sign him a Jaguars fan has taken matters into his/her own hands by petitioning President Barack Obama to force the Jaguars to sign Tebow.


As of April 30, there's an official petition on the White House's 'We the People' website asking President Obama to call Caldwell and tell him to sign Tebow.

Here's the full petition:

Jacksonville Jaguars fans want the team to sign recently released QB Tim Tebow. However, rookie general manager for the Jacksonville Jaguars David Caldwell is blocking this from happening. If the Jaguars sign & START Tebow, home games will be sold out, sales will spike, the team will win and the fans will be happy.Mr. Caldwell is ignoring lots of facts about the misunderstood Tim Tebow while in Denver: Passer rating of 125.6 is highest ever in Broncos postseason history. Most yards per completion (31.6) in NFL playoff history.100.5 QB rating is best ever for a Broncos QB in his first start.Third most passing yards in a game by a Bronco rookie QB. (308, in his 2nd start), First 15+ point comeback in the final 3 minutes of an NFL game since the merger,7 game winning drives in just 16 games!

The prez has more important matters on his plate than forcing the Jags to sign Tebow. I'm sure this petition will not get enough signatures.

Owens makes his bowling debut

Not being in a NFL camp is killing Terrell Owens but he is finding ways to keep busy.

Owens made his semi-pro bowling debut in the United States Bowling Congress Open Championships debut at the National Bowling Stadium. Owens didn't bowl great but he wasn't terrible either. Owens bowled games of 185, 129, and 161 for a total of 475. I know it's not all that but it's better than I can do so I won't make any jokes about him.

"The first game went pretty well," Owens told Bowl.com. "I'm still new to this, so when I saw some of the guys switching balls, I felt I should switch, too. I probably should have stayed with the same ball. I ended up going back to the first ball I used and made some other minor adjustments with my feet and eyes."

As the celebrity owner of the Dallas Strikers, one of eight five-player teams in the new Professional Bowlers Association League, Owens has spent a lot of time around the lanes this year. He recently decided to take his game up a notch, working with several coaches and PBA bowlers such as Mark Baker and Norm Duke.

"I have a lot of stuff going on right now, but there happened to be a break in my schedule," Owens said. "I wanted to experience this tournament, and the experience was good. I'm really into bowling, and I like it a lot."

At least it sounds like he has something to do to occupy his time nowdays instead of trying to sell himself to an NFL team.