Carlos Tevez Takes a Personal Day

Striker Carlos Tevez has officially been suspended from Manchester City.

On Tuesday night, in a game against Bayern Munich, manager Roberto Mancini told Tevez to go in the game during the second half, but Tevez didn’t budge from the bench. City lost 2-0.

Shortly after the game, Tevez explained his behavior by saying, “I didn’t feel right to play, so I didn’t.”

Since then, Tevez released a longer statement apologizing to fans and claiming his omission from the game was just a “misunderstanding” and that he “never refused to play.”

As if the additional security for Manchester City at the airport wasn’t an indicator, Mancini publicly declared Tevez “finished” at City, and the player was officially suspended on Wednesday while the club investigates his refusal to play. Mancini will discuss the striker’s future with Man City’s owners from the Abu Dhabi United Group, but has clearly stated if it were up to him, Tevez would go.

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Posted in EPL, Soccer | No Comments »

Shocking News: Bob Sanders Out For The Year

Bob Sanders was supposed to turn around his career and re-establish his reputation this season. As a starter in the San Diego Chargers’ secondary, the safety was looking to prove he wasn’t just an injury waiting to happen. Well, he lasted all of two weeks on the roster.

Sanders was placed on injured reserve by the Chargers today with a knee injury after missing the team’s Week 3 win over the Kansas City Chiefs. Man, the dude just can’t catch a break on the injury front.

Over the course of his eight-year NFL career, Sanders has been a beast when healthy. The problem is, he’s almost never been healthy. The Iowa product never played an entire 16 game season, and only played more than six games twice.

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Posted in NFL | 1 Comment »

Cedric Benson Will Play In Week 4

Despite facing a three-game suspension for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy, Cincinnati Bengals running back Cedric Benson will play this Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers. Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis confirmed that Wednesday afternoon.

Benson has appealed the suspension and had his hearing on Tuesday. He feels it went well, and the NFL is unlikely to release its ruling on the appeal until next week, which means the oft-troubled running back will be eligible to play this week.

Benson’s suspension is related to his arrest on a misdemeanor assault charge for causing bodily injury to a family member. He was sentenced to 20 days in jail and ordered to pay a $4,000 fine. He was released on September 3 after serving just five days of his sentence.

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Catching Hell; Feeling Shame

I’m embarrassed. Hopefully we’re all embarrassed. Because we’re just as human as he is.

“He” is Steve Bartman, who went from being a normal guy to the world’s most infamous fan to having ESPN air a documentary, “Catching Hell,” that recalled the whole unfortunate thing. And “we” are Cubs fans.

Most likely, people from across the nation who watched the film Tuesday night came away with the impression that Cub fans are the biggest assholes ever. And you know what? They’re right, at least when it comes to the dark day of Oct. 14, 2003. Everyone one of us became animals, directing our venom at someone who could have been any one of us.

I was over a hundred miles away, still at school in Bloomington, Ind. when it happened.

I was watching Game 6 alone in my room — not because I’m a loser (not that I’m not a loser, but at least this wasn’t the reason for this particular scenario) but because the intensity of the game was too much for me to be in a room with another person. I didn’t need them distracting from my focus, and I especially didn’t need the risk of them accidentally becoming injured by some flying object. (I did at least keep the door open if anyone wanted to drop in, so it wasn’t totally anti-social).

Everything was gravy. I even called my old internship boss — who was at the game in the press box — during the Seventh Inning Stretch and neither of us could believe what we were witnessing. Oh, if we only knew.

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Posted in Chicago Cubs, Steve Bartman | 2 Comments »

Kevin Youkilis Probably Done For The Season

Boston Red Sox third baseman Kevin Youkilis has not played since September 15 due to a sports hernia and bursitis in his left hip. Youkilis has taken some swings off a tee over the past few days which has given hope to some Sox fans hope that he could return this season.

Well Red Sox manager Terry Francona threw some cold water on that today as he admitted the three-time All Star is likely done for the season.

If the Red Sox somehow steer out of their current tailspin and somehow make the postseason there is a chance Youkilis could play. But the pain from his hernia is not going to go away until he has surgery to correct it, and once he has surgery his season would be over anyway.

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Posted in MLB, MLB Rumors, Rumors | No Comments »

Report: Ozzie Guillen Set To Manage Miami Marlins (UPDATED)

Well, that didn’t take long. On the same day he was reportedly set to be let go by the Chicago White Sox - and current Florida Marlins manager Jack McKeon announced he’d retire - Ozzie Guillen is reportedly headed south to become the first manager of the Miami Marlins.

ESPN Chicago has reported that Guillen will be “traded” to the Marlins in exchange for two minor league players, but both teams have declined to comment on the transaction.

Earlier on Monday the White Sox accepted Guillen’s request to be released from him contract after eight seasons, 677 wins, two division titles and a World Series championship in 2005.

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Posted in MLB, MLB Rumors, Rumors | No Comments »

Indiana University Football Gets Taken To The Mat

I’m sure our audience’s patience has been exasperated by our insistence on bringing you constant ramblings involving Indiana University football. But hey, we’re proud alums and apparently enjoy self-torture.

But just when you think it can’t get any worse, another fall Saturday rolls around.

Luckily, I was at a wedding Saturday night and wasn’t able to watch Indiana’s game at North Texas. Unfortunately for a good friend of mine, he made the trip from Chicago to Dallas to take in the game. Sucker. North Texas was winless and hadn’t beaten a school from a BCS automatic qualifier conference since it beat Baylor in 2003. So imagine my surprise when I get a text from my friend reading, “Awful.” I asked the score. “24-0.” Yikes. I remind you, Indiana was playing North Texas. A team whose defense entering the game was the worst in the country (42 points and 559 yards a game worst). So naturally it took IU until six minutes left in the game to score its first offensive touchdown.

Good thing we brought in that offensive genius from Oklahoma to run things.

The Hoosiers lost 24-21.

It didn’t help the Hoosiers’ chances that junior running back and tormenter of Michigan the last two seasons, Darius Willis was out injured.

Ah, The Furious Case of Darius Willis.

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Posted in College Football, Indiana football, Indiana Hoosiers, Indiana University | No Comments »

The End Of The Great Recruiter? Locksley Fired From New Mexico

Three years ago, Mike Locksley was hired to turn around New Mexico’s increasingly depressing football program. Long-time head coach Rocky Long had managed a record somewhere near .500 from 1998 to 2008, but he was fired after a four-win 2008 season despite going 9-4 the year before.

Three years later, Locksley has been one of the, if not the most, disastrous hires in the history of college football. Gerry Faust has nothing on Mike Locksley.

You would think going 2-26 in two and a half years, assaulting a member of his staff, and sexually harassing a secretary for the athletic department would be enough to get a guy fired. New Mexico also lost to FCS Sam Houston State in overtime on Saturday.

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Posted in College Football | 3 Comments »

Who The Hell Is This Guy?

Quick, name the dude in this picture. No cheating. Here’s a hint: It’s not your loan officer. Or your physics teacher. Or former Sports Illustrated writer Steve Rushin.

Give up?

Yes, you have, unless you cheated.

The answer is Bill Haas, and apparently he’s the best golfer in the United States. This of course bodes very poorly for the state of golfing in the United States, but I suppose that is a whole other issue to delve into at a later time. After all, even though you now know that the above picture is Bill Haas, you’re probably still asking yourself “Who the hell is Bill Haas?”

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Posted in Golf | 2 Comments »

Week Four College Football Roundup: Who’s No. 1?

Oklahoma and LSU both won on Saturday night, Oklahoma is 3-0, LSU is 4-0 and now both can say they’ve been No. 1 in the polls this season. As a reward for beating three ranked teams in four games, the Tigers get to be No. 1 in the AP’s poll this week.

Controversy! Shenanigans! Or whatever. I wish I cared.

This is the part where the “it gets people talking about college football” argument for poll rankings falls flat. These polls are totally meaningless. The first BCS poll doesn’t come out for a couple more weeks, and while that poll relies on these polls heavily, it has become fairly clear that these polls are an awful metric for how good a team is. There are also some people out there (OK, maybe just me) who wonder if the networks are just helping out the BCS by programming only teams they know will draw ratings for the BCS bowls.

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Posted in College Football | No Comments »