The victims were basketball players from Israel. From AP-
Police say $22,000 in cash and valuables were stolen from a visiting Israeli basketball team during an exhibition game with the Los Angeles Clippers at Staples Center.
Lt. Albert Gavin says somebody apparently got into the locker room Tuesday and stole watches, jewelry and $15,000 in cash from 10 members of Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv.
Gavin says the team noticed the theft during halftime of Maccabi’s 108-96 loss.
Gavin says police weren’t notified of the theft until after the game and weren’t able to get statements from the victims.
Locker rooms at many sporting facilities are under heavy guard. Could this robbery been an inside job?
There may soon be 2 games a year played in London. From AP-
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell expects the league to start playing multiple regular-season games in Britain in the next few years — an expansion that could lead to putting a franchise in London.
Goodell said Friday that “every indicator” shows the British market can support more games and that having a franchise here is of “tremendous interest” to the league. But he stopped short of giving a timeline for expanding the NFL’s overseas presence.
“The interest and the enthusiasm for our game continues to grow, and we want to feed that,” Goodell said. “We want to respond to that by hopefully bringing more to the UK.”
Goodell spoke at a sports conference Friday ahead of Sunday’s game between the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Wembley Stadium. It’s the third year in a row the NFL is staging a regular-season game in London, and the league is now looking into playing at least two games a year in Britain, he said.
The Miami Dolphins and New York Giants played the inaugeral London game in 2007. I have intensely disliked these European games from the get go. NFL teams only get to play 8 home games a year and one is being taken away from their fans. In Miami’s case, it was a rare opportunity for them to play the New York Giants in South Florida. The Giants have only played twice in Miami ever during the regular season. Many South Floridians, including myself, are from New York originally and grew up rooting for sports teams there before our move south. We now root for the home team, and especially enjoy the games against the teams we grew up watching as kids. The NFL then takes one of these rare games away from us. Goodell isn’t a football fan and doesn’t know how much I hate him for these dumb London games and I’m sure there are many other U.S. based football fans who feel the same.
He will forfeit almost $35,000 in salary also. From ESPN-
The NHL suspended Anahiem Ducks forward Evgeny Artyukhin for three games without pay Thursday for what the league called “a slew-footing incident” against Dallas Stars defenseman Matt Niskanen of Wednesday’s game.
Niskanen suffered a head injury that will keep him out of Thursday’s game against Los Angeles.
Since Artyukhin was suspended for two games in January 2009, he is considered a repeat offender. He’ll forfeit $34,756.11 in salary based on the number of games (82), rather than the number of days (193). The forfeited money goes into the Players’ Emergency Assistance Fund.
Artyukhin is a thug. Last year while playing with Tampa he brutally injured Florida Panther Ville Peltonen. I’m not a fan of NHL players who are sadists on ice skates.
The Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) has imposed life bans on four premier league referees and fined a club US$10,000 after it found them guilty of corruption.
The officials allegedly received around US$200 from premier league side, Majimaji FC, to fix their match against Mtibwa Sugar last month.
Majimaji, who eventually won the game 1-0, were fined US$10,000 for their misconduct.
The TFF spokesperson Florian Kaijage claimed that the club also covered the officials’ accommodation and gave them air tickets for their journey back to Dar es Salaam from Ruvuma in Southern Tanzania, where the match was being played.
Match officials are normally given money by the TFF to cover their return travel by bus to games, for their food and accommodation as well as a small allowance.
The referees say they planned to give the money back.
But the match referee, Othman Kazi, insisted to BBC Sport that they were given a bribe but never planned to keep the money.
“Majimaji brought us the money, but we refused to take it, then they threw it at us,” he told BBC Sport.
“We then decided to pick up the money and handed it over to TFF.
“We are the ones who reported the incident, how can they ban us?”
The TFF says the bribe was never reported to them. All I can say to this muddle, is if the bribery took place, Majimaji FC should have faced worse sanctions than a $10,000 fine.
The match in question took place yesterday. From AP-
Tennis authorities are looking into a WTA Tour match involving U.S. Open finalist Caroline Wozniacki that apparently sparked bettors to pile money on her opponent when she was on the verge of losing in straight sets.
Wozniacki, a 19-year-old Dane ranked sixth in the world, retired from the first-round match at the Luxembourg Open with a hamstring injury on Wednesday while leading Anne Kremer of Luxembourg 7-5, 5-0.
Wozniacki’s father, Piotr, told his daughter at 3-0 in the second set to retire before winning because her injury would prevent her from playing in the next round. His comments, apparently spoken in his native Polish, were picked up by microphones and heard by viewers watching the match on the Internet.
“I went onto the court and said to her: ‘Caro, it does not matter whether it’s going to be 5-0, 4-1 or 3-2. You can not play the next round, so you shouldn’t take the risk,” Piotr Wozniacki said Thursday on Danish radio. “I’m very proud of Caroline, because she stopped the fight and gave her opponent a chance.”
The father’s comments during the match led to a surge in online bets for Kremer to win.
The governing bodies of tennis created a Tennis Integrity Unit last year to combat gambling and match-fixing.
Without making any kind of judgment in Ms. Wozniacki’s case, I will suggest that what happened in Luxembourg be thoroughly investigated and in a open fashion. This is not the first recent allegation that a tennis match may not have been kosher or there was large sums of money bet at suspicious times on it. The integrity of professional tennis could be at stake if the sports fans come to believe results are being rigged.
The league said there was no basis for their personal foul call in a recent game. From AP-
The Southeastern Conference has suspended officials from last weekend’s Arkansas-Florida game after the crew was involved in its second controversial call of the year.Referee Marc Curles’ crew called a personal foul on Arkansas defensive lineman Malcolm Sheppard in the fourth quarter as the Gators were rallying for a 23-20 victory. The league said there was no video evidence to support the call.
The same group of officials called the LSU-Georgia game earlier this month, which included a late unsportsmanlike conduct penalty the league said shouldn’t have been called.
“A series of calls that have occurred during the last several weeks have not been to the standard that we expect from our officiating crews,” SEC commissioner Mike Slive said Wednesday. “I believe our officiating program is the best in the country. However, there are times when these actions must be taken.”
SEC associate commissioner Charles Bloom said this is the first time the league has publicly suspended a football crew like this.
The SEC says the crew will be removed from its next scheduled assignment Oct. 31 and will not be assigned to officiate as a crew until Nov. 14.
Conference officials went on to say this will affect referee bowl assignments. I sincerely hope it does. This crew shouldn’t be given extra opportunities to screw up.
Cleveland Browns linebacker D’Qwell Jackson will miss the rest of the season because of a shoulder injury.
Cleveland placed its leading tackler on injured reserve Tuesday, two days after he damaged his shoulder during the first half of a 27-14 loss at Pittsburgh.
“It’s disappointing any time you lose a player for the season, and this is especially true with someone like D’Qwell, who has proven to be an outstanding leader for us both on and off the field,” Browns coach Eric Mangini said in a statement.
Jackson got hurt in the second quarter on Sunday. He faces possible surgery.
Though undersized at 6-foot, 240 pounds, Jackson has been one of Cleveland’s best defenders over the past three-plus seasons.
Jackson led the NFL with 188 tackles last season and was chosen as a Pro Bowl alternate.
He is eligible for free agency after this season. The loss of Jackson is another blow for the Browns. Will Eric Mangini still be head coach when the 2010 season rolls around?
Maybe the team’s new owner, Mikhail Prokhorov, is short of cash at present. He only spent 700 million dollars to purchase the Nets. From AP-
For $25,000, you can watch the New Jersey Nets from courtside — and have a player stop by your son’s birthday party.
In a tough economy, it’s the Nets’ latest marketing effort to sell its pricey courtside seats. It’s called ‘Your Ticket to a Player.’
For $25,000, the Nets are offering four courtside tickets for 10 games, parking, access to a private lounge at the Izod Center with free food and beverages and something more — a one-hour appearance by a Nets player of your choice at your home, office, school or party.
“It will be interesting to have an NBA player come to your birthday party or come to your Bar Mitzvah or even just coming to your house for dinner for an hour when your friends are over,” Nets chief executive Brett Yormark said. “That’s a terrific thing and it’s tough to put a price tag on it.”
The package offers a discount: Purchased individually, Nets courtside seats sell for $750 each and 40 would cost $30,000.
What a bargain for a chance to watch a mediocre basketball team play. NOT! Will there be many takers for paid player appearances? Right now based on the U.S. economy, I doubt it.
He had played in just three games this season after the Patriots signed him last off-season. From ESPN-
The New England Patriots have released wide receiver Joey Galloway, the team announced Tuesday. The Patriots also re-signed linebacker Tully Banta-Cain, a team source told ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter. Banta-Cain was unexpectedly cut loose on Monday.
Galloway, a 15-year NFL veteran, has seven receptions for 67 yards this season. He has not been on the Patriots active roster for the last three weeks.
For his career, Galloway has 689 catches for 10,777 yards and 77 touchdowns in 188 games with the Seattle Seahawks, Dallas Cowboys, Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Patriots.
Galloway looks washed up in my opinion. I will be surprised if he lands a starting job in the NFL again. Update- The Boston Globe reports the Baltimore Ravens may be interested in Galloway
The Mariners’ experiment of having the first Japanese catcher in the major leagues has ended two years early.
Kenji Johjima opted out of the final two seasons and $15.8 million of his contract, allowing him to sign with a Japanese team.
Seattle general manager Jack Zduriencik said Monday the decision came somewhat unexpectedly over the weekend, and that it was solely Johjima’s. Zduriencik said the Mariners did not pay any money to buy out their former starting catcher, who said last season he was struggling to accept Seattle benching him in favor of rookie Rob Johnson.
Johjima’s contract gave him the right to end it by Nov. 15 for the purpose of finishing his career in Japan. He gave up salaries of $7.7 million next year and $8.1 million in 2011.
“After lots of very deep thought and deliberation, I have decided to return home to resume my career in Japan,” Johjima said in a statement. “I have had a wonderful experience competing at the major league level. The last four years have been extraordinary, with great teammates and great coaches. I will always be indebted to the Mariners organization for giving me the opportunity to follow my dream.
“This was a very difficult decision, both professionally and personally. I feel now is the time to go home, while I still can perform at a very high level.”
Maybe Johjima misses Japan and is homesick. I haven’t read any reports of his being unhappy with his playing status.
