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This not as a reachout towards Hispanic football fans but because a player officially changed his name. From AP-
CINCINNATI — Chad Johnson is no more. It’s officially Chad Ocho Cinco in the NFL.
The Cincinnati Bengals announced Thursday that they have begun “the process of listing the former Chad Johnson as Chad Ocho Cinco for all club business, per the legal change of his surname effected in Florida.
“The list of appropriate changes will include Ocho Cinco wearing his new surname on the back of his jersey for Sunday’s season opener at Baltimore.”
Ocho Cinco officially changed his name to Chad Javon Ocho Cinco in Broward County, Fla., last week. The league had not changed his name on its Web site or the team’s Web site.
“It’s something I don’t think anyone has ever done before,” the Pro Bowl receiver told the Bengals’ Web site last week. “Have I ever had a reason for why I do what I do? I’m having fun.”
Two years ago, Johnson gave himself the moniker in reference to his uniform number 85 — Ocho Cinco means “eight five” in Spanish — and put it on the back of his uniform before a game.
Johnson’s name change works as long as he plays for the Bengals. What happens if he gets traded to or signs with another team and #85 is taken?
Trivia time- What long time Bengal WR wore 85 in the 70’s and 80’s. The answer is below the fold.
Issac Curtis. He played for the Bengals from 1973-1985 and held the franchise record for reception yards till Chad Johnson broke it last year.
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In the NFL since 1999, Culpepper last played for the Oakland Raiders. From AP-
Daunte Culpepper, unable to land a starting or backup job this offseason, announced his retirement at the age of 31.
Culpepper had one-year offers from the Green Bay Packers and Pittsburgh Steelers this offseason for backup jobs, but didn’t find those offers suitable. Though his surgically reconstructed knee was healthy and his arm still strong during visits to those teams, Culpepper decided to end his career.
“After taking a long look at my career and my personal convictions, I have decided to begin early retirement from the NFL effective immediately,” Culpepper said in an e-mail.
“Since the beginning of training camp, I was told my opportunity would come when a quarterback gets hurt. I cannot remember the last time so many quarterbacks have been injured during the preseason,” Culpepper said. ” I have been strongly encouraged from family, friends and league personnel to continue to be patient and wait for an inevitable injury to one of the starting quarterbacks in the league.
The 11th pick in the 1999 draft, Culpepper played nine seasons for three teams — the Minnesota Vikings, Miami Dolphins and Oakland Raiders. His best days were in Minnesota where he established himself as one of the league’s top quarterbacks.
During his career, Culpepper completed 1,867 of 2,927 passes for 22,422 yards and 142 touchdowns. His career quarterback rating was a lofty 89.9. His best season was in 2004 when he threw for 4,717 yards and 39 touchdowns for the Vikings.
But he blew out his knee the next season, and his career wasn’t the same afterwards.
That didn’t prevent the Miami Dolphins from throwing away a 2nd round pick on Culpepper, when Drew Brees was available also. We all know what happened after that deal. Culpepper played just four games in a Dolphin uniform before being benched. He was released in early 2007.
Culpepper was a rarity in the NFL in that he represented himself rather than hire a agent. Good luck in retirement Daunte.
Where’s OSHA when you need them? From AP-
There are all kinds of ways to get hurt playing baseball. Just ask Jered Weaver, who proved this week that even the comfort of the dugout bench is no safe refuge from danger.
The Los Angeles Angels right-hander managed to cut the tips of his middle and ring fingers on his pitching hand while pushing himself up off the bench in the visitor’s dugout at Detroit’s Comerica Park on Tuesday night.
The cuts will not require stitches, but Weaver will miss his scheduled turn in the rotation on Friday night and will next pitch against the New York Yankees on Monday. Dustin Moseley, who was called up from Triple-A Salt Lake on Tuesday, will start in place of Weaver against the White Sox on Friday.
Just bizzare. We’ll have to wait some time before knowing if this becomes as infamous as John Smoltz burning himself with an iron or Pascual Perez getting lost on a Atlanta freeway.
Bolt was best remembered for his temper and tendency to throw golf clubs. The AP article below reports this thoroughly. What the wire service fails to report, is Bolt’s impact on present day golf. Namely the Senior or Champions Tour. The Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf event in 1979 probably launched the Champions tour. The event in only its second year of existence, put on a show of golf that has hardly been matched since. A playoff between two teams, Bolt and Art Wall versus Julius Boros and Roberto DeVicenzo that lasted six holes before Boros and DeVicenzo came out on . The playoff that saw great shot after great shot till the very end and the high ratings it received and excitement this caused led then PGA Commissioner Deane Beman to begin forming a tour for Senior players. All Champions Tour members today owe a debt to Bolt, Boros, DeVicenzo and Wall. It’s disgraceful but predictable that AP forgot that tour’s greatest moment. When former US Open champ Orville Moody died recently, AP also forgot to note ‘Sarge’ was a former PGA Player of the Year.RIP Tommy.
CHEROKEE VILLAGE, Ark. (AP) — Tommy Bolt, the 1958 U.S. Open champion who had one of golf’s sweetest swings and most explosive tempers, has died. He was 92.
His wife, Mary Lou Bolt, said he died Saturday after “his liver shut down.”
“He was the best man I ever knew,” she said Wednesday.
Bolt won 15 Professional Golfers Association events and several more titles on the seniors tour. Yet his temper gained him the most notoriety.
Nicknamed “Terrible Tempered Tommy” and “Thunder,” Bolt was often fined and suspended by the PGA Tour for slamming clubs and using abusive language. He set up a special fund from his winnings to pay the fines.
“I’ve busted a few clubs in my time,” Bolt recalled after retiring from the Tour. “I think it’s all right for a man to break his golf clubs, every one in the bag if he wants to. They’re his clubs. He’s the one to suffer.
“As for throwing clubs, that’s something else. That could be dangerous.”
Bolt joined the tour in 1950 and won his first title, the North and South Open, the next year. Bolt won at least one tournament through 1955, a year he won four times.
In 1958, he won the U.S. Open by four strokes over 22-year-old Gary Player. He also won the Colonial Open that year. His last PGA win came at the Pensacola Open in 1961.
Bolt enjoyed success in the seniors ranks. He won the U.S. National Seniors Open five times, the PGA Seniors, and the 1978 Australian Seniors.
“I’m converted,” he said about his calm demeanor on the course. “I’m sweet as pie now.”
Bolt served overseas with the Army during World War II. Survivors include a son, Thomas Walker Bolt.
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Both teams missed last year’s playoffs. Will this deal reverse either Florida or Toronto’s recent fortunes?
General Manager Jacques Martin set out this summer to improve the Panthers’ defense. Instead, he has remade it.
Martin completed the third significant off-season addition to his defense Tuesday, acquiring former All-Star and Olympian Bryan McCabe from Toronto for oft-injured defenseman Mike Van Ryn. The Panthers also received a fourth-round pick in the 2010 draft.
The deal was rumored for weeks, but McCabe - who has a no-trade clause - would not approve the trade until he received a $2 million bonus he was due from the Maple Leafs on Monday.
The other new defensemen for the Panthers are Keith Ballard and Nick Boynton, both acquired from Phoenix in the draft-day deal that sent Olli Jokinen to the Coyotes. All three newcomers are expected to play in a top-six rotation that also figures to include Jay Bouwmeester, Bryan Allen and Noah Welch or Karlis Skrastins.
Florida has certainly bolstered its defense, but lost its leading scorer Olli Jokinen in the process. No signifigant scorer was brought in to fill that gap. Therefore I don’t see this deal propelling Florida to the playoffs in the 2008-09 season. As for Toronto, I don’t have any opinion on their playoff chances this season.
Radulov was the team’s 3rd leading scorer last season. From AP-
The Nashville Predators suspended forward Alexander Radulov indefinitely without pay for deciding to stick with his Russian KHL team rather than return to the NHL club.
General manager David Poile announced the suspension Tuesday in a statement. The 22-year-old Radulov had a season left on his entry level contract with the Predators, but signed a contract with a Russian KHL team.
The Predators had given Radulov, their third-leading scorer last season with 58 points, until Monday to let them know if he decided to rejoin the team in time for the upcoming season. The team reports Sept. 19.
I wouldn’t consider this in any way as good news for Nashville. The team gave the eventual Stanley Cup champ Detroit Redwings a spirited fight in the last playoffs before losing in 6 games. This year without Radulov, the Predators may find themselves lucky to finish .500, alone make the playoffs.
Nashville’s actions were justified but will probably be futile. If Radulov doesn’t want to play in the NHL, the team hasn’t a lot of recourse. A little fight will be costly and take time. Its outcome uncertain, even if the Predators won in court, would Russian courts enforce the decision?
Alexander Radulov and the KHL are the villains in this story. For signing two contracts to play pro sports that weren’t compatible. May some bad karma catch up with both of them.
Three of whom have never played in the matches before. From AP-
The U.S. Ryder Cup team was completed Monday morning when captain Paul Azinger named Chad Campbell, Steve Stricker, Hunter Mahan and J.B. Holmes as his four at-large selections.
They join Phil Mickelson, Jim Furyk, Stewart Cink, Kenny Perry, Anthony Kim, Justin Leonard, Boo Weekley and Ben Curtis, who qualified for the team based on a points system that ended at the PGA Championship.
Before taking the job, Azinger lobbied for and received changes to the system, which included an overhaul of how points were earned — based on winnings instead of top-10 finishes — and more time to make his picks. He also got an increase from two to four choices.
On Sunday, European captain Nick Faldo added Ian Poulter and Paul Casey to his team of Padraig Harrington, Sergio Garcia, Lee Westwood, Henrik Stenson, Robert Karlsson, Miguel Angel Jimenez, Graeme McDowell, Justin Rose, Soren Hansen and Oliver Wilson.
The Europeans have won three straight Ryder Cups and five of the last six. The Ryder Cup will be played Sept. 19-21 at Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Ky.
Chad Campbell was the only pick by Azinger who has played on a previous Ryder Cup team. Overall I find Paul Azinger’s picks reasonable, but ultimately futile. I strongly believe the US is in for another trouncing later this month.
Seemingly football is not a proper sport for girls in parts of Georgia. From the Atlanta Journal Constitution-
Kacy Stuart was a kicker on a public school football team last year but apparently doesn’t have what it takes to be a part of a private league. She’s not a boy.
The 14-year-old high school freshman from Spalding County learned Thursday night — while team pictures were being shot — that she was being booted off the field. But her mother said she isn’t going down without a fight.
For two months, Kacy Stuart practiced with the school team, the Crusaders, at New Creation Center, a private Christian academy in McDonough, but was told Thursday she couldn’t be on the team.
“We’ll file for an injunction if we have to,” Angie Stuart said Friday. “We’ll do whatever it takes to keep her on the team.”
For two months, Kacy practiced with the school team, the Crusaders, at New Creation Center, a private Christian academy in McDonough. She participated in drills and even played a scrimmage game Aug. 23.
But a couple of weeks ago, Angie Stuart said, Hank St. Denis, executive board chairman of the Georgia Football League, realized a girl had been accepted onto one of its football teams. St. Denis overruled New Creation’s decision to let her join the team.
“He said she can’t play simply because she’s a girl,” Stuart said.
When she heard the decision, Kacy cried.
“She has college potential,” her mother said. “And she’s willing to give up her life here to move to her dad’s [home] in south Georgia, enroll in public school there and play football. That’s how much she loves this game.”
Efforts to reach St. Denis Friday through phone and e-mail messages were unsuccessful.
Kacy kicked for a junior high team that made the state finals last year. Because her family moved, Kacy had to find a school in another county to attend.
The Georgia Football League’s decision is simply idiotic. There have been instances of girls kicking for HS football teams for at least a decade, and in at least one case for a NCAA team. Are these people in Georgia still living in the 19th century?
As the Georgia Football League is a private organization, a legal fight may be difficult. Maybe with enough bad publicity these people will change their minds.
The third year Offensive lineman had recently been beaten out for a starting job. From AP-
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Jacksonville Jaguars offensive tackle Richard Collier was shot while waiting for some women outside an apartment early Tuesday and sustained life-threatening injuries, authorities said.
Collier, 26, and former Jaguars player Kenneth Pettway were waiting in a car when a gunman shot into the vehicle, Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office spokesman Ken Jefferson said. Collier was shot several times but it’s not clear where he was hit.
Collier was in critical condition at Shands Jacksonville Medical Center, a hospital official said. The motive behind the attack was unclear, and the sheriff’s office was investigating.
Tragic and sad. Lets pray Collier recovers from the shooting.
This in order to shore up the defending Super Bowl Champs’ battered Defensive line.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The New York Giants shored up their defensive end position by signing former Philadelphia Eagles first-round pick Jerome McDougle.
A source told ESPN.com’s John Clayton that McDougle receives a one-year, $1 million deal.
The Super Bowl champions lost seven-time Pro Bowler Michael Strahan to retirement in June and then had two-time Pro Bowler Osi Umenyiora sidelined with a season-ending knee injury a little more than a week ago in a game against the Jets.
New York moved Mathias Kiwanuka from linebacker back to defensive end days after Umenyiora was hurt.
A first round pick in 2003, McDougle was cut by Philadelphia on Saturday. He played in 33 games in five seasons and had three sacks. He missed all of last season with a triceps injury and was out for all of 2005 after being shot in the abdomen during a robbery during the offseason.
Jerome is the older brother of Stockar McDougale, an alumni of Deerfield Beach High School in Florida.(The school’s mascot is The Bucks) The same school I attended from 1976-1979. I don’t know whether Jerome went to DBHS also.
Good luck Jerome and Go Bucks!
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