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The Detroit Lions crew had to eject a fan from practice the other day for yelling at Roy Williams. Mike Lazzara, 42, is apparently of the opinion that Roy could try harder.
“I didn’t use any profanity to him,” Lazzara said. “I wanted just to be constructive and tell the guy, ‘You know, I’m not making $20 million a season.’ The guy takes plays off. You guys look at the tape.”
Trying to be constructive?! I love that he says look at the tape like he’s got each game from the endzone angle at home and he reviews them and takes notes.
Heckling your own team (I’ll assume) is permitted in certain situations, but if there’s one thing I can’t allow it’s guys that think they’re legitimate coaches in the bleachers.
Here’s my favorite part though: Lazzara yelled at rookie running back Jerome Felton to pick up his feet during a drill. I’m all for freedom of speech, but his should be stripped away. If we could have freedom of speech, excluding fans trying to coach, I’d be happy. At least it’s reassuring to know that the other Lions fans booed Lazzara and cheered for their star receiver when the two got into it.
There has been a lot of talk about the Rockets latest addition but their star center has a larger task at hand on a global stage. Despite all of the politics that surround the Olympic Games, the athletes are focusing on the pressure of performing their best. Watch exclusive footage of Yao Ming talking about his upcoming opportunity to play in China and the pressure he feels before playing in a game. Considered to be one of the most popular Chinese athletes, Yao talks about this once in a lifetime chance to play in the Olympics on his home soil. The Houston Rockets center recognizes the value of his opponents at the Olympic tournament and how difficult it will be for China to secure a place in the finals.
In the video that can be found on YouTube, Yao also explains the design and inspiration behind his newest basketball shoe from Reebok, the Pump Omni Hexride. The shoe was created in celebration of the highly anticipated 2008 Summer Games and includes some personal touches from Yao, such as his own signature logo.
Only 2,008 individually numbered pairs of the exclusive Pump Omni Hexride will be available starting today for all of China. In addition, coming soon, select retailers in the US and in Europe will carry the Pump Omni Hexride, however the collection will not be numbered in these markets.
Five of these Reebok shoes will be auctioned off to raise funds for Yao’s newly established Yao Ming Foundation, theyaomingfoundation.org, which Reebok has committed to support. In this footage, Yao’s welcome back to China and his new foundation is featured as he prepares for the upcoming Olympic games.
The video is up on YouTube and pictures of the shoe are available on Flickr. For more information visit www.reebok.com.
I’m not sure if it’s as much human rights or freedom of the press, but this Olympics is starting out poorly in the eyes of free nations around the world.
The latest bit of bad news is delivered to our door steps via the New York Times, which is reporting that although promises were made that foreign journalists would have unlimited access to the Web, many sites have been blocked so that reporters can not get access to them from Beijing’s press centers. In a roundabout way, Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge said publicly two weeks ago there had been an agreement to allow journalists unlimited access. But at the behest of China, Rogge succumbed to the country’s objections.
Strangely, it appears both China and Rogge have lost what is a basic ideal of the Olympics: Camaraderie of sovereign nations in which peace and freedom are promoted. Sadly, China has yet to portray any of the characteristics of a nation that is concerned with freedom or camaraderie. Human rights continue to overshadow the games and suppression of this known negativity is paramount to the Chinese government. For what reason, I’m not sure. But the party line is the censorship of many Web sites is to keep social stability.
Let’s be clear: In the Olympics, there is no escaping politics. It’s guaranteed. There have been bombings (1996 in Atlanta, USA), propaganda (1936 in Berlin, Germany) and boycotts from competing nations (1980 in Moscow and 1984 in Los Angeles).
This year, we’ve already seen propaganda on issues ranging from the legitimacy of Falun Gong, Tibetan human rights and Taiwanese independence. I am sure we will continue to see demonstrations of dissent as well, as seen in the video below, in the course of these Olympics.
In essence, the backlash against the media is a protracted stance in form with China’s normal crackdown on dissenting voices against the country’s human rights record. Even Amnesty International, according to the New York Times, has been blocked.
This is all a disturbing trend, seeing how China had promised reforms in order to get the games in the first place. So far, the only thing that has changed, although slightly, is the pollution in Beijing.
China’s history on human rights, it’s record on suppressing dissent and its cowardly initiative to suppress the freedom of information, therefore the press, points to a very shallow Olympics in which the country proudly protects its reputation while damaging it more in the process. I can conclude, without fail, that China will not see the see the games again until this is rectified. Even the IOC can’t put up with this terrible publicity for more than one year.
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UPDATE: The New York Times is reporting today that some of the Web sites previously blocked by China, such as Amnesty International, are now available to reporters at the Olympics. That’s what happens when the press starts putting the focus on lies and backward rhetoric.
That’s what he thinks. Artest was responding to a comment by Yao Ming, who was concerned with team chemistry issues after the trade:
“Hopefully, he’s not fighting anymore and going after a guy in the stands,” Yao said, according to the Houston Chronicle.
First of all, that’s hilarious. But if anyone can top it, it’s Artest:
“I understand what Yao said, but I’m still ghetto,” Artest said. “That’s not going to change. I’m never going to change my culture. Yao has played with a lot of black players, but I don’t think he’s ever played with a black player that really represents his culture as much as I represent my culture. Once Yao Ming gets to know me, he’ll understand what I’m about. If you go back to the brawl, that’s a culture issue right there. Somebody was disrespecting me, so he’s got to understand where I’m coming from. People that know me know that Ron Artest never changed.”
Wrrrrrrrong answer! Nice try though. He does answer questions honestly, I’ll give him that. I’m one of the few that doesn’t mind that he went into the stands to fight a beer-tossing A-hole, but publicly he just needs to keep apologizing. Try not to take an entire culture down with you, Ron.
In 2004, 26 Olympians were caught doping. That’s the basis for Rogge’s expecting 40 to succumb to juicing. Don’t you think that’s backwards? I do. I’d like to think that there has been a bit of education over the course of of the last four to six years.
But then again, the urge to succeed may overcome any logic. Your thoughts?
Can’t say I remember a time when somebody flashed the Crips signs or threw up them Blood fingers in an NFL game, but that’s the worry these days: Some ghetto boy who can’t leave the ‘hood behind him is going to be dumb enough to flash a “gang” symbol. Now, the NFL is making it a priority to look into it, hiring investigators.
How dumb. Not on the part of the NFL that is, but on the players for provoking this. Apparently Paul Pierce (pictured above) was the inspiration after being fined $25,000 for making threatening gestures at an opposing bench. It was an eye-opener said Mike Pereira, the NFL’s vice president of officiating.
“We were always suspicious that [gang-related hand signals] might be happening,” Pereira said. “But the Paul Pierce thing is what brought it to light. When he was fined … that’s when we said we need to take a look at it and see if we need to be aware of it.”
All I can think of is a cheesy soap line: These are the days of our lives…
The New York Daily News’ I-team is reporting that Kirk Radomski … the Kirk Radomski … has found his shipping receipts for packages of steroids he’s sent to Cheater No. 2 (aka Roger Clemens) to help solidify the case against him.
This is what I like to call a slow death. Everything is unraveling for this former great. His wife is accused of injecting steroids. He’s charged with perjury. His son is badgered with questions. Shoot, the I-team is working so hard they have a list of women they’ve found to be connected to the ex-power pitcher.
I wonder, does he ever think he can just hide and it will all go away? It certainly doesn’t work for O.J., Michael Jackson, Barry Bonds and every other disgraced star we once idolized.
I must have stopped about 10 to 15 times in the last three months and wondered when I was going to sit down here and blog again. I’ve been a busy man, but that is no excuse.
You know those lame New Year’s Resolutions everybody gives themselves, knowing that they break them within the first two months. It took me a little longer than that, but I broke mine. I’m not sure if I’m supposed to be proud or if I should continue to punch myself every time I get my StatCounter report. Either way, opening up my browser every day to see a worthless blog is about as inspiring as a dog licking peanut butter.
I was supposed to be blogging at least twice a day for five days of the week. (Shit, even bloggers need days off.) But I ran into a scheduling conflict.
I was named the “online community manager” at my newspaper in about March and started the job on the fly mid April. What that basically means is I ceased having free time to deal with my Web site and have had to attend to demands of the beast, as I like to call it. Some days, I feel like Captain Ahab. But that’s another story.
What’s an “online community manager” you ask? Basically, I deal with all things Web related in an editorial sense. I make sure the stories look nice and pretty when they’re loaded and I promote features on the site. In addition, I do quite a bit of moderating. If you’re aware of the volume of visitors small newspapers receive, it’s a bit of task (much unknown to Addisports.com). But nonetheless, it’s a task I’ve taken up heartily and have sees some success with. A big part of my job is creating dialogue.
If you’re ever bored or just interested in small town politics, visit the Web site. You might get a kick out of the letters to the editor. They’re always a good source of laughs and/or anger. I generally find myself cursing under my breath and wondering how I ended up in such a town. And then I realize I cover sports and the idiot disease can’t touch me there.
That’s right, sports is my bubble. Generally speaking, people who participate in sports are generally cooler than folks that don’t. They’re much more easy going and a lot less stressed. I wrote in my column recently that the best part about Nevada County is the people. I should probably clarify that I mean the good folks that make it such a vibrant sports scene, are the best part of Nevada County. I need those good nature people in my life. I guess that’s why I don’t mind doing this dual job, being the “online community manager” and sports writer all at the same time. It keeps me balanced but at the same time it’s killing this blog.
At the end of the day, I can continue to make renewed promises to write here more and more, but I know it’s not going to be the same. It definitely won’t be five days a week with multiple entries. But I’m sure as hell gonna try. More than anything, this is venting for me. There’s so much crap that goes on in sports, particularly with celebrity athletes, that I can’t help but chime in.
So while the blogoshpere is run by more interested men and women, that is not my objective (yet). Nope, I just want to bang out a couple of random thoughts and rip wannabes and crybabies. Isn’t that what every sports writer wants to do?
Wait and see on this one. I’ve got something coming and you won’t want to miss it.
Got to love the politics of drugs in sports. Seeing how Marion Jones, one of America’s greatest fallen stars, is now in prison, her former Olympic teammates want to appeal on their own behalves to keep their gold medals.
Not too long ago, Jones was stripped of her 2000 Olympic medals. It’s been a downward spiral ever since. I’ve only written about Jones sparsely, ignoring her lying ways until she was convicted of lying and obstruction of justice. She was backed into a corner before she told the truth.
These are truly sad times for folks in the BALCO fold. I imagine, cheater No. 1 is watching, looking for examples to squeal his way out this mess.
I wonder if jail birds watch the news? I wonder if she’s been in contact with her former teammates and whether or not they’ve forgiven her, especially now that she’s in jail paying the ultimate price of cheating.
The conversation would probably be a necessary one for Jones to piece her life back together, but in general she’s probably screwed herself beyond friendship. The only friends she has now are those in stripes.
But back to the topic at hand, should Jones’ teammates get their medals back? I think not. It’s not like they ran those relays with only three legs, there was a whole other piece in that team that they want credit for which they truly don’t deserve.
I see this getting swatted away like a six foot guard testing Kevin Garnett in the paint — it ain’t happening.
T.O. can’t stay out of the news, even in the offseason after enjoying his most productive season in a while. Looks like the horrors of the Philadelphia experience are still following this playmaker. The Eagles filed suit against Owens, trying to recoup $767,000 in bonus money from the 2004-05 season. Owens lost the money in arbitration earlier this year.
In my mind, what the hell do the eagles need $700,000 from Owens for? In fact, why would they try and recoup his bonus money when they withheld his game checks after benching him toward the end of the 2005-06 season?
This just feeds to the whole mentality that the NFL owners and franchises are crooks when it comes to paying players. There are already no guaranteed contracts. (Just yesterday, Dominic Rhodes got released from the Raiders for goodness sake after he restructured his deal to stay with the team!)
I’m pretty sure that if any of major leagues were hated by pro athletes, it would have to start with the NFL. From first round draft picks being thrown money at (something veterans have disdain for) to the fact that virtually no contract is safe from the cutting block, the NFL cannot eschew contempt.
Can’t say I remember a time when somebody flashed the Crips signs or threw up them Blood fingers in an NFL game, 
