Shakedownsports.com

(Every week there are a number of stories slip through the cracks here at ShakedownSports. These are just a few of them.)

–The Maloof brothers have donated $50,000 to the University of Hawaii football team’s booster club. The donation is just a small part of their ill-conceived plan to try and move the Hawaii football team to Las Vegas.

–Police had to be called to a hockey game in Canada when a brawl broke out between the 8-year-old players. The fracas reportedly started when the coach of the team who had just lost 8-1 spat in the face of the opposing coach. Also, one of the players called somebody on the other team a “poopy-head.”

–Tulsa filed a formal complaint with Conference USA over the Rice marching band’s halftime performance last Saturday. The band put on a show called the “Todd Graham’s Inferno” which depicted the current Tulsa and former Rice coach going through different circles of hell. Strangely, the band left out the harshest circle of hell—playing a football game at Rice.

–Earlier this week Blackhawks winger Tuomo Ruutu was going for a jog in the park when he was accidentally detained by police becaue he fit he description of a burgler. The misunderstanding was eventually cleared up and Ruutu says that before he left one of the police officers asked for his autograph. Apparently the officer didn’t have the heart to tell Ruutu he was just signing a release form.

–A former North Dakota State College of Science basketball player has been charged with theft for illegally charging over $46,000 in phone calls to the school. The good news is that the phone calls earned him a job offer from Kelvin Sampson.

No Comments »

A pretty big football game is being played this weekend between Kansas and Missouri. Just as you might have predicted when you heard that two non-traditional football powers were meeting in a big-time NFL stadium, nobody involved seems prepared to handle it.

First, there’s the Kansas athletic department. When students began camping out to buy tickets last week the athletic department allowed them to give their IDs to friends in the front of line. Some students showed up with dozens of IDs and they were permitted to buy tickets for themselves and dozens of their friends. In short, this screwed every other Kansas student hoping to buy tickets. I don’t understand what happened. Were the people who organize basketball ticket sales on vacation? The school has been through this before for big-time basketball games. It should be able to handle it for football.

Some other people unprepared for the big game are the Missouri ticket scalping policing agencies. Right now the scalpers are going wild. This week the Missouri Attorney General even had to place a restraining order on GoTickets Inc. to prevent it from scalping tickets. You know a company is bad news when it’s already in trouble for scalping tickets to a Hannah Montana concert.

For now we’ll just have to hope none of this affects the game, and that on Saturday Kansas and Missouri play with a passion you can only expect from two teams who never imagined being in the national championship picture.

In closing…Todd Reesing for Heisman!! Tell your congressman.

No Comments »

It looks like we can add the UConn athletic department to the growing list of people who think ESPN is abusing their power in order to promote their interests. This week Huskies AD Jeff Hathaway blasted ESPN for using the UConn football team to settle a dispute with Comcast.

UConn’s next two games (important contests against Rutgers and Cincinnati) will both be broadcast on ESPNU, a network that’s not offered to any of the 525,000 Comcast subscribers in Connecticut. Hathaway claims that ESPN is robbing viewers of the chance to see the games in order to pressure Comcast into adding ESPNU to its packages.

“The bottom line here is that I fully understand that the University of Connecticut and the University of Connecticut football program is being used by the network to leverage cable companies in our state … to add ESPNU to their platform,” Hathaway said. “We understand that. We know that’s what’s happening.”

Oh by the way, UConn gets $100,000 for every game on ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC, but nothing for games on ESPNU. Hathaway’s anger might have something to do with that.

ESPN is denying the allegations, but given the network’s track record of bettering themselves with ethically questionable moves (such as this, this, and this), I’m not sure they have much credibility. Frankly, UConn should just be happy they’re not being forced to wear “ESPNU Rules” patches on their uniforms.

8 Comments »

There’s only one thing to do when you lose your college football eligibility for cheating on a pop quiz—go talk to 5th graders about it. Maryland quarterback Josh Portis is currently touring elementary schools across the state, warning kids about the difficulties of college life.

“I was just telling the kids you have to work hard every day in the classroom,” he said. “Life is going to be challenging. Unfortunately I made a mistake. Try not to make the same mistake I made.”

Portis went on to tell the kids that his specific mistake was cheating off the person next to him, and that if they’re ever unprepared for a pop quiz the right thing to do is fake an illness or cheat off multiple people in the room. The most important thing to remember, he told them, is that if you get caught it’s not possible to get out of being suspended by bribing Ralph Friedgen with donuts. He always has a cabinet full of them.

2 Comments »

(Every week there are a number of stories slip through the cracks here at ShakedownSports. These are just a few of them.)

–Indiana officials say that Kelvin Sampson’s recruiting violations were discovered by an intern who was reviewing previously approved phone records for an NCAA progress report. The blame here is all on Sampson. He should have done a better job endearing himself to the athletic department’s interns. Hopefully now he has learned that Boggle is not an appropriate end-of-the-year thank-you gift.

–Some NHL players have begun practicing with a special heated skate blade that allows them to go faster by reducing gliding friction. The blades are powered by a rechargeable battery and small microprocessor in each skate. The skates seem like a good idea, and they can get Al Gore’s green endorsement there’s no telling how successful they can be.

–Certain advocates, including Dennis Kucinich, are beginning to make a fuss that publicly financed stadiums are a misuse of taxpayer funds. They believe congress should ban the use of tax-exempt financing for stadiums so that more taxpayer money will be spent on schools, roads, and bridges. So basically they’re saying that it’s more important for a kid to learn his multiplication tables than pay $60 for a baseball ticket while big corporations make money by wining and dining clients in corporate luxury boxes. What a bunch of crazies.

–After nearly 10 months Boise State finally has their hands on last year’s Fiesta Bowl-winning football. The man who got the football after Ian Johnson flung it into the stands says he was happy to give it back never once considered selling it. I don’t know…it seems like some schadenfreude loving Texas fan would have ponied up a lot of cash for the ball. At least the guy didn’t think about sending it into outer space.

No Comments »

The University of Iowa has decided that it will not treat its athletes like objects……as much as it once did. No longer will the school allow athletes to be part of an Iowa alumni association credit card promotion. Previously, Iowa athletes were part of the actual rewards for the biggest credit card spenders.

- For 20,000 points, a card user could attend the annual football banquet with a guest. “We can’t guarantee it, but with the proper advance notice we’ll do our best to seat you with player of your choice.”

–For 30,000 points, “the reward recipient and a guest would be allowed to attend a Hawkeye football training camp session, engage in a brief question and answer session with a coach and have lunch with football team.”

I can just picture somebody trying to explain to his wife that he had to buy a new $1,500 TV so he could ask Kirk Ferentz a question.

Overall, it’s probably a good idea for the Iowa athletic department to distance itself from anything having to do with credit cards. As for the cardholders—they’ll just have to settle for shitty air miles like everybody else.

No Comments »

When you’ve only won 1 out of your last 25 games, it would be nice if the officials would help you out. And if they’re not going to help you out, you would like to think they would at least have to common decency to not go out of their way to screw you. You’d like to think that, but that’s not the case for the Temple football team.

Two weeks ago Temple was on the verge of upsetting undefeated UConn. Trailing 22-17 in the final minute Temple heaved a desperation 4th down pass into the endzone. The ball appeared to be caught, but the receiver was ruled out of bounds. Upon further review, the call on field was upheld.

Fast forward two weeks and the apologies to Temple are rolling in. MAC officials have now acknowledged that the referees blew the call and that the Owls should have been awarded a near-certain game winning touchdown. Instead of being part of one of the biggest wins in the program’s history, the Temple players now might be on their way to another winless season.

Poor, poor, Temple. It would be one thing if this happened to a team that perennially wins at least one game a year, but when you’re a team like Temple or Notre Dame, you need any win you can get.

Below is the play in question. Judge for yourself.

No Comments »

Long before Mike Gundy became the focus of a slow news day, he played quarterback for Oklahoma State, memorably leading the Cowboys to a 62-14 victory over Wyoming in the 1988 Holiday Bowl. In that game Gundy threw for two touchdowns and caught this pass from Barry Sanders to set up another. You can remember Gundy for his media outburst if you want, but I’ll always remember him as Barry Sanders’ favorite receiving target.

2 Comments »

You gotta hand it to Florida receiver David Nelson. The guy knows how to capitalize on a good thing. Six months ago Nelson was on a spring break cruise when a DJ mistook him for Gators quarterback Chris Leak. The Gators receiver decided to play along.

“The spotlight was on me,” he said Monday. “I stood up and waved and then sat back down.”

Nelson stayed the star all week, posing for pictures and meeting much of the crew. He even signed autographs for some small children who would have felt devastated if Nelson broke the hoax.

“I kind of just scribbled something,” he said.

Some may criticize Nelson for pretending to be something he’s not, but who among us wouldn’t impersonate a more heralded teammate in order to obtain free drinks or female companionship. I commend Nelson for recognizing an opportunity in life an seizing it. That’s the kind of assertiveness that will impress Urban Meyer.

No Comments »

It had been almost a year since there was a major college football brawl. The drought is now over. On Saturday North Carolina Central and North Carolina A&T engaged in a fracas that would have made Ned proud. It started thanks to the time honored tradition of stomping on the logo of a vanquished opponent.

The latest melee to mar the NCCU-N.C. A&T rivalry started after the final seconds ticked off the clock with NCCU winning 27-22 on a game-saving interception. Players from the Durham university then ran out from their sideline and stomped on the Aggies’ bulldog logo painted at the center of the field, taunting the defeated team.

Fists and helmets were soon flying. The fight, which lasted about five minutes, cleared the benches of both teams and involved more than 100 people. It prompted at least one campus police officer to use pepper spray, leaving some players vomiting and gasping.

In the aftermath of the fight the two schools are considering cancelling their 2008 meeting. That’s probably a good idea. Since there’s no chance of a brawl next year, enjoy these bonus photos.

7 Comments »