2B
SPORTS
--mother to win a Super Bowl.
OUOTE OF THE DAY
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN MONDAY,AUGUST17,2009
"I'd run over Russ Grimm's mother to win a Super Bowl, too."
- Then Oakland linebacker MATT Milton, upon hearing that he -Redkens offensive lineman Grimm said he'd run over his own wife on urine in Dear David.
FACT OF THE DAY
Kansas is the only school to have two wide receivers—Dezmon Briscoe and Kerry Meier—named to the Biletnikoff Award Watch List. The award is given to the best receiver in the country every year and is up for grabs after being taken by Texas Tech's Michael Crabtree in 2007 and 2008.
TRIVIA OF THE DAY
Q: Which former Kansas football great was selected before Florida State wide receiver Fred Biletnikoff, who the Biletnikoff Award is named after, in the 1965 NFL Draft?
A: Running back Gale Sayers
COMMENTARY
Jayhawks keeping their eyes on the prize
W wasn't 2008 a great year to be a Jayhawk? Orange Bowl champions. National Champions in men's basketball. Two sports had brilliant, record-breaking seasons.
Whoops. Not that Kansas fans have high expectations.
The Jawahk football team, according to senior captain Darrrell Stuckey, has set a team goal to return to a BCS bowl game and might have the talent to do it. There are plenty of reasons to believe so: Todd Reesing at the helm, thonation's best (at least in this columnist's eyes) receiving corps that he'll be throwing to, and the pleasant lack of 2,000-yard guarantees from the running back position (oops!). The four senior captains
- Reesing, Stuckey, Kerry Meier and Jake Sharp - are as solid a group of leaders as Kansas has seen in a long time.
Men's basketball, too, could be looking at another deep postseason run. Although no official
pollls have been released — with it being three full months before the Jayhawks set foot in Allen Fieldhouse for a game — all early indications are that Kansas will be the preseason No. 1, perhaps by a unanimous vote. Coach Bill Self has the best returning one-two punch in the country in Sherron Collins and Cole Aldrich and an incoming freshman class that has been salivated over all summer by Jayhawk fans. Oh, and he'll bring back a gold medal winner in Tyshawn Taylor, who spent his summer drubbing international competition with the Under-19 division of Team USA.
So far, so 2008.
So far, so 2008. Bait Tide.
But Taylor's not the only returning jayhawk who had some
extracurriculars involving gold medals and Team USA. Danielle McCray from the women's basketball team and T.J. Walz, a pitcher for the baseball team, also bring a little international experience — and success — back to
the University.
McCray, who may have picked up some tips from her summer room-mate, 2008-09 National Player of the
McCray
Year Maya Moore of Connecticut, is now entering her final year in the crimson and blue. She leads a women's team that saw record crowds and a runner-up finish in the WNIT tournament, and she has a chance to be the first Jayhawk to win the Wade Award, given to the top women's basketball player every year, since Lynette Woodard in 1981.
Walz is a hard-throwing, soft-spoken right-hander who is likely
to inherit the post of staff ace for Kansas, vacated by Shaeffer Hall's move to the pros. Even with the loss of Hall and three others to the major leagues, the jayhawks should be able to build on last year's postseason berth, the first at-large bid Kansas has merited in coach Ritch Price's tenure. Key to that success — and any they might have this year — is junior Tony Thompson. Thompson won the Triple Crown in the Big 12, leading the conference in batting average, home runs and RBIs, but somehow not the conference offensive player of the year. Think he'll have a bit of a chip on his shoulder?
Two sports with brilliant, record-breaking seasons? Two?
That's a cute little number.
Whoops. Not that Kansas fans have high expectations.
What can I say? I'm a sucker for tradition. So on that note,
BACK TO SCHOOL
YOUTUBE SESH
allow me to continue former Kansan sports editor and Morning Brew specialist Rustin Dodd's tradition of a weekly YouTube video recommendation.
In honor of the "is-it-college-football-season-yet?" mentality that has spread through, if not yet the entire campus, then at least this writer's nervous system, this one's a personal favorite from the many brilliant moments of Reesing's Kansas career. Type "Reesing vs. Nebraska" into your YouTube search and enjoy.
Edited by Amanda Thompson
Franco's kickin' it for Mexico
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mexico's Guillermo Franco jumps for the ball during a South Africa 2010 World Cup qualifier match against U.S. at Azteca stadium in Mexico City on Wednesday.
Stallworth suspended for length of the season
BY ACHEL COHEN
Associated Press
NEW YORK — NFL commissioner Roger Goodell decided Donte' Stallworth's football punishment should last much longer than his 24 days in jail.
The Cleveland Browns receiver, who pleaded guilty to killing a pedestrian while driving drunk, was suspended without pay Aug. 13 for the entire season.
"Your conduct endangered your self and others, leading to the death of an innocent man." Goodell wrote in a letter to Stallworth released by the league.
Stallworth struck 59-year-old crane operator Mario Reyes the morning of March 14 in Miami. He pleaded guilty June 16 to DUI manslaughter, a second-degree felony, and was suspended indefinitely by Goodell two days later.
"Regardless of the length of my suspension, I will carry the burden of Mr. Reyes' death for the rest of my life," Stallworth said in a statement.
"I urge NFL fans not to judge NFL players or me based on my tragic lapse in judgment. I am a
good person who did a bad thing. I will use the period of my suspension to reflect, fulfill my obligations, and use this experience to make a positive impact on the lives of those who look up to NFL players."
Stallworth drew a 30-day jail sentence and reached an undisclosed financial settlement with the family of Reves.
Goodell said he didn't take the sentence into account in determining if Stallworth violated the league's substance abuse and personal conduct policies.
Stallworth signed a seven-year, $35 million contract in 2008 and received a $4.5 million roster-signing bonus the night before the crash.
He will lose the remaining $745,000 on his deal for 2009.
Browns coach Eric Mangini wouldn't say whether he was open to bringing Stallworth back next season.
This was Goodell's second disciplinary decision in the last three weeks. Besides jail time, his sentence included two years of house arrest, eight years of probation and other restrictions.
BOXING
Marshals charge man with murder of ex-champion
ATLANTA — A 30-year-old man was arrested and charged in the robbery and shooting death of ex-boxing champion Vernon Forrest.
U. S. Marshals picked up Charman Sinkfield driving a black sedan and wearing a wig that gave the appearance of dreadlocks, said James Ergas of the service's fugitive task force.
Sinkfield was charged with murder, felony murder, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony and possession of
a firearm by a convicted felon, said Atlanta police lt. Keith Meadows.
The 38-year-old Forrest was shot to death on July 25 after he chased a man who robbed him of his championship ring and Rolex watch. He was a member of the 1992 Olympic team along with Oscar De La Hoya. The fighter later won welterweight and junior middleweight titles and compiled a professional record of 41-3 with 29 knockouts.
Two other men have been arrested in the case, but police believe neither of them shot Forrest.
Boston Red Sox baseball player David Ortiz speaks to the media on Aug. 8 at Yankee Stadium in New York. Ortiz is under investigation for a positive steroid test in 2003.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Associated Press
MLB
Release of steroid list may not change much
BY JIM LITKE
Associated Press
Suppose for a minute that David Ortiz told the truth.
That whatever triggered his positive test in 2003 really was in a supplement or vitamins he bought over the counter, rather than part of a steroid-fuelled training regimen.
Suppose, too, that next week or next month the list of names that has baseball grumbling and 90 or so of Ortiz' current and former co-workers gulping Tums is released. And let's say that despite some of the damning details he volunteered — especially the bit about buying supplements in his native Dominican Republic — it confirms the story Ortiz told Saturday before his Red Sox played at Yankee Stadium.
What then?
Nothing.
It really doesn't matter what happens to the list anymore — whether it never sees the light of day, or whether the names continue to drip out, come out all at once, or even if we find out who used exactly what.
There's no punishment to be meted out six years after the fact. The tests were supposed to remain anonymous; they were administered to find out whether enough players were juiced to put a drug policy with real penalties in force beginning with the 2004 season.
The list is under court seal at
the moment and might not be released, if at all, until the Supreme Court weighs in. Revealing the names now will shame some ball-players and disappoint a few fans, but it won't shock anyone.
If it proves Ortiz is a liar, well,
he just falls in place behind Manny
Ramirez, at the end of a long line
that already includes plenty of the
biggest names of the era and more
than a few of the most obscure.
Ortiz' standing among the rest of baseball won't change either way. The fact that Michael Weiner, the incoming executive director of the players union, and two senior executives from MLB, were in attendance at his news conference proves that Ortiz is still well regarded. More tellingly, perhaps, Weiner delivered the union's most vigorous defense so far of a player caught in the steroid scandal, and both MLB and the Red Sox released statements cautioning people from jumping to conclusions.
And if it proves Ortiz was playing by baseball's lax rules back in 2003, it only makes his life a little easier. It might mean fewer boos on the road when he comes to the plate and more cheers back in Boston, where the locals will swear they knew he was clean all along. But that's about it.
"His reputation has been called into question. He does not know specifically why. And he can't get the information that would allow him to offer a full explanation,"
But what should we make of the fact that both MLB and the Red Sox came to Ortiz' defense as well? Since one of the cardinal rules of the legal profession is don't ask a question you don't already know the answer to, my guess is Weiner has not only seen the list, but that he also knows what caused Ortiz' positive test — even if he can't tell
Weiner said.
It may be that Weiner's presence at Ortiz' side simply signals a shift in style; that unlike his predecessor, Weiner plans to defend his players vigorously and in person, as opposed to issuing statements couched in legalese from the safe distance of the union's headquarters, the way Donald Fehr did.
So remember this: Even if it turns out Ortiz didn't knowingly use a banned substance, he went to a lot of trouble to get his hands on the next best thing. Almost everybody playing the game back in 2003 did, sometimes with the tacit approval of the higher ups, and plenty more crossed the line without so much as a second thought
the ballplayer that.
To me, it was always not about who was using as how many. Until somebody in a position to know produces that list, the debate about whether it's worse for baseball if the names leak out one at a time or all at once will generate plenty of heat, but shed very little light.