Posted on December 9th, 2011
By DERON SNYDER
Life at the U.S. Military Academy couldn’t have been much better for linebacker Andrew Rodriguez as a sophomore in 2009.
He was a starter in all 12 games and led Army with 85 tackles. He excelled in the classroom, en route to a 4.14 grade-point average. His father and a sister, both West Point graduates, stayed safe through deployments and the possibility of deployments.
The Black Knights struggled on the field that year, coach Rich Ellerson’s first, going 5-7 and more importantly losing their eighth consecutive game against Navy. But Rodriguez, an Arlington native and Bishop Ireton High School graduate, was one of the team’s bright spots. Heading into his junior year, his prospects and the team outlook were promising.
Then a routine weightlifting session led to a back injury, wiping out his 2010 season and jeopardizing his 2011 season.
Worse than perhaps never playing again, graduating from West Point came into serious doubt.
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Posted on December 8th, 2011
By DERON SNYDER
At this point, we can’t stop questioning what the deal is with Detroit Lions defensive lineman Ndmuakong Suh.
We thought it might be a bum rap as his reputation grew for being a dirty player. In only his second season, he’s already third on Sports Illustrated’s annual bad-boy list, now called the “NFL’s Meanest Players.”
When Suh initiated a meeting last month to discuss his fines and personal-foul penalties with league officials, including NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, we thought it was a shrewd, pre-emptive move that might cut him some slack and reduce his offenses. “I have gained a better understanding of how I need to continue to play the game to help my team win,” Suh said in a statement after the meeting.
But then he turned into a big turkey on Thanksgiving, stomping on an opponent in Detroit’s loss. The blatant, unsportsmanlike conduct outraged Suh’s critics and earned him a two-game suspension from the league.
Now his behavior is in question again after he crashed his car last weekend in his Portland, Ore., hometown. Suh called 911 after the crash and said, “Yes, everyone is fine” when the dispatcher asked. He also filed a police report that indicated the same.
But two passengers in the car have contradicted his story.
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Posted on December 5th, 2011
By DERON SNYDER
The Escalade that he crashed on Thanksgiving 2009 was the beginning of a long and winding road for Tiger Woods, taking him from voicemails to divorce court, from surgery to revamped swing, from new coach to new caddie (the human version).
But there was never a win along the way.
Until Sunday, when he birdied the last two holes to win the Chevron World Challenge by one stroke. And just like that, it was as if the former No. 1 golfer had never gone away. There he was, in his traditional red shirt, pumping his fist and letting out a roar.
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Posted on December 5th, 2011
By DERON SNYDER
If tight end Fred Davis and left tackle Trent Williams were suspended solely for marijuana use during the lockout — when, technically, they weren’t NFL employees — outrage would be an appropriate reaction. How dare the league try to impose discipline on individuals it locked them out, telling them “thanks but no thanks” when they showed up for work?
However, the NFL players union cut a deal with the league that made actions during the lockout fair game. That doesn’t make sense, and Davis and Williams can blame union leadership for agreeing.
But they can blame themselves for a lack of discipline, commitment and self-control — even though they were locked out.
Davis and Williams reportedly failed two drug tests since the lockout ended, putting them in line for four-game suspensions that effectively will end their seasons. Reports indicate that each player has failed at least three tests since entering the league, Davis in 2008 and Williams last year.
Knowing they had prior offenses on their record, they should’ve refrained. The lockout wasn’t going to last forever, and the Redskins would be counting on them. They never should’ve risked a suspension — justified or not — which costs them money in the short-term (four game checks) and probably in the long run (their next contracts).
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Posted on December 2nd, 2011
By DERON SNYDER
Major League Baseball loses to pro football on so many fronts — TV ratings, broadcast revenue, merchandise sales, etc. — that it can’t afford to miss any chance to one-up the NFL.
Especially not the 6-foot-9 opportunity knocking at the door.
Former Los Angeles Lakers great Magic Johnson, who after retirement transformed himself from an All-Star point guard to an all-star businessman, makes no secret of his interest in sports ownership. And he means a major portion, not the 4.5 percent stake of the Lakers he sold last year.
Those proceeds, plus the gain from selling his 105 Starbucks franchises a day later, gave him reportedly more than $100 million to play with in his pursuit of a sports franchise. When he was the first speaker at a February news conference on the naming rights for a proposed football stadium in downtown Los Angeles, he made his NFL intentions clear.
But Johnson isn’t one to limit his options, and he has plenty. So with the Los Angeles Dodgers going through bankruptcy court, he met with six different groups of potential bidders before teaming up with Stan Kasten, a former NBA/MLB team president, and Mark Walter, CEO of a financial-services firm that has more than $125 billion in assets under management.
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Posted on December 2nd, 2011
By DERON SNYDER
After the football games have ended and the leftovers have been stored comes Black Friday, which is supposed to be followed by another uber-shopping spree, Cyber Monday.
But the sports calendar got stuck in color-coded mode this year, resulting in a twist that dampened the holiday spirit in households across the country: Black Monday.
In the NHL, the Washington Capitals fired coach Bruce Boudreau while the Carolina Hurricanes fired coach Paul Maurice. That was nothing compared the clearance sale in college football, as Rick Neuheisel (UCLA), Dennis Erickson (Arizona State) and Ron Zook (Illinois) were discarded Monday.
Kansas got an early start by firing Turner Gill on Sunday. Washington State and the Jacksonville Jaguars straggled in late, jettisoning Paul Wulff and Jack Del Rio, respectively, on Tuesday. The Anaheim Ducks sensed the opportunity for an upgrade Wednesday and exchanged Randy Carlyle for the just-released Boudreau 2.0.
(For those whose Christmas wish list included a new football coach at Maryland, no. That would be too expensive given the athletic department’s current economic state and it would be too tacky, just one season after hiring the current coach. Sorry that the disappointment grew Wednesday when Washington State unwrapped a shiny new Mike Leach, exactly what the Terps needed as Ralph Friedgen’s replacement.)
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Posted on December 1st, 2011
By DERON SNYDER
In a perfect world, Justin Combs and his father, P. Diddy, would thank UCLA for offering a football scholarship and then instruct the school to use it on another player. Or Justin would accept the scholarship and Diddy would then make a humongous donation that covered the cost and then some.
Either way, the Combses are not obligated to turn down the offer just because they’re filthy rich.
Scholarships come in many different forms, including aid based on a student’s financial resources (i.e., parents’ income). But other scholarships are based on a student’s performance, be it in academics, the arts or athletics. Others still are based on any number of factors, from gender to ethnicity to religion and more.
In those latter instances, Tina Turner might ask: “What’s need got to do with it?”
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By DERON SNYDER
