Despite numerous attempts by responsible people everywhere it seems that rookie hazing will never go out of style! It’s to see the tradition is still respected by the time players get to the pros! Here are some classics from the NFL as told by Amog.com:
5. Can I Have Your Autograph?
Some of us will never get to know what it feels like to be asked for an autograph. I bet it’s a thrill for a rookie in the NFL. However, it turns out that this was just a prank for QB Kyle Orton in 2005.
Bear’s center Olin Kreutz asked Orton to sign a helmet for his family. The autographed helmet was not for Kreutz’s family. Instead the helmet in question actually belonged to one Kyle Orton, who if you haven’t guessed, had to practice in it.
4. The Bicycle Tree
Even some of the best NFL players need a laugh here and there. Joe Montana was known to put rookie’s bikes in different trees.
It seems a little tacky and harmless, but considering that the practice field was only about a quarter-mile from the housing facility, bikes were the main source of transportation. After a tough day on the field a player would have to fetch his bike from a tree, only to discover that he just got someone else’s bike down.
3. Payback is a Bitch
There’s a rule that even non-NFL players know – do what the Vets tell you. I guess OT Chris Colmer didn’t get that message.
In 2005, FB Mike Alstott asked the rookie to get him a Gatorade. Colmer decided to be a wise guy and drew a map to the fridge for Alstott instead. As redemption, Alstott took the wheels off of Colmer’s car and left a map on the windshield to where the tires were.
2. Hey Mom! I Made The Pro-Bowl!
Maurice Jones-Drew retold this prank, as what he perceived as a funny joke, about rookie DE Quentin Groves in 2008.
One of the Jags defensive linemen told Groves that he had made the Pro Bowl. A dream come true, right? Groves did the natural thing and called his family, friends, etc. in his excitement. After practice his teammates broke the news that it was just a joke. I would hate to have made that return call.
1. When The Saints Go Hazing
When Ditka coached the Saints back in 1998 he may have let some pranks go a little too far. Not one, but two players, were injured during a hazing incident. On the final night of camp the Vets forced the rookies to run the gauntlet. They were kicked, elbowed and hit with bags filled of coins as they made their way through.
Rookie Tight End Cam Cleeland got smacked in the left eye and had to go to get a CAT scan. He even had to go to an eye specialist to make sure everything was alright. During the same night, rookie DT Jeff Danish put his hand through a window after the gauntlet. Danish went on to sue the Saints, six players and an assistant coach for assault, which was settled out of court.
News agency Agence France Presse and two photographers sued New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady and his wife Gisele Bundchen over an incident in which they allege the couple’s bodyguards fired on the photographers.
The plaintiffs seek at least $1 million in damages from Brady and Bundchen after bodyguards shot at the photographers at the couple’s after-wedding party at Bundchen’s holiday home in Costa Rica.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Tuesday, blamed Bundchen and Brady for negligence and carelessness.
Yikes… these guys seem a little too excited to be spilling animal blood. I’m not sure where the line is between “hunting for sport” and “hunting for killing innocent things”, but the gang at Rage Broadhead’s seem to be very close to it!
You gotta love this. Baseball seems to be the only sport left that features the good old fashioned bench clearing brawl. My favorite part is the pitch behind Posada! That ball is a good 2 feet behind him! Watch the action:
This is insane. Patrick Kane get a hold of yourself?! 20 cents? You are a moron. Read more about this from TSN.ca:
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Chicago Blackhawks star Patrick Kane was charged with attacking a cab driver in his home town Sunday, a beating police said was triggered when the driver did not have 20 cents in change to give the player and his cousin.
Buffalo police said the 20-year-old Kane and his 21-year-old cousin, James Kane, had apparently caught a cab from the city’s downtown nightclub district at about 4 a.m. ET. The cab driver suffered cuts to his face and his glasses were damaged, police spokesman Michael DeGeorge said.
Both men were charged with felony robbery and misdemeanour counts of theft of services and criminal mischief. Patrick Kane, who earned US$875,000 last season, pleaded not guilty in local court Sunday, WIVB-TV reported. It was not immediately clear when James Kane will appear in court.
The driver said he was punched and hit by both men because he did not have 20 cents in change to give them, according to the police report.
A message left at the home of Patrick Kane’s parents was not immediately returned Sunday afternoon. Relatives who answered his grandfather’s phone and his mother’s cell phone declined to comment and could not say whether either Kane had a lawyer.
A Blackhawks spokesman said the team is aware of the allegations against Kane.
“He is a big part of our organization and a team leader and we stand behind him,” spokesman Brandon Faber said. “As we are still collecting all the facts, it would be premature to comment further at this time.”
On Thursday, Patrick Kane was at a Buffalo ice rink where he played hockey as a child to help Mayor Byron Brown announce funding for improvements.
He said at the time he was happy to have time “to hang out back home in Buffalo.”
“The best thing about it is my friends treat me like I’m a regular kid,” said Kane, the first overall pick in the 2007 NHL draft. “They don’t treat me like a celebrity or whatever they might treat me like in Chicago.”
Kane played his first two NHL seasons with the Blackhawks and had 46 goals and 96 assists. He won the Calder Trophy, given to the league’s best rookie, in 2008.
Incredible knock-out:
RIP Steve… Here is some information in the developing story around McNair’s death. From CBC.ca:
Nashville police say a woman found shot to death with former NFL star Steve McNair recently purchased a gun, according to a report in The Tennessean newspaper.
Sahel Kazemi and the former Tennessee Titans quarterback were found dead on Saturday in a condominium owned by McNair.
Kazemi, 20, died Saturday of a single gunshot wound to the head alongside McNair, who had two gunshots to the head and two to the chest. The gun was found under Kazemi’s body.
“We believe the pistol recovered from the apartment was purchased by Kazemi,” police spokesman Don Aaron told The Tennessean.
Aaron said testing to determine if gunshot residue was present on Kazemi’s hands has not yet been completed.
U.S. federal law prohibits anyone under 21 from purchasing a handgun.
Jose Aldo ends the fight 4 seconds into it:
This is hands down my favorite sporting event of the year. Check out the hilarious, terrifying and cringe-inducing highlights from this years Cheese Rolling competition in Gloucestershire, England:
You tell ‘em Mike! From AdAge.com:
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Michael Vick is in talks to become the new spokesman for PETA.
Yes, you read that correctly. The disgraced one-time NFL superstar serving prison time for funding an illegal dog-fighting ring is primed to do public-service ads for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals upon his release later this month. According to three people with knowledge of the matter, the proposed endorsement is part of a comprehensive PR scheme aimed at rehabilitating the quarterback’s image and gaining him readmission to the league that banned him from playing.
“I’m familiar with [the plan],” said Dan Shannon, director of youth outreach and campaigns for PETA. “We have been in discussions with Michael Vick, with his management team, about the possibility of him putting out a public-service announcement with PETA when he’s out of jail. We want him to discourage people from taking part in dog-fighting. I can do it until I’m blue in the face and it might not convince anybody. Michael Vick sure can. He can say, ‘Look, I did it, I was wrong, and it ruined my career.’”
Other image-changing moves
That’s not all Mr. Vick will do to try to rehabilitate his image. People with knowledge of his comeback plan said it will also include mea culpa TV interviews, PSAs and charitable donations to other animal-rights organizations (or perhaps the formation of his own foundation), along with the possibility of working with PETA.But this might be the mother of all PR jobs. Mr. Vick’s obstacles are many: a hard-line NFL commissioner who wants to see “genuine remorse” before reinstating Mr. Vick to the league; individual franchises that might be wary of the backlash and potential damage to their brands from signing Mr. Vick; and an incredulous public that remains shocked by the story.
And what a grisly tale it is. Mr. Vick, who in 2004 signed a seven-year, $130 million contract with the Atlanta Falcons, funded the Bad Newz Kennels in Virginia, which participated in the fighting of pit bulls and also admitted to participating in the sometimes torturous deaths of dogs that underperformed, including death by drowning, hanging and electrocution. Mr. Vick is due to be released from federal prison on May 20 and will serve the remaining two months of his 23-month sentence under home confinement near Hampton, Va., where he will be working a 40-hour-a-week construction job.
Mr. Vick’s camp includes a multitude of PR and legal handlers. His Atlanta-based attorney, Daniel Meachum, did not return several requests for an interview. Mr. Vick’s Washington-based lawyer, William “Billy” Martin, declined to comment. It is not known if Mr. Vick’s team has hired a strategic-communications or crisis-management firm to handle the PR efforts. But PETA confirmed it has talked with his handlers.
Before doing a deal, however, PETA wants Mr. Vick to undergo a psychological evaluation for antisocial personality disorder. “We’re suspicious this may come from a place of simply wanting to repair his public image, rather than genuine remorse,” Mr. Shannon said. “He was dishonest all the way up the line until he finally had to admit to what he did, which is a hallmark of [antisocial personality disorder]. If he can’t tell the difference between right and wrong, we can’t get in bed with this guy. At this point, he hasn’t chosen to submit to an evaluation. We hope the NFL will require that evaluation as a precondition of reinstatement. The bottom line is: Everybody knows he’s going to apologize, go on Oprah and Larry King and say he did wrong, that he learned his lesson. But there’s no reason for anybody to take his word for that based on the pattern of dishonesty and the severity of cruelty he took part in.”
Read the rest HERE
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