Rasheed Wallace (far right) relishes his new role coming off the bench for the New York Knicks. (AP)ORLANDO – He's a notoriously cantankerous player on a notoriously dislikable team, and yet the praise on an opponent's court is loud and unmistakable.

"SHHHEEEEEEEEEEDDDD!!!"

Some of the fans in the Amway Arena are New York Knicks backers; a lot aren't. Still, they love this villain-turned-cult hero who had little to do with the dismantling of the hometown Magic on this unremarkable Tuesday night. They gather behind the Knicks bench, yell a little for the Knicks who actually won the game for the road team, and save their throatiest bellows for the 38-year-old benchwarmer.

"SHEEEEEEEEEEEEEDDDD!!!"

Moments later, Sheed is dressing in the locker room and cracking wise. His teammates Marcus Camby and J.R. Smith are howling in laughter. Camby even clutches his stomach and winces. The topics range from a girl who isn't getting called back to the $5 footlongs at Subway. His voice, loud and growly as always, can be heard across the packed room.

It's a happy scene: road win for

Read More »from Once the NBA's baddest bad boy, Rasheed Wallace is back and calmer than ever

Floyd Keith remembers way back in the day when he could watch two-thirds of the black head coaches in Division I football in one game. The executive director of the Black Coaches Association flew out to the Rose Bowl to see them both, in a UCLA-Washington game.

"Way back in the day" was 2005.

Kevin Sumlin led Texas A&M to a victory over No. 1 Alabama and a No. 9 ranking in the AP poll. (AP)Those two coaches, Karl Dorrell and Tyrone Willingham, didn't last all that long at their schools. When Barack Obama became America's first black president in 2009, there were only four black head coaches in a sport that is nearly 50 percent African-American. Ten years ago, there had been only 21 black head football coaches at Division I schools – ever.

But now, finally, things have changed.

For the first time this week, according to Keith, there are four teams led by African-American head coaches ranked in the top 25. They are: Texas A&M (Kevin Sumlin), Stanford (David Shaw), Louisville (Charlie Strong) and Kent State (Darrell Hazell). They are young – three of four are in their first

Read More »from College football hits a landmark for black coaches

ORLANDO, Fla. – Jamie Woode, the 31-year-old former cheerleader who was injured in a fall at Amway Arena Tuesday night, is in stable condition at a local hospital, according to the Associated Press. She suffered three vertebrae fractures and a broken rib when she fell head-first during an attempted stunt at the Magic game against the Knicks.

Woode is expected to make a full recovery.

[NBA Power Rankings: Knicks move into first place]

Those who watched the fall said the stunt leading up to the incident didn't go exactly as planned and seemed awkward, yet it was followed immediately by another stunt that involved Woode being thrown high up into the air. Woode's male stunt partner couldn't catch her and she fell. The arena filled with gasps and fell silent. Players from both the Magic and Knicks stood at their benches and looked on in worry.

Jamie Woode was taken off the court on a stretcher after falling during a stunt. (Eric Adelson)Woode, a former cheerleader at the University of Central Florida, was lifted onto a gurney. She then reached up with both arms and waved

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Well, Philadelphia Eagles fans, how do you like Donovan McNabb now?

Perhaps no Philadelphia athlete, including Allen Iverson, has caused the great city as much frustration and aggravation as No. 5, who was always seen as missing a crucial component to his game.

But now the Eagles are missing a crucial component to their game: Donovan McNabb.

Eagles rookie QB Nick Foles is sacked by Victor Butler in Sunday's loss to the Cowboys. (Getty Images)Nothing against Michael Vick, or Nick Foles for that matter, but it's clear the Eagles and Andy Reid are on the decline. And if you look at the yearly records, that decline started, oh, just about the time McNabb departed. In his last year in Philly, which was 2009, McNabb had a 92 percent passer rating. The Eagles won 11 games. They didn't match that win total the past two seasons and they won't win 11 this year; they're 3-6 right now.

McNabb, you'll recall, was booed when he was drafted in 1999. Eagles fans hated him right away, wishing instead that their team drafted Ricky Williams. Draftniks also will recall that class was

Read More »from Think the City of Brotherly Love is missing whipping boy Donovan McNabb these days?

TAMPA, Fla. – After one of the most Norv-like losses in Norv history, San Diego Chargers head coach Norv Turner gazed into a pack of reporters and mumbled in his usual Norv-like way.

And then he snapped.

He didn't lose his composure after a question about quarterback Philip Rivers' game-killing interception, which was one of the worst passes you'll ever see in pro football. Rivers threw so directly at Tampa Bay Buccaneers defender Leonard Johnson that the cornerback later said "It caught me by surprise." Johnson grabbed the erroneous throw and then bolted straight past Rivers into the end zone for the game-clinching score. Asked after the Buccaneers' 34-24 victory what he thought Rivers might have been thinking, Johnson paused and said, "I have no clue. I have no clue."

Bucs CB Leonard Johnson celebrates after returning a Philip Rivers INT for a TD. (AP)Nor was the question that set Turner off about the mood in the Chargers' locker room after the team blew a good opportunity in the fourth quarter to fall to a season-on-the-brink record of 4-5. You'd

Read More »from Coach Norv Turner uncharacteristically snaps after Chargers self destruct late again

There is a line football coaches can’t cross. As worshiped and well-paid as they are, there is one boundary to their seemingly limitless power: They cannot commit physical harm or humiliation.

Marquess Wilson is shown on the sidelines during a Washington State loss. (AP)

On Saturday, hours before Washington State took the field against UCLA, star receiver Marquess Wilson released a blistering letter addressed to "Cougar Nation" accusing the WSU coaching staff of abuse. The letter is eloquent and emotional, declaring his decision to leave the team because of the way he feels he and his teammates have been treated by the staff.

“The new regime of coaches,” Wilson writes, “has preferred to belittle, intimidate and humiliate us.”

He goes on: “My teammates and I have endured this treatment all season long. It is not ‘tough love.’ It is abuse. This abuse cannot be allowed to continue. I feel it is my duty to stand up and shed light on this situation by sacrificing my dreams, my education and my pride. I resign from this team.”

In his concluding paragraph,

Read More »from Mike Leach, Tommy Tuberville just two examples of coaches who take authority too far

Kenjon Barner's football career was saved the minute his father forced him to go to a school without a football team.

If not for that, he probably wouldn't have ended up at Oregon, definitely wouldn't have run roughshod over USC and undoubtedly wouldn't be where he is now, a late arrival to the Heisman Trophy discussion.

Because as an eighth-grader, Kenjon Barner was running toward somewhere else – jail, or worse.

"I did some things I could have gotten in trouble for, had it been found out," Barner said Thursday. "Some people I knew ended up dead or in jail."

On the day of his eighth-grade graduation, Kenjon's dad, Gary, overheard him talking to some friends about some plans they were making. "It was nothing good," Barner admits. Gary put his foot down. Kenjon would not be going to public school. Not on his watch.

"I was mad,"Kenjon says. "It was my group of friends. I didn't want to be separated from them."

Read More »from Kenjon Barner, Heisman candidate, had his life changed by a tiny high school

Sam Gordon scored 25 touchdowns in her first season of tackle football. (Courtesy of Brent Gordon)

It started as a way for an 8-year-old girl to keep up with her big brother.

Sam Gordon just wanted to run with the older kids. The coaches in the local tackle football league figured, hey, why not? Maybe they could turn it into a drill: Who can outrun Max's little sister?

They were shocked to find the answer: no one.

Sam Gordon, now 9, became one of the fastest kids this Salt Lake City area "Gremlins" league had ever seen. They put her in drills and she outran boys two years older. They allowed her into the "Sharks and Minnows" game and stared in awe at not only at her speed, but her ability to move like a tailback.

"She could cut and follow blocks like a college football player," says her coach, Chris Staib.

Staib hatched a plan: His team was drafting seventh out of nine. He wanted to pick the girl. So he started talking her down, suggesting she would get hurt. The other coaches bought it, and with his first selection he chose Sam Gordon.

"You dog!" they

Read More »from Nine-year-old girl Sam Gordon shredding defenses to the tune of 25 touchdowns