YOUR FRIENDS' ACTIVITY

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    • In the 59th minute of Zenit St. Petersburg's final home match of the season, 31-year-old Russian international Roman Shirokov was brought on to boos and jeers. In the first minute of injury time, Shirokov put away the final goal in Zenit's 3-1 win against Volga Nizhny and he celebrated by giving fans behind the goal an "up yours" gesture as payback for his reception half an hour earlier. The referee then showed the striker with a history of being unfriendly a straight red and he was off.

      Shirokov was probably jeered in the first place because he tweeted "CSKA deserved the championship!" after CSKA Moscow sealed the league title on Saturday, leaving second place to Zenit. This isn't the best way to endear yourself to your own fans.

      Read More »from Zenit player sent off for celebrating goal with rude gesture aimed at own fans
    • "You bought us a WHAT?" RG3 and Rebecca Liddicoat in July, 2012. (Getty Images)

      On July 18, 2012, Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III signed a four-year, $21,119,098 contract that is fully guaranteed. That's commensurate with his status as the second-overall pick in the draft, and it pretty much insures that unless he really messes up the numbers, he'll never have to worry about money again.

      Still, Redskins fans have decided to help RG3 out a bit with the expenses on his upcoming nuptials to the future former Rebecca Liddicoat by finding the couple's wedding registry on the Bed Bath & Beyond website ... and fulfilling all sorts of orders.

      This was confirmed by Griffin on Twitter.

      Now, before the expected outrage that fans of a player making this much money would pitch in to buy these things for the happy couple (who are tying the knot on July 6), Griffin has an answer for that. The fans found his registry without his prompting and threw down of their own volition.

      I didn't ask the fans to buy me anything. They found it on their own and decided to get what they could. SMH at all these Debbie downers — Robert Griffin III (@RGIII) May 19, 2013

      SMH, indeed.

      Read More »from Redskins fans buy all sorts of things on Robert Griffin III’s wedding registry
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      Real Madrid were understandably confident going into Friday's Copa del Rey final. Atletico Madrid had not beaten them in over a decade and Jose Mourinho had to win in order to avoid the first season of his top-flight career without a trophy. But then Mourinho was sent off. And so was Cristiano Ronaldo. And Atletico ended up winning the Copa del Rey in extra time.

      As a result, Real Madrid didn't get to use their customized open-topped bus, which was spotted in the city on its lonely trip back to the garage.

      Atletico did use their bus as they paraded through the streets on Friday, though. Here it is in all its glory...

      Read More »from Here’s a sad picture of Real Madrid’s unused Copa del Rey champions bus
    • Peyton Manning's cap number decreased in renegotiated contract (USA Today Sports Images)

      Last week, the Denver Broncos and quarterback Peyton Manning agreed to a renegotiated contract with the primary intent on adding insurance language for the 2014 season. The new contract, which was originally reported by Mike Klis of The Denver Post, was initially believed to have no cash or salary cap implications, but that was not the case, a source with knowledge of the contract details confirmed to "Shutdown Corner".

      Under the new terms of the contract, Manning will still earn the $40 million in guaranteed money over the next two seasons, but the payouts of those amounts has been tweaked.

      Instead of earning $20 million in fully guaranteed base salaries in 2013 and 2014, Manning received a $10 million salary advance and his base salaries in 2013 and 2014 have been lowered to $15 million in each season. The $10 million salary advance is treated like a signing bonus and will be prorated over the next four seasons, reducing Manning's cap number from $20 million to $17.5 million in both 2013 and 2014.

      However, the downside to the cap savings the next two seasons is that Manning's cap number will increase by $2.5 million, going from $19 million to $21.5 million, in both 2015 and 2016 as the Broncos will have veered, slightly, from the "pay as you go" approach they had been taking with the 37-year-old quarterback.

      Read More »from Broncos QB Peyton Manning’s renegotiated contract cleared $2.5 million in cap space in 2013
    • Though he remains stuck on one home run through the Dodgers' first 40 games, at least Matt Kemp can say he's taken the same number away from their opponents.

      The Gold Glove center fielder turned in one of the finest defensive plays we've seen in the first seven weeks on Saturday night, gliding into position, timing his jump, and then hanging in the air just long enough to bring back a Jason Heyward fly ball that wasn't quite ticketed for the bleachers, but definitely had enough juice to clear the wall.

      The play happened in the first inning with the game still scoreless. Heyward, who just returned to Atlanta's lineup on Friday after missing 23 games following an emergency appendectomy in Colorado, was making a bid for his third home run of the year. Another foot, maybe 2, he has it, but instead all he could do was tip his helmet to Kemp out of respect for the play he'd just made.

      As the game continued, it looked like Kemp's robbery would hold up as the most important play in the game. The Dodgers took a 1-0 lead into the bottom of the eighth behind an excellent outing by Chris Capuano, before manager Don Mattingly turned to his set-up man, Kenley Jansen. That's where things went south quickly, as Evan Gattis (two-run shot) and Andrelton Simmons parked back-to-back big flys in places Kemp couldn't reach to make it 3-1.

      Read More »from Jason Heyward tips his helmet to Matt Kemp after home run-robbing grab (Video)
    • Getty ImagesThe New York Rangers enter Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals on Sunday with, statistically, the worst power play of the playoffs’ surviving teams: 2 goals on 31 shorthanded chances, for a 6.4-percent conversion rate.

      The deficiency has gone from being a drag on the Rangers’ offense to being a boost to the opposition, like during their empty power plays in their Game 1 loss at the Boston Bruins.

      So what’s gone wrong for the Rangers, and can it turn around?

      Read More »from Carl Hagelin stinks and other New York Rangers power play problems
    • Brittney Griner (Getty Images)It's apparently no accident former Baylor star Brittney Griner didn't publicly reveal she was gay until after her college career ended last month.

      Griner told espnW that Baylor women's basketball coach Kim Mulkey requested players not be publicly open about their sexuality out of fear it would affect the perception of the program in the community and negatively impact recruiting.

      "It was a recruiting thing," Griner told espnW. "The coaches thought that if it seemed like they condoned it, people wouldn't let their kids come play for Baylor.

      "It was just kind of, like, one of those things, you know, just don't do it. They kind of tried to make it, like, 'Why put your business out on the street like that?'"

      Griner casually acknowledged she was gay last month during a series of interviews with reporters leading up to the WNBA draft. The No. 1 overall pick of the Phoenix Mercury told reporters her friends and family had known she was gay since her freshman year of high school and it was an open secret among her Baylor coaches and teammates.

      That Baylor would discourage gay players from publicly discussing their sexuality is a sad testament to the pervasiveness of homophobia in America and to the pressure on college coaches to win. Mulkey was apparently willing to ask players to hide part of their identity because she couldn't risk alienating a recruit or two who wouldn't be comfortable playing alongside openly gay teammates.

      Read More »from Brittney Griner says Baylor coaches wanted her sexuality kept quiet
    • (USA Today Sports Images)There was a time when Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy cared about his quarterbacks enough to get hopped up on Red Bull and famously defend them in a shouting rant. That was pretty cool.

      This week he said quarterback Wes Lunt, who began last season as a freshman starter but slipped down the depth chart after he sustained some injuries, could transfer but was given a transfer restriction list that included schools from the Big 12, SEC and Pac-12, and Southern Mississippi and Central Michigan as well. All transfer restrictions are pretty unfair, and if the NCAA cared in the slightest about student athletes it would never let broad transfer restrictions happen. But even in a world where coaches often have some rules on where a player can transfer to, that's a pretty substantial list. If Lunt wanted to go to a restricted school he would not only have to sit out but he'd have to pay his own way for a year.

      It seems rather petty and unnecessary after both sides went out of their way to say that both sides appreciated what the other did, but it was time to move on. There's just no good reason for this.

      So we grabbed a newspaper with the headline, "Coach restricts quarterback from going to whatever school he chooses for no good reason," sat Gundy down and let him know how we felt about it:

      Read More »from ‘You’re a man! You’re 45!’ Mike Gundy’s rant directed at Gundy about Wes Lunt situation
    • RedditDriving a golf cart is a very important part of golf in the United States. Almost any golf course you visit will have carts for rent, and it's an easy way to get you around 18 holes as casually as you'd like.

      The problem is, the wrong mix of clientele and alcohol can doom some of these buggies.

      Check the above picture, posted to the golf Reddit thread this week. According to the poster, this was a golf tournament in Miami that served free alcohol for most of the day, and yes, that is a completely submerged golf cart in the lake.

      Here are the details, courtesy of Redditor donki ...

      It was at a charity golf tournament in Miami. I don't want to name the course/event. It was unlimited beer/martinis on the course. All I know is that I heard a cart was in the water on 16 and as soon as we pulled up to the green I saw it. There was no bank for the cart to roll down, it was a shear coral rock canal. Amazed that it stayed upright like it did. No bags were on it so I guess they took them off and

      Read More »from Someone didn’t obey the ‘cart path only’ signs

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