Three months after coming out as gay and stepping away from the game, midfielder Robbie Rogers has signed with the LA Galaxy according to multiple reports. MLS rights to Rogers, who previously played in the league for Columbus Crew from 2007 to 2011, were owned by the Chicago Fire, but Rogers didn't want to play for them. So after casually training with the Galaxy over the last several weeks, a trade was finally worked out, sending midfielder Mike Magee to Chicago in exchange for Rogers, who is now the first openly gay player in MLS.

Rogers came out in February with a moving post on his personal blog, saying "Secrets can cause so much internal damage. People love to preach about honesty, how honesty is so plain and simple. Try explaining to your loved ones after 25 years you are gay." At the end of March, he told the Guardian that it was "impossible" to be gay in football.

"I might be strong enough but I don't know if that's really what I want. I'd just want to be a footballer. I wouldn't want to deal with the circus. Are people coming to see you because you're gay? Would I want to do interviews every day, where people are asking: 'So you're taking showers with guys – how's that?'

"If you're playing well it will be reported as: 'The gay footballer is playing well.' And if you have a bad game it'll be: 'Aw, that gay dude … he's struggling because he's gay.' F*** it. I don't want to mess with that."

But then, NBA player Jason Collins came out and though he hasn't played since his announcement (he's currently a free agent), Rogers says he started to "feel like a coward" for not doing so himself. From USA Today:

Rogers' epiphany to return to the game came when he spoke to a group of about 500 kids at the Nike Be True LGBT Youth Forum in Portland last month.

"I seriously felt like a coward," he tells USA TODAY Sports in an exclusive interview about his return. "These kids are standing up for themselves and changing the world, and I'm 25, I have a platform and a voice to be a role model. How much of a coward was I to not step up to the plate?"

Rogers will be formally unveiled as a Galaxy player on Saturday. But he also told USA Today that the MLS is just the beginning of what he wants to achieve on the pitch. With 18 caps for the U.S. national team to his credit, he was to resume his international career and hopes to play in the 2014 World Cup.

"I want to get past the point where I was before," he says. "I want to get back to the national team. I was so close to making the World Cup in 2010, I want to be there for the next one."

Rogers obviously has a lot of work to do to get back to that level and all the media attention he will surely get in the coming months could make that more difficult. But this begins the road towards getting past the circus he spoke of March and getting back to just doing what he loves. In February he felt freed from the "internal damage" of holding his secret by being honest and now he's ridding himself of "feeling like a coward" by being brave. There's a lot that others can learn from Robbie Rogers.

Canada, you may want to sit down.

The Pittsburgh Penguins advanced to the Eastern Conference finals Friday, eliminating the Ottawa Senators -- the last remaining Canadian team -- with a decisive 6-2 victory in Game 5.

With that, an American club will win the Stanley Cup for the 19th straight season. Now comes the annual Canadian tradition where the country shifts from counting Canadian teams in contention to Canadian players on American teams.

The Senators made a slight improvement in Game 5, holding the Penguins to fewer goals than in their previous game. Unfortunately, it was just one fewer, and that's not nearly enough when they allowed 7 the last time around.

This game was a lot like Game 4, come to think of it: All Pittsburgh, and not all that close.

The Penguins got on the board early, opening the scoring when Brenden Morrow redirected a Mark Eaton pass into the goal with his skate.

It was reviewed, but the officials ruled that there had been no distinct kicking motion (or at least not as much of one as when Mika Zibanejad scored a goal similarly in Round 1).

Pittsburgh doubled the lead on a second period powerplay, when Kris Letang threw a puck into the goal mouth, Craig Anderson lost it in his equipment, and James Neal was the first to find it.

Ottawa would never get any closer. Letang scored what would turn out to be the game-winner five minutes later, and after a Milan Michalek goal brought them back within two, Neal and Evgeni Malkin would force a turnover and connect on a late, second-period dagger:

In the third, Neal went off, adding two more of his own for a hat trick as the Penguins closed out the series.

The Penguins were so explosive in this game, they added another goal in the handshake line.

Said Paul MacLean after the rout: "I hope they don't bill us for the clinic." That guy is the best and now we won't get another press conference from him until next year. In a way, we all lost tonight.

The Penguins outscored the Senators 26-11 in this series, and if you're looking for the reason the Senators are heading home and the Penguins are heading to the Eastern Conference finals, I'd start there. Ottawa simply couldn't handle the Penguins' attack. Like, at all.

Can Pittsburgh's next opponent? The Penguins had a much easier time with the Senators than the Islanders, and one wonders if Ottawa was simply an inferior opponent, or if Pittsburgh has found their legs. The latter idea is a scary thought. Sidney Crosby scored just once in the final two games of this series. Pittsburgh still scored 13 times. The Boston Bruins (or New York Rangers, I guess) have to be hoping that was Ottawa's fault.

But it wasn't all sunshine and roses for the Penguins. With the win, the conditional draft pick they traded for Douglas Murray officially became a second 2nd-rounder. Ray Shero is probably okay with that, though.

As for the Senators, it wasn't a great way to go out, but they still have to be proud of what they accomplished this season. Many hockey fans wrote them off months ago, but they're only finished now. Plus, they look to have a promising future.

Whether captain Daniel Alfredsson is a part of it remains to be seen. Does he have one more year left in him?

Just one problem, Paul: You left a little too much time on the clock before the end of the quarter.

A mammoth posterization followed by a 29-foot 3-pointer at the horn to bring the score back within two points heading into the deciding fourth quarter. Not a bad 15 seconds of basketball, huh?

Even better? After the end of the quarter, James called out to George before the two headed back to their respective benches for a quick handshake:

This was my immediate, measured, nuanced reaction:

THE NBA IS FREAKING AWESOME

— Dan Devine (@YourManDevine) May 25, 2013

I stand by it.

George video via @cjzero. LeBron video via OUOutreach. Handshake screenshot via Bleacher Report.

Miami Heat uber-star LeBron James is widely acknowledged as the best player in the NBA, but merely calling him such doesn't communicate just how amazing he is to watch on a daily basis. In seemingly every game, LeBron does something no other player in the league can do, turning a creative idea into an incredible play with astonishing regularity.

In Friday night's Eastern Conference Finals Game 2 against the Indiana Pacers, James had one of these moments right before halftime. With the Heat down 53-44 and mere seconds on the clock, LeBron attacked the basket and drew three defenders near him to challenge a likely shot attempt. However, James changed course in midair, switching the ball to his right hand and firing a shot to Mike Miller in the right corner for a buzzer-beating three. In real time, it looked like a smart, creative move by James to get his teammate an open look and cut the lead to six points.

Replays show much more. Because of the angle of his drive, LeBron could only get the ball to Miller by twisting his body, sliding the ball closer to his ring finger and pinky (theoretically the least powerful part of the hand), and throwing a high-speed pass to Miller before hitting the ground and with enough accuracy to allow him to get the shot off before the horn. It's goofy that someone could make this pass so well. Given what LeBron's shown us this year, it's probably what we should expect from him for the foreseeable future.

In his final two games against the Indiana Pacers as a member of the Boston Celtics, Ray Allen combined to shoot 10-27 from the field. In the 2012-13 regular season, against Indiana, Allen missed 13 of 16 shots, and made just one three-pointer in nine attempts. Allen, an 88 percent free throw shooter on the year, did make 4-5 from the line.

Over the first six quarters of Indiana’s pairing with Allen’s Heat in the Eastern Conference finals, the bad luck streak in dancing school has continued, with the sharpshooter hitting for just eight attempts in 10 tries off the Miami bench. Weirder, he’s missed three of his six free throw attempts, including the infamous clang that allowed the Pacers to tie Game 1 at the end of regulation, and a technical foul miss that led to a mention that we very much appreciated.

This could be the tipping off point. A post like this could serve as a lowest dip for Allen and the Heat, especially if they find away to stop what should be a lacking Pacers offense (scored 50 points in the second half in game one, and 53 in Friday evening’s first half) and dash into the open court. The long arms of Paul George, Lance Stephenson, and George Hill aren’t as effective when Allen is spotting up in the corner in transition, with LeBron whipping away pass after pass.

It’s a pattern so far, though. Shooting 15-53 in six and a half games isn’t a fluke, it’s a matchup problem. The Heat had quite a bit to worry about entering this third round with Indiana. They probably didn’t think they’d have to Ray Allen’s shooting stroke, though. Odd, and untimely.

(And, perhaps, just one second half blitzkrieg away from righting itself.)

Well, Pacers associate head coach Brian Shaw didn't much care for that call, and he let the officials know it while Ray Allen strode to the line to shoot the technical free throw. As Allen made the shot, Shaw was assessed a technical foul of his own, putting Allen back at the stripe — but this time, the vaunted sharpshooter missed. And when that happened, Shaw knew just what to say:

You know, I've always liked that Brian Shaw.

And in case you're wondering: Yes, he played with Rasheed Wallace ... for one game in 1999. Clearly, one needn't be around Sheed for very long for him to have a life-changing impact.

After a very tightly officiated second quarter that featured 22 personal foul calls, the Pacers went into intermission with a 53-47 lead.

Video via our dude @cjzero.

With small-ball lineups reigning the NBA these days, the third-string center has become something of a lost figure. On the rare occasions when these players do get off the bench, it's typically only to provide fouls or eat up a few minutes in the event of injury. They've always been role players, but now that job is becoming increasingly minor and perhaps surplus to requirements.

Some players persist, though, including Golden State Warriors big man Andris Biedrins. Despite averaging only 9.3 minutes in 53 games this season (with ostensible starter Andrew Bogut missing 50 games), Biedrins has an early termination option to opt out of his $9 million contract for the 2013-14 season, the last year of the six-year, $54 million extension he signed as a very promising player in July 2008. To the surprise of no one, Biedrins has chosen not to exercise that option. From Chris Haynes for CSNNW.com (via PBT):

As was expected, Golden State Warriors center Andris Biedrins will exercise his player option and return to the Bay Area for the 2013-14 season, according to his agent Bill Duffy. [...]

“He will not opt out,” Duffy stated clearly to CSNNW.com.

General Manager Bob Myers has some tough decisions to make being that the Warriors are destined to be luxury tax payers next season with roughly $75 million in salary tied-up.

The punitive luxury tax system goes into effect and Carl Landry (player option), Jarrett Jack (free agent) are integral pieces the organization would hope to retain.

To be clear, this is not news because of the announcement, which was as predictable as anything that has happened in the NBA this season. There's no way that Biedrins would make this kind of money on the open market, if he were even to get a new contract offer at all. It's a shame, too, because he once looked like the kind of big man who could thrive in this era: at his best, he was active, athletic, able to cover a lot of ground, and a solid performer in pick-and-roll situations.

Under the last collective bargaining agreement, Biedrins's $9 million salary would have been an enticing trade asset for any team looking to open up cap space for future free agents. However, with the new CBA making it easier for teams to sign their own players to extensions, it's not necessarily as valuable to hold a great deal of cap space.

The Warriors, then, are likely going to have to pay Biedrins for another year. With little-used wing Richard Jefferson holding his own $11 million player option, the Warriors could be faced with paying two end-of-bench players approximately $20 million simply because of past mistakes (Jefferson came over in a trade, but it's not as if the Warriors didn't know they'd have to pay him). That's roughly a quarter of the likely salary cap, which emphasizes just how little margin for error teams have.

Biedrins and Jefferson signed these contracts fairly long ago, to the point where general managers can't be faulted too much for not predicting they'd become albatrosses under a then-undefined CBA. Nevertheless, their effect on the cap for this upcoming season suggests that these lucrative deals might not exist for valued role players in the future. With each contract getting teams closer to a more punitive luxury tax, it makes little sense to risk massive payouts on all but the best players on a team. If a player's success seems at all tenuous, why risk financial headaches for uncertain rewards? We could see more extreme salaries, with a team's most valuable players getting up near the max-level salary and everyone else inching nearer to the minimum. In effect, it might mean the marginalization of the NBA's middle class.

Former Denver Broncos center Tom Nalen made a surprising revelation this week, admitting that he tried to injure a defensive lineman's knee on a specific play during his career.

The act itself shouldn't be all that surprising. Nalen had a reputation as a dirty player through his career, as did many of Denver's linemen in the Broncos' zone-blocking era. That he tried ruining San Diego defensive lineman Igor Olshansky's knee on a play near the end of a game in 2006 shouldn't truly shock anyone.

The fact that he would announce it publicly is pretty startling, however.

"I wouldn’t consider myself a dirty player," Nalen said at a press conference for his election into the team's ring of fame. "I know people will bring up the Igor Olshansky play in 2006, but if people will look at the play before that and realize why I did what I did—and even on that play, I missed the cut. Definitely I wanted to blow his knee out on that play, because of what happened the play before. But is that dirty? I don’t know. It’s revenge, kind of."

On the play in question, the Broncos were spiking the ball near the end of a game against San Diego. Nalen dove at Olshansky's legs even though the Broncos were not even running a play. Olshansky punched Nalen and got ejected, and the 15-yard penalty with the Chargers nursing an 8-point lead drew the ire of coach Marty Schottenheimer. Nalen was fined $25,000, and Olshansky was fined $10,000.

These things happen in football, it's just that not many would admit to deliberately trying to hurt another player. Maybe this is why Nalen never wanted to talk to the media.

(Nalen famously led the Broncos' offensive linemen's childish boycott of the media when he played, bullying other players into following suit. When I covered the Broncos, in 2007 I did a "Where are they now?" series on the 1997 Broncos. I managed to track down almost everyone from that team, but the last guy who talked to me for that series was Nalen, who I asked numerous times as I saw him just about every day covering the Broncos beat. Now Nalen is a sports radio show host in Denver. Go figure.)

Nalen was a great player for those Broncos teams, as an undersized center who slipped to the seventh round of the 1994 draft but fit Denver's scheme perfectly. He was one of the best players on back-to-back Super Bowl teams and Mike Shanahan said he thinks Nalen is the best center to ever play the game. Nalen probably probably deserves to get strong consideration for the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

He was also known for a dirty style of play, and based on this week's admission, he probably earned that reputation.

In addition to recording his players' in-game conversations, New York Knicks owner James Dolan has been known to lay down some tracks in the studio as frontman of the "blues" band JD and the Straight Shot. While Dolan's band has only occasionally covered his work with the Knicks, it's safe to say that the majority of the band's fame comes from his off-stage associations. Nevertheless, when it comes to NBA owners with somewhat embarrassing musical careers, Dolan stands above all others.

However, it looks like a new challenger has emerged. After years as a budding amateur guitarist and benefactor of various music-oriented causes, billionaire Microsoft cofounder and Portland Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen will release his first album on August 6 via the Legacy Recordings imprint of Sony Music. From Randy Lewis for the Los Angeles Times (via Blazersedge):

“Everywhere at Once” is the introductory effort from Paul Allen and the Underthinkers. Allen, in case you’re wondering, is the same Paul Allen who back in 1975 created a little venture called Microsoft with his pal Bill Gates.

Allen, who also owns the Portland Trailblazers basketball team, has always been a music aficionado and an accomplished amateur guitarist who used a chunk of his Microsoft fortune to start the Experience Music Project museum in Seatte.

Now he’s assembled a debut album with his band, with a lot of help from other friends, including Heart’s Ann and Nancy Wilson, the Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde, Joe Walsh, Los Lobos’ David Hidalgo, Derek Trucks, Doyle Bramhall II and Neville Brothers scion Ivan Neville.

It’s no mere vanity project for the 60-year-old billionaire -- all proceeds will go to support educational programs at the nonprofit EMP.

“I’ve rarely gone a week without picking up a guitar,” Allen wrote in his bestselling 2011 memoir, “Idea Man. “It’s more than a hobby; it gives me balance and keeps me in the moment, which can be a challenge with all the projects I’m pursuing at any one time… I take music with me wherever I go.”

It's nice that Allen can find this release from his hectic lifestyle. Sometimes, when nabbing coveted superyacht docking spaces gets to be too much, a man has to sit back and rock out with some very famous friends.

Yet, with all due respect, to Mr. Lewis, this album is essentially the definition of a vanity project. Allen might be a very good guitarist, but it's pretty clear that this album only exists because he has ungodly amounts of money. While it's nice that he's giving any proceeds to charity, he also likely put up the costs of production himself, which means he easily could have given the money directly to these causes if that were the ultimate goal. Allen made the album because he wanted to record a bunch of tracks with classic rock stars, and any other justification seems a little silly.

Of course, if this project is about Allen's ego, it'd also be interesting to hear if Dolan feels threatened by this record. Do JD and the Straight Shot consider this their turf? Is he offended that Chrissie Hynde wouldn't appear on any of his songs? Or is Dolan a musical purist who considers the competition immaterial when groovy tunes can be so powerful?

While the Miami Heat might not have played their best game yet in these 2013 playoffs, the Indiana Pacers know beyond a shadow of a doubt that they didn't play their best game in Wednesday's Eastern Conference finals opener, either — and they still came up just one remarkable play by LeBron James (and one arguably unwise decision by Pacers coach Frank Vogel) from scoring an upset overtime win that stripped home-court advantage away from the No. 1 overall seed. They were right there, and they think — they know — they can get there again.

Still, they've got some stuff to clean up in Friday night's Game 2 if they want to close the deal and send the series back to Indiana tied up with a chance to take a commanding lead at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Here are three areas where the Pacers must improve to come away with a win:

1. Slow the march to the front of the rim. In our series preview, I noted that the Pacers had done an excellent job during the regular season of keeping the Heat from feasting on shots from their favorite, and the most valuable, spots on the floor — the restricted area (the semicircle directly in front of the basket) and the 3-point arc, especially the shorter corners.

That's the centerpiece of the philosophy that made the Pacers the league's best defensive team this year — play tight D outside, don't give shooters space to rise and fire, stay true to your one-on-one assignments and close out like demons when you have to step away, offer help without over-helping and force drivers/pick-and-roll ball-handlers to have to pull up from midrange rather than meet 7-foot-2 Roy Hibbert at the basket. It figured to be a critical element in the Pacers' attempt to overcome the Heat, and Indiana didn't do the best possible job of it in Game 1.

Well, the Pacers got it half right, at least. Indiana again did a strong job of shutting down the 3-point line, limiting Miami to 18 long-ball attempts (four fewer than their per-game regular-season average, 2 1/2 below their playoff mark) and only five makes. For the Pacers to have produced just three fewer points beyond the arc than the Heat did, given the vast gulf between the quality of shooters available to each side, was a pretty big Indy win. But then there's the not-half-right half: The Pacers struggled to keep the Heat out of the paint and prevent point-blank looks.

Thirty-six of Miami's 86 field-goal attempts (41.8 percent) came in the restricted area in Game 1, and the Heat made 26 of them. They rolled up 60 points in the paint, which would've topped the Denver Nuggets' NBA-best per-game regular-season mark and absolutely dwarfs what the Heat typically put up; they averaged 41.5 paint points per game during the season, and had dipped to 40.7 per game in the playoffs before Wednesday.

That the Heat went 26 for 36 in the restricted area (72.2 percent) isn't especially shocking given both the finishers Miami boasts and the team's track record on bunnies. They led the league with a 67.2 percent mark at the rim this season, shot a bit better (72.9 percent) against the Milwaukee Bucks in Round 1 and a bit worse (66.4 percent) against the Chicago Bulls in Round 2, and were similarly strong (64.5 percent) against a stout Indiana defense during the regular season. That they got there so often, though — that's the concern.

Because while Miami did do a fair amount of damage at the basket when Hibbert was off the floor — 12 of the 21 shots the Heat took during Hibbert's 12:03 of rest were in the restricted area, and they made nine — Erik Spoelstra's squad wasn't exactly shy about attacking when Hibbert played, either. Just under 37 percent of Miami's shots came in the restricted area while Hibbert was on the floor — a bit below the Heat's season average, but well above what Miami managed against the Pacers during the regular season — and they went 17 for 24 there. That tracks with what we saw during the regular season — the Heat shot at the rim less frequently and less successfully when Hibbert played, but they still went at him and hit better than 61 percent of their up-close looks against the big man.

All of which is to say: Yes, keeping Hibbert on the court to defend the paint as much as possible matters, but not nearly as much as keeping the Heat's perimeter players from getting there in the first place. That's easier said than done, of course, when those perimeter players include James and Dwyane Wade, and when — as NBA.com's John Schuhmann detailed — Miami found successful penetrating angles by targeting Indiana power forward David West in side pick-and-rolls, especially those directed toward the baseline.

Vogel is well aware of that, and reportedly spent the lion's share of the team's Thursday film session dedicated to emphasizing Indiana's need to "help the helper" and not allowing the integrity of the Pacers' team defense to become compromised on second and third rotations. How well Vogel's message filtered through to his players and how effectively he's been able to adjust his scheme to corral those screening actions will likely go a long way toward determining Indiana's chances of emerging from Miami with a split.

2. Take care of the ball, even if only a little bit. Again, this is something we talked about a bit in our series preview — Indiana's too loose with the ball too often, and Miami's too good at forcing too many turnovers for the Pacers to be able to survive chucking the ball all over the lot or being unmindful when handling. That largely held in Game 1, with Indiana turning the ball over on 20 percent of their offensive possessions and allowing 22 Miami points off those miscues.

It didn't come back to bite them too badly on Wednesday, though. That's due in part, as Schumann notes, to Miami managing only 11 fast-break points despite the Pacers posting nine live-ball turnovers. (That's a lot.) It also owes something to Miami's own carelessness with the rock, as the Heat balanced the scales somewhat by actually turning the ball over more frequently than the Pacers (20.6 percent of their possessions ended up going the other way) by committing a postseason-high 21 turnovers that led to 18 Pacers points. While Miami hasn't been the most careful bunch this postseason, expecting them to cough it up more than once in every five trips and expecting them not to capitalize when you give it up in the middle of the floor doesn't seem like an especially sound or reliable strategy.

A Pacers team piloted by trap-vulnerable point guards (hey there, George Hill and especially D.J. Augustin) and heavily reliant on the wing creativity of often-adventurous dribblers and passers (nice to see you, Paul George and Lance Stephenson) will never be the safest and most secure group; by now, we must accept that. But any reduction in unforced errors, ceded possessions and squandered opportunities will increase the Pacers' margin of error and put more pressure on Miami to play a cleaner game than they managed on Wednesday.

That is to say: Put your shooting shirts on and sit down, Guys on the Bench.

3. Get something — anything — from your starting backcourt. Hill and Stephenson had a rough time in Game 1, combining for just 12 points on 19 shots, turning the ball over seven times to mitigate their 10 total assists and shooting a combined 1 for 11 outside the paint, including 0 for 7 from 3-point range. Having two heavy-minute non-performing assets against an opponent as good as Miami is hard enough to overcome, but it's downright deadly when you get as little wing punch off the bench as Indiana does.

Some of those looks were contested jumpers, late-in-the-clock prayers or up-close tries taken directly in the mug of a shot-blocker, as most looks are against a swarming, octopus-armed Miami defense; it's understandable not to make those. But some were not — several times, either Hill or Stephenson got what passes for a clean look against the Heat, the result of quick decision-making and sharp ball movement, and just couldn't do anything with it. Stephenson's a bigger culprit than Hill here — on four separate occasions, he got a good look at a 3-pointer (in the right corner at about the 4:25 mark of the first quarter, on the right wing with 3:25 left in the second, in the right corner 3 with 9:15 remaining in the third quarter and on the right wing with 1:25 left in overtime) and came up empty on all of them.

Even one more make might've made a major difference in Indiana's game-long attempt at counterpunching. While neither Hill (36.8 percent from 3 during the season, 31.4 percent in the playoffs) nor Stephenson (33 percent and 23.9 percent, respectively) would be confused for marksmen, they have stepped into and made long-range shots for Vogel, and they will absolutely have to do some more of that when Indiana's able to swing the ball from the strong side of the floor to the weak side against Miami's overloading defensive scheme. If they can make Miami pay, even a couple of times, for loading up so heavily to take away David West's post-ups and George's driving room, their odds of finishing the job improve dramatically. If they can't, the noose figures to tighten on the Pacers' go-to offensive options, making an upset that much harder to achieve.

You've gone to the driving range before. But have you ever gone to the driving range the way Toronto Blue Jays sluggers Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion recently went to the driving range?

In this newest video offering from the MLB Fan Cave, the two ball-crushing Blue Jays visited Chelsea Piers driving range in New York City, with their bats at their side. And they did some driving all right — walloping baseballs while people next to them sliced at golf balls. They were knocking balls 400-plus feet off underhand tosses. Then they tried to play a game of accuracy, seeing who could be first to hit a golf cart. Watch the video to see who won.

Makes you want to play a game of baseball-golf now, huh? Us too. That might not be a real thing, but it should be. Until it becomes one, here are a couple amateur baseball-golf mash-ups for you to enjoy.

Now go out and use the three-day weekend to create a new sport.

Baseball is back. Don't miss anything.
Follow @MikeOz and @bigleaguestew, on Twitter, along with the BLS Facebook page.

As it's being reported by multiple outlets, including the Associated Press, a 14-year-old girl seated in the stadium's upper deck collapsed and needed immediate medical attention. Fans in the area immediately began calling for assistance, and among the very first to respond, thankfully, was 26-year-old Sam Sapenaro, who works primarily as a nurse but was on duty at her second job as a member of Kauffman Stadium's K-Crew (in-game entertainment).

Within the 15-20 seconds Sapenaro says it took her to arrive on the scene, which is a remarkably quick reponse, the girl was completely unresponsive and without a pulse. With the assistance of the gentleman who accompanied the young girl to the game, who also turned out to be a nurse, Sapenaro immediately began CRP and was able to successfully resuscitate her.

By that point stadium medical personnel had arrived and soon prepared the girl to be moved to the ambulance. It's reported that during the transport to the ambulance the girl had to be revived a second time, but the encouraging news is they were able to get her to a hospital where she's now receiving further treatment and is expected to survive.

It's a frightening situation to think about, but the best case outcome may not been impossible had it not been for the quick actions of Sapenaro and all of those who either alerted personnel of the situation or assisted in her treatment. It took an incredible team effort to save a precious life, and we can't thank and credit those people enough.

Of course, with that said, it's great to hear that people are reaching out, specifically to Sam Sapenaro, to show their appreciation.

Kansas City you are truly amazing. And thank you to everyone near & far for your incredible words. Love & Prayers. #KCrewLove

— SassyRNbarbie (@sassyRNbarbie) May 24, 2013

Since we can't all give Ms. Sapenaro a pat on the back, if you know another doctor, nurse or paramedic, go ahead and give them one. They deserve it.

Looking for more baseball chatter?
Follow @bigleaguestew, @Townie813, @AnswerDave and @MikeOz on Twitter
Also, check out the BLS Facebook Page

In the months since Johnny Manziel won the Heisman, most of his life has been subject to scrutiny and ridicule.

But ESPN analyst Joe Tessitore started a conversation about one of the lesser talked about parts of Manziel's world during College Football Live on Wednesday when he said people should focus on Manziel’s football skills instead of his “celebrity and VIP-ness.”

/record scratch

His VIP-what?

C’mon, channel your inner 12-year-old and say “VIP-ness” fast. Yeah, he just said that. It's OK to giggle.

Of course, Tessitore was referring to Manziel’s spotlight, which has been courtside at NBA games, the Super Bowl and hanging out with the likes of LeBron James, Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel, and not his nether region, but it was really a poor choice of a made-up-word when discussing Texas A&M’s starting quarterback.

But don’t worry Joe, this isn’t the first time that word has been mistaken for something else.

See, it happens.

- - -

Want to join the conversation? Hit us up on Twitter @YahooDrSaturday and be sure to "Like" Dr. Saturday on Facebook for football conversations and stuff you won't see on the blog.

This offseason we will count down various topics from Monday through Friday, bringing you the top five of the important and definitely some not so important issues in college football. It's the Doc Five, every week until we will thankfully have actual games to discuss.

PLAYERS WHO COULD KEEP JOHNNY MANZIEL FROM ANOTHER HEISMAN

NO. 1 AND 1A, TEDDY BRIDGEWATER AND MARCUS MARIOTA

When we go to a restaurant, we just order two dishes to avoid having to decide.

Honestly, we planned on going with Teddy Bridgewater for the top spot. But how can you pick him over Marcus Mariota? Then again, Bridgewater has to be the top candidate aside from Johnny Manziel to win the Heisman, right?

So we just picked both as the co-leaders in the race to knock off Manziel from his Heisman throne.

Bridgewater might be the most talented quarterback in college football, at least in NFL scouts' eyes. Bridgewater telling Louisville he doesn't want any part of a Heisman campaign, so the focus stays on his team, has sparked an interesting debate.

Our first reaction was that it was a fine gesture and Heisman campaigns are just aimed at lazy voters anyway. The Sporting News' Matt Hayes said he thought Bridgewater had "saved Louisville’s season and was "dodging disaster" by telling Louisville no thanks. HeismanPundit.com's Chris Huston had a contrary opinion, saying Louisville should promote him anyway, comparing a Heisman campaign to a politician's marketing campaign. Both columns raise good points.

That's all a subplot for May, however. The big picture of this week's Bridgewater story is that his Heisman train has already started, whether he requested it or not.

As the player being named as the most likely to steal the No. 1 overall pick in the 2014 NFL draft from Jadeveon Clowney (and it will be very interesting if a quarterback needy team like Jacksonville or Oakland gets the first pick), of course Bridgewater has to be a top Heisman candidate.

The biggest issue with Bridgewater is his conference and how much exposure he'll get during the season. During Louisville's lame-duck season in the American Athletic Conference before it jumps ship to the ACC, Bridgewater faces a schedule that won't provide any high-profile games. The toughest opponents on Louisville's schedule might be Cincinnati or Rutgers. He has no margin for error. That makes it incredibly tough to win a Heisman. The last Heisman winner to come from a conference as small as the AAC was probably BYU's Ty Detmer in 1990. That's a long time. Bridgewater has a lot going against him.

Not so much for Mariota, who plays in a major conference and is on a team that should compete for a national title. Mariota played very well as a freshman, leading a team that was even more successful than Manziel's Texas A&M squad. Assuming replacing Chip Kelly with offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich works (and honestly, there has to be some worry when you replace an offensive genius like Kelly), Mariota should put up numbers as good as any other quarterback.

If he can boost his passing numbers a bit (32 touchdowns and six interceptions last year was remarkable, but 2,677 passing yards might not get it done given the depth at quarterback in college football), and add a bit to his rushing numbers (752 yards and five touchdowns in 2012), he will be in the conversation. He has the dual-threat talent, as well as the explosive offense that should again run a ton of plays, to make an even bigger name for himself this season.

We would pick Bridgewater over Mariota if we were starting a team. But Mariota is in a much better spot to have a huge season and impress voters. If anyone can knock off Manziel this year, the list probably starts with these two, in some order.

Previously on the "Doc Five"
5. Jadeveon Clowney
4. Jameis Winston
3. Lache Seastrunk
2. Tajh Boyd

- - -
Want to join the conversation? Hit us up on Twitter @YahooDrSaturday and be sure to "Like" Dr. Saturday on Facebook for football conversations and stuff you won't see on the blog.

As reported by North Carolina CBS affiliate WNCT and the Jacksonville Daily News, Jacksonville (N.C.) Southwest Onslow High senior quarterback Shak Pershey was found around 2 a.m. Friday morning after he had disappeared while swimming the prior evening. Pershey reportedly ventured into the water at North Topsail Beach with a group of friends around 7 p.m. and disappeared.

While police and emergency responders launched a rapid response search, they were unsuccessful and suspended the efforts due to rough water after just two hours. A number of hours later Pershey’s body was discovered when the crew began scouring the area again.

The teen’s tragic death came less than two weeks before he would have graduated from Southwest Onslow High as one of his class’ most celebrated figures. During his senior season, Pershey led Southwest Onslow to a North Carolina High School Activities Association Class 1-AA football crown, a campaign that was capped by a 44-34 victory against Swain County (N.C.) High in December.

En route to that title, Pershey was nearly unstoppable under center. As noted by the Daily News, the senior passed for 1,149 yards and 13 touchdowns and rushed for 929 yards and 18 touchdowns. He was a three-way starter, and he intercepted five passes and recorded 73 tackles as a defensive back and returned three kicks for a touchdown.

While it is impossible for a school or small, tight community like Jacksonville to fully prepare for a tragedy of these proportions, Southwest High principal Tim Foster told reporters at the North Topsail scene early Friday that the school had a crisis plan in place and would have a number of grief counselors on site Friday for students who needed help.

Nevertheless, Foster said that the atmosphere at the school on Friday was “somber,” befitting the loss of a much loved classmate.

“[Pershey was a] fine young man and had accomplished so much,” area representative and Reverend Phil Shepherd told the Daily News. “It's times like this that we put our faith and trust in God."

Want more on the best stories in high school sports? Visit RivalsHigh or connect with Prep Rally on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

The Phoenix Coyotes are used to difficult offseasons, but this one looked even trickier. On top of looking for an owner, as usual, the club ran the risk of looking for a new General Manager and head coach as well, as the contracts of both Dave Tippett and Don Maloney were set to expire on June 30.

There was some talk that neither would receive a new deal until the Coyotes had found an owner. But with the draft and free agency coming up, and Maloney being exactly the sort of guy you want to have around for that stuff, the NHL did what a good ownership group does, and took the steps to retain their guy.

On Friday, the Coyotes announced a long-term contract extension with Maloney. From their release:

"We are very pleased that Don has agreed to sign a long-term contract extension with the Coyotes," said NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly. "Since joining the team in 2007, Don has done an outstanding job managing his team and building a competitive roster that has produced on the ice, even given less than ideal circumstances off the ice. The NHL remains committed to securing the Coyotes' future in Glendale under new ownership, and we believe Don's long-term agreement evidences that he is equally committed."

[...] "I am grateful to continue working for this franchise," said Coyotes General Manager Don Maloney. "We have a strong core of talented people, both on and off the ice, who are committed to building a championship team and a first class organization. I would like to thank NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly for their tremendous support these past few years."

So weird to see Bettman and Daly in this release. This situation is ridiculous.

That part aside, it's tough to disagree with the move. As James Mirtle points out, over the last four years, the Coyotes' record of 156-96-42 makes them the eighth-best team in the NHL. That's definitely extension-worthy, especially under the circumstances.

Maloney is basically a wartime GM. He's acquitted himself nicely and done his part to keep Phoenix competitive in a dire, dire situation. And really, he was the best candidate for Phoenix anyway, since he's the only guy with four years experience GMing a team without an owner.

After coughing up the ball for an Allen runout, Ginobili raced back, grabbed Allen's left forearm and pulled him down to the ground. It was a hard fall, but Allen appeared to get both of his hands down in front of him to break it; after impact, though, he grabbed his head with both hands and began writhing along the baseline in apparent pain. The referees on the scene called a flagrant foul, headed over to the replay monitor to review the incident and, despite widespread perception that Allen had embellished things, upheld the call, granting Allen two free throws (which he made) and the Grizzlies another offensive possession (with which they tied the game and forced overtime).

While the officials on the scene apparently saw nothing untoward in Allen's behavior, after a couple of days to review the play, the league office begged to differ. The NBA announced Friday afternoon that Allen has been fined $5,000 for violating the league's anti-flopping policy with his embellishment on the play.

Allen now joins Derek Fisher, Jeff Pendergraph and J.R. Smith as the only players penalized for simulation this postseason; should Allen run afoul of the league's flopping rules again, he'll have to cough up $10,000 for a second offense, $15,000 for a third and $30,000 for a fourth violation, in accordance with the NBA's stricter postseason flopping punishments.

It seems kind of weird to accept that the play could result in penalties for both Ginobili and Allen — on the face of it, it would seem that if the officials thought Allen oversold the degree of the contact, then Ginobili's foul shouldn't have been ruled a flagrant, and that if it was indeed a flagrant foul, then Allen shouldn't be punished for reacting strongly to a hard fall. However, as our man Freeman wrote after the play, the two don't necessarily need to be mutually exclusive:

The NBA has expanded its definition of flagrant fouls in recent seasons with the goal of keeping players safe. While players like Ginobili certainly aren't actively trying to injure players at the rim, the fact is that certain kinds of plays are more dangerous than others.

[...] under the NBA's now-standard enforcement of flagrant fouls, this play qualifies as a dangerous action with the potential to injure. Allen looked like he sold the contact beyond its apparent impact, but that doesn't mean the play was perfectly safe.

After review of the play, the referees judged Ginobili's contact — grabbing an airborne Allen's arm and pulling him to the ground — to be "unnecessary," and deserving of a flagrant foul. After review of the aftermath, the league office judged Allen's reaction "inconsistent with the degree of contact received on the play, and deserving of a flopping fine. It can be both. Maybe it shouldn't be, but the way the rules are written, it can be, and as a result, the Grizzlies' top grit-and-grind guard is out five grand.

"I'm aware," Bylsma told reporters Friday about that little blip on his NHL resume.

Since Bylsma replaced Michel Therrien in Feb. 2009, the Penguins have had six chances to initiate a handshake line on the ice at Mellon Arena and CONSOL Energy Center, and six times they've failed. Up 3-1 in their series versus the Ottawa Senators, the Penguins are also a win away from advancing past the second round for the first time since that 2008-09 season; one that ended with the franchise's third Stanley Cup.

"Our team knows exactly how important this opportunity is to get the fourth win and try to do that here as soon as possible and not look at this being three more games," said Bylsma after Friday's morning skate. "We have one game right in front of us and it's important to have that mentality and mindset for us tonight."

But as Senators head coach Paul MacLean declared during his only post-Game 4 statement, his team is going to Pittsburgh and coming to play. And like the New York Rangers, Ottawa can only follow the cliche and take it one game at a time.

The Senators won't be able to force a Game 6 if they let the high-powered Pittsburgh offense run wild like Hulkamania again. Offense is obviously the Penguins' biggest strength, having scored 16 times through the first four games. That's where Craig Anderson comes in; but he's been pulled twice in three games after having gone 43 starts, dating back to March 2012, without getting the hook. Any Ottawa comeback starts with Anderson.

"We haven't played very well," said Anderson. "You don't give up seven goals by playing well, I'll tell you that right now.

"I think we have to get back to what gives us success and that's hardnosed hockey, taking away space and figuring out how to win games 2-0 or 2-1. That's how we've had success all year and that's our blueprint for winning."

Beating the Penguins 2-0 or 2-1 is hard enough, but with Anderson in net, the Senators can pull it off. His 49-save performance in Game 3 gave Ottawa the chance to tie the score late in regulation and eventually win it in double overtime. They won't win any game that turns into a shootout, they know that, and slowing Pittsburgh's offense for three straight games in a tall task. But a goaltender getting hot in the Stanley Cup Playoffs isn't a rare sighting.

It's just a matter of how high the desperation level is on the Ottawa side of the ice.

Follow Sean Leahy on Twitter at @Sean_Leahy

There is never a good time for a relationship to end or divorce proceedings to be put into place, even if the move is necessary and agreed upon by both sides. Working through a divorce trial while working as an All-NBA member of a team two wins away from the NBA Finals, though, would be quite the mental task. It has not been completely confirmed by the player, team, or representatives, but the San Antonio-Express News is reporting that it’s more than likely that Tim Duncan and his wife have engaged in divorce proceedings, and that the San Antonio Spurs big man is attempting to delay the trial because of his postseason commitments with the team.

The Express-News’ Patrick Danner discovered the case’s paperwork this week, and deduced that the initials utilized in the paperwork (the case is listed as “A.S.D. vs. T.T.D,” Tim’s wife’s name is Amy and Duncan’s middle name is Theodore), some of the language regarding the timeliness, and (sadly), the ages of the couple’s two children to deduce that the Spurs legend is trying to put off the divorce proceedings in order to concentrate fully on the playoff run.

From the Express-News:

The case is playing out in Bexar County District Court. Court papers filed last week include a request that legal discovery in the case be postponed until after the Spurs' last playoff game.

[…]

[Duncan’s possible lawyer Sue M. Hally] filed a motion last week asking that the parties not to have to turn over documents and other information pertinent to the case until a future court date.

In the alternative, she asked the court to “give T.T.D. 30 days following the first work day following the San Antonio Spurs' last playoff game (whenever that might be) to respond to the outstanding discovery requests.”

A hearing on the request was scheduled for Thursday, according to the court docket. The outcome wasn't immediately known.

TMZ, as it usually does, went on from there:

TMZ has obtained legal docs filed in Bexar County, Texas, in which Duncan makes the case that his employment "is currently making extraordinary demands on him and hopefully will continue to make those demands for the next 30 or so days." Translation -- he's banking on a ring.

Duncan's wife, Amy, filed for divorce in March, saying she wanted to end their 12-year marriage which she says has become "insupportable because of discord and conflict."

Like her husband, Amy Duncan has more or less stayed out of the public eye while away from the AT&T Center. She was with Duncan when he toured the Orlando Magic facilities in 2000 when Duncan was a free agent, but things have remained quiet on the home front for the couple – which, as the Express-News reminded, married in 2001. Amy Duncan was a cheerleader at Wake Forest, where Duncan graduated from in 1997.

San Antonio is currently up 2-0 on the Memphis Grizzlies in the Western Conference finals, with designs on making their first Finals appearance since 2007. Whatever the pairing, the Finals won’t tip off until June 6, potentially taking until a full two weeks following that starting date to finish if the series goes seven games.

The Spurs are good enough, and the competition will be fierce enough, to drag the season out that long. And though private jets and the work of a high-powered legal staff can help expedite the process (and a prenuptial agreement, if it is officially in place, can answer a lot of questions before the lawyers get down to business), this can still be a life-altering back and forth that one probably doesn’t want to endure while thinking about guarding Zach Randolph, while potentially on and off the road for another three and a half weeks.

Reportedly. We don’t know for sure. If “T.T.D.” is Tim Duncan, though, then this is a sad time to try to muddle through. And we can understand why he’d like to put it off for a while.

• Detroit Lions' defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh discovers the difference between the NHL and the NFL in his fair city., At football games, people throw flags. At hockey games, they throw cephalopods.

• Don Cherry stands up for maligned realist Daniel Alfredsson. [Ottawa Sun]

• Cam Charron on why it would be unwise to write off the Chicago Blackhawks just yet. I haven't read it or anything, but I'll just assume it says, "because they're really good and stuff." [Backhand Shelf]

• Jonathan Toews after Game 4. "Eventually, something's got to give. We're too good a team. We've got too much talent. For as hard as we're working, something's got to go our way." [MLive]

• An interactive visualization of the NHL drafts of yore. This is very, very cool stuff from Sarah Connors. [Stanley Cup of Chowder]

• The last time the Penguins had a chance to close out an opponent in a Game 5 at home, in 2011, they lost big, both in the game and, eventually, the series. What can they learn from that fiasco, besides "don't let this happen again"? [Post-Gazette]

• Logan Couture, on whether he's talked to good buddy Drew Doughty. "“No nothing, nothing. I’ve just talked to our friends. We have a group of mutual friends, about five to six guys, so I’ve texted them. But, I haven’t talked to Drew at all. It’s probably going to hold that way for another week.” [Mayor's Manor]

• The San Jose Sharks would prefer that their series with the Los Angeles Kings goes seven games. One suspects they didn't prefer that when the series began, but here we are. [Mercury News]

• So the Bruins lost one game. Big deal. Don't panic. It's not like they're going to lose the next three. When has that ever happened before? [CSNNE]

• "Eighteen Russians, in Amish country, with a high-octane American trainer." Cool story on Lokomotiv Yaroslavl working out in Pennsylvania. [ESPN]

• John Scott could help the Buffalo Sabres' powerplay. You know, because he's big. [Rant Sports]

• Can Patrick Roy, one of the game's greatest goalies, handle Semyon Varlamov being, uh, not quite that good? [Denver Post]

• The Pittsburgh Penguins might get Brenden Morrow back for Game 5. [NHL]

• Who are the Edmonton Oilers' best scouts? [NHL Numbers]

• The Coyotes are nearing an extension for GM Don Maloney. [FS Arizona]

• Looking at how attendance has rebounded in Tampa Bay since the arrival of Jeff Vinik. [Raw Charge]

• How a fan and is friends turned an Ottawa Senators' third-period goal into free Big Macs for the homeless. [HuffPo]

• Hey, remember Marc-Andre Fleury? When will he play again? [The Hockey Writers]

• A high school in Nova Scotia has created an all-hockey curriculum, because Canada. [CBC]

• Henrik Lundqvist is beloved in New York. What other goaltender gets chants of supports from the home crowd after giving up this goal?

He leads not just the American League, but all of baseball, with a .391 batting average and 55 RBIs. His 14 home runs are second to only Chris Davis of the Baltimore Orioles, who has 15. Those 55 RBIs are something, though. The next highest is Davis with 44. Cabrera is on pace to knock in 198 runs, according to ESPN Stats & Info — which is absurd, but actually a tad less absurd when we're talking about Miggy.

All those stats are one way of telling you how good Cabrera is. But the GIF above can show you in a different way. It comes from Drew Sheppard of Fangraphs — who also made that marvlous Yu Darvish GIF. Just look at Cabrera covers the plate, but maintains his swing. Go ahead, try to say he's not dangerous. All six of these pitches, it's worth noting, Cabrera hit for home runs.

Here's Sheppard explaining his work:

This composite clip shows six pitches of varied location that Cabrera not only hit with power, but for home runs. The footage has been synchronized to the time of contact and stabilized at home plate to represent the end location of each pitch as accurately as possible. The pitches are taken from the last year, with the furthest off the plate over nine inches inside.

Head over to Fangraphs to see this broken down in a number of ways. Seriously, do it.

Baseball is back. Don't miss anything.
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In the closest finish in Indianapolis Motor Speedway history, Peter Dempsey beat Gabby Chaves to the finish line by .0026 seconds in a four-wide finish to win the Indy Lights Series Firestone Freedom 100 Friday afternoon.

Almost incredibly, Dempsey was fourth behind Carlos Munoz, Sage Karam and Chaves on the final lap. But when Munoz, Karam and Chaves went three-wide on the backstretch, the hole they created in the air allowed Dempsey to draft up to their bumpers.

The three stayed three-wide off of turn four when Dempsey got a run on the high side of the track and had just enough room to slingshot past the trio and nip Chaves at the line for the first Indy Lights win of his career.

"Enough (room) for an Indy Lights car to fit through," Dempsey said after the race. "It was tight, you know. I was just hoping they weren't going to move, because if the moved, there would have been a huge crash. I've seen too many big crashes over the years, so that's what I said, hats off to the other three drivers. They gave me the respect, they gave me the room. I might have snuck up on them a little late, maybe a little too late to see me, but they gave me just enough room. I don't think they would have fit another car in there, that's for sure."

The Indy Lights Series is the feeder series for the Izod IndyCar Series. Munoz, who finished fourth, is also running in Sunday's Indianapolis 500 and will start third.

Indy 500 coverage on Yahoo! Sports:
• Watch: The surprising thing Helio Castroneves would give up for fourth Indy 500 win
• Why does the Indy 500 run for 500 miles?
• Indianapolis 500 starting grid | Slideshow: Past Indy 500 winners

Hot -- Bryan Pedersen: Many legislators have talked about the economic benefits of MMA when the sport is legalized. Few have gone the extra mile to find out what it feels like to be in a cage to fight. Pedersen will do that in Cheyenne, Wyo., this weekend. No matter the result, it's admirable that he has even gone the distance to train and join the first fights to take place in Wyoming's capitol.

Not -- Renan Barao: The interim bantamweight men's champ was injured and had to pull out of his main event bout with Eddie Wineland at UFC 161. Dan Henderson and Rashad Evans' fight is now the main event, and Roy Nelson vs. Stipe Miocic was added.

Hot -- John Cholish: After losing to Gleison Tibau at UFC on FX 8, Cholish decided to hang up his fighting gloves. Before he left, he decided to give his fight purse to Oklahoma tornado survivors.

To update I just received my fight purse payment of $2,014 from Zuffa. I will be donating 100% of it to charity-Oklahoma Tornado Victims

— John Cholish (@JohnCholish) May 23, 2013

Kudos to Cholish.

Not -- Brett Atchley: The manager who specializes in female fighters has been accused of bad behavior by several fighters separately. His alleged improprieties include accosting fighters, telling them he would "blackball them" from Invicta though president Shannon Knapp has denied anyone has the power to do this, and sharing the confidential details of a client's contract. His response?

"It's really easy for women to play the victim, especially when they make their mind up that they're going to do it. Because everyone will believe them," Atchley said to MMA Junkie.

Stereotyping women is not a smart thing to do, particularly by someone who makes his living off of them.

Still taking temperature -- Cain Velasquez: He lost the UFC heavyweight championship belt once, and managed to get it back. Will he defend it on Saturday night against Antonio Silva at UFC 160?

Thanks for reading Cagewriter this week. Check us out on Twitter and Facebook for bonus UFC 160 coverage.

"I don't know if you could say I won the jump ball. But I didn't lose the jump ball." — San Antonio Spurs forward Matt Bonner, who is the best, to Deadspin's Alan Siegel in a "brief oral history" of his hilarious jump ball vs. Memphis Grizzlies forward Zach Randolph early in the fourth quarter of the Spurs' Game 2 win over the Grizzlies on Tuesday.

Do yourself the service of heading over to Deadspin for the rest. You deserve it. And whether or not Bonner considers himself the "winner" of the jump ball, I think it's fair to say that, every time we watch it, we all win.

Hughes posted this tweet Friday, holding a venti something-or-other with "Sanderson" written on the cup. Sanderson, as you may or may not know, is Jeter's very-distinguished-sounding middle name.

Payback! sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mlb-big-… twitter.com/PhilHughes65/s…

— Phil Hughes (@PhilHughes65) May 24, 2013

Funny stuff, Phil (and we're not just saying that because you included a Big League Stew link, promise).

This, of course, opens up a litany of inside-baseball gags to be used during trips to Starbucks. Robin Ventura can get coffee as "Nolan." Zack Greinke's Starbucks cup could have "Carlos" written on it. The entire Tampa Bay Rays team can get Starbucks cups that say "Fausto," a nod to name-changing teammate Roberto Hernandez.

As for Jeter? Here's hoping next time he gets Starbucks he chooses "Joba" as his alias. Oh, or "Alex" — that would make the tabloids squeal.

Baseball is back. Don't miss anything.
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An accident involving a Roman candle last July 4 cost Homewood-Flossmoor (Ill.) High junior right-handed pitcher Jameson Lamb the use of his right eye, as detailed in a tremendous feature by Chicago Sun-Times columnist Pat Disaboto.

After H-F coach Todd Sippel specifically warned his players "not to be stupid" following a summer league game on July 3, 2012, the next day Lamb and his friends gathered near his family's cottage in Michigan to set off some fireworks, the Sun-Times detailed.

Just teenagers being teenagers, right? Well, here's the problem: The kids decided to hold the Roman candles in their hands, and when one of them thought the series of bursts had finished, he lowered the tube and fired one last shot into Lamb's eye.

"He turned around and I was like, ‘Oh, my God,’" Lamb's father Sean described to the Sun-Times. "There was a black hole in his one eye. It was like the ‘Terminator’ movie.”

In the aftermath of a handful of surgeries and dozens of doctors visits, however, Lamb's attitude has been inspiring. According to the feature, he doesn't blame his friend, swore off fireworks and accepted the challenge of playing baseball with full use of only one eye.

Within a fortnight of the injury, Lamb began playing catch with his father, said Disaboto. Almost a year later, he's 1-1 with one save, a 3.20 ERA and 12 strikeouts in 19.2 innings, leading the Vikings to a berth in the Class 4A regional semifinals this weekend.

Thankfully, a series of medical procedures could return Lamb's vision and appearance to normal, the Sun-Times said. But remember: While baseball and fireworks-fueled summer holidays may be as American as apple pie, it's best to approach both the right way.

And as long as we're on the subject, let's not forget Memorial Day is about honoring those who died in service to the United States Armed Forces. Thank a serviceman or woman if you get the chance. They deserve it.

Want more on the best stories in high school sports? Visit RivalsHigh or connect with Prep Rally on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

For example: Liz Habib is a sports reporter for FOX 11 in Los Angeles. She occasionally does LA Kings highlights. In the playoffs, they tend to go horribly, horribly wrong.

So with 10 minutes left in the third period of Game 4, Willie Mitchell scored for the Los Angeles Kings to cut the San Jose Sharks’ lead to 2-1.

Except it wasn’t Willie Mitchell, who has three career playoff goals in 71 games. It was Mike Richards, who has 22 in 94 games.

Because Willie Mitchell wasn’t playing in Game 4.

Because Willie Mitchell hasn’t played since Game 6 of the 2012 Stanley Cup Final.

Because Willie Mitchell’s knee is so [expletived] that he’ll likely miss parts of the 2013-14 season.

But we do appreciate Liz’s mathematical explanation concerning what happens when a team in a 2-2 series wins Game 5.

If Liz Habib’s name rings a bell, perhaps the name “Brad Doty” rings one. Yes, she was the sportscaster behind the Greatest Highlights Train Wreck of the 2013 Playoffs.

Please advance, LA Kings. YouTube needs you.

Racing is a dangerous business, and it can turn deadly. Canadian driver Greg Moore was an exceptional open-wheel driver who died far too soon, in 1999 at age 24. A friend and colleage of such notables as Dario Franchitti, Moore appeared headed for a career of racing stardom before dying in a wreck in the 1999 season finale. The new documentary "A Hero's Drive" recounts that story, and so much more, in heartbreaking detail.

A proud Canadian, Moore wore red gloves no matter what his sponsor's colors. James Hinchcliffe, also a Canadian, was just 12 years old at the time of Moore's death, and considered Moore his hero. Moore never got to race at Indianapolis, but Hinchcliffe offered some small measure of tribute by carrying a pair of Moore's gloves during qualifying. It was a powerful moment, and a perfect way to memorialize Moore.

Above is part 1 of "A Hero's Drive." Below are parts 2 and 3.

Part 2:

Part 3:

If you understand or appreciate the Packers-Bears rivalry in the slightest, you know how funny and brilliant that is. And if you're basically any sane person, you also understand it was a joke.

Well, someone at NESN (New England Sports Network) didn't get it, which led to a joke on top of the original joke.

The screen grab of NESN reporting the Urlacher joke as actual news during a broadcast was obtained by @FSURich and forwarded to SportsPickle.

Oh ... this is good. RT @fsurich @sportspickle, @nesn thinks your article is real news. twitter.com/FSURich/status…

— SportsPickle (@sportspickle) May 24, 2013

Now that's funny.

Mistakes happen, obviously, but being on the wrong end of a satire article – especially one about the preposterous notion that Urlacher would ever sign with the Packers, or vice versa – isn't the error you want to make.

Related coverage on Yahoo! Sports:
• Bears LB Brian Urlacher's retirement forced in part by blow to pride
• Newly retired LB Brian Urlacher face of the Bears in the 21st century
• Slideshow: Brian Urlacher through the years

As a result, Wardle will not only retain his job but also avoid either a fine or suspension.

What led UWGB to hire an independent investigator to look into Wardle's behavior was a series of alarming accusations by former forward Brennan Cougill and walk-on center Ryan Bross. In a story published last month by the Green Bay Press-Gazette, Bross claimed Wardle called him derogatory and homophobic slurs, interfered with his academic course choices and ran him when he was ill during preseason conditioning to the point where he lost control of his bowels.

The statement UWGB chancellor Tom Harden released Friday mostly defended Wardle's conduct, especially how he handled Bross' illness during preseason drills.

Evidence culled from interviews with more than two dozen individuals suggested Wardle neither forced Bross to keep running even though he wasn't feeling well or humiliated him in front of the team. Harden does acknowledge, however, that "Wardle should have more appropriately sent the player back to the locker room at an earlier point in the drill."

UWGB also largely dismissed Bross' claims that he was prevented from pursuing a certain major because the course load would interfere with basketball. The investigator found that, like all freshmen, Bross' course preferences weren't given the same priority when the team's practice schedule was set as they would have been were he an upperclassmen.

The one area where the school did fault Wardle was the language he used when criticizing his players. Harden said some of Wardle's words were "obscene or vulgar" and he crossed the line encouraging a player to have sex because it would make him better in practice.

"I do not condone the notion, as some have suggested, that Division I basketball “culture” should allow coaches to mistreat players or direct obscene or vulgar language toward them," Harden said.

"There are certain words that are unacceptable — period — and Coach Wardle has acknowledged they are unacceptable. [The] report shows Coach Wardle has, at times, used such unacceptable language in criticism and comments to players,though whether it was specifically directed at particular players remains unclear. Coach Wardle has acknowledged the need to stop using certain offensive words in his dealings with student athletes, and I am confident he will be able to do so."

Since the school essentially found Wardle was only guilty of something numerous coaches do across the country, his punishment is predictably minor. In addition to a disciplinary letter addressing his language being placed in his personnel file, Wardle will not get his usual rollover contract extension and will be assigned an adviser to help him properly motivate players in the future.

Wardle, not surprisingly, was pleased by the outcome.

"I want to stress that I am grateful for the opportunity to represent this University and will continue to build a program of which it can be proud," Wardle said in a statement. "As a head coach it is my responsibility to care for our student athletes as if they were my own children. Their personal development is very important to me. I have done a tremendous amount of reflection and self-examination over the past several months that will help me improve as a coach. I am confident that our players are in a healthy environment where they can reach their academic and athletic potential."

That the independent investigator essentially refuted the worst of the accusations has to be a relief both for Wardle and for UWGB. As I wrote a few weeks ago, the allegations from Bross, in particular, were severe enough that Wardle's job likely would have been in jeopardy were they found true.

Of course, the one question that remains is why Cougill and Bross would concoct or embellish accusations against Wardle.

Maybe other players and coaches covered for Wardle. Maybe the two ex-players simply had an axe to grind. Maybe the truth is somewhere in between. Regardless, hopefully this experience serves as a learning experience for Wardle and his staff and accusations like this don't surface again.

UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones is in Russia this weekend. He met retired great Fedor Emelianenko and tried a McDonald's that was apparently of a higher quality than ones in the U.S. He also found time to go back and forth with a possible future opponent.

Its on @jonnybones cant wait to get in that cage with YOU!!!

— Alexander Gustafsson (@AlexTheMauler) May 24, 2013

Fighting me is not good for your image@alexthemauler FYI

— Jon Bones Jones (@JonnyBones) May 24, 2013

@jonnybones if you think of what is good for your image, maybe you should continue to fight this 185ers??

— Alexander Gustafsson (@AlexTheMauler) May 24, 2013

Ouch! But it's not worries about their images that will keep this pair out of the cage. The dislocated toe Jones suffered during his fight with former middleweight Chael Sonnen is causing some problems. UFC president Dana White talked it about on Thursday.

"He says he feels great, the toe's healing good, but the problem is that ligament," he said. "That ligament popped. Anytime you tear a ligament, blood flow helps repair the thing and heal, and you don't get a lot of blood flow to the toe. Who knows? This thing could be six weeks, it could be six months."

Still, if these two are already pestering each other, the build up to a potential fight could be lots of fun.

The NBA’s newest set of Finals promos is based around legendary Finals moments from current players. This is a nice idea, but also one that severely limits the league’s choices, especially in regard to the four active teams fighting for the right to make it to the final round.

Thumbing their nose at convention, in the wake of highlighting a Dirk Nowitzki one-legged jumper from the 2011 Finals, the league went Kobe Bryant this time around, dunking on Todd MacCulloch during the 2002 Finals:

Sweet dunk, Kobe.

Frankly, I don’t want to be reminded of the 2002 NBA Finals. The Lakers were finishing a bickering end to the team’s three-peat, while taking on a New Jersey Nets team that would have ranked as perhaps the fifth or sixth-best team in the NBA that year. Kobe and Shaquille O’Neal were fantastic that season, but the team’s bench was terrible, and the Nets were given weird credit as this terrifying fast break machine, when really the team produced some of the more boring half-court basketball in the NBA that season.

We eagerly await the next clip of Tim Duncan shooting a solid jump hook over Drew Gooden in the 2007 NBA Finals.

With two German clubs in the Champions League final, their London hosts are probably a bit more apathetic about the event than they would otherwise be. So to combat that lack of enthusiasm and win over the locals, Borussia Dortmund have organized a rather impressive friendship campaign in the lead-up to the match against more well known Bayern Munich.

The ad above is just one of many parts of their "From Dortmund with Love" campaign in London, urging citizens to enjoy the match while also positioning BVB as the underdog fairytale club that neutrals should get behind. But just how much campaigning are they doing in the city?

From the London Evening Standard:

A black and yellow double-decker bus will tour central London with an onboard team handing out gifts on both tomorrow and Saturday.

The bus will stop off at a number of destinations to celebrate the final with fans.

There will also be men in yellow and black busbies standing guard over some of London's iconic tourist attractions while in various locations such as Tower Bridge, Big Ben and Buckingham Palace, there will be life-size cardboard cut-outs of star players including Robert Lewandowski and Marco Reus to showcase the club's love of football.

Here's a map (it's a PDF file) that shows all the landmarks they have covered with their scarves on statues, hot air balloon rides, BVB busbies, touring yellowing bus and player cut-outs. They also have moving signs driving through the city with pandering slogans like "thanks a million for inventing the game we love" and Beatles imagery.

It's a clever way to build grassroots support abroad that should give them a bit of lasting goodwill beyond Saturday's game. Bayern, meanwhile, will just continue to buy all the players that Dortmund charm people into supporting. There's more than one way to skin a cat.

"Actually, we weighed him in at 403," Fisher said on Thursday. "We had him in for the tryout, and he had some issues that we had to clear up from a physical standpoint. But he got that put behind us. We worked him out on both sides of the ball, defensive line and offensive line, and we felt like his best position would be right tackle. [Rams offensive line coach Paul Boudreau] said he'd love to have him. He's a defensive lineman that we've converted to offensive lineman."

Brown actually played on both sides of the ball in college, and Fisher also joked about using him to block kicks. And why not? As Gil Brandt of NFL.com said of him, Brown "just might be the biggest player we’ve reported on."

And as you can see from the video below, the Rams had best reinforce their folding chairs.

As for the speed part of that height/weight/speed equation ... well, Brown's still working on that. At his pro day, he ran the 40-yard dash in 5.80 and 5.88 seconds, but it was his raw measurements that set NFL teams off. Brown measured in with 38-inch arms and a 92 3/8-inch wingspan, far above the norm, even by NFL standards.

That said, if he makes the Rams' roster, Brown would not be the tallest player in pro football history -- that honor goes to Richard Sligh, who played a few games for the 1967 Oakland Raiders at seven feet tall even, and was a reserve in Super Bowl II. The heaviest player ever to make an NFL roster (at least, we're talking official weight here) was Aaron Gibson, who cracked the 400-pound bar with the Dallas Cowboys in 2002.

Related coverage on Yahoo! Sports:
• New Cardinals QB Carson Palmer feels reborn in the desert
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It's a (gettin' down on) Friday edition of Marek vs. Wyshynski beginning at 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT, and we're talking about the following and more:

Special Guest Star: Adrian Dater of the Denver Post talks Patrick Roy to the Avalanche and the NHL Playoffs.

• The Red Wings defeat the Blackhawks again; can the best team in the NHL rally from 3-1 down?

• Brad Richards, John Tortorella and a squirmy situation.

• GAME SHOW FRIDAY

• Previewing the weekend's games.

Question of the Day: How would you have handed out the NHL awards? Email puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or hit us on Twitter with the hashtag #MvsW to @wyshynski or @jeffmarek.

Click here for the Sportsnet live stream or click the play button above! Click here to download podcasts from the show each day. Subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or Feedburner.

Fred Tedeschi is the trainer for a team that cleared former Bulls center Omer Asik to play in the 2011 NBA playoffs with a broken leg.

Tedeschi is on the staff of a team that presided over the mishandling of Luol Deng’s infamous absence in the 2013 playoffs, when the Bulls announced Deng’s severe reaction to a spinal tap procedure (one that Deng himself had to personally disclose on Twitter, after the Bulls denied a procedure took place) as “flu-like symptoms.”

Deng also played through the last two months of the season with a fractured thumb, when he was cleared as game-workable, alongside torn ligaments in the same hand.

Fred was also on the staff when center Joakim Noah – who has a history of falling prey to plantar fasciitis due to overuse – averaged 40 minutes a game for the first three months of the season. The Bulls staff also has an Internet connection, which would reveal that Noah runs more during those particular minutes than any other player in the NBA.

Noah was also cleared to play during the 2012 playoffs in a game that saw him severely sprain his ankle, an injury that would knock Noah out of the Olympics some three months later.

Tedeschi last won the award in 2007, two years before the Bulls sent out a letter regarding Luol Deng, telling the media that Deng should be undertaking something called “active rest” to work himself toward "expeditious return to play." The Bulls training staff then "encouraged [Deng] to challenge himself physically."

Luol Deng got a second opinion from another doctor, who revealed that Deng had a broken right leg. Something not enough “active rest” in the world can heal.

Congratulations to Tedeschi and the rest of the Chicago Bulls.

How many "best parts" can a photo have? This picture of Minnesota Twins superstar Joe Mauer at (perhaps) 9 years old has too many to count.

• The Zubaz pants. They've been making a comeback, thank goodness, but for a while it appeared the striped wonders would remain a relic of the late 1980s and early '90s. Every kid in '92 (with any taste) wanted Zubaz, and obviously Mauer's parents came through for the lad.

• The reluctant smile for the camera. Mauer (from what I can tell) is genuinely friendly, and a nice guy as an adult, but there's some shyness there also. His emotions mostly stay under the surface, a lament of some Twins watchers. It makes sense that, while he's obviously happy about winning a basketball trophy and wearing those pants, something prevents him from showing a grin. As the inset photo of Mauer shows, it's obvious he's worked on that part of his personality.

• The bangs. Oh my gosh darn it, the bangs. That's the price you pay for Zubaz pants; subjecting yourself to bangs because that's what mom wants. It's "kid pro quo" at its most elemental. Note, again in the inset photo, how Mauer's catcher's helmet simulates the bangs today. Mauer is in charge of his own haircut now — he's an adult — but he's still got mom on his mind. That's for you, Mrs. Mauer.

• The basketball trophy. We don't know precisely what he got it for, but it's likely that Mauer's team won a tournament. He was, after all, a 12-sport star by the time high school came.

• The house. As Twitter follower Bob Bohland said:

@answerdave @overthebaggy @twins_morsecode yep, that's the house he grew up in on Lexington Pkwy in St Paul

— Bob Bohland (@dropshotbob) May 23, 2013

@answerdave @overthebaggy @twins_morsecode haha, i went to grade school with Joe, spent a lot of time in that backyard hitting wiffle balls

— Bob Bohland (@dropshotbob) May 23, 2013

Can you imagine? The original Mauer Compound in the Twin Cities! It's like seeing where George Washington, or Jay-Z, or the Corleones from "The Godfather" grew up! Love the brick. Indifferent about the awning.

• The shoes. Untied high-tops. Who can't relate to that? My grandfather was a photographer, and one of the best tips he ever gave anyone taking a picture was, "Everybody's got feet." In other words, don't worry about capturing every inch of the person. Waist-and-up is fine. Thank goodness his sage advice was ignored here. Not only do we see all of the Zubaz, but we get to see Joe Mauer's untied shoes. Crucial to the adorableness quotient of the photo.

This photo has been kind of an internet legend for a few years, having been discussed at places like Randball. It showed up on the Facebook site for Zubaz on Wednesday, and Danny Ferris, one of the MLB Fan Cave dwellers, tweeted about it. And now it's part of The Stew's permanent record. I'm going to celebrate by buying some Zubaz pants.

Baseball is in full swing! Interact with @AnswerDave, @MikeOz, @Townie813and@bigleaguestew on Twitter, along with the BLS Facebook page!

“It’s a tremendous honor,” Ditka said via a team statement. “It’s something that I didn’t anticipate or expect, but it’s a great honor. When you think of all the great Bears players who have had their jerseys retired, I can’t say that there’s any greater honor. I’m very humbled by it and very thankful that [team chairman] George [McCaskey] made the decision to go ahead and do that because it’s really great."

Ditka was selected in the first round by the Bears in the 1961 NFL draft out of Pittsburgh and went on to define the franchise's tough-minded mentality as much as anyone who's ever been a part of it. He caught 316 passes for 4,503 yards and 34 touchdowns in six years for the Bears at a time when tight ends were generally afterthoughts. But contract negotiations with George Halas went south when Ditka famously said that Halas "throws nickels around like manhole covers," and he was traded to Philadelphia. His playing career ended in Dallas in 1972, and Tom Landry immediately hired him as an assistant coach. Halas brought Ditka back into the fold by hiring him as the Bears' head coach in 1982. And in 1985, Ditka's Bears won Super Bowl XX with one of the greatest defenses of all time. He became the first person in the modern NFL to win an NFL championship (1963) and a Super Bowl with the same team as a player and as a coach.

“Mike Ditka embodies the spirit of everything the Bears are about,” McCaskey said. “He’s an icon. The last time we won the championship Mike Ditka was our coach, and the last time we won before that Mike Ditka was a player. The organization knew it was the right thing to do. He revolutionized the tight end position as a player and grabbed an entire franchise by the throat as a head coach and willed it to victory in the Super Bowl. We have more retired numbers than any other team in the NFL. After this, we do not intend to retire any more numbers but we thought if there is going to be a last one, there is no more appropriate one than 89.”

In 1988, Ditka became the first tight end inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

“It’s the consummation of a career," Ditka said of the Bears honor. "It’s one of the greatest things you could be honored with. When you mention [Gale] Sayers and [Dick] Butkus and some of the guys who have had their jerseys retired, it’s an unbelievable group of men and great players in the NFL and for the Chicago Bears. It’s a tremendous honor. It’s just fantastic and I’m very honored and very pleased. I can honestly say that if it wouldn’t have happened it wouldn’t have mattered because the joy I had from playing with the Bears was unbelievable. I had a lot of fun doing what I did. I had a great career and a great time.”

The Bears have also retired the numbers of Bronko Nagurski (3), George McAfee (5), Halas (7), Willie Galimore (28), Walter Payton (34), Gale Sayers (40), Brian Piccolo (41), Sid Luckman (42), Dick Butkus (51), Bill Hewitt (56), Bill George (61), Clyde "Bulldog" Turner (66) and Red Grange (77). McCaskey's statement would seem to intimate that anyone looking for the Bears to retire the number of linebacker Brian Urlacher, who retired from the NFL on Wednesday, may have to wait a while.

And in honor of Ditka, we proudly present his greatest fans:

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The question was “what is 9 times 9?”

The answer? Marian Hossa, a.k.a. No. 81 for the Blackhawks.

As you can see, her teacher was baffled at first ...

We know what you’re thinking: Did she get credit for what was, in a roundabout way, a correct answer?

Justin Breen of DNAinfo Chicago had this whimsical hockey story, and spoke with Maggie’s teacher. While she didn't quite get what the answer meant at first, Maggie clarified it for her:

Her teacher, Christine Mech, circled the answer and wrote "What is this?" in red pen. When Maggie explained her response, Mech gave her credit, and she received an A+.

"Maggie is a very clever little girl," said Mech, who's a Hawks fan and knew what Maggie was up to. "I love the way Maggie has a sense of humor. She did get her 100 percent on the quiz, and we had a little bit of a laugh afterward."

Maggie's mother, Diane, posted a photo of the exam Wednesday afternoon, and it already has more than 1,300 "Likes" on Facebook. It even has appeared on the Blackhawks official Facebook page.

Hopefully this ushers in a new era in Chicago area schools when it comes to math. After all: Duncan Keith times Duncan Keith equals Niklas Hjalmarsson, and Niklas Hjalmarsson times Niklas Hjalmarsson equals Marcus Kruger, and …

Further proof that no matter what the question is, hockey is the answer.

s/t Deadspin

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In one of the quirks of top level swimming, Missy Franklin has now proven that she can beat just about anyone in the world at most strokes, but she couldn’t beat future Cal teammate Celina Li, a fellow high school senior from Pleasanton (Calif.) Foothill High, when the two competed in the 200-meter individual medley at the AT&T Winter National Championships. Li finished that race with a time of 1:55.28 with Franklin hitting the wall at 1:55.88.

As noted in a terrific profile of Li from MaxPreps, the Foothill senior is a far cry from a physically imposing figure like Franklin, but still manages to fly through the pool. Li stands just 5-foot-3, a height which assuredly puts her at a significant setback when competing against the likes of Franklin and other international stars. Yet what Li lacks in physical presence she makes up for in her technical talent, with her club coach claiming that the teen has “impeccable strokes.”

Li has never let her height affect her enthusiasm for the pool, either. She trained in both swimming and gymnastics growing up, but decided that swimming was a safer sport once she began to reach the more advanced levels of gymnastics.

"You don't see a whole lot of shorties like me," Li told MaxPreps. "I like being short though. … I don't think height matters as much as how determined you are and how much heart you put into it."

That attitude likely resonated with Franklin, with the pair reportedly bumping into each other during the recruiting process and getting along quite well (Li said of Franklin, “she really is the nicest person.”).

Between the two incoming freshmen, Cal could have quite a Class of 2017, with both swimmers likely to earn berths to the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, provided that they stick with the sport between now and then.

"She's incredibly strong and very flexible. ... She may be small, but she always swims big,” Foothill coach Lauren Andrade told MaxPreps. “She has the heart of a lion. She swims with such courage. She's fearless and unafraid.

"The thing about Celina is that she's just so versatile. She's just scratching the surface to all she can do.”

Want more on the best stories in high school sports? Visit RivalsHigh or connect with Prep Rally on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

A Dallas County, Texas judge has ordered Dallas Cowboys defensive tackle Josh Brent to undergo further alcohol monitoring while he awaits a trial on an intoxicated manslaughter charge, Selwyn Crawford of the Dallas Morning News reports.

Brent was arrested by Irving, Texas police following a Dec. 8 accident that claimed the life of Jerry Brown, a linebacker on the Cowboys' practice squad and Brent's former teammate at the University of Illinois. Brent's blood-alcohol level was twice the legal limit when his Mercedes S600 hit a curb, causing it to overturn and catch on fire.

Brent faces up to 20 years in prison and his trial is scheduled to begin on Sept. 23. Brent is currently free on a $100,000 bond. Friday's hearing came about after the Dallas County District Attorney’s office filed a motion on Thursday to revoke Brent’s bond on the grounds that he had violated his bond by either drinking alcohol or being around it. Brent has been wearing a SCRAM bracelet on his ankle and failed to log data on 22 occasions.

Brent will continue to wear the SCRAM bracelet, which will now randomly sample for alcohol.

The 25-year-old Brent was a supplemental draft choice by the Cowboys in 2010. After playing sparingly during his first two seasons in the NFL, Brent started five of 12 games in 2012, setting career-highs with 22 tackles and 1.5 sacks. Following his arrest, Brent was placed on the "non-football injury" list by the Cowboys, who paid him the remainder ($95,294) of his $540,000 base salary. Brent has one season remaining on his current contract and been present at the team's Valley Ranch headquarters this offseason, but he will not play for the Cowboys in 2013.

The only folks who didn't see the humor in a Knoxville barbecue chain's clever radio ad poking fun at former Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl were members of the Ohio State compliance department.

They told Sporting News they intervened this week, requesting point guard Aaron Craft's name be removed from the ad out of fear the use of it could result in a minor NCAA violation. NCAA rules stipulate that a current student-athlete’s name or likeness cannot be used for commercial ventures.

"We have taken the necessary steps with all parties involved to alleviate any potential NCAA issues," Ohio State associate athletic director for compliance Doug Archie told Sporting News. "Aaron Craft's eligibility was never in danger. He had no knowledge nor provided consent."

Craft's name pops up in the commercial because of his role in the career-altering mistake that got Bruce Pearl fired as Tennessee's basketball coach.

Pearl hosted a backyard barbecue at his home for Craft while Tennessee was recruiting the point guard, a violation uncovered by the NCAA enforcement staff when they found pictures of the future Ohio State star at Pearl's home. Bruce Pearl later lied to NCAA investigators when questioned about the location of the barbecue, resulting in his firing.

In the radio ad, Steven Pearl, Bruce's son and host of a weekly show on Tennessee Sports Radio, begins by telling listeners "if there's one thing we Pearls know, it's how to throw a barbecue." Then after lauding the food at the restaurant chain, Pearl delivers this hilarious line: "Just remember, my two rules for legendary backyard barbecues – get your food from Calhoun’s and absolutely no photography."

The part of the commercial Ohio State has asked to be removed is the brilliant one-liner in the legal disclaimer at the end of Pearl's pitch. "Offer not available to Aaron Craft," it concludes.

Of course, the purpose of the radio ad obviously wasn't to get Craft in any trouble, but it's understandable Ohio State would send a cease and desist request. The school has endured enough trouble with the NCAA compliance issues recently. It doesn't need a clever but innocuous radio ad creating anymore.

Related coverage on Yahoo! Sports:
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By Dmitry Chesnokov

Sergei Bobrovsky is the favorite to win the Vezina Trophy. His 2.00 GAA and .932 save percentage season nearly led the Columbus Blue Jackets to the Stanley Cup Playoffs for only the second time in team history. He may be the cover model for NHL 14.

Ah, yes: He’s a restricted free agent this summer. Translation: Sergei Bobrovsky is going to get paid.

The question is: Who’s paying him?

Columbus GM Jarmo Kekalainen said the two sides haven’t made any progress on a new contract. According to the Columbus Dispatch, the Blue Jackets will extend a qualifying offer to Bobrovsky by the end of June to retain his rights. After that, he would be open to an offer sheet from another NHL team.

But there’s another suitor.

Some time in April, SKA St. Petersburg decided to go after Bobrovsky. I was told the money they are willing to offer is very good.

SKA wanted to get Colorado Avalanche goalie Semyon Varlamov a couple of years ago. This time they want Bobrovsky.

They also know him well because he played for the club during the lockout. After the lockout was over, Bobrovsky mentioned in a number of interviews that he was following how SKA was doing in the KHL playoffs.

Bobrovsky was snubbed by the Russian national team and didn't make the roster. Signing with SKA would virtually guarantee he'll be in Sochi.

However, this option is by far not the most attractive to him. Bobrovsky wants to play in the NHL

The 2013 season has not gone as hoped, so far, for the Toronto Blue Jays or young slugger Brett Lawrie. The Jays have a 20-27 record amid injuries and below-average performances, and Lawrie has experienced both personally.

However, that doesn't mean the Jays need to play in dirty uniforms, or that the players can't be responsible for cleaning them — like many other Canadians in charge of their own work laundry. So it's reassuring that the Jays aren't afraid to function in Toronto society amongst the people, like Lawrie does in this TV commercial for Rogers cable.

As a fan explains to the dry cleaner all of the wonders of being able to watch R.A. Dickey throw knucklers on his mobile device, Lawrie casually enters the establishment, reaches over the counter with a recognizably tatted arm and grabs his stuff. He says his line flawlessly, too. Great range, just like at third base!

But does the fan recognize Lawrie? Almost. Maybe once he gets on a hot streak, there will be major bro hugs.

A fun, creative commercial by Dean Hore, though — unfortunately for the Jays — it's Lawrie's best work this season. But only so far. He'll get it together.

Big BLS H/N: Captainlatte on Tumblr

Baseball is in full swing! Interact with @AnswerDave, @MikeOz, @Townie813 and@bigleaguestew on Twitter, along with the BLS Facebook page!

Pads, helmets, handoffs. For football fans longing for the NFL's return, this week's OTAs scratched an insatiable itch.

On this week's hard-hitting program, Brad Evans and Andy Behrens reacted to Michael Crabtree's premature demise, went to war over perpetual underachiever Ryan Mathews, project ballyhooed right-hander Kevin Gausman and pinpointed when Francisco Liriano's 'Fransucko' side will bubble to the surface.

Too busy prepping the grill? No problem. Listen to the replays below:

LISTEN TO HOUR 1 HERE (NFL)

LISTEN TO HOUR 2 HERE (NFL/MLB)

Hemingway once wrote that Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania is also known as "Ngaje Ngai," or "House of God." Ray Lewis has spent enough time thanking God for all of his success over his career, so it makes perfect sense he'd head up to the Big Guy's house to say hello in person.

Lewis announced on Twitter that he'll be ascending the 19,000+-foot summit this summer:

Fans U know 1st- Tackling Kilimanjaro 2 bring clean H2O to kids in Africa. RT & enter to win my signed #Ravens helmet:bit.ly/YZUUEi

— Ray Lewis (@raylewis) May 23, 2013

Lewis' "TackleKili" journey is intended to help raise awareness, and funds, to bring water to children in East Africa. It's a noble aim, and you can take part in TackleKili by clicking here.

Kilimanjaro is the highest peak in Africa, and the largest freestanding mountain on the planet, so congrats to Lewis on attempting such a feat. We demand video of the Squirrel Dance at the summit.

-Follow Jay Busbee on Twitter at @jaybusbee.-

NFL video from Yahoo! Sports:

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For those who don't feel quite like reading the fine newsprint, here's Milwaukee Journal scribe Bob Wolf's account:

As far as the visiting Seattle Supersonics were concerned, the only amusing thing about the basketball game at the Arena Tuesday night was that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wore his trunks backwards.

Aside from that one little slipup, the Milwaukee Bucks were a fearsome lot as they dismembered one of the better teams in the National Basketball Association, 123-91. [...]

At game's end, the badly beaten Sonics were ready to agree that it didn't make a bit of difference how he wore his pants.

Asked about his sartorial mistake, Abdul-Jabbar grinned and said, "Somebody told me about it shortly after the game started, but we were going by then."

Since the Bucks' trunks are the boxer type, the only visible evidence that Abdul-Jabbar had them on backward was that the club emblem was in the back instead of the front. And he didn't bother to turn them around at halftime.

On one hand, not pulling the old switcheroo when you've been notified that your shorts are on backward — as Washington Wizards big man Kevin Seraphin did on the bench back in January 2011 — seems kind of strange. On the other, though, it's hard to mess with success — Kareem finished with 26 points, 18 rebounds and four assists in the blowout win.

Maybe Cap knows something we don't about the feel, comfort and performance-enhancing elements of backward shorts. There's only one way to find out if it holds true in today's NBA — we're going to need one of the players still alive in the conference finals to give it a shot. My vote's for Zach Randolph, because:

A) He could use a shift in luck after shooting 27 percent from the floor in two losses to the San Antonio Spurs, and

B) The Grizzlies are already the most Internet-friendly team in the NBA, and this would only bolster their bona fides.

C'mon, Z-Bo. Come out reversed for Saturday's Game 3. Make Kareem, and the rest of us, proud.

Hat-tips to Uni Watch and The Basketball Jones.

Unless you've been hanging with Wilson on a deserted island, you know that any big sports event is followed by the inevitable Taiwan animation of that event.

This week we got our golf fix of the ridiculousness thanks to the verdict that anchored putters will be banned by 2016 and what Sergio Garcia said of Tiger Woods at a European Tour player's party.

Come for the anchored putter golfers being forced to walk the plank, stay for what Tiger does to Sergio at the end of the video.

h/t With Leather

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Wonder no more, fare citizens: The NHL announced on Friday that in lieu of an off-season spectacle in Las Vegas to celebrate the best of the best of the truncated season, the NHL Awards will be handed out during the Stanley Cup Final on two made-for-TV specials featuring the League’s game analysts.

Which sounds like there will be a distinct lack of Chaka Khan, Def Leppard, Nickelback and the Real Housewives of Orange County. Which makes us sad.

From the NHL:

The National Hockey League and National Hockey League Players’ Association, in collaboration with national television partners NBC Sports Group, CBC’s Hockey Night In Canada and NHL Network, and NHL.com, will celebrate and honor the accomplishments of the top players, coaches and executives of the 2012-13 NHL season during two television specials at the 2013 Stanley Cup Final.

At 7 p.m. ET as a lead-in to Game 2 of the 2013 Stanley Cup Final, NBC and CBC will co-produce and co-host a program announcing the winners of the Calder Memorial Trophy, Hart Memorial Trophy, James Norris Memorial Trophy, Ted Lindsay Award and Vezina Trophy.

Originating from the location of Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final, the hour-long program will be televised on NBC Sports Network in the U.S. and in Canada by CBC’s Hockey Night In Canada and will feature the hosts and hockey analysts from both networks. The program also will be streamed live online at cbcsports.ca.

At 5 p.m. ET the previous evening, the day prior to Game 2 of the 2013 Stanley Cup Final, NHL Network in the U.S. and Canada will televise and NHL.com will stream live the announcement of the winners of the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, Frank J. Selke Trophy, Jack Adams Award, King Clancy Memorial Trophy, Lady Byng Memorial Trophy, Mark Messier NHL Leadership Award presented by Bridgestone, NHL Foundation Player Award and the NHL General Manager of the Year Award.

The program will be hosted by NHL Network personalities and produced from the NHL Network set on location at the Stanley Cup Final.

NHL.com will continue to provide full coverage of the NHL Awards including live updates of each award, an interactive chat with fans during both television specials, video features and reaction from the winners.

So the awards will be announced on-site with the fanfare of the NHL Draft Lottery.

OK, perhaps not even that much fanfare: Will the winners even be present? Doesn't sound like it. Maybe Ryan Suter can Skype in from his ranch in Wisconsin to accept the Norris.

Will there be proxies? Can Ovechkin send a Russian model named Olga to pick up his Hart?

Finally: Is it wrong to think this is just the Hockey Gods dropping trou and defecating on the Columbus Blue Jackets yet again? Bob wins the Vezina, and doesn’t even have a reason to wear a tux?

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And in 2011 Weis made almost twice as much money as Kelly ... from Notre Dame.

This is why you shouldn't rush into silly contract extensions, kids.

According to the Chicago Tribune, which cited federal tax documents, Weis received another buyout payment of $2,054,744 from Notre Dame in 2011. During the same reporting period, Kelly got $1,088,179, although the Tribune points out that probably doesn't represent Kelly's total earnings that include external sources.

No matter, the story points out the absurdity of Weis' contract with Notre Dame. The Tribune reports that Weis is scheduled to keep getting buyout payments until Dec. of 2015, and that the total buyout should end up totaling $18,966,867 (and yes, Dr. Saturday is already preparing to copy and paste this post when we're writing about Iowa and Kirk Ferentz in a couple years).

Not sure about Weis, but his agent surely had a decided schematic advantage.

Weis, who received an initial payment of $6,638,403 after his firing according to the Tribune, serves as a cautionary tale.

Weis had five years remaining on his contract in 2005, when the school decided to renegotiate those five and add five more. That was during Weis' first season with the Irish. The 10-year extension turned out terribly for Notre Dame but pretty well for Weis, whose final three years with the Irish included a 3-9 season in 2007.

The next time a school thinks about renegotiating a coach's contract less than a full season into a six-year deal, it should think about Weis and just let it play out a little longer.

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You're not going to believe this, but Indiana Pacers center Roy Hibbert thinks that Miami Heat forward Shane Battier planting a surging right knee square into his giblets on a first-quarter drive during Wednesday's Game 1 win wasn't an accident. The Pacers' primary shot-blocker and layup deterrent shared his opinion of the Duke product's deviousness with his Twitter followers on Thursday:

[Related: Miami Heat still getting better, which is scary]

U can knee or kick me every time u drive 2the rim. Ill be there 2protect the rim. That wasn't inadvertent. Battier knew what he was doing

— Roy Hibbert (@Hoya2aPacer) May 23, 2013

Well, you won't always be there to protect the rim. But generally speaking, yes, we get what you're saying — "Come at me, bro."

So, what led Hibbert to speak out? The big man explained at Indiana's Friday morning practice:

Hibbert tweeted last night because he read someone call Battier's play 'inadvertent.' Hibbert: "That's bulls---."

— Tom Haberstroh (@tomhaberstroh) May 24, 2013

He also reiterated his commitment to standing tall in the paint, no matter what kind of shots might be coming south of his border:

Hibbert said he will take knee from Battier again if necessary. "I have no problem putting my nuts in the line of fire."

— Jorge Milian (@caneswatch) May 24, 2013

Battier, for his part, didn't speak with the press on Friday, which is unusual. Hmm.

I don't disagree that Battier's knee was dirty — I mean, it's hard to view thrusting your knee into an opponent's trunk any other way — but Battier probably does have some plausible deniability with respect to whether he meant to jam it into Hibbert's groin. He could cop to a lesser charge — say, just trying to create separation from the defender on the drive — while making a self-deprecating joke about his athleticism ("I didn't think I could jump high enough to catch Roy there!") and people would laugh about how lame a no-stats All-Star he is. Then, with the situation defused, Battier could turn away, cackle malevolently, and twirl his terrible mustache. It'd be the perfect crime.

Battier was slapped with an offensive foul for his misdeeds. By the sounds of it, though, if he tries it again in Friday's Game 2, he might be slapped with something else. Like the monstrous hand of an angry 7-foot-2 gentleman. Better keep those knees down, Shane; it'd take an awful lot of Bud Light to soothe that sting.

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Ryan Kelly already was assured plenty of lifelong memories from 2013 but now he's made it one of the best years of his life no matter what is to come.

The former Duke forward used his Twitter account Thursday night to announce his engagement to longtime girlfriend Lindsay Cowher, the daughter of former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Bill Cowher.

There already was the memorable game in early March in when Kelly returned to the Duke lineup after missing nearly two months because of injury to score 36 points in a win over Miami. Kelly drained seven of nine 3-pointers that day and seemed unstoppable.

Kelly was part of another Duke run to the Elite Eight where the Blue Devils lost to eventual national champion Louisville, capping his final season playing for coach Mike Krzyzewski.

Kelly will also get his shot at playing in the NBA later this year. He is expected to be a second-round pick in next month's NBA draft. Whether he's drafted or not, the 7-footer will get his chance to make a NBA club in summer league and training camp in the fall.

The love of my life @lindsaycowhersaid yes! #sohappy #blessed twitter.com/RyanKelly34/st…

— Ryan Kelly (@RyanKelly34) May 23, 2013

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Helio Castroneves has won three Indy 500s. And come this Sunday, he wants another. Bad. Reeeeeal bad.

On Thursday, Castroneves told a local radio show that he'd give up sex for an entire year to win Indy one more time. Castroneves asked whether the restriction was only on his girlfriend, or if he could play the hypothetical field in this hypothetical question that probably got him in a bit of real trouble, and was told, nope, everyone's off limits.

“I would not give up Indy, my friend, I’ll tell you that,” he added. “I think I can handle one year without sex because Indy is Indy.”

Yes, this is a hypothetical question. Very much so. Who would orchestrate such a trade? What would they have to offer the other drivers? How would Helio be tracked? The mind boggles.

Castroneves is one of the co-favorites to win at 7-1, along with Scott Dixon, Marco Andretti and Ed Carpenter. Both Castroneves and Dario Franchitti are seeking a record-tying fourth Indy 500 win.

-Follow Jay Busbee on Twitter at @jaybusbee for updates all weekend live from Indy.-

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Ray Small, an infamous name to Ohio State fans, sat in a chair being recorded on a cell-phone video and apologized repeatedly to everyone, especially those involved with Buckeyes football.

It's hard to imagine Ohio State fans will just forgive and forget Small being a big part of a scandal that led to Jim Tressel resigning and a bowl ban for the Buckeyes in 2012, but the video obviously showed Small is regretful for what he has done.

Small, a Buckeyes receiver from 2006-09, admitted in 2011 to The Lantern student newspaper that he sold memorabilia including Big Ten championship rings, and identified a car dealership as giving Buckeyes players special deals. That story intensified a growing scandal in which other players had been suspended for selling memorabilia to a local tattoo parlor. Tressel would resign a week later. As a result of NCAA sanctions from that scandal, a 12-0 Ohio State team was ineligible to play for a conference title or in a bowl game last season.

And Small is sorry for all of it.

In a rambling two-part video posted to YouTube (h/t to Eleven Warriors for pointing it out), Small sits in an office chair and continually apologizes. At one point he apologizes to his peers, his elders and young people, which should cover everyone. He talks about his upbringing, saying his father sold drugs, his mother worked three jobs and he was raised by his sister so he had no discipline in his life, and how he didn't understand how to conduct himself as a college athlete. In 2012, Small was arrested and charged with drug possession, accused of having more than 200 oxycodone pills.

He repeatedly directs his message to kids, saying he wants them to learn from his mistakes.

"This is coming from the heart, honestly," Small said. "I’m just really appreciative and blessed the fact that I can catch on to this situation in my life, because it’s not going too well. The decisions that I made – I've never been a good decision maker, I haven’t, and I probably have a couple people that can vouch for that – and with that said, I want to give out my condolences and my heart to a lot of people, like my former teammates. My former teammates were like the world to me, and I treated them like nothing. To Buckeye Nation, I sorely apologize to the Buckeye Nation, because I’m a Buckeye for life, regardless of how people like it. I kind of got 'X’ed out from being a Buckeye, and that kind of hurt my heart."

Small also apologized to Tressel and then-Ohio State receivers coach Darrell Hazell, who is now the head coach at Purdue.

"I am truly sorry for my actions," Small said. "My life did a complete 360 on me, and I just want to talk to Coach Hazell. That was like my favorite guy because he always kept it strictly real with me. I want to apologize to Coach Tressel because he told me, he tried, he gave me many chances and many chances. I’m here today to speak up on my behalf and say I’m a man and I understand the things I have done wrong."

Small, who said in the video that he has three kids of his own, said his trial on the drug possession charge will be in July. He said he is writing a book, which could be fascinating. The story he tells over about 19 minutes in the videos is of a young man from a troubled background, who failed the seventh grade because he barely went to school, but overcame it to get a scholarship to Ohio State. Then he didn't handle that opportunity well, burned bridges at Ohio State, got arrested and seems to realize that he needs to turn his life around, saying, "I was the guy that didn’t get it." He repeatedly talks about hoping kids learn from his mistakes, and perhaps he can have a future speaking to youth groups.

Although it's hard to imagine Buckeyes fans embracing him again, he says in the video it isn't too late for him to change his direction in life.

"At the end of the day it’s about what do you do, and what have you learned," Small said. "You can’t keep doing the same things over and over, speaking as far as mistakes. You can’t keep having mistakes over and over. That’s what I lacked in life."

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Houston running back Charles Sims, arguably the team’s best offensive weapon, announced Thursday he was departing Houston, leaving his football future up in the air.

“It is with regret and deep humbling, that I am ending my playing career at the University of Houston," Sims said in a statement. "I have a lot of great memories that I will carry with me forever. I want to thank the University of Houston for allowing the opportunity to be a part of its football program.

"I don't know what my next step will be. I have one more year of eligibility, therefore I may look to play one more year of college football or I may enter the NFL Supplemental Draft later this year."

In January, Sims said he would return for his senior season, but after receiving his degree this spring, Sims started having second thoughts. Since he has graduated, Sims could transfer to another school and be eligible to play immediately.

Sims struggled with injuries last season, but was the Cougars’ leading receiver with 851 yards and 11 touchdowns. He averaged six yards per carry.

There’s no doubt Houston isn’t the team it was under former coach Kevin Sumlin. It was 5-7 in 2012 and lost to Texas State to start the season. That’s a far cry from the 13-1 record in Sumlin’s final year before moving to Texas A&M.

Even if you’re not familiar with Sims’ work on the field, you might remember that he was the subject of an April Fools’ prank coach Tony Levine played on Houston fans just a few months into his tenure. Levine issued a press release and did an in-house interview announcing Sims' move from offense to cornerback and that Houston was going to play a new 3-1-7 (three defensive linemen, one linebacker and seven defensive backs) scheme. At the time, Levine hadn’t coached a game and earned a lot of flak for moving an All-Conference USA rusher to defense.

Unfortunately for Houston fans, this is not another hoax and the Cougars will be losing one of its best players making Levine's second season another challenging one.

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Kevin Iole: Cain Velasquez TKO3 Big Foot Silva -- I believe Silva will be more competitive and won't make the mistake he made last time. But as the fight goes on, it swings even more in Velasquez's favor, given his vastly superior cardio. I expect him to slowly wear Silva down and stop him around the fight's midpoint.

Maggie Hendricks: Cain Velasquez W5 Antonio Silva --Velasquez has better wrestling and better cardio than Silva, and it will pay off as he defends his belt.

Cagereader: 92 percent of Cagereaders said Cain Velasquez will win.
Cain has to much heart unless you knock him out he's not going! And Big Foot doesn't deserve another shot yet anyway!! -- Michael Gabbard

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Kevin Iole: Junior dos Santos Sub1 Mark Hunt -- Junior would be a fool to stand and trade with Hunt. I think he'll look to get it to the ground and finish it there.

Maggie Hendricks: Junior dos Santos W3 Mark Hunt -- JDS has the footwork to exhaust Hunt and wear him down.

Cagereader: 68 percent of Cagereaders said Junior dos Santos will win.
Dos Santos will use superior speed and footwork to outclass Hunt. Too much credibility is given to Hunts striking because of the mythological "K1 Striker" label. Truth be told, he won that title with technically sound striking with a lot of power, not exceptionally good striking. Most of his wins in MMA have had nothing to do with his savvy striking but his chin and insane power. Honestly thought those who don't think Dos Santos is on another level with his speed and footwork are lying to themselves aside from Cain who has touched him? I know this logic isn't very sound but it took Hunt a while to put away Struve, and JDS took less than a minute and the logic truly is his speed, timing, and explosive nature outweigh the punchers chance Hunt brings to the table. It will be a pick apart clinic Hunt swinging at air getting battered by a fighter who will dart in and out like a heavyweight Machida. -- John Hensley

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Kevin Iole: T.J. Grant W3 Gray Maynard -- More of a hunch than anything, but Grant has been on a roll and he might catch Maynard looking past him.

Maggie Hendricks: Gray Maynard W3 T.J. Grant -- Maynard is very good at neutralizing his opponents' skill.

Cagereaders: 83 percent of Cagereaders think Maynard will win.
Maynard is going to use lay and pray to get his title shot. I see a boring fight ahead. Maynard via decision. -- Christopher Walder

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Kevin Iole: Glover Teixeira TKO3 James Te Huna -- It will be tougher than expecrted, but Teixeira's varied game will win out in the end.

Maggie Hendricks: Glover Teixeira TKO2 James Te Huna -- It's been an impressive start in the UFC for Teixeira, and that won't stop on Saturday. His power will be on display.

Cagereaders: 76 percent of Cagereaders think Teixeira will take it.
The well-rounded skill set and chin will allow him to weather the storm, get Te Huna to the ground and grind him out. -- John Hensley

--

Kevin Iole: Donald Cerrone W3 K.J. Noons -- It should be an explosive fight, but if Cerrone remains under control, he'll handle Noons.

Maggie Hendricks: Donald Cerrone W3 KJ Noons -- Cerrone will be looking to come back after his loss to Anthony Pettis.

Cagereaders: 87 percent of Cagereaders say Donald Cerrone will win.

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So Thursday night after the New York Rangers’ thrilling Game 4 OT victory to stay alive against the Boston Bruins – a game for which Richards was a healthy scratch, after being benched as a fourth-liner in Game 3 – Tortorella offered a defense of his fallen star:

Said Torts:

“Brad Richards is a hell of a hockey player. He has had struggles here. It continues. Me putting him in that role does not help him. So I’d rather have him out and identify how we’re going to run our fourth line.

“So none of ya’s, don’t put words in my mouth, it’s not blaming Brad Richards. I’ve already heard enough of that crap already, as far as this is concerned. He’s a hell of a hockey player that’s having a hell of a time. So I need to make decisions for what I feel is right for this team to win tonight’s game, and that’s why I made that decision.

“This is a Conn Smythe winner. A guy I’ve grown up with. A guy I love as a person and a player, but I have to make that decision regarding this. So kiss my ass if you want to write something different. It’s not about blaming that guy. I don’t want anybody to pile on him. This is my decision and I make it for the hockey club.”

Obviously, you feel for Torts, having to make these decisions on a player with whom he won a Stanley Cup and a player that chose the Rangers as a free agent because Tortorella was there. They have a long relationship as player and coach. Neither imagined this day would come.

But they were the right decisions: Richards had one point in 10 games, was terrible on the power play and clearly didn’t fit on the Rangers’ fourth line. Richards goes out, the Rangers score on the power play and the fourth line played great in limited minutes. This is not a coincidence.

Hearing Tortorella defend Richards as “a hell of a hockey player that’s having a hell of a time” makes you wonder: If he’s still the coach in 2013-14, might Richards get another chance to turn this around before a buy-out, or is he a goner?

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Here’s a little fun for your Friday.

Indiana released a promo video this week for something. Sorry, we can’t be more specific, but the video doesn’t offer a lot of clues at to what it’s trying to share with the audience. Just a few local heroes giving their thoughts when the “thing” is unveiled.

"Niiiiiiiiiice.,” former running back Anthony Thompson said. “That is nice. I like that.”

"Oh yeah. You really fire me up on that one, I guarantee you,” former coach Bill Mallory said.

He then adds: “Holy mackerel," later in the video.

So, I thought we could have a little fun with this by asking our wonderful G-rated readers what they thought these Indiana greats were looking at? Perhaps they were watching Winona Ryder’s ping-pong ball trick from South Park?

Indiana radio announcer Don Fisher did say it was unique.

Get your minds out of the gutter, people! It’s probably a new uniform or helmet.

But we’ll take suggestions as to what else it could be.

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H/T Coaching Search

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At the end of Thursday's news conference formally announcing his return as U.S. men's national team coach, Mike Krzyzewski made a brief but intriguing comment sure to spark debate.

Asked if the opportunity to coach in the NBA still intrigues him, Krzyzewski explained he is happy at Duke, especially because of the challenge the revamped ACC will provide.

"I love what's happening with our conference," Krzyzewski said. "We're going to be a 10-bid conference. We're going to be the best conference in the history of the game. It's exciting to be part of that."

The ACC will certainly improve dramatically thanks to the addition of Syracuse, Pitt and Notre Dame next season and Louisville the following year, but Krzyzewski's suggestion it will be the best league of all time is a bit more dubious.

Don't forget the powerful Big East produced three Final Four teams in the same season during its Chris Mullin-Patrick Ewing heyday in 1985 and sent two different schools to the Final Four two years later. Or that the more recent version of the Big East earned three No. 1 seeds in 2009 and landed a record 11 NCAA tournament bids in 2011, with its ninth-place team capturing the national championship. Heck, you could argue this may not even be the strongest incarnation of the ACC considering the caliber of the league before it added Miami, Boston College and Virginia Tech in a bid to improve in football.

For this upcoming era of ACC basketball to compare favorably, the league will need not only Duke, North Carolina, Syracuse and Louisville to remain powerhouses but some of its lower-echelon programs to step up in class.

Georgia Tech faded from national relevance late in Paul Hewitt's tenure and has yet to fully recover so far under Brian Gregory. Wake Forest is in the midst of one of its worst periods in program history under embattled coach Jeff Bzdelik. Boston College hasn't made the NCAA tournament in four years or won an NCAA game in six. And football-first Virginia Tech, Clemson and Miami have been erratic at best, aside from the Hurricanes' brilliant but perhaps short-lived success this past season.

Throw in long periods of mediocrity from NC State, Virginia and soon-to-be-Big Ten-bound Maryland, and it's fair to say the ACC has mostly ridden Duke and North Carolina's coattails recently.

The league has averaged a modest five NCAA Tournament bids per season since its 2004 expansion and produced only four NCAA teams two of the past three seasons. No ACC team besides Duke and North Carolina has made a Final Four since Hewitt's Georgia Tech team lost to UConn in the 2004 national title game.

Obviously, it's unrealistic for every program in a 15-team league to be strong in a given season. But for the ACC to live up to Krzyzewski's gaudy expectations, the league will need some of its middling programs to rise to the level of their competition.