No Obamamania for Brandon Marshall

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081124/zirin

No Obamamania for Brandon Marshall

By Dave Zirin

All Brandon Marshall wanted was the opportunity to be part of the moment. The Denver Broncos’ wide receiver wanted to feel connected to the thousands who have flooded into the streets and the millions in a state of shock and awe around the world, celebrating the election of Barack Obama.

Marshall’s plan was to score a touchdown on Thursday night and then take out a black-and-white glove and hold it up to the sky. “I wanted to create that symbol of unity because Obama inspires me, our multi-cultured society,” he said after the game, choked with tears. “And I know at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico, Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised that black glove in that fist as a silent gesture of black power and liberation. Forty years later, I wanted to make my own statement. I wanted to make my own statement and gesture to represent the progress we made.”

Unfortunately, we will never know what would have happened, or how the crowd would have reacted. We will never have that image of a football player bringing politics to the field. Marshall did score a touchdown, but as he removed the glove from his pocket, his teammates stopped him.

The problem was that Marshall’s touchdown came with only one minute and twenty-two seconds left to play, putting the Broncos ahead, 34-30. His teammates–particularly fellow wideout Brandon Stokley and tight end Tony Scheffler–saw what he was about to do and stopped him, fearful of an automatic fifteen-yard penalty for “unsportsmanlike conduct.”

One can be charitable toward Stokley and Scheffler, given the moment in the game-although the image of two white players surrounding a black player to block his political statement is the antithesis of the very ideas Marshall was attempting to communicate.

Yet the reaction from ESPN was even worse. The first talking head back at the SportsCenter headquarters took a shot at Marshall’s emotional press conference saying, “Well the sentiment is exactly right, even if the speechwriting needs some work.” His partner then said of Marshall, “It’s not about you or what you think. It’s about the team and what they need to do.” Ex-player turned broadcaster (and sometime soap opera star) Mark Schlereth called it, “The best play of Stokley’s career.” The Sporting News’ Chris Mottram called it “Marshall’s Moronic Touchdown Tribute to President-Elect Obama.”

Mottram then wrote of Marshall, “He’s not bright, or flat out selfish, or a combustible mixture of the two.”

There is no question that Marshall was taking a risk. There’s no question he could have cost his team the game. He also could have paid a professional price.

His coach, the stone-faced Mike Shanahan, has a written rule about not bringing the politics into his all-business locker room.

Marshall could have risked the ire of the NFL, known as the No Fun League for cracking down on any hint, any whiff, of individuality on the part of players.

But maybe Marshall thought that the moment was more important than the game. Maybe he looked at basketball players like Kevin Garnett, who had the slogan “Embrace Change Vote ’08″ written on his sneakers, or Carmelo Anthony, who said that he would score forty-four points Wednesday in honor of the forty-fourth president. Marshall wanted to be part of the energy that has inspired more pro athletes to take part in this election cycle than ever before.

Instead of derision, Marshall merited our respect–sports fan or not– which should actually be exponentially higher since he was willing to take this risk when the game was on the line. The image of a pro football player raising a black-and-white hand to the skies forty years after Smith and Carlos and two days after the election of a black president in a country built on slavery could have echoed through the ages. Someone should tell the suits and ESPN: some things are actually more important than sports.

[Dave Zirin is the author of "A People's History of Sports in the United States" (The New Press) Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.]

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Serena Williams abusing surfboards!

Uber-curvy tennis star Serena Williams is having an ace time surfing with her new boo! (is that still the proper term these “street” multi-millionaires use?!)

Baby shooo got back! And then some!

The guy is Common (real name Lonnie Rashid Lynn …. yes really!!), who, when not lounging around Maui with the muscular tennis champion, makes some sort of hip hop music.

It seems like they’re the latest hot couple, after they were spotted flirting outrageously at a party some months back.

Now they’re surfing in Hawaii.

Don’t worry … Serena has a specially reinforced surf-board!

The timing isn’t bad for Williams as she had to bow out of the WTA tournament in Moscow because of knee problems. Else she was perhaps afraid of being hammered by one of those goddarn rooskies on home soil!

Common’s extremely keen on his giant queen of the waves!

Recently he was asked about his ideal lady: “I like strong women,” he said (instead of saying “I like giant booty babes who are multi-millionaires and who have biceps the size of melons” (BTW, is there really steroid testing in tennis?) )

Well, “strong” is one word for Serena! Or maybe he likes being pussy-whipped! Or maybe he’s talking about some weird S&M stuff! Who the fuck knows! Or cares!!

Yawn!

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Football Players are plain crazy!

This lot make even John Terry seem intelligent!

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Reasons to love soccer – number 1

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Former UFC champ Evan Tanner dead at 37

A rather bizarre – and very sad – story here.

Apparently, Evan Tanner was found dead in the Californian desert near Palo Verde on Monday.

The context seems to be that, while on some sort of Carlos Castenada spiritual journey into the desert, his motorcycle ran out of gas and he died due to heat exhaustion while trying to make his way to safety on foot.

Tanner had embarked on a camping trip some time around Sept. 2 into the desert-like region north of Brawley, Calif., approximately two and a half hours east of San Diego.

What makes this even stranger is the fact that, according to his friend Ian Dawe, “I knew how well prepared he was for this excursion. Although Evan was somewhat of a nomad, he was also very meticulous and organized. He kept a notepad full of tasks that needed to be accomplished for the day, and as most of you know, a very detailed journal.”

There seem to be a few other critical facts here that need to be made known.

I saw a couple of Evan’s fights back in the day and he was one hell of a fighter! He was a former UFC Middleweight and USWF Heavyweight champion with a professional record of 32 wins and 8 losses. He was also the first American to win the Pancrase Neo-Blood tournament in Tokyo, Japan.

Hard to believe he’s gone – aged only 37! And in such a bizarre – and assumably very avoidable – context.

All sympathies to his family and loved ones.

THE FOLLOWING WAS WRITTEN BY IAN DAWE, ONE OF EVAN’S CLOSEST FRIENDS.

There are no words to explain how I feel right now.

I had seen the threads on the internet about Evans disappearance earlier today and thought nothing of it. Over the past year and a half Evan and I spent a lot of time traveling, training, and living together. Just recently Evan made the trip from California to Quebec to corner me, he hadn’t even moved into his apartment yet. That is just an example of the type of friend Evan was.

After my fight Evan and I spent the entire night talking about women, motorcycles, and supplies for his trip. I knew how well prepared he was for this excursion. Although Evan was somewhat of a nomad, he was also very meticulous and organized. He kept a notepad full of tasks that needed to be accomplished for the day, and as most of you know, a very detailed journal.

Evan meant a lot of things to a lot of people. To some he was a drifter, a poet, a warriror. To others he was a world champion and source of inspiration, he was my best friend. More importantly, Evan was his own man. He knew his path, and he walked it, as he will continue to walk in our hearts.

Please leave comments of memories or stories you have of Evan.

BELIEVE in the POWER of ONE.

Ian Dawe

Read more here:

http://www.evantanner.net/


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evan_Tanner

Former UFC champ Tanner dead at 37

By Jeff Cain, Ken Pishna, and Tom Hamlin/MMAWeekly.com

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight champion Evan Tanner was found dead near Palo Verde, Calif. on Monday. He was 37.

Tanner had trekked into the desert on a journey to “cleanse” himself, according to Douglas Vincitorio of Tanner’s management team. “He went out to the desert to do a ‘cleansing’ as he called it. Kind of like ‘Survivorman.’” These short trips were not new to Tanner, said Vincitorio. It is something that he has done numerous times over the years.

“What we were told is that (Sheriff’s officials who found Tanner) believe his motorcycle had run out of gas, so he went to walk out in like 115- to 118-degree heat,” Vincitorio said. “He was miles away from his camp. That’s where the helicopter found him. Right now, they just think that he succumbed to the heat.”

Tanner had apparently told friends before he left that if they hadn’t heard from him in a couple of days, they should contact officials, which is what happened. When he stopped responding to text messages, friends waited a couple of days and then notified officials at the Imperial County Sherrif’s Department on Friday.

A search ensued and Tanner’s body was found Monday.

On Aug. 10, Tanner wrote a blog on Spike TV’s website, proclaiming his desire to start an adventure in the desert east of his new home in Oceanside, Calif. An avid outdoorsman and wandering spirit, he wanted to escape civilization for a while.

“I’m not just going out into the desert, I’m going out into the desert to hunt for lost treasure,” he wrote. “I’m going on a pilgrimage of sorts, a journey to solitude, to do some thinking, and to pay my respects to the great mysteries.”

On Aug. 16, Tanner wrote about collecting supplies for his journey, and wrote about the dangers he might face.

“I plan on going so deep into the desert, that any failure of my equipment, could cost me my life,” he said. “I’ve been doing a great deal of research and study. I want to know all I can about where I’m going, and I want to make sure I have the best equipment.”

Of course, this led followers of his blog to fear for his safety, as they often did when Tanner reported his frequent by-the-seat-of-his-pants adventures. In a blog dated Aug. 27, Tanner tried to calm his audience.

“This isn’t a version of ‘Into the Wild,’” he wrote. “I’m not going out into the desert with a pair of shorts and a bowie knife, to try to live off the land. I’m going fully geared up, and I’m planning on having some fun.”

But he also affirmed that things could go wrong if his equipment wasn’t up to snuff.

“I do plan on going back pretty far, so I did mention in one of my posts that I wanted to make sure to have good quality gear,” he said. “Any failure of gear out in the desert could cause a problem.”

On Sept. 2, Tanner wrote his final blog entry, documenting a training session at a facility in Oceanside.

The Amarillo, Texas native was a high school wrestling stand out who won the state championships his junior and senior years despite only getting into the sport as a sophomore. He entered mixed martial arts in 1997 encouraged by friends.

Tanner rose to the top of the mixed martial arts world by winning the UFC middleweight title over David Terrell at UFC 51: “Super Saturday” Feb. 5, 2005. He lost the title later in the year to Rich Franklin. Tanner, who had a career MMA record of 32-8 last competed in the UFC on June 21 losing to Kendall Grove by split decision.

“He will obviously be sorely missed,” said Vincitorio. Adding, “I think that Evan would want to be remembered as a very complex man with many layers, not just a fighter.”

Tanner was surely a unique personality. He’s eclectic spirit and competitive nature will be sorely missed in the MMA community.

Thank you Darren Bent !

Thank you Darren Bent!

Man, those are four words I thought I’d never utter!

Yes, miracle man Bent (as in, it’s a miracle he ever scores!) pops up to take the wind out of the over-bloated, over-rated, over-hyped Chelsea sails!

I would be normally ecstatic about that fact alone, but this time even moreso. Miracle man Bent with his goal, won me a lubbly-jubbly 110/1 bet!

Yes, an accumulator of doubles and trebles from three results – Spurs to draw, Man City to win and Portsmouth to win – paid almost 110/1! Perrrr-fucking-fecctt!

Seems over-rated, over-hyped Scolari is getting a bit of a wake up call!

The jungle of the Premiership is even more tangled and unpredictable than the Amazon jungle where he used to live with pygmies.

Revolutionary new Penis dysfunction treatment

See, that didn’t hurt at all, Mr. Smith.

Come back and see me here in the hospital next Friday afternoon.

Pygmies vs Amazonians female basketball match

This was from the controversial Pygmies vs Amazonians female basketball match in week 2 of the Olympics!

It was a tad one-sided!

If I recall correctly, the final score was 6972-0!

150 photos of Olmpic Games and Olympic Asses!

Seems the folks at http://www.stern.de who put this slideshow together clearly have a thing for female butts!

Ze Germans sure like ze Assens! Who doesn’t! Nice work!

Joking aside, it is an excellent show. Magnificent photography. Some amazing action shots too! Check it out!

A few slides are perhaps not safe for work, due to some uniform slippage. And an abundance of ze Assens!

Gotta love those bikini girls at the beach volleyball games! Guess the Maos have a new twist on the whole yankee cheerleader thing!

And what the fuck is going on here?!

I never knew buggery was a sport!

Man Utd – Normal service resumed!

Well! Normal service resumed! None too fucking soon either!

The normally useless, Darren Fletcher’s first-half strike was enough for Manchester United to secure a 1-0 victory at Portsmouth on Monday night.

Like the Community Shield, United controlled the game but did not get the merited bagful of goals! Life ain’t fair sometimes!

Bring on the cockneys and the scousers NOW!!!

Beijing Olympic Babes

The Olympics hasn’t just been about boring, ridiculous sports such as archery, bakery and sleeping.

Nor just about the insanity of the tyrannical, outdated, colonial and repressive Chinese Government.

Nor just about gymnastics winners aged about 7.

No, there have been a few babes to look at!

Hurrah!

Nastiness and Chinese Gymnasts

by Steve Breen — The San Diego Union-Tribune

Now, gymnastics isn’t really my thing. I mean, it’s not really a sport anyway!

But I imagine there’s a large audience for it. A large audience of paedophiles, probably!

When flicking through an array of other “no sports” at the Olympics (archery, kayaking, baking, sitting, tidying rooms, telephoning mum, … etc etc), I could not avoid this ridiculous gymnastics stuff. And it was a tad shocking seeing these young girls, or more accurately, children – no other word will suffice – bouncing around and gyrating in leotards! How can this be right?!

The Chinese Authorities of course claimed these gymnasts are sixteen. The same assholes claiming this are those who remove talented young children as young as 6 from their families and place them in “gymnastics factories” (no other word will suffice), where they forced to train all day every day for years and years, and are beaten and abused daily!

by Mike Keefe, The Denver Post

So the Chinese Authorities show passports indicating the childrens’ supposed age! Erm … is it remotely possible that the fucked-up Chinese Authorities could produce fraudulent documentation in order to ensure more medals in this competition about which they have been manically obsessing, ever since they were nominated as hosts?!

Nah … of course not! The Chinese Authorities are renowned for their honesty, their humanitarianism, their incorruptibility, their treatment of the poor .. and, of course, for their refusal to ever invade countries such as Tibet!!

In any event, even if the children are sixteen, that means they are only fucking sixteen!

Are there no rules governing minimum age for the Olympics?

Does that mean that a flexible 2-year old could compete? What about an exceptional foetus??

This bullshit needs to be prevented and the rules changed by the IOC. Unless, of course, the IOC are too concerned about the armies of paedophiles they might upset!

Steve McClaren is Masshiff Dutch – Brolly Wally becomes Dutch in 6 weeks!

“I say I think we are not just what you call, Unterdocks … but masshiff Unterdocks …“

Brolly Wally Steve McClaren has spent a few weeks managing FC Twente in Holland and already he is fully Dutch!

Or perhaps as he might say himself, ” … I say I think I am not just what you call, Dutch … but masshiff Dutch !”

Now, Steve’s a former manager of England. Therefore, by definition he’s a useless moron!

But check him out now in this recent Dutch interview!

“… I thought maybe one of them we would draw …”!!

Fucking hell! He sounded dumb enough when he used to try to speak in his proper accent, let alone this gibberish-filled, confused Anglo-Dutch hybrid speak!!

“Everything issh there for a surprise.”

I know I should feel sorry for this guy given the level of media hounding and harassment that goes on against him by the scum British media (who, despite 4 decades of evidence to the contrary, still believe England have a good football team!) And I know he did a marvellous job with Manchester United as Assistant Manager when we won the Treble in 1999. … BUT!!. … But he really does bring a lot of these shitstorms upon himself!

“Already my phone has not stopped from English media ..”

Drug testing in place in men’s professional golf

So drug testing’s in place in men’s professional golf!

This is entirely wrong!

In fact, golfers should be forced to take drugs. Amphetamines, hallucinogenics and the like.

It might liven up the dull fucking game a little bit!

Spectators walk by a PGA logo – Thursday July 3, 12:47 AM
during the first round of the 88th PGA Championship in Medinah, Illinois August 17, 2006. REUTERS/Matt Sullivan

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -

This week heralds a new era in the men’s professional game with drug testing in place for the first time on the U.S. PGA and European Tours.

The PGA Tour launched its anti-doping programme at this week’s AT&T National in Bethesda, Maryland while the European Tour implemented its version at the European Open on the outskirts of London.

Although golf appears to be unaffected by performance-enhancing drugs, there have been widespread calls for the governing bodies to put testing policies in place.

The women’s LPGA Tour left the other tours lagging when it announced plans last November to start drug testing players in the first quarter of 2008.

The PGA Tour and the European Tour, after outlining late last year a comprehensive global anti-doping policy for the sport that included a list of banned substances, have now followed suit.

“Whether we like it or not, we’re going down this road,” PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem told reporters on the eve of Thursday’s opening round at the AT&T National.

“All sports are viewed by fans and the media as having issues in this area, whether we do or not.

“With the highlighting in cycling and baseball in recent years, its become intense with the involvement of Capitol Hill in all sports of what they are doing in anti-doping. We just felt we had to go down this road.

“And the only way to have a credible programme and meet the basic tenets of the anti-doping world is to have observed testing. It may be uncomfortable for some but that’s the price we’re paying to have a credible system.”

Finchem said he and his staff went through the drug testing process, which took just under 10 minutes, earlier on Wednesday.

UNDERSTANDING DETAIL

“I don’t view it as anything meaningful from a symbolism standpoint but I just think it’s important that we understand it in the detail of it,” he said.

“I was very pleased with the way it went and I think that we have every reason to be optimistic that we’re not going to have logistical problems. It’s not going to be a big disruption and it’s not going to take much time.”

Finchem said the Tour would not disclose details of individual player testing but that overall numbers might be revealed at the end of this year.

In the event of a positive doping test, the Tour would disclose details only after the entire appeals and challenges was completed.

The variety of sanctions could include disqualification, a one-year suspension for a first violation, up to five years for a second violation and a lifetime ban for multiple violations, plus fines up to $500,000 (251,000 pounds).

World number seven Steve Stricker, the highest-ranked player at Congressional this week, approved of drug testing being implemented on the PGA Tour for the first time.

“I think it’s necessary just to keep us up with the other sports in the world,” the 41-year-old American said. “It is what it is, and I think it should be part of our game.”

Although the European Tour’s new policy is up and running, testing may not actually take place this week.

“Testing can start any time from July 1,” director of tour operations David Garland said in a news release on Wednesday. “It may happen this week, next week or other weeks down the line.”

The tour plans to have its own doctors on hand at several tournaments to help the players understand what is, and what is not, on the list of banned substances.

(Editing by Greg Stutchbury)

Spaniards are a tad Happy !

The Spaniards were a tad happy at winning the European final last night!

So they should be. First time they won anything since the conquistadors ravaged Mexico!

Germans a tad upset

The Germans were a tad upset at losing the European final last night!

So they should be. I lost 100 fucking bucks on the useless bastards!

Boston Celtics

Exactly how many Irish were on the team that destroyed the Lakers?!

Bob Englehart, Hartford, Connecticut — The Hartford Courant
Visit Bob’s cartoon archives. E-Mail Bob.

This is gonna hurt!

I hope this guy’s wearing shorts made of steel!

Run faster!!

Run faster – else I’ll fucking run you over!!!

Ouch again!!

Nice right hook, fella!