Warren Sapp staying with the NFL Network

After months of rumors swirling about being unemployed, Warren Sapp will be staying with the NFL Network for at least another year.


In revealing the move publicly for the first time, NFLN executive producer Eric Weinberger tells USA Today Sports that “this is probably going to be news to some blogs and articles out there who’ve said his time is up here, but we picked up an option year on his contract.” Sapp’s on-air duties, including working NFLN’s Sunday pregame show, will remain essentially the same.  


Sapp was dumped by Showtime’s Inside the NFL and filed for bankruptcy. He also has his book coming out so things might be looking up for Sapp.

Hopefully that TV judge show doesn’t ever get off the ground and he doesn’t give us any reports from anonymous sources.

Jeremy Lin owns Linsanity

If Jeremy Lin can continue his meteoric rise in the NBA he’ll get paid in more ways than one.

Lin now owns the rights to the term, phrase or whatever you want to call it, “Linsanity”. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office registered the term for Lin after he filed for it in February.

It’s obvious that someone close to Lin was on to something after Lin became the hottest name in the NBA after the New York Knicks put him in the starting lineup. Anyone wishing to use the “Linsanity” term will have to go through Lin or his representatives.a

If he can keep up his stellar play he stands to get paid.

Michigan football commit threatens Ohio State fans

The Michigan-Ohio State rivalry has started to take form on the recruiting trail. Over the holiday weekend Michigan recruit Logan Tuley-Tillman  lit a recruiting letter from Ohio State on fire.

Buckeye nation didn’t take too kindly to Tuley-Tillman’s actions and responded by making alleged death threats to Tillman.

Michigan commit Kyle Bosch has jumped into the fire feet first by coming to Tillman’s defense as he lashed back at Ohio State “fans” and made a threat of his own on Twitter.

“OSU fans giving @LoganTillman threats on your way to his house make a stop by mine and I’ll show you what a real death threat is#bringagun”


The message has since been deleted and he has clarified his comments.

Bosch: “I’m just trying to defend my teammate and my friend. Logan is like a brother to me and when somebody threatens his life and his family’s life, I am going to come to his defense. The gun comment has been taken out of context. I’m only saying that if you’re going to threaten my friend and brother that you better bring a gun because if you’re truly threatening his life, you’ll have to take mine too. I should have realized that it may have been misinterpreted, but it’s hard not to be angry when he and his mother have gone through so much.”

Let’s hope that everyone can control their temper and act accordingly.

Jim Schwartz scolds young Lions

After the latest off field fiasco involving Nick Fairley trying to play the role of the bandit, Detroit Lions head coach Jim Schwartz couldn’t take it anymore. Schwartz had a lot to say regarding the incidents involving Mikel Leshoure, Titus Young, and Nick Fairley, mentioning that their actions are tainting the reputations of their teammates.

“What we have here is a case of a few guys tainting the reputations of a lot of others,” he said. “The actions of a few have affected the reputations of not just the other guys on the team but the organization as a whole and obviously, that’s not a good situation.”

“The issues we have here have involved young guys, guys coming off their rookie year,” he said. “It’s obviously a big concern that the problems have come up more than once with a couple of guys. You always approach this with the idea that guys will make mistakes and learn from them. It appears that a couple of guys haven’t.


“It is a concern but they are still young and there is still a lot in front of them. We are hopeful that with the means at their disposal and the means at our disposal, they will eventually be able to put this behind them.”


Combine that with Ndamukong Suh’s on and off field behavior, Schwartz has every right to be concerned and angry.

Schwartz can “scold” players all he wants, but until they mature and learn how to police themselves it’s gonna keep happening. Players don’t call out each other for their bad decisions anymore and the vets in the locker room aren’t respected if they haven’t won anything. Maybe general manager Martin Mayhew needs to come in and threaten a few jobs to get some of them in line.

Former Duke center, Brian Zoubek to open a cream puff shop

The last memory of former Duke center, Brian Zoubek, was of him celebrating a national championship victory over Butler. After that he kind of vanished. Not that it’s a bad thing some people excel outside of the sports world and Zoubek is putting his Duke education to good use.

Zoubek will be opening a cream puff pastry shop in his hometown of Haddonfield, New Jersey. Cream puffs have been a lifelong favorite of Zoubek’s and now he aims to turn his love of them into a successful business.


“I love to make cream puffs,” he said. I’m just a fat kid, at heart. I’ve loved cream puffs my whole life. When I was growing up, I used to get therm from another place in town.”  


Zoubek’s store will be called Cream Puff Creations, amended from “Heavenly Cream Puff Creations,” after that name didn’t align with city code that requires signs to have no more than three words. Zoubek won’t be making the pastries himself.

This isn’t the big man’s first time around in the entrepreneurial arena as he and a few of his college buddies started a technology store in New York City so he does have some knowledge in running a business.

Jered Weaver out after 12 pitches

It’s been a terrible holiday weekend for elite pitchers in MLB. Philadelphia Phillies ace Roy Halladay went down early in an outing against St. Louis and now you can add the Los Angeles Angels’ Jered Weaver to the list.

Weaver left tonight’s outing against the New York Yankees after 12 pitches. The Angels say Weaver suffered a lower back injury.

Weaver didn’t record an out and appeared to hurt himself on his second pitch to the Yankees’ Robinson Cano. On a 1-1 pitch, Weaver landed gingerly. He tried to throw one warm-up pitch after the injury and immediately headed to the dugout.


This happened right as it looked like the Angels were starting to put it together.

Brewers’ Lucroy injures hand in suitcase accident

In one of the more bizarre injuries of the Major League Baseball season, Milwaukee Brewers catcher Jonathan Lucroy was injured via suitcase.

Lucroy told Adam McCalvy of MLB.com that he was “reaching under his hotel bed Sunday night for a lost sock when his wife shifted a suitcase, which fell on Lucroy’s hand.”

Lucroy tried to make a go of it but couldn’t do it and had to pull himself from the lineup.

“I didn’t want to say anything because I don’t like not playing,” he said. “I want to play. But I went down and took some swings and it didn’t feel good, so I had to spill it.” 

Phil Mickelson to get involved with potential Padres ownership group

Phil Mickelson is trying to get into the ownership game. Mickelson is reportedly putting up some of his own money to get involved with a group trying to buy the San Diego Padres. The Padres are Mickelson’s hometown team.

Mickelson has joined the group headed by Kevin and Brian O’Malley and their cousins Peter and Tom Seidler, whose Top of the Third, Inc., owns the Single-A Visalia Rawhide, are one of five parties known to be exploring the purchase of John Moores’ controlling interest in the Padres. Their efforts are being guided by Peter O’Malley, the former Dodgers owner, but the senior O’Malley does not anticipate being actively involved in the Padres operation, preferring to leave that to “the next generation.”

“This was a unique opportunity with families that had done this before and know how to do it right and want to get involved in the community,” Mickelson told the newspaper. 


Padres legend Tony Gwynn has backed a different ownership group but if the O’Malley team gets the deal Mr. Padre won’t be shut out of the franchise completely.

“If we were able to get control, (Gwynn) would be the first person we’d want to get involved,” Mickelson said. “He’s such an icon with the team. Hopefully, it won’t be combative.” 


The franchise is twisting in the wind right now regarding their ownership status and they need someone to take full ownership of the team soon.

Paul Williams paralyzed in motorcycle accident

Two time welterweight champion, Paul “The Punisher” Williams is now in the fight of his life. Williams has been paralyzed from the waist down in a motorcycle accident Sunday morning in Marietta, Georgia. Williams has been listed in serious but stable condition after severing his spinal cord. Surgery is scheduled for Wednesday to try to stabilize his spinal column.

For a while Williams was known as the most avoided man in boxing until he endured a knockout loss to Sergio Martinez in a rematch from an earlier fight. Williams was scheduled to take on Saul Alvarez on September 15 in Las Vegas. His manager, George Peterson said Williams probably will never fight again.

The two-time welterweight champion Williams was in Marietta, Ga., to attend his brother’s wedding on Monday and was driving back from the bachelor party around 7 a.m. on Sunday when he got into the accident, Peterson said. Williams was going around a curb when he swerved out of the way of a driver of a car who was on the inside lane that Williams told Peterson was “on his cell phone.”

“He got separated from the motorcycle and must have gone about 65 feet in the air,” said Peterson, who left Williams’ side in the Atlanta area hospital to speak to the Daily News. He declined to give the name of the hospital to protect Williams’ privacy.


“He was doing about 75 mph on the motorcycle. When he came down, he came down on his back and when he came down on his back, of course he severed his spinal cord. He’s paralyzed from the waist down. In terms of him walking again… that will never happen.”

Peterson said that Williams is still in good spirits and believes that he’ll box again.

“It’s the same old Paul,” Peterson said. “As I was walking out of the door to talk to you, he said, ‘Believe me, if I don’t ever box again, I’m going to do some stand-up comedy.’ He’s not suffering.”


“From the waist down, he has absolutely no movement. He’s in very good spirits, though,” Peterson told The Associated Press from his home in Aiken, South Carolina. “He still believes he’s going to fight again.”


The fight with Alvarez would have been one of the better fights of the year, but since it’s now off, it’s time for Williams to give thanks that he’s still alive and try to attempt to walk again.

Johnny Tapia found dead in his home

Former five time boxing champion, Johnny Tapia was found dead in his Albuquerque home Sunday according to a police report. No known cause of death was given.

Authorities were called to the house at about 7:45 p.m. on Sunday, spokesman Robert Gibbs said. The death didn’t appear to be suspicious, he said. The body is believed to be Tapia’s, but police could not say with certainty that it was. 


Tapia was the ultimate hard luck, underdog story in boxing. He had numerous run ins with the law and fought depression and his cocaine demons for most of his boxing career. Somehow he overcame them to win five championships in three weight classes, winning the WBA bantamweight title, the IBF and WBO junior bantamweight titles and the IBF featherweight belt. 

Despite his troubles outside the ring he was one of the more exciting boxers of the 1990s. He last fought in June, outpointing Mauricio Pastrana in an eight-round decision. He finished with a 59-5-2 record.

An autopsy will be performed within the next few days.