<![CDATA[AcuraZine Community - Sports Talk & Fantasy Leagues]]> http://acurazine.com/forums If you like men in tights, this is the spot to be! en Sat, 21 Nov 2009 04:28:08 GMT vBulletin 60 http://acurazine.com/forums/images/maestro/misc/rss.jpg <![CDATA[AcuraZine Community - Sports Talk & Fantasy Leagues]]> http://acurazine.com/forums H.S. Football Trick Play http://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=752685&goto=newpost Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:39:43 GMT Pretty ballsy move by the coach

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOYH0...layer_embedded ]]> surfer rick http://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=752685 Boxing: Pacquiao Victorious http://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=752330&goto=newpost Sun, 15 Nov 2009 06:45:33 GMT Pacquiao won :woot:

"I didn't know from where the punches were coming," Cotto said. "Manny Pacquiao is one of the best boxers I ever fought."














haters eat a D ]]> bud760 http://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=752330 The new Sammy Sosa http://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=751591&goto=newpost Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:17:07 GMT http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/chi-08-sammy-sosa-nov08,0,7519658.story Image: http://www.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2009-11/50365141.jpg ---Quote--- Sammy Sosa tells friends he is comfortable in his own skin. But a widely circulated photo of the former Cubs... http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports...,7519658.story



Quote:
Sammy Sosa tells friends he is comfortable in his own skin.

But a widely circulated photo of the former Cubs slugger makes his skin color appear several shades lighter.

"He's not trying to be Michael Jackson," said former Cubs employee Rebecca Polihronis, who talks frequently with Sosa.

Sosa was photographed recently during an appearance at Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.

"He is going through a rejuvenation process for his skin," Polihronis said. "Women have it all of the time. He was surprised he came out looking so white. I thought it was a body double. Part of (the photo appearance) is just the lighting.

"He is in the middle of doing a cleansing process to his skin. The picture is deceiving. He said, 'If you saw me in person, you would be surprised. When you see me in person, it is not going to seem like the picture.'

"People who saw him in person did not react the same way. He can't believe it is such a big deal."

Polihronis, the former Cubs Care/Community Relations manager for the team, said Sosa told her he has used moisturizing treatment at night on his face.

"He has always been concerned with the way he looks," she said. "Probably just bad timing going to an awards show."

Among the possible side effects for some laser skin rejuvenation methods include discoloration of the skin. The treated area may become lighter or darker in appearance.

"He was doing a dermatological skin process after years and years (of playing baseball) in the sun," Polihronis said. "It did come out looking weird (in the picture)."
]]> NetEditor http://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=751591 Soccer: Elizabeth Lambert Suspended Indefinitely http://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=751335&goto=newpost Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:51:55 GMT http://www.radaronline.com/exclusives/2009/11/video-meet-elizabeth-lambert-goon-womens-soccer http://www.radaronline.com/exclusive...-womens-soccer ]]> tnl_tsx http://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=751335 MLB: 2009 Offseason Discussion Thread http://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=751155&goto=newpost Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:39:32 GMT Post 'em here, folks!


Trades and FA signings should go here as well...! Thanks! :cheers: ]]> Yumchah http://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=751155 <![CDATA[Excerpts from The Book The NBA Doesn't Want You To Read]]> http://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=750366&goto=newpost Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:00:41 GMT http://deadspin.com/5392067/excerpts...nt-you-to-read

Only posting the first part since the formatting didn't look good when copying the entire article.. just go to the link there is some interesting stuff.

Quote:
On gambling refs:

To have a little fun at the expense of the worst troublemakers, the referees working the game would sometimes make a modest friendly wager amongst themselves: first ref to give one of the bad boys a technical foul wouldn't have to tip the ball boy that night. In the NBA, ball boys set up the referees' locker room and keep it stocked with food and beer for the postgame meal. We usually ran the kid ragged with a variety of personal requests and then slipped him a $20 bill. Technically, the winner of the bet won twice — he didn't have to pay the kid and he got to call a T on Mr. Foul-Mouthed Big-Shot Du Jour.

After the opening tip, it was hilarious as the three of us immediately focused our full attention on the intended victim, waiting for something, anything, to justify a technical foul. If the guy so much as looked at one of us and mumbled, we rang him up. Later in the referees' locker room, we would down a couple of brews, eat some chicken wings, and laugh like hell.

We had another variation of this gag simply referred to as the "first foul of the game" bet. While still in the locker room before tip-off, we would make a wager on which of us would call the game's first foul. That referee would either have to pay the ball boy or pick up the dinner tab for the other two referees. Sometimes, the ante would be $50 a guy. Like the technical foul bet, it was hilarious — only this time we were testing each other's nerves to see who had the guts to hold out the longest before calling a personal foul. There were occasions when we would hold back for two or three minutes — an eternity in an NBA game — before blowing the whistle. It didn't matter if bodies were flying all over the place; no fouls were called because no one wanted to lose the bet.

We played this little game during the regular season and summer league. After a game, all three refs would gather around the VCR and watch a replay of the game. Early in the contest, the announcers would say, "Holy cow! They're really letting them play tonight!" If they only knew...

During one particular summer game, Duke Callahan, Mark Wunderlich, and I made it to the three-minute mark in the first quarter without calling a foul. We were running up and down the court, laughing our asses off as the players got hammered with no whistles. The players were exhausted from the nonstop running when Callahan finally called the first foul because Mikki Moore of the New Jersey Nets literally tackled an opposing player right in front of him. Too bad for Callahan — he lost the bet.

I became so good at this game that if an obvious foul was committed right in front of me, I would call a travel or a three-second violation instead. Those violations are not personal fouls, so I was still in the running to win the bet. The players would look at me with disbelief on their faces as if to say, "What the hell was that?"
]]> hornyleprechaun http://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=750366 MLB: Cardinals Hire Cheater McGwire as Hitting Coach http://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=749798&goto=newpost Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:11:45 GMT Cool. He'll teach the Cardinals' players to take steroids and turn them all into cheaters... :ugh:

Story here: http://www.tsn.ca/mlb/story/?id=296174 ]]> Yumchah http://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=749798 Magic vs. Isiah http://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=749370&goto=newpost Thu, 22 Oct 2009 22:32:08 GMT http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/200...html?eref=sihp

Quote:
When he heard the criticisms from his former friend Magic Johnson in a soon-to-be-released book, Isiah Thomas said he'd had enough. And so he began to fight back.

"I'm really hurt, and I really feel taken advantage of for all these years,'' said Thomas, the Hall of Fame point guard and former NBA coach and executive, most recently with the Knicks. "I'm totally blindsided by this. Every time that I've seen Magic, he has been friendly with me. Whenever he came to a Knick game, he was standing in the tunnel [to the locker room] with me. He and [Knicks assistant coach] Herb [Williams] and I, we would go out to dinner in New York. I didn't know he felt this way.''

The criticisms are made by Johnson in WhenThe Game Was Ours, which he co-wrote with Larry Bird and author Jackie MacMullan. The book, to be released on Nov. 4, tells the inside story of the most important rivalry in basketball history.

Much of their story involves Thomas, who as captain of the Detroit Pistons served as a primary threat to the championship ambitions of Bird's Celtics and Magic's Lakers. The book offers revelations that have stunned Thomas. Magic addresses years of rumors by finally accusing Thomas of questioning his sexuality after Johnson was diagnosed with HIV in 1991. Magic also admits that he joined with Michael Jordan and other players in blackballing Thomas from the 1992 Olympic Dream Team, saying, "Isiah killed his own chances when it came to the Olympics. Nobody on that team wanted to play with him. ... Michael didn't want to play with him. Scottie [Pippen] wanted no part of him. Bird wasn't pushing for him. Karl Malone didn't want him. Who was saying, 'We need this guy?' Nobody.''

"I'm glad that he's finally had the nerve and the courage to stand up and say it was him, as opposed to letting Michael Jordan take the blame for it all these years,'' Thomas responded during one of several interviews he gave to SI.com on Wednesday. "I wish he would have had the courage to say this stuff to me face to face, as opposed to writing it in some damn book to sell and he can make money off it.''

Thomas, who is the first-year coach at Florida International in Miami, confirmed that MacMullan attempted to reach him for comment six months ago, but he declined through his publicist to speak with her.

Magic's most shocking accusation, however, is that Thomas was responsible for spreading rumors that Johnson was gay or bisexual after Johnson tested positive for HIV, forcing his retirement at age 32. "Isiah kept questioning people about it,'' Magic says. "I couldn't believe that. The one guy I thought I could count on had all these doubts. It was like he kicked me in the stomach.''

Thomas vehemently denied that he had gossiped behind Magic's back, pointing out that he knew better than to engage in such hurtful talk.

"What most people don't know is, before Magic had HIV, my brother had HIV,'' Thomas said. "My brother died of HIV, AIDS, drug abuse. So I knew way more about the disease, because I was living with it in my house.''

His brother, Gregory Thomas, died five years ago, Isiah said.

"Magic acted and responded off some really bad information that he got,'' Thomas went on. "Whatever friendship we had, I thought it was bulls--- that he believed that. Let me put it to you this way: If he and I were such close friends, if I was questioning his sexuality, then I was questioning mine too. That's how idiotic it is.''

The book's main source for this allegation is Magic's longtime agent, Lon Rosen, who says Thomas told him in 1991, "I keep hearing Magic is gay.''

"C'mon, Isiah, you know Earvin better than anyone,'' Rosen replies.

"I know,'' Thomas answers, "but I don't know what he's doing when he's out there in L.A.''

On Wednesday, Thomas denied that conversation. "I don't know Lon like that,'' he said, adding that he reached out to Johnson at the time. "I remember calling Magic and saying [of the allegations that he was rumor-mongering], 'You know that's some bulls---.' ''

Magic declined to be interviewed for this story. Rosen, speaking on behalf of his client, said he and Magic stand by everything attributed to them in the book.

Thomas insisted he felt too much sympathy for Magic to be spreading rumors about him.

"I felt awful for him; I felt awful for everybody,'' Thomas said. "But I knew enough at that time that he didn't have to retire. The 'blood' thing we do in the NBA -- where we stop the game because of blood on somebody's shirt and all that ceremonious stuff -- we're not stopping HIV/AIDS that way. We still do it out of some insane fear that came about when Karl Malone and everybody was saying they weren't playing if Magic was playing.''

Instead, Thomas said he helped make it possible for Magic to return in 1992 to the All-Star Game.

"They weren't going to let Magic play in the All-Star Game; all the players were coming out [against him],'' Thomas said. "You know how that all got turned around? I had a meeting with all of the players -- because I was president of the players' association -- and I told them not only was he going to play, but we were going to shake his hand and give him a hug. And I was the first to shake his hand and hug him and give him a kiss, to let people know that's not how the virus is spread.

"And you can go back and check at the players' association. Call Charlie Grantham [the former union executive director and COO] and ask him how Magic got to play in the All-Star Game. Ask him who called the meeting.''

When The Game Was Ours credits NBA commissioner David Stern with inviting Johnson to play in the All-Star Game, despite objections from some players and owners. The book does acknowledge, however, that Thomas was the first player to embrace Johnson on the court before the game.

"I don't discriminate," Thomas said. "I don't believe any race or ethnic group or social group should be discriminated against, because I have been discrimated against, and I know it would be wrong for me to discriminate.

"I think Magic has been misled on a lot of things, and unfortunately this has been another one of them. I am hurt and disappointed that he has chosen to believe others as opposed to his closest friends. And I think you can go back and look in that era and see who his closest friends were, and who his closest friends are now. At that time, I don't consider Lon Rosen to be one of his closest friends; he was one of his business advisers making money off him.''
Continued ... ]]> NetEditor http://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=749370 Jeff Fisher wears Peyton Manning jersey at charity event http://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=749293&goto=newpost Thu, 22 Oct 2009 07:23:20 GMT video and some commentary here: http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4581777 :rofl: thoughts? video and some commentary here:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4581777

:rofl:

thoughts? ]]> I Go To Costco http://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=749293