Croc Hunter R.I.P.

What could steal the top story spot on Labor Day after a sports weekend? Sadly, it is a holiday buzz-kill of the highest order, Steve Irwin, Dead at 44 …Very, very bummed by this development…

Steve Irwin, the quirky Australian naturalist who won worldwide acclaim as TV's khaki-clad "Crocodile Hunter", was killed by a stingray barb through the heart while filming a new documentary on Monday.

Irwin, 44, tangled with some of the world's most dangerous animals but he died in an extremely rare attack by a normally placid sea creature while he was diving on a reef off Port Douglas in northern Queensland.

"He came over the top of a stingray and the stingray's barb went up and went into his chest and put a hole into his heart," Irwin's shocked manager John Stainton told reporters in Cairns, south of Port Douglas.

A helicopter rushed paramedics to nearby Low Isles where Irwin was taken for treatment, but he was dead before they arrived, emergency officials said.
"It became clear fairly soon that he had non-survivable injuries," Dr. Ed O'Loughlin, who treated Irwin, told Nine Network television.

"He had a penetrating injury to the left front of his chest. He had lost his pulse and wasn't breathing," he said.

Irwin's death was likely only the third recorded fatal stingray attack in Australia, experts said. They said stingray venom was agonizingly painful but not lethal, although the barb was capable of causing horrific injuries like a knife or bayonet.

Meanwhile, TCU knows how to win a struggle, Baylor does not; TCU wins in Waco ….I really think Baylor is making progress, but they don’t know what to do in a dogfight yet. Just like their trip to Aggieland last year, the game was just sitting there for them. And they screwed around and lost it…Meanwhile, TCU now goes 3 for 3 against the Big 12…

TCU redshirt freshman quarterback Marcus Jackson had two minutes. The second half of his team's season opener would start in 120 seconds. That's when Jackson found out he would take over for starter Jeff Ballard, who was shaken up in the first half Sunday against Baylor.

Right then, Jackson didn't think much about the fact that he was making his college football debut. Later, after he rallied TCU to a 17-7 victory, Jackson graciously accepted that coach Gary Patterson expects Ballard to start the home opener against UC-Davis on Saturday.

"I don't mind coming off the bench," said Jackson, who did so with a mandate.
The No. 22 Horned Frogs were opening against a Big 12 program for the second consecutive season, having defeated Oklahoma in 2005. This time, it didn't look good for TCU, which needed to prevail at Floyd Casey Stadium to keep alive the buzz that these Frogs were BCS material.

Lebreton on the scene …

The Baylor Bears had the nation's second-longest winning streak right where they wanted it -- frustrated and largely unable to move the football.

"But we weren't panicking or anything," TCU senior safety Marvin White said, after the Frogs had surged back to win 17-7.

No, they didn't panic, because the Frogs have been down that rocky road before.
Lose a quarterback? Yawn. The Frogs are turning it into an annual tradition.
Find someone to fill the shoes of a starting running back? At TCU, that's been done. And done and done.

In the locker room at halftime, offensive coordinator Mike Schultz confessed, the TCU offense was frustrated.

"Very frustrated," Schultz related. "Baylor was doing some good things. They're a well-coached football team. They showed us some different looks.
"We had to just kind of work our way through it."

Like the BYU game last season. Or the bowl game against Iowa State. Or the Louisville game three seasons ago. Or like more than a handful of the 69 games TCU has won since Gary Patterson arrived as a coach.

Somewhere along the way, a winning program learns how to win games like Sunday's. It learns how to fight through its first-half frustrations. It learns how to expect to win.

As the doormat of the Big 12 Conference, Baylor doesn't know any of that. Not anymore.

After Ballard's replacement, redshirt freshman Marcus Jackson, connected with Aaron Brown on an 84-yard third-quarter touchdown -- against one of Baylor's best defenders, C.J. Wilson -- the Bears, even in front of their home crowd, were never the same.

Old habits are hard to break, I guess.

"We knew we could wear them down," White said.

In the first two quarters, however, it frankly looked like one of those Baylor-TCU games of old. The kind that the Frogs never seemed to win, especially at Floyd Casey Stadium.

"This is going to be tough," Schultz had said before the game.

What he knew, and what the TCU fans were about to find out, was that neither Merrill nor Hobbs was healthy enough to play. Merrill, out with a back injury, is the third-leading active career rusher in college football.

Sporting News ranked the Frogs' backfield as the fourth-best in the nation.
And only one-third of it remained to beat the Bears.

The man who made premature balding cool: The great Agassi leaves the court ….

It hardly ended with a whimper, yet it ended just the same for Andre Agassi.
In a 21-year tennis career that came to a close at the United States Open yesterday, Agassi produced many a memorable plot twist; he reshaped his image, physique, priorities and place in the game by force of personality and an often underrated will.

But in his hobbled state, slowed by back pain, he could not reshape the course of a third-round match against the qualifier Benjamin Becker of Germany, losing by 7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-5.

When the match finished — with Becker holding serve at love with his 27th ace — Agassi and his last opponent met at the net, then Agassi sat courtside and put a towel to his face.

He was already starting to cry, and there would be more tears as he eventually rose, walked back onto the court and stuck to tradition by blowing kisses to all four ends of the stadium. .

Agassi returned to his chair, overcome by the moment. The sellout crowd of more than 23,000 at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, which had not always had reason to cheer during the match, stayed on its feet for several minutes applauding.

His wife, Steffi Graf, one of the sport’s greatest women’s champions, and their children, Jaden, 4, and Jaz, 2, were also standing and applauding.

Saturday, the Cowboys trimmed it to 53. Some interesting cuts, including the Cowboys death of Rob Pettiti. How a guy goes from 16 starts at Right Tackle to unemployed in 1 year is hard to believe. Actually, he wasn’t unemployed for long as the Saints have signed him …But now the Cowboys appear to have a new RT, C, LG, and LT if you count Adams replacing Tucker from that OL that was Swiss Cheese last December…

Nick Eatman on the Final 53 ….

Todd Archer on the Final 53 …

In other cut down news, The Vikings feature Todd Pinkston in their final 53 …

Embarrassing moments never go away in the Internet age. That has made Todd Pinkston a hero with Generation Y's football fans. When bored, they go to youtube.com, do a search for Pinkston and "alligator arms," and watch the receiver veering away from a potential touchdown pass and a Washington safety in a game played late in 2004.
Pinkston's shyness was so blatant that Joe Theismann, an analyst who has made gushing an art, lit him up and finally said, "That's the way you get cut from a football team."

It took another season and a training camp before Philadelphia coach Andy Reid reached that moment with Pinkston. Reid traded with New Orleans for Donte' Stallworth last week and then cut the receiver the Eagles fans came to call "Stinkston."

A Philadelphia football writer offered an explanation for this citywide loathing:
"Toughness has never been Pinky's forte. Two years ago, he sat out the second half of a Super Bowl that was played in 60-degree Jacksonville temps with cramps. That same season he was involved in three memorable plays in which he basically backed off passes from Donovan McNabb because he was afraid of a pending hit from the safety."

And now it's official: Stinkston, Pinky, Gator -- whatever you want to call him -- belongs to us.

The Vikings announced Pinkston's signing on Saturday, a few hours before they would drop 22 players to reach the roster limit of 53.

Here is the amazing footage of Todd Pinkston’s alligator arms:



Something tells me that we will hear fewer Dave Meggett references from Parcells after this. …

Decent weekend of college football, but we need more high drama games. About the only game with the loved high drama that I caught was Notre Dame surviving against Georgia Tech.

That game offered me my new favorite College Football player. Calvin Johnson, Ga Tech ..is the most amazing receiver I have seen at the college level since Charles Rogers! And we all saw What that meant when he was cut this weekend in Detroit …

Anyway, here is the Calvin Johnson Highlight Film. Amazing stuff from a guy who looks a lot like Terrell Owens, accept without the baggage. I would pick him next April…



Uni-Watch focus on College Football …

Meanwhile, Hockey begins in just a little over a week. Need a quick refresher? The Hockey News is here to help: Last week they focused on the Western Conference- Basically, the Stars are up against it in this conference. In fact, could Dallas, Detroit, and Colorado all miss the playoffs? And could Minnesota, Nashville, and Anaheim all run at division titles? At this time of year, anything is possible. Except Chicago. They will suck no matter what.

Anaheim, Calgary. Chicago, Colorado, Columbus …

Dallas, Detroit, Edmonton, Los Angeles, Minnesota …

Nashville, Phoenix, San Jose, St Louis, Vancouver …

I will get the Eastern Conference up this week.

Wally’s World …Nascar audio of the funny variety…

A P1 has a “Stay at Home Dad” blog …


Matt Leinart has a fun baby …

Sprewell in trouble again …

According to a police source, a 21-year-old female alleged that she and Sprewell were having consensual sex Tuesday aboard his yacht, "Milwaukee's Best," when Sprewell began to strangle her. Police allegedly observed red marks on the woman's neck.

Police are investigating the allegation and searched Sprewell's yacht for evidence, but it is uncertain at this point whether charges will be filed. A Milwaukee defense attorney contacted by OnMilwaukee.com said that if the sexual contact was consensual up until the choking incident, Sprewell could be charged with battery. If there were threats made, however, he could face a charge of second-degree aggravated sexual assault.

"If the act was consensual, this could be a tough case (for police)," the defense attorney said.

Here is a college football email:

I applaud your neutrality concerning college football in Texas. Nothing irritates alumni of Texas and Texas A&M then hearing how much their school sucks and how great the other one is by someone who just spun a wheel and picked a side. We appreciate your recognition that you have no real allegiance to either school and don’t pretend to.

That being said, don’t ever say anything I construe as bad about UT or I will come burn down the station.

F’ Gribble.
Rps

And then this from my good friend, Dan Ratcliff who owns and runs Dish Direct (888-834-1999 for your NFL Sunday Ticket and Directv):

Guys:

You’ve probably already been emailed about this but I couldn’t help myself. When I saw this while half watching NFL Network late last night I had to back it up and re-watch it maybe 10 times. That is how stunned I was at what I was seeing. He looks to be standing at the 40-yard line, maybe the 50, making this at minimum a 50-yard kick. It’s the most ridiculous sports stunt I’ve ever seen. The question is, of course, is it real?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=3xXql7SoxTA

Dan Ratcliff

My Response to Mr Ratcliffe:

There can be no way that is real. That would be amazing.

Thanks for listening to BaD Radio!

Bob

His response to my response:

Bob, I’m normally a skeptic but I think this IS real. On television it looks much better and I don’t see how they could have faked it.

Dan Ratcliff

My response to his response to my response:

I believe you may believe in Santa Claus, sir.

His response to my response to his response to my response:

Maybe. Obviously, these could be faked. There’s another one that has Chris Simms throwing footballs into trash cans from about 40 yards away. That’s the one that kind of impeaches the credibility of all the others as the trash cans don’t even have an opponent’s jersey on them.
Dan Ratcliff
DishDirect, Inc.

So, here for you to decide, are the 3 NFL Fantasy Football Promos that are all faked like that Ronaldinho stunt I always post: I think.

Neil Rackers



Chris Simms



Braylon Edwards



Fake. Fake. Fake. Right?