How to screw up your life, Part II

Thunder Collins had football potential — loads of it — when he came out of Los Angeles. He was to be the next great Cornhusker running back.

That never quite happened. Other things did:

In 2002, Collins pleaded guilty to disturbing the peace to avoid being tried for allegedly assaulting an ex-girlfriend.

In 2003, Collins was charged with assault and burglary in an incident involving an Oregon State football player and the same ex-girlfriend. Collins beat those charges in court.

In 2006, Collins pleaded no contest to obstructing an Omaha police officer in an incident in which, according to witnesses, Collins had been involved in a shooting.

Now Collins appears to have finally hit the jackpot, arrested Wednesday on a murder charge in a drug deal gone bad.

Thus, Collins — who never made it into the pantheon of Cornhusker football greats — has made it into the pantheon of Cornhusker football thugs, a grouping that includes rapist Christian Peter and serial criminal Lawrence Phillips.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3607349

Obnoxious — and odoriferous

One of the things you have to do when you make nearly half-a-mil for playing football is hang around after the game and answer questions.

Placekicker Martín Gramatica, a nine-year veteran, certainly knows this — or should.

But on Sunday, Gramatica ducked out of the New Orleans locker room to avoid discussing his two missed field goals that cost the Saints a win in Denver.

Gramatica was in such a hurry to avoid reporters he left without taking a shower — which means that Sunday it wasn’t just his kicking that stunk.

Forgiveness — and then some

The New York Times about Jerome McDougle, the Giants’ defensive end who works with troubled youth.

McDougle’s efforts to help youngsters would be admirable but not remarkable if McDougle hadn’t been shot by in 2005 by the same type of kids he’s trying to help.

“I want to make a difference,” McDougle told LaPointe. “I had some problems when I was young. I really know how it feels to be going down that path. It’s just like a spiral, but you can break it.”


http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/sports/football/21giants.html?scp=1&sq=Jerome%20McDougle%20&st=cse

Already showing his smarts

Recommended reading: Mike Ogle’s piece in The New York Times about Jonathan Meyers, a highly rated prep football star who turned down a scholarship offer from BCS power Florida, among others, to enroll at (gasp!) Princeton.

In part, Meyers decided on Princeton to be able to play big-time lacrosse, but a little thing called … wait … it’s on the tip of my tongue … on yeah — education — also played a role.

“It’s not what everyone else thinks you should do; it’s what you want out of your school,” Meyers told Ogle. “Obviously the benefits you get from having a Princeton degree, I think that’s one of the most priceless things in the world as far as after sports and athletics are done.”

A top athlete actually thinking of life after athletics.

Amazing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/20/sports/ncaafootball/20princeton.html?ref=ncaafootball

This is ‘cleared’?

Following an investigation of The Association of Tennis Professionals, Russian star Nikolay Davydenko has officially been cleared of fixing a match last summer in Poland.

But the word cleared should be in quotes. Something odd certainly happened in that match against Vassallo Arguello. Davydenko, then the world’s fourth-ranked player, should have been expected to beat Arguello like a drum, yet went from being a heavy favorite to being a big underdog. More money came in for Arguello, ranked 87th in the world, even after Davydenko had won the first set. Trailing Arguello 2-6, 6-3, 2-1, Davydenko retired, claiming injury.

Somebody stood to make a killing on the result, but an online betting exchange notified the ATP that its security team had recognized irregular betting patterns and voided $7 million in bets.

What about the investigation? Well, it took place without cooperation of Davydenko’s wife and brother, who refused to turn over cell phone records. The records eventually were destroyed by the phone company in Germany, in accordance with local data protection laws.

So Davydenko is “cleared.” Yet, considering the lack of cooperation by his family, I can't help wondering if “safely obscured” might not be more accurate.

The definition of stand-up

Give Ed Hochuli credit.

Yes, he absolutely blew a call at the end of the recent Broncos-Chargers game, and that call cost San Diego a victory — no small thing in NFL land.

Yet the longtime official is not only owning up to the mistake, he’s answering the e-mails coming from angry Chargers fans.

"I'm getting hundreds of e-mails — hate mail — but I'm responding to it all," Hochuli said. "People deserve a response. You can rest assured that nothing anyone can say can make me feel worse than I already feel about my mistake on the fumble play. You have no idea ... Affecting the outcome of a game is a devastating feeling. Officials strive for perfection — I failed miserably. Although it does no good to say it, I am very, very sorry."

And I’m very, very impressed.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3594778

Oh, well — that’s all right then

In the long and sordid history of athletes' use of performance-enhancing drugs, a lot of stupid excuses and comments have been offered. We now have a new contender for the all-time dumbest.

After being forced to acknowledge he’d received testosterone cream and human-growth hormone from the now-infamous Palm Beach (Fla.) Rejuvenation Center, Ron Hornaday, the defending champion of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, admitted using the cream, but said, “I never knew that was a steroid.”

No, that’s not the contender for all-time-dumbest.

For that, we turn to Hornaday’s wife, Lindy, who, after her husband fessed up to using the cream every day for 13 months, piped up with, "He never took it at the track. Only at home."