It’s been a pretty rough year for Chicago Bears safety Brandon Meriweather. Back in March, the former New England Patriot was questioned by police in lovely Orlando, Florida, about a shooting that he was linked to outside of a bar in even lovelier Apopka. On Sept. 3, the Pats gave Meriweather the heave ho and the Bears decided they would take a chance on him. Spoiler alert: More bad press.

29-year old Biloxi, Mississippi resident James Roberts has been charged with rape and the venue of said heinous act was in Meriweather’s home in Foxboro, Massachusetts.

Police Chief Edward O’Leary, whose department investigated the allegation with state police assigned to the district attorney’s office, said the reported incident occurred in Meriweather’s home.

Meriweather has not been charged in the matter. “There has been no allegation against anyone but Roberts,” Traub said. (Via The Sun Chronicle)

Meriweather first made a name for himself when he was questioned after a shooting outside his home in South Florida while he was playing for the Miami Hurricanes. Meriweather shot at a man who had first fired at his roommate and teammate Willie Cooper, and the police found that Meriweather hadn’t done anything illegal. That same year, Meriweather was one of the players involved in the infamous on-field head-stomping fight between Miami and Florida International.

But while Meriweather has managed to maintain his innocence throughout controversy, he cannot escape his one true crime…

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In a pro football world where wearing high-top cleats to honor the passing of Johnny Unitas can earn you a $25,000 fine, it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that players hoping to wear red, white and blue gear on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 is a punishable offense. Chicago Bears linebacker Lance Briggs tweeted about his new patriotic Reebok gear and how he expects to be fined for wearing it. So did Kansas City Chiefs running back Jamaal Charles. So did Washington Redskins tight end Chris Cooley and Tennssee Titans quarterback Matt Hasselbeck and most of the San Diego Chargers. So whether or not the league approves, they can’t fine everybody for supporting their country … can they?

Briggs:

Reebok great job on these gloves and shoes..looks like I’m getting fined this week. Lol! By far the best fine I will ever have to pay. Thanks…Fines for gloves could be as much as 5k..the shoes 8-10k I think. not 100% on the shoe fine.

Is wearing 9/11 commemorative gear “showboating”? Is it being done to draw attention to the players who choose to break the rules? To give them more media coverage? I’m blogging about them. I think it’s a valid consideration, but when your talking point is “do I or do I not want to show respect and reverence to my country’s worst tragedy in my lifetime” I’d hope the simple gesture of fellowship and patriotism would not go hand-in-hand with the Lambeau Leap. At the same time, what are Never Forget gloves accomplishing, and isn’t there probably a better way for rich people to show their support to the victims of the attacks?

Regardless, don’t assume the league is totally heartless: the NFL and NFLPA will donate $1 million to related charities and memorials. Of course, the average NFL team is worth about $1.04 billion and ESPN just completed an eight-year extension worth as much as $1.9 billion annually with the NFL for the rights to Monday Night Football, so the issues of “how much can we give” and “how much can we take away from you” sort of go hand in hand.

[h/t Shutdown Corner]

"I'm just a man, damn it!"

FACT: There’s not a thing to be learned by watching a preseason NFL game. However, and this is something that is often ignored by the casual fan – the media doesn’t give a crap. And neither do I, so I figured we could talk about this past weekend’s games to pass this slow, boring Monday along. As always, I would like to point out that I do not profess to be an expert, merely a conversationalist with a love for potty humour. So please, offer your retorts and counterpoints in the comments and I’ll throw some more Earl Gray on the stove.

1) Alex Smith looked like, well, Alex Smith

To be fair, the San Francisco 49ers have never really given Alex Smith much to work with. But this isn’t about being fair, as much as it’s about winning. So far, Smith still doesn’t look like he wants to be the franchise QB that the 49ers thought he could be when they drafted him 6 years ago.

New coach Jim Harbaugh still hasn’t named a starter for Week 1, but neither of his guys – Smith or rookie Colin Kaepernick – were impressive against the New Orleans Saints. Smith was 2/7 for 10 yards while Kaepernick was 9/19 for 117 yards and 2 INTs. So how bad is it for the 49ers? They’re kicking the tires on Daunte Culpepper. At first glance, it’s incredible desperation. But deeper down, it’s probably to mentor Kaepernick, who is very similar to Culpepper.

Either way, don’t count San Fran out of the Suck for Luck sweepstakes.

UPDATE: And it looks like Culpepper is officially back in the NFL. The 9ers intend for him to play 3rd string and mentor Kaepernick, but as a fellow UCF product, I’d like to see Pepp roll one more time.

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We here at With Leather have been torn up about the broken engagement of Kristin Cavallari and Jay Cutler, but according to reports from Hollywood Life the whirlwind romance of a reality television teenager and a hapless, emo quarterback might’ve not been the image of Camelot it seemed. Apparently Kristin wore the capri pants in the relationship, emotionally abusing Jay to the point of accusing him of faking his injury during the Chicago Bears 21-14 loss to the Green Bay Packers in last season’s NFC Championship Game. I mean, so did everybody else, but come on, you’re supposed to be his girlfriend.

From the report, via what I can only assume to be extremely reputable sources:

So how was his relationship with former fiancee Kristin? “Kristin would call Jay a loser and a p**sy, and she’d scream it at him so everyone could hear. They would have fights about Jay being too conceited. They would also argue over how mean he was to people. She would make a point of saying hello to people in the hall, just to piss him off,” our insider laughingly tells us.

In January, they got into a big blow-out argument after Jay injured his knees during the NFL playoffs. He was diagnosed with a MCL sprain. “Kristin called Jay out, saying she thought he was faking the injury and told him he was worthless.”

Of course, Cavallari was quick to jump on Twitter and defend herself.

Notice how she doesn’t mention the “worthless” or “loser” or “p**sy” parts. It’s like when Princess Leia calls Han Solo a stuck up, half-witted, scruffy-looking Nerf herder and he responds with “Who’s scruffy-looking?”

I’m not sure if throwing footballs to the wrong team counts as “herding Nerf”, but I think the comparison stands.

Less than a week after we learned that we could buy a $2,800 knife set to show our appreciation of their love, the engagement of Jay Cutler and Kristin Cavallari is no more. According to various, terribly-written and misleading tabloid reports, Cutler broke up with the former star of The Hills.

According to People, this is possibly the worst thing to ever happen to anyone. Ever. In the world.

“She got dumped,” says another source. “She’s absolutely devastated. She can’t believe this is happening.”

“She was planning her dream wedding, the date was set, the location – everything was set,” the source says. “She’s in shock that the dream wedding she was planning is going to end this way.”

Keep in mind, she doesn’t seem to give a sh*t about losing her man, she’s just apparently upset about the dream wedding going down the crapper. So why the split then, People?

“Jay Cutler was beyond controlling and didn’t really like Kristin to go out,” the friend says. “When she did go out, he called all the time and demanded to know exactly where she was going and who she was with.”

The friend adds: “He made her choose between him and being friends with a lot of her girlfriends. I’m not surprised it didn’t last.”

I’m not one for hyperbole, but this is the most shocking revelation in the world. On no planet, in no dimension, would I have ever imagined that a 24-year old party girl would cause her reclusive NFL star fiancé to stress out over fidelity issues. I bet it’s because Cutler didn’t trust that Justin Bobby guy. He was always up to no good.

This news really upsets me, though. I know that Cutler generally comes off as an apathetic, antisocial, malcontent jerk, but there’s still just something charming and affable about the overgrown frat boy. So I reached out to my good friend J-Cutty to see if he could tell me in his own words what went wrong with America’s sweethearts.

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In last season’s NFC Championship game against the Packers, Bears quarterback Jay Cutler hurt his knee (or didn’t hurt his knee) and took a powder. He sat out for about half the game when his team needed him the most, basically handing people the right to rag on him mercilessly for the rest of his life. If he thinks that’s going to be limited to NFL fans and the Internet, he should think bigger; even the federal government is speaking out on Cutler’s trademark futility.

Enter Paul Ryan, a Republican Congressman from Wisconsin who opened his speech about debt reduction to The Economic Club of Chicago with an absolute ice burn on the “Laguna Beach” season seven hopeful:

“I want to thank you all for inviting me to speak. It was especially gracious of you to host me, even though I’m a Packers fan and I assume most of you are Bears fans,” Ryan began.

“But that doesn’t mean we can’t work together. As chairman of the House Budget Committee, I stand ready to do whatever it takes to help you re-sign Jay Cutler. I’m here to talk about the economy today — about the need to get four quarters of strong, consistent performance. That wasn’t another Jay Cutler joke, I swear. It could be, but it’s not.”

I would’ve preferred the “that wasn’t another Jay Cutler joke” part read “boom, roasted,” but hey. This is the way we should be spending our nightmare lockout — making fun of people who deserve it.

[H/T Shutdown Corner]