The New Orleans Saints were under investigation for running an alleged bounty program after they won the Super Bowl in 2009. The NFL was told by anonymous players that defensive coordinator Gregg Williams was urging players to injure opponents for money and the Saints knew, because they were being investigated. So maybe it was the relief of the NFL concluding its investigation with no penalty or maybe it was just extreme arrogance, but Williams kept running his bounty program, and he apparently did it while a camera was pointed at him the entire time.

According to Yahoo!, documentary filmmaker Sean Pamphilon (Run Ricky Run) was with the Saints at the team’s hotel the night before they played the San Francisco 49ers in their divisional playoff game. The Saints went on to lose that game 36-32, possibly because Williams wasn’t clear enough with his innuendos and hand signals.

Hold on, I think I have an artist’s rendering of Williams’ reaction to this…

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Bob McCown of the Fan590 in Toronto made waves on Friday when he reported he had heard Pittsburgh Penguins star Sidney Crosby’s family was trying to convince him to retire for fear of risking more injury.  As the adorable Crosby (pictured above) is not old enough to speak for himself, his Dad called ESPN to let them know this wasn’t true.

“Not at all,” Troy Crosby, from his Halifax, Nova Scotia, home, told ESPN. “We’re just trying to get him healthy again. However long that takes, that’s how long it’s going to take.”  Crosby then told his son Sidney to get down off the couch, following the command with “I’m not telling you again!”  He then began counting, causing the Penguins great to sit down and be quiet for fear of what would come after two.

Crosby’s agent Pat Brisson also refuted the report, adding “na na na boo boo” and urging the veteran radio host to “stick [his] head in doo-doo.”

The young star, who was driven to practice today in his Dad’s mini-van, was severely concussed back in January when professional hockey players dared touch him.  According to recent updates from the Penguins blogs I frequent, Crosby is actually totally fine, nothing happened to him in January, and he’s just been chilling at home drinking juice boxes and eating Lunchables from the last three months.

Dave Duerson played 11 years in the NFL with three different teams. Last week, he took his own life, fatally wounding himself in the chest with a shotgun blast. It was compelling that Duerson, who was battling bankruptcy, depression and an ex-wife who had just recently taken him back to court, gave one last gift to the world before committing suicide.

He gave away his brain.

Chris Nowinski, co-director of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy at Boston University School of Medicine, received a call from a friend of the Duerson family Thursday night. He made arrangements to have the brain prepped in time for research and sent to Boston University.


There currently are 65 brains in the bank and more than 300 athletes in the Center’s brain registry.
 


–NBC Chicago.

Yeah, so that’s depressing; no jokes here. After the jump is a little more on Chris Nowinski’s brain collection, as he was profiled by HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryan Gumbel” in 2010. If you have the time, it’s worth your time. Read the rest of this entry »

We all know the NFL is trying to minimize the concussing hits during games, but what do you do when a quarterback hits his teammate in the head with the ball and concusses him, and to add to it, that teammate wasn’t even a receiver, but a defensive end on the sideline?

Roger Goodell’s probably going to just fine everyone on the Titans for their terrible play, am I right? It’s a joke because the Titans are miserable this seas- oh you do get it? You just don’t think it’s funny. Carry on then.

From the Tennessean:

Not much has gone right for the Titans lately, and things took an even more unusual turn Sunday when defensive end William Hayes was injured in a freak accident.

Hayes was standing on the sideline when a Kerry Collins pass sailed high off the field and hit him in the head. Hayes was unable to play the rest of the game because of a concussion, Coach Jeff Fisher said.

“That’s kind of how the game went,” Fisher said. “I’ve never had a player leave the game with a concussion after getting hit with the ball on the sideline. But we’ll see how he is this week.”

Somehow this incident comes off as a great representation of what the Titans have accomplished this season. They easily could have had a better record with a healthy Vince Young and also much less yelling and fighting with Jeff Fisher and Young.

At the stage they are in the season, I still don’t see how Tennessee’s gameplan every time doesn’t consist of “give 20+ carries to Chris Johnson and whoever else we have in our backfield.” Some people probably think Johnson will get tired running that much, and that’s when you go to the OTHER part of the plan: have Johnson be quarterback, too. I’d put good money he wouldn’t hit his teammate in the head and give him a concussion.

UPDATE: SportsCenter has just reported that Mike Leach has been fired.

SECOND UPDATE: See the “sheds” in question here. Oh, and Leach is still fired.
Here’s the latest on this who Mike Leach/Adam James fiasco: Mike Leach filed a temporary restraining order, which would allow him to coach his team in the Alamo Bowl Saturday. Texas Tech suspended their coach after claims of mistreatment stemming from Adam James, son of some guy on ESPN.

SportsCenter has aired details of an email to AD Gerald Myers–from Tech’s wide receivers coach Lincoln Riley–citing James’ poor work ethic and sense of entitlement. But in fact there have been at least six emails leaked from former members of the Texas Tech football program, perhaps none more damaging to James’ credibility than former Tech quarterback and 2008 Heisman Trophy finalist Graham Harrell:

Adam was on the baseball team his true freshman year at Tech, before he ever joined the football team, and did not make it through the baseball season because of his selfish attitude. After a baseball game in which he felt like he did not get enough playing time, but the team still won twenty to one, he came into the locker room after the game and “pouted and threw a big fit” according another player on the baseball team.

A few weeks later in the middle of the season, he just stopped showing up to practices or game and quit because he was not happy about how he was being treated. One of my roommates was a baseball player on the team and many of my friends were a part of the team that witnessed all of this. These baseball players told me he was “spoiled and selfish” before he ever came to the football team. After quitting baseball he came out for football and his selfish attitude was very evident, as was his laziness. During off-season workouts he often would be caught skipping lifts in the weight room or finding ways to cut corners/get out of conditioning exercises.[..]

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Texas Tech head football coach Mike Leach has been suspended from coaching at the Alamo Bowl after allegations that he locked one of his players in a closet after he suffered a concussion. A report released by the family of Tech wide receiver Adam James indicates that he was the player that suffered a head injury in a December 16th practice. Leach’s alleged treatment of James, son of ESPN analyst Craig James, seems a bit suspect.

• On Dec. 17, James said Leach told trainers to put him in “the darkest place you can find.” James was sent to an equipment shed near the practice field, where a member of the athletic staff checked on James to make sure he did not lean against anything or sit on the floor. James said Leach told him that if he came out he would be kicked off the team.

• When the team returned to practice two days later, on Dec. 19, James said Leach told trainers to “find the tightest, darkest place” for the player. James, in his street clothes, was put in an electrical closet inside the football stadium for hours, again monitored by a member of the athletic staff.

I’m a bit hesitant to bury Leach because (a) his side of the story on FOX Sports isn’t nearly as damning, (b) Leach says that James might have been faking the injury, which I wouldn’t put past the silver-spooned seed of a college football analyst, and (c) because all of this “new learning” talk about concussions seems to be a half-cocked effort into trying to make football “safe.” It won’t be long before other Division I coaches lock up their players in closets. Leach is an innovator like that.