NFL Player Dead After Murder-Suicide

 

Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Jovan Belcher fatally shot his girlfriend Saturday, then drove to Arrowhead Stadium and committed suicide in front of his coach and general manager.

Authorities did not release a possible motive for the murder-suicide, though police said that Belcher and his girlfriend, 22-year-old Kasandra M. Perkins, had been arguing recently. The two of them have an infant child.

Belcher thanked general manager Scott Pioli and coach Romeo Crennel before shooting himself in the parking lot of the team's practice facility, police spokesman Darin Snapp said. Police had locked it down by midmorning and reporters were confined to the street just outside the gates.

Belcher was a 25-year-old native of West Babylon, N.Y., on Long Island, who played college ball at Maine. He signed with the Chiefs an undrafted free agent, made the team and stayed with it for four years, moving into the starting lineup. He'd played in all 11 games this season.

WNBA: Chamique Holdsclaw Arrested For Shooting At Ex-Girlfriend

AP

Former WNBA and University of Tennessee star Chamique Holdsclaw is in custody after being accused of shooting into a an ex-girlfriend’s car after using a bat to break its windows.

Atlanta police said Thursday the incident happened Tuesday after Holdsclaw followed 29-year-old Jennifer Lacy to her car. No one was injured. Lacy identified the 35-year-old Holdsclaw as an ex-girlfriend. They were teammates with the Atlanta Dream in 2009. Lacy now plays for the Tulsa Shock.

Jennifer Lacy claimed that Holdsclaw approached her in a parking lot Tuesday and asked to put some things in her car. Lacy smelled gasoline in her Range Rover as she drove off and saw that Holdsclaw was following her. Lacy said she drove to a friend’s house, where Holdsclaw got out of her car and began smashing the windows of Lacy’s SUV with a baseball bat. According to reports, she pulled a handgun and fired inside the Range Rover, then left. Police said they recovered a 9mm shell casing at the scene and local news reports that police said she may have been trying to ignite gasoline in the car by firing the gun.

Holdsclaw was in custody Thursday night in Fulton County Jail. Her bond was set at $10,000 on one charge each of aggravated assault, second-degree criminal damage and reckless conduct.

Lacy issued a statement via twitter:

"I want to thank my family, friends, fans and Shock family for their concern during this difficult time," Lacy said. "I have never felt more love from my fans in supporting me."

Holdsclaw has been battling clinical depression, which included a suicide attempt during her pro career.

Holdsclaw attempted suicide in 2006 as a member of the Los Angeles Sparks by overdosing on the medication she was taking for clinical depression. She also wouldn't leave her Washington home for a few days in 2004, two years after the death of the grandmother who raised her.

Wozzers. Keep everyone involved in your prayers.

Welcome To Dallas Cowboyland: Where There's No Punishment For Your "Crimes"

What's the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing and expecting a different result. Better known as...watching the Dallas Cowboys as an organization (not just players) and expecting different results. Don't be fooled (again) by the win over the Eagles this past Sunday. The offense only scored 17 points. Without the D...we would have lost to NICK FOLES! That is a once in a season, 3 TD game by any defense/special team. Changes have to be made and players who underperform or commit bonehead penalties need to be held accountable. Jerry puts on a facade at every post game conference he does saying he is all in on his QB, his team, and his coach. Even after repeated lackluster performances and coaching debacles. Well he could learn a little something something from the Atlanta Falcons top guns.

Regardless of their 8-1 record, the Atlanta Falcons made a promise to evaluate their team each week and get rid of those who weren’t getting the job done.

Well…if players thought they were just words, the release of Ray Edwards on Monday put those words into action.

Rock The Vote: Who Most Athletes Are Voting For

Not sure if you heard. Today is Election Day and believe or not, your favorite athletes are headed there as well.  Some of your favorite athletes are using their brand name and social media muscle to make their choice for president known.  NBA owners, players and coaches are taking sides in the 2012 U.S. presidential election, with players and coaches favoring Barack Obama and most owners supporting Mitt Romney.

New York Jets owner Woody Johnson said in an interview with Bloomberg TV that Romney winning the election is more important to him than winning the Super Bowl.

Who America’s athletes are voting for:

NBA Tip-Off: Lebron Gets His Ring

The 2013 NBA season tips off tonight with Heat v Celtics followed by the Dallas Mavericks on the road to the L.A. Lakers (Side note: the Wizards are also playing the Cavaliers but…).

The Heat will receive their rings tonight in front of the very team they beat in order to make it to the NBA Finals last year. Hooray for King James!  This will also be the first time that Ray Allen, who now wears a Heat jersey, will face his former team since leaving them over in the offseason, despite receiving a more lucrative offer from Boston (I wonder why no one burned his jersey?!). That plot line just adds to the rivalry between these two teams. I will be pulling for Boston…only because I don’t feel like hearing Heat fans mouthsJ

 The Heat/Celtic matchup will be followed by a Dallas Maverick/Lakers showdown, that may or may not actually be a showdown. Both teams have a new look as far as personnel go but the Lakers have the more loaded team AKA the better team. Most NBA fans are approaching this game as if the Lakers are the Harlem Globetrotters and the Mavericks are the team that chases them around for the ball.

The Mavericks basically have gutted their 2011 NBA championship team in favor of players with less expensive and shorter contracts. Not only that but they will be without the face of the franchise, Dirk Nowitki and former All-Star Center Chris Kaman. The Lakers, on the other hand, will star Steve Nash and the NBA’s best big man Dwight Howard alongside superstars Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol.

Needless to say, that game may not be of much interest for an opening game but I’m sure the Mavs will keep it close..they may pull off the first upset of the seasonJ (yes, I am a Mavs fan).

Boston at Miami, 7:00PM (CST), TNT

Dallas at L.A.,  9:30PM (CST), TNT

Did You Know: WNBA Finals Are On?!

Yup that's right!

Minnesota Lynx v. Indiana Fever. Tamika Catchings, Maye Moore.

The series is tied 1-1 in a best-of-five series . Game 2 was an exciting and very physical game. There were hard fouls, technocals and even coaches snatching off jackets in protest of the horrible officiating. Nonetheless, the Lynx were able to pull off the win after losing Game 1 in front of the home crowd.

"We'll get back home. We'll adapt to I-don't-know-what-to-call-it," said the Fever's Lin Dunn, who called it the most physical game she has been a part of in 42 years of coaching.

"I'm not going to call it basketball. Maybe basket-football or something. It was pretty rough out there, and we're going to have to adjust to that."

Indianas Tamika Catchings led the way as usual with 27 points and 8 rebounds. Erlana Larkins, who had 16 points and 15 rebounds in Game 1, was limited to 3 points and 5rebounds.The Fever's defense faded after a dominant start that forced the Lynx to miss 11 of their first 14 shots. They let the Lynx score 29 points in the third quarter and bring an already-loud crowd into the game even more
Maya Moore scored 23 points and the defending champion Lynx forced the Fever into 24 turnovers, 15 after halftime.
Games 3 and 4 will be played in Indiana at Bankers Life Fieldhouse on Friday and Sunday. If the Fever win both home games, they will claim Indianapolis' first pro basketball championship since the Pacers won the last of three ABA titles in 1973.
Game 5, if necessary, would be at Minnesota next Wednesday.

NBA Will Fine Floppers

The NBA's decision to punish floppers after the fact -- by issuing penalties from the league office after the game has been decided -- is the best response to a difficult problem.

The ugly trend of faking physical contact began in soccer, a sport in which gamesmanship has given way to players writhing in false agony around the world. Soccer has been unable to fix its problem, but now the NBA will have an opportunity to deter players from trying to simulate violent contact in ways made famous by Vlade Divac, Manu Ginobili and Anderson Varejao.

Commissioner David Stern's original idea had been to punish floppers on the spot. But that was never going to work. The NBA game is already the most difficult to officiate in pro sports, and the block/charge call is among the toughest for NBA referees to gauge. It would have been asking too much of refs for them to deal with a block/charge play and at the same time judge the intent of the defender.

The NBA instead will outsource these calls to New York, where league officials can review all of the evidence before making what will often be viewed as the wrong decision. Of course this is going to be an imperfect solution: Think of all of the second-guessing that goes on whenever the New York office decides to fine or suspend players and coaches for altercations.

This new day-after system of flopper punishment is absolutely going to be controversial because there is as of yet no public agreement on what constitutes a flop. When Ginobili stands in front of a hard-driving power forward, is he showing bravery or cynicism? We will find out what the NBA thinks soon enough, and the league's rulings will create a definition that has never existed before.

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How harsh will the penalties be, and will they be tied to the circumstances of the game? If a fourth-quarter flop is seen to have turned a win into a loss, will the punishment for the flopper be more severe? It is going to be difficult to divorce the infraction from the context of the game. And so, in a strange way, this new approach is going to make the game more interesting.

Written by: Ian Thomsen

TEXAS-bred QBs: 25% of NFL current starters



Super Bowl XLIV MVP Drew Brees is from Austin, TX



Football and Texas go together like birthday cake and ice cream.

In almost in equal supply, Texas produces cattle, cowboys and quarterbacks. If it seems as though most teams start a quarterback from Texas, it's because they do.

Twenty-five percent of NFL teams now start a quarterback who either played high school or college football in Texas -- sometimes both. Another 10 quarterbacks who played in Texas are NFL backups, one snap away from starting. And that doesn't include Carolina's Cam Newton, who spent one year of junior college at Blinn in Texas.

Texas used to be the main exporter of running backs. But somewhere along the way it shifted its emphasis, and now it exports quarterbacks.

Of players selected in the 2012 NFL Draft by state, Texas placed first with 32 players selected..

Texas' domination was helped by six players going in the top 20 of the draft, and three in the top 10. All three of those players — No. 1 pick Andrew Luck, No. 2 pick Robert Griffin III, and No. 8 pick Ryan Tannehill — were quarterbacks

In Week 2, Houston Stratford High School's Andrew Luck squared off against Colleyville Heritage High School's Christian Ponder. This weekend, Copperas Cove High School and Baylor's Robert Griffin III squares off against Katy High School and TCU's Andy Dalton. Almost every weekend brings a meeting of Texas quarterbacks.

If it's not Luck versus Ponder or Griffin versus Dalton, then it can be Westlake High School's Drew Brees, Big Spring High School and Texas A&M's Ryan Tannehill, Highland Park High School's Matthew Stafford, Burges High School's John Skelton or Stephenville High School and University of Houston's Kevin Kolb. On it goes.

The list of Texas-bred backups also is compelling: Texas (Texarkana, Texas) High School's Ryan Mallett, Jim Ned High School's and Texas Longhorn Colt McCoy, Forney High School's Caleb Hanie, Westlake High School's Nick Foles, Ennis High School and Texas Tech's Graham Harrell, Jacksonville High School's Luke McCown, Southlake Carroll High School's Chase Daniel, Robert E. Lee High School's Matt Flynn and Southlake Carroll's Greg McElroy.

Texas always has placed so much emphasis on football. But in recent years, it began emphasizing throwing the football even more. Not unlike young pitchers in California, Texas quarterbacks can and often do throw year round. They are tutored to throw more than ever. They leave high school more prepared than ever, play in college faster and enter the NFL more pro-ready than ever.

It's the reason we're seeing more and more young quarterbacks start -- and make their mark -- more quickly. Much of it can be traced back to the second most populous state in this country...the great STATE OF TEXAS!

Credit:  Adam Schefter  

10 Types of People In Your Fantasy Football League

10. The Complainer: This person starts their complaints even before the season begins. They complain about how the draft order is chosen. They complain about the draft process (if it’s snake, It shouldn’t be. If it isn’t snake it should be). They complain about how the order for the waiver wire is decided. They complain about the scoring system….they just COMPLAIN!

9. No Life: This owner is always posting topics, polls, and questions on the league home page. They comment on every post as soon as someone post a topic and they send trades at least once a week. Depending on the waiver wire process in your league, they are usually the ones who pick up the “handcuff player” because they were the only one awake when the news came that a stud was injured.

8. The Homer: This owner will go out of his way to get players from his home team or personal favorite team. They will pass on a better player just to pick up a player from their favorite team. They can justify every pick in their own mind, but when they tell you they picked up Sam Bradford in the 3^rd round because he is going to finish the year ranked #1, it’s best to just let them waste their pick.   

7. The No-Show: Doesn’t matter how much trash talking they did before the draft or how many times they tell you how excited they are, this owner isn’t coming to the draft. Have fun watching some stud running back get auto-drafted right before it’s your turn to pick.

6. "Everyone’s A Sleeper" Guy: Every year there are players that have break out seasons that were low on the radar (if on the radar at all). Part of the fun in drafting in FFL is to be the person who snatches up the next big star in the late rounds. But to the “Everyone’s A Sleeper Guy” every player could be a sleeper so he spends his time scouring the depth charts of teams while everyone else sticks to players not on the practice squad.

5. The GirlJ: The lone female in the league is a tricky situation for most in the league. You’re not sure if she actually knows what she’s doing or if she just took the spot of her boyfriend because he was going to be too busy to participate. Chances are that if there is only one girl in your league….she knows what she’s doing and should NOT be taken lightly.

Pre-game Poem For The 'Boys

T'was the nite before the Cowboys game and all across the land everyone was excited even the opposing fans. The Giants were shivering and afraid to stare for they wanted to avoid the wrath of Demarcus Ware. Eli was nervous and for good reason of course, because Rob Ryan has shored up the defense using every resource. So we get ready to show up with cheer and gleem, because tomorrow guess who takes the field, America's Team. #CowboysNation!!!