A touching tale of the minutes following Kevin Ware’s horrific injury:

When Louisville forward Luke Hancock saw Kevin Ware lying near the sideline with a shattered right leg, he initially recoiled like his teammates. Some Cardinals were vomiting, others were crying and inconsolable.

But then Hancock thought back to last summer, when he suffered a gruesome shoulder injury in a pickup game. He remembered how others were aghast. He remembered how former Louisville guard Andre McGee was the only one to rush to his side, to rush him to the hospital. He remembered how much that had meant.

So as Ware lay there in the first half of the Cardinals’ NCAA tournament victory over Duke on Sunday, scared and alone and stunned, Hancock ran to him. He held Ware’s hand and told him they would get through this together. He told Ware he would say a prayer for him.

Ware didn’t respond at first, because he was in shock. Hancock took a deep breath, closed his eyes, clenched Ware’s hand and started the prayer.

“Lord, watch over us and let Kevin be OK during this tough time,” he began. “The Lord does everything for a reason, and He will get us through this.”

Hancock said he did all he could to keep from breaking down, to keep tears from falling onto his fallen teammate. He found out later that Ware also was trying not to cry, trying to stay strong for him.

Ware also had an excellent interview on ESPN recently about his injury. The University of Louisville guard is a soft-spoken young man who seems very humble and grounded. I’m certainly rooting for him to make a full recovery back to the hardwood next year.

Local 10 Miami-Ft. Lauerdale reports:

Miami Heat forward Chris Bosh’s house in Miami Beach was robbed Wednesday night while he and his wife celebrated his 29th birthday.

According to police, $340,000 worth of jewelry, purses, watches, and rings was missing when the couple returned to their home in the 6300 block of North Bay Road.

The couple was out celebrating Bosh’s birthday at Briza on the Bay, a waterfront venue in downtown Miami.

Two housekeepers and the couple’s children were both home during the robbery.

Only jewelry without significant markings that would make them easily identifiable were taken.

I’m actually surprised that more robberies like this don’t happen to celebrities. A 2011 survey of burglars in the U.K. (who knows how accurate that is) revealed that close to 80 percent of these criminals used social-network platforms to help find their victims. And since celebrities live their lives in the public eye, it seems criminals could target them pretty easily.

As this is an early report, I’ll post any updates or corrections as need be.

The sports-world is abuzz over this piece by former New York Times reporter Selena Roberts for a blog called Roopstigo on corruption within the Auburn football program.

However there are problems popping up with Roberts’s story. She gave an interview to AL.com in defense of the piece. An excerpt:

Roberts, an Auburn graduate, talked about her story on the AU football program, the allegations and subsequent denials by key figures, with AL.com Wednesday night. A transcript of the eight-minute conversation is below.

AL.com: Mike Blanc is now denying some of the things he said to you. What’s your take on that?

Roberts: Well, I think I mentioned this to you before in an email. It takes a lot of courage to speak the truth and to go out and have some conviction about . . . a subject that, let’s face it, at Auburn, draws a lot of backlash. I think it’s unfortunate that he’s taking that stance, but given the pressure he’s under I can see how it happens.

AL.com: Do you think he changed his story after this story got so big today?

Roberts: I think any time athletes talk and have interviews, I think they’re used to, maybe a smaller market or something like that, I don’t know. I don’t know why he would change his stance, to be honest with you. I don’t know what goes on in his head.

AL.com: Neiko Thorpe says he was misquoted in the story.

Roberts: Like I said, I think it’s very difficult to take a strong stance and to tell the truth and then to have to deal with the consequences in a place where I think the story even shows that there is a great deal of pressure to keep what’s in-house, in-house. I think the entire sort of umbrella of the story explains just what’s at risk for people who step outside the bounds. In some ways, it almost dovetails with the story that they may not know exactly what’s going on. They may feel that kind of pressure to then alter what they said to me.

A couple of things. One: she doesn’t have the players on tape? It’s not just one player saying she stretched the truth, but many. And two, Selena Roberts is a name recognizable to anyone who followed the 2006 Duke Lacrosse rape case. Let’s take a walk down memory lane thanks to our friends at the Media Research Center, who were critical of her reporting for the New York Times from the get-go:

As the “case” winds down to its ignominious end, Roberts returned to the subject on Sunday (Times Select $ required), whining about some of the “loquacious bullies” who emailed her in support ofthe lacrosse players and against her biased columns- “several hostile lacrosse advocates have burned a hole in my in-box as well over the past year.”

But Roberts had nothing to say on Sunday about local North Carolina district attorney Michael Nifong’s unethical behavior in pushing rape charges against the Duke lacrosse players (the most she could muster was to call him “one part district attorney, one part clueless Columbo”), or the assumptions of guilt by liberal Duke faculty, or the false charges from the alleged rape victim.

Roberts started off with snottiness: “The ubiquitous ‘Innocent’ wristbands of the yellow ‘LiveStrong’ variety have become a wardrobe accessory akin to a watch for some Duke lacrosse supporters.”

Later on, Roberts tried to conflate the false rape charges with what she considers athletic misbehavior on campus (as if non-athlete students have never done similar things).

“What happens if all the charges are dismissed? There is a tendency to conflate the alleged crime at the Duke lacrosse team kegger on March 13, 2006, with the irrefutable culture of misogyny, racial animus and athlete entitlement that went unrestrained that night.

“Porn-style photos of two exotic dancers – one of whom was the accuser – emerged from cellphone camera downloads. Heated exchanges between players and dancers occurred. Racial slurs were heard. And in an ‘American Psycho’ reference, a repulsive e-mail message depicting the skinning of strippers was sent by a player, Ryan McFadyen, who, to his credit, has since apologized.”

Note the double standard: While the woman who made false charges of rape has yet to be named in the media, but Roberts still feels free to criticize lacrosse players by name in print.

Keep in mind, the MRC piece above was written a year before Nifong was eventually disbarred for his conduct in this case.

As far as the Auburn story from Roberts, I’m not putting much faith in its accuracy at this point. Stay tuned for updates.

Noah posted on basketball coach Rice’s tirade at his players yesterday, and today we learn he’s been fired.  Good riddance.

And for the record, I stand by my statement calling for Notre Dame’s Brian Kelly to have been fired in 2011. 

Yes, coaches yell at players as they should. But there is a line and both of these men crossed it.

Yu Darvish came oh so close to pitching a perfect game this evening in Houston.

The 26-year-old Rangers hurler and 2012 American League Rookie of the Year threw 111 pitches over 8 2/3 innings and K-ed 14 batters in tonight’s mastery against the Astros.

Alas, ninth-place hitter Marwin Gonzalez came up with the score 6–0 and Darvish just one out from a perfecto. The light-hitting shortstop swung at the first offering — a down-the-middle, 90-mph fastball — and knocked it through the pitcher’s legs and into center field.

Darvish was removed after the base hit, but the next Astros hitter, Jose Altuve, struck out to end the game.

Congrats, all the same.

There’s isn’t much more to add to this video (courtesy of ESPN) of Rutgers coach Mike Rice physically and verbally abusing his players:

Of course, no one is shocked that a coach uses obscenities directed at his players. After Tyler Clementi’s suicide, though, it’s jarring to hear a coach — a Rutgers coach — call one of his players a “faggot.” There’s a time and a place for yelling and screaming. It’s unlikely, though, that Rice deployed his obscenities strategically to maximize his players’ intensity and readiness to play.

Bobby Knight was one of the all-time great college coaches when it came to winning games. But he too was abusive toward his players, and he ultimately got fired for violent behavior against them. Here’s a news flash: Mike Rice is no Bobby Knight, and Rutgers basketball is no Indiana. Some argue that Indiana should have fired Knight long before they finally did. I say Rutgers should fire Mike Rice today. 

For more information about the story, read here and here. 

After Monday afternoon’s 8–2 loss to the Red Sox, the Yankees find themselves one full game out of first place with only 161 games left to go.

All kidding aside, it is clear that the mood among many sportswriters and the team’s fans is anything but optimistic. Feel free to check out my recent interview with diehard supporters Guy Benson of Townhall, Robert George of the New York Post, and Rick Klein of ABC News to learn their thoughts on the state of the Bronx Bombers in 2013.

Here’s a snippet:

EPSTEIN: The Yankees haven’t experienced a losing season since 1992. How should fans too young to remember names like Mel Hall, Eddie Whitson, Andy Hawkins, and Brien Taylor prepare for the possibility that the bottom drops out in 2013?

GEORGE: After seeing those names listed, I’m rapidly thinking that this entire exercise is a sadistic venture on the part of Met fan Epstein to take joy in suffering of Yankees fans pondering the aimless late ’80s to early ’90s era. One interesting point about that period, though, is the year 1993 — the last time the Yankees and the Red Sox missed the playoffs. Considering how good Toronto and Tampa look in the East, that could possibly happen again in 2013.

BENSON: Whoa, I don’t remember any of those names. I came of age as a baseball fan in the waning years of the Mattingly era, so a losing Yankees season has literally never been on my radar. The question is, will fans fork over top dollars to see a lousy team in a nice new (and expensive) stadium? I think Mets fans have answered that question resoundingly over the last few seasons.

KLEIN: We didn’t know we were bad back then, or at least we tried to forget. This will sting more if they’re sub-par — probably like the post-Mantle, Shea years. Hurting more because we had so much plenty so recently.

GEORGE: Guy brings up a great point: There’s a whole generation of Yankee fans who’ve only known playoffs every single year and a World Series appearance every three years (on average). The team has only missed the playoffs once since 1995 — and they won it all the year afterwards. We could be heading into alien territory for many in Guy’s generation.

BENSON: And the 2008 playoff miss was sort of appropriate. A somber benediction for the old stadium. They certainly christened the new stadium appropriately the next year, though.

More here.

Amazing. ABC News:

Kevin Ware is already up and walking, and he’s got a nice souvenir to keep him company until he’s cleared to return to Louisville.

Cardinals coach Rick Pitino brought the Midwest Regional championship trophy when he visited Ware, who remains hospitalized after surgery to repair a gruesome fracture in his right leg.

“He was real excited about (the trophy),” Pitino said after visiting Ware again Monday morning. “I said to him, ‘You want me to bring it back or stay with you?’ He said, ‘It’s staying with me.’ I said, ‘All right, just make sure you don’t lose it.’”

During a 2-hour surgery Sunday night, doctors reset Ware’s broken tibia and inserted a rod into the bone. Because the bone broke through the skin, Pitino said doctors are monitoring Ware to make sure no infection develops. If there are no complications, he should be released Tuesday.

The rest here.

Good morning.

Here are several links from the past week that will make Opening Day a bit more interesting:

• With season three of Game of Thrones and the 2013 regular season having started within one hour of another, Larry Granillo of Baseball Prospectus proposes 10 sigils for current MLB players.
• The Tigers signed Justin Verlander to a seven-year contract extension totaling $180 million. The average annual value — $25.71 million — is the highest ever for a multi-year deal, topping the one that Felix Hernandez signed in mid-February.
• Buster Posey inked a nine-year extension with the Giants valued at $168 million. According to MLB Trade Rumors’ Zach Links, “Posey’s contract covers his three remaining years of arbitration and five years of free agency, plus an option [worth $22 million] that could take care of a sixth free agency year.” Overall, Grant Brisbee of McCovey Chronicles gives the extension a thumbs-up, but briefly wonders why the Giants needed to do the deal now, considering that he was still three years away from free agency:

There’s a great chance Posey makes a lot of money for a little production by the end of it. But that’s not really the point — they’re paying him a premium to make sure he’s around for his 29-through-32 seasons in addition to the 26-through-28 seasons that he was already locked up for. As happy as this deal makes me, I still would have waited a year. But when you’re complaining about too much Buster Posey, you’re kind of an ass. So I won’t.

• Meanwhile, San Francisco’s ownership group extended the contracts of general manager Brian Sabean and skipper Bruce Bochy through the 2016 season.
• Two other noteworthy contract extensions were signed last week: The Cardinals and Adam Wainwright agreed on a five-year deal worth $97.5 million, while the Diamondbacks and Paul Goldschmidt agreed on one worth five years and $32 million, with a team option for 2019 worth $14.5 million.
• The final free agent of consequence, Kyle Lohse, signed a three-year deal with the Brewers worth $33 million.
• RIP Bob Turley, 82. He may have earned the 1958 Cy Young Award while playing for the world-champion Yankees, but Orioles fans will always remember Turley for starting and earning the win in the franchise’s first ever home game four years earlier.
• RIP Gus Triandos, 82. When Turley and Don Larsen were sent to the Bronx after the 1954 season, Triandos was one of the players Baltimore received in return. The catcher spent eight seasons with the Orioles and slugged 142 home runs and was inducted into the team’s Hall of Fame in 1981.
• The Jays sent Ricky Romero, their Opening Day starter for the past two seasons, to their Single-A affiliate in Dunedin, Florida. Beyond the Boxscore’s Andrew Ball explains what prompted Toronto to take such drastic action and why Romero stands to benefit from the demotion.
• Wendy Thurm of Fangraphs says that confusion reigns on the question of whether MLB intends to allow teams to opt out of the current mandatory defined-benefit pension system for non-union employees.

• A re-tear of his shoulder capsule means that Johan Santana has almost certainly thrown his last pitch for the Mets and may not take the mound again, period. Sports Illustrated’s Jay Jaffe believes that the catatrsophic injury has probaly doomed his chances for entry into Cooperstown.

That’s it. Have a walk-off week!

P.S. My foolish fearless 2013 predictions may be found here.

Had Eddard Stark spent his years in the United States, rather than Westeros, he might have uttered during winter, “Baseball is coming.”

After an unbearably long period of anticipation, this evening’s match-up between the Rangers and Astros at Minute Maid Park will mark the beginning of a six-month odyssey otherwise known as the 162-game regular season.

Below you will find my 2013 MLB predictions and a few comments. For a good chuckle, check out my 2012 prognostications.

American League East: Tampa Bay, Toronto, New York, Baltimore, Boston

Despite the loss of workhorse James Shields, the Rays have the fewest roster question marks in the division, which should enable them to hold off the new-look Jays in the final week. Third, fourth, and fifth place are up for grabs.

AL Central: Detroit, Cleveland, Kansas City, Chicago, Minnesota

With Victor Martinez back in what was already a powerful lineup and return of a similarly dominant starting rotation, the Tigers run away with the division. The Indians improve markedly but fall just short of the second wildcard berth.

AL West: Texas, Los Angeles, Oakland, Seattle, Houston

Between Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, and newcomer Josh Hamilton, the Angels have tremendous offensive firepower, but the Rangers possess the superior pitching staff. Like Cleveland, the A’s fall narrowly miss out on the postseason.

AL Wild Card Winner (Play-in): Angels

AL Champion: Detroit

AL MVP: Albert Pujols (runner-up: Robinson Cano)

AL Cy Young: Justin Verlander (runner-up: Matt Moore)

AL Rookie of the Year: Jurickson Profar (runner-up: Wil Myers)

National League East: Washington, Atlanta, Philadelphia, New York, Miami

A surplus of above-average talent and weaker division pushes the Nationals over 100 victories for the season and enables the Braves to finish with a wild card berth. As for the Phillies, Ryan Howard is healthy again but otherwise the Phillies pitchers will have to carry the load.

NL Central: Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Chicago

These teams will sorely miss the deprated Astros, who took their 55-107 record and staggered over to the AL West. The Reds will cope the best while the Pirates, Cardinals, and Brewers battling each other to stay at .500.

NL West: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Arizona, San Deigo, Colorado

The Dodgers go into ‘13 with a starting rotation arguably better than their hated rivals, the defending world champion Giants. Although some Diamondback offseason transactions raised eyebrows, the club still has sufficient talent to make a run at a wildcard spot.

NL Wild Card Winner (Play-in): Atlanta

NL Champion: Cincinnati

NL MVP: Joey Votto (runner-up: Matt Kemp)

NL Cy Young: Clayton Kershaw (runner-up: Stephen Strasburg)

NL Rookie of the Year: Gerrit Cole (runner-up: Travis D’Arnaud)

World Series Champion: Detroit in five games

Your thoughts on these picks, constructive and otherwise, are always appreciated.

The Miami Herald reports:

A quick NCAA/UM update on a day the Dolphins got back in the free-agent market by signing Bears guard Lance Louis:

### The NCAA investigator who took over the University of Miami case last May attempted, as her fired predecessor did, to use Nevin Shapiro’s attorney to help build a case against Miami – a detail curiously omitted from the NCAA-commissioned report detailing the NCAA’s improper handling of the case, according to an email exchange between the parties that was relayed to me by two people.

Meanwhile, UM also will allege that NCAA investigators lied to interview subjects by claiming that other people interviewed made comments they never made, in order to trick the subjects into revealing incriminating information they otherwise might not have, according to multiple officials familiar with the NCAA’s case against UM and former coaches. UM believes such behavior is unethical, and it clearly is.

Both of these details will be included in UM’s motion to dismiss the case that will be submitted to the NCAA on Friday.

UM also will claim that significant charges made against UM in the NCAA’s notice of allegations are uncorroborated by anyone besides Shapiro, and that tainted evidence has not been fully purged from the case.

The NCAA already has informed UM that the infractions committee does not have the authority to dismiss the case before a full hearing in mid-June, but UM is disputing that contention.

Among the new details in the case: Stephanie Hannah, an NCAA director of enforcement who took over the UM case late last May from fired Ameen Najjar, continued Najjar’s policy of working with Shapiro’s attorney, Maria Elena Perez, to try to build a case against UM.

The Cadwalader law firm, asked by the NCAA to investigate its handling of the case, indicated that Najjar ignored the NCAA legal counsel’s instructions and accepted Perez’s proposal to use bankruptcy subpoenas to compel depositions from witnesses who had refused to cooperate with the NCAA. In exchange, Perez would be paid; Perez claimed it would be for her time and expenses, Najjar claimed it would be only for expenses.

“The Perez proposal was unquestionably a bad idea for the NCAA,” the report said.

The rest here.

Miami Herald:

Just another ho-hum, typical offseason Wednesday for the Dolphins.

They announced new concessions on the stadium deal. They signed offensive guard Lance Louis. And they made general manager Jeff Ireland and CEO Mike Dee available to season-ticket holders to discuss anything they wanted.

Didn’t matter. It was all logo, all the time in Miami.

The day after confirming that the logo leaked in recent weeks was indeed the real deal, the Dolphins embraced the local and national notoriety.

They even sent Jared Odrick to a community event wearing an off-the-rack T-shirt, with the sleek — albeit controversial — new design. Fans took to Twitter to praise or harangue the new look; Dee acknowledged the reaction was mixed.

But the extreme makeover got the thumbs-up from two respected voices: Don Shula and Dan Marino.

“Glad to see new logo has all the same colors from our great 70’s & 80’s teams. A new look for a new era,” Shula tweeted. . .

It looks like a spaceship if you ask me, but I like it better than the old one:

At Kalyani Stadium near Kolkata (Calcutta), India, over a dozen poisonous snakes invaded a soccer field very soon after a game between Mohun Bagan’s 3-2 victory over Arrows in the I-League on Sunday. Said Bagan midfielder Rahim Nabi, “I for one would be afraid of playing there again.” No one was bitten and authorities attribute the summer heat to the serpent invasion, not snakes released to kill a federal witness.

Talk about trading places . . .

The New York Times corrects its article on Florida Gulf Coast College’s huge win over Georgetown on Friday:

An earlier version of this article included several errors. Georgetown’s record is 25-7, not 25-6. Florida Gulf Coast’s record in the Atlantic Sun was 13-5, not 17-1. Florida Gulf Coast became the seventh No. 15 seed to beat a No. 2 seed, not the sixth. Georgetown has now failed to advance past the Round of 16 in the past six years under Coach John Thompson III, not the past seven. Florida Gulf Coast forward Eddie Murray was incorrectly referred to as Eddie Murphy. Florida Gulf Coast was misidentified in some instances as Gulf Coast College.

Good morning.

Here are several links from the past week that will make the final Monday before the start of the regular season a bit more bearable:

• In the past week we learned that at least three everyday players — Adam Eaton, Derek Jeter, and Hanley Ramirez — and two top pitchers — Jason Motte and Johan Santana — will almost certainly begin the regular season on the disabled list.
• Twenty years ago last Friday, two Indians pitchers, Tim Crews and Steve Olin, were killed in a boating accident, “the first active major leaguers to die since a small plane piloted by New York Yankees catcher Thurman Munson crashed in 1979.” A third pitcher, Bob Ojeda, was badly hurt. Jon Saraceno and Bob Nightengale of USA Today talk with Crews’ widow about the horrific accident.
• Steve Treder of the Hardball Times poses and then answers five questions concerning the world-champion Giants. Among them:

Whither the Freak?

Tim Lincecum has now logged five full major league seasons, and dazzling though his overall performance has been, a disturbing sequence is emerging.

In 2008 and 2009, Lincecum was completely spectacular, racking up 7.5 and 8.0 WAR and sweeping twin Cy Young Awards. In 2010 and 2011, he was very good, but less than spectacular, his WAR totals at 4.7 and 4.1. And in 2012, at age 28, Lincecum labored through a dismal campaign, his walk rate and home run rate both bloated, and he squeaked out just 1.5 WAR over 33 starts. Giants’ fans really don’t like where this movie seems to be heading.

There are rays of hope to be found. One is that Lincecum, demoted to long-reliever status in five outings during last fall’s post-season, performed like the Freak of yore, and how: 13 innings, three hits, one run, two walks, 17 strikeouts. Another is that Lincecum reported to this year’s spring training sporting a good 10 pounds of newly-added muscle—as he had done in 2011, and, pointedly, not in 2012.

For whatever it’s worth, Lincecum is also now sporting a neatly-trimmed coiffure, which is probably trivial but might symbolize a newfound maturity, the sort which tends to discover motivation in the looming presence of a massive contract year.

The Giants won the 2012 division title despite a terrible season from Tim Lincecum. That’s a formulation highly unlikely to be repeated. In 2013, an outcome far more liable to play out is simply this: as goes the Freak, so will go the Giants.

• Having failed to convince the Orioles to move up the starting time of their home game against the White Sox on the evening of Thursday, September 5, the Super Bowl–champion Ravens will instead kick off the 2013 NFL season that night in Pittsburgh.
• When Andy McCollough of the Newark Star-Ledger asked Brian Cashman about the Yankees’ newfound thriftiness, the general manager responded, “Look at Vietnam. The biggest payroll didn’t win there, either.” (Come to think of it, the Yankees didn’t win during the Vietnam years, either.) Cashman subsequently acquired contract albatross Vernon Wells from the Angels but will need to pick up only $10–13 million of the $42 million that remains on the outfielder’s deal.
• Meanwhile, Red Sox principal owner John Henry gave an interview to the Boston Herald’s Steve Buckley. Here’s what Henry had to say about the future of Fenway Park:

The architects and engineers tell us Fenway Park will be viable and usable in its present form for at least 30 to 40 more years, with regular maintenance and care, of course. Our recent 10-year renovation plan was more than cosmetic; it was also highly structural, containing elements such as massive waterproofing.

• Twenty-five-year-old Sami Samir Hassoun, a native of Beirut, apologized to a U.S. district-court judge for dropping what he believed to be a bomb in a trash receptacle on a crowded street next to Wrigley Field in 2010. Federal prosecutors are seeking a 30-year sentence for Hassoun, who last year pleaded guilty to weapons charges.

• Here’s a must-read: Grantland’s Jonah Keri sits down with Coco Crisp, 33, and gets the center fielder, who has posted a highly impressive 88.2 percent success rate for attempted steals over the past three years, to reveal trade secrets.

That’s it. Have a walk-off week!

From the can’t-make-this-up department, “conservative” John McCain is showing his true colors with his Final Four picks: he’s using the Huffington Post for his bracket. The HUFFINGTON POST!?!?!?

To be fair, it was probably a staffer who passed these around the office for everyone to fill out, which makes it worse. What are his staffers doing on HuffPo?

But what I really have a problem with is — shocker — Senator McCain’s hypocrisy. In 2011, this is what he had to say about college sports:

How do you feel about problems in sports, like the BCS, get brought to Congress to discuss being fixed?:“First of all, I’m embarrassed that Congress would have to get involved in something like this. There’s neither the talent nor the expertise residing in Congress. Second of all, I’m disgusted with these institutions that call themselves higher learning and education because it’s all about money. … It’s all about money and your own television network and your own players and then they expect these players to adhere to a very high code of conduct. And I do, too, but come on. This is destroying, really, any semblance of the word amateur in college sports.”

So, rather than use the NCAA tournament to reiterate a legitimate point, he buys into the hype and fills out a bracket because all the cool kids are doing it? If you think there’s too much money in college sports, don’t celebrate March Madness.

And if you’re a conservative, certainly the last place you celebrate the tourney is on HuffPo.

ABC 10 Miami-Ft. Lauderdale reports:

The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office arrested Miami Dolphins legend Mark “Super” Duper, who investigators say punched, body slammed, and choked a teenage boy, knocking him unconscious.

Police arrested Duper, 54, Wednesday and charged him with child abuse.

According to an arrest affidavit, the incident happened Tuesday at a home in Jacksonville.

While playing video games with a friend’s children, Duper got into an argument with the victim when the boy refused to pick his hat off the floor, police say.

Duper then punched the boy in the face and slammed him to the ground several times, causing him to lose consciousness, police say.

The rest here.

Our Point-Guard-in-Chief has made his Final Four picks:

Louisville, Ohio State, Florida and Indiana.

I figured he’d be too busy dealing with the potential use of chemical weapons in Syria, the economy, assault weapons, etc. to really focus on basketball this year, but it looks like I was wrong! Kudos, Mr. President, for taking the time to focus on what really matters.

Of two 13-year-old girls. And as in the Steubenville case, “classmates” of the accused have been vocal on Twitter calling at least one of the alleged victims all sorts of names:

Two star members of the Torrington High School football team have been charged in sexual assault cases involving different 13-year-old girls, at least one of whom has been taunted online by dozens of upset classmates.

Two 18-year-old football players, Edgar Gonzalez and Joan Toribio, who live in the same Highland Avenue condo, have been charged with felony second-degree sexual assault and other crimes in a police investigation that began last month.  Both players were friends with the girls, who are in middle school, according to detectives.

Investigators said the football players were friends with the 13-year-old girls and made the arrests two weeks after the alleged misconduct, when a victim’s family member came forward on Feb. 10.

Details of the allegations have been sealed from public view.

Gonzalez also has a pending robbery case from last year, but was allowed to play in past football season.

School administrators said they were investigating cyberbullying against the alleged victim.

“We’re doing everything we can to provide the safety they need in schools,” Kenneth Traub, chair of the Board of Education, said. 

Social media posts by classmates taunting the victim have included vulgar  language and have blamed her for “ruining” the football players’ lives.

The rest here. 

Maybe they can draft Manti T’eo to fill the void?

Details of the Bears’ move here.