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The Top Five for 12/21

The top five sports stories of the day:

5. Bonds seeks to keep legal team intact. Making an appearance in U.S. District Court today, Barry Bonds stated that he’d prefer to keep two San Fransisco defense lawyers as leaders of his legal team–even though those two lawyers have represented potential witnesses against Bonds in the past. Prosecutors in Bonds’ perjury case had raised questions about a possible conflict-of-interest from defense attorneys Allen Ruby and Cris Arguedas. Ruby has represented Dr. Arthur Ting (Bonds’ surgeon), while Arguedas has represented former track star and steroid-user Tim Montgomery.

AP Report | MVN Giants | MVN’s MLB Source

MLB Coverage at MVN

4. Reid breaks silence about sons. In an interview that will appear in the January edition of Philadelphia Magazine, Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid, along with his wife Tina, discussed the drug addiction issues of their two sons–a problem they’ve been dealing with since 2002. Said Reid of his son Garrett, “We’ve dealt with Garrett’s situation for a long time, and we’ve done it through Super Bowls and championships.”

“We raised these boys. We taught them to pray, taught them to ride their bikes — you see this potential in him, and you’re just not going to give up,” said Tina. Garrett Reid was recently sentenced to 2-23 months in prison after police found heroin, steroids, and pills in his car–he faces additional charges after smuggling pills into prison. Britt Reid, meanwhile, was recently sentenced to 8-23 months in prison for pointing a gun at a driver.

AP Report | MVN Eagles

3. FSU president says lack of oversight enabled cheating scandal. After the Florida State football program suspended roughly 20-25 players for its upcoming bowl game, school president T.K. Wetherell handed out blame for the academic scandal that has the FSU athletic department in hot water. “The violations focused on a poorly structured online course, lack of attention to detail by a faculty member, and insufficient oversight by the athletic department of one rogue tutor — all coming together to result in a ‘contaminated’ class,” said Wetherell (the cheating occurred in a music history course).

Wetherell continued, “The student-athletes, who come from a number of sports, did not enroll in the course with the intent to do anything wrong. However, a university-employed tutor provided inappropriate help on exams. In the final analysis, these students made the decision to use the answers provided for an online exam, and they are suffering the consequences.”

AP Report | NCAA Coverage at MVN

2. Steelers beat Rams; Parker out for season. The NFL’s leading rusher, Pittsburgh’s Willie Parker, will miss the remainder of the season after fracturing his right fibula in last night’s Steelers/Rams match–nevertheless, Najeh Davenport’s 123 rushing yards and Ben Roethlisberger’s three touchdown passes propelled the Steelers to a 41-24 victory.

Late in the game, following a Marc Bulger interception on fourth down, the NFL Network broadcast showed Rams’ wide receiver Torry Holt screaming at coach Scott Linehan. Said Linehan of the altercation, ”It’s not a big deal, not to me. It’s something said in the heat of the battle to his coach and it’s over as far as I’m concerned.”

AP Recap | Coverage at MVN Steelers | Recap at MVN Rams

1. Jeter, Chamberlain show support for Clemens. Today, Derek Jeter warned against a rush to judgment about the allegations of steroid use surrounding Roger Clemens–”I think you have to let it play out a little bit before you make your decision on whether he’s guilty or not,” the shortstop said. Yankees reliever Joba Chamberlain also defended the three-time Cy Young winner–”His work ethic has been shown, he does what he does, and he does it for a reason. He’s been successful and that’s why,” said Chamberlain.

Report from ESPN | MVN Yankees | MLB Coverage at MVN

This entry was posted on Friday, December 21st, 2007 at 4:22 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.