Tag Archives: about
Video: Jerome Bettis Talks About His New Anaphylaxis “Playbook”
Did you know that up to six million Americans may be at risk for anaphylaxis – a severe allergic reaction that happens quickly and may cause death?
Former Steelers RB Jerome Bettis knows personally the role that having severe allergies can cause in everyday life – he lives with a severe allergy to shellfish.
Together, Bettis and Sanofi US are launching The Severe Allergy & Anaphylaxis Playbook – a guide of valuable “plays” or tips to help people living with severe allergies, and their caregivers, avoid allergens and plan effectively in case of an emergency.
Listen to the interview above on all about the Playbook, as well as info on Jerome’s life after football and the Hall of Fame.
Eagles QB Vick Says Critics “Know Nothing About Football”
Michael Vick is clearly tired of answering questions about how he’s not good enough at reading NFL defenses, Sheil Kapedia of Phillymag.com reports.
The Eagles’ veteran quarterback talked to Mike Missanelli during a 97.5 The Fanatic interview earlier this week and was asked to address critics who have pointed out that he doesn’t make quick enough reads and holds on to the football too long.
“I’m really tempted right now to just say no comment to that because like I said a second ago, you don’t last 12 years in the NFL not being able to read the defense,” Vick said.
“Those people who are talking and saying that are just ignorant, and they know nothing about football. Unless they turn on the film and watch my game and see what goes on, then they’ll replace those comments with the right comments.”
When reminded that many critics have made those claims, Vick said, “But it’s incorrect. Without getting sensitive about it, it’s incorrect. So I’d rather not talk about it.”
Dallas Cowboys LT Tyron Smith opens up about family financial nightmares
Former West Virginia and current St. Louis Rams receiver Tavon Austin recently said that he can’t believe how many people are crawling out of the woodwork asking for money now that he’s set up as the eighth-selected player in the 2013 NFL draft. “Everybody wants to be around you,” Austin told the Rams’ official website. “My phone doesn’t stop ringing now. It feels like they’re counting my bank account now. So that’s probably the hardest thing for me.”
If Austin wants to know how tough it can really get, he should talk to Dallas Cowboys left tackle Tyron Smith, who was selected with the ninth pick in the 2011 draft out of USC. Smith signed a four-year, $ 12.5 million deal and went about becoming one of the best young blockers in the game. Considering what he was going through, it’s amazing that Smith would be able to get his head together enough to find the field at all. As he recently told the Dallas Morning News, Smith agreed to pay his stepfather, Roy Pinkney, and his mother, Frankie Pinkney, a substantial sum of money in four installments to insure that they would want for nothing. But that wasn’t good enough for the Pinkneys, or some of Smith’s own siblings.
“There was a certain amount I agreed to give them, but it went way beyond that and I was just like, ‘I’m done,’” Smith said. “I feel like I shouldn’t have given them so much. There was nothing wrong with helping them out and making sure they were taken care of, but not something to where they live the same lifestyle as you.”
According to the Morning News story (and as we recalled on Shutdown Corner at the time), things got a lot worse when Smith tried to set some boundaries.
Last October, John Schorsch — Smith’s Dallas-based attorney at the time — said Smith’s “mom and/or the stepdad threatened the physical well-being of Tyron and the life of his girlfriend.” Smith filed a protective order against his parents last summer to keep them from having any contact with him. The order also prohibits contact from Smith’s parents through his siblings. During training camp last year in Oxnard, Calif., one of Smith’s brothers whom he said he hadn’t talked to “in a long time” showed up and had to be removed from the facility.
Six months ago, his attorney said, Smith discovered that his family had taken more than $ 1 million from him. “There was money missing, but I just don’t know where it went,” Smith said in the report. “There were times I would check my statements and it wouldn’t make sense and I hadn’t authorized it at all. I just felt betrayed and I was like, ‘Who can I trust?’”
Smith had been using a financial advisor recommended by his parents.
And last season, when Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett told Smith that he’d be moving from right to left tackle, he texted his family to share the good news. Of course, since left tackles generally make a lot more in their second NFL contracts than do right tackles, you can guess where their focus was.
“They were already looking forward to the next contract, talking about things they wanted to get already,” Smith said. “I was like I haven’t even got there and there’s not even a sure thing that I will. And that was all that was coming out of their mouth.”
As the report indicates, Smith is a good kid with the right attitude … but there’s only so much one can do. He hopes to reconcile with his family someday, but things will obviously have to change on the other end, and it’s fair to wonder if his family isn’t beyond hope.
“If all the incidents stop,” Smith said about what it would take for that reconciliation to happen, “and they just give me the space that I’ve asked for.
“The takeaway from this is don’t let people take advantage of you. And it’s all right to say no to certain people.”
NFL video from Yahoo! Sports:
Other popular content on Yahoo! Sports:
• Patriots’ Rob Gronkowski to have fourth surgery on forearm
• Jets rookie QB Geno Smith getting tips from former competitor
• Kyle Love, released by Patriots after diabetes diagnosis, lands with Jaguars
Michael Vick: Critics are ‘ignorant’ and ‘know nothing about football’
According to reports, Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick showed up to the first practices under new head coach Chip Kelly ‘noticeably bigger’ and very enthused about Kelly’s high-tempo offensive system. Apparently, Vick also arrived with a point to prove, and a burr in his saddle when it comes to the criticisms levied against him regarding the sandlot nature of his game. On Wednesday, Vick went on Philly radio station 97.5 The Fanatic and laid it out to those who wonder if he’ll ever play consistently and with the right kind of mechanics, as opposed to winging it and letting his athleticism rule the day.
“I’m really tempted right now to just say no comment to that because like I said a second ago, you don’t last 12 years in the NFL not being able to read the defense,” Vick told the station, via Sheil Kapadia of Phillymag.com. “Those people who are talking and saying that are just ignorant, and they know nothing about football. Unless they turn on the film and watch my game and see what goes on, then they’ll replace those comments with the right comments.”
But there are those who do watch tape, and are fairly informed on the subject, who believe that Vick holds on to the ball too long, fails to read defenses completely, doesn’t correctly anticipate pressure, and runs himself into sacks that shouldn’t happen. It’s why Vick has started all 16 games in a season just once in his career, and it’s why Vick was so turnover-prone in 2012, giving the ball up 11 times on fumbles. Vick led the NFL in fumbles in 2004 and 2010, but he doesn’t want to hear the talk about the holes in his game.
“It’s incorrect. Without getting sensitive about it, it’s incorrect. So I’d rather not talk about it.”
Well, that’s not entirely true. Vick also said that Kelly, the former Oregon offensive mastermind, recently taught him how to correctly run with the ball, which is a pretty amazing claim for a guy who’s been in the NFL since 2001 and has 791 rushing attempts and 5,551 yards and 34 touchdowns in his career. You’d think someone would have taught him that before, but apparently not.
“The other day, I broke out in the pocket, and the first thing Chip told me was to tuck the football,” Vick said. “So I showed him how I was running with it, and he looked at it and he knocked the ball right out of my hands. And he was like, ‘Hold it like this.’ And what he told me felt comfortable. I had a tighter grip on the football. That should secure that problem as long as I work on it. Like I said, you’re always a work in progress, and even when you think you know it all, sometimes you don’t. The people who feel like they know everything, they don’t.”
One of the first things Kelly did when he took the Eagles job was to insure that he has Vick on the roster by restructuring his old six-year, $ 100 million deal down to a one-year, $ 7.5 million contract with a $ 3.5 million signing bonus. Vick is the projected starter at this point, but there’s backup Nick Foles and fourth-round draft pick Matt Barkley to worry about. Vick would seem to have the ideal skill set for Kelly’s offense, but Kelly doesn’t generally tolerate a lot of sacks and turnovers from his quarterbacks. So, whether he likes it or not, and whether he thinks he has to or not, Vick will have to clean up a few things if he wants to go forward with his current team.
Greg Cosell of NFL Films and ESPN’s NFL Matchup, who also contrubites to Shutdown Corner on a regular basis, watches as much tape as anyone in America who isn’t working with an NFL team. His take on Vick, from May, 2012:
Vick is a transcendent athlete, capable of extraordinary throws and runs at any given moment. Yet he always leaves you wanting more. The reason, in simplest terms: Vick is not, to this day, an accomplished passer. He remains a week-to-week player with little stability or continuity to his game. He’s always dangerous, at times dazzling, but seldom consistent … NFL quarterback is a highly disciplined craft. For those like Vick who are exceptional athletes, it requires more intellectual discipline to properly harness that athleticism than is necessary for those players predisposed to play in the pocket. Perhaps the most damning assessment of Vick is this: his frenetic, haphazard approach sabotages his ability to stay on the field.
Many with no specific agendas, who have watched Vick for years, would certainly agree.
NFL video from Yahoo! Sports:
Related coverage on Yahoo! Sports:
• Seahawks’ Bruce Irvin suspended four games for violating PED policy
• Can Manti Te’o actually benefit from girlfriend hoax?
• Jets RB Mike Goodson arrested on drug, weapons charges
Elon Musk drops hints about future Tesla BMW 3-series competitor
Tesla has hit an undeniable home run with this Model S electric vehicle, despite the car’s high cost. Tesla has created an attractive electric vehicle with an impressively long driving range that has wowed drivers and reviewers alike. The only downside to the vehicle is that a well-equipped version runs and the $ 100,000 range.
Recently Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter dropping some teasing details about a future electric vehicle that he and Tesla are dreaming up. Musk said, “It has always been my dream to produce a low cost, compelling electric car. We are 3 to 4 years away. Wish it could be sooner.” That would put timeframe for Tesla’s next electric vehicle at approximately 2016 to 2017.
Musk then answered another question when people were curious what sort of pricing Tesla was considering for its future electric vehicle. Musk tweeted in response to that question, “$ 30k in 2013 $ .” He also said that the new vehicle would have a 200+ mile range with some “really cool tech that we can’t talk about yet.”
I’d wager that really cool tech will be the hot-swappable battery packs that Tesla recently mentioned in an SEC filing or fast battery changing stations. Musk also tweeted that the vehicle would be about the size of the Audi A4 or BMW 3-series compared to the Model S being sized like the Audi A7 or BMW M5.
Musk even said that he thinks when we consider the savings the vehicle will give you in gasoline, that you can actually cross-shop a $ 30,000 Tesla EV with $ 25,000 gasoline-powered vehicles. Tesla could be right to assuming this future technology Musk isn’t ready to talk about has something to do with making it quick and easy to recharge or swap battery packs at a low cost.
SOURCE: Forbes
Elon Musk drops hints about future Tesla BMW 3-series competitor is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
SlashGear
LeSean McCoy ‘gripes’ about footrace he lost to ‘Old Man’ Michael Vick
Earlier this offseason, Eagles running back LeSean McCoy challenged quarterback Michael Vick to a foot race. McCoy turned the air green with trash talk, calling Vick “old man” at every turn. But the old man still had some hops; according to Philly safety Colt Anderson, Vick dusted Shady by as much as five yards over a 40-yard distance.
[Also: Michael Vick Q&A: QB learns from highs and lows]
Now, with OTAs under way, both sides are talking to the media … and McCoy is hinting that the “feud” (spoiler: probably not a feud) isn’t really over.
“The jubilation I felt that day was unbelievable,” Vick told Yahoo! Sports’ Jason Cole, “not only to myself but for the morale of this team. Nothing against LeSean, but he asked for it.” Vick conceded that he didn’t know he had that speed still in himself. He credited the Eagles’ strength and conditioning coaches for getting him ready, and the Eagles players for getting him pumped.
“The build-up has been going on since the beginning of April,” Vick said. “I was conservative about it because I didn’t want something to happen. Just the fact of it being sort of immature and then if I tore a hamstring or LeSean tore up a hamstring, Chip [Kelly]‘s going to be mad at me, so I didn’t want that. (But) it got to a point where I couldn’t take it anymore.”
[Also: Donovan McNabb to retire as a member of the Eagles]
Alas, getting whupped wasn’t enough for Shady. McCoy, 24, is now claiming Vick, 32, cheated by jumping the gun, and is alleging he has video proof of the infraction. (The video, strangely enough, has not yet surfaced.) Sour, bitter grapes, or keeping a healthy rivalry alive? We’re going with the latter. The Eagles have had more than enough of the former.
-Follow Jay Busbee on Twitter at @jaybusbee.-
NFL video from Yahoo! Sports:
Other popular content on Yahoo! Sports:
• Justin Blackmon’s NFL career at a crossroads
• Trends in early fantasy football mock drafts
• Marshals: Tiger Woods never asked about Sergio Garcia’s shot
“Star Wars Kid” talks about experience a decade after going viral
Remember Ghyslain Raza? If you’re thinking hard and still drawing a blank, that is probably because he is better known as “Star Wars Kid,” the victim of what amounted to, in some ways, as a large scale personal attack by the Internet at large when a video of him went viral. Which video? The one of a 14-year-old boy wielding a stick as a lightsaber, flipping it about while alone in a room filming himself. After the video – which currently has millions of views on YouTube – went viral, Raza went silent.
In 2010, Raza briefly reappeared in the public eye when it was revealed that after the incident he ended up depressed, eventually dropping out of high school and ending up in a children’s psychiatric ward, according to Vice. His family sued the families of the three students who posted the video online without Raza’s permission, seeking a quarter of a million dollars for the bullying he suffered as a result of it. Eventually the matter was settled, terms unspecified. While it took time to heal, he eventually overcame his unwanted fame and the overwhelming negativity that came with it, moving on to greater things.
Eight years after the incident, Raza held the title of president of the Patrimoine Trois-Rivieres conservation society, and revealed that he was seeking a law degree from McGill University, having since graduated. Although such information was provided, Raza still remained silent about what those years were like, leaving us to guess what he experienced in the unspoken phrases between such admissions of depression and stints in a psychiatric ward.
Now, a full decade later, that silence has finally been broken, with Raza talking about what he experienced and felt during those years in an interview with Canadian magazine Macleans. Why the change? According to Raza, he felt compelled to take a public stand against cyberbullying, not only because he understands it in a way most of us (thankfully) never will, but also because of the growing instances of Internet bullying that have, in some cases, resulted in suicide.
“No matter how hard I tried to ignore people telling me to commit suicide, I couldn’t help but feel worthless, like my life wasn’t worth living,” said Raza. He talked about such instances as fellow students climbing on top of tables to mock him. “In the common room, students climbed onto tabletops to insult me.” The friends he had before the incident, which he says had been very little, stopped associating with him after the video surfaced. He was finally forced to change schools before dropping out altogether.
There is light at the end of the tunnel, however, and when asked what advice he has for those who are suffering cyberbullying, Raza said: “You’ll survive. You’ll get through it. And you’re not alone. You are surrounded by people who love you.”
SOURCE: Macleans
Image via Motherboard
“Star Wars Kid” talks about experience a decade after going viral is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
SlashGear
Titans Talking About Adding Free Agent John Abraham
The Titans talked to free agent defensive end John Abraham Thursday and Friday of last week and according to Adam Schefter of ESPN, are discussing the possibility of signing Abraham to a deal.
Abraham has visited the Broncos, Seahawks and Patriots and hasn’t been able to catch on anywhere.
He played the last seven seasons with the Falcons and prior to that six seasons with the Jets. He has 122 sacks in his career, including 10 in 2012.
Abraham has been a free agent since the Falcons cut him on March 1.
Leroy Butler opens up about church flap, reiterates support for Jason Collins
It made quite a bit of news this week when former Green Bay Packers safety Leroy Butler tweeted out the fact that he was bumped from a scheduled appearance at a Wisconsin church after he expressed social media support for NBA player Jason Collins. Collins, of course, came out in a Sports Illustrated cover story, becoming the first active player in a major team sport to make his homosexuality public. Some castigated the church (which Butler still refuses to name) for its closed stance, while others wondered why the church was not afforded the same right to free expression that Butler and Collins have been.
Most certainly, this debate will continue and catch fire as the subject opens up over time. On Thursday, Butler appeared on Anderson Cooper’s CNN program to explain his point of view. Butler, who has been very active in his community through a number of churches since his retirement from the NFL in 2001, seemed a bit confused by the debacle — he was set to speak on the subject of bullying, and he found the church’s stance oddly ironic.
“I tell my story — single-parent home, African-American, from the projects, going to Florida State and playing for the Green Bay Packers for 12 years, inventing the Lambeau Leap, which is a great story,” Butler said. “I wasn’t necessarily going into that because that wasn’t part of my story. But when I touch on bullying, you know, then that’s the problem they had because they didn’t want me to use Jason as a part of the bullying and I thought, well, that was just crazy to me.”
Butler said on the show that the church’s pastor told him that if he apologized for the original tweet of support, took it down from his account, and “asked God for forgiveness,” he would still be allowed to speak to the parishioners. His response:
“So basically you’re asking me to … some 16-year-old kid is somewhere in a closet with his father’s gun that he found and he’s thinking about putting it to his head because he’s been tormented in school every single day because they may have found out he is gay, or they suspected he’s gay. He doesn’t have a voice right now. You’re asking me to take all that back so he doesn’t have a voice. I won’t do that.
“That’s taking my dignity, my respect away. I want that young man to come out of the closet, put the gun down, and you’re a part of society. When did we get to this, starting to judge who gets to be a part of what society? It just bothers me. And I told the pastor to blame it on my mom, because my mom brought me up to love everybody.”
Butler, who was inducted into the Packers Hall of Fame in 2007, also summed his own reaction to the possibility of a gay teammate.
“It comes down to this, Anderson: If you can run, jump, slam a basketball, throw a basketball, get an interception, if we win the Super Bowl ring, I don’t care who you bring to the ring ceremony. I just want to win the ring.”
Legendary Packers head coach Vince Lombardi, whose brother was gay and who told his players long ago that the repercussions for any negative reactions to gay teammates would be quick and severe, would most certainly agree.
From David Maraniss’ amazing Lombardi biography, “When Pride Still Mattered“:
Vince did know that Harold was gay, and here was an area where the coach showed an open mind, according to friends and family. He ignored Catholic teaching against homosexuality and instead considered gays another group deserving respect, like black and American Indians, and Italians. In later years, he would have players who were gay, ad quietly root for them at training camp, hoping they would show they were good enough to make the team.
It would seem that the current discussion almost took place several decades ago.
Robert Griffin III posts a series of provocative, cryptic tweets about … what, exactly?
Robert Griffin III is already the most popular athlete in his adopted hometown of Washington, D.C. (Sorry, Bryce Harper.) He’s outspoken without being outrageous, and as a result he’s also fast becoming one of the more influential athletes in the country. He’s still finding his footing when it comes to addressing controversial topics, but once he does, he’s likely to be a go-to source on both social and sports issues.
Case in point: a series of tweets that Griffin issued over the course of five hours on Tuesday evening. It’s not quite clear what set Griffin off, but he offered up a series of honest tweets. They’re not exactly soul-baring, but in a world where athletes are expected to toe the family-friendly, politically correct line in order to preserve their brand, Griffin is clearly chafing at the thought of staying silent.
Here are the tweets; following is some speculation about what Griffin may have been addressing:
You ever say something & people interpret it a certain way but you didn’t mean it that way but meant it how you said it??? Yea…
— Robert Griffin III (@RGIII) April 30, 2013
“The few” will always post pics & make fun of the injured. Don’t let it cloud your judgement when it comes to the good in this world — Robert Griffin III (@RGIII) April 30, 2013
In a land of freedom we are held hostage by the tyranny of political correctness
— Robert Griffin III (@RGIII) April 30, 2013
Tyranny has not just 1 meaning. — Robert Griffin III (@RGIII) April 30, 2013
Tyranny- “a condition imposed by some outside agency or force — Robert Griffin III (@RGIII) April 30, 2013
If we speak..we say it the wrong way. If we do not speak we are cowards…. — Robert Griffin III (@RGIII) May 1, 2013
Hate is strong. But love is even stronger. Appreciate the support people. I’m out for the night
— Robert Griffin III (@RGIII) May 1, 2013
Griffin has taken to Twitter in support of a cause before; he had a memorable run of tweets defending Brittney Griner and the rest of the Baylor women’s basketball team after their surprising early-round exit from the women’s NCAA tournament. And he’s fast becoming a spokesman, whether he likes it or not; he was the most popular guest at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner afterparties.
Question is, to what, exactly, is he speaking in opposition? One assumption is a new move by the D.C. City Council to get the Redskins to change their name from a “derogatory, racist” one, in the words of council member David Grosso, to “The Washington Redtails.” That name would honor the Tuskegee Airmen, who broke the color barrier for military pilots in World War II, and would largely preserve the existing song (“Hail to the Redskins”) and outward trappings of the team. The council’s move is symbolic, as the Redskins train in Virginia and play in Maryland. Redskins owner Daniel Snyder has given no indication of being anywhere close to changing the team’s name.
Sports and political correctness intersect at multiple points these days, from the Redskins name to the recent treatment of newly-out-of-the-closet Jason Collins to Griffin’s fellow quarterback Tim Tebow. Griffin could be addressing one of these, or none of them at all. Point is, when he speaks (or tweets), people listen. It’s a heavy responsibility for someone of any age.
Still, one person not concerned about what Griffin means is one of the people who knows him best: his father, Robert Griffin Jr. “He’s 23 years old, so he’s going to see tyranny in a lot of things,” a laughing Griffin Jr. told Yahoo! Sports’ Martin Rogers. “I know I certainly did when I was 23.” The elder Griffin indicated that he’d be speaking with Griffin III Wednesday afternoon, and would be interested in hearing more about where the young quarterback’s mind is. As would his millions of fans.
-Follow Jay Busbee on Twitter at @jaybusbee.-
More NFL coverage from Yahoo! Sports:
Other popular content on Yahoo! Sports:
• Geno Smith’s pre-draft actions may explain NFL draft slide
• Possible Top 10 for the 2014 NFL draft | Photos
• Floyd Mayweather Jr.: Behind the police report
