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KDKA investigator Andy Sheehan reported some interesting tidbits on the alleged sexual assault story involving Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.

He reports:

“Sources tell us that Ben Roethlisberger did speak with police in Milledgeville that night and told them there was no sexual intercourse between himself and the alleged victim.

“The same sources say that Ben has told police and others he did not force himself on this young woman, but afterwards the woman did slip and fall, injuring her head.”

PHOTO CAPTION: Got a little Captain in ya?

The KDKA report also confirmed that sources say Roethlisberger conceives that he did have ’sexual contact’ that was not consummated and the defense might have a difficult time because after the woman slipped and fell, she immediately went straight to a local hospital and alleged she was sexually assaulted.

PHOTO CAPTION: Someone has Roethlisberger’s back.  Maybe?

Furthermore, investigators are also requesting DNA samples from Ben Roethlisberger presumably to match some substance found on the victim.  However, Big Ben’s defense attorney has not agreed.

In conclusion, things are not looking good for the two-time Super Bowl champ.  Pittsburgh fans might need to start getting used to seeing Dennis Dixon behind center.

The Baltimore Ravens have decided to retain wide receiver Derrick Mason and have signed him to a two-year contract, according to Jamison Hensley and his Twitter account.

The two parties were trying to reach an agreement before free agency, but they were not able to get anything in writing.

Mason will now lineup on the other side of Anquan Boldin, who the Ravens traded for last Friday, giving quarterback Joe Flacco some nice weapons to rely on.

The details of the deal have not been released yet or maybe I just wasn’t able to find them on the internet.

Los Angeles Angels center fielder Torii Hunter spells his first name with two ‘i’s.’  The extra ‘i’ is for ‘ignorant.’

USA Today’s Bob Nightengale posted an article on Tuesday regarding a round table discussion he had with Torii Hunter that took place about two weeks ago.  They discussed how fans might see a dark-skinned player and assume they are African-American; although, an increasing amount are Dominican, Puerto Rican, or Venezuelan.

The conversation is fair, but it’s how Hunter explained it that has stirred up some controversy.

“People see dark faces out there, and the perception is that they’re African American,” Hunter says.  “They’re not us. They’re impostors.

“Even people I know come up and say, ‘Hey, what color is Vladimir Guerrero?  Is he a black player?’  I say, ‘Come on, he’s Dominican. He’s not black.’ ”

PHOTO CAPTION: Torii Hunter hangs out with a bunch of non-blacks

Impostors?  Come on, Torii.  Obviously, ‘imposters’ is not a racist thing to say, but clearly the wrong word to use for a USA Today round table discussion.

And do people really come up and ask Torii what ‘color’ people are?  What are the actual colors people can be, according to Torii?  Black, white, and Dominican?  Is Dominican really a color?  What about Spanish, is that a color?  The next time someone comes up to me and says ‘What color is Pao Gasol’ is it alright to answer ‘He’s the color Spanish?’  Cause people ask me that all the time.

In response to his own words posted in the USA Today, Hunter commented on his Angels-sponsored blog on Wednesday:

“What troubles me most was the word “impostors” appearing in reference to Latin American players not being black players.  It was the wrong word choice, and it definitely doesn’t accurately reflect how I feel and who I am.

What I meant was they’re not black players; they’re Latin American players.  There is a difference culturally. But on the field, we’re all brothers, no matter where we come from, and that’s something I’ve always taken pride in: treating everybody the same, whether he’s a superstar or a young kid breaking into the game. Where he was born and raised makes no difference.”

I don’t think Torii is racist based on his comments.  That word is thrown around too loosely.  However, it’s quite clear that Hunter is very ignorant and needs to learn the difference between ‘color’ and ‘nationality’, and then sticking to just talking about nationality during these types of discussions.

Philadelphia Phillies fans who were worried about Cole Hamels this year (everyone) may be able to relax a bit. So far this spring, Hamels has been sharp even has he’s worked on his curveball and cutter. Hamels was back to old form today when he retired the first nine batters he faced before giving up a solo home run. That sounds like the Hamels we know and love.

Hamels went 3 2/3 innings in a 4-2 win over the Toronto Blue Jays this afternoon. He allowed one run, one hit and two walks in throwing 47 pitches (32 for strikes).

Most everyone agrees that Hamels is the lynch pin to the Phillies season. If he returns to 2008 form, the Phils will be by far the favorites to represent the National League in the World Series. If he doesn’t, they’ll have to rely on Joe Blanton and Jamie Moyer to pitch much better than Joe Blanton and Jamie Moyer.

Jocklife.com is reporting that the Cincinnati Bengals and free agent WR Antonio Bryant have agreed to a four-year contract. Under the terms of the contract, Bryant will run fast and catch footballs when they are thrown to him.

Jocklife is an agent-run site that does have some credibility, but this is by no means official. Bryant had a rebirth recently with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after sitting out a year from football. He was originally a 2002 draft pick of the Dallas Cowboys.

Photo Caption: Bryant and his butt once played for the San Francisco 49ers.

The Philadelphia Eagles will hold a 4pm press conference on Wednesday to announce the signing of free agent DB Marlin Jackson. The club signed him to a two-year deal and he’s expected to be in the mix at free safety.

This makes perfect sense for the Eagles. They love players coming off of major knee injuries (see Jack Ikegwuonu, Stacy Andrews and Cornelius Ingram) and they also love players who they can play out of their normal position. Jackson is a cornerback by trade, but the Eagles don’t give a flying rat’s petute. They will play him at left tackle if they want to.

Jackson has twice shredded his ACL at the pro level, but the Eagles aren’t concerned about that. They actually love players coming off of major injuries because they are cheaper.

Sources tell Philly.com’s Kate Fagan that Comcast-Spectacor, the company that owns the Philadelphia 76ers, is planning on firing head coach Eddie Jordan. This is a complete shocker. Why would they just fire a coach who has a system that doesn’t work, with players that can’t run that system even if it did work? How can you let go of a guy who can’t come up with a half-way decent starting lineup and who makes awful in-game decisions? Is it Jordan’s fault that he routinely blasts his team’s heart after every game? Sheesh. We are baffled.

What could more telling, is that sources tell Fagan that the company is also going to “seriously evaluate” the job of General Manager Ed Stefanski. Another head scratcher. OTR is going to wonder aloud how you can get rid of a guy for signing players to huge, untradeable contracts when they aren’t worth it. How can you just dump someone who brought in yet another head coach who doesn’t know what he’s doing and then give him players that aren’t remotely a fit for his “system?”

Photo Caption: One of Jordan’s patented coaching techniques is to yell “Stop playing like women!!” during random intervals throughout games.

Is it Stefanski’s fault that Elton Brand got way too much money? Is it Stefanski’s fault that the team hasn’t made any significant moves to get better? Talk about heaping blame on a guy just for making 98% of the team’s decisions.

OTR was able to get a hold of a few Wonderlic scores for this year’s crop of quarterbacks. And when we say “get a hold of,” we mean they were posted online somewhere and we read them. Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford scored an impressive 36 out of 50 on the intelligence exam, according to an NFL source

Tim Tebow didn’t fare quite so well. Tebow came in with a 22. So that means that he isn’t terribly intelligent and he has a lousy throwing motion. Notre Dame’s Jimmy Clausen clocked in with a 23 and Texas’ Colt McCoy rang up a 25. None of these are red flags of stupidity.

Photo Caption: “She doesn’t know about the environment or the economy or Watergate or politics either, so this relationship is a win-win for both of us. And she hates sex too so I can respect that.”

The report of Vince Young scoring a 6 back in 2006? That is a bright red flag of stupidity.

Nomar Garciaparra has signed a one-day contract with the Boston Red Sox and will officially retire. He submitted his retirement papers on Wednesday and now he is free to live a life of religious fulfillment, which includes a spot at the desk of ESPN’s “Baseball Tonight.” It’s not known if his main job on the show will be to stare darkly at Steve Phillips (is he still on the show?), wait for him to finish his underwhelming analysis of the Royals middle relief situation and then say, “Steve, are you serious? You don’t really think that, do you?”

Garciaparra finishes his MLB career with a .313/.361/.521 career batting line, 229 HR’s and 936 RBI in 5,596 at-bats.

To help those of you in Boston understand this, we offer the following local commentary:

Oh my gawd! Nomahh!! He was like tha best fawkin’ shot stop evahh! Who can fahget numbah five!! Yull be in ah hots fah evahhh! I remembah the fust time I saw him play at Fenway Pack! I didn’t have tickets but I was at the fawkin’ bah drinkin’ some beeyahs. He went yad ovah the Green Monstah and we wuh like ohhhh gawd! This guy is a fawkin’ playahhh!

According to NFL Network’s Jason La Canfora, former Kansas City Chief and Cincinnati Bengal RB Larry Johnson is scheduled to meet with the Washington Redskins and Oakland Raiders this week.

“RB Larry Johnson has visits planned to Skins and Raiders this week. More on NFL..com and NFL Network. About to do a chat on NFL.com,” he tweets.

Johnson is not remotely what he used to be, but that doesn’t mean he can’t still play at the NFL level. If the Redskins sign him, they’ll have a dynamic pair of aging running backs who are shells of their former selves. In Oakland, Johnson would be able to further muddy the fantasy waters and make neither him, nor Michael Bush, nor Darren McFadden draftable in the first four rounds.

After releasing Derek Anderson and signing Seneca Wallace, the Cleveland Browns are now shopping former first-round pick Brady Quinn.

PHOTO CAPTION:  After this pass was completed to the other team, one coach was heard saying, “Maybe Quinn’s left-handed?”

It’s being rumored that the Cleveland Browns are willing to trade Quinn and five-hundred dollars in cash money to any team for a hearty handshake and a thank you. 

After being drafted 22nd overall in the 2007 NFL Draft, Quinn hasn’t amounted to anything.  Furthermore, Wallace stated earlier this week that he thinks he is going to start for the Browns this coming season.

The early favorite to land Quinn is The Salvation Army.

New York Mets SS Jose Reyes was scratched from a game late last week and then sent to New York for more test. It was thought that he might have an overactive thyroid, but they needed more information. According to Adam Rubin on Twitter, it has been confirmed the Reyes does indeed have an overactive thyroid.

“Jose Reyes apparently does have an overactive thyroid. … The team will issue a release shortly,” he tweets.

Photo Caption: Seriously, what a choad.

We aren’t doctors but one of us is marrying the daughter of one soon (we haven’t decided which one just yet. We’re very loose and open about that kind of thing around here). So we were speaking with said doctor and asked about this overactive thyroid. Here is what we learned:

-Reyes is most likely feeling fatigued with a rapid heartbeat and diarrhea. Yeah, it’s tough to play baseball with that. We don’t know that those are his exact symptoms, but our future father-in-law said that these are likely symptoms. We don’t disagree with our future father-in-law because we are terrified of him. So he must be right.

-This condition is very treatable.

-Reyes will probably undergo some treatment that will take some 2-4 weeks and then he’ll be fine. We don’t know the exact treatments because we didn’t ask about them. Or we did and forgot what his answer was. That happens from time to time also. Not that we aren’t listening, we just aren’t smart enough to comprehend medical speak.

Former Buffalo Bills WR Terrell Owens has arrived in Cincinnati and is preparing to meet with the Bengals brass. Joe Reedy of the Cincinnati Enquirer managed to get a quote or two from the mercurial wideout.

“Right now this is my first stop and we’ll see how it goes from there,” Owens said. “Chad [Ochocinco] and I both can alleviate a lot of pressure off each other and we can make Carson [Palmer's] job easier.”

The Bengals, meanwhile, spent the day with former Tampa Bay Buccaneers WR Antonio Bryant. He left today without signing a contract, so the Bengals will apparently see what T.O. thinks about playing in the 513.

We just don’t think adding a good WR will make much of a difference for the Bengals. They’ve had great WR tandems in the past and it’s gotten them nowhere. We are starting to wonder if Carson Palmer just isn’t the guy to get it done. Amazingly, for a first-overall draft selection, he’s avoided major criticism since he’s never won a playoff game. Maybe Donovan McNabb should go play in Cincinnati where they are much more forgiving.

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