"The Jock Itch" with Jasmine Sadry: Deion Sanders--Dez "Needs Help"

DALLAS (105.3 THE FAN) Leading off Today's "Jock Itch:" Things just continue to NOT look good for Dallas Cowboys' darling, Dez Bryant. First, it was all of the drama with the "is he or isn't he" banned from North Park Mall after "Saggy Pants-gate 2011", and NOW, former Dallas Cowboys Deion Sanders is airing some pretty dirty laundry on Dez! Deion is now claiming that he's said for a while that Dez "needs help" and that his actions at North Park Mall were "ignorant." He said, "I told the Cowboys from day one that he needs help. Matter of fact, they have a team in place to help him. But you cannot tell a grown man what to do."

Where does Deion Sanders factor in when it comes to Dez? Well, Prime Time used to serve as a mentor to Dez in the past and said that he has now ended his relationship with the 22-year-old and doesn't plan on speaking to him anytime soon... Yikes!

"I haven't spoken to the kid. I have no desire to speak to the kid. In regards to me, I can forgive, but I can't forget," Sanders said. "You can't tarnish the other things that I have going on and the other kids. It's sort of like I can't allow something to poison the fruit of many other kids. I can't do it, so I cut off those ties a long time ago." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/25/deion-sanders-dez-bryant-needs-help_n_840665.html

and in OTHER "itch" worthy news...

Our very own Josh Hamilton made the list of the Top 10 Most Marketable Players in Baseball! Nielsen did the compilation and used the N-Score, measuring name and image awareness, appeal and personality attributes such as sincerity, approachability, experience and influence, both at the national and local levels. With all of that factored together, they found that Hambone came in at third, behind both Yankees, Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter at number one. 

Incidentally, NOBODY from the Red Sox made the list and ZERO players from the World Series Champion Giants appear either...

For all of baseball (including current and former players, commentators and owners) a few all-time greats lead the pack. Yogi Berra holds the top spot, with an N-Score of 257, followed by Willie Mays (236) and Cal Ripken, Jr. (228). One significant surprise? Joe Torre beat out his former players—both Jeter and Rodriguez—with a score of 207, making him baseball's fourth most marketable personality... http://benmaller.com/2011/03/zero-red-sox-among-10-most-marketable-mlb-players/

I'm all for wacky shenanigans of camaraderie between athletes, but this one may just be the most bizarre. Livan Hernandez played as a pitcher for the Marlins back in 1997 and helped them win the World Series that year. But now he may just be known for something totally different. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that he had a deal in 2006 to actually punch the Diamondbacks bullpen catcher in the groin, whenever he wanted, for a price. Livan paid $50 bucks each time he delivered a below the belt blow and the bullpen catcher got a $300 dollar bonus after every 10th punch! Hernandez also once paid coach Jeff Motuzas, THREE GRAND to drink a gallon of milk in 12 minutes... http://benmaller.com/2011/03/mlb-pitcher-paid-to-punch-bullpen-catcher-in-groin/

It's really a glorious era for nerds who love baseball because they can really find a way to make ANYTHING about baseball into a booger-eating statistic these days. And, here's the latest: baseball pitchers are more likely to retaliate by hitting a batter when it's hot outside!

According to researchers at Duke University, they've determined that, statistically, a Major League Baseball pitcher is MORE likely to throw at a batter when it's hot outside. After analyzing more than 57,000 games, they found that when a pitcher's teammate was hit by a pitch (and it just happened to be over 90 degrees outside) there was a 27% chance that pitcher would retaliate by hitting an opponent with a pitch.

On the other hand, if the temperature was in the pleasant 50s range, there was only a 22% chance he'd retaliate by hitting an opponent with a pitch.

The researchers believe this all shows that heat makes us more aggressive when it comes to retaliating, so if it's hot outside and someone does something to make you angry, you could be more likely to overreact.

Case in point for me? When it's steaming hot at Rangers Ballpark during the ides of July and I'm standing in the concessions line tasting the own salt of my sweat, waiting for my cheesy garlic fries for 45 minutes, (ALL THE WHILE missing out on why the crowd keeps "oohing and aahing") only to get up to the counter and they're completely out of deep-fried inventory!

Yep, NOW I see where these aggressive pitchers are coming from... http://news.duke.edu/2011/03/baseball.html

The NFL won't be drug testing players during the lock-out because the league's drug-testing program for its players has been placed on hold during the work stoppage! This means that the NFL might not be allowed to punish players for breaking its personal conduct policy during the lockout!

David Cornwell (an attorney who represents players on a wide scope of issues, including drugs cases) says, "It's all uncharted territory from here on out. Everything that emanates from the Players Association regulating agents is suspended. And everything that emanates from the NFL regarding the regulation of players is suspended."

Talk about marijuana sales shooting to record highs around the country, thanks to this little free pass...http://benmaller.com/2011/03/nfl-players-not-tested-for-drugs-during-lockout/

One guy that's probably rejoicing because of the NFL's leniency in drug testing due to the lockout is troubled Green Bay Packers defensive lineman, Johnny Jolly! He was arrested on yet ANOTHER drug charge in Houston when he was pulled over (about 12:45 am on Friday) and discovered to have had with him a bottle containing 600 grams of codeine under his passenger's seat and another bottle with an unidentified substance in the driver's side door. He was charged with possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute.

Jolly was suspended by the NFL without pay for all of last season for violating the league's substance abuse policy. The ban stemmed from a separate drug arrest.

The Packers and Jolly's agent didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/25/johnny-jolly-arrested-drug-charge_n_840903.html

NFL golden boy Tom Brady has made the pages of the latest edition of Harvard's introductory economics textbook, actually replacing Tiger Woods for the gig! The reason for the replacement? The head of the economics department at Harvard said that the Crimson wanted to stay away from a guy like Tiger Woods, who they think had a lot of associations that might distract the students from what the focus should be. With that in mind, they picked Tom Brady because he was a "less distracting" athlete.

Seriously? Isn't this the same guy whose slight change in "hair do" has garnered ridiculous amounts of public scrutiny? Isn't this the same guy who is banging an insanely hot supermodel wife that he left his pregnant ex-girlfriend for? Yep...not distracting at all...

Anyway, the required Harvard reading ("Principles of Economics") uses Tom to demonstrate the advantages of employment in a market economy. The economist behind the book says that celebrity athletes shouldn't mow their own lawns. Yes, you read correctly. Here's his justification behind that belief:

"Celebrity athletes, despite their tremendous physical prowess, shouldn't mow their own lawns because people benefit from specialization. The hour that Tom would spend mowing that grass would be better spent doing an endorsement or something. He should hire someone to mow his lawn. Tom is too valuable to do it, even if he can do it really quickly. It just doesn't pay."

Oh, Tom Brady; From the pages of GQ to a Harvard Economics book...http://benmaller.com/2011/03/harvard-economics-text-book-features-nfl-star/

According to a new report put out by Bloomberg, John Calipari's Kentucky Wildcats spend more on recruiting basketball players than any other public university in the biggest conferences of college athletics. (I guess it was worth it after they stuck it to Ohio State over the weekend, with a GIANT upset over the Buckeyes, and then showing up UNC to make it to the Final Four) Kentucky spent just under $435,000 bucks in 2010. Kansas was second with just under $420,000 and the Florida Gators were third, spending just over $326,000 dollars.

How did Kentucky's athletic director, Mitch Barnhardt, defend their spending? He said, "Kentucky basketball is one of the most important things in our state and we are going to direct resources to ensure that it stays that way."

The Wildcats hoops program pulled in $5.2 million in profits last year and generated $16.8 million in revenue.

On the other hand, Wisconsin spent 76% less on recruiting ($57,397) than Kentucky. In fact, the Badgers actually invested the LEAST amount on hoops recruiting of public schools in the six largest conferences: Big Ten, Big 12, Big East, SEC, ACC and Pac-10…http://benmaller.com/2011/03/sec-school-spends-most-on-college-hoops-recruiting/

One of the country's top college prospects, and South Carolina's TOP football recruit, Jadeveon Clowney was detained and handcuffed briefly by Columbia police early Friday morning when authorities mistook him for a burglar! He was questioned and released, but Gamecocks coach Steve Spurrier (with the aid of the police chief involved in the situation) actually tried to downplay the whole incident, while talking to the media after practice that afternoon, by demonstrating what happened through a wacky skit performance of the whole ordeal.

Here's how everything went down: Clowney was stopped at 2 a.m. Friday morning, but the police chief stressed that Jadeveon did nothing wrong. The chief DID say Clowney was wrongly allowed into a bar (because he's an 18-year-old) in the Five Points district near campus and said he was told the person who let Clowney inside had been fired.

The police chief also said that his officers acted appropriately after receiving a complaint of an attempted armed robbery at a nearby convenience store "involving a group of black males with long dreadlocks." Jadeveon often keeps his hair in dreadlocks and at 6'6", his height easily stands out in most crowds.

They put the cuffs on Jadeveon and his group and realized, after a brief search, that they had the wrong guys. They were released with no arrests being made.

When Coach Spurrier caught wind of the news, he confronted Jadeveon to ask if he was causing a scene and to basically tell him to make wiser decisions about being in certain places and certain times, ESPECIALLY when he was doing all of this with his potential future teammate, Gerald Dixon Jr.

Jadeveon said, "Coach, I don't even drink!"

While there was plenty of laughter at practice, the incident was pretty serious: People were arrested, one person apparently has lost their job and a teenager was wrongly allowed into a night club.

Let's hope Jadeveon learned a REALLY valuable lesson... http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=6259409

Golfer John Daly's fourth ex-wife has FINALLY written a memoir called, "Teed Off: My Life as a Player's Wife on the PGA Tour." (cute play on words, Fourth Mrs. Daly) Anyway, in this book, she's claiming some pretty crazy things, among them being, (1) Beejies were available for $300 bucks a pop in the bushes off the 16^th hole at the TPC AND that (2) John actually whipped "it" out and peed in front of his mom once!

First things, first (and more importantly) let's address the beejie issue…

She said, "I'd been told by many men in Memphis, including my banker, that there was a girl who'd offer golfers (oral sex) when they got to the sixteenth hole…Apparently, all they had to do was pay $300 bucks when they got there, and she'd take them into the bushes."

And the whole incident regarding urine and his mamma? She claims that after being in Germany, she and John returned to their Arkansas house with John's mother, Lou, and some neighbors to see the progress that the interior decorators were making on some changes she wanted. Well, when they discovered that the walls of the kitchen had been painted in the wrong color, John took matters into his own hands…literally….

She wrote, "So in front of everyone, in front of his own mother, John whipped it out and started peeing all over the wall."

I wonder if "Teed Off" will make Oprah's Book Club this month? http://deadspin.com/#!5786009/john-dalys-ex-claims-300-blowjobs-are-available-in-the-bushes-off-the-16th-hole-at-tpc-southwind

The NFL's oldest cheerleader is the inspiration behind a major motion picture! At 42 years old, Laura Vikmanis cheers for the Cincinnati Bengals as one of the Ben-Gals. She's a registered dietician, trainer and mom of teenagers who set her mind to make the squad back in 2009 and she serves as a guide for her younger cheerleading teammates.

Laura says that she was at a point in her life where, "I was like, what do I REALLY want to do? What's something in my life that makes me happy?"

Way to aim high, Laura. Way to aim high… http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/25/laura-vikmanis-oldest-nfl-cheerleader-film_n_840571.html?ir=Sports

It's all fun and games until someone ends up nearly decapitated and prone to a brain hemorrhage because of the Tony Awards! Well, at least THAT is what reality-TV rocker Bret Michaels is claiming! Back at the 2009 Tony Awards, Brett was performing Poison's "Nothin' But a Good Time" with the "Rock of Ages" cast when a descending set piece toppled him over towards the end of the song. Now, at the time, it was announced that Bret was supposedly okay. But, when Bret was hospitalized with a massive hemorrhage six months later, and nearly DIED, Bret's legal counsel is linking the two incidents, filing a major lawsuit for unspecified damages against Tony Award Productions and CBS.

Their filing states: "One of the most common causes of this type of hemorrhage is head trauma--exactly like the one Michaels suffered at the hands of the Tony Awards."

They also claim that Bret asked producers where he should stand onstage during Poison's performance, and he was merely instructed to exit from the stage rear at the end of the band's song. His rep said, "Somewhere down the line there was a lack of communication and the prop should have been immediately halted until Michaels was clear." (Um, ya THINK?!)

Bret has since rebounded, career-wise, (if you want to call it that) showing up on the "Celebrity Apprentice 3" finale just weeks after his near-death experience… http://new.music.yahoo.com/blogs/realityrocks/422434/bret-michaels-blames-tony-awards-for-his-brain-hemorrhage-files-lawsuit/

and finally…

I have NO idea what this reporter had on the brain during a morning cooking segment for Youngstown, Ohio's NBC affiliate, but before you see the clip for yourself, I have to defend the gal!

She's right! NOTHING pairs better with Italian cookie biscuits than a good ol' fashioned erection!

Click here to see for yourself: http://guyism.com/humor/video-reporters-love-of-male-genitalia-interrupts-cooking-segment.html

And THAT'S my "Jock Itch!"

J