Posts by Michael David Smith at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

During the NFL draft, Yahoo Sports blogger Matthew J. Darnell, better known as MJD, wrote this about ESPN analyst Keyshawn Johnson's wardrobe:

". . . This is what happens when you hand Michael Irvin a giant blunt that had been soaked in embalming fluid for about a month, and then you say to him, "Mike, I want you to take an hour, smoke that, and then pick what I'm going to wear for the draft tomorrow. And if you could make the area from my neck to my chest look like a cracked-open watermelon, I'd really appreciate it. . . "

The bosses at Yahoo felt that those comments crossed the line, and they were taken down.

A couple of hours after the death of Eight Belles at the Kentucky Derby, the political blogger Kevin Drum wrote this:

Hillary Clinton chose filly Eight Belles to win the Kentucky Derby today. Instead, EB came in second and then had to be euthanized after breaking both ankles right after crossing the finish line. So here's the contest: Who do you think will be the first pundit/columnist/talking head to use this as an idiotically extended metaphor for the state of Hillary Clinton's campaign?

I don't know who the first was, but I know that one of the dumbest came from the Chicago Tribune, which wrote this in a Thursday editorial:

The only filly in the crowded field crossed the finish line second, but the fans who'd bet on her still had one last gasp of hope. Perhaps some fortuitous technicality would disqualify the first-place finisher. But things got worse instead of better. We're talking about Eight Belles, who was euthanized Saturday after almost winning the Kentucky Derby. But we're thinking about Hillary Clinton.

After a prolonged controversy about whether his contract would allow him to participate, American Nick Diaz is officially on this weekend's Dream.3 mixed martial arts card in Japan. Here's a look at Diaz showing off his gym:

EliteXC officials had previously said that Diaz would be violating his contract if he participated in the Dream.3 card, but his trainer, Cesar Gracie, says they've worked out all the contractual issues and that Diaz will, in fact, fight the Japanese welterweight Katsuya Inoue. "I pulled an all-nighter with Nick last night, cutting weight, and getting him on the plain. So it's all good now," Gracie said, according to MMA Weekly.

The Dream mixed martial arts organization isn't particularly well known in the United States, and although HDNet will show it live on Sunday, the ungodly hour that it's shown (starting at 3 a.m. Eastern) means very few American fans will watch. But I like the way Dream is trying to carve out a niche for itself in the MMA world, and having Diaz involved should help it reach an American audience.

Bears running back Cedric Benson was arrested last weekend for boating while intoxicated and resisting arrest, and he has said from the outset that he did nothing wrong and was mistreated by police. The friends and relatives who were on the boat with him have backed him up.

Now a witness who apparently has no connection to Benson is corroborating his story. A man named Toby Patch told a local TV station,

"It was uncalled for, it was ludicrous, no point for it. ... It seemed to me they were manhandling him a little bit. As they were taking him up the dock, they stopped, he said, 'I am fine, I can continue walking,' and they put their legs behind his knees and knocked him over his knees and started hog-carrying him."

Benson has suggested that he might file a lawsuit, and unless he and these witnesses are all lying, that would be a good idea.

Jerry Tipton covers Kentucky basketball for the Lexington Herald-Leader, which means there are few journalists in the country whose work is more closely scrutinized by its readers.

And many of those readers think Tipton goes out of his way to make Kentucky basketball look bad. Here's what the Kentucky hoops blog A Sea of Blue said recently, which is representative of what I've heard a lot of Kentucky fans say about Tipton's reporting:

Jerry Tipton, as always, takes the negative view. I swear, sometimes he amazes me -- it looks as though he believes any article he writes that is the least bit complimentary to Kentucky or one of its players is some kind of puff piece. I respect Jerry's apparent effort to avoid looking like a homer, but sometimes, I think you can take that just a little too far.

That kind of criticism of Tipton has been around for a long time, but it reached a fever pitch when Tipton interviewed the parents of two Kentucky recruits and, in the eyes of some, tried to make coach Billy Gillispie look bad during the interviews.

So many readers were so angry that the editor of the paper, Linda Austin, felt the need to respond.

Video games are so much better now than they were 20 years ago that this sounds ridiculous to say, but I can't believe there's ever been a better boxing video game than Mike Tyson Punch-Out:

There was just something perfect about that game, the ease of beating Glass Joe to get started, the tricks of learning how to beat King Hippo and Great Tiger and Bald Bull, and the excitement of facing Mike Tyson, who at the time was almost a mythical character.

So it's nice to learn that Tyson will be part of EA Sports Fight Night 4. We have a very, very different view of Tyson now than we had in 1987, when Punch-Out came out, but he's one of the legendary figures in video game history, and it's good to see that he's back.

Former Patriots quarterback Drew Bledsoe isn't a big Bill Belichick fan, and doesn't have particularly warm feelings about the way his time in New England ended, with an injury and Tom Brady replacing him.

But Bledsoe takes the side of Belichick and the Patriots in the Spygate story. From the Boston Herald and PFT:

"I've followed it," Bledsoe said. "I've talked to some people about it. To be honest with you, my take now is the same as it's always been. Every team in the league is trying to do everything they can to get ahead. I'm sure most, if not all, are bending the rules in some way, shape or form. This just happened to be one that was very public, and the organization has been reprimanded for it.

"As a player here, I never did see anything other than what was already reported. . . . Was it a violation of the spirit of the rules? Absolutely, it was, but I think all of that has been readily acknowledged."

One of the strongest points in the Patriots' favor in Spygate is that there are several ex-Patriots who don't like Belichick, and none of them have come forward to say they think New England taped the Rams' walk-through before the 2002 Super Bowl. Bledsoe is the latest to take Belichick's side.

Kim Moses, the ex-wife of Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana, recently auctioned off several personal possessions that once belonged to him, and now things like their marriage certificate; a letter he wrote her on a Ziggy card; an "I Love You" note; and a letter Montana wrote to Moses's parents detailing his first year playing for Notre Dame are available for everyone's perusal on The Smoking Gun.

Also on The Smoking Gun: Montana's lawsuit against Moses over the auction:

Montana, 51, claims that the sale of the assorted items--which were auctioned last weekend by a Dallas, Texas firm--violated his copyright and privacy rights. In a U.S. District Court complaint, Montana names Kim Moses, his first wife, and Heritage Auction as defendants.

Montana has been a private person since his retirement, and it's understandable that he's mad that his ex made a nice chunk of change from memorabilia collectors. But all of those possessions belonged to her, which is why, unless there's something specifically in their divorce decree prohibiting such sales, he's likely to lose this case.

One of the best things ESPN.com does is post a lot of videos related to mixed martial arts. That's particularly surprising because ESPN doesn't televise MMA, and fans of other sports, especially hockey, have complained that ESPN simply ignores the sports it doesn't televise. But here it is, the latest ESPN MMA video, a rundown of the world's Top 10 pound-for-pound MMA fighters, according to Sherdog:

I think we've reached the point where it's obvious to anyone who follows the sport who the No. 1 fighter on the list is going to be, but what about positions 2-10? For those who don't feel like watching the video to find out, the list is after the jump.

There's a good series of online videos called Interviews 50 Cents in which ordinary people sit down and have conversations about their lives. This installment features a player in the Independent Women's Football League, talking about what women's tackle football is like:

There are some moments of unintentional humor, such as the interview subject referring to a team as the D.C. Divas, only to have the interviewer mishear her and ask incredulously, "D.C. Beavers?" And there's the interview subject explaining how she sacked the opposing quarterback because, "I just pushed my way through the hole. I'm supposed to go through the A hole."

Snickering aside, though, I think it's great that there are organized leagues for women's football. The IWFL has a slate of 15 games Saturday. Might be worth checking out.