Posts by Stephanie Stradley at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

I guess Titan quarterback Vince Young was jealous of his 2006 draft classmateCardinal quarterback Matt Leinart in the embarrassing party pix department.

Blogxilla.com, a blog discussing "Urban Life Daily," received some pictures that the sender claimed was Vince Young at a bar getting his drink on in Austin Texas. The site has a series of pictures of shirtless Vince Young and friends, including one where he looks to be drinking what appears to be Silver Patrón tequila straight from the bottle. (I worked in bars to pay for school, so uh, I think that is a good guess).

Blogxilla's comment on the pictures, "It looks like a Sausage party to me b/c I don't see nearly enough women around to warrant taking off anyone's shirt!!! It's just not right!!!"

I'm not sure I have much to add to that, other than I suppose I understand now why it was so important to Young to go back to Austin to work on his college degree.

Previously on FanHouse:
Vince Young Spends His Spring Break From Texas Learning the Titans' Offense
Matt Leinart: 'The Internet Is a Bad Thing'
Matt Leinart, Alex Smith Pics at TheDirty.com: The Future of Sports Media?
Another Matt Leinart Photo; Cardinals Coach Ken Whisenhunt Will Love This One
Cardinals Coach Ken Whisenhunt Disappointed in Matt Leinart Photos

Like many athletes, Houston Texans wide receiver Andre Johnson created a foundation to give back to the community, particularly to kids from single-parent homes. He loves giving away toys to children who have few things.

TMZ is reporting that Johnson ordered 750 bikes to purchase for underprivileged children, in exchange for Wal-Mart providing ice and water for the kids' event. There was a problem with the order, so Johnson purchased fewer bikes. The story says that the local Wal-Mart responded to the reduced purchase by not providing the ice and water they promised.

Wal-Mart claims that they are going to rectify the problem with the Andre Johnson Foundation, and I hope they do it, preferably in a financially generous way. In the last quarter, Wal-Mart's net income was $3.022 billion, and last year they reportedly donated $296 million to charitable organizations throughout the United States.

Hugely profitable corporation + superstar do-gooder WR buying bikes + underprivileged kids = no water and ice for event? Something doesn't add up in this story, and I'm guessing there are some strange details. Details, of course, that we want to know about because we are nosy that way.

I've been told by the Houston Texans that they will be increasing the amount of football-technical information on their team website. A recent example is this article describing zone blocking schemes, and the must-see video above with members of the Texans talking about the scheme and how helpful it is to have offensive line guru Alex Gibbs teaching it. If that's not enough ZBS info, well then, check out my previous entry on this subject called Zone Blocking Schemes: A YouTube Tutorial.

I think the trend of becoming more technical in football news coverage is a great thing, because I've always believed that the more you know about a team, the more interesting it is to watch what they are doing on the field. (Though I suspect some of you just visit the Texans site for the 360 degree view of cheerleaders. I'm not judging you, just making an observation. After internet voting, the Texans added Krista [pictures] to the squad, if you care to know such things).

With the start of Texans minicamp, fans get a sense of themes and storylines for the year, and more information about the rookies just drafted. Here's a few minicamp links, with a few thoughts of mine next to them.

Rookie Duane Brown Gets LT Minicamp Start over Ephraim Salaam: Coach Gary Kubiak knows what Salaam can give him and wants to give Brown as many practice reps against good competition as he can. It wouldn't be too surprising if Brown got the season start over Salaam given that third round pick Charles Spencer got the start two years ago over Salaam.

Texans 2008 Story is All About The Turnover Battle: Fashion and football collide with the message on the bottom of the team's practice shorts. Offensive players' shorts read "Protect the ball" and defensive players' shorts read "Take it away." It is stunning that the Texans finished 8-8 given that they gave up 38 turnovers, second most in the league, and that they took the ball away only 25 times, with only 11 interceptions, tied for last in the league.

A number of you aren't going read this because as Chicago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen says, the public prefers to follow news of celebs and sports figures who are "[expletived] up." The rise of the sports blog generally hasn't be driven by fans' desire to read do-gooder stories. (Though I have to say, I think that would be an interesting niche sports blog).

In any event, I want to highlight a few stories in the news this week that talk about NFL players doing good in the world.

The New York Times had a great article yesterday about four NFL players with ties to Nigeria visiting the country in March. They must have been an impressive display of defensive linemen big people: NY Giants' Osi Umenyiora, Houston Texans' Amobi Okoye, and Chicago Bears' Adewale Ogunleye and Israel Idonije.

It was Okoye's idea for them to all go to Nigeria as a group, figuring they could do more good works together than separately. They also could get scared together as the bus they were traveling in got broadsided by a truck on the first day of their trip. The article is certainly worth a read.

Another article worth checking out is the continuing help that Tampa Bay running back Warrick Dunn gives to single parents looking to purchase their first homes. He does this to honor his police officer mother who never owned a house. She was shot while working her off-duty security job, and a 17-year-old Dunn along with his grandmother found themselves taking care of his five siblings. To date, his foundation has helped 77 single parents buy their first homes by providing a down payment and home furnishings. (Here's the donation link).

The next time you feel like ragging on athletes for being a bunch of "turds", ask yourself what you are doing to make this world a better place. Athletes are like the rest of us imperfect people. Some do good, some do bad, and some get busted for being a smiling black guy who loves his mom on a boat full of white women in bikinis boating while intoxicated and resisting arrest.

(Photo of Dunn as the first winner of the Home Depot Neighborhood MVP award in January. Photo Credit: Scott Halleran, Getty Images).

Recently, I wrote a photo essay about my experiences as a Texans cheerleading judge. Now it is your turn to be a judge. Like last year, the Texans are allowing fans to pick the final spot on the team. The three finalists are Jennifer, Kelli and Krista (pictures here). You can see Kelli and Krista at the end of the above video.

If you are interested in seeing how they dance, their blogs and to vote, go to the ABC Channel 13 cheerleading voting site. Voting ends on Friday. Last year, the Texans claim 60,000 fans voted, and the winner was Amanda (her short message to you is below).

One of the reasons why I started blogging is that I couldn't find enough in depth information about my favorite team, the Houston Texans. Since they are such a new team, if information wasn't on their website or in the Houston Chronicle, it likely didn't exist.

Well, with minor apologies to Buzz Bissinger, thank goodness for sports blogs. I want to point out in particular the fabu work that Solis has done at the BattleRedBlog about the 2008 Texans draft class. Check out these posts in particular:

"Super Steve Slaton" - Explains why this running back may be the perfect one cut and go back for the Texans zone blocking scheme.

"Steve Slaton: An Insider's Perspective" - A must read interview for Texans fans from with West Virginia's Director of New Media, John Antonik.

On Friday, the Vikings announced that defensive end Kenechi Udeze would be on the reserve non- football illness list in 2008. Doctors diagnosed him with a form of acute leukemia in February.

The Vikings want him to focus on fighting his disease, and not worry about financial problems. I wish more employers could be so generous.

Udeze is expected to receive a bone marrow transplant soon. He's very fortunate his brother was a transplant match because only about 30% of patients find a related donor.

Though you can't directly help Udeze's fight against leukemia, you can honor it by joining the National Marrow Donor Registry. Normally, there is a cost to join the registry, but during the "Thanks Mom Campaign," from May 5-19, the charges to join the registry are waived for the first 10,000 online signups. You fill out the form, and then they send you a cheek swab kit by mail. Some irresponsible TV shows make it look like donating marrow is very painful process, but for most people it can be done in a procedure not much different than giving platelets.

The reason why I know all about this stuff was that my sister Deb was diagnosed with leukemia in October 2005. She had a bone marrow transplant in February 2006. The transplant is the only reason why she is alive today.

For those fans who want to know more about what Udeze is likely facing over the next year, I'm going share my sister's story and provide some basic medical facts. I know if a player on my favorite team was going through something like this, I'd want to know more about it.

I caught up with Houston left tackle Ephraim Salaam at the Texans Draft Luncheon on Tuesday. He was there to accept the Mickey Herskowitz Award for being the most media friendly Texan. The video above is his message to Texan fans, and what he said to the crowd when he accepted his award. (The "Mark" and "Gary" referred to in the video are Texans TE Mark Bruener and coach Gary Kubiak)

Ephraim's personality is as big as he is, which given that he goes 6'7" 300ish, means it is huge. Very friendly personable guy. He had a busy offseason of media-friendly duties after he won the Super Bowl NFL Player ad contest. After that winning that, he and fellow Texan offensive lineman, Chester Pitts did repeated guest shots on the Ellen DeGeneres show.

Mike Florio is an attorney who writes for ProFootballTalk.com and Sporting News, mostly on issues of football. Yesterday, he had an interesting legal article about the Roger Clemens self-immolation saga. He puts the blame on Clemens' attorney, Rusty Hardin, for the devolving mess that is now Clemens' reputation. He discusses Clemens legal case in depth here, and in short at PFT saying in conclusion:


Though I have to agree with him that the Clemens case has been a text book for celebrities on how not to preserve your reputation using the legal process, I disagree with my legal colleague on how much responsibility he puts for the Clemens mess on Hardin.