OSG High: Your Daily Lacrosse Sucker Punch

((HT: Deadspin/ESPN760/WPTV))

Lacrosse has always been known for its violence...

But normally during play...

Take you to St. Thomas Aquinas and Palm Beach-St. Andrews last night...
Aquinas' Jake Champion decides to take matters into his own hand coming off the field...


The Florida High School Athletic Association suspended Champion for six weeks for "level 2 unsportsmanlike conduct."

St. Andrew's was up 15-5 in the third and after Champion had been ejected for throwing a punch, he hit Jordan Todd as he was leaving...

St. Andrew's won 20-6, so the suspension means virtually nothing...

LeGrand Signs With Bucs

In a classy move by his old college coach, Tampa Bay Bucs head coach Greg Schiano signed former defensive end Eric LeGrand to a free agent contract...

LeGrand had a simple message on his Twitter page this morning...

We ready!!!

Followed with a helmet of his new team...

If you want to keep track of Eric and his efforts, click on the picture in the right-hand margin...

"It's a symbolic gesture. They can't give me any money with the salary cap and all that kind of stuff," LeGrand said in a conference call. "It's symbolic, something coach wanted to do and I appreciate that. It just shows the man that he is."

The HQ couldn't be more proud...
More when we know more...

BREAKING: Jolly Roger Drops The Hammer, Players Plan Appeal

Here's the early deal...

Jonathan Vilma gets a full year's suspension... on two occasions, Vilma allegedly had $10,000 bounties on both Kurt Warner and Brett Favre in the playoffs and the Enn-Eff-Cee title game, respectively...

Like here...
((HT: ktowntigerv3/youtube/NFL on FOX))


Anthony Hargrove, now with the Packers, gets 8 games for participating in the program and obstructing investigators...

Will Smith gets four games for allegedly assisting payoffs in the "knockout" pool...

Scott Fujita, now with the Browns, gets three games... he allegedly pledged money to the "knockout" pools...

Here's the official release from the league, thanks to our friends at WWL-TV

More when we know more...

1240 UPDATE: We know more...

The four players are planning an appeal and a subsequent legal battle... they had three days to make that decision...

According to Michael David Smith at PFT, the four have already started the process and, according to the four-letter's Adam Schefter:

“Get ready for a massive legal battle on many fronts,” Schefter quoted a source as saying.

Minnesota stadium negotiations get stranger by the day (UPDATE)

Proposed Vikings Stadium Complex

((ht: star-tribune.com))

So...they aren't going down easy.

The odd, twisted, strange tale of the quest for a new Minnesota Vikings football stadium continues its out-of-left-field ways.

In today's little twist, the Republican side of the state legislature went public today saying that they are working on a deal with the team for a "Less-expensive", open-air (without a roof) stadium. Though they add, "The roof can come later".

The reason, Republican leaders tell the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, is to save the state's investment in the deal, which has been the sticking point all along.

The paper also quoted the stadium bill sponsor, Julie Rosen as saying, "It's a thought, though it hasn't properly been vetted...it's worth taking a look at".

However...the Vikings apparently didn't know about it either. And the Vikes say they are still sticking to the original, retractable roof option.

Here's the KSTP-TV update...


Read the full story from the Star-Tribune RIGHT HERE

The whole situation here just kind of sucks. We feel for the folks in Minnesota, the issue has now become a total political fight. And when that happens, the politicians are the only ones who win. (well, there pocketbooks anyway). Oh...we forgot to mention last weeks "Friendly" visit by the Jolly Roger (Goodell) when it looked like the deal was dead. Strangely it came back to life the same day.

Hmmmm....

It appears, at least on the surface, the state doesn't have the financial where-with-all to get a $400 million bond package for the stadium. It's an unfortunate part of what many have dealt with over the past 5-years.

What sucks is the inability to fork over said money is being used against them. And now its become a political hot potato. We're reasonably certain, based on the Governor's reaction, that nobody on his side (Democratic) was consulted before the Republican's spoke out about changing the plans. And really, it just bothers us that the taxpayers of Minnesota are going to have to fund the stadium and lose money that could be spent on infrastructure improvements, only to find out that Zigy Wilf gets all the profit and the taxpayers will get to pay double for the rights to sit in their own stadium.



PM UPDATE: There are also some protestors that are hanging around letting any public official involved that they're not fans of the new building. They were asked today if they're getting paid by the Vikes to hang out...

They're not...

Conference USA rebuilds by adding small schools

((ht: cbssports.com/mcmurphy))

Well, we guess this means the Conference USA/Mountain West Super Conference merger is dead on arrival.

That's because C-USA announced that they are adding teams. Six of them to be exact. Though we might add most are not exactly household names.

The list includes: Florida International, Louisiana Tech, North Texas, Texas-San Antonio, Charlotte and Old Dominion.

For those keeping track, that would be a raid of the Sun Belt, the Patriot League and the WAC.

Read more details from Brett McMurphy of CBSSports.com, McMurphy broke the story RIGHT HERE

Interesting stuff, but hardly earth shaking news. Kudos to C-USA for trying to rebuild after being nearly decimated by the Big East. However, other than adding to their travel costs, this doesn't do much to add to the league's prestige.

In fact, it does very little for football...right now. Charlotte is about to enter FCS (1-AA) next year as a rookie program. The others have a footprint, but not a particularly large one. But it does protect the conference if for no other reason than the sheer size. Come 2013, C-USA will have 14-teams.

Here's the report from WAVY-TV in Norfolk about the idea...

ODU may be considered for C-USA: wavy.com

Jaguars sign Long Ding. No...really

Long Ding/Ctsy: norwich athletics

And yeah, we are thinking the same thing that you probably are.

The Jacksonville Jaguars announced today (Tue) their list of free-agent signee's who will appear at their rookie camp. Among the players on the list...kicker Long Ding.

That's right, Long Ding.

Ding, a native of China, is a graduate of Norwich University in Vermont. And he was apparently a pretty good kicker there too going 13-16 this past season with a long kick of 51 yards.

Read more on Ding from USA Today RIGHT HERE

There is no telling if Ding will actually make the Jaguar roster, they have an incumbent kicker, Josh Scobee who has been pretty good over the past few seasons.

But to mangle a cliche'; he's got a kickers chance.

Because we can't avoid going here, this is kind of stereotyped, but also the main reason this story caught our attention.

Amy Senser Case With The Jury

((HT: KSTP-TV))

Amy Senser's attorney, Eric Nelson, says prosecutors are making an example of her because she and her husband, former Minnesota Vikings TE Joe Senser, are public figures.

Prosecutor Deborah Russell argued that evidence showed Senser knew she hit the victim, was probably drunk, and concealed evidence by deleting cellphone text messages.

The HQ thinks that the prosecution argument is a bit of a stretch to get all three felony charges up and running, and a lesser charge of careless driving may seem more in line.

Here's the atmosphere outside the courthouse...