The Mashup: Where pop culture and sports collide
R oger Clemens is not having a good month. Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling used his blog, 38pitches.com, to blast Clemens over his alleged involvement in the performance-enhancing drug scandal that is attached to baseball like a zit to a teenager’s forehead.
Schilling wrote Wednesday that Clemens should give back the four Cy Young awards he won after 1997 “if he cannot refute the accusations” made against him in the report.
That might be how your world works, Curt. But — unless I was taught wrong — in America, the accusers have to prove a person’s guilt.
Not the other way around. And Clemens has denied that he took drugs.
By Schilling’s logic, I could make a Moore Report and write that he goes around pinching babies because he likes to watch them cry. And unless he can prove that he doesn’t, fans are OK to assume the worst. Thank God it doesn’t work that way.
Anyway, I haven’t seen any of those Roger Clemens cell-phone commercials lately, have you?
Rising
•NFL Hall of Famer Dan Marino is probably sick of having all of his old records broken by Packers QB Brett Favre. But it doesn’t seem to have driven Marino to drink — it’s driven him to try to sell you a drink. Marino released a brand of vodka called Americana, the New York Post reported Tuesday. Vodka, ha! Beat that, Brett.
•OK, Favre will beat that. The gold and white knit caps that the Packers wear on the sidelines keep selling out, The Associated Press reported Tuesday. The hats’ retail price is $17.95, but they’re going on eBay for about $200. So, the Packers’ hat is the new Tickle-Me-Elmo.
Holding steady
•Spurs point guard Tony Parker married “Desperate Housewives” star Eva Longoria in July. This was a brilliant PR move because in July there is less going on in the worlds of sports and television than there was in Kellie Pickler’s head on that episode of “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?” Well, here we are a few months later, and a Web site and a model say Parker is a cheater. Parker was not pleased. He’s suing X17online.com for $40 million, The Associated Press reported Thursday. He says the stories the site posted about him were false and defamatory.
It might be nice if baseball players accused of cheating took this measure, but they don’t have to — that’s the way the system is set up.
Slipping
•The Falcons confuse me. When Roddy White scored a TD against the Saints on Dec. 10, he lifted up his jersey — with the help of Joe Horn — to show off the “Free Mike Vick” T-shirt he was wearing under his uniform. They got fined by the NFL along with three other Falcons players —DeAngelo Hall, Chris Houston and Alge Crumpler — for breaking uniform rules with their messages of support for Vick, The Associated Press reported Wednesday.
Here’s my question: What did these players hope to gain from this?
I don’t get it.
To reach Greg Moore send e-mail to gmoore@kcstar.com
