N.J. HOF Finally Complete

The New Jersey Hall of Fame announced today the 13 inductees for the 2009 class, which includes Jon Bon Jovi, Jerry Lewis, basketball great and Newark native Shaquille O’Neal, and the comedic duo Abbott and Costello.

This is really an incredible lineup of inductees. It also includes Carl Sagan, Walt Whitman, William Carlos Williams (I would have gone by “Bill”), longtime Yankee shortstop Phil Rizzuto and, of course, F. Scott Fitzgerald. Wow, Shaq gets higher billing than ol’ F. Scott? Amazing.

I must say, though, I’m pretty pumped for the comedic pairing of Lewis and Bon Jovi.

Bon Jovi, Shaq, Abbott and Costello make N.J. Hall of Fame [Newark Star-Ledger]

The Best Headline You’ll See All Year

This is on the front page of this week’s Center City Weekly Press. I’m not sure if this is as good as the time the paper ran a Super Bowl preview from the game three years earlier, but it’s certainly close.

Larger scan of the front page after the jump.

More »

Their souls are safe?

A quick update on the rape allegations Philadelphia Soul players were facing: They’re back on the practice field, the general manager says he’s not anticipating any charges and everything is all hunky-dory, thank you very much.

Why, that is? According to NBC 10, now the Kansas City police are looking for two men unaffiliated with the team, while the team says the players are witnesses, not suspects. All the Soul’s players questioned did provide DNA samples for the police.

Everything is vague, but if the Soul players are witnesses, then they either (a) saw a rape taking place and didn’t try to stop it or (b) were at a bar, left, and then other men came in pretending to be members of the Philadelphia Soul. Or perhaps (c), some other scenario.

Anyway, the Soul appear to no longer be suspects, at least according to NBC 10. And Jon Bon Jovi is spared a PR debacle that would threaten to ruin his career as an arena league football team owner. I guess he would have had something to fall back on, though.

Soul Says Players Are Witnesses, Not Suspects [NBC 10]
Yesterday: How not to get your small-time sports team on the news

How not to get your small-time sports team on the news

Usually the pro sports teams that aren’t among the four major sports don’t get mentioned much on the news. Their games are covered in little agate type in the back of the sports section, they get a blurb at the bottom of a website, but that’s really it. The only time any of the sports that aren’t the NFL, MLB, NBA or NHL get mentioned is when they win a championship (and, then, only briefly) and if they happen to have a rock star as part-owner.

The Philadelphia Soul do get a little more exposure because of the latter, as Jon Bon Jovi is part-owner, he performs a concert every year, &c. Actually, Bon Jovi seems to be really into it; in the interviews I’ve seen of him he always says he’s disappointed that the team’s not doing better.

Well, anyway, this is not the thing you want to have happen to get your team in the news: Players on the Philadelphia Soul face rape allegations. The incident allegedly happened after the Soul’s Monday night win over Kansas City. (See? You had no idea they had a game, did you?)

The woman says the players met with her at a bar after Monday’s game in KC. The woman said she went back to the hotel with three of the players, where two players held her down while another raped her while two other players watched.

The players allegedly cooperated with the authorities, but if the allegations are true, that’s pretty sick.

You know how when a kid shoots up a school TV news anchors will say things like, “Do you think it’s the violent video games?” I think there’s an underlying cause here (not that it excuses anything.) Frankly, I think it’s that bad influence Kobe Bryant — once his charges were dropped, a bunch of athletes think they’re invincible. Shameful.

Philadelphia Soul Players Face Rape Investigation [NBC 10]