The X Games are going to have to add some events for this guy
SIDELINE CHATTER
Eat your heart out, Tony Hawk! The latest wheel deal on the ramp circuit is Aaron (Wheelz) Fotheringham, 22, of Las Vegas, who became the first to execute a double back flip — in a wheelchair.
As Wheelz, a 14-year veteran of skate parks who was born with spina bifida, told BBC News: “Fear is definitely a huge part of it. It’s more than just regular fear, it’s ‘I’m going to die.’ ” Headlines At SportsPickle.com: “Reebok cleared in federal corruption probe: ‘We couldn’t pay anyone to wear our shoes in public.’ ”
At TheOnion.com: “Colts miss 8 tackles on drunken fan running across field.” Un-Patriotic A Patriots spokesperson apologized after concessions stands at Gillette Stadium — which ran out of bottled water on an 86-degree game day — charged fans $4.50 or more for a cup of tap water.
To the Pats’ credit, though, at least they didn’t try charging fans for oxygen. High on the hog And in minor-league baseball news, Georgia’s team that begins play next summer in Macon will be known as the ... Bacon.
Clever, but still a far cry from the town’s best nickname of all time: hockey’s now defunct Macon Whoopee. Looking out for No. 1 New York Giants receiver Odell Beckham celebrated a TD catch last Sunday by going down on all fours like a dog, lifting his leg and pretending to urinate on the field. Which certainly puts a whole new spin on “It looks like they’re going for one here.” Money player Rookie QB Deshaun Watson gave his first game cheque to three Houston Texans cafeteria workers who lost everything to hurricane Harvey. QB pundits immediately declared it the check-down of the season. One for the road A truck carrying 20 tons of vodka overturned near Clayton, N.C.
Thus breaking Harry Caray’s world record for biggest spilled drink. Cardinal Sins Dept. Ousted Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino said pretty much the same thing he did after his program’s previous scandal: “These allegations come as a complete shock to me.”
In a related story, he’s going to this year’s Halloween party dressed as Sergeant Schultz. Talking the talk Comedy writer Alex Kaseberg, on the Chargers’ paltry TV ratings since moving to L.A.: “Somewhere between ‘Keeping Up with the Kardashians’ and a solarpower infomercial.” Sensing a fly pattern Free-agent wideout Bug Howard signed with the Cleveland Browns this past week.
AFC North foes are already bracing for a heavy dose of fly sweeps. Double-secret probation Rutgers’ football program was put on two years’ probation on a “failure-to-monitor” rap.
Even more embarrassing, the Scarlet Knights broke the rules — and the team sucked anyway. Here’s the beef “Omaha!” was music to the ears of Denver Broncos fans, but for disenfranchised National Football League fans in San Diego it’s “Spanos Taco!”
Just say those magic words when you walk into the El Pollo Grill the day after the transplanted Chargers lose — and you’ll get a free taco. In fact, 400 did after the loss to Miami. More headlines At MLB.com, after Toronto Blue Jays’ Ryan Goins pulled off the hidden-ball trick against the New York Yankees: “Canadian fakin.’”
At TheOnion.com: “Little League team spends 18 minutes getting ball back to pitcher.”
At TheKicker.com: “D-Wade travelling country with metal detector in search of ring.” That’s your bawl game “Laugh, and the world laughs with you,” noted comedy writer Tim Hunter. “Cry, and you’re probably a Mariners fan.” Quote marks Blogger Randy Beard, after the National Collegiate Athletic Association ruled that Ryan Trahan can’t identify himself as a Texas A&M track athlete in promoting his nonprofit company that makes stainless-steel water bottles: “Maybe it’s time someone flagged the NCAA for targeting.”
RJ Currie of SportsDeke.com, on the growing popularity of competitive tag in England: “It’s predicted that in 20 years it will come to the U.S. — only it will be called NFL football.”
Jim Barach of WCHS-TV in Charleston, W.Va., after the NFL fined Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Bud Dupree $12,000 for a “sexually suggestive” celebration: “What did he do, light some candles and pop open a bottle of champagne?”
Brad Rock of Salt Lake City’s Deseret News, after a blue-chip football recruit said he’d sign with Ohio State if he got 100,000 retweets: “Remember football’s simpler days when all it took was a couple of boosters to buy a kid a car?”
Jacob Feldman of SI.com, on why D.C.-area reporters shouldn’t get too excited that Washington QB Kirk Cousins keeps photos of them in his locker so he can study their faces and respond to them by first name: “He also keeps a sketch of a chicken eating a frog.”