The eyes have it for a certain Texas Ran
The NFL reached a new deal with its officials Wednesday, meaning the end of the line for the replacements. No longer needed, those officials returned home to their wives, children and seeing eye dogs ... The regular officials worked their first game this season on Thursday, when the Cleveland Browns visited the Baltimore Ravens. When the refs took the field, they received a standing ovation from fans and hugs from some players. Yeah, that’ll last ... Comedy writer Tim Hunter certainly is glad the regular officials are back. “Now we can quit complaining about guys who don’t know what they were doing,” Hunter wrote, “and get back to complaining about guys who DO know what they’re doing.” ... Brad Dickson of the Omaha World-Herald was intrigued with some of the results from the recent Emmy Awards. “The show Mad Men went 0 for 17 on Sunday,” Dickson wrote. “After hearing this, a team of replacement NFL referees said: ‘You too?’ ”
It didn’t appear on many calendars, but last Saturday was International Observe The Moon Night. In Regina, the occasion was marked in the east-side stands of Mosaic Stadium on Sunday afternoon ... So that’s why the Calgary Stampeders’ Jon Cornish plays ‘tail’back ... Stamps slotback Nik Lewis has put on a few pounds in recent years, but he still does some remarkable things on the field. As he told the Calgary Herald: “I’ve made the joke that I’m the first receiver to have a thousand yards in eight different weight classes. I’m like the Floyd Mayweather of this thing.” ... After Lewis recently surpassed 10,000 yards receiving for his career, @ fakearash-madani tweeted: “10,000: Nik Lewis’ career yardage total & daily caloric intake. #Omnomnom.”
This week’s wacky soccer story comes from Croatia, where Dinamo Zagreb fined defender Domagoj Vida 100,000 euros for opening a beer on the team bus en route to a match that was to be played the following day. Vida wasn’t happy with the fine, saying it was a bitter Pil to swallow ... Not surprisingly, the club defended the move, telling Vida that beer isn’t the cure for what ales him ... Some 80 sheep wandered into a sports store in the Austrian ski resort town of St. Anton the other day. It’s not the first time shoppers have flocked to that store ... It’s believed one of the animals saw its reflection in the glass and wanted to see what was happening inside the store. It’s a classic case of window sheeping, uh, shopping.
Self-driving cars have been legalized in California, and other U.S. states may be ready to follow suit. The technology comes about three years to late for Tiger Woods ... A cording to police, David Vi lalobos — who was maule at the Bronx Zoo last Frida — said he jumped into th big cats’ enclosure becau of “a desire to be one with th tiger.” Noted comedy writ Jim Barach: “We’ve alread
oo Aciled ay he se he er dy heard that on the PGA Tour from fifteen different women.” ... Woods is on the U.S. team that’s facing a squad of Europeans in the Ryder Cup this weekend near Chicago. David Whitley of FanHouse believes the Americans have a chance because of the home fans — although things could have been different. “Chicago’s (fans) are passionate but not criminally insane,” Whitley wrote. “If this were Philadelphia, fans might lock (Scotland’s Colin) Montgomerie in a port-a-potty and dump it over.”
Texas Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton was back in the lineup this week after missing five games with drying corneas. The condition is caused by too much caffeine, which Hamilton blamed on his at-bats against relievers Phil Coke and Todd Coffey ... Hamilton returned to the Rangers’ batting order just in time for a key series with the Oakland Athletics. As blogger RJ Currie wrote: “To Texas fans, he was a sight for sore eyes.” ... San Francisco Giants outfielder Melky Cabrera, who was suspended for using a performance-enhancing drug, has disqualified himself from winning the National League batting title because he believes it would be tainted — unlike his urine sample ... Asked if he was sure about his decision, Cabrera said he was positive.
According to newspaper reports in California, the head coach and assistant coach of a football team in a town in Orange County allegedly offered their 10- and 11-year-old players money to knock opposing players out of games. Consider it an Orange bounty ... The last words this week actually were uttered Sept. 16, but they typify the officiating situation in the NFL over the first three weeks of the regular season. After the Cincinnati Bengals’ Brandon Tate caught a touchdown pass against Cleveland that day, replacement referee Jerry Hughes turned on his microphone and told the crowd: “The following play is under review.” Perfect ...