Filed under: Olympics, USA, Attractive Olympians

Olympic athletes often don’t get paid to do anything other than look good. In that vein, Attractive Olympians handicaps which athletes may rake in endorsement deals after the Olympics.

Taekwondo runs in Steven Lopez’s family. His older brother Jean, a former silver medalist at the world championships, coaches the U.S. team, while younger siblings Mark and Diana — who won golds with Steven at the 2005 Worlds — have also made this summer’s Olympic squad.

But Steven is the brightest star in his talented family. He has gold medals in taekwondo from both the 2000 and 2004 Olympics as well as from several more international competitions, and at 29 he’s still young enough to be a favorite in Beijing this summer.

But will his success translate to endorsement deals? One of People’s 50 Hottest Bachelors in 2004, Steven seems ready to kick-start some ad campaigns, but we’ll never know for sure unless you vote in our online poll. After the jump: more photos, pseudo-analysis, and the opportunity to vote. And unlike those silly presidential elections, you don’t even have to register!

Continue reading Attractive Olympian: Taekwondo Champion Steven Lopez

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In which the age-old question is answered: Does shaving the Superman logo into your chest hair make you a better golfer? [Zug, via Fark]

Filed under: New York, General NHL, Rangers, Penguins, NHL Injuries, Featured Stories

Right now, somebody at the New York Daily News has got some explaining to do.

Earlier today, the paper reported the news that New York Rangers winger Sean Avery had been transported to St. Vincent’s Hospital in Manhattan after being “found unconscious and not breathing” and in “cardiac arrest”.

But now other reports are coming out that seem to indicate that Avery’s arrival at the hospital was far less dramatic. First came TSN’s report that Avery had suffered from a lacerated spleen, a frightening injury to be sure, but one that couldn’t be necessarily be connected with Avery’s penchant to frequent the most popular clubs in Manhattan.

Here’s ESPN’s Scott Burnside:

The Rangers said Avery was admitted to St. Vincent’s Medical Center following a CT scan and is expected to make a full recovery. Avery walked into the medical facility with team doctor Andrew Feldman, and the two took a car to the hospital, not an emergency vehicle, the team said.

He “walked” in? That’s a heck of a distinction. Now, in an updated version of the Daily News story, there’s no mention of the initial report the paper made of Avery’s alleged condition last night, but to be sure there’s a mention of his alleged connection to the seedier side of Manhattan night life. It’s almost as if they were wishing that the two were connected.

I guess we should be glad a blogger didn’t get hold of this story first and screw it up.

Back on the side of the story where we’re dealing with actual facts, the Toronto Sun got on the horn with Avery’s mother, who reported that her son suffered the injury in the first period of last night’s game with the Penguins when he collided with an unidentified Pittsburgh defenseman. Even though he was in pain for the remainder of the game, Avery stuck it out the rest of the way.

UPDATE: Alanah at Kukla’s Korner chimes in with much the same message, but with some additional details on the timeline, including links to David Singer of HockeyFights.com, who helpfully grabbed a screen shot of the very first story where the Daily News reported all of the details they later sought to airbrush out of existence. And our buddy Greg Wyshynski is asking the same questions we are.

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Filed under: Eagles, NFL Draft, Philadelphia

This video of Wheaton College defensive end Andy Studebaker is one of several you can find of him on YouTube.

Of course, you can find videos of just about every football player on YouTube. But in Studebaker’s case, he may owe his NFL career to online videos.

After drafting Studebaker in the sixth round on Sunday, Eagles general manager Tom Heckert said this:

“Nobody ever heard of this kid, but then his workout started popping up on YouTube and next thing you know, he got super hot and everybody (in the NFL) is looking at him. If it wasn’t for YouTube, he probably wouldn’t have been drafted.”

I’m not completely sure I buy that — NFL teams do have rather sophisticated video departments, but YouTube sure seems to have helped.

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What to watch after dropping in on friends unexpectedly …
• NBA: Western Conference quarterfinals, Game 5, Dallas at New Orleans (7 p.m., ET); Game 5, Phoenix at San Antonio (9:30 p.m., ET). Byron Scott is your NBA Coach of the Year. [TNT]
• NBA: Eastern Conference quarterfinals: Game 5, Philadelphia at Detroit (7 p.m., ET); Western Conference quarterfinals, Game 5, Utah at Houston (9:30 p.m., ET). Important games on a station few get. Brilliant! [NBATV]
• NHL: Eastern Conference semifinals, Game 3, Pittsburgh at New York Rangers (7 p.m., ET); Western Conference semifinals, Game 3, Detroit at Colorado (10 p.m., ET). Penguins are armed, should be considered slippery. [Versus]

An impassioned plea for the Olympic Games to include events for little people. [Gather]

Filed under: New York, General NHL, Rangers

When the Rangers and their fans left Madison Square Garden last night after a 5-3 loss to the Penguins, falling behind 3-0 in their Eastern Conference Semifinal, most people probably thought that things couldn’t get a lot worse for the Blueshirts. Unfortunately, they were very wrong. According to the New York Daily News, Sean Avery was hospitalized early this morning with cardiac arrest after being found unconscious and not breathing.

Details are incredibly few and far between right now. There’s no indication who found Avery or where he was, but the Daily News is reporting that he arrived at St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Manhattan around 3 AM this morning, which would be about five hours after the Rangers game with the Penguins ended.

This is obviously one of those situations that transcends even the polarization that Avery brings to hockey. As a Penguins’ fan, I spent most of last night being annoyed by his presence. This morning I can only hope that things aren’t nearly as bad as the Daily News Report makes it sound. I know the urge is going to be to speculate, especially with a player like Avery, but the truth is that we just don’t know a whole lot right now and it’s in incredibly poor taste to do that in a serious situation like this. We’ll certainly keep you updated here at the NHL ‘House as we find out more throughout the day.

UPDATE: The latest from TSN is that Avery suffered from a lacerated spleen.

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We didn’t make it to the NFL Draft this weekend, because of a city ordinance that requires all professional bloggers to break out in hives when within a seven-mile radius of Mel Kiper. (That Bloomberg: Such a micromanager!) So we missed the brilliant fan getups on display.

No one can quite compare with Jim Thomas’ aunt last year, but, you know, they get big points for trying.

Fan of the Week :: The NFL Draft Attendee [Joe Sports Fan]

Filed under: Notre Dame Basketball, Big East Basketball, NCAA Basketball Recruiting

The less famous, younger Hansbrough — Ben — announced his intent to transfer earlier this month from Mississippi State. The 6′3″ guard was a starter and averaged 10.5 points. It was a blow to the Bulldogs, but Hansbrough was uncomfortable remaining.

Returning to Mississippi State never was an option.

“Sometimes a place is not the best fit for you,” Hansbrough said.

It seems Ben Hansbrough just didn’t like the system at Mississippi State , preferring a more up and down tempo such as the Irish play. Hansbrough chose Notre Dame over Oklahoma State and Purdue. He’ll have two years of eligibility remaining after sitting out next season.

He has the support of his older brother who apparently wants new gear.

“Ty sent me a text message this morning saying, you better get me some Notre Dame gear,” Ben Hansbrough said Tuesday.

Considering UNC is a Nike school and Notre Dame is Adidas, there might be some additional annoyance at the idea of Tyler Hansbrough wandering around Chapel Hill in Irish apparel.

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Apparently some hopped-up Habs fans thought they would take their trash-talking and intimidation techniques to new heights by desecrating the fabled Rocky statue just before one of the Canadiens and Flyers games. The culprit is this pig-masked individual, who appears to be part of some wacky Canadian morning radio show.

Here’s the thing: Messing with the Rocky statue isn’t that big of a deal. Besides some moronic old-fashioned South Philly stunods, most people who don’t still live in rowhomes with plastic covered couches think this monstrosity needs to be destroyed anyway. I like Stallone, I like the movies, but that stupid cast-iron piece of pop art dogshit lost its sentimental appeal about 20 years ago and is more of a blemish for the city than anything else.

Honestly, the only people who would be really pissed off by this idiotic attempt at disrespect at this point are the Balkans. So, enjoy that war with Serbia — you might have a shot at victory over them.

Canadiens Desecrate Rocky Statue [The 700 Level]