Shaq still trying to serve & protect... in Cleveland

According to the Associated Press, big Shaq is looking to continue a sideline career in law enforcement since he's living in Cleveland playing for the Cavs.

Spokesperson John O'Brien of the Cuyaohoga County sheriff's office said that Big Shaq has applied to become a special deputy in Ohio. If he's approved, he'd have to complete 30-something hours of police training within six months and take an Ohio police exam.

Oh, I heard he'd also have to pass a shooting test at the range from about the same distance as the free throw line. LOL.

"He would have the right to carry a gun and make arrest," O'Brien told the Associated Press. "... but not be a paid, formal employee."

Shaq previously served in Florida, Arizona and Virginia. That's what's up, Shaq. He doesn't let the millions of dollars he's stealing from the NBA (because he's half the player he used to be) slow down his ambitions to fulfill his dreams in law enforcement. I think that's great.

I can't sit here and say that I'd still be trying to work for someone if I had cashed in millions of dollars in professional sports checks. I mean, I definitely wouldn't be trying to be a police.

Pro athletes have to watch what they SHARE

The newest craze is facebook and twitter... especially twitter.

Everybody is either doing one of the two, or both. Personally, I don't tweet. I don't even have a twitter page. But I do spend quite a bit of time on facebook, where I keep in touch with friends and family. I do all of the updating I need to do while I'm on facebook. Several friends and I send messages back and forth all of the time. Sometimes we give our opinions on athletes, teams and other issues.

But professional and collegieate athletes don't have the freedom that is shared by us regular folks. It really seems like most of the twitter mishaps are taking place when certain athletes choose to share their thoughts on twitter. LOL.

For instance: Packer linebacker Nick Barnett told fans to "Kiss My Ass" if they booed him after he celebrated tackling Cincinatti Bengals running back Cedric Benson in the backfield. The Packers ended up losing that game, and Barnett closed his page.

Texas Tech linbacker Marlon Williams tweeted, "I'm wondering why I'm still in this meeting room when the head coach can't even be on time to his own meeting."

Note: Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach then banned twitter for the whole team.

Kansas City Cheifs running back Larry Johnson was fined and suspended two weeks by the Cheifs earlier this week for making a few gay slurs or comments on his tweeter page recently. He's reportedly going to lose about $600,000 and two weeks of work.

Miami Heat second-year player Mike Beasley was also a victim on sharing a lil too much on twitter. In August, he posted a seemingly harmless photo of a his newest tat, "SupercoolBeas." The art stretched across the top half of his back. The controversy came when it appeared to be a couple baggies that many associated with weed in the background. Beasley later closed his twitter account.

Several athletes are doing well on twitter, though. NBA star Chris Paul has several innocent and funny conversations with friends on twitter each day. Shaq has over 2 millions followers. And, Terrell Owens told me that he enjoys tweeting when I talked with him after the Buffalo Bills beat the Carolina Panthers on Oct. 25.

It's all a matter of realizing that everything is public on the social sites, and all comments can be harmful if not worded correctly. One thing that is slowly being realized is that words can hurt. Maybe not everyone's feelings. But they can definitley hurt the pockets of some pro athletes if they don't watch what they say or write.

Quick... can you name three pro athletes that don't have twitter or facebook pages? LeBron James, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady.

MJ can say what he wants to say

I thought I would touch on Michael Jordan's Hall of Fame 23-minute speech for a second. I'm not going to say much because the issue is rather old news to me. But I talked about it on a Charlotte radio show earlier this week.

So, I thought I would blog about it real quick. A lot of talk has been made of MJ's speech, and how Jordan talked down on former rivals, poked fun at his old high school coach that cut him, his old college roommate, his pro owner, general manager, the guy presenting him and his kids.
He apparently decided that this was the perfect night to list all the ways everybody sitting in front of him had pissed him off over the past 30 years.

But it was still cool. I thought there were a lot of good parts of his speech. The fact of the matter is that it was MJ's speech. He was the greatest basketball player of all-time. He was probably the biggest star to play any sport. How many times have you heard someone say that someone was the Michael Jordan of their sport. Rapper Jay-Z once said that he's the Michael Jordan of recording. And, we'll probably always compare the next great hoops star to Jordan. He's just that great. Jordan will always be the greatest to me, no matter what he said

The problem is that people wanted him to talk about history, and say what they wanted him to say. A caller even hit the radio show up with, “How many times have you heard a hall of fame speech like that? He should have been humble and gracious.”

See, that's an example of someone wanting MJ to say what they wanted him to say. How many times have you seen an athlete take over a sport, nation and culture like Jordan? His shoes are still the hottest sneakers available. His Airness won just about everything there is to win -- six NBA titles, five MVP awards and two Olympics golds. I haven't talked to Jordan about this. I haven't even tried to call him or catch him at the links to get a quote either. I personally think that he was just trying to have fun with the speech. And, he seemed to be coming from the heart. So many people apparently had a huge problem with what MJ was saying, especially media guys. But no one seemed to be offended during the event in Springfield last week. That's one of the things I scanned for as I watch YouTube footage.

Michael was seemingly trying to make light of the whole situation. Anyone that's ever asked MJ about being the best ever could tell you that he's not comfortable proclaiming himself the greatest ever. We could also tell you this was kind of a sad time for Mike. He still wants to play. He realized that being in the hall of fame means that his career is really over. No more dropping 55 on the Knicks. No more people questioning his legacy. No more dream match ups with some of the younger guys. I would've loved to have seen my main man Chris Paul try to cross MJ up and then toss and alley-oop to Emeka Okafor (his new Tyson Chandler). We all would've liked to have seen a seasoned Kobe or LeBron get it in against MJ too. But those match-ups will never happen.

REAL QUICK NOTE:
What in the hell were the Carolina Panthers thinking this week? So many fans and experts have bashed them and quarterback Jake Delhomme this entire week. The Panthers looked awful in a loss to the Philadelphia Eagles during week one.

Jake accounted for four interceptions. He's still that sorry quarterback I've been bashing for the last three years. I bashed the Panthers for signing him to an extension during the off season – $20 million guaranteed. Then, the team signs Jay Feely (a kicker) and allows the Eagles to pick up seasoned quarterback Jeff Garcia.

Boy, it's already a long season in Charlotte.

Chris Brown incident bringing attention to domestic violence

I got into an argument about the Chris Brown incident with a friend of mine last night. It was a friendly argument, of course. It was more like a disagreement, really. I had no idea Chris Brown was going to be on Larry King (Wednesday night) last night before our dispute.

Anyway, my friend was telling me how much of a monster Chris Brown was after what he'd done to then-girlfriend Rihanna (last February). During the Larry King interview, Brown admitted guilt and apologized for assaulting Rihanna (Robyn Fenty). He also said that he didn't remember hitting ole girl.

That's one of the things I told my friend last night. I was like, "He was drunk," I said. "Chris Brown had no idea what he was doing. Some people do unbelievable things when they drink too much." I also asked if everyone that made a mistake after being under the influenced should be crucified. Chris Brown wasn't the first, and unfortunately won't be the last person to physically abuse his or her significant other after losing control during a heated argument... while under the influence.

"I'm in shock, because, first of all, that's not who I am as a person, and that's not who I promise I want to be," Chris Brown told Larry King in an exclusive interview that aired Wednesday night. I just don't know what to think. I'm just like, wow. It's crazy to me."

I also said that I didn't condone what Chris Breezy did on that night in February. I don't agree with hitting females at all. Just walk away... I also don't want to say Chris Brown's career should be over because of his mistake.

Could've done more for his cause

I thought that Chris definitely could've said more to defend his side. I don't know if we wasn't allowed to talk about that night. But I do know that he repeatedly told Larry that he respected Rihanna's privacy, as well as his own, too much not to discuss that night at all.

According to a sworn statement by Los Angeles Police detective DeShon Andrews, the incident began when Rihanna found a text message on Brown's cell phone from "a woman who Brown had a previous sexual relationship with." The pair argued while in a sports car driven by Brown, the police statement said. It went on to describe the assault in great detail, saying Brown punched Rihanna -- identified in the statement as Robyn F. -- numerous times and put her in a head lock, restricting her breathing and causing her to start to lose consciousness.

Larry even asked Brown what caused him to threatento beat her and kill her. He also asked him about at least two other domestic violence incidents before the February attack for which Brown was sentenced. Breezy didn't want to talk about that either.

I just thought he could've made things a little better by telling more. He didn't have to discuss everything. Just something... beside apologies. I don't know. I just know that he made a mistake. He will probably never make that mistake again.

I'm just wondering if this would be as big of a deal if it were Rhi-Rhi from Michigan that got beat up that night, and not superstar Rihanna.

Baller quits HS to play overseas

Well, it's official.

San Diego High's Jeremy Tyler (rising senior) shocked the world after becoming the first American born student athlete to leave high school to play professional ball overseas. That definitely surprised me to hear that. I originally read a story and saw a report of Tyler thinking about the move earlier this year.

The 6-foot-11, 260-pound baller announced in the spring that he was going to forgo his senior season at his prep school because it had become boring.

The whole time I was shaking my head, saying to myself, "This kid better not quit high school with only one year left." But news spread quickly when the 18-year-old kid from Cali signed a $140,000 contract to play pro ball with Maccabi Haifa weeks before the school year began. That's a team in the Israeli League. Tyler averaged 28.7 points per game as a junior.

"I think I made the right decision," Tyler told The Associated Press on Wednesday evening. "I think this team is a good fit for me and it's the right country. I feel good. I feel blessed. I got past the easy part. Now the hard part is to perform and show the world I got a contract for a reason. Now I can play against grown men."

That transition isn't as easy as some ballers may think. Former Oak Hill Academy baller Brandon Jennings found out last year when he signed with an overseas team after not academically qualifying to play for Arizona. His stats dropped tremendously overseas, compared the numbers he put up in high school. And, Jennings was considered to be the number one senior in his class.

So, it's simply hard for me to believe that some kid I hadn't really heard about until a couple months ago is ready to play pro ball after his 11th grade year in high school. I personally thought he should've just put up crazy numbers and perfected some things this year before jumping to the next level.

Plus, he's going to have to miss out on games like the McDonald's All-American game, the Jordan Classic and several of the other prestigious all-star games due to the fact that he's going to be a pro baller already.

It's completely his decision. And, his family seems to be with it. I only hope he didn't rush things by trying to get the MONEY too early.

"It's a huge step for him and his family and the things he's about to get into," Tyler's agent, former NBA player B.J. Armstrong told the Associated Press. "The basketball will be the easiest part in this equation. Now he's got to get things adjusted off the court to what a professional does, how he lives. It'll be a challenge. The rest will take care of itself."

Maccabi Haifa opens its season on Oct. 25.

DO SECOND CHANCES WORK?

Some of us are guilty of being the cause of the end of a relationship. I'd be telling less than the truth if I didn't admit to messing up a few times during my younger days. Some of us have had to leave a relationship prematurely for one reason or the other too.

Sometimes we feel that the grass may be greener on the other side. Sometimes we take our significant others for granted. And, other times we simply want to move on. There's countless reasons to feeling the need to move on.

My question is: When is it cool to give it another try? Or, should a sequel to a relationship even be visited? Sometimes people actually learn from their mistakes after a period of time. Sometimes people even realize that things weren't what they thought when they left a good relationship.

With sites like myspace, twitter and facebook -- there's countless ways to reconnect with someone from your past. Sometimes you see how well things turned out for people in your past. You also get a glimpse of what your life could've been like. That's when you have to keep smiling and giving compliments on their life... knowing you'd love to switch places with their husband or wife ... to prove that you were the man or woman they once thought you were.

People even have a chance to run into ex-lovers that happen to be single or divorced. They may begin conversing again... and realize that they miss one another, or what they had once upon a time. Should that even be re-visited?

I don't know. I feel like a lot of relationships end for a reason. Maybe that reason won't be the cause for an doomed part two of a relationship. But something usually is. Like I said earlier, though. Sometimes people learn from their mistakes... and sometimes it's a mistake to end certain relationships in the first place.

P.S.: I am obviously not talking about EVERY failed relationship. We all know that EVERY relationship doesn't need to be re-visited. I'm talking about the one or two special relationships that ended before they probably should've. You know what I mean?

Former NFL receiver Oronde Gadsden chats

Former Miami Dolphin and Winston-Salem State receiver Oronde Gadsden used to be one of my favorite wide outs years ago simply because I liked the Dolphins. I was a huge Dolphin fan until Dan Marino retired.

I actually didn’t know that Gadsden played his college ball at Winston-Salem State University (an HBCU in North Carolina) until I moved to Winston in 2002. I met Gadsden for the first time after he was inducted into the WSSU athletic hall of fame in 2006.

I was interested in finding out what has been going on with Gadsden since he retired. Oronde was busy in ’06. He was the partial owner of the Florida Frenzy, a National Indoor League Football (Arena) team in central Florida. He was also dealing with the launch of his own clothing line, and dabbling with a new meat product.

Check out some of the other things Oronde and I talked about during a recent interview.

Anthony: Oronde, what’s going on?
Oronde: What’s happening with you?
Anthony: Nothing much. It’s good to see you. I used to be a big fan.
Oronde: (Smiles.) ‘Preciate it.
Anthony: I’ve asked you this before. But for the fake of this interview I need to ask you again.
Oronde: It’s cool.

Anthony: It’s not even that serious. I’ve built it up as if it’s some question about drug use or something. (Both laugh.)
Oronde: We both know better than that.
Anthony: (Laughs.) OK. Kind of tell me how special it was to be inducted into the Winston-Salem State University Hall of Fame a few years back?
Oronde: You know it was real special. It’s definitely good when your peers recognize you for what you have done. It’s like family. I came to Winston as a young man that was trying to get a degree. I just feel fortunate that they felt like I was worthy of going to the hall of fame.
Anthony: You weren’t even a football player at first, right?

Oronde: Right. I played basketball coming into Winston-Salem State. Playing football was a big change. But they (football program) made a difference in who I am today.
Anthony: I bet. You still look like you can play today. Do you have thoughts of getting back on the field today?
Oronde: Uh, people ask me that from time to time. At 36, it’s tough. I don’t think you’ll get a good contract. But if the situation was right I’d take it. If I could just come in on third down, and not have to do training camp and all of that other stuff – I’d do it. (Both laugh.) I couldn’t make it happen if those things weren’t in place.

Anthony: I hear you. How much football do you watch nowadays?
Oronde: I watch it all the time. I’ve even in three fantasy football leagues and everything. So I pay close attention to what’s going on.
Anthony: I can’t believe you’re on the fantasy football thing.
Oronde: Yeah, I’m big into that. This is my second year. Each year I grow into more leagues.
Anthony: I simply do the PlaySation. But I’m honestly thinking about finally doing some fantasy football.
Oronde: I used to be heavy into that when I was playing. But I haven’t picked up a joystick for the last two years.
Anthony: You played with Dan Marino, so you’ve got to give me a Top 3 of players you’ve played with in your NFL career.

Oronde: I went to Dallas and won a Super Bowl my first year in the league. There were a lot of great players on that ’96 team. I played with Prime Time (Deion Sanders), Michael Irvin. He’s probably my top choice because he taught me everything I know about the position. He’s my mentor.

Anthony: OK. What’s your favorite television show?
Oronde: “Sanford and Son.”
Anthony: What about music? What’s your favorite CD to pop in nowadays?
Oronde: I have quite a few that I like to pop in. I have to go old school and say, “Zhane.” Do you remember them?
Anthony: (Smiles.) Yeah.

Oronde: Yeah. They give me everything. They give me fast, slow and old R&B. If I’m just riding I know I’ve got to ride to “Reasonable Doubt.” (Jay-Z’s first album)
Anthony: Cool. What do you think about T.O.? (NFL receiver Terrell Owens)
Oronde: Good show. (Both laugh.) He is who he is. He’s a great athlete. Obviously he does some questionable things, but hey… think that’s just who he is.

Anthony: True. Let’s finish with free association.
Oronde: OK.
Anthony: Winston-Salem State.
Oronde: The Rams, baby.

Anthony: Miami Dolphins.
Oronde: Football team that gave me a chance.
Anthony: Dallas Cowboys.
Oronde: Super Bowl.

Anthony: Deion Sanders.
Oronde: The best corner to ever play the game.
Anthony: Oronde Gadsden.
Oronde: I got it done. Like Larry the Cable guy says, “Get ‘Ur Done.” My dad always told me there’s more than one way to skin a cat. I wasn’t the fastest, but I got the cat’s skin.

Anthony: No doubt. Best WSSU receive of all time.
Oronde: Probably Yancy (Thigpen). But I am going to have to go with myself. I think I have more touchdowns than him. (Both laugh.)