USC TAILBACK SUFFERS THIRD INJURY OF PRESEASON

JOE MCKNIGHT

First it was the jock itch. Then USC tailback Joe McKnight injured his fingers by slamming them in a doorway in an incident the Trojan coaching staff SWEARS wasn’t horseplay.

Now, McKnight has a hyperextended elbow. McKnight suffered the injury during a scrimmage at the Coliseum on Saturday. He was in an arm brace Sunday and is expected to miss several more days of practice.

McKnight, who was one of USC’s most highly recruited running back prospects in years, is one of six highly talented players scrambling for carries in the crowded USC backfield.  McKnight averaged 5.7 yards per carry last season but has yet to break through as a number one back for the Trojans.

JOCK ITCH EPIDEMIC HITS USC FOOTBALL

 

From the LA Times also Deadspin, and With Leather:

The Los Angeles Times ran an article Thursday that says up to 25% of the USC football team is currently suffering from tinea cruris. Otherwise known as “jock itch.”

Don’t laugh. It’s not funny. One of the Trojan players is quoted as saying, “It burns!”

Another says the outbreak is so bad some of the players can’t walk.

Ok, I lied. It IS funny.

 

COULD O.J. MAYO’S “AGENT” BE ARRESTED?

O.J. MAYO

Uh oh! Could somebody end up going to jail over the O.J. Mayo case?

Well actually, according to California law, the answer could be “yes.”  It is not just an NCAA rules violation to give college athletes money in California. It’s against the law.

According to the Sports Law Blog (dated May 20th) section 18897.6 of the California Business and Professions Code seems to apply to the Mayo allegations and people who may have given him money.

Under section 18897.6 the law states:

“No athlete agent or athlete agent’s representative or employee shall, directly or indirectly, offer or provide money or any other thing of benefit or value to a student athlete.”

The bill is called the Miller-Ayala Act. And, it’s not just some obscure, unenforceable law that exists only on paper. The USC Trojans website actually contains a link to the law:

 It’s at http://usctrojans.cstv.com/genrel/usc-agent-page.html.

The Sports Law Blog suggests the California Office of the Secretary of State should be looking into this.

SHOCKING O.J. NEWS

O.J. MAYO

I’m shocked, SHOCKED to find out basketball star O.J. Mayo took money while at USC and in high school.

ESPN and Outside the Lines has a former “confidant”  (translate: “hanger-on”) of Mayo’s on record who says the young hoopster took $30,000 in money, clothes and gifts while in high school and college.

Fine piece of investigative work by ESPN, but where were they on the Reggie Bush story? He took TEN TIMES that amount of money and his accuser had RECEIPTS.

Prediction: The USC basketball program is going to get buried over this. Meanwhile, it’s been four years and NOTHING will happen to the USC football program.

Speaking of USC football (and O.J.’s), the other “shocking” sports story of the day is that it it turns out O.J. Simpson REALLY DID KILL Ron and Nicole. That’s the claim of a former close “friend” of Simpson’s.

The friend has a book coming out. I don’t know what’s more disgusting: 1) people are still making money off O.J. or 2) a publisher would consciously time the announcement of a book on O.J. murdering his wife coming out to coincide with Mother’s Day.

LIL’ MAYO

The rumors are true!

Lil’ Romeo is going to USC next season on a FULL RIDE basketball scholarship. (worth $ 44,400 per semester) Obviously Pops couldn’t afford to spring for tuition!

Lil’ Romeo (a.k.a. Romeo Miller) is the son of rap artist/producer/mogul Master P

There had been stories about Lil’ Romeo “verbally commiting” to the Trojans all season but a lot of people assumed it was a joke.

Actually, the joke was the lead in Friday’s Wall Street Journal:

Romeo Miller is a 5-foot-10 point guard with a bad knee. He has never played a full season of high-school basketball. This season, he averaged 8.6 points a game for Beverly Hills High School, which finished last in its league.

The Wall Street Journal seemed to take the position that this might be a bit of a coup for USC. In a move that screams “package deal” the Trojans are also looking to secure the services of Compton High star Demar DeRozan-a close friend and past teammate of Lil’ Romeo on club basketball teams.

USC coach, Tim Floyd, was quoted in the Wall Street Journal article as saying, “We may have more 11- to 17- year old girls in the stands than we’ve had in the past.”

I’m sure he was only HALF joking. After all Romeo Miller did have his own tv series, “Romeo!” on Nickelodeon and has sold over 1.5 million albums.

The Trojans also need to fill the new $ 147 million Galen Center which is their new on-campus 10,250 seat facility. Before Floyd, USC basketball  attendance had historically been pathetic. These new signings will certainly generate buzz (it is Hollywood after all) and help replace Freshman sensation, O.J Mayo, who Floyd recruited for this season (or was it the other way around?)

Well, it’s not like this is the first time some rich guy’s kid with no merit ever got into USC