The Miami Dolphins, followed by HBO's Hard Knocks cameras everywhere this preseason have had a rough go of it so far. Rookie coach Joe Philbin and his team finished the preseason winless and are set to embark on their season in a tough AFC East with a rookie quarterback, a shaky defense and very few skilled players. Even flying in charters seems to be too much for the team to pull off without a hitch.

Following their 30-13 loss to the Cowboys on Wednesday the team was set to leave the Dallas area in their American Airlines chartered 767 (not pictured). Unluckily the plane clipped the tail of a nearby parked jet taking both planes out of service.

The accident delayed the Phins return to Miami for several hours. 

[CNN] 
 

Volleyball is a huge sport in Russia with millions of dollars invested in teams and gold medal dreams for each Olympics. This year the Russian women were favorites in the tournament only to be knocked out of the quarterfinals to the eventual gold medalists of Brazil. 

Following the disappointing finish, head coach Sergey Ovchinnikov returned to his position with Dynamo Moscow as they resumed training in Croatia. There, he reportedly hung himself in his fourth-floor hotel room. 

Russian men's coach Vladimir Alekno feels that the Olympics defeat weighed heavily on his counterpart: "He took the Olympics very personally. I saw what he was going through and how upset he was after the defeat. He didn't talk much. Even after victories he was always thinking about something and smoked a lot."

Ovchinnikov was 43 and for now the police are ruling his death a suicide even though it seems super suspicious to this sports blogger. 

[Fourth Place Medal]
 

Final cuts are coming on Saturday for the NFL as teams need to get down to 53 players on the roster. If you're a team out there in need of a wide receiver the New England Patriots might have you covered with a 6'4 225lb target: Tom Brady. 

Prior to the snoozer that was the final preseason game this season for the NY Giants and the Patriots, Brady who didn't otherwise appear in the game took warmup tosses from All-Pro tight end Rob Gronkowski, even nabbing an impressive one-handed grab in the endzone. Sure, his forty time leaves a little—read, A LOT—to be desired from a wide receiver but you can't teach size!




[Mike Reiss, Jeff Howe] 
 

If you're looking for the best goalie mask in college hockey, seek no more! Western Michigan goalie Frank Slubowski has the title locked down and the season hasn't even begun yet with this homage to The Dude, Jeffrey Lebowski. 


Wow!

Gorgeous!

[Inside College Hockey] 
 

When looking for clarity and intelligent thought on pedophiles and their urges I, obviously, always go first to the Catholic church. Father Benedict Groeschel, the director of the Office for Spiritual Development for the Catholic Archdiocese of New York may be a fine priest but a recent quote in the National Catholic Register from him regarding Jerry Sandusky is absolutely abhorrent. 

People have this picture in their minds of a person planning to — a psychopath. But that's not the case. Suppose you have a man having a nervous breakdown, and a youngster comes after him. A lot of the cases, the youngster — 14, 16, 18 — is the seducer ... It's not so hard to see — a kid looking for a father and didn't have his own — and they won't be planning to get into heavy-duty sex, but almost romantic, embracing, kissing, perhaps sleeping but not having intercourse or anything like that. 

It's an understandable thing ... there are the relatively rare cases where a priest is involved in a homosexual way with a minor. I think the statistic I read recently in a secular psychology review was about 2%. Would that be true of other clergy? Would it be true of doctors, lawyers, coaches?

Here's this poor guy — [Penn State football coach Jerry] Sandusky — it went on for years. Interesting: Why didn't anyone say anything? Apparently, a number of kids knew about it and didn't break the ice. Well, you know, until recent years, people did not register in their minds that it was a crime. It was a moral failure, scandalous; but they didn't think of it in terms of legal things.

I see, it was all those boys ASKING for it, SEDUCING Sandusky who was powerless against the charms of these teenage boys. 

Despite having published the quote in the first place as opposed to defrocking this pedophilia apologist, the National Catholic Register have since taken the story down and scrubbed all reference to it on their site. Absolutely indefensible.

But don't worry, he'll never be punished, at worst, sent somewhere else to continue spreading his misinformed and hateful words. Fuck you Benedict Groeschel you ignorant pederast-apologist piece of shit. I don't normally advocate hurting the elderly but if someone wanted to punch him in the face I would be totally ok with that

[Andrew Sullivan] 
 

The Los Angeles Lakers have gone fully Hollywood; the Los Angeles Times is reporting that during the upcoming NBA season the team will unveil a statue depicting one of the stars of the hit slapstick comedy Airplane. Usually when teams erect statues outside their stadiums they do so to honor a former player, the Lakers have chosen instead to memorialize the work of the man who played co-pilot Roger Murdock, an otherwise relatively ignored actor named Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. 

While Abdul-Jabbar never went on to large-scale success in the acting world—unless you count a guest appearance on Martin as "making it"—it's still nice of the team to honor his contributions to the film world. 

The statue of the actor will join those of Jerry West, Oscar De La Hoya, Magic Johnson, Wayne Gretzky, and Chick Hearn that are already placed outside the Staples Center. 

I hope they have him doing the skyhook, because really anything else is unimaginable.

[LA Times] 
 

The Slanchelor pad is in need of a new couch and Gene in Tampa Bay has the perfect sofa for my home. Up on Craigslist, Gene is offering for sale a handsome leather sofa with loveseat and ottomon for a mere $500; it's a STEAL!

Not only is this leather set quite attractive, it has a famous past owner (at least according to Gene), former Tampa Bay Buccaneer Keyshawn Johnson.

So if you've ever wanted to plant yourself in the same place as a former #1 draft pick in the NFL, now's your chance. And only $500 for a $7500 couch!

 
[Craigslist] 

{rapidgallery}agallery/august/keyshawn-johnson-craigslist{/rapidgallery}
 

Andruw Jones was once one of the greatest defensive outfielders in baseball history. While the Gold Glove is an inherently flawed award, for reference sake, Jones at one point in his career won 10 straight for his work in center field. Now 35, Jones has been relegated to playing left field in a part-time role with the Yankees. Apparently with good reason after losing a fly ball in the sun and falling down on the job against the Rangers on Thursday. 



[MLB] 
 

Felix Hernandez's perfect game on Tuesday was a masterful display by one of the greatest pitchers of his generation. Mariners fans, rightly so, were overwhelmed with joy and excitement. They weren't the only ones, the Jackson Generals, the Double A affiliate of the Mariners, were showing the game on the jumbotron while the players were warming up and they were all quite exuberant when perfection was achieved. 


I love the enthusiasm but the celebrating? It's not like they were on the field for the game, like, if i did that in my apartment people would think I was crazy...

But still, cool!

[MLB FanCave] 
 

The Miami Dolphins are the focus of this year's Hard Knocks on HBO and the show, at least through two episodes, has been pretty entertaining. I'd be greatly remiss if I didn't share this gif I made of the Dolphins cheerleaders urging their team on through the rain. 


This might be my favorite gif I've made yet.