- I suppose that aspiring to be a celebrity more than you aspire to be a great football player, dating reality TV skanks and ‘roiding up aren’t best prescription for a successful career and San Diego Chargers linebacker Shawne Merriman is finding that out. The man once known as "Lights Out" is officially out as a member of the Chargers after the team placed him on the injured reserve list because of a calf injury and a "minor-injury designation" on Wednesday. The designation means that Merriman must be released once he's healthy, thus ending his tenure with the only team he’s ever played for. This is certainly not the ending anyone would have predicted for Merriman after he recorded 39½ sacks in his first three seasons, but injuries and controversy have been his most productive columns on the stat sheet in the three seasons since. He’s tallied just four sacks during that time and was suspended for four games in 2006 after testing positive for steroids. While he was able to overcome those four missed games to post 17 sacks that year and blamed the positive test on a tainted supplement he never identified, Merriman began a downhill slide after the year and much of the trouble he’s been through has originated off the field, where he was arrested just before the 2009 season after reality television star Tila Tequila accused him of battery and false imprisonment at his suburban San Diego home. The two traded matching lawsuits even though no charges were filed and since then, Merriman’s reputation as a guy with one eye on Hollywood and one eye on the football field has only grown. Contentious and irascible general manager A.J. Smith clearly doesn’t like Merriman’s celeb-wannabe lifestyle and when Merriman missed most of the 2008 season after undergoing reconstructive knee surgery, he had no chance to provide any counter-evidence to refute Smith’s dislike of him. Merriman didn’t help his case prior to the 2009 season by sitting out most offseason workouts and part of training camp to protest his contract status. He battled an Achilles injury and then a calf injury and had just four sacks, hardly an effort befitting his “Lights Out” moniker. When asked for a comment, neither Smith nor Merriman responded, although Merriman’s publicist did release a statement in which Merriman was quoted as saying, "I am approaching this situation as an opportunity to grow as a player and to bring my leadership and talents to a new organization. I am ready for the next chapter in my career and I am excited about the opportunity to continue my journey with a new team. Excited to stick it to Smith and prove he was right, perhaps. But all that other bullsh*t Merriman allegedly said…..not so much………
- Game over, AT&T. Your monopoly when it comes to partnering with Apple for its wireless devices is over after the computer giant and cell phone titan Verizon Wireless announced Thursday that the latter will begin selling Apple's iPad at its 2,000 retail stores nationwide on Oct. 28. The announcement had to be something of a knee to the junk for AT&T, which had been the exclusive U.S. wireless carrier for the popular tablet since its introduction to the tech world. Worse still, the iPad agreement should pave the way for a much broader partnership between Apple and Verizon. Word on the street is that the two companies plan to bring the iPhone to Verizon's network in early 2011. Verizon is getting the entire iPad lineup and all three bundles will feature an iPad Wi-Fi model and a separate Verizon mobile hotspot device. Prices begin at $630 for a 16 GB iPad and range up to $830 for the 64 GB model. Those are the same price points as Apple's WiFi + 3G iPads, which come with built-in 3G capabilities running over AT&T's network. If you can settle for Wi-Fi only iPads -- which Verizon says it will also sell -- they begin at $500. The Verizon iPads likely won't register much on the radars of customers currently running their Wi-Fi iPads over non-AT&T networks using hotspot external devices, like the one Verizon is selling as part of its iPad offerings. However, Verizon's mobile hotspot will have the advantage of being able to connect up to five other devices. On the downside, Verizon's mobile Wi-Fi device only lasts four hours, compared to the (totally unrealistic) nine to 10 hours Apple estimates iPad users can get from their devices while surfing on Wi-Fi or 3G networks. Also, Verizon’s iPads won't have the same generous unlimited data use as the company’s smartphone data plans. Instead, you’ll have to purchase a monthly plan offering up to 1 GB of data and that will cost an additional $20, compared to $15 on AT&T for a 250 MB data plan, or $25 for a 2 GB plan. As you’d expect, Apple is saying plenty of nice things about its new business partner. "We're thrilled to be working with Verizon Wireless to get iPad into the hands of even more customers this holiday season," Apple chief operating officer Tim Cook said in a prepared statement. Expect more compliments to go a-flyin’ if, as rumored, Verizon and Apple bring to fruition plans an iPhone that would run on Verizon's forthcoming 4G-LTE network, with broadband-like speeds……….
- Another major international coup attempt? Are you freaking kidding me? I’m still riding off the high of the alleged coup in Ecuador last week and now we have a reported plot to kill Pakistan's prime minister? Score! The attempted kidnapping failed and the suspects ratted out the person they were allegedly getting orders from - a militant in the country's volatile tribal region. According to police official Babar Bakhat Qureshi, the suspects were planning to attack the compound of Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani. Officers foiled the plot and Shabir Anwar, Gilani's press secretary, refused comment on the alleged plot because it is a security matter. The compound, located in the Punjab provincial city of Multan, is about 245 miles southeast of the nation's capital, Islamabad. The plot was in its "final planning stages," Qureshi said, and the suspects were planning to use a car bomb for the attack. The bomb was to be made with large amounts of fertilizer the suspects had acquired. The improvised explosive device, which was confiscated by police, and the rest of the kidnapping plot were to be financed by the sale one kilogram of gold and and two and a half kilograms of silver that were also confiscated. When questioned by police, the suspects admitted that they were getting their orders and instructions from Kari Imram, a leader of a Taliban offshoot group from Miran Shah in North Waziristan. That area has been heavily targeted by U.S. drone strikes aimed at militants in the region, one the county's seven tribal districts. Police uncovered the plot when they stopped three of the suspects traveling on two motorcycles near Multan in the town of Ahmed Pur Sharkia on a check during a police patrol. Questioning of those three would-be coup-stagers led to the arrest of other suspects and unfortunately, all of this means no coup…..for now. Call me optimistic, but bitter, jaded militants like Kari Imram tend not to give up on their goals that easily and something tells me another run will be made at this coup………
- Maybe prison truly does give one a new perspective on life and how valuable it is. Before going to prison, T.I. may or may not have been able to help police persuade a man not to jump off the roof of high-rise office building in Atlanta. But he definitely was able to execute that difficult feat Wednesday afternoon and in so doing, stopped a man from jumping from the 22-floor Colony Square building in the ATL. The rapper, whose real name is Clifford Harris, connected with the would-be leaper by talking to him about how a person "can make it through anything," Atlanta Police spokesman James Polite said. "T.I. just happened to be in the right place at the right time." That’s what makes the story truly amazing; that T.I. just happened to be in the area when the incident occurred. For a guy who has to have a lot on his mind, what with an upcoming appearance before a federal judge, who is considering revoking his probation from a weapons conviction, he certainly was calm under pressure. When he saw the scene, Harris offered to help convince the man that "life's not that bad," a proposal that police accepted. Harris spoke with the unidentified man for several minutes and his new friend agreed to leave the roof to meet with the rapper. Once Harris calmed him down, the man was taken into custody and transported to Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital for a psychological evaluation. Thankfully, he was not charged with a crime and hopefully Harris said something that will inspire him to get the help he needs. As for Harris, he and wife "Tiny" Tameka Cottle were arrested on drug charges during a traffic stop on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood last month. Because he is still on probation for charges of unlawfully possessing firearms as a convicted felon in 2008, which came on the heels of an arrest by federal agents a year earlier while Harris was buying three machine guns in the parking lot of an Atlanta grocery store, Harris served nine months in prison and three months in a halfway house. Thus, he now has a Friday appearance at a probation revocation hearing in Atlanta. Here’s hoping the judge is a big fan of helping prevent others from leaping to their death and gives Harris a break………
- Is there some sort of probationary period after a state issues a driver’s license to a person wherein the state can revoke that license if the person…..well, if they can’t even make it out of the parking lot of the licensing bureau without wrecking both their car and someone else’s property? If not, it’s an idea that the stte of Pennsylvania needs to consider for people like Robert Keller. Señor Keller had just passed his driving test crashed into the PennDOT state driver license center on Washington Pike late Wednesday afternoon and after the jubilant experience of finishing the test, he made a huge mistake. Undoubtedly with designs on rushing home and telling his friends and family all about his big day, Keller forgot one important detail: stepping on the right pedal when shifting. He…..well, I’ll allow him to tell the story. "When I went into my spot, I wasn't exactly straight and I didn't want to fail my test, and I was going to put it in reverse, and I mistakenly hit the wrong pedal, and the car jerked forward into the building at that stage," Keller explained. That’s right, dude (and the instructor in his car) went from the parking lot of the Chartiers Valley Shopping Center, where the license center is located, to the inside of the license bureau in a few seconds flat. One witness inside the building recalled sitting down to have his picture taken for a new license when the car came crashing through the window. Making this story even better, Keller was attempting to get his license so he could drive his daughter to preschool because he and his wife work on different schedules. I almost felt bad for the guy in the aftermath of the crash…..or I would have if I were able to stop laughing. "I was scared, it was a bad mistake, and I'm sorry for the people I scared and hurt," Keller said. You’re sorry and I’m doubling over in laughter, bro. At least one of us is enjoying this………
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