Sports fans, it's that time of week! Because of the rotten economy, we here at Who Would You Throw Under The Bus? have had to downsize, like many others. Hence, the Short Bus. However, we put a Hendrick Motorsports engine under that hood, so even though the Bus is short in stature, it's long on power. (Yeah, that last part was a little bit off; just wondering if you were paying attention). Here are a few nominees.
NBA
Mark Madsen: the Minnesota Timberwolves’ forward/domain name speculator bought the website P2P.com from Daniel Goncalves, a hacker who stole the site to Madsen for $111,000. Goncalves is the first-ever target of a criminal prosecution for domain name theft. The right thing to do would be to return the domain name to its rightful owners, investors Marc Ostrofsky and Albert and Lesli Angel. But Madsen won’t surrender the domain name. For receiving the domain name by theft and not returning it to its rightful owners, Madsen gets thrown under the Bus time and again.
Rashard Lewis: the Orlando Magic forward failed a random drug test and got himself suspended for the first ten games of the 2009-10 NBA season. To his credit, he took full responsibility. However, if you are taking supplements, and you have a question about one of them, why not ask a trainer or nutritionist about them per the NBA guidelines? If you still have questions, ask your team doctor or the NBA office. Even though you did take full responsibility, you still get thrown under the Bus.
NFL
Michael Crabtree: the 49ers' top draft pick is foolishly holding out on the advice of his agent. He wants to be paid more than Darrius Heyward-Bey, the #7 overall pick selected by the Oakland Raiders. There is a reason Crabtree fell from a top 3 pick to #10: a lingering foot injury that scared off several teams. He's even threatened to hold out the entire season. I say the Niners call him on his bluff. Mike Williams did this a few years ago, and he was out of sight, out of mind. (As an aside, the Niners have his rights until the first pick of next year's draft is announced.) I have one piece of advice: ditch the agent a la Lamar Odom and negotiate your own deal. You get thrown under the Bus for holding out, and your agent gets thrown under the Bus for giving you foolish advice.
MLB
Prince Fielder: the Milwaukee Brewers' 1B attempted to storm the Dodgers' locker room, only to be held off by security. He did this in response to being hit by a pitch from reliever Guillermo Mota. Mota hit Fielder with two outs in the top of the ninth in response to a Brewers' pitcher plunking Manny Ramirez after Ramirez singled, doubled, and homered in the game. If Fielder wanted to go after Mota, he should have done so right then and there. Storming the opponents' clubhouse is a HUGE no-no. Fielder gets thrown under the Bus for his breach of etiquette.
NASCAR
Robby Gordon: he went idiot yet again in the Nationwide Series race at the Glen, bumping and banging with Joey Logano before finishing off his day by punting him. The scary part followed: Logano's car caught on fire as he made his way around the track. Fortunately, he got out in time. This on the heels of his tete-a-tete with David Stremme at Pocono last week. Logano, to his credit, took the high road for the most part before parting with this gem: "You can't fix stupid, and stupid is forever." The quote of the year in my book! I can envision this guy (Gordon) bumping his gums trying to rationalize his actions. Where's that dreaded Rule 12-4-A, actions detrimental to NASCAR? Gordon gets thrown under the Bus for going idiot, and NASCAR gets thrown under the Bus for not cracking down on Gordon and its inconsistency in applying the rules.
Those are my nominees for the week. Feel free to come in with yours!
