Found via MoneyRies on Tumblr…

Highly serviceable NFL tight end Brent Celek recently hosted a contest for people to design his Twitter background, and someone with highly serviceable MS paint skills won.

I put in an inquiry to @BrentCelek to see who the winner is. Let’s see if I get a response.

Celek is also giving away spots in his Fantasy Football league this year. According to NFLTouchdown.com, 11 of his Facebook fans will get to play Fantasy with Celek this year.

On Saturday, Celek started a contest on his Facebook page where he will pick 11 fans to participate in a fantasy football league with him–but there’s a catch. Instead of picking fans at random, the former Cincinnati Bearcat decided to make it more interesting by having his fans perform tasks to earn a spot in the league.

So far, two contestants–Charles Alexander and Derek Diep–are the first two winners to join Celek in his fantasy league. While Alexander earned a spot by being the first fan to respond to one of Brent’s wall posts, Diep clinched the second spot by being the first to send in a picture of himself wearing Celek’s jersey in front of a stop sign.

Wonder how the NFL’s resident tight end social media expert Chris Cooley feels about Celek trying to take a shot at the title?

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The annual American Century Tahoe Celebrity Golf tournament took place over the weekend in Lake Tahoe. It’s always a character driven event. Posted some quick photos of the newly kempt, but no less ridiculous Jared Allen, the ever increasingly sinister Michael Jordan, and others below.

Golf Digest’s senior travel editor Matt Ginella (I want your job) posted a good write-up on the event – check out Lance Armstrong’s mom, stuck in a bunker.

In lieu of being able to be Ginella, I’ll be trying my hand at the game American Century has posted on WGT.com that allows you to play the back nine at Edgewood Tahoe. One lucky winner is going to win a trip to the 2011 tournament. I’m still trying to get my swing down, good thing this game is nicely addictive.

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When I was growing up, lawn darts was the preferred leisure sports activity at most family events. Those 12-inch spears were a Hayes family institution. I think they took that game off the market, yeah? At some point during my childhood we moved from lawn darts to volleyball, with like 14 to a side.

With my friends, I spent many an afternoon perfecting the art of “hitting the chair” (strike-zone) while pitching a beyond inordinate amount of innings of whiffleball. I’m talking from the age of seven through college, 1991 through…actually, one of my buddies is trying to bring weekly whiffleball back, which I told him I’m in for.

Recently, I’ve also taken a liking to lasso golf (often called ladder golf or polish golf).

Barely competitive, barely athletic akin to sport sports are the best. John Madden and I have an understanding about this. Madden just held his 12th annual charity bocce tournament: the Madden-Mariucci Battle of the Bay Charity Bocce Tournament. Madden, Steve Mariucci, George Seifert, and presumably a bunch of other members of the Tommy Bahama Weekenders club were all in-attendance – starting to understand why I went with the pic of the anonymous Raider cheerleader?

Check out more pics at NESW Sports

Inman: John Madden, Steve Mariucci attract big hitters for charity bocce (Mercury-News)

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People seen a little tense about Maurkice Pouncey. I don’t want to talk about Maurkice. I want to talk about Trent Williams. He may sound like a character from a movie co-starring Andrew McCarthy and Jami Gertz. He’s actually the 6′ 5”, 315-lb O-lineman taken by the Redskins with the fourth pick in last night’s draft. And since anyone who tells you that they know how anyone picked last night is going to pan out is lying, and since Williams was the only guy picked to give M.C. Taskmaster a big old hug when his name was called at the podium, let’s call Williams the feel good story of the first round.

Who knows if this guy is going to be any good. What we have learned about Trent in the last 24-hours: 1.) His nickname is Silverback and 2.) He has, to quote his close confidant and fellow draftee, Gerald McCoy, wrist game.

McCoy, who went #3, one pick ahead of Williams, was keeping track of the draft board’s wrist game throughout the night. He also posted what Joe Haden and himself were sporting at Radio City last night on TwitPic.

Back to Williams. They don’t just let anyone be known as Silverback. He’s probably going to be really good.

BREAKING: Skins Draft Trent Williams (Mr. Irrelevant)

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I’ll give him credit, sometimes Jeremy Shockey does use Facebook to make a meaningful and positive connection with his fans, and I’m sure his 60,000+ Facebook followers appreciate the effort. Of course, other times he uses Facebook to:

A.) Speak in code (“Cngrts to mickelson.. good 1st tourny back for tiger”)

B.) Play with young girls hearts

Here’s that wall post from Friday that’s both stirring up conversation and embarrassing videos alike:

Ok LADIES heres the contest.. Post a video on the “just fans” section of my fbk fan page explaining why u deserve to have me take u on a date 1 nite this offseason… Contest ends sun night 4/18 at 8pm est… Lets have fun w this so be creative but just be careful its not too inappropriate where fbk deletes it!! good luck!!!

So far, of those 60,000 fans but three ladies have taken him up on this and posted videos. Two are almost unwatchable. The third is :18 seconds of a woman snowboarding in a bikini. She never actually defines herself as a contest entry. She might just be crazy.

With encouragement starting to trickle out from the bloggers – MJD writes, “Good luck, too, to the father out there who receives the following phone call: “Daddy, guess what?! I just won an internet contest to go out on a date with Jeremy Shockey!” – entries should start to pick up.

Become a fan of Shockey on Facebook here, ladies: http://www.facebook.com/Shockey

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If your head did not explode from reading the title of this post, I suspect you are probably laughing or are confused as to what the hell the Beanpot is.  In the grand scheme of sporting events, yes, comparing the two is bombastic.  It’d be like comparing, ladies and gentlemen, sex with a model to that first awkward drunken make-out/groping session you had freshman year of college.

While the Super Bowl is the grandaddy of all American sporting events (so grandaddy-licious this year that it’s the most watched broadcast event in history), the Beanpot is a tournament involving Boston’s 4 big schools: Harvard, Northeastern, Boston College, and my alma mater, Boston University.  Each year, the 4 schools are paired off for a 2 week tournament for the coveted Beanpot trophy.  More importantly, these four schools play for pride and bragging rights…and yes, ads do not cost $3 million for 30 seconds.

If you watched BC’s 4-3 Beanpot victory on Monday night at a local sports bar, it made for an unbelievably satisfying sports dessert to The Big Game’s main course.  As a BU alum, it was disappointing to lose, especially to our hated rival (Thank god for $1 dollar draft Mondays at Third & Long) and I was not exactly thrilled wake up and watch ESPN’s Top 10 yesterday morning.  What was the #1 play you ask?  Chris Kreider, BC’s 18 year old freshman, deking out BU freshman Max Nicastro and finishing with a fluid backhander past BU goalie Kieran Millan to put BC up 3-1 during the Beanpot.

Now, I can drunkenly berate the other 3 BC goals (and believe me, I did) but none of us could argue this was a helluva play.  Oddly enough, I quickly changed my tune since, if you watched the game, you’d know BU’s David Warsofsky had an equally amazing top-shelf backhander later on.  Surprisingly, I was happy.  I was happy that college hockey, a sport that doesn’t get nearly enough recognition and is the pride of the BU faithful, was getting it’s due on Sportscenter.  Hopefully next year, we’ll reclaim the trophy for a tournament that’s continually ours (29 titles and running).  Until then…

What? You didn’t think I’d really end this on a sad note and praising the enemy, did you? GO B.U.

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Anybody hit the number last night?

According to Mark McGuire, from TimesUnion.com, it was only the second time 1-7 was the winning combination in Super Bowl box gambling lore. Based on McGuire’s research, seven has actually hit 19 times in 44 Super Bowls, with the most common winning score being 27 and the most common losing score being – get this – 17!

Not only am I nerd, because I just dropped that information on you, but I’m also a huge jerk because I remembered I love Super Bowl boxes about the time that Jay-Z and his symphony asked you to pledge allegiance to the Roc Nation (approx. 6:03). Alas, I didn’t get to participate.

If you reigned victorious, hit me with a story (How much you won? Which friend you berated first – your pitiful buddy who got stuck with 2-2?). I love a good gambling success story, and the only one I’ve heard out of this Super Bowl so far is from my degenerate coworker Leon* who bet heads on the coin toss.

*Not his real name, changed b/c betting on the coin toss is ultra degenerate.

Photos via LA Times & Idolator

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Truthfully, I turned on the game briefly – just long enough to get a sense of Mike Tirico blase approach to commentating such an abomination of a football game, which was funny.

After that fleeting tune-in (don’t count me in the tune-in numbers, Nielsen folks), I watched The Fantastic Mr. Fox (1:20 movie; so, roughly an 1:18:56 more time invested than the game) and Big Love (Happy to see that the show is not going with the Ben’s Alt-Christian band storyline, but rather him mired in a good old fashion seduction with Margene).

Smokey & The Bandit was also on – if I hadn’t already seen it six times…

Anyone else catch anything good last night while they were skipping the game? Because unless your name is Tirico you probably watched something good while skipping the game – I’m sure Gruden checked out and had the engineer pipe Burt Reynolds and Sally Field on HBO Comedy into the booth on his monitor at the beginning of the third quarter.

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Brief update on the gutting situation at the old Giants stadium – not in reference to Rotund Rex per say – as the Jets and Giants get set to move into an enormous new building next year.

FOUND ON EBAY: The X-Ray System from the old Giants stadium

According to the ad, the unit is in excellent shape and was used by both teams during games for injuries, physical exams for Giant players, World Cup Soccer, College football games and all other events which required diagnostic imaging services.

Not sure how old it is, but it looks old.

So if you know any lucrative radiologists – they want 4 Gs for this bad sally – who are looking to wow their patients with fun facts like, this is where Dave Meggett got screened after Bill Romanowski tried to rip his finger off, pass it along.

In related news, the aforementioned Rex Ryan would like all New York fans to know that the Jets are now the biggest show in town. And in other New Jersey news, Xanadu (this fully-erect, but not yet fully built building next to Meadowlands) might be the biggest real estate blunder in history.

Stadium photos via Flickr

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I don’t always read Chad Ochocinco’s Twitter feed, but when I do I prefer unbridled shenanigans.

I was monitoring it pretty closely yesterday to see what sort of post-game bromance between Chad and Darelle Revis would ensue, strangely – mind-boggling inexplicably actually – nothing too excited came of that; he alluded he might make good on his promise to change his name back to Chad Johnson, then a few more bruh, bruh’s, and that’s about it.





In far more engaging, and whimsical, developments yesterday via Twitter, Ochocinco personally sought out Giants stadium staple, and the face of the J-E-T-S chants, Fireman Ed.





Chad’s query was answered by ESPN producer Jason Romano, which garnered him a shout out from a thankful Ocho who apparently is going to hook Fireman Ed with a trip to Cincy (“Enjoy the jungle”) for the game on Saturday.





Last week, Fireman Ed was made the subject of some of Ocho’s more inventive trash talk directed at the Jets and Revis, saying he was going to get his own Bengals fire hat made (no idea if he did), get up on the goal post or a linebacker’s shoulders, then quiet the Giants stadium crowd and get them to chant O-C-H-O.

The Daily News reported at the time…

“I have one that is going to be so good. Everybody listening? You know the guy in the stands with the fireman hat (Fireman Ed) that quiets the stadium? OK, I have my own fireman hat made, but it doesn’t say Jets. It’s a Bengals fireman hat. When I score, I’m going to sit on top of the goal post and then I’m going to quiet the stadium like he does…

“I had this planned in the offseason. All I could think about is the guy who gets on the big guy’s shoulders and he quiets the stadium and does the Jets-Jets-Jets thing. Hopefully the fans of New York will give me the same respect. When I score, I’m going to get on my lineman’s shoulders and I’m going to quiet the stadium.

“I want everybody to say Ocho, O-C-H-O. You guys write about that. Get it out there and tell them to please cooperate.”

After Sunday night’s loss, Ocho’s clearly showing Fireman Ed much respect – strangely so were the broadcast team of Chris Collinsworth and Al Michaels at one point during the game. Just don’t be surprised if this Saturday the Bengals win and Chad brings out a whole troupe of Hooters girls wearing orange fire hats.

…

In other news, Collinsworth has a rapier wit. Did anyone catch this exchange?

Michaels: You think [Rex Ryan] has a layer of thermals on under there?

Collinsworth: I think he was born with a layer of thermal.

And with that, we close the book on another NFL regular season.

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