The 10 Spot: Feb. 3, 2005
2. Most of us will never be pro athletes, but now all guys have been given an opportunity to live like one. Actress Tara Reid, who has dated athletes including quarterbacks Tom Brady and Kyle Boller and hockey star Sergei Fedorov, is soliciting potential boyfriends. On Monday's Ellen Degeneres Show, Reid asked single males to send in a 60-second audition tape to land the role. Says Reid, "I want a nice guy, a nice, funny, good sense of humor, cute, obviously, you know, just a good guy." All righty. Good luck to all you potential contestants.
3. You've probably heard or seen by now the remarkable 85-foot heave that Guilford College's Jordan Snipes made at the buzzer to beat Randolph-Macon on Monday night. On Wednesday, Snipes did it again. A Greensboro TV station put Snipes on the air live to see if he could recreate his shot, handing him a rack of 16 balls. After putting a few off the rim, Snipes drained his 11th shot. His second 85-footer certainly deserves a second look. (Thanks to 10 Spot reader Nathan for the head's up.)
4. A federal jury convicted businessman and Alabama booster Logan Young for paying $150,000 to Memphis high school coach Lynn Lang so that one of Lang's players would sign with the Crimson Tide in 2000. No word yet on if the Tide will have to forfeit their 2000 recruiting national championship.
5. If you're not a big college football fan, you likely don't understand the fuss about signing day. So we'll do our best to explain. Pretend the NFL didn't have a draft. Instead, all incoming players were free agents, though each team could sign just seven prospects. Wouldn't you want to know how the meeting went between your team's head coach and, say, Cal QB Aaron Rodgers? Or let's say the Lions have been romancing a sleeper all season, and he returns the affection because they're the only NFL team interested in him. Then after the player has a great scouting combine, the Patriots and Eagles come calling. Will the player honor his verbal (but non-binding) commitment to the Lions, or sign with a perennial winner? College recruiting is an inexact science and an often-messy business but there is no shortage of story lines.
6. Vikings quarterback Daunte Culpepper found himself in an awkward position Wednesday when he gave two diamond necklaces worth about $75,000 to a paralyzed high school football player at an awards banquet in Jacksonville and then asked to have them returned. The injured player had thought the necklaces were a gift. Though some dubbed Culpepper an un-gifter, the quarterback tried to explain that he had already promised the gift to The Drake.
7. Now that guard Carlos Arroyo has been traded to the Pistons, Jazz sponsor Jiffy Lube will donate approximately 6,000 lunch boxes featuring Arroyo to Boys & Girls Clubs throughout Utah rather than give them away at a game as planned. In other NBA marketing news, Ron Artest's season-long suspension has caused the Pacers to call off Artest Speed Bag Night.
8. SI Swimsuit Model Search update: And then there were two. Lanky Stacy was eliminated and will take her Minnesota accent back to St. Paul, leaving hardscrabble Alicia and girl-next-door Shannon to the mercy of America's votes. Wednesday's episode was notable by the brief flare-up by founding SI swimsuit editor Jule Campbell, who had been staking her claim as the nicest reality show judge in history. But when with fellow judge (and SI Swimsuit Hall of Fame model) Roshumba Williams made a point she disagreed with, Campbell snapped, "You are not an editor, you are not a photographer. You're a model." Ouch. The judges have made it clear that Alicia will be their pick, which likely gives her the edge in the voting.
9. Wednesday's 10 Spot item on Terrell Owens included a purported miracle that was even more wondrous than we intended. We noted, with tongue placed firmly in cheek, that Jesus had turned a twig into a Sharpie in the Book of Deuteronomy. As many readers quickly noted, that would have been truly remarkable given than Deuteronomy is a book of the Old Testament and covers events that occurred well before Jesus arrived on the scene. (We later switched the faux miracle to "2 Corinthians," presuming that Paul might have mentioned the incident in his letters.) Surprisingly, only one reader objected to the perhaps blasphemous notion of Jesus turning a twig into a trademarked writing implement in the first place. Still, I hope the Deuteronomy reference wasn't read by Father Stephen Duffy S.J., my freshman theology teacher at Regis High School. Sorry, Father Duffy. You taught me better than that.
10. Reader submission: This was the deepest pool yet, but the winner is Scott of Atwater Village, Calif. He writes: "Rudy Tomjanovich resigned as head coach of the Lakers on Wednesday, citing health reasons. As it turns out, he was sick of Kobe." Simple, clean, punchy. It was difficult to pick just two runners-up, but we're going with Bob L. of Philadelphia and Tim A. of Dallas.
