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Friday’s Hot Clicks: Ex-NFL Player Admits Career-Ending Injury Wasn’t Caused By His Peeing Dog

The dog pee story was a big lie. 

Dan Gartland

Friday’s Hot Clicks: Ex-NFL Player Admits Career-Ending Injury Wasn’t Caused By His Peeing Dog
Friday’s Hot Clicks: Ex-NFL Player Admits Career-Ending Injury Wasn’t Caused By His Peeing Dog /

The dog pee story was a big lie

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George Gojkovich/Getty Images

Back in 2014, Lions tight end Joseph Fauria hurt his ankle away from the football field. He told the team and the media at the time that he injured himself trying to stop his puppy from peeing in the house. It was an unlikely story, and one that Lions fans didn’t really believe. There were rumors that he actually hurt himself playing volleyball, which seemed much more plausible. Well, Fauria finally fessed up to the lie.

“I hit the ball, 10 foot line, f--- yeah,” Fauria said on his podcast. “Everyone’s cheering, but when I come down, I come down on just ankle. Left ankle. Like, this most amazing, shocking pain that I’ve never felt in my entire life shoots up my leg and immediately I’m like, 'Career’s over.' First thing I thought, 'Season’s over, career’s over.' That’s how much it hurt.”

Fauria explained that he lied because NFL players get paid by the week and if he admitted to being injured doing something his contract said he shouldn’t be doing, the Lions could have refused to pay him.

Fauria did come back later that season but was never the same player. He was cut before the 2015 season and never played in the NFL again.

No love lost between these two

Cam Newton has the most radiant smile in the NFL. It turns out he also has the scariest smile. Look at how he smirks as he approaches Kelvin Benjamin here.

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Benjamin came out last week and said he thinks he would have had a better career if he played with “any other accurate quarterback” instead of former MVP Cam Newton. That’s a crazy thing to say now that you’re catching passes from A.J. McCarron, Nathan “Four Picks” Peterman and Josh Allen, whose completion percentage at Wyoming is two points worse than Cam’s NFL completion rate.

An update on the case of the moth and the umpire

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Yankees trainer Steve Donohue gave the lowdown on helping Bruce Dreckman with the huge bug that set up shop in his ear.

Donohue said he was expecting a little gnat, which is why he tried using a cotton swab at first. When he realized the bug had really burrowed itself into Dreckman’s ear, he told the ump to start fishing around in there himself. That’s when he pulled out what looked like a small bird.

And the reaction in the dugout?

“I can’t repeat the language,” Donohue said. “It was crazy. It was nuts. He had to be feeling terrible because this thing was big and flapping and I can’t imagine what was going on inside his head. Although, some of these umpires, I don’t know what’s going on inside their heads anyway.”

Bits & Pieces

This Taiwanese grandfather spends up to $1,300 a month running 11 phones to play Pokemon Go. ... Scientists think they know what makes the Bermuda Triangle so dangerous. ... One day after going public with their relationship, Iggy Azalea and DeAndre Hopkins both announced they were single. ... Chipotle keeps making people violently ill so they’re adding bacon to the menu and hoping people think that’s worth the risk.

LeBron making jokes online is the best version of LeBron

America is the land of opportunity

The opportunity to buy an entire deep-fried chicken.

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This isn’t even a Chinese knockoff?

I’ll tell you where I wish I was this weekend

Rangers winger Mats Zuccarello is moving his annual charity hockey game outdoors this year. They’ll set up a hockey rink in a soccer stadium in Oslo, where temperatures should be in the 60s. It sounds a lot better than the heat and humidity gripping the east coach.

Big friends, fast money

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Old school endzones for the Packers’ 100th anniversary

You know you’re in trouble when the bunker has steps

Right to his fiancée

He speaks good English, but the Scottish accent is totally indecipherable

The open ocean is no joke

When you hit it so hard the announcer can’t even call it by the time it lands

Not a bad start

That’s Saquon Barkley’s first touch in a Giants uniform. He looks just as good as advertised.

A good song

Email dan.gartland@simail.com with any feedback or ping me on Twitter. Bookmark this page to see previous editions of Hot Clicks and find the newest edition every day. Visit our Extra Mustard page throughout each day for more offbeat sports stories.

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Dan Gartland
DAN GARTLAND

Dan Gartland is the writer and editor of Sports Illustrated’s flagship daily newsletter, SI:AM, covering everything an educated sports fan needs to know. He joined the SI staff in 2014, having previously been published on Deadspin and Slate. Gartland, a graduate of Fordham University, is a former Sports Jeopardy! champion (Season 1, Episode 5).

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