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I think this is my favorite side of KD. OH WELL! (photo from Kevin Durant’s instagram @SniperJones35)

Prayers and well-wishes to everyone affected by the tornadoes in Oklahoma. According to news sources, this is one of the worst tornado occurrences in history. Thankfully, the death toll is less than many other storms past … but any loss of life (including that of animals) is such a tragic thing. 

Oklahoma Thunder star Kevin Durant (my fav player behind the illustrious Christopher Wesson Bosh) has agreed to donate 1 million dollars to relief efforts. That is awesome and I’m so happy he’s doing  that — I’m also not surprised.

When I saw Durant’s announcement it got me thinking about his image and the whole concept of the “nice guy.”  What does that mean? How fully can we understand an athlete who is burdened with that tag in part because of his own statements?

In a nutshell, I think of folks who are described as nice as being boring and having nothing else to offer up for a narrative. No intellectual curiosity of note, no tales of wild unruly nights to share, no particular physical gifts or markings, no sense of humor to speak of etc etc. In the dating world, when a guy is described as nice he might as well be a serial killer because I’ve no interest in someone unworthy of better description. 

Kevin Durant and his mother and grandmother. (photo from Kevin Durant’s instagram @sniperjones35)

But KD doesn’t really fit that mold. I think at first he provided a nice contrast to those extremely weird and very likely pathologically disturbed people who hated Lebron James. And in this “everyone-must-have-a-brand” economy we live in the media married him to this narrative. I think on some level Durant understands that in this media environment you’re either the good guy or the bad guy and he chose to help  pigeon hole himself as a dutifully humble big kid lest he become the giant selfish monster those crazies I described earlier pegged Lebron James as. Durant’s humble act is as much a product of being raised right as it is a necessity in avoiding the contrived wild-eyed ire of the Skip Baylesses of the world. 

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I took a break from blogging and I must say it was glorious – thanks for wondering. More on why I took a break later. The point is I’m back and I have great news. 

The NFL has created a new site called the Women’s Resource Initiative to reach out to the women that affect athletes’ lives – whether it’s moms and wives/girlfriends or bloggers and female fans. The site is a spin-off from the Player Engagement site which helps connect NFL players with the many resources that the NFL makes available to them. The site for women was designed to get women to take a more active role in players’ lives and also to connect with one another. 

I think the site is a great idea and I was excited when I was asked to contribute to it. I’ll be blogging about safety rules and initiatives the NFL implements as well as interviewing former and current players about ventures off the field. I’ll go into more details about this when we’ve ironed everything out and my first post is up. But as you know, player safety and advancement are two issues that are VERY important to me and I’m happy to expand my role in the discussion around those issues. 

I know you’re probably wondering if I’ll continue to be the largely disagreeable goodwitch I’ve been for the past 2 years and a few months that this blog has been in existence. Well, the answer is HELL YES. I haven’t changed and the NFL hasn’t asked me to. If you keep up with the way that the NFL conducts business you know they’re not afraid of edge…I think the NFL actually does a better job covering itself than any other network or outlet in many cases. If I felt my ability to give my opinion freely and with my normal vigor would be compromised here or on the NFL’s official site I definitely wouldn’t have agreed to contribute to the site in any way, shape or form. 

As I said, my first contribution to the site isn’t up yet, but still please make sure you pop over and peruse the site and spread the link around. I never thought I’d see my name right beside Donovan McNabb’s mom’s, isn’t that so cool? I KNOW RIGHT! Here’s the Washington Post’s write up on the site which features a great interview with New England Patriots Vince Wilfork’s wife Bianca. 

 [LINK: NFL Player Engagement Womens Resource Initiative]

I don’t think we have to worry about Indiana Pacers Roy Hibbert being tapped by Hallmark to write greeting cards any time soon. After Golden State’s David Lee went down with a leg injury and was announced as out for the remainder of the season, Hibbert sent him this tweet:

I really don’t like @dlee042 but I really hope he has a speedy recovery. Hate to see guys get get hurt or injured.

— Roy Hibbert (@Hoya2aPacer) April 22, 2013

I guess Hibbert isn’t over the fight they got into back in February that resulted in both of them being suspended for a game.

Lee went down in the 4th quarter of Golden State’s game against the Nuggets. The resulting injury was a “torn hip flexor.”  The Warriors were already not likely to overcome the balanced and aggressive play of the Nuggets, but now they will be without their second leading scorer (behind Steph Curry) and their top rebounder.

Lee’s birthday is coming up on April 29th. Hopefully, Hibbert doesn’t feel compelled to wish him a Happy Birthday. No telling how that tweet would look!

I really hate seeing people’s secrets exposed. It feels filthy. It feels like you snuck into their room and read their diary or grabbed their phone and went through it before it locked. I’m an only child so privacy is really important to me and I don’t like people spilling my tea. And that’s why I’ve felt so sad this week seeing the private photos of Kerry Rhodes some dude named “Hollywood” who thinks he’s going to be famous cause Bossip and BallerAlert and whatever other gossip blogs gave him server and bandwidth to be messy. 

Full disclosure, Kerry is a friend of the blog. He helped me promote it with a contest when I first launched. I find him to be very kind and approachable. But even if not, I’d still be sick about what’s happening to him now.

It’s one thing when homophobic politicians are exposed to be dabbling with the kids or some holier-than-thou leader is found with a mistress…in those cases I can see the point and motivation in outing someone (although, to be honest, I can’t think of any instance in which the outing changed a damn thing!) But when a person is simply living their life, probably in shame, outing them just feels gross and wrong.

I know that there are many people like me who are ready to see the NFL become a safer space for gay players. But that doesn’t mean we want to see people thrust into sharing their private preferences (and pictures!). Plus, if what Hollywood said was true–that Kerry’s teammates saw them together and never bothered him about it– it really begs the question why anyone outside of an athlete’s immediate circle even needs to know anything. Maybe this is what “out” in the NFL is…”out” to those who need to know.  Besides, I don’t think NFL players, on a whole, are as close minded (and may have never been!) as people would like to believe. Lots of secrets are kept between teammates and coaches and agents and sexual habits are just one type.

Still and all, what this fame-seeker is doing to Kerry is a complete violation of trust, privacy, and human decency that I could have lived without. He just seems like an awful individual. 

I’m wishing Kerry the best as he searches for a new team. He played well last season and should get another shot. 

I couldn’t resist a chance to post on this glorious photo Sports Illustrated dug up for their post on famous alumni of March Madness schools. As you can see from the photo, Knight and his jheri curl played defensive end at University of Nevada Las Vegas.

Via Sports Illustrated’s Extra Mustard

Knight was good enough to make training camp for the LA Rams but was cut before he ever played a game. But apparently he returned as a replacement player during the strike of 1987. I wonder what year he cut that curl off though.

You can view SI’s complete ratings of famous alumni here. I was offended that Bob Sager, an alum of my my alma mater, Temple University didn’t rate higher. A few folks said Bill Cosby should have been chosen instead of Saget. If so, he deserved #1. Still Saget is pretty cool. He had us all thinking he was some dopey goody two shoes on Full House, but in reality he’s a caustic potty mouth. GO OWLS.