TWO TICKET TO PARADISE?

Unite and recover. Save our Saints? Home Sweet Dome? Is the team is more important than the displaced victims? I do belive that sports unite people, however, I don’t think the ‘real’ victims were able to attend, let alone afford, a ticket to a game being held it what used to be their temporary shelter. I laughed at ESPN’s Michael Smith, when he said: “Emotionally as well as economically, this city needs its football team. The Saints bring families together. Hopefully, having an NFL franchise here will help bring New Orleans’ families home.” They DON’T have a home! Josh Peter at Yahoo Sports wrote a great piece called the Forgotten. His article profiles a group of people living in FEMA trailers and how they felt about the game. Disappointed in the Green-U2-Day opening. Song after song about the Saints marching in…we got it the first time. Don’t get me wrong, Bono did not disappoint me- this is impossible. His appropriate rendition of Beautiful Day was heartfelt and touching. “Crescent City right in front of you. Birds sing in broken trees, coming home to New Orleans. Lower Ninth will rise again, above the waters of Lake Pontchartrain” But I still wasn’t sold on the ‘game’ itself…that is, until ESPN sideswiped my libido with a close-up of Michael Vick licking his lips. Game on!

Gracing every inch of my TV, was close-up, after Hi-Def close-up, of all the beautiful teary-eyed, tender faced, hot players. Between Michael Vick, Reggie Bush and Joe Horn’s arms, I think I may have had a seizure.

SPIKE LEE IS IN DA HOUSE…REGGIE BUSH ON EBAY

Spike Lee was in the house discussing the “great people” of New Orleans, and his HBO Special about Hurricane Katrina: When the Levees Broke. Up until now, I never really cared for him. However, during his interview he was so giddy, enthusiastic and cute that I just wanted to squeeze him. Was he always this likeable? And then it dawned on me, the length of his HBO film runs exactly 4 hours and 20 minutes. My kinda man. REGGIE BUSH By now most of you should be aware of Reggie Bush’s Yard by Yard charity program. (www.yardbyyard.com). In an effort to raise even more money for New Orleans, Bush has now put himself up for bids on eBay. Item number: 150037163598 will get you “a trip for two (2) to meet Reggie Bush in person, this meeting will last for between fifteen and thirty minutes. Location and time will be subject to Reggie Bush’s schedule and will be fulfilled within one year of payment for the auction item. Airfare and hotel will be provided.” Money collected from this auction will go directly to Rebuilding Together, the charitable organization Diet Pepsi and Reggie Bush are working with to help revive the neighborhoods, yards and lives of those affected by Katrina. Current bid for twenty minutes of love with Reggie Bush: $10, 452. You have four days left to mortgage your house and bid.

DWYANE WADE

On Monday, Heat hottie Dwyane Wade and his lips shot a commercial for his newest Converse shoe, the WADE 1.3. The spot will break October 26, was directed by Spike Lee and is shot documentary style. Wade: “Last year everybody saw something I was about, the falling and the basketball action. I’m kind of sick of basketball commercials. Even Spike said, ‘You don’t want to see the typical dunk. You don’t want to see the typical crossover anymore.’ What the fans want now, they want to get to know who you are.” Adding more points to my new found love for Spike Lee is that fact the Lee sought out Converse for a chance to work with Wade. And beginning today, Wade starts a yummy two-day commercial shoot for Gatorade. Hopefully, it does not include more scary bigheaded hotties…Wade: “There’s only a couple of players every year that get the opportunity to have endorsements and be a part of these brands. I’m just trying to have fun with it and hopefully I can build a long-lasting relationship with some of the brands like Michael Jordan did.”

THE CURSE IS ON
Super-fly fine ‘05 MVP Shaun Alexander is benched by the Seahawks for a while after cracking a bone in his big foot. Hottie here is the 6th straight “Madden NFL” cover boy to suffer an injury after appearing on the cover of the game. “Curse or no curse, everybody, and I mean everybody, wants to be on that cover” he said.

The Madden Curse victims include: Marshall Faulk, (no injury, bad season); Michael Vick missed 11 games because of injury; Donavan McNabb missed five games because of injury and Eddie George and Ray Lewis both had really bad years following their cover boy stint.

WAY TO WORK IT LADIES
With the NFL season under way, Scarborough Research data detailing NFL fan demographics has shown that 49% of men are NFL fans, and 52% are women! The data was collected from August ’04-December ’05…I’m so proud I could cry.

DARIO SILVA

Sad day in the soccer world. Dario Silva, a hot Uruguayan soccer stud, was involved in a tragic car accident Monday. The 33-year-old member of the national team was driving along a Montevideo road that runs along the River Plate Estuary when his car struck a light post on a center divider. He was thrown through a side window, and his right leg was caught and badly broken. He was placed in a medically induced coma before Doctor Mario Canela had to “amputate the leg from the knee down.” He added: “Silva’s situation is absolutely not solved with the amputation. We are worried about a possible infection.” Love to Silva…

TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE?

The Daily Mirror reports the Dubliner mag-rag “has offered to donate cash to charity if Tiger Woods accepts its apology” for publishing what it called a satirical story about Elin during the Ryder Cup. Ha! I’m still on Tigers side with this and hope his agent Mark Steinberg sues the shit outta them. Tiger could win more money from a lawsuit and donate it himself.

NOT BLINGING MY BLUES
If you’ve been the good daily reader I expect you to be, then you are aware that I’ve mentioned an auction in progress on eBay called Bling Your Blues. I’ve been a fan of this auction due to the Tony Parker, Jose Reyes, Johan Santana and Dennis Rodman customized jeans they’ve got listed. Now, I’m not sure what the hell is going on with this auction. After the Tony Parker auction ended, I received an email from Ebay saying they pulled the auction…then I get another one saying they re-listed the item. So I wrote to the charity running the event and they told me Ebay had made a mistake, pulled the auction and re-listed the item. They also claim that they-nor Ebay-have any record of who bid on the jeans. Seems fishy to me since there was a wining bidder that the charity said “fell through.” (How did the winner fall through if they dont know who he is?) This also seemed to be the case with the Dennis Rodman jeans. They were auctioned off, sold, and then re-listed. Long of the short is, something doesn’t seem right to me, so bid at your own risk. I get the feeling that they aren’t getting winning bids high enough to satisfy their expectations. But hey, that’s just my opinion.

Hall of Fame golfer Byron Nelson, who won 18 tournaments in 1945 in the greatest single season in the game’s history, died today at the age of 94. We’ll miss you Byron. Thanks for your contribution to this world, you will be missed by many.

As always, thanks for reading. Delinda
delinda@athlebrities.com