RAFAEL NADAL

Dear God help me…does Rafa have any idea of what kind of wet ride my libido is on after seeing him like this? Rafa, topless on a water-ride, are you kidding me! If he never picked up a racket again I would be okay with it as long as he went to theme parks such as the Wild Wadi Waterpark. This doesn’t mean I’m not counting down the minutes until our beast starts swinging at the Dubai Championships tomorrow, where Rafa faces a tough draw.

Last year, Rafa ended R-Fed’s three-title sequence at the event, and this year, Rafa and his biceps are poised to defend. As the returning champ, Rafa has to get by a very difficult first round opponent, hairy beast Marcos Baghdatis. The match will played be on Tuesday at 7pm local time (4pm CET, 10am EST, 2am Sydney). As Federer seeks his revenge on our Spanish treat, the Swiss-miss will overtake Jimmy Connors’ record of 160 consecutive weeks as world number one, and I’m sure we wont stop hearing about it.

BAD BOYS

I have absolutely no idea who this treat is, but I do like his style of play. Spaniard Nicolas Almagro fell on the court during a Telmex Cup quarterfinal match last week, and thankfully, decided to share his injury with us…

..and on Friday, Andy Roddick gave us some feisty-love as he broke his racquet with those big, strong hands of his after losing a point. A-Rod went on to spank British babe Andy Murray at the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships in Memphis, before he faced a greedy Tommy Haas, who served Andy a mojo-quashing 6-3, 6-2 spanking in the Final.

CAW-CAW

Although I really don’t enjoy rugby games, I would never turn a blind eye to its hotties, especially when Russell Crowe is involved. On 19 March, 2006, the voting members of the South Sydney Rabbitohs National Rugby League club voted to allow Crowe and a buddy, to purchase 75% of the club. Since then, Crowe has been a major supporter of the Rabbitohs rugby team and is often seen decorating the sidelines. Even before Crowes partial ownership of the team, he made them the first club team in Australia to be sponsored by a film when he negotiated a deal to advertise his movie Cinderella Man on their jerseys. Yesterday, Crowe was on hand to watch the NRL trial match between the his hotties and the Cronulla Sharks in Gosford, Australia. Check out the website for a full roster of Crowe’s boys.

BRONCOS CURSED?

The Denver Bronco’s have lost another hottie. Running back Damien Nash mysteriously collapsed and died after a charity basketball game in suburban St. Louis on Saturday. Nash collapsed shortly after participating in the game benefiting a foundation named for older brother Darris Nash. The foundation raises money for heart transplant research and was established last month, after Darris Nash, received a heart transplant. My condolences to the Broncos and Damien Nash’s family, especially Darris, whose new heart is surely breaking.

LADAINIAN TOMLINSON’S FATHER

NFL MVP LaDainian Tomlinson is also nursing a broken heart after his father was killed Friday. Oliver Tomlinson was killed at about 1:30 p.m. after the pickup truck he was riding in blew a tire and flipped on a Texas highway. The driver, Ronald C. McClain was rushed by ambulance to Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center, where he later died. The 48-year-old McClain is believed to be a relative of Tomlinson’s, possibly a brother. Witnesses reported that a tire on the 1969 Chevrolet truck blew, causing the truck to swerve out of control and flip over near an intersection east of Waco near Asa. Both men were thrown from the truck. Again, condolences to LaDainian, his mother and his family for this tragic accident.

THREE STRIKES LAW?
Darrent Williams was killed in a drive-by shooting; the Cincinnati Bengals had nine players arrested in the last year; in December the bodyguard of a Chicago Bears player was shot and killed; Titans cornerback Pacman Jones was involved in a Las Vegas shoot out; Rams backup tight end Dominique Byrd will go to trial July 9 after pleading not guilty to charges that he assaulted a man; St. Louis Ram Leonard Little, was involved in a drunk driving accident killed a woman in 1998…and so on and so forth. So how do ‘we’ control these outta control players? Well, the NFL is throwing around a Three-Strikes-Your-Out-Policy. “The one thing that I thought that was surprising to me is the (players) are sort of moving in the direction of having penalties similar to drug policies — that at some point you’re out,” said Gene Upshaw, executive director of the NFL Players Association. “You can’t continue to keep violating policies. You can’t be in the wrong place three or four times. One time, two times maybe, but three or four times in the wrong place at the wrong time? They didn’t like that.” I’m 100% in support of this ‘new law’. These men are supposed to be examples and role models, with plenty of kids and Athlebrity lovers looking up to them. Their off-court antics and shootings do nothing except tarnish the leagues/teams reputations, and really, we’ve got way too many good guys out there to waste our time with the Mensa Rejects. Yank ‘em and spank ‘em I say. And in terms of the bad boys in the NBA…sure, we got some gun slinging and strip bar brawls on the books, but nothing in comparison to the NFL. Rumor on the street is that the NBA is compiling a list of bars that NBA players are prohibited from visiting. Not sure how this will play out legally, as it seems to me that this would be a violation of a players rights off the field, where as the three strikes law is a better way to go in terms of the legal repercussions.

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