POWER TO THE PEOPLE
Two days ago, Golfweek editor Dave Seanor said that he “doesn’t believe the cover will offend African-Americans. We talked to African-Americans who work here in the building to see what their thoughts were. For this story, that’s the image that comes to everybody’s mind is the noose.” And today, dude is out of a job. Golfweek has fired VP & Editor Dave Seanor. Senior Writer Jeff Babineau will replace Seanor on an interim basis. Babineau appeared on “The Dan Patrick Show” this morning and said of the discussion of the potential covers for this week’s edition, “One (potential) cover we had this week was on the young Australian phenom Jason Day, and had we had to do it over again, certainly we wish we could go back to Monday and put that one on the cover.” Babineau said firing Seanor was “something we had to do to show people that we are extremely sorry.” He said of addressing the firing in next week’s issue: “Our job is to say we’re sorry, and we’re going to do it with a front cover letter that I’m going to write, and we’ll go on and cover the business of golf as we always did.” More Babineau: “I don’t think maybe enough thought was put into it that it would be so offensive. ... A lot of the thinking was that this noose was trying to depict the tough situation that the Golf Channel was in”

STEVE NASHTY
“The passion and the appreciation for the finer points of soccer easily translate to basketball.” Steve Nash.

My favorite Sun, Steve Nash, has completed a Web-ad for Nike called ‘Training Day’. Nash enlisted Lola Schnabel, daughter of artist and filmmaker Julian Schnabel, to shoot the “self-styled Web ad” and received little input on the shoot from Nike, who kicked in one of the two cameras and edited the piece. A Nike spokesperson said that the company has no problems with Nash’s ad and welcomes other athletes to follow in his footsteps…congrats to Nash and Lola for producing a great spot which highlights just about every aspect of why I adore Mr. Nashty.

DEREK JETER G2
Derek Jeter is trying to entice us into drinking diet Gatorade. In late December, Gatorade launched a teaser for the new G2 campaign, which featured the legs and feet of two different athletes walking in street clothes in an urban environment. Under their feet, the street surfaces began to transform into a baseball field or basketball court. And now, the G2 spots have revealed that the baseball version features Derek Jeter, while the basketball version features Dwyane Wade. “These ads nail what most athletes know—that being an athlete is a way of life,” said Jeter, “I often think about how the decisions I make off the field will affect my performance during a game. So you’ll see Gatorade in my hand in the dug out and a G2 in my hand when I’m out and about.”

Personally, I’ll stick to my VitaminWater, but in case Jeter or Wade do entice you to drink G2, know that you’ll be helping out the United Way at the same time. G2 has committed to raise up to $150,000 for United Way between now and Feb. 3. For every visit to www.drinkG2.com, G2 will donate $1 to United Way up to $100,000. Media and professional athletes will also have the opportunity to generate an additional donation of up to $50,000 by participating in a bowling challenge during Super Bowl Week at an exclusive “G2 Lounge” at the official Super Bowl media center in Phoenix. You can check out the G2 spot here.

SIDNEY CROSBY-MANIA
Admittedly, we on the West Coast have a hard time following hockey unless its our Ducks, Kings, or something spectacular like the New Year’s Day Winter Classic-a game which was viewed on TV by more people in the US than any other regular-season NHL game in at least ten years. It was during this game that sexy Sidney Crosby delivered the game-winning goal in front of 71,000 people. Both the Sabres and the visiting Penguins wore uniforms and pucks with special designs on them just for this game. Most of the game-worn items, pucks, sticks, etc were sent to the NHL auction block to raise money for cancer. And who could have predicted…Sidney Crosby’s game worn jersey had a starting bid of $5000, within hours, it was up to $20,000, and by the end of the 14-day auction, Sir Sidney’s jersey sold for $45,000. Adding a bit of icing on the cake, Sidney’s game-used puck went for $7,505. (Ballhype.com)

Don’t belive the hype? Well, Crosby is so hot that he’s knocked NHL Commissioner Bettman out of the top spot in The Hockey News’ annual ‘100 People of Power and Influence’ list, a position the commissioner has held for the past eight rankings. Last season, Crosby and the Penguins attracted the biggest crowds around the NHL, drawing an average of 17,791 (96% capacity) on the road. Crosby’s jersey also was the top seller for the ‘06-07 season. NHL VP/Marketing “When he comes into town, it’s a carnival-like atmosphere because people want to see the prodigy, they want to see the real deal.” And I’d have to say Crosby is indeed, the Real Deal.

RODDICK GETS OUSTED

The total day and night attendance for Australian Open matches on Thursday was 62,885, a single-day record for a Grand Slam event. Perhaps those numbers will dwindle a bit since Andy Roddick lost his nearly 4-hour battle last night against German swinger Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-4. 3-6, 7-6, 6-7, 8-6. “I took his best stuff for five sets and I thought I was going to get him to break or to fold,” Roddick said. “I thought if I kept it on him long enough that that would happen. Tonight he played like a great, great player. His backhand was extremely impressive.” Gotta give it to Mr. Mojo though, the beast fought with all the sexy and feisty strength he had to serve us up one hell of a game.

As always, thanks for reading.
delinda@athlebrities.