Colts owner Jim Irsay pays $2.2 million for Ringo Starr drum set

A drum kit Ringo Starr used to record some of the Beatles' earliest hits was sold for $2.2 million at auction in Beverly Hills to Jim Irsay, the owner of the Indianapolis Colts. 

Julien's Auctions said Irsay bought the three-piece 1963 Ludwig Oyster Black Pearl kit on Friday during a two-day auction involving more than 800 items owned by Starr and his wife, actress Barbara Bach.

Starr used the kit in more than 200 performances between May 1963 and February 1964 and was used on such iconic recordings including Can't Buy Me Love, She Loves You, All My Loving and I Want to Hold Your Hand.

The auction, which includes items like instruments and career memorabilia, concludes Saturday.

Also for sale is a guitar used by John Lennon, which the late Beatle gave to Starr.

"[We] thought... we've got lots of furniture, we've got lots of cutlery... and I thought let's make it really crazy and special... like John's guitar,' Starr said at a party on Tuesday night ahead of the auction.

"It's been played twice," he added.

Last month, Julien's Auctions sold a drum head from a kit Starr played on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 for $2.1 million.

A portion of the proceeds will benefit the couple's Lotus Children Foundation, which focuses on global social welfare issues.

So if you hear someone banging out It Don't Come Easy from the owner's box at Lucas Oil Stadium, you'll know who it is.

Pierre Garcon sues FanDuel for using his name and likeness for profit

Washington Redskins' Pierre Garçon sued the daily fantasy sports site FanDuel on Friday, alleging that the company "knowingly and improperly exploits" his name and performance for profit.

The wide receiver filed the class-action lawsuit against the billion-dollar fantasy sports site on behalf of all NFL players in the U.S. District Court for Maryland, charging that the site is improperly using the names and likenesses of NFL players for its own gain and not compensating the players.

"FanDuel routinely uses the names and likenesses of some of these NFL players without authorization to promote FanDuel's commercial enterprise, collecting huge revenues and entry fees," the release argues.

"FanDuel has taken the liberty to engage in these actions without my consent and without proper licensing rights," Garçon said in an accompanying statement. "As a result of these activities, FanDuel daily fantasy contests have shown increasing revenues leading to large profits. Therefore, on behalf of myself as well as any other players who are being treated unjustly, I chose to file a complaint."

In September, the NFL Players Association signed a licensing agreement with DraftKings, the largest daily fantasy site and FanDuel's chief rival in the industry. The agreement allows DraftKings to use NFL players in its marketing and promotional campaigns. 

This seems to be quite an audible for Garcon, who promoted FanDuel heavily on social media last year.

"Don’t forget! Enter my week 3 FANTASY league on Fanduel. $40K in prizes and a pair of free TIX to one entrant," he tweeted in September of 2014.

Don’t forget! Enter my week 3 FANTASY league on Fanduel. $40K in prizes and a pair of free TIX to one entrant. http://t.co/EqUNkAuIUD

— Pierre Garçon (@PierreGarcon) September 19, 2014

Garcon has played the last four years in Washington after starting his career with the Indianapolis Colts. The 29-year-old speedster had his best season in 2013, with 113 receptions for 1,346 yards.

He has a Bye Week.

College football team used the botched Colts play once...and it worked (VIDEO)

By now you have seen and scratched your head over the Colts botched punt play late in the third quarter of Sunday night's game against the Patriots. The epic fail where head coach Chuck Pagano's odd formation had two guys standing over the ball in the middle of the field and the rest of the team clustered together off to the side.

 Just in case you haven't seen it, here it is again for you amusement:

*Probably RT @TheCauldron Possibly the worst play ever run in the NFL pic.twitter.com/RCA0T1AFhi

— CJ Fogler (@cjzero) October 19, 2015

But discombobulated as this play looked — and it had failure written all over it — there’s at least one example of it working to win a game.

The University of Maine pulled it off in 2011 against James Madison in overtime. 

The only differences were that Maine used its regular quarterback and center with the ball, and they lined up in a shotgun formation — and it worked:

Hey @Colts, this is how it's done. #BlackBearNation #CAAFB pic.twitter.com/QgokyjOK7m

— Maine Football (@BlackBearsFB) October 19, 2015

Something tells me if the Colts used someone who could throw the ball from the shotgun position, it might have actually worked.

But have fun finding a coach willing to risk his job by giving it a try.

Al Michaels throws shade on 'DeflateGate' mention prop bet (VIDEO)

The New England Patriots-Indianapolis Colts game was one of the most anticipated of the season — partly because of the Tom Brady-Andrew Luck rematch but mostly because of that whole DeflateGate thing.

And an online sportsbook offered a prop bet on how many times the word "DeflateGate" — or a reasonable facsimile thereof — would be mentioned on NBC’s "Sunday Night Football" broadcast during the game.

Al Michaels, NBC’s lead play-by-play broadcaster for the NFL, became aware of such a wager and made sure to mention the D-word on air not just once, but four times in a rapid fire sequence: “DeflateGate, DeflateGate, DeflateGate, DeflateGate” taking the air out of the whole bet.

The over/under was 2.5.

Michaels then added, “Four. You won the over.”

Wonder how many of Michaels' buddies cashed in on that one?

Rob Gronkowski tweets logical reason why Patriots balls were soft

On Monday the NFL said it was investigating the alleged deflating of footballs during the Patriots lopsided victory over the Colts. Patriots coach Bill Belichick has said that his team will cooperate fully with the investigation of the Deflategate scandal until the tampering charges are cleared.

But he need not look any further than Rob Gronkowski for a logical explanation for the soft balls.

On his Twitter page, the tight end blamed the air loss on a simple theory that "Gronking May Cause Deflation."

Whoops lol pic.twitter.com/uLxN7A5cpq
— Rob Gronkowski (@RobGronkowski) January 20, 2015

And Gronk knows logic.

Ex-Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes trolls Patriots on Twitter

It wasn't long after the New England Patriots thumped the Indianapolis Colts, 45-7, in the AFC Championship Game, before one former New York Giant took to Twitter and trolled the winners.

The Patriots earned a trip to Super Bowl XLIX  against the NFC champion Seattle Seahawks but ex-Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes wanted to make sure they remembered the last two times the New Englanders made it to the big game

The Pats have learned to celebrate the hell out of those AFC Championships because the know what comes 2 weeks later. #0-2inGlendale
— Lawrence Tynes (@lt4kicks) January 19, 2015

And Tynes wasn't satisfied with just one infuriating slam. He had plenty more to say about the team his Giants beat twice.

The facts are the facts. I sense the 10 year frustration in these tweets. Enjoy the AFC ring ceremony. They should have the process down
— Lawrence Tynes (@lt4kicks) January 19, 2015

I sincerely love the passion. Although some of you are a little over the top, I get it. I am sure I will get this going again real soon
— Lawrence Tynes (@lt4kicks) January 19, 2015

At least the Pats will have more than this photo of David Tyree's Helmet Catch as added incentive now.

They'll have Tynes' prediction too:

Do you think @RSherman_25 will do the "You Mad Bro" Part II after the @Seahawks win the Super Bowl. #SuperBowl
— Lawrence Tynes (@lt4kicks) January 19, 2015

Are Daniel Herron's Buckeye socks adorned with marijuana plants? (PHOTO)

Following the Colts' 26-10 playoff victory over the Bengals, Daniel "Boom" Herron showed off a pair of Ohio State socks that he said contained the images of Buckeye leafs. Except they looked more like the leafs of a marijuana plant.

USA Today posted a photo of the running back's light red socks adorned with white images of what appeared to be plants of the smoking kind.

Boom Herron rocked Ohio State socks after being the Bengals - http://t.co/2jE61Zza5q pic.twitter.com/264O7Mqod2
— For The Win (@ForTheWin) January 4, 2015

Herron played for the Buckeyes, and Ohio State has a symbol on its helmet that looks like a marijuana plant, so you can give him a little slack. Except that these sock plants suspiciously had a few more “leaves” than the Buckeye leaf, which has only five.

Have fun in Colorado when you meet the Broncos next Sunday.

Texans quarterback Tom Savage hands off ball to invisible back (VIDEO)

When rookie Tom Savage first entered the Texans' game in Indianapolis against Colts, the noise from the hostile crowd made for a miserable start. 

But things only got worse when was sacked on this botched exchange with running back Arian Foster who wasn't even there.

Savage held his own and finished the game with 10 completions on 19 passes for 127 yards. He was sacked once and threw one interception.

Colts mascot gets weird with kids during halftime event (VIDEO)

Blue, the Indianapolis Colts mascot, was at the Jets-Vikings game at TCF Stadium last Sunday — and a lot of people are wishing he was still penned in his corral.

The fuzzy horse was a participant in the halftime "Mascot Challenge," in which various Minnesota mascots join up to play a scrimmage game against a youth team. Blue joined in and got a little well ... coltish.

He started knocking around children for losses and generally destroying his much smaller opponents. 

After the shoving and taunting,  Blue lived up to his name and performed some highly suggestive moves in front of the kids too.

Rodger Sherman of SB Nation happened to capture some of it on video:

Patriots' Jonas Gray opened up for Screech at a comedy club (VIDEO)

Running the ball up the gut of an NFL defense for 199 yards and four touchdowns might be hell for most people but, if you ask the Patriots' Jonas Gray, doing a stand-up comedy routine just might be the toughest 20 minutes he'll ever experience.

The New England running back — who lit up the Colts defense Sunday night— has apparently tried his hand at comedy and even opened up for comedian Dustin Diamond (forever known as Screech) a few years back.

According to CBS Sports, Gray has been at the mic a couple of times and posted video footage (below) of one performance where he at least got some chuckles: 

While he doesn't get a ton of laughs, his actual performance, minus the fact he constantly looked at his notes, is better than you might expect.

This video obviously is from a few years back -- Jersey Shore reference! Flavor of Love reference! -- but it looks like the Patriots running back had a good time performing.

That's right. And when was the last time Dane Cook put on the pads?

Not exactly gold, but the reviews were positive. Here's one of Gray's performance from The Observer, the Notre Dame student newspaper (h/t For The Win):

Gray kept the audience roaring with laughter for the next 20 minutes as he talked about his experiences with online dating, Valentine’s Day and his pet peeves. Many of his jokes hit home with audience members. When Gray turned the attention on one man who was laughing uncontrollably in the corner, the man explained his laughter: “’cause you’re telling the truth!”

Gray explained how he found his inner Kevin Hart:

"One of my good friends is a comedian -- not a popular guy, but he's known pretty well on the comedic scene -- and he knew that I was a funny guy," Gray told Boston.com. "Every time I used to make him laugh, we were super silly, he was like, 'Every time you get a joke, I want you to write it down. If you see something funny, write it down. Come back later, and turn it into a joke.' So I started really long lists of stuff, and I started turning stuff into jokes."

The headliner of last week's SNF game. Could SNL be in the stars?

Colts' Coby Fleener fakes dunk over crossbar after TD (VIDEO)

Since dunking over the crossbar is banned in the NFL now, Colts tight end Coby Fleener put a new twist on the move Saturday: He fake dunked over the crossbar.

After catching a 21-yard touchdown pass from Andrew Luck, Fleener walked up to the crossbar like he was going to dunk it. The referee then stared Fleener down, as if he was daring Fleener to slam it down.

That's when Blue the Colts mascot trotted over to rein in Fleener and save him a hefty fine.

Saints tight end Jimmy Graham was fined $30,000 last week for his two rogue  touchdown celebrations — and that ain't horse feed.

But Fleener went to Stanford, so he knows better.