Mike Trout to grace cover of GQ magazine

Mike Trout will be the focus of a feature story in the April 2013 issue of GQ magazine and grace the cover of its "Style Bible" edition.  The article and photo spread will profile the Los Angeles Angels' 21-year-old phenom and his strong connection to his hometown Millville, N.J.

GQ's Daniel Riley talked with Trout about living at his parents' home during the offseason, spending most of his time in his spectacular man cave and growing up in South Jersey before making it big in the major leagues.

Trout shows his lighter side when the rising superstar revisits his old high school, looks at the field he played on with the Thunderbolts and jokes.

"Man, I drive by there every once in a while when I'm home," he says. " I look at that fence (at Millville) and it's like, 'How did I not hit more home runs here?'"

Trout did smack 31 homers in his high school career — including a state record 18 in his senior year in 2009.

His former competitors only want to talk about their successes against him.

“I get it a lot on Twitter, Facebook — these guys saying, ‘Remember me? I struck you out!’ Well, congratulations,” he says, laughing and realizing that he did pretty good.

Trout describes his first year with the Angels as "the craziest year of (his) life" and talks about becoming hooked on sushi.

"The sushi thing, man. If you put sushi in front of my face two years ago, I wouldn’t even sniff it, wouldn’t touch it, wouldn’t try a lot of food. The appetite’s changed," he says. "The food and the beach. I’m moving down to the beach. Settling in in Newport. Really love that."

For all his new found success, Trout is still loyal to his Jersey roots. He points out "the first house I buy will be right here."

And for the fans that grew up watching Trout bloom into the player he is today, he will never leave their small town — at least on the airwaves this year.  Local radio station WSNJ 1240 AM has agreed to broadcast every Angels game this season.

Baseball-style spring jackets are being featured in the April issue of GQ. You can bet if Trout is modeling one, it will be covered in grass stains.

Tebow's 'savior' photo in upcoming GQ is altered

Tim Tebow's shirtless body is featured in GQ's September cover story to kick off the 2012 NFL season.  But that's not such a surprise.

In an article titled "Have You Accepted Tim Tebow as Your QB and Sunday Savior," a photo spread of the New York Jets quarterback features a shot of the devout Christian with his arms outstretched and legs crossed— similar to Jesus on the cross.

Eagle-eyed readers will probably notice that the photo looks like it's a resurrection of shot that appeared in the magazine before.  And they're right.  It's actually a digitally-altered version of the original photo which appeared in a previous GQ issue, when Tebow was a quarterback for the Florida Gators.

The color photo which originally appeared in the magazine was changed to black and white and the Gator's signage removed and put into the upcoming issue.

The article goes on to paint a portrait of an always smiling young man who is one game fail by Mark Sanchez from running the Jets offense.

Asked what he would say to Jets fans who are anti-Tebow, the faithful  Christian said,  "I think if they're a Jets fans, they'll be rooting for me.  Hopefully, I'll do whatever I can to help the team win football games.  I'll give my heart and soul whenever I step on the field and even when I'm on the sidelines.  And at the end of the day, that's really all you can ask of someone."

Keeping the faith.

Mark Sanchez Was Ready To Lay Down His Own Brand Of Hard Knocks On Rex Ryan

New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez admits there was a time last season when he wanted to lay down his own version of Hard Knocks on his coach Rex Ryan-- with his fists.

Last year, after Jets head coach Rex Ryan came close to benching Mark Sanchez, the quarterback said the incident nearly caused him to come to blows with the outspoken Jets coach.

According to the New York Post, Sanchez-- he of movie-star looks and lifestyle-- told GQ magazine, in the new issue featuring the NFL, he wanted to throw down a beating on his mentor and coach.

"I wanted to fight him.  I was really mad," opened up Sanchez in the revealing article.

According to Sanchez, he had not been playing well during consecutive losses to division rivals, the New England Patriots and Miami Dolphins, causing the never-shy Ryan to openly speculate about sitting down his signal-caller and replace him with back-up quarterback Mark Brunell.

Brunell was instructed by Ryan to start practicing more with the other starters.

Sanchez said he took this as a subtle message that the head coach was considering benching him and it made the Gang Green QB see red.

The scorned Sanchez put down his dukes after offensive coordinator, Brian Schottenheimer, intervened.

The article reports that Schottenheimer-- as the messenger-- reminded Sanchez of Ryan's order for Brunell to handle more of the first-team practices which made Sanchez want to call out Ryan.

"I was like [Ryan] can come tell me [himself],' recalled Sanchez.

Schottenheimer threw water on the fired up QB.

The coordinator consoled the unhappy Sanchez.  "And [Schottenheimer] is like, ' Come on, man, don't do that,'" he revealed to GQ.

Ryan and Sanchez have always had a father-son relationship-- albeit one that could blow at any time.  It's pretty easy with a no-nonsense-speaker like Ryan, even with the soft-spoken Sanchez, but the head coach has stood by his QB through all of Sanchez's growing pains in the NFL.

"Rex is super honest," said Sanchez.  "I wish he wasn't that honest at times."

In the article, Sanchez delves into his personal life as a rich single man in New York City and the boundaries he has learned to set for himself outside of the game.  He acknowledges that the rock star life style has its limits.

"You have to be a 24-year-old bachelor with the means to do anything, just about, but with the wherewithal and understanding and life skills of a 45 year-old Supreme Court judge," he said.

Even a 45 year-old Supreme Court judge has probably felt like giving the loud-mouth Jets head coach a pop on the snout at one time or another.