Rory McIlroy drives tennis ball into Yale Bowl tunnel

When you're the No. 1-ranked golfer in the world you get the opportunity to do a lot of things normal people don't get to do— or get caught doing.  Just ask Tiger Woods.

What was Rory McIlroy doing driving tennis balls through a tunnel at the Yale Bowl on Monday?  Who knows  but it probably had something to do with promoting the New Haven Open tennis tournament his girlfriend Caroline Wozniacki was competing in.

The winner of this year's PGA Championship took a couple of swings at the fuzzy yellow balls before finally getting one through the tunnel.



McIlroy was probably just trying to impress his Danish girl with the new challenge.

Wozniacki is the four-time defending champion at New Haven but I doubt she'll be whacking golf balls over a net anytime soon.

Nevada politician wins first MMA fight, then retires

They're always talking about fights in the political arena and how candidates have a puncher's chance of winning. On Saturday night, it was nice to see one elected official actually put his fists where his mouth is— or more apt, where his opponent's jaw was.

Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller raised his right hand in victory after defeating Jamal Williams after a second round stop in his first amateur MMA fight, then promptly retired.  He walks away from mixed martial arts as an undefeated light heavyweight.

The 6-foot-4, 205-pound Miller won his MMA debut— one of 10 amateur fights held by the World Fighting Championships (WFC) at the Montbleu Theater in lake Tahoe, Nev.

"I'm one and done," said Miller.  "Competing in an MMA event was on my bucket list.  Now that I got it done I've got a day job and an important election coming up."

The Nevada pol had been training in front of cameras for his big night and even showed up in pubic with a black eye.

 The hard work paid off but it was almost wasted in the first round when a nervous Miller got caught in a choke hold against Williams— a former high school wrestler and boxer— and struggled to make it to the bell without tapping out.

In the second round, Miller came out full fury and backed his opponent into a corner with a body kick and a hard right hand.  The referee stopped the bout 30 seconds into the round.

Miller got the promoters to promise that his appearance would not be promoted to avoid turning the event into a media circus.

Miller's cornermen and a handful of fans were all wearing T-shirts that read: "My secretary of state can armbar your secretary of state."

Now Miller retires from the MMA octagon and heads back to the world of political infighting.  I'm betting none of his opponents will calling him out anytime soon.

Stunt woman does amazing tightrope stunt between two speeding trucks

Faith Dickey risks life and limb every time she walks across a slackline but pulling off this stunt is beyond crazy.

The world record highliner was filmed walking across a cable strung between two speeding semi-tractor trailers before they reach an upcoming tunnel and the line snaps.

The stunt was performed live on an empty mountain road in Croatia for a Volvo truck promotion.



Besides keeping her balance on a swaying line, bumps in the road and battling the oncoming wind, Dickey has that tunnel wall to respect.  You can see her give it a nervous look as she approaches the tunnel.

She was successful after a few rehearsals. A few?!

Safety tether or not, if a highway railing didn't kill her, one of the 18 wheels probably could.  Pretty spectacular in every way.

Coughlin not happy with 'inappropriate' Prince video

Tom Coughlin made it through most of the New York Giants training camp without any tabloid landmines— unlike like his counterpart Rex Ryan and the Jets— but now a simple hazing has the head coach ready to explode.

Coughlin did not sound pleased after a video posted on Twitter went viral and showed Jason Pierre-Paul tossing Prince Amukamara into a cold tub accompanied by a slew of obscenities. He promised to "address that strongly."

"I'm learning about that today.  I really didn't have any information about that until maybe an hour before this conference call," Coughlin told The New York Post Sunday afternoon.  "I'm gonna look into it, I'm gonna talk to the parties involved, as I'm understanding it there were some parts of it that were inappropriate."



In the video— which was posted on punter Steve Weatherford's Twitter account— Pierre-Paul is recorded at training camp at the University of Albany carrying the 207-pound Amukamara over his shoulders through a hallway and dumping the second-year defensive back into a cold tub.  In the background Giants players cheer Pierre-Paul on and one shouts "stand up for yourself!"

After the dunking, Amukamara pulls himself out of the tub, wiping his eyes and doesn't look amused at the hazing ritual usually reserved for rookies.  The 2011 first-round draft pick has been pranked before— as it is the unofficial ritual in NFL locker rooms— but doesn't consider himself a newbie anymore even though he missed last season with an injury

Chris Canty, Michael Boley, Bruce Johnson and Terrell Thomas are seen in the video where Pierre-Paul spews a string of profanities and yells,"He ain't gonna do that s*** to me."

Weatherford is presumed to be recording the incident after Canty says," Steve, let me see the footage."

Fresh off a satisfying win over the rival Jets, Coughlin promised to get to the bottom of the embarrasing— but basically harmless— public Videogate. He sounded annoyed at the whole episode and the immaturity of his players.

"No way anything that occurs within this family or within this group should that be part of any kind of social media aspect," said Coughlin.  "I'm gonna address that strongly because I've spent a little time on that this preseason and I'll look into it further,"

Tebow cheered in MetLife Stadium Jets debut

Tim Tebow got a warm welcome as he hit the MetLife Stadium field for the first time as a New York Jets player.  The Jets backup quarterback made his debut in front of his new home crowd during the third quarter of the team's preseason game against their rival New York Giants and was greeted by cheers.

Mark Sanchez made the Jets fans appreciative of anyone after he stunk up the stadium in the first half (47 yards, 3 sacks) and fell behind the Giants 13-0.

Everyone in New York knows the real battle in the MetLife Game isn't for the "Snoopy Trophy," it's for the Jets starting job.

Tebow looked pretty efficient in his first few snaps and was 3-for-3 for three first downs before rumbling six yards for another one before the bad Tebow emerged.  The Jets quarterback missed the perfect opportunity to totally win over the house but missed a wide open Stephen Hill at the goal line on a 2-and-20.  The Jets settled for a 30-yard field goal on the 13-play drive.

All-in-all, Tebow looked better than Sanchez— even if it was against the second team defense

Mattingly suspended two games for 'arguing' with umpires

Los Angeles Dodgers manager Don Mattingly has been suspended for two games beginning with Saturday night's game against the Atlanta Braves.

The former Yankees player and coach was also given an undisclosed fine "for excessive arguing" with home plate umpire Angel Campos in Thursday's 10-6 loss in Pittsburgh.

The wild scene unfurled when Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp was ejected from the game after reportedly yelling "Let's go 'Dre" to his teammate Andre Ethier who was at the plate.  Campos took offense to the cheer and threw a riled Kemp out of the game.  Kemp had to be restrained by teammates from going after Campos.  Mattingly was tossed after he came to his player's defense.

The suspension was announced Saturday by Joe Garagiola Jr. , senior vice president of standards and on-field operations for MLB.

Mattingly admitted he was confused when he first heard of the suspension but later said he understood he was suspended because he did not attempt to restrain Kemp before jumping into the argument.

Kemp was not fined or suspended.

"I'm happy about that," said Mattingly.

At the Dodgers batting practice, Mattingly was asked where he would watch Saturday's game.

"I don't know.  I heard there's a suite somewhere," he joked.

Dodgers bench coach Trey Hillman will take over as skipper for both games

Mark Sanchez clears things up: 'This is my huddle'

Hey, it worked for Eli Manning last year and maybe it just could work for Mark Sanchez— tooting your own horn.

Maybe he isn't "elite" like Manning claimed he was last summer but Sanchez sounds like he wants the respect a starting quarterback with two championship games under his belt usually attains.

The other day, the New York Jets quarterback agreed with Bart Scott's assertion that Sanchez could be one of the top 10 NFL quarterbacks in the league. Yesterday, Sanchez took another big step forward before firmly planting it down by stating: "this is my huddle."

While some people still doubt Sanchez is even the best quarterback on his own team, maybe this is a sign the fourth-year starter is morphing into the leader the Jets so desperately need.

"One of the things I felt more comfortable doing, especially with the younger wideout group," said Sanchez, "was getting on those guys and letting them know when you come in the huddle, not to be selfish here, but this is my huddle.  Don't talk.  Name your position quickly and let's go."

The 25-year old's numbers may not say elite but the way he is conducting himself in camp is speaking volumes.

"Get lined up because there's a lot of stuff I need to go through to get us in the right position to be successful and Coach is expecting me to do that," Sanchez told his charges in the practice huddle.  "If you're not on task, I'm going to get yelled at.  I'm going to be standing there holding the ball."

While Sanchez admits his new found vocal leadership doesn't come naturally, he believes he is getting the hang of it.

"It's not the easiest thing to do," he said.  "It's no necessarily my genetic makeup to just start yelling at guys.  There's a time and a place to give somebody a hug and give them a chest bump and a high-five, and there's other times when you've got find the right ways to reach people.  I think I'm really navigating that a lot better now.

"It's natural to have a little bit of emotion out there, I'm not a robot."

Sanchez may have puffing out his chest after Tim Tebow's final day at camp was an unmitigated flop.  The "backup" quarterback's 11-on-11 stats on the day read: 2-for-10, 1 INT and 4 sacks.  Did someone say Wildcat?

Still, it's getting the respect of the team that Sanchez so dearly wants and Darrelle Revis threw his vote to the incumbent.

"If we lose, it falls on Mark," said Revis, the defensive back and unofficial team leader.  "If we win, it falls on Mark."

Sanchez probably couldn't think of a better compliment.