Star Receiver Ordered to Avoid Baby Mama. Star Cardinals wideout Larry Fitzgerald has been ordered to avoid any contact with the mother of his 11-month-old son after he allegedly beat her down and yanked her hair out, TMZ.com reports. Angela Nazario told police that she brought the couple’s son to visit Larry at his Phoenix home last October and an argument ensued. In legal papers filed in an Arizona court, Nazario claims that Fitzgerald attempted to “diffuse the situation” by raising his fist and challenging her to a play fight. Nazario responded by swinging at him and “may have hit his face,” she acknowledges in the documents. Fitzgerald turned from playful to enraged and pushed Nazario down to her knees, she alleges. He “grabbed me by my hair with both hands on the back of my head very, very hard and tossed me across the room,” she charges. “Later, when she tried to leave with her son, Nazario says Fitzgerald ‘grabbed the back of my neck and slammed me down on the marble floor … [I] was disoriented for awhile and could not get up. I remember he mumbled something about ‘that’s what happens when you try taking my son away from me,’” TMZ.com reports. “As she got in the car to leave she realized she had lost ‘chunks’ of hair.”

Black Athletes Exploited? On average, Black and White students arrive on campus with much different academic backgrounds and graduate at much different rates, according to a study by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Athletes’ experiences reflect those differences, and those differences affect the statistics for athletes as a whole, the study found. African-Americans are far better represented on the playing field than in the classroom, it shows. Only about 1.8 percent of White students were scholarship athletes, compared with 6.4 percent of Black students. Some schools’ athlete-student demographic differences were huge. For example, about a third of the Black students in Colorado’s 2002 freshman class were scholarship athletes, according to the Journal-Constitution. Read the rest of the findings here.

“Refrigerator” Perry suffers from Guillain-Barré Syndrome.  An ex-athlete who once brought attention to the NFL, even from non-football fans, is fighting a life-threatening illness. Ex-Chicago Bears star William “The Refrigerator” Perry frequently relies on a wheelchair as he undergoes rehab after a five-month stint in the hospital for Guillain-Barré Syndrome. The affliction causes progressive physical weakness by attacking the peripheral nervous system. “I’m doing fine,” says Perry, whose accolades include having a song recorded in his honor and a clever rap part on the Bears’ tune “Super Bowl Shuffle.” “I’m walking a little bit and rehabbing…Tell everybody that I’m doing a whole lot better…I hope to be up and about in a walker real soon.” A 350-pound defensive lineman, Perry drove Bears fans wild and surprised opponents by scoring three touchdowns as a rookie, including a four-yard pass reception.

USC star wounded at Halloween party. A title-holding college sprinter is recovering from surgery after he was shot three times in the leg at a Halloween Party last weekend. Bryshon Nellum, 19, was struck as he was leaving a restaurant near the L.A. campus, where the party was held, say police. “He was was walking out to his car and a group of guys in a car pulled up next to him and yelled some sort of gang-affiliated name and shot him,” says spokesman Sam Park. Nellum was hit three times in the left thigh and hamstring, but doctors are hopeful that he’ll be able to race again, according to the Long Beach Press-Telegram newspaper. Nellum was the first athlete to win two California state titles in both the 200- and 400-meter sprints in 2007. Police say it’s not known whether he knew the shooters.

Three arrested for alleged racism against Black players. Three teenagers have been expelled from Connecticut’s Quinnipiac University and arrested after allegedly harassing Black athletes. Players on Quinnipiac’s men’s and women’s hoops squads, and a Black resident assistant, all received threatening telephone calls from Charles Merritt, 18, Emily Loschiavo and Courtney Stellwag, both 19, last week, school officials say. Quinnipiac President John L. Lahey says all three were arrested on charges ranging from intimidation to harassment. Merritt was a roommate with players he allegedly harassed.