By Sherri L. Smith, BlackWeb20.com

Ladies, if you’ve been enjoying your summer hugged up with a  significant other or chilling with a male relative or guy friend, your good times are about to end. Tomorrow, “Madden NFL 10″ drops. Electronic Arts hit series returns, bring all the plays, jukes, and highlight reels that capture the male imagination long after you’ve gotten all the stains of out the carpet from the Super Bowl Party. Read the rest of this entry »

White men run college sports. The recent dismissals of Washington’s Ty Willingham and Kansas State’s Ron Prince leave the number of Black NCAA football coaches at a 15-year low, a report shows. Of 119 schools, Black head coaches represent just four, according to the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport. “While the percentages are slightly better, the general picture is still one of White men running college sport,” says Richard Lapchick, co-author of the study. “Overall, the numbers simply do not reflect the diversity of our student-athletes. Moreover, they do not reflect the diversity of our nation where we have elected an African-American as president for the first time.”

NFL tackle offers condolences to Jennifer Hudson. Chicago Bears defensive tackle Tommie Harris says he’ll donate a jersey to singer Jennifer Hudson’s family in tribute to her murdered brother. The star’s sibling, Jason Hudson, her mother Darnell Donerson and her nephew Julian King were all recently shot to death in Chicago in unsolved, apparently pre-meditated, attacks. King’s stepfather, the estranged husband of Hudson’s sister, is the only suspect in the crimes, but he hasn’t been charged. “I would like to give them a personal jersey,” says Harris, who is a friend of Jennifer Hudson. “A lot of times you try to understand things, but you can’t fathom that, losing three loved ones within three days. It’s very difficult and my prayers are with the family. It’s hard, but you just have to try not to lose faith in God.” Get more celebrity condolences here.

“Uneven Fairways” to examine trailblazers on course. Tiger Woods isn’t the only Black athlete to cross boundaries on the golf course. The Golf Channel has announced a documentary scheduled for Black History Month 2009 that will spotlight similar trailblazers. “These are inspiring stories of golfers who overcame great odds just to create a tour where they could compete,” says Page Thompson, president of Golf Channel. “Uneven Fairways” will debut Feb. 11 on the Orlando-based network.

Pitcher could spend up to 16 years in prison. The minor league pitcher who allegedly gave a fan a concussion by hitting him with a ball could spend 16 years in prison. Julio Castillo, 21, was trying to throw the ball into the opposing team’s dugout to hit a player, but struck the fan in the head, prosecutors say. The actual July 24 game was interrupted by a 10-minute brawl that cleared the benches between Castillo’s Peoria Chiefs and home team Dayton. Castillo was indicted in Ohio this week on a count of felonious assault with a deadly weapon and a felonious assault causing serious physical harm. “There is no excuse for this type of behavior, whether it’s in a ball park or a back alley,” says prosecutor Mathias Heck Jr. “Fans should not be subjected to violence because a player is unable to control his temper.”

Chinese treat more than 13,000 children for tainted milk. The number of Chinese infants sickened and hospitalized after drinking tainted milk formula doubled to nearly 13,000, Chinese officials reported. Premier Wen Jiabao threatened harsh punishment for culprits in the latest blight on the “made-in-China” brand, Reuters News reports. Four deaths have been blamed on the toxic milk powder, causing kidney stones and agonizing complications, and a string of Asian countries have banned or recalled Chinese milk products. The Health Ministry said the number of children hospitalized due to the milk powder contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine rose from a previously announced total of 6,244 – which included many who had left hospital – to 12,892, including 104 who were in a serious condition. More than 1,500 had already left hospital and nearly 40,000 with milder symptoms “received clinical treatment and advice” before going home. Melamine elevates protein readings in dairy products, allowing milk producers to thwart government inspectors. The ministry did not explain the sharp rise. Meanwhile, U.S. officials have banned the import of infant formula from China.

Sports cause the most eye injuries in youths. Sports-related eye injuries are the leading cause of blindness in school-age children, but most could be prevented with the proper eye protection, HealthDay reports. To educate the public on this, Prevent Blindness America – the nation’s oldest volunteer eye health and safety organization – has made September “Sports Eye Health and Safety Awareness Month.” “We already know that 72 percent of all sports-related eye injuries are to those age 25 and younger. Yet, only 15 percent of children wear eye protection,” Hugh R. Parry, president and CEO of Prevent Blindness America, said in a statement Friday. “We strongly support all efforts to ensure that children use appropriate safety eyewear for every sport in which they participate.” Emergency rooms in the United States treat a sports-related eye injury every 13 minutes, the organization says. Baseball causes the greatest number of sports-related eye injuries in children aged 14 and younger, according to the National Eye Institute, while basketball is the leading cause of eye injuries in those aged 15 to 24. It is believed that 90 percent of all sports-related eye injuries can be prevented with the proper eye protection. Lenses made of polycarbonate that carry the American Society of Testing Materials label are recommended.

Many doctors don’t know blood pressure rules

. Too many family docs start high blood pressure treatment for later than they should, a new study found. The men in the study were Black, but the same is probably true for men in general, said Dr. Joseph Ravenell, who reported the findings Friday at the American Heart Association’s Council for High Blood Pressure Research annual meeting in Atlanta. Traditionally, the emphasis has been on patient behavior, such as patients not properly taking their medication, said Ravenell, the New York University scientist who did the study while at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical. But there is increasing evidence that the problem of poor hypertension control is not just on patients, HealthDay reports. Doctors didn’t start treating middle-aged men with high blood pressure in time the study indicated. A related study shows that a low-salt diet could control high blood pressure. Of the doctors treating the 891 Black men studied in Dallas County, most of whom were primary-care physicians, only 36 percent said they would start treatment for a 45-year-old Black man with an office blood pressure of 145/92 and an out-of-office pressure of 154/95, both well above the recommended 120/80 level. None of the 22 doctors interviewed was familiar with the national guidelines calling for treatment of blood pressure at such levels. Ravenell said the results, though surprising, were in tune with other earlier results showing that doctors weren’t following the guidelines as well as they should. As Black men were at a high risk of death from hypertension, Ravenell felt physicians ought to be particularly careful handling them and should ensure that they are appropriately applying the guidelines to all patients. In a related study …, researchers found that by controlling salt intake, high blood pressure patients could control blood pressure that was not controlled by medication. This finding was also presented at Friday’s Heart Association meeting on high blood pressure. “A high-salt diet contributes importantly to treatment-resistant hypertension (high blood pressure),” Dr. Eduardo Pimenta from the Dante Pazzanese Institute of Cardiology, Sao Paulo, Brazil, told Reuters Health.

Gary Sheffield belts league benchmark

The Tigers’ Gary Sheffield has hit the Major Leagues’ 250,000th home run. The score, which totaled the number of homers by all players since the establishment of the pros, occurred during a Monday Detroit win against the Athletics. Sheffield’s grand slam, his second homer of the game, also leaves him just four shy of 500 career home runs. Starting with the National League, the first homer recorded occurred on May 2, 1876.

Golfer wins water war with 129,000 gallons per month

How huge would a crib have to be to use 129,000 gallons of water a month? Tiger Woods knows. The Orlando Sentinel reports that while an average home uses 10,000 gallons monthly, Woods’ house on Jupiter Island near Palm Beach soaks up over 10 times the norm. Fellow Floridian athletes Grant Hill and Dwight Howard put out eye-popping numbers, too: Hill reportedly used 263,000 gallons in May alone, Howard, 189,000 gallons in July. Sounds like plenty of pool parties or lots of toilet flushing – or maybe both.

ESPN analyst is in fantasy land, critics say. In an attempt to keep it “real” about Blacks and Fantasy football, ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith is taking a virtual beating in the fantasy sports blogopshere. According to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association, about 93 percent of all fantasy players are White. But “to hell with fantasy. I’m about what’s real!” Smith wrote in the latest edition of ESPN The Magazine.  ”I’m not surprised to learn that so few Blacks are among the 30 million people who participate in fantasy sports. I’ve always thought that a lot of these guys [and 96 percent of them are guys] are nerds, desperately in need of more sociable leisure-time activities. Leisure time for Black folks historically consists of direct interaction, the kind of experience you get at a family barbecue or hanging out with friends. Sitting in front of a computer screen pretending to be Bill Parcells? Sounds like work to me.” The reaction to Smith’s article from some Black sports bloggers has been anything but nice.  Uzo Ometu, an African-American fantasy player who also writes the Sportswatcher blog, says, “The average fantasy football player is around 30 years old, makes about $75,000 a year and has a connection to a fast Internet provider. I’m sorry, but that’s just not your typical brother living in the lower-income parts of Brooklyn, N.Y. Don’t get me wrong; there are plenty of well-educated and successful Black people, who are not only making gobs of money, but who are also football fans who love playing fantasy football. Unfortunately, successful Black people [economically speaking] make up just a small percentage of the Black population as a whole, which is why we are thoroughly underrepresented in the fantasy football populous.”

Bengals star legally changes his name

Back in the day, boxer Cassius Clay became Muhammad Ali for religious reasons. NBA star Lloyd Bernard Free became World B. Free to make a political statement. NFL receiver Chad Johnson? He’s Chad Javon Ocho Cinco now. “Have I ever had a reason for why I do what I do?” he asks. “I’m having fun.” The Bengals star has legally changed his name to the Spanish translation of his jersey number 85. The Bengals have no comment on Cinco’s re-invention – understandably.                                                                                       

Venus, Serena may be headed for another tennis face-off. Venus and Serena Williams didn’t get that Wimbledon rematch they seemed headed toward during the Beijing Olympics. Both sisters were eliminated from singles competition before they combined to win doubles gold. The U.S. Open, however, presents another possibility for the pair to go head-to-head after Venus took the title several weeks ago. Both sisters advanced this past weekend and will face each other in the Open’s quarter-finals this week if they each get one more win. “I think that, definitely, the Wimbledon win helped me…if I don’t have a perfect practice, I don’t get really upset about the whole tournament,” Venus says. The sisters are the only two former champions still competing in the tournament.

Diabetics have another worry: cholesterol. LDL cholesterol that’s either too high or two low signals an increase cancer risk in people with type 2 diabetes, a Chinese study shows.  Researchers studied 6,107 diabetes patients, none of whom was taking cholesterol-lowering statins. The researchers found that LDL levels below 2.80 mmol/L were associated with an increased risk of cancers of the digestive organs and peritoneum, genital and urinary organs, and lymphatic and blood tissues. LDL levels above 3.80 mmol/L were associated with increased risk of oral, digestive, bone, skin, connective tissue and breast cancers. The findings suggest “the use of these levels as risk markers may help clinicians to assess their patients more fully and thus to prevent premature deaths in patients who have high risk,” wrote the team from the Hong Kong Institute of Diabetes and Obesity, the Li Ka Shing Institute of Health Sciences and The Chinese University of Hong Kong. However, factors such as lifestyle, socioeconomic status and indication for use of statins need to be considered when examining the association between LDL levels and cancer risk, Drs. Frank Hu and Eric Ding of the Harvard School of Public Health, wrote in an accompanying commentary. The study was published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

Most female sports injuries come from cheerleading.

Over the past 25 years, cheerleading accounted for two-thirds of all catastrophic sports injuries experienced by high school and college females in the United States, HealthDay News reports. This is a much higher proportion than previously thought, a new report says. Cheerleading accounted for 65.1 percent of female high school athlete injuries and for 66.7 percent of female college athlete injuries, according to this year’s report from the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research, based at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It was previously believed that cheerleading accounted for 55 percent of injuries among high school females and 59.4 percent of injuries among college females. But the percentages increased when new data was used for this year’s report. Center Director Frederick O. Mueller, a professor of exercise and sports science who’s authored the annual report since it began in 1982, said catastrophic injuries to female athletes have increased over the years. “A major factor has been the change in cheerleading activity, which now involves gymnastic-type stunts,” he said in a university press release. “If these cheerleading activities are not taught by a competent coach and keep increasing in difficulty, catastrophic injuries will continue to be a part of cheerleading.” Between 1982 and 2007, there were 103 fatal, disabling or serious injuries recorded among female high school athletes. The vast majority of those (67) occurred in cheerleading, followed by nine in gymnastics and seven in track.

HIV/AIDS groups to candidates: Where’s Your National HIV/AIDS Plan? Vital Signs: HIV/AIDS groups are concerned that as Black HIV/AIDS numbers grow, little attention is being given the deadly disease from the folks who want to run the country. Vital Signs tells you what they say the candidates must do to win their support.

Men’s basketball team could take top spot in Beijing Sunday. The “Redeem Team” could finally live up to its nickname on Sunday. But first, the men’s basketball players representing the United States at the Beijing Olympics will have to take down defending champion Argentina tonight. Argentina beat the USA in the 2004 Olympics semi-finals. If the men win against the South American ballers tonight, they’ll move on to Sunday’s gold-medal match-up. It would be the team’s first gold in international competition since 2000.

Two of Dallas’ pro athletes try their hand at beach volleyball.
Brandon Bass, Adam “Pacman” Jones compete for charity. Dallas Mavericks forward Brandon Bass will team up with recent Dallas Cowboys recruit Adam “Pacman” Jones next month for a celebrity charity event. Bass and Jones will host the First Annual Celebrity Volleyball Beach Battle Sept. 13. Several other Mavericks will also compete in the tournament, which pairs a celebrity with four fans on each team. The cost of all that fun in the sun? A meager $2,500 per team, with proceeds going to the Brandon Bass Reach Back Foundation.

Usain Bolt wins 200-meter semi-final in Beijing Olympics.
Sprinter could take first double since Carl Lewis. World-record-setting 100-meter runner Usain Bolt can become the first to win a double in the 100 and 200 sprints since 1984. Bolt beat out the USA’s Shawn Crawford in Tuesday’s 200-meter semi-final with some observers saying he actually slowed down toward the end. It was enough to beat Crawford, the defending 200 champ, by .03 seconds. Legendary USA Olympian Carl Lewis was the last sprinter to win both the 100 and 200 over 20 years ago. Bolt is favored to repeat Lewis’ feat.

U.S. favorites fall in 400-meter and 100-meter hurdles. United States track and field stars Sanya Richards and Lolo Jones struggled in their respective events and failed to capture medals. Which American athlete benefited from Jones’ mishap? Find out more at BET.com’s Olympics ‘08.

Cleveland’s Edwards still sidelined after sock sprint. NFL wide receiver Braylon Edwards could miss a second pre-season game as he continues recovering from a gash in his foot that he suffered while running in his socks. Edwards hasn’t returned to the Browns line-up since he took stitches for the injury he suffered while racing teammate Donté Stallworth after a recent practice. Stallworth accidentally stepped on Edwards’ foot with his cleats, causing Edwards to spend a night in the hospital. He’ll likely be fully recovered in time for the regular season, says Cleveland’s management.

Sisters snatch gold medal for tennis doubles.

Venus and Serena Williams have proved they’re twice as nice after being eliminated from Olympics singles competition last week. The sisters captured a gold medal in the doubles tournament on Sunday after beating Spain’s Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual 6-2, 6-0. “I’m so excited, I can’t even speak,” Venus says. “To share this kind of moment with your sister, it never grows old.”