Vikings head coach Brad Childress released a statement on Monday night making official that news that the team is going to release receiver Randy Moss.

Read the complete story here.

It looks like the Randy Moss sweepstakes will be entering round two—the Minnesota Vikings have released their mercurial wide receiver, which means that every last team in the NFL is suddenly very critical of its existing wide receiver options.

Read the complete story here.

Randy Moss was drafted by the Vikings in the first round of the 1998 NFL Draft. He played college football at Marshall University. Vikings head coach Brad Childress told Vikings players in a team meeting that Moss was going to be waived by the team, one day after he criticized Childress and teammates in a press conference following the Vikings’ loss to the Patriots at Gillette Stadium.More here.

Popularity: 12% [?]

It has been reported that Michael Oher and his teammate Tom Zbikowski have been fined $5,000 each.

According to the Baltimore sun, Oher was flagged for a personal foul when he took a right-handed swipe at Smith during the Ravens’ 24-17 win.

Michael Oher is an offensive tackle for the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League. He was drafted by the Ravens in the first round of the 2009 NFL Draft. He played college football at the University of Mississippi for the Ole Miss Rebels. His life through his first year of college is one of the subjects of Michael Lewis’s 2006 book, The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game and the subject of the 2009 film The Blind Side.

The Blind Side: Evolution of a Game is a book by Michael Lewis released in 2006 about American football.

It features two dominant story lines. The first is an examination of how offensive football strategy has evolved over the past three decades in large part due to Lawrence Taylor’s arrival in the 1980s and how this evolution has placed an increased importance on the role of the left tackle.

The second storyline features Michael Oher. Lewis follows Oher from his impoverished upbringings through his years at Briarcrest Christian School, his adoption by Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy and on to his position as one of the most highly coveted prospects in college football.

Popularity: 15% [?]

Even as the Liverpool fans had been celebrating a double success after signing England star Joe Cole and convincing Kop skipper Steven Gerrard to stay at Anfield, the new manager’s shock confession has them in disarray. With Roy Hodgson conceding defeat in his efforts to convince Torres to stay at Anfield, it is time the Reds prepared for the new season without their talismanic striker.

“Unfortunately, I cannot do much more,” admitted Hodgson. “His beef is with the club and not me.”

To compound Hodgson’s problems, 26-year -old Argentinean midfielder Javier Mascherano also plans to make a move to Inter Milan.

Liverpool finished seventh in the league last season and even with a new no. 10 in Cole and the talented Milan Jovanovic they lack the class of Liverpool’s Spanish legend and things look bleaker than ever for the Reds. Also now that it is so late in the transfer season, the club is unlikely to attract any other quality striker if Torres leaves. Ngog, if he remains at Anfield, is not a player of utmost standards. Ryan Babel too, is not sure about going ahead with Liverpool. Babel can be a good support for Torres but not a leading striker.

Meanwhile Chelsea look to launch an official bid for the £60million-rated Liverpool no. 9.

What will Torres decide? Will Liverpool claim any silverware this season? What us in store for the Reds?

The wise have said: patience is a virtue, so behold it and watch closely, the transfer window closes soon!

Popularity: 10% [?]

Amitabh Bachchan, the super star with the golden touch has now been roped in to endorse the sports channel ESPN for the upcoming T20 Champions League Tournament being held in Sri Lanka in September.
The multi-talented actor is known to be a crowd puller and hence highly sought after by advertising firms for endorsing products. The actor has in past endorsed several products including pens, cars, clothing, electronics, cosmetics and several health products. The star who has been a household name for decades now is often the first choice for public awareness campaigns like polio and AIDS .

This is the first time the actor will be promoting a sporting event. The 67 year old was very pleased after completing the promotional shoot for the same and wrote on his blog “Thankfully it has all gone off well and I have just completed the dub for what we shot in the morning. But the rush and the speed with which it all had to be done was some kind of a marvel,”

ESPN must have spent a hefty sum to rope in The Big B himself for promoting the T20 series, but for a nation which is so crazy over cricket, we guess ESPN would have anyways got their viewers for the cricket series, irrespective of Big B. Maybe the promo will make the role of the super star more clear in it, so hers’ looking forward to another of Amitabh Bachchan’s advertisement.

Popularity: 1% [?]

It doesn’t seem to be the year of French footballers. Firstly France was widely criticised for the manner in which they qualified for the 2010 Football World Cup, one of their players allegedly handled the ball to set up a goal against Ireland in the qualifying match; then the put up a disgraceful performance in the World Cup and did not advance past the first round, needless to say they even went on a training session strike during the World Cup to revolt against their ‘incompetent coach’ and now two of its biggest stars face a term in prison.

French midfielder Franck Ribery and Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema have been charged with paying for sex with an underage girl. Prostitution is legal in France, but the sex workers must be over 18 years old, and apparently clients are liable if they are not.

Another embarrassing factor for French Football is that despite France’s Health and Sports Minister Roselyne Bachelot statement that any player under judicial investigation should not represent France, Ribery was made part of the World Cup team even though investigations in this case had begun way back in April. In fact the police postponed the hearing until after the World Cup.

This case sprung up some three months back when the French police questioned a Zahia Dehar, one of 18 girls caught during a police raid on the Café Zaman, a nightclub on the Champs Elysee this April. Miss Dehar told the officers that she had sex with players from the French Football team. She claimed she met Benzema at a nightclub and he bought her services and that Ribery flew her to a hotel in Germany for a night as a birthday present to himself.

Now while Ribery has been charged with soliciting an underage prostitute for sex and faces up to three years in prison and a € 45,000 fine, Benzema is still to be charged for the same by the police officers.

Ribery, who is one of the most popular figures in French Football, had already spoiled his image in the public eye with his doings at the World Cup and now with these charges he may have just added uncertainty to his career’s future. His only saving grace is that he still has his wife supporting him, but we wonder till how long she will too put up a brave front to his infidelity.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Money is everything. Some feel its even better than sex. Well, the sensational Golfer Tiger Woods just seems to proving this right. He remains the world’s top earner in sport for the seventh successive year with £59.6m ($90.5m) despite a 10% reduction in his income. Woods had $20.5 million in winnings and $70 million in endorsement income to top SI.com’s “Fortunate 50” list. The American claims the top spot ahead of fellow golfer Phil Mickelson on £40.6m ($61.7m).

The last one year has indeed been tough for Woods as he has been hit with allegations of having extramarital affairs with many women. His relationship with his wife has also been deteriorating and his onfield performance has also been disappointing. Endorsers such as Accenture Plc, AT&T Inc., Procter & Gamble Co.’s Gillette razors and PepsiCo Inc.’s Gatorade ended their relationships with Woods, who took almost five months off from golf. But despite all this, Woods managed to hold on to the number one spot.

Meanwhile, talking about other sports, Tennis star Roger Federer heads the international list on £40.7m ($61.8m). Lionel Messi is the top footballer followed by David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo ,while five-weight world boxing champion Manny Pacquiao is next on the list with £25m ($38m).

The poll also reports that the average earnings of all the players has also reached an all time high. Thus we see clearly that, although, athletes have been hit been hit with many scandals and contract hideouts but still they have managed to keep their pockets full tight.

Popularity: 15% [?]

The findings of a Harris Interactive poll released Tuesday show Lakers guard Kobe Bryant tied along with golfer Tiger Woods as the favorite American Sports star. Woods had held the position alone since 2006, but the Los Angeles Lakers guard moved up from fourth last year to grab a share of the top spot.

The poll results reveal more about the fickle nature of sports fans than it really shows about the player himself. On one hand we see that Woods dropped in popularity after reports surfaced about numerous affairs preceding his struggles on the course and on the other hand Bryant jumped from four to a first-place tie after winning his fifth NBA title.

Bryant’s image had taken a beating for several instances like the Colorado incident in July 2003 where he was charged with sexual assault, his tension with Shaquille O’Neal and the perception that he couldn’t lead a team. However since then, the Lakers have appeared in the last three NBA Finals and have won the last two. Even though questions were raised about Bryant’s game due to his age and injuries, the poll results clearly shows that winning cures all ills.

Meanwhile, the poll results showed Yankees captain Derek Jeter was third followed by Brett Favre and Peyton Manning. For Woods, it was another moment of disappointment as he has to now share his No 1 spot with Bryant.

Popularity: 4% [?]

This might indeed seem like blessing in disguise for the Indian bowlers who managed quite little on the opening day of the first Test, against Sri Lanka, in Galle, on Sunday.

Tharanga Paranavitana, who hit is maiden century on Saturday said that there was nothing wrong with the Indian bowlers, and it was the pitch, which was favourable to the batsmen, that helped the Sri Lankans.

Tharanga was quite relieved and pleased with his effort. He was quoted as saying, “I am extremely happy to get a maiden hundred because, prior to this innings, I had got five fifties, but was unable to convert them into a hundred. I am quite happy that I scored a hundred in Sri Lanka than in India. The advice from some of the senior players has also helped me”.

Mean while the 1^st test started on quite a disastrous note for the Indians. Both Thiranga and Sangakkara hit tons as Srilanka reached 256/2 in 68 overs. The play was stopped early due to a torrential downpour. The Indian bowling department surely missed the services of experienced campaigners like Zaheer Khan, S Sreesanth etc as the Srilankan batsmen continued to hit all around the park.

The first day may not have been in the favour of the Indians but lets hope they pull up their socks and put up a spirited performance in the remaining four days of the test match.

Popularity: 5% [?]

For those who thought football is dead in India, for those who thought Paul the Octopus would faint when asked about when India would qualify for the World Cup, there is a small hope that their views might not be so universally true! The India Under-16 side narrowly lost out to Russia 3-2 in the semi-finals of the Coca Cola International U-16 Football Tournament held in Pretoria, South Africa. The Indian boys had thrashed Egypt on their way to the semi-finals but lost out in a close game versus the Russians, in a game where they had taken the lead in the first half!

World’s leading sports goods manufacturer Nike has been conducting a campaign ‘Write The Future’. Their aim is to hunt for talented individuals in the age group of 16-18 years. Avvay Gujral, finished 5th in this talent hunt amongst participants from throughout the world. With that, he won a chance to train with the world famous Belgian club Anderlecht .Daman Dutta also stood 16^th. His new training destination for 2 weeks is Liverpool FC in England!

Avvay hails from Gurgaon and has also worn Indian colours at the under 16 level . Daman, who hails from Bengal played his club football in Delhi for Youngmen FC in DSA. He also represented Delhi state in the BC Roy U-19 National Championships in Kolkata.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Suspended Indian Premier League (IPL) commissioner, Lalit Modi, did not appear before the BCCI disciplinary committee on Monday. And can you guess the reasons why? Lalit Modi has informed his lawyers that the reason why he could not arrive was because he had received threats from the Underworld. This sensational revelation has brought one element which was missing from this great drama to the fore- The Underworld!

“When the disciplinary committee members asked Modi’s lawyer about his whereabouts, the members were told he is not in India because there is a threat to his life from the underworld,” a top BCCI official claimed. This claim of Modi has come at time when the Enforcement Directorate is finally arriving at the fag end of the probe on the controversial cricket administrator.

“We have considered submissions of Mr Dhond and are of the view that his pleas have substantial merit in them. There are complex issues relating to interpretation of documents involved. One of us (Jaitley) has a legal background…..In view of the complex nature of certain issues involved, interpretation of documents required, and additionally that one of us on the committee has a legal background, we feel that it would be just and fair that Mr Modi be allowed to be represented through a lawyer in the enquiry,” the disciplinary committee stated in its minutes.

The IPL –gate has taken Indian Cricketing world by storm, and all we can say is that “It is not cricket.”

Popularity: 1% [?]