Connell (Wash.) High’s Cole Vanderbilt was a relative unknown in the basketball world, but all that changed two days ago, when a viral YouTube video turned him into one of the most hated players in Washington.

The sexual harassment allegations being made against Herman Cain, exposes a peculiar phenomenon also present in the scandal that has forced Penn State Icon, Joe Paterno to retire. Although both of these men are being accused of despicable behavior, people have rallied to their sides as if they are unfortunate victims.

The revelation that Paterno, an icon in the sport of college football, had knowledge that his former coaching assistant, Jerry Sandusky, was sexually abusing boys should have been devastating to the students at Penn State. These students should have been shocked that their hero did not call police when he learned that a coaching assistant was taking sexual advantage of troubled boys enrolled in a sports program. Instead of lamenting the callous act, the students held a pep rally outside the coach’s house.

It was a disgusting display.

This article makes a comparison between this case and the way the Catholic church handles it’s sexual misconduct cases.

Contaminated meat in Mexico led to traces of the banned drug clenbuterol being found in urine samples given by more than 100 players involved in the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in June, the world governing body’s medical chief has revealed. Of the 24 squads involved, 19 – possibly including England’s youth team – had several players showing the presence of clenbuterol but at concentrations lower than the prohibited level.

Positive tests for five players from the senior Mexico squad had alerted FIFA to a possible issue, and when four more positive tests emerged from the youth tournament the governing body decided to reanalyse all the 208 urine samples taken.

A laboratory in Cologne discovered the presence of the steroid in 109 of those samples – 52.4% – but most in concentrations lower than the banned level so they had not been reported. Clenbuterol is banned in farming in most countries but is used to speed up growth and increase muscle mass in cattle…

FIFA ordered meat samples to be collected from team hotels and 30% of these showed the presence of clenbuterol.

The Mexican government have made a number of arrests and closed down several slaughterhouses in recent weeks after being alerted to the issue, according to Mikel Arriola, an official from Mexico’s health ministry.

Mexico’s victorious under-17 team did not have a single adverse finding; after the positive tests for the senior players they were only allowed to eat fish and vegetables.

NSS.

It was close for a few minutes, and then “Jaws” pulled away. Joey Chestnut ate 62 hot dogs Monday to capture his fifth title in a row in Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest.

“Winning tastes pretty good. I feel great,” Chestnut said. “It was hot out here but that didn’t really affect me.”

After an event in Washington, D.C., in a day or so, the 27-year-old Chestnut will head back to his normal life as a construction engineer in San Jose, Calif.

“My girlfriend didn’t even make the trip out here to Coney Island,” Chestnut said. “She just told me to come back in one piece.”

It’s really not much of a contest anymore, as Chestnut has dominated the past five years. Patrick “Deep Dish” Bertoletti finished second with 53, while Tim Janus finished with 45.

But what of past dog chomper champ, Takeru Kobayashi?

My bet for the big winner is the Fox network as they rake in $5-6 mil per minute for the ads.

Found by Al Stem via Mr. Kevin

Next up: Some athletes have taken steroids. Strange, but true!

Researchers have measured the actual blood alcohol level of fans leaving professional football and baseball games. And they found that eight percent of all the spectators willing to take the breathalyzer exam were over the legal limit for driving. The work appears in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research. [Darin Erickson et al., "Can We Assess Blood Alcohol Levels of Attendees Leaving Professional Sporting Events?"]

The investigators managed to get breath samples from 362 fans exiting 13 different baseball games and three football games. Forty percent registered some level of alcohol on the meters. Fans under the age of 35 were nine times more likely to be over the limit than older fans. And tailgaters were 14 times more likely than other fans to be over the limit.