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Last month we asked you to weigh in on a court case, and vote on whether cheerleading should be considered a sport. Nearly two-thirds — 64% — said no way, and today a federal judge in Connecticut agreed with you.U.S. District Judge Stefan Underhill says competitive cheerleading is too underdeveloped to be considered a sport. At issue was whether cheerleading could be used to meet Title IX gender-equity requirements.

The NCAA does not recognize competitive cheerleading as a varsity sport, but four Division-I schools fund and treat it as such: Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn., Oregon, Maryland and Baylor.

The Connecticut ruling stems from a lawsuit filed by volleyball players at Quinnipiac, after their sport was replaced by a competitive cheerleading squad.

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There was some hubbub about a call being botched and that the refs do not have to explain the penalties in any meaningful way.  The penalties in soccer seem pretty similar to football in that they could be called on every play.  Dunno, don’t much care.

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I’m not a golf fan, but I would like to see Tiger come back and kick the living hell out of everyone else on the course.

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NOME, Alaska (AP) — Lance Mackey won the 1,100-mile Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race on Tuesday to become the first musher in the event’s 38-year history to win four consecutive races.

Fans bundled up against subzero temperatures cheered the 39-year-old throat cancer survivor as his team coasted up the main street of this old Gold Rush town. For winning, Mackey gets a new Dodge truck and $50,400. He finished the race in eight days, 23 hours and 59 minutes — the second-fastest finish in race history.

“These are my heroes right here,” Mackey said seconds after crossing the finish line as he was giving his 11 dogs a pat on their heads and a kiss. He then planted a kiss on his new red truck and later posed with two of his lead dogs, Maple and Rev, who wore garlands made of yellow roses.

“Good job Lance!” a fan shouted, to more cheers.

Mackey said his relationship with his team is more rewarding than winning another truck.

“They might not be the fastest team in this race but I think they have the biggest hearts,” he said.

The Iditarod kicked off March 6 with a ceremonial start in Anchorage. That was followed by the competitive start the following day in Willow when 71 teams took to the Iditarod trail and headed to Nome.

This year’s purse was significantly less than last year when Mackey took home a truck and $69,000. The total purse is $590,000 — down from a high of $925,000 in 2008. Iditarod officials said the struggling economy caused some sponsors to pull their support for the race.

Much of the race again this year was a duel between Mackey — whose father Dick and brother Rick are past winners — and another mushing royal, four-time champion Jeff King of Denali Park. King has said this will be his last Iditarod.

Mackey said that over the years, he’s been willing to gamble and did so again this year with a “monster run” that started in Nulato. After a 42-mile run to Kaltag, King stopped but Mackey, known for his ability to run his dogs long distances with little rest, pushed on another 90 miles to Unalakleet on Alaska’s west coast, taking a lead he never relinquished.

“It worked. I capitalized on that hour, hour-and-a-half lead,” Mackey said.

King cut his rest in Unalakleet, but Mackey widened the lead after that.

Ten-year-old Abby Ardoin of Friendswood, Texas, was among hundreds of local and faraway fans at the finish line. She’s been obsessed with the Iditarod half her life and finally talked her dad, Richard Ardoin, into flying to Nome to catch the winner coming in. Seconds after Mackey stopped to greet her, the girl said she was more than excited.

“It’s more better than I’d ever dreamed,” she said.

In the final stretch of the race, Hans Gatt of Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, chased Mackey hard, pushing ahead of King in Elim on Monday. The 51-year-old musher is a four-time winner of the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race, earning a record finish in February.

On Tuesday, Gatt arrived with 11 dogs a little more than an hour after Mackey to place second, finishing in nine days, one hour and four minutes. That’s the Iditarod’s fourth-fastest finish ever.

King, 54, was third, completing the race in nine days, two hours and 22 minutes. His last Iditarod win was in 2006, before he relinquished the crown to Mackey.

Mackey greeted both of his rivals at the finish line.

This year’s Iditarod was marked by bitter cold that plunged to 30 below, further chilled by powerful winds in sections of the trail. Mackey, whose cancer treatments left him with circulation problems, complained the cold was affecting his hands and feet.

Ken Anderson was the fourth musher into Nome, arriving Tuesday night with a time of nine days, six hours and 25 minutes.

As of Tuesday evening, 15 mushers had scratched from the race.

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(CNN) — Wrestler Edward Fatu, better known as the hulking, tattooed WWE superstar “Umaga,” died Friday of a heart attack in a Houston, Texas, hospital, a family friend said.

Born in American Samoa, Fatu, 36, was a member of the famous Anoa’i wrestling family, which includes cousin Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, his two uncles, who wrestled as The Wild Samoans in the 1980s, and brothers, Sam “Tonga Kid” and Solofa Jr. “Rikishi,” according to Wrestlers Rescue, a support group for retired professional wrestlers.

The two-time WWE Intercontinental champion, also known as “The Samoan Bulldozer,” squared off with the likes of Triple H, The Game and Ric Flair before the WWE terminated in contract in June for having violated the WWE’s Wellness Program and refusing to enter rehab, the WWE said on its site.

The organization offered its condolences to his family in a brief statement on its site.

To friends and family, Fatu was a devoted father who was looking forward to spending more time with his children after leaving the WWE.

“He had his demons, but he found a lot of strength in his family,” said Dawn Marie Psaltis, family friend and founder of Wrestlers Rescue. “He was always a jokester, he was always playing a practical joke on someone. He comes from a long line of professional wrestlers and did his family proud.”

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I’ve heard rumors the fighters will be looking at banking more than 40million each for this bout.  I wonder what they actually take home personally after their assorted posse is paid.  It’s being promoted by Golden Boy Promotions.

I’ll throw down to buy this thing, hopefully a buddy somewhere with digital cable or whatever is interested.

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I don’t understand why these guys get married in the first place.  Women are going to be throwing themselves at them, they make an ungodly amount of money so it’s not like they need someone to “help” with living expenses.  They can hire people to take care of their daily business.  I just don’t get the mentality.  If, for whatever reason, they do get married…it should totally be with the understanding that “baby, there are going to be others…live with it or move on”.  If I was on track to be a top notch athlete, I would have looked into cryogenically preserving some of myself if I felt the need to reproduce…then going under the knife so I didn’t have to worry about knocking up some hot chic lookin for a pay day.

Here is (hopefully) the voice mail that has Tiger in more hot water.  I’m not sure if the video will show up in the RSS feed.

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Former wrestler Hulk Hogan is heading back to the sport – he has signed a contract with Total Nonstop Action (TNA).

The former WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) champion has swapped sides by heading to rival wrestling firm TNA and will make his TV debut for the company on Thursday night (29Oct09). Hogan, who hasn’t wrestled professionally since 2006, admits he is delighted to be returning to the sport and has thanked his fans for sticking by him.

He says in a statement, “I’m thrilled to be jumping back into the world of professional wrestling. My fans have been asking me to return to the business for many years on a full time basis, but the timing or the opportunity has never been right until now. TNA Wrestling is a great company with an already excellent fan base, business and broadcast partner. I firmly believe now is the time for some change at TNA as they are positioned to jump to the next level in their development and I’m here to help make that a reality.”

This year (09) marks the 25th anniversary of Hogan’s triumph as World Wrestling Federation champion in 1984. (LR/WNV&PR/ZN)

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As reported yesterday, Piper was recently forced to pull out of several scheduled appearances. In a sad update on the situation, there are reports that Piper’s Hodgkin’s lymphoma cancer has returned and the outlook is not good. Piper, 55, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma back in November 2006 after doctors found a cancerous tumor on a disc in his spine. Piper credited WWE for saving his life, as a WWE physical exam is what led to the cancer being discovered in the first place. Back pains forced Piper to leave WWE’s tour of Europe and return to North America in order to undergo surgery. In the weeks that followed, he spent the majority of his time in a local hospital, undergoing extensive radiation treatment in hopes of killing the cancer that had invaded his body. Piper was doing better for a while and the cancer went into remission.

Virtually everybody knows somebody who has been affected by the evil disease. Please keep Roddy Piper in your prayers as he faces the toughest battle of his life.

UPDATE: A source close to Rowdy Roddy Piper has stated that Piper’s condition is not as bad as previous reports indicated and that his diagnosis is NOT terminal. A statement from Piper’s camp is expected shortly.

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