FanHouse DickButkus

It's no secret the professional sports leagues have their hands full in terms of keeping the game clean from performance-enhancing drugs. You have testing, player suspensions, breaking scandals and staying ahead of the curve with technology.

NFL Hall of Famer Dick Butkus, the legendary middle linebacker of the Bears who preceded Mike Singletary and Brian Urlacher up the middle in the Windy City, is attacking the problem at its root: adolescents. Butkus and his son, Matt, are teaming with Old Spice and Sports Nutrition Brand EAS to continue promoting "I Play Clean." The goal is to spread the word to every single high school athlete and ensure each one of them knows the pitfalls of steroid use and abuse.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, I guess. Earlier this week, New England welcomed back an old friend in linebacker Rosevelt Colvin, presumably to help fill the void left by outside linebackers Adalius Thomas and Pierre Woods who have been lost to injury. Thomas, if you'll recall, suffered a broken arm a few weeks ago, while Woods had an early exit from Sunday's game against Pittsburgh.

Still feeling like they're shorthanded at the linebacker position, the Patriots have another old friend (emphasis on old) in Foxborough today, as soon-to-be-40-year old Junior Seau is in the house, possibly to sign a deal to suit back up for New England. Awesome. I guess Jack Lambert or Dick Butkus weren't available?

From Christopher L. Gasper of the Boston Globe:

"I don't think the contract will be an issue," said Demoff. "If Junior is there and nothing is different from what they thought last night, I would suspect they'd do a contract, and he'd be a Patriot tomorrow. I don't think any promises were made to Junior or by Junior to them before he got on the plane."

Earlier in the evening, Mike Reiss reported that Seau was only interested in playing for New England this season to "finish what we didn't finish last year." That's all well and good, but he's going to be 40! If nothing else, the Patriots are at least well on their way to reassembling the oldest linebacker unit ever.

Former New York Jets/Tampa Bay Buccaneers/Dallas Cowboys/Carolina Panthers wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson has found himself a new job, but it's not catching passes in NFL stadiums on Sunday afternoons. A new analyst job? No. Coaching? Of course not. Actually, he's going to be the star of a new reality show on A & E where he begins a quest to become, of all things, an interior designer.

Raise your hand if you saw that coming. The St. Petersburg Times has some info, as well as the official press release. Here is part of the release:

"Keyshawn Johnson: Tackling Design" will follow the day-to-day drama facing former NFL pro and current ESPN analyst Keyshawn Johnson as he embarks on a very different career path: interior designer. "Sports fans are aware of Keyshawn's formidable skills on the field, but will be completely surprised by his talent as a designer. The fact that he is really trying to get his interior design business off the ground perfectly fits with our real life brand where we capture the real lives of extraordinary people," said Robert Sharenow, Senior Vice President, Nonfiction and Alternative Programming, A&E.

Dick Butkus, former NFL linebacker/actor/high school football coach, was recently asked on Mouthpiece Sports what he thought of suspended Dallas Cowboys cornerback Adam Jones. Actually, he was asked "how much of an idiot is Pacman Jones?" Well, Mr. Butkus, how much of an idiot is Pacman Jones?



Yeah. He's an idiot. Butkus clearly didn't hold back, and made it known that he's "pissed off" when people, like Jones, "jeopardize the good name of football."

(Via Deuce of Davenport)

On Wednesday, Troy Polamalu let it be known that he wasn't happy. He doesn't like the fines on his teammate Hines Ward, he isn't a fan of the new rules that make the NFL a "pansy game," and he sure isn't thrilled the NFL is more concerned with making money than with the player's safety.

As you can imagine, the statements made by the Steelers safety raised some heads at the corporate office, including Roger Goodell. The NFL commissioner said in an interview yesterday that while he appreciates Polamalu as a player, he doesn't agree with any of the accusations about money being a bigger player in decision-making than player safety.

"I have a great deal of respect for him as a player, and obviously he has a right to his own views," Goodell said Thursday during an interview on WBAL-AM. "But to say that this is about money and not the health of our players, I think is extremely disappointing when we spend as much time as we do with active players, reviewing our rules, reviewing techniques and making sure we make the game is as safe as possible."