PGA Tour Commissioner
TIM FINCHEM took the Ice Bucket Challenge for ALS awareness “standing in front of TPC Sawgrass’ iconic 17th hole.” Finchem used a “PGA Tour-branded bucket and multiple cameras to shoot the video posted to YouTube.” He also “put his sportcoat back on after dousing himself with chilly water, demonstrating comic timing never before seen by golf fans accustomed to the commish’s ultra-serious press conferences.” Finchem during his challenge called out NBC golf voices
DAN HICKS and
JOHNNY MILLER to participate (
GOLF WORLD MONDAY, 8/18). Meanwhile, Patriots Owner
ROBERT KRAFT helped dump water on singer
JON BON JOVI when he took the challenge (
BOSTON GLOBE, 8/18).
KICK IT UP A NOTCH: In Sacramento, Kasler & Lillis profiled USL Pro club Sacramento Republic FC Owner
WARREN SMITH, noting the first-year team is the “latest achievement for Smith, a serial entrepreneur who left the telecommunications business in his 30s for a career in sports and technology.” Smith was “instrumental in building Raley Field and bringing Triple-A baseball back to the Sacramento region.” He “co-founded a ‘clean tech’ company that recently sold for several million dollars.” Now, he “could be on the verge of bringing his adopted hometown a second major-league sports franchise” (
SACRAMENTO BEE, 8/17).
FAN BOY: NFL Giants DE
ISRAEL IDONIJE has created a comic series called “
THE PROTECTORS” that takes some material out of “tales from the field.” The series “melds sports with graphic novels and gives Idonije an outlet that no other professional athlete has.” The comic is “already making waves in the industry.” Working with writer
RON MARZ and artist
BART SEARS, Athlitacomics -- the publishing house Idonije founded -- “has produced two volumes of his series, with at least three more due out soon.” Athlitacomics is “preparing for a grand launch next spring on multiple platforms that could lift Idonije into a rarefied echelon of comic producers” (
N.Y. TIMES, 8/17).
CHARITY STRIPE: Dodgers LF
CARL CRAWFORD is “paying for the travel, hotel and meals” for the parents of the 13 boys on the all-black Jackie Robinson West Little League Baseball team from Chicago. Crawford is “making a donation directly to the team, so there’s no worry about how some charitable arm will actually use his donation.” Crawford said, “It goes straight to the source right now, and you want to see them play good. Maybe that team can inspire other young black kids” (
LATIMES.com, 8/16)....Patriots coach
BILL BELICHICK "quietly launched a charitable foundation late last year." Now he is "getting out the word about the Bill Belichick Foundation's inaugural 'Hall of Fame Huddle,' to take place Wednesday evening at the Boston Harvor Hotel." Belichick and his family "will award high school seniors scholarships to college, give youth sports organizations a financial boost, and lay the groundwork to hold lacrosse and football clinics for young players." The nonprofit organization "was created in memory of Belichick's late father,
STEVE, who was also a longtime football coach." The foundation's logo "features a silhouette of the headset that Belichick wears when he's standing on the sidelines" (
BOSTON GLOBE, 8/17).
NAMES: Pro Football HOFer JIM BROWN was slapped with a $2M defamation suit on Friday by N.Y.-based auction house Lelands.com and its Chair, JOSH EVANS. The suit accused Brown of "lying to block the sale" of a '64 NFL Championship ring that Brown won with the Browns. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, also accuses Brown of "filing 'false' court affidavits and lying in a lawsuit filed last month by claiming the ring was stolen from him decades ago" (NYPOST.com, 8/15)....Atlanta Motor Speedway on Friday announced that the track's infield media center has been named in memory of late Dir of Marketing & Promotion MARCY SCOTT, who passed away last November after a battle with cancer (AMS)....Former NFLer DONALD DRIVER is "among the seven celebrity judges who will help choose Miss America 2015" (GREENBAYPRESSGAZETTE.com, 8/15)....WNBA Mercury C BRITTNEY GRINER last week announced her engagement to Shock F GLORY JOHNSON on her Instagram account (AZCENTRAL.com, 8/17)....Cavaliers F LEBRON JAMES on Friday announced the name of his unborn daughter will be ZHURI (CLEVELAND.com, 8/15)....Sources said that suspended Yankees 3B ALEX RODRIGUEZ has bought the Hollywood Hills, Calif., home formerly owned by actress MERYL STREEP (N.Y. POST, 8/17)....Actor MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY attended Saturday’s Astros-Red Sox game, sitting in a box near the third-base dugout (BOSTON GLOBE, 8/18).
