Odds & Ends

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When Lane Kiffin suddenly quit as the University of Tennessee's football coach and headed to USC, Volunteer football fans took to burning T-shirts related to the departing coach. However, local apparel store co-owner Dan Burks had a better idea. He offered customers who brought in one of the "It's Time" T-shirts a 20 percent discount off the purchase of a new shirt, and then shipped the old shirts to earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

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During a pre-draft interview, Miami Dolphins GM Jeff Ireland wanted to learn more about the mother of wide receiver prospect Dez Bryant. Bryant's mother had a troubled past, including a jail sentence for drug trafficking. But when reports surfaced that Ireland bluntly asked Bryant if his mother was a prostitute, some people thought he went too far. Ireland later apologized.

Hyundai pulled a World Cup-themed TV ad after an outcry from Catholic advocates who called the spot sacrilegious and offensive. The 30-second "Wedding" spot featured a church in Argentina that worships soccer. The commercial depicted a church service with religiously charged imagery, including a soccer ball with a crown of thorns and worshipers kneeling as they received pizza for communion.

Heading into the Super Bowl, a planned advertisement for Focus on the Family featuring quarterback Tim Tebow and his mother drew plenty of debate over whether the pro-life ad was appropriate for the big game. The ad, however, proved to be anticlimactic and the hubbub quickly subsided.

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Speedway Motorsports Chairman and CEO Bruton Smith said investing in Motorsports Authentics was "the worst decision that I have ever made in my business life." Smith: "I refused to do it for five years and finally got talked into it and should have never done it. ... It was a sorry-run company and the due diligence was not done properly and the company had a lot of crap out there."

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Major League Baseball banned Tampa Bay Rays manager Joe Maddon from wearing a hoodie during games, citing rules that instruct all coaches to wear official team jackets or Majestic brand tops. But the league later "reinterpreted" its decision as cooler heads prevailed.

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Unusual advertisement art appeared on the west side of Wrigley Field, meant to resemble a large, yellow, elbow macaroni noodle. The ad, with the slogan "You know you love it" written across it, advertised Kraft's macaroni-and-cheese dinners. Cubs fans howled at a new Toyota sign that was installed inside the ballpark in the left-field bleachers, but they must like their mac and cheese, as little was heard about the noodle.

Head & Shoulders took out a $1 million Lloyd's of London insurance policy on Pittsburgh Steelers safety Troy Polamalu's hair.

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Venus Williams wore a lacy, black dress with bright red trim during her opening-round French Open match, and the black overlay material made the dress appear as if it were see-through. Critics panned the outfit, saying it made Williams look like she was auditioning for a spot at a 19th century cabaret.

Hublot, the official watch of Formula One, used the battered face of F1 Chairman Bernie Ecclestone in a print ad that ran in the Financial Times. Ecclestone provided Hublot with an image of his face following his mugging in November outside F1 offices in London, during which his watch was stolen. The ad featured Ecclestone with a black eye and scratched face with the tag line, "See what people will do for a Hublot."