There are quite a few athletes that might want to read that article, so pass it around if you are friends with some of them. And I’m not talking about Donovan McNabb because I think his “choking” is much overrated.

The Associate Press is reporting

Pro golfer Jim Thorpe has been charged with failing to pay $1.6 million in federal taxes, which is the main reason the government is behind schedule on the stimulus plan.

The charges filed Wednesday in federal court in Orlando accuse Thorpe of failing to pay taxes on income he earned in 2002, 2003, and 2004.

PHOTO CAPTION: Look to the left of his shoulder, that’s his tee.

The charges allege that rather than pay his tax liabilities, Thorpe spent about $2 million on the construction of a new home and another $61,000 on a new vehicle.

The golfer’s attorney says his client plans to plead not guilty. The attorney says Thorpe didn’t willfully intend to violate the law.  Very similar to how Ugueth Urbina didn’t willfully intend to attack five workers with machetes and pour gasoline on them in an attempt to set them on fire in Venezuela back in October, 2005.

We’re working hard in the OTR newsroom to collect relevant sports information that you may or may not care about. Or flat-out don’t care about, but still think it’s funny to hear rude/obnoxious commentary on the world of sports. Trust us, we are a reputable news gathering organization as far as you know. Just check out the awards we’ve won.

Photo Caption: “Jim, stop being a dick. You know what time it is in Moscow. That joke stopped being funny a long time ago.”

So, try us out for 3-5 years just to see what we’re about. We think you’ll agree that OTR is one of the best half-assed, at-times-credible sports sites anywhere on the entire internet (east coast only, and only down to Virginia).

Bookmark us today and never feel out of the sportsworld loop for the rest of your life!

It’s not known at this time what his reason was, but it’s because of a bum knee.

The Buick Invitational is set to take place at Torey Pines GC, the same place where Mediate almost upset Woods (his first name is unavailable at this time) at the U.S. Open last year.

The move will not affect his relationship with NBC, where he has worked since 1980.

“No, we don’t have a problem,” NBC spokesman Brian Walker said.

Costas hosted the first-ever program on MLB Network, while HBO demanded cable exclusivity.

“Bob Costas was a terrific addition when he joined HBO Sports eight years ago, providing us with a distinct and unique presence,” HBO Sports president Ross Greenburg said. “Television is about change, and we respect Bob’s decision to move to the MLB Network.”

Coedmagazine.com has a list of 10 professional athletes who are on Twitter. I’ve listed them here and you can click on their names to follow them:

-Giants QB Eli Manning (does he slur and lisp when he Tweets?)

-Snowboarder Shaun White

-NY Jets safety Kerry Rhodes

-Skateboarder Mike Vallely (who? Ok, if you say so)

-Phoenix Suns center Shaquille O’Neal

-Golfer Natalie Gulbis (mmmmmm…I’m not into celebs, but I’d follow her wherever. She’s got huuuge Tweets)

-Former 49er WR Jerry Rice

-Overexposed Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps

-Tennis player Andy Murray

-Bicyclist Lance Armstrong

We’d rather just shut it down than to run a boring, poorly updated blog, which is what OTR is starting to become.

We can’t thank all of our readers enough. You guys have all been great and we had a ton of fun playing with everyone. Maybe we’ll do it again some day. We could have just let the blog die slowly and not update it, but that’s not fair to anyone. We thought we would give OTR a proper burial by at least letting everyone know that we are calling it quits.

Memorial services will be held Sunday, December 21st at 2 PM at the Lodi, NJ YMCA.

You can send thoughts and regards to MPerry_77@hotmail.com and MicahW@feverpitchmedia.com.

Happy Holidays to all of those in OTR land!!

John Daly drank so much at a North Carolina Hooters that the cops had to be called and they put him in a 24-hour sober tank.

It might be too early to tell, but we’re beginning to think that Daly may have an issue with the bottle.

At 61 years old, OJ is probably never going to see the light of day. A kidnapping charge brings up to five years, while an armed robbery charge is 2-30 years. Expect the judge to max out his sentence since he, you know, already got away with murder once.

Before becoming a murderer, OJ Simpson played football.

Pavlovic: Spend it all on Yankees t-shirts and life vests, not knowing that he could have just bought the team and a night out with Derek Jeter. He could have overspent even more for marginal players.

Neetzi: Wedding ring with Shane Victorino’s face on it. His real face. We said billion not million.

Perry: He would buy out Early Times whiskey and be set for Eagles tailgates for life.

Chad: Use the money to campaign Congress heavily to legalize marijuana.

IceYde: Would use it to buy a house where Bastian Schweinsteiger and his entire family could all live together. Schweinsteiger’s family, not IceYde’s. It’s expensive to fly them all in. He would buy Bayern-Munich with the leftover money.

Bohn: Would donate it all to NC State athletics and they would still be mediocre.

So tell us: What would Andy Reid spend it on? Steinbrenner? (give it all to A Rod?) Belichick (better video cameras?)?

Padraig was at 15/1 and we had some Perry dollars thrown his way. Let’s look at the results.

Marky Mark put $100 on Harrington for a payout of $1,500 Perry Dollars.
John Rocker put $50 on Harrington for a payout of $750 Perry Dollars.

This is also our current leaderboard.

The Open starts in 13 hours, so hurry and place those bets.

NBA: $584,570,587 (Highest-earning, Lebron James $40,455,000)
MLB: $210,650,000 (Highest-earning, Alex Rodriguez $35,000,000)
PGA: $206,029,437 (Highest-earning, Tiger Woods $127,902,706)
NFL: $143,775,069 (Highest-earning, Peyton Manning $30,500,000)
NASCAR: $71,812,577 (Highest-earning, Dale Earnhardt Jr $27,221,970)
Boxing: $40,250,000 (Highest-earning, Floyd Mayweather Jr $40,250,000)

Wow, the NBA likes to rock the party?

So, that’s about it. Wanna talk about something else? Howa bout we come up with a new nickname for Philadelphia Phillie Pat Burrell? Maybe, The Ultimate Package of Glory? TUP-G for short?

If anyone wants a long, extensive article on the U.S. Open there are other sites and blogs for that. Golf, while fun to play, puts me to sleep.

If you watch ESPN long enough, Mike Myers and Justin Timberlake will give you their insight.

Perry’s thoughts: It definitely is more exciting than baseball.

Perry’s thought: I guess that was only one thought?

[youtube 6abd6dR7BXM]

PHOTO CAPTION: ‘barry’ was kind enough to forward his school picture from this year.

I spoke to ‘barry’ last night to let him know he was receiving this award and I asked him to tell us a little bit about himself that the readers might not know. Before I could even get out the question ‘barry’ yelled out, “Tomorrow is Monopoly night. Baltic Ave is my favorite.”

With a little snicker I responded, “That’s great, ‘barry,’ that’s great. Tell us more?”

The conversation continued for about ten minutes before he had to finish up his life-sized Simon Birch sculpture for his LEGO contest this weekend. But let me highlight some interesting facts ‘barry’ wanted to share with OTR and you, the readers. His favorite sports team is the Charlotte Sting. He loves the WNBA, because he doesn’t feel dunking should be legal. “It’s too violent,” he said. ‘barry’s’ favorite color is dark orange. And he has a pet turtle named after his favorite person of all-time, ‘Skippy’ from Family Ties, who was played by Marc Price.

Before we ended our conversation I asked ‘barry’ what his favorite comment (or as he likes to say, ‘coment’) was on OTR’s site. He singled out this quote under a Chad Johnson article:

“no coment micah? hummmmm why? because the jimmey rollins”

“Because the jimmey rollins,” I don’t think Micah or myself could have summed it up better. Again, we salute you ‘barry’ as OTR’s Fan Of The Year. Don’t stop commenting. Continue your schooling to get that grammar perfected. And tell your friends that OTR did an article all about you, buddy. You are the best.

OTR Note: ‘barry’ is now commenting as ‘mark.’ I guess he doesn’t realize we can see his posts are coming from the same computer. You will soon see ‘mark’s’ aka ‘barry’s’ comments (same grammatical errors). They are currently in moderation.

[youtube q6HXfA__e14]

“Discoveries in genetics, physiology and nanotechnology are creating new challenges to definitions of cheating. Sports executives including Atlanta Falcons President Rich McKay and former World Anti-Doping Agency chief Dick Pound say a reconsideration of what’s fair may lead to more-invasive testing, rules designed for emerging technologies and even legalizing banned substances if they become so commonplace they confer no advantage.”

End excerpt.

Former World Anti-Doping Agency chief Dick Pound? Are you kidding me? Dick Pound? I need to do more research. His full name is Richard William Duncan Pound. This is even more funny. Let’s say he uses his middle name as Will. Dick Will Pound? Honestly, how do you name your child Dick Pound? I apologize if there are any Dick Pounds that read this blog.

PHOTO CAPTION: Dick Pound shows that he measures up to the competition.

Alright, enough…read the article, it’s pretty good. And while you are on that site, check where the 10 year treasury is at to see if mortgage rates will go up or down tomorrow.

Masters Winners:
None

Current Standings:
Fooks $113.00
215Sports $113.00
Neetz $45.00

Stay tuned for next betting event…

Tiger Woods will not be participating in the event today saying it “distracts from his preparation for the tournament.”

It should be noted that no Par-3 Contest winner has won The Masters in the same year.
Here’s a list of previous winners from the last eight years:

2007 – Mark O’Meara
2006 – Ben Crane
2005 – Jerry Pate
2004 – Padraig Harrington
2003 – Padraig Harrington, David Toms (tie)
2002 – Nick Price
2001 – David Toms
2000 – Chris Perry

Fooks 113
215Sports 113
Neetz 45

Place your bets:

You have one more day to place your bets on The Masters. If Fooks, 215Sports, & Neetz would like to ‘let it ride’ then OTR will let them.