Sports news, commentary and rumors.

Do any of you remember the Seinfeld espisode, The Calzone?  In it Kramer paid back someone Jerry owned money to in Pennies!!  It was very funny.  Anyways it seems that Ken Griffey Jr. pulled the same stunt when he paid back some money he owed Cincinnati Reds teammate Josh Fogg, $1,500.

So when Fogg arrived in the Reds clubhouse Wednesday, he found his locker filled with 150,000 pennies. They were packed up in 60 boxes, each weighing around fifteen pounds and containing $25 worth of pennies.

Neither player would say why Griffey owed Fogg the money. Griffey had threatened to pay it off in pennies, but Fogg didn’t believe him. Rumor has it that it is from a beer chugging bet Fogg lost on their last road trip. “I’m going to take them out to the bullpen and count them,” Fogg said. “I’ve got a lot of time on my hands out there.”

Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger agreed to one of the richest contract in Pittsburgh Steelers history on Monday. The eight-year deal is worth $102 million US and includes $36 million in guarantees, placing Roethlisberger among the National Football League’s highest-paid players.

Roethlisberger, 26, would join fellow signal-callers Peyton Manning, Brett Favre, Carson Palmer, Donovan McNabb and the suspended Michael Vick in the $100-million club. An Ohio native, Roethlisberger led the Steelers to a Super Bowl victory two years ago — the youngest quarterback to achieve the feat — and was the 11th overall pick in the 2004 draft. He has started in all four seasons with the team.

Last season, he threw a team-record 32 touchdown passes with only 11 interceptions in leading Pittsburgh to a 10-6 record and an AFC North title, bouncing back from a 2006 season marred by a motorcycle accident and an appendectomy. Roethlisberger’s Pro Bowl season also included a 65 per cent completion rate and a 104.1 efficiency rating.  In my opinion this guy is worth every penny.

O.J. Simpson filed court papers seeking dismissal of half the charges against him, saying prosecutors in Nevada failed to meet legal standards to prosecute him for kidnapping, robbery and conspiracy, his lawyer said.

Grasso filed court papers Thursday claiming prosecutors didn’t meet the evidentiary standards to prosecute the former football star on six of the 12 charges against him.

“They’re charging O.J. with … the specific intent to commit robbery,” Grasso said, citing Nevada law underlying the felony charge of robbery. “He wasn’t stealing from somebody else. He was taking back something that was his.”

Simpson, 60, is accused of leading five other men in the gunpoint robbery of two memorabilia dealers who were peddling collectibles associated with Simpson, including the suit he wore the day he was acquitted in the murders of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman.

Simpson has denied any knowledge of guns being involved in the confrontation. He has said he intended only to retrieve items that had been stolen from him by a former agent.

Grasso said Simpson would fight the other six charges against him at his trial, set to begin April 7. Those counts include burglary, coercion and assault with a deadly weapon.

District Judge Jackie Glass has set a Feb. 21 deadline for prosecutors to respond and a March 7 hearing on motions in the case.  Charles Ehrlich, Clarence Stewart are being tried with Simpson; three former co-defendants have pleaded guilty.  Stewart and Ehrlich have also challenged some of the charges and Ehrlich’s attorneys have asked the judge to separate his trial from Simpson’s.

Simpson, Stewart and Ehrlich are all free on bond after pleading not guilty to all charges.  Basically it sucks to be Simpson!