by FOXSports.com

Jessica Simpson was greeted by a slew of photographers when she first arrived in Washington D.C. Tuesday. She was jokingly asked if she's waiting for Tony Romo to win a Super Bowl before she agrees to marry him. Simpson (who turns 29 July 10) replied, "He'll win. Tony is playing with Tiger tomorrow. That's all I'm thinking about." Romo recently addressed marriage rumors. There are "none that I can think of," he told Entertainment Tonight. "I'm sure you guys can tell me something new here soon enough, though."-- Us Magazine .....Ben's Take: Romo's best chance to get a ring is to marry Jessica Simpson. I'm a fan of his, but he's been terrible in some big sports for the Cowboys.

Former NBA star faces foreclosure on home

Former NBA star Latrell Sprewell faces yet another foreclosure lawsuit. Sprewell has failed to make mortgage payments since November on a home on E. Hampshire St. in Milwaukee, Harris National Association, formerly Lincoln State Bank, alleges in a lawsuit filed last month in Milwaukee County Circuit Court. The bank wants to foreclose on its $920,000 loan and have the home sold. Sprewell has not responded to the lawsuit. City records describe the property as a 5,200-square-foot, 70-year-old mansion with six bedrooms and four fireplaces. It is assessed at nearly $1.1 million. Sprewell, 38, who five years ago reportedly spurned a three-year, $21 million contract offer as insulting, has amassed a history of financial trouble since his 13-year NBA career ended in 2005. -- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel .....Ben's Take: Sprewell should have said he needed a bigger contract to pay his mortgages, instead of feeding his family.

Phillies World Series hero gets free luxury condo lease?

Real-Estate sources keep telling us that neither Bon Jovi guitarist Richie Sambora nor Phillies hurler Cole Hamels, two of the famous names used to market the Residences at Two Liberty Place, actually purchased their condos. They say instead the pair received free leases in exchange for promoting the luxury high-rise. According to the city's Board of Revision of Taxes, there are no records of Two Liberty condos being sold to Sambora, who has not yet moved into the building, or to Hamels and wife Heidi, who moved into the building in April. -- Philadelphia Daily News .....Ben's Take: Doesn't always seem in America the people that can afford to pay for things (Hamels, Sambora) end up getting it for free.

Nike Debuts Limited Edition Transformers Basketball Shoe Collection

NIKE, Inc. announced a limited edition set of three performance basketball shoes commemorating the worldwide premiere of the Transformers film sequel. The collaboration includes the Nike Zoom Flight Club, Nike Zoom FP and Nike Sharkalaid complete with special packaging, retro graphics and vibrant color combinations. Nike worked closely with Hasbro on this special project.-- Business Wire .....Ben's Take: This sounds like a TERRIBLE idea, who at Nike thought this would be good for business?

Pats QB Tom Brady's wife Gisele Bundchen tucks away tummy

Supermodel mommy-to-be Gisele Bundchen really needs to let that baby bump breathe! Gi, who was out running errands with hubby Patriots QB/QT Tom Brady the other day on the Left Coast, played pregnancy peek-a-boo with the paparazzi as she strategically held her huge handbag over her belly. And that's just so not Hollywood! Anyway, as Gi was taking pains to hide her tiny tummy, her hubby was shielding his strapping son, Jack, 23 months, from the cameras as he exited the FedEx store in Brentwood. -- Boston Herald

Agent: Ron Artest's victim of Twitter imposter

While the Rockets made their pursuit of a center their initial free agent priority, there was a brief, but alarming sign that Ron Artest was ready to move on. It was a false alarm. A message attributed to Artest -- "THANKS A LOT HOUSTON :) I HAD A LOT OF FUN." -- appeared on Twitter late Wednesday. Artest's agent, David Bauman, said that the message was sent by an imposter. "That is not Ron's account," Bauman said. "That's what happens with the so-called new media." -- Houston Chronicle .....Ben's Take: So much for Twitter's verification system. The page in question supposedly had been verified as Ron Artest's by Twitter.

MLB pitcher wants to be called by different name than appears on Websites, on baseball cards

J.A. Happ, delighted the Phillies with a complete-game shutout in his last outing and is 5-0 this season. But increased fame has yielded increased confusion on one subject: What is this guy's name, and how does one pronounce it? Born James Anthony Happ, the 26-year-old lefthander prefers "J.A. Happ" to appear in newspapers, on baseball cards and elsewhere in print. But don't say "J.A" - he wants to be called "Jay." "I understand that there is a contradiction," he said. "I get that. But that's the way it is." But why insist on using the initials? Why not just go by Jay Happ? "I don't like that spelling, J-A-Y," he said. "J.A. Happ. Jay Happ. It's a good baseball name. Whatever. Just don't call me A.J. That's what bothers me." -- Philadelphia Inquirer .....Ben's Take: Happ should make sure that the Phillies spell his name right on those checks. Everything else is gravy.

Vijay Singh offers to pay bail for alleged scam artist Allen Stanford

The real strength of the commercial relationship between Fijian golfer Vijay Singh and shamed Texan banker Allen Stanford emerged last week. Singh, who Stanford sponsored to the tune of US$3 million a year, was one of three people to offer to sign for a portion of the financier's bail last week. Singh would have been liable for US$500,000 if Stanford fled. That was not necessary - indeed, the Fijian was not allowed to help with bail because he is not a US citizen. However, 46-year-old Singh, who was number one in the world for 32 weeks across 2004 and 2005, has continued to wear Stanford's logos on his golfing apparel despite no longer being paid by the Texan. -- SportsPro Media .....Ben's Take: Its good Bernie Madoff didn't sponsor Vijay Singh.

Finchem: No PGA Tour players have been caught doping

PGA commissioner, Tim Finchem, said there has not been a single positive test for performance-enhancing drugs. "There have been no suspensions because of doping," Finchem said. "Again, I'll just say, it's not going to surprise me if we have some issue, but I think what's clear is we do not have a doping problem." -- Washington Post .....Ben's Take: At least none of them got caught. does the PGA test for HgH?

Yanks Derek Jeter enjoys margarita in Atlanta

New York Yankee heartthrob Derek Jeter was also spotted in Whiskey Blue drinking a margarita. Female Yankees fans and Braves fans were both gazing repeatedly in Jeter's direction during his visit. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution .....Ben's Take: Most guys don't go for a margarita, Jeter is a big enough stud he can get away with it.

Boxing promoter Don King plans tribute to Michael Jackson

Boxing promoter Don King promised that his Showtime boxing event July 11 near Fort Lauderdale will include a "huge" tribute to fallen pop star Michael Jackson. And King will be selling two tickets for the price of one to fans who say the words "Michael Jackson." There'll also be a satellite hookup with Jackson family members, King spokesman Robert Weneck said. The celebration will feature the traditional fallen hero's 10-bell salute, a candlelight vigil and a Jumbotron showing of the singer's rendition of I'll Be There. The event will be broadcast live on Showtime from the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise. Joseph "King Kong" Agbeko and Vic "Raging Bull" Darchinyan are vying for the bantamweight IBF title. "Don has been very close to Michael and his family for decades," Weneck said. "Don adores Michael. He is very close to Michael's dad. All those guys always stick together." Ever the showman, King even dreamed up a commercial angle to Jackson's death. "If you mention Michael Jackson's name when you call the BankAtlantic Center or Ticketmaster for tickets, you'll get two for the price of one," Weneck said. -- Palm Beach Post .....Ben's Take: Did you expect Don King to not try and cash in on the death of Michael Jackson?

Tiger Woods invites President Obama, Republican House Minority Leader to play golf

Tiger Woods also will play today with House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, again calling into question Woods' secretive politics. Woods has invited President Obama, a Democrat, to the tournament . -- Philadelphia Daily News .....Ben's Take: Tiger's got so much money, he's gotta be a Republican.

Euro soccer star wins $300k in Vegas

Euro soccer ace FRANK LAMPARD has won a whopping $300,000 on holiday in Las Vegas. The Chelsea star's luck came in one night of playing roulette and blackjack. Lamps -- reported to earn $140,000 a week -- has been staying with pals at the posh Wynn Hotel. A source joked: "This will pay for his trip." -- Sun (U.K.)

Cowboys Tony Romo Sees Nothing Crazy About Life with Jessica

Tony Romo may be under intense pressure as star quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys, but one thing's for sure: His relationship with Jessica Simpson "is not hard." "It's a normal relationship," Romo, smiling and relaxed, told PEOPLE during batting practice at Yankee Stadium as Starter athletic gear chaperone to Ben Brant, a 10-year-old Albany, N.Y., boy diagnosed with leukemia. "There's nothing exotic or crazy about it," Romo, 29, says of Simpson. "We're two people who care about each other, and it's not hard to make it work when both of you want to see the other one. We make each other happy." -- People

A-Rod's nephew Joe Dunand Jr. creating his own baseball legacy

Joe Dunand Jr.'s nickname is Lil' Joe, but you might as well call him Lil' A-Rod. Dunand Jr., a 13-year-old slugger, is A-Rod's nephew. He's also a 5-9, 140-pound spitting image of the Bombers' third baseman. His father, Joe Dunand Sr., is Rodriguez's half-brother. "He looks more like his son than mine," Dunand Sr. said half-jokingly earlier this week as his son took batting practice at Jose Martinez's Baseball Made Simple Academy in the Bronx. A-Rod's nephew has a smooth, powerful swing for a 13-year-old, finishing with the same high follow-through as his uncle. "He's got great aptitude and he's got nice pop in his bat," said Martinez, who tutors some of the area's top young players at his academy. "He picks things up quick and he works hard. Unless you tell him 'stop,' he's going to keep going." Dunand Jr. lives in Miami and usually spends his summers there, but he has been staying at his father's place in the Bronx for the past few weeks to work with Martinez on refining his swing. -- NY Daily News

McEnroe leaves CBS

The younger McEnroe, Patrick, a tennis analyst at CBS Sports since 1996, is leaving the network but will continue as a studio and match analyst for ESPN. He will be replaced by Jim Courier, who signed a multiyear deal. Sandy Montag, McEnroe's agent, said that ESPN's addition of United States Open rights and his dual administrative roles as the United States Davis Cup captain and general manager of player development for the United States Tennis Association took precedence over staying in a "secondary" role at CBS -- NY Times

MLB pitcher battling depression, feared he would hurt himself while struggling

Ian Snell told WTHR-13 he has been battling depression and considered drastic measures about a month ago due to the growing negativity surrounding his struggles in Pittsburgh. He was 2-8 with a 5.36 ERA in 15 starts with the Pirates this year. "Sometimes people do stupid stuff and I had to fight it, not to do something stupid and take my life for myself and from my family and my parents," Snell told the station. The demons, Snell called them, can be common in the high-pressure, big business world of professional sports. But they have earned more publicity recently in baseball. -- Indy Star

NBA dumps golden arches, makes run for the boarder

The National Basketball Association has signed a four-year deal with Taco Bell, which will replace McDonald's as the organization's official fast food sponsor, according to sources. The NBA is set to announce the deal as early as tomorrow. The multi-year partnership includes advertising rights across the NBA's All Star Saturday Night Skills Challenge, held in February, as well as the Jam Session at its All-Star Game Fan Fest. -- Brand Week

D-Wade: excited, nervous meeting President Obama

Dwyane Wade met President Barack Obama last week at the White House. "I was excited," Wade said. "It wasn't for winning a championship. It was to be a part of the National Father's Day venture that they have going on. We go out and talk to kids about, you know, fatherhood. But meeting the president was awesome. I mean, he's so laid-back, he's so cool. That was probably the most excited and most nervous to meet another human being that I have ever been. "It is great to have the president be a huge fan of our sport." -- Chicago Tribune

CNN's Larry King confuses Incredible Hulk with former Rams QB Vince Ferragamo

CNN's Larry King, apologizing to actor and bodybuilder Lou "The Incredible Hulk" Ferrigno this week after calling him Lou Ferragamo: "He was a good quarterback." . . . Presumably, King was referring to Vince Ferragamo, who 30 years ago led the Los Angeles Rams to the Super Bowl. -- LA Times

Yankees Stadium Revenue Will Pay Debt Service

Revenue from the new Yankee Stadium is almost five times the amount needed to cover debt service, even with slower-than-expected sales of its most expensive seats and skyboxes, according to a report by Moody's Investors Service. The Yankees sold an average of 45,000 tickets in each of the first 35 games in the Major League Baseball season, leaving the team on pace to sell 3.6 million this year, down from a record 4.3 million in 2008, Moody's said. The Yankees projected generating $331.5 million in stadium revenue this season, based on an expected attendance of 3 million. Moody's assigned a Baa3 rating to $111.9 million in rental revenue bonds that the New York City Industrial Development Agency is selling on the team's behalf to refinance a bank loan, along with the rest of $1.34 billion in bonds paying for the stadium. -- Bloomberg

Lance Armstrong Peddles 'Tour de France' via Social Media

Lance Armstrong will advocate his passion for social media and bring brand sponsors Oakley, Nissan and Clear2o along for the ride by teaming with healthy living community Web site Livestrong.com. On the site, Armstrong will provide real-time updates from the "2009 Tour de France," which begins July 4 and runs through July 26. The Tour de France portion of the site went live Wednesday. The deal was designed out of Armstrong's frustration with U.S. coverage of his sport during the "Giro d'Italia" race. "He called up and said, 'I, Lance, want to broadcast through Livestrong.com exclusively and use Twitter to make sure people can not only see the tour, but actually feel it and hear it directly from my mouth--unedited,'" explained Richard Rosenblatt, co-founder, chairman & CEO of Demand Media, which owns the Livestrong.com community. -- Brand Week

NBC shouldn't delay coverage of Wimbledon

If NBC Sports can't carry Wimbledon matches live, especially crucial ones, it shouldn't carry Wimbledon at all. The network's tape-delay dance -- and its excuses -- have grown tired. Here's what happened Wednesday: at 8 a.m. Eastern, ESPN2 started showing the Tommy Haas-Novak Djokovic match live (!) until early in the third set. But the network had to leave at 10 a.m., when NBC's exclusive three-hour window kicked in. That was NBC's cue to go to the videotape of Roger Federer's straight-sets victory over Ivo Karlovic -- on an unnerving two-hour delay. Then, as if diced-and-sliced tennis were how its surveys found that fans preferred to watch Grand Slam events, NBC showed the rest of the Haas-Djokovic match on what was a four- to five-hour delay. -- NY Times

Chestnut favored over Kobayashi in Hot Dog Eating Contest

Odds to win the 2009 Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest

Joey Chestnut 2/3

Takeru Kobayashi 6/5

Tim 'Eater X' Janus 12/1

Field 14/1 -- Bodog

NBA player says Ex-Agent Mishandled His Money

Eddy Curry shed new light on his financial problems Wednesday when he sued his former agent, accusing him of mishandling his money. In the lawsuit, Curry, the beleaguered Knicks center, accused the agent Lamont Carter of withholding years of bookkeeping records and demanded that Carter produce the documents. The dispute could explain why Curry, who has earned $34 million since 2005, has been sued multiple times for failing to pay his bills. Carter served as Curry's agent and business manager for three and a half years, until Curry terminated the relationship last December. According to the suit, which was filed in Cook County Circuit Court in Chicago, Carter "has failed, neglected and refused" to account for "all money received by him and paid out by him" from May 2005 through December 2008. -- NY Times

British Swimming signs huge sponsorship deal

Kellogg's will invest nearly US$5 million in a new 'grassroots to gold medals' programme run by British Swimming. The deal, which is the renewal of a partnership that has endured for 25 years, will see the company spend US$1.65 million per year on the programme, which will be launched ahead of the World Swimming Championships in Rome next month, where Kellogg's will be the official breakfast of the British team. -- SportsPro Media

Bills DT Stroud has private birthday party in Atlanta

University of Georgia bulldog alum and Buffalo Bills defensive tackle Marcus LaVar Stroud presiding over his private birthday party on the rooftop deck and in the Fight Room of Stats sports bar downtown. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Patriots' trivial pursuit

Word out of Florida is that the New England Patriots second-round draft pick, German-born Sebastian "Sea Bass" Vollmer, helped the team wannabes to retain their title in the "Ultimate Rookie Challenge" trivia contest at this week's NFL Rookie Symposium. We hear Vollmer, who couldn't speak a word of English four years ago, "came through huge" for his fellow rookies by answering "a really tough question" that stumped the other 31 rookie teams. -- Boston Herald

Milwaukee Indoor Soccer team going out of business

The Milwaukee Wave, the longest running professional soccer franchise in the country, could be shutting its doors for good. The four-team Xtreme Soccer League, which the Wave joined last September, is expected to disband, with a formal announcement scheduled for Friday. Sources said the Wave is seeking new ownership to remain in business. Charlie Krause has owned the franchise for the past five years, and prior to that, his son, Tim Krause, operated the team for two seasons. -- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Female Brewers fan falls onto field

A female Brewers fan fell over the left-field railing to grab Castillo's sixth-inning double down the line. Castillo likely would have stopped at second anyway, but the fan interference forced Castillo to stop and the fan was ejected from the game. -- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Can Joey Chestnut break hot dog record?

Will Joey Chestnut's Record of 66 Hot Dogs be broken?

Yes (Only) 3/1 -- Bodog

Kendra Wilkinson Shares Her Honeymoon Playlist

Kendra Wilkinson took time out from her honeymoon with new husband Eagles WR Hank Baskett to share a few details about their nine-day romantic getaway. In a blog post titled "My Honeymoon Playlist," the former Girls Next Door star offers up the songs the newlyweds have been listening to while on the Caribbean island of St. Lucia. "My list is pretty random with all different types of music, but there's no one music genre for a honeymoon," she wrote. -- Us Magazine

Harrison Ford made $38 mil more than top Hollywood actress

As is still typical for Hollywood, our actresses earned significantly less than their male counterparts. Harrison Ford was the top-earning actor this year with $65 million, $38 million more than Angelina Jolie earned. All told, the top 10 actors earned $393 million, compared with $183 million for the top 10 actresses. -- Forbes

Who owns America's fastest Chihuahua?

Seven regional competitions will be held in a race across the country from the West Coast to the East Coast over three weekends in August. The contest will come to a head at the national championship race in New York City, where one tiny speedster will claim the first-place title and bragging rights as America's fastest Chihuahua. The finals will also sport a new format, with racers competing in three separate heats, earning points in each one to determine the winner -- PR Newswire

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