It's A Hard Knock Life For Kickers

It really is tough being a kicker. Sure, when you make the game winning field goal everyone lifts you up and celebrates. Until the next morning, when they're still amped about the win, but don't remember the kick so much. As the week progresses to the next game the memory of that game winner fades even more until all that's left is a great win and nothing more. But if you miss the potential game winner people will remember for weeks, months, years, maybe even lifetimes.

Then you also have backups that attempt to injure you so they can take over the starting position(ok, that's mostly punters, but they still kick the ball). And on kickoffs you always get setup as the last guy to try and tackle someone running full speed that's usually a little more athletic, and then they show the highlight of you getting your ankles broken while attempting some pussified form of a tackle over and over again.

Such is the life of a kicker, and Georgia's Brandon Coutu can attest to that.

On Saturday night, Brandon Coutu kicked a 37-yard field goal to seal the win against Vanderbilt. The win kept Georgia in the hunt for the SEC East title, and Coutu's teammates rallied around him as the game ended. Coutu's excitement was cut short, however when he found out that his home had been burglarized as he was heading back from the Vandy game.

One of the best nights in Brandon Coutu's life quickly turned into one of the worst on Saturday.

The Georgia kicker walked into his Athens home after kicking a game-winning field goal at Vanderbilt and found that burglars had ransacked the place and stolen almost everything of value and some of sentimental value, such as SEC championship and bowl gifts.

"They took a lot of stuff, a lot of things that were important to him," said Ron Coutu, Brandon's father. "They took a TV with an SEC logo on it, an Xbox, iPods, computer, a bunch of electronic-type stuff."

Coutu learned of the break-in on his way back from the Vanderbilt game. A friend had gone to the house and was to meet Coutu there for a celebration. After finding the back door kicked in, he went in, discovered the burglary and called Coutu.

"It was not fun having to tell him," Ron Coutu said. "Obviously it was a big night for him and he walked in there frustrated. But the main thing is nobody got hurt and almost everything can be replaced."

So, instead of basking in the win Coutu got to think about trying to replace the schoolwork(kickers have to go to class, star qb's and running backs not so much) that had been taken with the theft of his laptop. The news of the theft has also partially overshadowed the importance of his kick.

At first, the Coutus thought about not talking to the media about the break-in, but Brandon said he wanted to do everything possible to try to find the perpetrator or perpetrators. If the word got out, he thought, maybe someone would be able to point police in the right direction.

"He has gotten more media attention from this than he did from the game-winning kick," Ron Coutu said.

Just another sad example of the week to week struggles that kickers endure as they practice and perform their limited shots at glory. Hopefully the next time a kicker puts through the winning field goal some asshat doesn't bust into their place and jack their stuff. We all know kickers' psyches are fragile enough as it is.

"The Juice" Might Be Getting Squeezed Again

O.J. Simpson was questioned early this morning about any involvement he may have had in a robbery of sports memorabilia at the Palace Station Casino in Las Vegas. He's not currently in custody, but there is a news conference scheduled for later today to discuss the crime.

Investigators questioned O.J. Simpson about a break-in at a casino hotel room involving sports memorabilia, police said today.

The break-in was reported at the Palace Station casino late Thursday night, police spokesman Jose Montoya said.

Simpson was released and is believed to be in Las Vegas, Montoya said.

"We don't believe he's going anywhere," he said.

That doesn't sound too serious until you read that he allegedly went into someone's room, and "reclaimed" some items that he felt belonged to him.

FOX5 News interviewed a man, Thomas Riccio, who claims to have witnessed the incident which sparked the allegations. Riccio said he works for Universal Rarities, an auction house based in California, and that a customer had contacted him recently and said he had personal items that had belonged to O.J. Simpson. The customer claimed to have confiscated the items from Simpson because Simpson owed them money, Riccio told FOX5 News.

Simpson, perhaps believing the items were still rightfully his own, walked into a hotel room at Palace Station on Thursday night along with several other people and reclaimed the items in question, Riccio said. Simpson did not use force when entering the room and was unarmed, and never acted violently during the ordeal, Riccio said.

There's also some speculation that this might somehow coincide with the release of O.J.'s book "If I Did It". Perhaps as a promotional ploy of some sort?

Regardless, it's nice to see that O.J. has moved off of the golf courses in South Florida, and into the casinos in Vegas to find the killers that he's been tracking all of these years. Keep up the great work Inspector Clouseau!

Suspects In Two Seperate Robberies Of NBA Stars In Custody

Authorities in Chicago announced on Saturday that they had four suspects in the robbery of Antoine Walker during a home invasion in custody. The four suspects are: 28-year-old Antoine Larkins, 25-year-old Demorris Hill, 28-year-old Phillip Allison and 23-year-old Gregory Reedfields. Hill and Larkins are also suspected of robbing Eddy Curry a few weeks after the Walker robbery.

Like I usually do when I read "interesting" new articles, I hopped on good 'ole MySpace to see if these guys had profiles, and to see if they mentioned the robberies on them. However, I must state that I'm not a detective of any sort, no matter how much I wish I could grow a Magnum P.I. 'stache, and that I'm pretty sure that the profile listed belong to one of the suspects but I can't be 100% sure.

The only one I could find was Antoine Larkins. Male, 28, from Chicago and has the same name. I'm pretty sure it's our guy. Nothing juicy here. He only has two friends, Tom and R. Kelly. Though, listing that you're a "proud parent" probably shouldn't be followed up with being held for two robberies.

Unfortunately, that was the only MySpace profile I could track down out of the four suspects listed. However, I'll continue to check out MySpace profiles for some humor or insight whenever the names are provided in the articles.

Drive In A Busch Race On Saturday, Get Mugged On Sunday

Is it just me or does there seem to be quite a few robberies involving athletes these days? Just in the past few months, Antoine Walker, Eddie Curry, and now Steve Wallace, son of Rusty Wallace, have been accosted. Fortunately for Wallace, his thieves weren't as successful as the ones in the other incidents.

The younger Wallace was attacked Sunday by at least three people outside a convenience store following the race, according to a statement on Rusty Wallace's Web site Tuesday.

Steve Wallace, who was 17th in the Kroger 200 Busch race Saturday night at nearby O'Reilly Raceway Park, remained in Indianapolis to watch the Nextel Cup race on Sunday.

Steve Wallace said the men jumped him as he left the store and tried to take a wrist watch he received from a sponsor after his second career pole position at Nashville Superspeedway in June.

The robbery attempt was unsuccessful, and one of the suspects was caught later that night, the team said.

Geez, what happened to the good 'ole days when all athletes had to worry about were extortion, blackmail and paternity tests?

Antoine Walker Gets Robbed...Again

Antoine Walker's agent, Mark Bartelstein, stated on Monday that Walker's home in Chicago was robbed while he was there with a relative. Apparently Walker and the relative were held at gunpoint while the robbers took some cash, jewelry and a vehicle. No one was hurt during the robbery.

However, it marks the second time in seven years that Walker has been robbed at gunpoint. Back in 2000, Walker and fellow NBA player Nazr Mohammad were robbed, also while in Chicago, of $3,000 cash and a $55,000 watch while they sat in a vehicle with friends waiting for a restaurant to open.

While it's probably just two random acts, it does make you wonder whether Walker is being targeted by someone.