Published 23:33, March the 17th, 2009
Beisel is one to watch
Then you think of obscure athletes who spend their time off the field cavorting with celebrities or Playmates, names like Eagles receiver Hank Baskett (Playboy reality princess Kendra Wilkinson), Chargers lineman David Binn (Pam Anderson) or Timberwolves guard (Marko JaricAdriana Lima) might come to mind.
Heck, if you wanted, you could even throw in unemployed quarterback Jeff Garcia and 2004 Playmate of the Year Carmella DeCesare.
And all of them — well, maybe not Jaric — are probably impressed by Monty Beisel, an unknown special teams linebacker on the Kansas City Chiefs. Beisel’s career highlight came for the Cardinals last season when he recovered a blocked punt in the end zone to beat the Dallas Cowboys.
Beisel was previously married to Miss Kansas 1999 (Amanda Carraway), but the couple divorced a few years ago. Recently, she was tabbed a “Rising Star” by Playboy’s Web site, but we highly recommend you save the Google function until you get home from work.
His new girlfriend? Jen England, a busty blonde who you may recall had bit parts in “Dodgeball” and “Smokin’ Aces,” was a WWE diva and is in the new issue of Maxim. She’s a cross between pre-plastic Tara Reid and a young Nicollette Sheridan, if that’s your bag.
Dogs are down
See if you catch our drift here: 2008 NCAA tournament darlings: Davidson, mid-major. The 2007 NCAA tournament team everyone fell in love with: VCU, after it dropped Duke and nearly toppled Pitt in the second round. Another mid-major. In 2006: George Mason, which became the first mid-major to get to the Final Four. See where this is going? In 2005: UW-Milwaukee, which knocked off Alabama and Boston College before losing to Illinois in the Sweet 16.
Cinderella rarely shows up in the form of a big-time program with a storied history. The mid-majors are almost always the greatest thing about the first few rounds of the NCAA tournament.
And this year, they’re virtually extinct. Billy Packer, were he calling games for CBS, might offer a knowing smirk. This isn’t to say that Wisconsin, Arizona or Mississippi State can’t make a George Mason-like run, but were that to happen, it just wouldn’t have the same David vs. Goliath impact that we’ve come to love. If you can name one player on a double-digit seed before the month of March and are able locate that school on a map, then its no Cinderella.
Jason Raj McIntyre covers athletes away from the field of play and runs the popular Web site The Big Lead. He’s a fan of mountain men and Huggy bear, so he’ll take West Virginia to make lots of noise in the first weekend of the tourney.
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