Football Players

Taking a break from its training camp in San Bernardino, UCLA's football team decided to head to the bowling alley Tuesday night for a bonding and bowling session. The word spreading is that quarterback Richard Brehaut was the player with the best bowling skills, but he received plenty of competition from assistant coach Marques Tuiasosopo, a former quarterback. Of course, the Bruins hope to go bowling this season, as in a Rose Bowl. And some of their players are getting skills in being media commentators, as indicated by the video above.

Rhabdomyolysis triggered by too much exercise is thought to be rare. But the diagnosis of 13 cases of rhabdomyolysis among University of Iowa football players in January has shaken the world of sports training and taught coaches and trainers that the illness can arise out of "normal" high-intensity workouts. In a report released Wednesday, independent experts who reviewed the Iowa case confirmed that the 13 players, all of whom recovered after several days of hospital care, became ill due to overexertion.

Alabama has barred three of its college football players from campus after their arrest on robbery charges earlier this week. The players are suspended from school pending a review conducted by faculty members of the Student Judicial Board, university spokeswoman Deborah Lane said Friday. Defensive back Eddie Williams, 20, and linebackers Tyler Hayes and D.J. Pettway, both 18, were prohibited from entering the Tuscaloosa campus. They were charged Monday in robberies of two students on campus.

New York City has Frank Sinatra's “New York, New York. " Los Angeles has Randy Newman's “I Love L.A.” Las Vegas has Elvis Presley's “Viva Las Vegas,” unless you prefer the Dead Kennedys version. San Bernardino, where UCLA is holding its training camp, is not left out. In fact, there are two songs. Christie, a 1960s group, titled “San Bernadino,” and Frank Zappa's “San Ber'dino. " Bruins football players can pick their preferred version. Is it the city's official song , sung by Christie?

The risk of heat-related illnesses for high-school football players is higher than ever due to record high temperatures around the country and the fact that football players these days are bigger than ever. The combination is leading to a rise in the number of heat-related illnesses and deaths, said experts from the Union of Concerned Scientists in a news conference Thursday. The death rate during football practice was about one death per year from 1980 to 1994 but has risen to 2.8 deaths per year since then, according to climatologist Andrew Grundstein of the University of Georgia.

A manhunt is underway for the suspect police say shot and killed three young men and injured three more at a Saturday night party near Auburn University in Auburn, Ala. Former Auburn football players and current students Edward Christian and Ladarious Phillips were pronounced dead along with Auburn resident Damario Pitts. All were 20. Current player Eric Mack, 20, was still being treated at an area hospital, and John Robertson, 20, was "fighting for his life" and undergoing critical surgery at the University of Alabama-Birmingham, Auburn Police Chief Tommy Dawson said at a Sunday news conference.

Christian Tupou is a student-athlete. He plays football, and more specifically he plays defensive tackle. The combination of these simple traits traps USC's Tupou in a series of stereotypes that thrust him to the bottom of the intellectual scale at a top-tier university. But listening to Tupou talk and watching him show his football skills muddies the water. The starting redshirt senior has boatloads of athletic intelligence in addition to school smarts. With fall camp fast approaching, he's studying Pacific 12 Conference centers and guards to see which hand they use to snap the ball, and to see how far apart their feet are. In games he'll use his off-season studying to help him shoot his gaps.

DENVER -- Matt Kemp was back in the Dodgers clubhouse Wednesday morning, still sore from his head-on crash with the center-field wall at Coors Field the previous night. “Now I know how football players feel, when the wide receivers come up the middle and get hit and not know,” he said. Kemp was relieved by the results of the tests he underwent Tuesday night. A CAT scan on his jaw came back negative and an MRI exam on his left knee showed nothing more than a bruise. “It could have been way worse so I'm definitely lucky,” Kemp said.

Some UCLA football players and members of the coaching staff were at odds Sunday after bowl game checks meant to help with living expenses were withheld. Some players did not receive checks for failing to attend what they called voluntary workouts during finals week, according to one parent who asked not to be identified because it could affect his son. The workouts were mandatory, plus those players had not turned in their academic exit forms for the quarter, said UCLA spokesman Nick Ammazzalorso, who added that players were told that the checks would be withheld.

Larry Miller, Hueneme High's first-year football coach, promises stiff punishment for members of his team following a brawl during the post-game handshake of Thursday's season-ending game against Dos Pueblos at Hueneme. In addition, in the final minute of the game, two Hueneme players fought among themselves. On Monday, Miller said he will recommend that at least two Hueneme players be suspended from school for an undetermined amount of time.