Houston Texans linebacker, Brian Cushing, has remained the NFL’s defensive rookie of the year after a revote by the AP. The revote gave Cushing 18 votes by 50 sports writers and broadcasters who cover the league. The first time around he had 39.

Cushing was busted for using something called (HCG). Human chorionic gonadotropin is a banned substance, but it is not a steroid. According to www.steroid.com, “HCG is not a steroid, but a naturally occurring peptide hormone, produced by the embryo in the early stages of pregnancy…” Meaning it’s original purpose is for women. But it has a different effect on men. Cushing is smart and has probably been juicing his whole life. Trust me, Cushing knows exactly what he is putting in his body and this stuff helped.

HCG helps bring back naturally produced testosterone. When a steroid user stops using, their body stops making testosterone naturally. So in turn you lose your gains very quickly. Well HCG brings ‘em right back!

Even with the positive test I still agree that Cushing was the best defensive rookie in the league and should have kept the award. As we know by now the steroid era is far from over, in all sports. What are we going to do, go back and strip Shawne Merriman of all his accolades because of his positive test in 2006? The guys who make these decisions sometimes get caught and when they do their entire career will be questioned forever.

Cushing has been suspended by the NFL for the first 4 games of the season without pay.

Guest writer Andy Burrell is an up and coming sports personality that played football for TCU and will be covering football at both the college and NFL level for us here at studyofsports.com.  Check out his site below.

www.andyburrell.com

“Rojo” Johnson made an appearance for the Round Rock Express last week throwing one pitch before being ejected from the game.  You may not have heard of him before, but he surely made a lasting impression with his bag of beer and gold chains on the mound.  If only they could give him another chance.

The Tampa Bay Rays signed Hank Blalock to a one-year deal this offseason giving him an option to opt out of the deal if he was not on the Major League roster.  Well the time has come for Blalock to either come up and take the reigns at 3rd base or move on to something else.  Blalock surprised many, including myself, by actually accepting the fact he was going to start the season in the minors.  I figured he would pack his things and move on to something else.  Maybe it was his agent, Scott Boras, that talked him in to proving them wrong and working his way back up to the majors. 

Blalock fell apart over the last three years with the Texas Rangers.  He rarely stayed off the disabled list.  And when he was in the lineup, some fans were wishing he was on the DL.  Hitting just .234 last year with a .277 OBP, Blalock was almost invisible.  Maybe the minors is exactly what he needed to get back on track.  Hitting .375 with an OBP of .435 in 108 plate appearances, Blalock is making a run at Pat Burrell’s job in Tampa.  Burrell is hitting just .221 with a .315 OBP.  The Rays may just cut Burrell’s $9 million loose and take a chance with Blalock at 3rd with his 925K contract.  We will soon see.

Dez Bryant, a top 10 talent in the 2010 NFL Draft managed to fall all the way to the 24th pick in the first round. Jerry Jones and the Cowboys took full advantage and made a trade with the New England Patriots to move up 3 spots to grab the “Playmaker 2.” Is it too early to talk Bryant up to the level of one of the greatest receivers to ever play the game? I mean he missed nearly his entire senior season at Oklahoma State because he lied to the NCAA about his involvement with former Cowboy and NFL Network personality, Deion Sanders.

Say what you want about Bryant, but the kid is a stud and has the potential to be one of the best wide receivers in the NFL. Jerry Jones was not about to pass up on another potential Randy Moss type impact player and have that haunt him for years to come.

Bryant showed up to Cowboy’s rookie minicamp and was a little out of shape. Taking knees, breathing hard and rolling his ankle had him limping around the last hour of practice. The injury is not serious but did keep Bryant out of sprints after practice. The most impressive part of this was that even though he was not in the best shape, he still pushed through every drill and gave it 100 percent. That shows a lot of grit and shows that he can be a leader.

Many people have given Bryant a bad wrap and say that he can slack and be complacent. But that was not evident what so ever during the 3 days of practice last weekend. Coach Wade Phillips was even quoted as saying, “In 33 years there’s not very many that I can say look that talented at their position for a three-day period.” Strong statement coming from a guy like Phillips who has seen a lot of ball in his day.

There has been talk of Bryant returning punts and kick-offs on special teams. It sure would be exciting to see him and Kevin Ogletree back deep. Expect big things out of Bryant in his rookie season and for him to have an immediate impact. It will also be interesting to see how Jason Garrett fits Bryant into the Cowboys scheme with Miles Austin, Jason Witten, and Roy Williams.

Guest writer Andy Burrell is an up and coming sports personality that played football for TCU and will be covering football at both the college and NFL level for us here at studyofsports.com.  Check out his site below.

www.andyburrell.com

The Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics will match up tonight in Cleveland for game 5 of a locked up 2-2 series at 8PM ET on TNT.  Boston recovered from a Cavaliers 124-95 blowout of the Celtics by taking game 4 97-87 before heading back to Cleveland for tonights game.  Rajon Rondo had a career game with a triple-double scoring 29 with 13 assists and 18 rebounds to help the Celtics pull the series back even.  Lebron James did everything he could coming close to a triple-double himself with 22 points, 9 rebounds and 8 assists.  Cleveland needs to cut down their turnovers if they want to take game 5 in Cleveland.  While the Cavaliers and Celtics are battling it out with each other to make it to the Eastern Conference Finals, Orlando has wrapped up their series with the Hawks dominating the series and sweeping Atlanta 4-0.  Orlando will get a nice rest before they see Garnett in Orlando or Lebron in Cleveland to start that series to see who takes on the Lakers or Suns in the NBA Finals.

Rumors were swirling Monday in Seattle and around Major League Baseball that Seattle Mariners favorite “Kid”, Ken Griffey Jr., may not have much more time left in his career.  A Tacoma News Tribune story published Monday stated, “He could lose his job as the left-handed designated hitter within the week. He might lose his position on the 25-man roster nearly as soon.”  Griffey is currently sitting at 630 home runs and less than 300 hits from the 3000 hit mark but is only hitting .208 with no home runs for the 2010 season.  I personally hate to see a player slowly get phased out when they don’t know when to call it quits.  And who can really blame them.  I would play as long as I possibly could.  Let’s just hope Griffey can pick it up and finish out his career strong; as he will surely be a first ballot Hall of Famer when the time comes.