So says a spokesperson.

Vince Young

Image by Rick Stewart / Getty Images

Pro Player Funding says it's no longer issuing the type of high-interest loans it gave to a number of football players during the NFL lockout.

According to a spokesman for Platinum Partners, a New York based hedge fund of which Pro Player Funding LLC is a subsidiary, the loans were nixed because of "a returns issue."

The spokesman declined to comment any further.

The company has filed lawsuits against seven people in New York state in the past year after loans of more than a million dollars were not repaid on time. The loans carried interest rates between 18 and 24 percent.

Former first-round draft pick Vince Young filed a suit last week against the company claiming they gave the loan without his knowledge or consent.

If you're not betting heavily on the pole, then you are underestimating how much a Chicagoan can drink.

Source: youtube.com

H/T Busted Coverage

McIlroy, the world's best golfer and a native of Northern Ireland, posted a message today via Twitter touching on his feelings about Great Britain, Ireland, and the 2016 Olympics.

Image by Brent Smith / Reuters

Rory McIlroy has a dilemma, and it has nothing to do with his game. Golfwise, the 23-year-old is in pretty great shape: he's the world #1 and just took his fourth tournament of the year, the BMW Championship.

Instead, this particular issue stems from McIlroy's nationality. McIlroy's from Holywood, a town of 12,000 in County Down, Northern Ireland. Up until the late 1990s, Northern Ireland was locked in a conflict between IRA Catholic separatists and the British government (supported by Protestant/loyalist paramilitaries). Though most of the violence ended in 1998 with the signing of the Belfast Agreement, Northern Ireland remains a divided and suspicious place. I spent two months in Belfast in the summer of 2009, and it was a city where the streets were empty by nighttime and the population remained mostly segregated. Bars wouldn't let you wear soccer jerseys inside, since allegiance to nearly every regional club, especially Glasgow, Scotland's Celtic and Rangers, was wrapped up as much in issues of politics and identity as it was in what happened on the field.

McIlroy's Catholic, and like almost every resident of Northern Ireland, Protestant or Catholic, his family's been affected by the violence of the Troubles. His uncle, Joe McIlroy, was killed by the Ulster Volunteer Force paramilitary group after buying a home in a Protestant neighborhood. Even still, since coming to prominence as a golfer, McIlroy has carefully and skillfully avoided declaring any sort of regional or political affiliation, stressing both his British and Irish heritages. For this, he's been praised as the model of a new Northern Ireland, but the question hasn't stopped dogging him: is he Irish, or is he British? And after winning yesterday, a comment of his to British paper the Daily Mail aggravated the issue: "What makes it such an awful position to be in is I have grown up my whole life playing for Ireland under the Golfing Union of Ireland umbrella. But the fact is, I’ve always felt more British than Irish." The Mail ran the interview under the headline "EXCLUSIVE: Team GB in Rio? Rory McIlroy says he owes a lot to Irish golf but feels more British," but the one appearing in Google searches and at the top of the browser is more extreme and presumptous: "Rory McIlroy will represent Great Britain not Ireland at 2016 Olympics."

The controversy led McIlroy to publish an open letter today, which he posted as an image on his Twitter. First, he identifies himself as simultaneously a representative of Irish golf and a "proud Ulsterman who grew up in Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom." Second, he cites the support of Irish, British, and American fans alike. Third, he stresses that he hasn't yet decided whether he'll play for Ireland or Great Britain in the Rio Olympic Games in 2016, which will be the first Olympics to feature golf.

You can read the entire letter below. Don't doubt that this will become a more and more relevant issue as we get closer to the 2012 Games and McIlroy continues to cement his position as the best golfer in the world.

Cyclist Alberto Contador simultaneously won both the Tour of Spain and the Tour of Blatant Innuendo. From this weekend's victory ceremony for the Tour of Spain, or La Vuelta.

Image by Miguel Vidal / Reuters

Image by Miguel Vidal / Reuters

Ever wondered what some of the best women's soccer players in the world are listening to right now? Well, they made a playlist !

Pregame music is an essential part of any athlete's warm up routine, but the best/weirdest playlists are always the ones that let everyone add their personal favorite. From Brazilian soul to old school Eminem, Yael Averbuch (a US National Team member currently abroad in Sweden) has rounded up the current favorites from some of the best players in the world.

Their taste in music is really different, but they're all REALLY good at soccer sooo maybe listening to these songs will make you as good as they are? Probably not. (You can listen to the entire playlist on Spotify here.)

Lauren Cheney, USA

Image by Nigel Roddis / Reuters

Marta, Brazil

Source: jdelias16.files.wordpress.com

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Wow. And here, I thought Media Take Out couldn't sink any lower.

Media Take Out is a popular gossip website with a focus on "urban" culture. It's certainly not known for a restrained and stuffy editorial style, and it's one of the premiere places online to see photos of hip-hop stars and athletes naked, but even considering all that, this is shocking. Homophobia is always a bad look.

Source: cdn.mediatakeout.com

When your team is ranked and gets crushed by University Louisiana-Monroe, your fans may lose their minds. That must be what happened here.

Source: youtube.com

lizhoney has lost her mind. This Arkansas fan recorded a video message to the team in song. So I broke down the lyrics. Her words are in bold, mine are in plain text.

"RAZORBACKS United We Stand" by lizhoney

LYRICS
There's nowhere in the worldThat I would rather beThan yelling "Oo hee sooey."

That's not a place. You can do that anywhere. I have a feeling you do.

And there's nothing in the worldThat I would rather seeThan to beat Alabama 100-3

Things more likely to happen than Arkansas beating Alabama 100-3• At the first Presidential debate Barack Obama reveals that he's an extraterrestrial shortly before eating Mitt Romney's head clean off his body.• Oogieloves In The BIG Balloon Adventure wins Best Picture at the Oscars, just barely beating out Sparkle and Rex Ryan's sex tape. • Brandon Weeden becomes a good NFL quarterback.

For united we standDivided we fallAnd if our (razor)backs will ever be against the wall

You didn't even rewrite this part of the song! What the hell? Trying to sneak the word "razor" in front of "backs" doesn't count. Do you think she picked this song because it already had "backs" in it?

We'll be togetherTogether you and I(GO HOGS GO)

You have a surprisingly decent voice, but your nose is taped to look like a pig, so that seems irrelevant.

Repeat Chorus... Which is interrupted by her saying, "Tevin, honey you hang in there and get well. Honey we're all praying for you. We're pulling hard for your full recovery.

This I can agree with. Tevin Mitchel's injury looked terrible and they had to cart him off. Initial reports after the game indicated that Mitchel was okay and able to move, a fact that was scarily in doubt following the brutal helmet-to-helmet collision that he was a part of.

And Tyler honey...If the world around youFalls apart our loveIt will still be here

Okay so this one is a little more weird. Yes Tyler Wilson probably got a concussion, but he might play this coming week. I'm pretty sure his world isn't falling apart.

And Kody if the going gets too hard along the wayAll of us Hog fans are going to give you a big cheer

I'm positive that this song has done more harm than good to Kody Walker, Tyler Wilson, Tevin, and co.'s injuries. If laughter is the best medicine than this is ether.

Repeat Chorus

SPOKEN: The most important thing is not that game, but that you guys get well. Because we're going to beat Alabama. You just wait Alabama. You're going to see.

The most important thing is that they get better, but not because you're going to beat Alabama (again, you won't), but because it's better to not have a concussion for the rest of your life.

Isn't that right hog fans? We're going to always stick together.

That sound you hear is every Arkansas fan pulling at his or her collar.

Repeated ChorusSPOKEN: We love you Razorbacks. Win or lose it doesn't matter.We'll always be here for you. Once a hog fan, always a hog fan.

I'm just going to nod and smile. The type of person who makes this video already probably kills people. Why give her more of a reason?

WHISPERED We love our hogs. This is Pig Sooey saying, "Go Hogs Go." Alabama you better look out.

Everything is more terrifying when whispered. And is your name Pig Sooey? You chose that name?

It's pretty cool to have James Bond in your corner.

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After Andy Murray defeated Tomas Berdych to go to the final of the US Open, fellow Scotsman Sir Sean Connery (along with legendary football manager Sir Alex Ferguson) crashed Murray's press conference.

Source: youtube.com

The actor has been cheering for Murray throughout the Open.

Image by Matthew Stockman / Getty Images

It's like Sean Connery is auditioning to play Andy Murray's grandpa. (Note: If they make a movie about Andy Murray, Sean Connery should totally play his grandpa.)

GIF by BuzzFeed

Image by Matthew Stockman / Getty Images

Oh and Connery is still so cool he makes everyone else look lame by comparison.

Image by Clive Brunskill / Getty Images

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Hazing: The Washington Nationals are doing it right.

Hazing is one of those words that almost always has negative connotations, but the Washington Nationals in specific, and Major League Baseball's longstanding tradition of making rookies dress in costume in general, serve as excellent reminders of why hazing can be a good thing. In this case, no one is hurt or victimized (see the New York Giants' preseason controversy for the other side of this coin), and the young guys bond over the silliness of it all. Plus, big dudes in leotards. That's comedy 101.

Source: @GioGonzalez47

Source: @GioGonzalez47

I think we know which one is McKayla...

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Erin DiMeglio is a history-making badass.

Erin DiMeglio is a senior at Florida's South Plantation High School. She's 5'4", 140lbs, and most notably, the third-string quarterback on her school's football team. DiMeglio, who was already the starting point guard for the girl's basketball team and the quarterback for a girls' flag football team, started practicing with the boys earlier this spring.

According to People, it was Doug Gatewood, the coach of both her flag team and the boys' varsity squad, who invited her to come to a spring workout. By the end of the first practice, she was asking if she could come back the next day.

"I said, 'Sure, but you're not playing,' " Gatewood said. "She wore me down..."

Her campaign to stick around paid off earlier this season when she entered a game late in the fourth quarter, becoming the state's first female quarterback.

Source: youtube.com

Hear Erin, her coach, and her teammates talk about having her on the roster.

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With the need for a top-tier signal-caller becoming inarguable, teams value QB potential so much that it's become more important — in the short term — than winning.

Image by Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

Let's say you're the new general manager of a team. (Congratulations! We've already moved your bed into your office.) Your current starting quarterback is two or three seasons into his professional career. Despite an ugly winning percentage, his early numbers aren't terrible; an about-even number of touchdowns and interceptions, a completion percentage a point or two below 60.

He seems acceptable — he could start for your team this season. You guys could go 9-7, maybe 10-6 with this kid at the helm one day if you give him the necessary pieces. But in a league that has finally shed its deepest historic principle — establish the run; ESTABLISH THE RUN — one nasty blemish won't disappear, no matter how hard you squint. This kid isn't Super Bowl-caliber. If he ever gets a ring, he's going to do it by holding a clipboard, not throwing a football.

So what do you do? The free-agent pool contains nothing of interest: old, old, unproven, old, mediocre, unproven, old, Favre. With all the available passers, the big problem remains the same: it isn't that he can't win a Super Bowl this year; it's that he can't win a Super Bowl ever. He just doesn't have that potential. And if you're not threatening to win a Super Bowl, you're not keeping your job for too long.

You know who does have Super Bowl potential? Every rookie.

So the draft rolls around, and you take a QB in the first three rounds, maybe higher than he was projected to go. And then you bench your OK-to-good incumbent and start the rookie immediately.

Cleveland fans: get ready for a lot of this.

Image by Leon Halip / Getty Images

That's the story of the 2012 NFL: when it comes to quarterbacks, potential trumps performance. In all likelihood, for example, the Browns' Brandon Weeden isn't and won't ever be a better quarterback than the guy that he's replacing, Colt McCoy. But he hasn't proven it yet. (Though he really tried in Week 1, throwing four picks.) Four rookie starting quarterbacks in addition to Weeden took their teams' first snaps of 2012: Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin III, Ryan Tannehill, and Russell Wilson. On top of the five rooks under center, there are five sophomores: Minnesota's Christian Ponder, Carolina's Cam Newton, Tennessee's Jake Locker, Cincinnati's Andy Dalton, and Jacksonville's Blaine Gabbert, whose last name should be pronounced as though he were a 19th-century French trapper. Twelve rookies have taken their team's first snap in the last five years; that's as many as did so in the twenty-five seasons before 2008.

By my count, five of the rookie starters from this year and last beat out competitors who would likely be better than them this season. But in no universe does anyone think that Matt Moore, McCoy, Sage Rosenfels, Chad Henne, or Matt Flynn are capable of winning Super Bowls in 2012 or beyond. NFL front offices want to know sooner rather than later whether their signal-caller could be a Super Bowl-level guy. Once a passer reveals that he isn't — and most of them will — he's given a headset and a spot on the bench, and then it's the next kid's turn. Over the last 20 years, of the 13 different QBs who have won Super Bowls, only two — Brad Johnson and Trent Dilfer — were not guys who are in, or likely bound for, the Hall of Fame. You can see the game change around the time Troy Aikman won his first Super Bowl: in the 12 seasons prior to Aikman's XXVII win, only one champion franchise had a Hall of Fame QB, the 49ers (Joe Montana).

I spoke to a former NFL general manager with decades of experience in the league about the changing attitudes toward the position in front offices. He stressed that the conventional wisdom he learned about managing quarterbacks is all but dead.

"I think Mark Rypien, Doug Williams, Phil Simms, I don't know if you can win Super Bowls with those guys in today's game," he said. "You can't play great defense anymore — the rules have really prohibited the defense from doing the things that they used to do. Defense keeps you in games, but offense wins them now."

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Meet your new favorite baseball player.

On September 5th, Oakland Athletics pitcher Brandon McCarthy was struck in the head by an Erick Aybar line drive.

Image by The Contra Costa Times, Doug Duran / AP

Not knowing he had an epidural hemorrhage, brain contusion and skull fracture, McCarthy walked off the field and was taken to an area hospital, where he was said to be in a "life-threatening situation."

Source: ABC News

Image by Ben Margot / AP

After a two hour surgery, McCarthy was in stable condition Thursday.

Image by Ben Margot / AP

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If you've ever wondered how to run pantsless and not get arrested or tackled by a large, angry man, this is how.

Step 1: Wear a mask. Red works!

Step 2: Run naked and fast across a football field. This part kind of goes without saying.

Step 3: Begin evasive maneuvers.

Step 4: Risk great bodily harm by hurling yourself over fences. Also, hope the cops trip.

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Brian “White Mamba” Scalabrine has been a long running joke. He's a big, goofy ginger who sits on the end of benches and claps really well. On the occasion of his retirement, the NBA made him a kick ass mixtape.

Source: youtube.com

We'll miss you Scal.

H/T Ben Golliver at CBS

Some guys leave the game gracefully. These are not those guys.

This is the 50-year-old Roger Clemens pitching for the Sugar Land Skeeters last week in Texas.

Image by Houston Chronicle, Brett Coomer / AP

Roger Clemens has won 354 games and two World Series, struck out more than 4,600 batters, and been involved in a damning federal steroids investigation. But that's apparently not enough to satisfy him. Clemens is the gift to baseball that keeps on giving, and after a few outrageous yet mildly impressive starts for the Sugar Land Skeeters, an independent club of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball, there's a very slim chance the Rocket could suit up again for the Houston Astros.

In two starts for the Skeeters, Clemens has pitched a combined eight innings of scoreless ball with literally no preparation beforehand. Houston is currently 40.5 games behind NL Central leader Cincinnati, so the Astros have nothing to lose. Although Clemens doesn't expect it to happen, Astros owner Jim Crane has been teasing a Clemens return, which would undoubtedly boost ticket sales (Houston is 28th in the majors in attendance) and make the Astros relevant again, if only for one night.

Jose Canseco, 48, has been bouncing around baseball's minor leagues for years.

Jose Canseco last made an appearance in the major leagues in 2001, but that hasn't slowed his baseball career. He signed a deal last August with the Rio Grande Valley WhiteWings but never made an appearance due to "personal reasons." In a short stint with the last club he actually played for, the mighty Worcester Tornadoes, Canseco batted .194 and had one home run in 84 at-bats.

Still, Canseco seems to genuinely believe he could still play in the majors, and claims Major League Baseball owes him $25 million dollars in lost wages for bullying him out of the game. He also desperately needs money. Canseco filed for bankruptcy protection in Nevada just before signing with the WhiteWings, according to the Valley Morning Star.

His Twitter account is a must-follow, by the way.

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That's when you know you've really made it.

There are many ways to show your love for a player. You can buy his jersey. You can go to the game and cheer loudly. You can re-enact the plot of the Robert DeNiro-Wesley Snipes classic The Fan, and kidnap his son (BuzzFeed does not recommend this option). Or if you're an anti-social weirdo, you can listen to that voice you hear when you're working in the fields and you can turn your corn crops into a giant maze in the shape of said player.

Someone in Greeley, Colorado went with the last option to show his or her (but let's be real, his) total devotion to one Peyton Williams Manning. It's a pretty impressive feat of crop carving (is that a thing?), and just like in real life, Peyton's neck has been hit so often it's basically non-existent.

I bet the other farmers at the local farm store totally gave him a hard time for this one. (If you can't tell, I totally understand how farming works.)

Source: twitpic.com

H/T Busted Coverage.

Spanish language talk shows are both bizarre and amazing.

Yesterday Ricky Rubio appeared on a Spanish language talkshow called El Hormiguero or "The Anthill." I don't speak Spanish — sorry 12 years of Spanish classes (and mom and dad)! — so I went to the always factual, and never once incorrect Wikipedia to find out what this show was all about.

[It's] a Spanish television program with a live audience focusing on comedy, science, and politics.

So it's basically like RadioLab, This American Life, and Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me all had a baby and then sent it to live in Spain. Cool. So which one of these weird purple things is Ira Glass?

I'm betting the one on the left. It seems more dignified. Anyway, Ricky Rubio was there to play some Connect 4, basketball-style.

Source: youtube.com

The legendary New York radio talk show host needs some sleep.

Source: youtube.com

And now enjoy Mike Francesa solving the greatest mystery man has ever known: (Wait for the end. Trust me, it's worth it.) (Spoiler Alert for "The Usual Suspects.")

Inspiration from a typically hilarious Deadspin comment.

Source: youtube.com

Complete with totally, absolutely not fake Amazon reviews.

"The Contract: The Journey of Jimmer Fredette from the Playground to the Pros"

Via: amazon.com

"Through My Eyes: A Quarterback's Journey"

Via: amazon.com

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It certainly seems like it.

Image by James MacPherson / AP

Jamie Kuntz was a freshman linebacker at North Dakota State College Of Sciences. I say "was" because as of a week ago, he no longer plays football, nor attends college there, thanks to a kiss from his boyfriend.

Kuntz was not in uniform for the team's first game of season since he had a concussion, so he was up in the pressbox filming the game. The 18-year-old's 65-year-old boyfriend — more on that age difference later — joined him there. While the team was being thoroughly crushed by the powerhouse that is Pueblo, Colorado's Snow College (NDSCS would lose 63-17), Kuntz kissed his boyfriend. Some of his teammates witnessed the sexy cross-generational pressbox smoochingkiss and reported it to their coach, Chuck Parsons.

On the trip home Parsons confronted Kuntz, who claimed the man was his grandfather. Later, in a fit of conscience, Kuntz confessed to the lie. As a result he was kicked off the team for "conduct deemed detrimental to the team." That detrimental conduct, allegedly? Not gay kissing, but lying. Kuntz decided to leave school as a result.

According to USA Today, the freshman linebacker is calling bullshit.

"I know if it was a girl in the press box, or even an older woman, nothing would have happened," he said. "If it was an older woman, I would have probably been congratulated for it from my teammates."

In the opposite of the usual progression, when I first heard about this story I didn't think it was that clean-cut. After all, it happened during a game. I played a few years of serious high school football, and the idea that a player could get kicked off a team for kissing someone during a game (and then lying about it) doesn't seem all that surprising. Mid-game kissing is a little disrespectful to the players who are playing (and losing). Maybe his coach is just strict about these things, I thought. Maybe it had nothing to do with him being gay, and had more to do with him hanging out with his significant other when he should have been paying attention. But then I read Dan Savage's write-up of the story, which included this chestnut.

Other members of the team, according to Kuntz, have been caught drinking, a violation of team rules; one member, a minor, was detained by the police after being found in a 21-and-over club. Some members of the team have “criminal charges and convictions,” according to Kuntz, both misdemeanors and felonies. Another player had a house party that was shut down by the police in Wapheton.

“Nothing happened to him,” says Kuntz. “He’s still on the team. He played on Saturday. I don’t feel that I should’ve been kicked off the team for this. It was a kiss. It was a mistake, but it was just a kiss. We weren’t making out.”

If that's true, that's pretty damning. It's hard to make the argument that what Kuntz did is worse than any of those issues that have allegedly plagued the team, and it's even harder to make that argument without being a homophobe. And though the fact that Kuntz is barely legal and his boyfriend is retirement age does seem icky and exploitative (at least to me), they didn't do anything illegal, which is more than you can say about his teammates. I'm sorry. I mean, former teammates.