Just how passionate and crazy are Alabama fans about their football team? Crazy enough to reportedly throw six figures at a broken trophy.

According to TideSports.com reporter Cecil Hunt, a broken 2011 BCS National Championship trophy was sold for $105,000 at an Alabama Celebrity Golf Tournament on Sunday.

Alabama earned the trophy by going 12-1 during the 2011 season and beating LSU in the BCS title game. The trophy, which costs $30,000, was broken in April 2012 when the father of former Alabama player Carson Tinker tripped on a rug and knocked it over. Tinker’s father must not feel too badly about it now that the trophy brought in thousands. In this case, you break it, somebody else buys it. For a lot of money.

Photo: Twitter/John Phillips

Keenan Allen learned the hard way that it’s a bad idea to offend your fanbase by wearing the hat of a rival team.

Allen, a North Carolina native, played his college ball at Cal and was drafted in the third round by the San Diego Chargers last month. The wide receiver shared a video on Vine of himself eating at In-N-Out burger, but he was wearing an Oakland Raiders hat in the video. Predictably, that didn’t go over well with Chargers fans, who immediately got on his case.

Allen deleted the Vine video and apologized on Twitter:

I get it fans!!!! Won’t happen again!

— Keenan Allen (@KAAdeuce1) May 18, 2013

I apologize!

— Keenan Allen (@KAAdeuce1) May 18, 2013

Rookie move, Allen. Though, he can always claim he was just taking his lead from Tom Brady.

Photo via Dave Palet
H/T The Big Lead

Chapman is normally automatic as a closer, so seeing him allow two home runs in the same game was unusual considering he’d only allowed seven in his entire career prior to Sunday. But our friend Spike Eskin at CBS Philly shared a theory about what may have slowed down the Cuban Missile on Sunday.

Phillies Spanish language broadcaster Rickie Ricardo told Angelo Cataldi and the 94WIP Morning Show on Monday that Chapman may have been undone by an extra helping (or two, or three) of a special pastry he ate before the game.

Ricardo explained that there is a special Cuban bakery nearby where he lives in Union City, N.J., and that Cuban ballplayers will often ask him to bring them a special bakery item.

“They cook this little Cuban pastry, which is a flaky-crust pasty with cream cheese and guava and it’s baked, and it’s absolutely delicious,” Ricardo told WIP. “Now, if you eat more than two of these you’re clogging up your arteries—you’re a stroke waiting to happen!

“Well, Chapman asked me on Friday night after the game to stop by the bakery and pick up a box of 50. For example, Livan Hernandez, guys like that—even Chooch, guys on our team, they’ll put 10-15 of these things away with a couple of glasses of milk. It’s equivalent of the Krispy Kreme donuts when they come right out of the oven, it’s that kind of a thing.”

Ricardo told WIP that Chapman asked him for 100 of the pastelitos de guayaba — two boxes of 50 — and that the Reds closer was about five fist-fulls deep into the box before Sunday’s game.

“When I saw him on Sunday morning before the game, he was in the club house, he had just eaten about 18 of them. He couldn’t breathe! I looked at my partner, I said, ‘he’s ripe for the taking today.’”

Sure enough, Ricardo was right. Chapman has now blown back-to-back saves, giving him 10 blown saves for his career. Eskin says Chapman was mostly around 95 mph during the appearance. So, was he slowed by the pastries? If so, it wouldn’t be the first time someone was ruined by the food they ate before a game. You make the call.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. and his family just live a much more lavish lifestyle than the rest of us. The undefeated boxer threw his daughter Iyanna a big birthday party on Saturday night to celebrate her turning 13 on Monday. Naturally, Mayweather brought in nothing but the best for his girl. He noted on Instagram that singer Justin Bieber and actor Kevin Hart showed up for the party. We wouldn’t be surprised if the two even performed there.

During an episode of “All Access” before his fight with Robert Guerrero, Mayweather was shown spending some quality time with his daughter (the fact that cameras were recording it all didn’t ruin the intimacy of the day did it?). He took her to the movies and rented out the entire theater so that it would be private.

The whole theater. When you’re a part of The Money Team, this is just how life is.

Below is a photo of Iyanna with Hart:

So, I bet you’re asking what kind of presents a girl receives at her birthday party when famous people show up in attendance. I don’t know that answer, but we do know that his daughter wanted gifts despite recognizing that “What do you get for the girl who has everything?” dilemma applied to her situation.

The whole thing started on Sunday night when a fake Twitter account of someone pretending to be Yahoo! Sports reporter Adrian Wojnarowski tweeted that Kobe was supposedly retiring. Note that this fake account has three “O’s” in Yahoo! where there should be two:

Somehow that tweet managed to receive 288 retweets, including retweets from some pretty big sports figures on Twitter. It apparently made enough noise to prompt Kobe to respond:

Really?? Me. Retire?? Soon, but not yet Vino still has work to do #35 #OG #kbvff

— Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) May 20, 2013

Did we really think Kobe was going to retire? Not a chance. There’s no way that guy would go out with a torn Achilles’ tendon injury. No way he’d let that be his last impression on the NBA.

The New York Post’s Marc Berman reports that Smith is expected to opt out of his current contract to sign a four-year extension with the team. Berman says that the team could offer Smith around $5 million per season because of their Early Bird rights to him, though we do not know if another team will be able to offer Smith more. Berman also says that Smith and his brother, Chris, who played at Louisville, will be a package deal. Chris Smith was undrafted but played on the Knicks’ Summer League team. He got hurt and was waived before training camp.

The Post also says that Chris Smith has changed agents to Carmelo Anthony’s agent, for what that’s worth.

Chris Smith seems pretty excited about the potential package deal:

I will be back next season along with my big brother @therealjrsmith … Will be a blessing to wear my Knicks uniform.. Prep for 2014 is now

— Chris Smith (@3_ChrisSmith) May 19, 2013

JR Smith played part of 2011-2012 in China after signing there during the lockout. He returned and played the remainder of the season with the Knicks, but he did not receive much free agent interest. He signed a two-year deal for worth around $2.8 million per season prior to this season, and he was named Sixth Man of the Year.

Chest bump to Eye on Basketball

Cabrera went 4-for-4 with 3 runs scored and 5 RBIs in the game. He started off with a line-drive single in the top of the first for Detroit’s lone hit of the inning. Two innings later, he followed hits from Omar Infante and Torii Hunter with a prodigious 3-run home run to right-center off Derek Holland:

Clear your eyes for a second and comprehend what you just saw. Miggy took an 83-mph change-up from lefty Derek Holland and sent it 441 feet to the opposite field. A 441-foot opposite field home run off a change-up from a lefty. Seriously. Do you realize how insane that is? Not only is a pitch like that intended to keep a hitter off balance or induce them to ground out weakly to the right side, but it requires a lot of power from the batter to deposit an 83-mph pitch 441 feet.

After getting burned with a change-up to Cabrera, Holland figured he’d bring the heat in the next at-bat to see how it would go. He brought in a 94-mph fastball, and Cabrera sent out a line drive to straight away center that left the park in about half a second:

After proving he could handle the off-speed away, and a fastball over the middle, reliever Tanner Scheppers decided he would see how Cabrera could do with a 96-mph heater on the hands. Cabrera didn’t even extend his arms and still got enough of the ball to see it carry over the center field fence:

I was banging the Mike Trout for MVP drum louder than anyone last season, and still say he deserved the award, but I remained consistent in saying one thing: Miguel Cabrera is the best hitter in baseball. I have been saying that for the last several years. The guy is just awesome.

Let me ask you one thing: When is the last time you have seen Miggy slump? Albert Pujols, A-Rod, Robinson Cano, Buster Posey, Ryan Braun — all MVPs and All-Stars — all of them have slumped. Has Miggy? Ever? For more than like a three-game stretch? No. The guy is just the best all-around hitter in baseball and has been for the last several years.

Want to see something scary?

Miggy’s numbers last year through 42 games: .304 average, 8 home runs, 34 RBIs.
Through 42 games this season: .387 average, 11 home runs, 47 RBIs.

Someone else might beat him out in one or more of those categories, but he’s going to put up a fight.

The Bella Twins and Mick Foley hung out at Busch Stadium on Saturday as a cross-promotional weekend between the St. Louis Cardinals and WWE. The wrestling stars hung out on the field before the game and held an autograph session for fans. Foley aka Mankind also took some batting practice, though his swing certainly left a lot to be desired. As for The Bella Twins, well, there’s a lot to be desired between the two of them. Chris Jericho also showed up to the park on Sunday and threw out the first pitch.

Many more photos below.

This is the most alive Bob Uecker’s felt since Rick Vaughn dusted Clu Haywood on three pitches:

Look who we ran into at the @cardinals game! Bob Uecker! Always amazing laughs! :) B&N twitter.com/nicoleandbri/s…

— The Bella Twins (@nicoleandbri) May 18, 2013

Double Trouble takin’ over Batting Practice with the @cardinals! twitter.com/nicoleandbri/s…

— The Bella Twins (@nicoleandbri) May 18, 2013

David Freese got in on the fun:

.@dfreese23 plays catch with @wwe stars @nicoleandbri. twitter.com/Cardinals/stat…

— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) May 18, 2013

Carlos Beltran was chatting up Foley:

.@carlosbeltran15 with @wwe star @realmickfoley. twitter.com/Cardinals/stat…

— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) May 18, 2013

And Matt Holliday wasn’t going to be left out:

.@mattholliday7 meets @wwe stars @realmickfoley and @nicoleandbri. twitter.com/Cardinals/stat…

— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) May 18, 2013

Here’s Jericho throwing out the first pitch on Sunday:

WWE superstar @iamjericho threw out today’s ceremonial pitch. And then, he apparently told jokes to Matt Adams. twitter.com/Cardinals/stat…

— St. Louis Cardinals (@Cardinals) May 20, 2013

Here’s a video of Foley and the Bella Twins hanging out at the park on Saturday, with Foley taking BP:

H/T Cut 4
Photo credit: Twitter/Bella Twins

If you are a pet/dog lover, this video will make you melt.

The story of Ricochet the surfing dog was featured on SportsCenter on Sunday night. Ricochet is a female golden retriever born into the “Puppy Prodigies Neo-natal & early-learning program” with the intention of becoming a service dog for a person with a disability. Early in life, she could help pull down zippers on a person’s jacket, pull a laundry basket, and do much more. But at 16 weeks, Ricochet stopped responding to the training and didn’t want to do more. One video says she was dropped from the program because of her instinctual fascination with chasing birds. However, Ricochet and her trainer finally found something she could do well — help people surf.

They began setting up fund raisers where Ricochet helped people surf by standing towards the back or on the sides and balancing the surf board. Her first fundraiser was with a quadriplegic named Patrick Ivison, and she helped raise $10,000 for him.

In the SportsCenter feature video, Ricochet can be seen helping three people with disabilities surf: Ivison, a young boy with brain damage from a fatal car crash, and a boy with autism.

Below you can watch a 2009 video of Ricochet that has amassed over four million views on YouTube:

And my favorite image from the ESPN story:

Ray Rice did.

Rice posted the above picture on his Facebook page on Sunday with the caption: “y’all catch the Preakness yesterday?”

Hilarious. His photo had over 11,000 likes and nearly two thousand shares on Facebook at the time this was posted.

If you’re wondering whether a football player can actually beat a horse in a race, I present you with this.