NFL star Chad Ochocinco treated dozens of fans to a fancy dinner in Indianapolis Wednesday, after posting the offer on Twitter. The news sent the fingers of football fans flying.

"He started posting about it this morning," Bengals fan Joe Trinosky said. "He's been throwing little hints out all day. I saw the post, so I headed out of work and showed up just in time."

Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco offered to spring for dinner downtown: A free feast at St. Elmo, he tweeted, for the first 64 fans in line Wednesday afternoon.

The idea even surprised St. Elmo general manager Chris Clifford.

"The first thing that goes through your head is, 'Is this for real?'" he said. "And then he called and we started communicating by phone."

A line quickly formed at St. Elmo, where 66 people ended up getting wristbands to secure a seat at the private dinner with the NFL star. The tweet went out just after 4 p.m., and Clifford said the wristbands were gone in 25 minutes.

"We were sitting in here watching people just running from blocks away, coming in pouring sweat and saying, 'Did I make it? Did I make it?'"

But not everyone had the fastest fingers or made the fastest time. Some who came to the restaurant Wednesday missed the chance at a dinner, but they stayed just hoping to catch a glimpse of number 85 as he arrived by taxi with teammate Terrell Owens. Both attended the downtown dinner with fans.

For Ochocinco, the tweet treat has become tradition for away games for the past two years. He said Twitter helped him gain control of his image and the dinners allow fans to see him as a person, not just a player.

"You look at TV, you watch TV. You see the stuff on the field, you think you have one perception, but this is just to give the perception of who the real me is," he said. "It's also a gesture of appreciation for them supporting me in all I do."

So with cameras and footballs waiting to be signed, fans shook his hand and sat with the star for a gourmet Indy feast. Ochocinco said he chose St. Elmo because of its national reputation.

"Someone said St. Elmo was the best place to eat in Indy and I heard they were damn near the best in the world," he said. "And they also said to try the shrimp cocktail."

Sixty-six people is not a cheap date. Clifford estimated that with dinner, drinks and tax, it likely cost Ochocinco about $7,000. The word is that he may do it again when the Bengals play the Colts during the regular season in November.

Another videotape of Brandon Spikes is making the rounds, and it's not good news for the former Florida Gator.

Spikes, you may recall, was caught on tape last year trying to gouge the eyes of Georgia tailback Washaun Ealey. Gators coach Urban Meyer suspended him for the first half of the Vanderbilt game, saying Spikes was retaliating after getting his eye poked earlier against the Bulldogs.

Now a sexually explicit tape of Spikes and a woman has surfaced. The NFL is investigating based on the league's personal conduct policy.

The agent for Spikes, a Patriots rookie, told ESPNBoston.com it's an embarrassing situation.

"It was something that occurred before he became an NFL draftee and a New England Patriot," agent Terry Watson said. "I think for anyone it would be an embarrassing situation. Brandon has shown to many people the kind of person he is before and after being drafted in the second round. He's hoping to put this behind him and looks forward to having a great football season."

Over three preseason games, Spikes ranks third on New England with 17 tackles.

A filing on behalf of basketball superstar LeBron James dismisses as "rank speculation" claims by a Washington lawyer that he is the athlete's biological father, saying the man has "delusions" about alleged family ties.

Lawyers for James and his mother filed papers in federal court Monday seeking to dismiss a pending lawsuit. Leicester Stovell alleges the NBA all-star and his family have been involved in a cover-up to deny paternity, by committing fraud and misrepresentation.

The 14-page document said Stovell had completely failed to prove any of the facts alleged in his June 23 complaint. And they said he was motivated only by fame and money, calling Stovell's actions a "fanciful hope for celebrity."

The lawsuit claims Stovell met James' mother, Gloria, in a Washington bar and restaurant in 1984, when she was visiting from Ohio. She was 15 or 16 at the time, and Stovell says they had sex only once, and was informed by Gloria James months later that she was pregnant. He claims she told him the child would be named LeBron, similar to Leicester Bryce, Stovell's first and middle names.

Stovell is asking for unspecified millions of dollars in damages, and says he has been trying for three years to establish paternity, which he hopes would lead to financial and commercial opportunities. He is a solo legal practitioner in the District of Columbia, and filed the lawsuit on his own behalf.

He alleges a DNA test that showed he was not James' father was falsified.

James' attorneys, Frederick Nance and John Burlingame, dismissed those suggestions in often mocking tones aimed at the plaintiff.

"Stovell's claims for millions of dollars from his putative son and Gloria James are based upon rank speculation," said the court filing, "that a man who claims that as a 29-year-old lawyer he got a 15-year-old girl pregnant during a one-night stand and who never contributed a penny in child support would earn millions in commercial endorsements by crawling out of the woodwork after the child he never gave a thought to became an NBA star."

James, a native of Akron, Ohio, recently left the Cleveland Cavaliers to sign with the Miami Heat for what is believed to be one of the richest sports contracts in history. He is the reigning most valuable player of the NBA, and has carefully cultivated a public image as one of the most popular and talented athletes.

The complaint filed June 23 by Stovell said, "I recently have concluded that a comprehensive, sophisticated and well-funded effort might well have been under way for quite some time, perhaps beginning in its present form as early as when defendant LeBron James was in high school, to frustrate identification of his real father, and that there is a likelihood that the father in question is me."

James' lawyers think otherwise. "Stovell may truly believe that he is the father of LeBron James, even though a DNA test has told him otherwise. But his delusions do not give rise to a cause of action against either Gloria or LeBron James."

Public records show Stovell is a former government attorney with the Securities and Exchange Commission. He filed a lawsuit in 2002 against the agency, alleging racial discrimination. Federal court records show the case was settled when the SEC paid him $230,000, while not admitting fault.

Shaun Stegall, a star on Kennesaw State's basketball team from 2004-08, was shot and killed Saturday night following an argument at his father's Decatur residence.

Georgia's Dave Bliss, top, and Kennesaw State's Shaun Stegall, bottom, battle for a loose ball during a 2007 basketball game in Athens. Stegall was shot and killed Saturday night following an argument at his father's Decatur residence.

A "drug-related altercation" broke out between two unidentified gunmen and Gerald Stegall Sr., 57, in the 2400 block of Mellville Avenue, DeKalb police spokeswoman Mekka Parish said. Stegall, 25, intervened and was shot repeatedly. He was pronounced dead a few hours later at a local hospital, Parish told reporeters.

The elder Stegall, who faces no criminal charges, was pistol-whipped, but his injuries were not believed to be serious.

His son's shooting came as a shock to the Kennesaw State campus, where Stegall emerged as a star after transferring from the University of Nebraska. He was one of just 11 players in the program's history to surpass 1,000 points during his career and twice led the Owls in rebounds.

"This is a very devastating and emotional time for all of us in the Kennesaw State basketball family," Owls head basketball coach Tony Ingle said. "Everyone who recruited and coached Shaun loved him. His mother and father, Tamika and Gerald, are just wonderful people and all of our thoughts and prayers are with them."

After graduating from Kennesaw State, Stegall played professionally for teams in Britain and Syria. The Stone Mountain native played prep ball for Redan High School.

His final game at KSU was easily his best, school officials said. Stegall scored 21 points to go with 18 rebounds, six assists and three steals to lead the Owls to a 65-61 victory over rival Mercer.

"Shaun is one of the primary reasons we were able to win our second straight Peach Belt Conference championship in 2005," Ingle said. "I have a lot of fond memories of Shaun the player, but also of Shaun the person."

Stegall's funeral will be held Saturday at Covenant Ministries Cathedral in Decatur, KSU announced.

The ring awarded to Muhammad Ali when he became boxing's first three-time heavyweight champion has been returned to Ali's former wife six years after she loaned it to a friend who was dying of cancer, her lawyer said.

"It's been a long road," said Veronica Porsche, who was married to Ali for 10 years.

That road ended Monday when a federal judge ruled against the friend's widow, who claimed it was a gift, not a loan, attorney Darren Enenstein said.

Collector Keya Morgan, who is an Ali family friend, said the gold and diamond ring is the "holy grail" of boxing memorabilia. Ali got it after the September 1978 decision against Leon Spinks that made him a three-time champ, Morgan said.

Porsche, who is a clinical psychologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, loaned it to Dr. William Young in summer 2004 after she learned he was suffering from cancer.

Young had treated her husband, who had died from leukemia earlier that year, she said. "He had always been so supportive of us."

"It was a natural thing," she said, because Young was a fan of her former husband. Porsche thought the ring would give the doctor hope and inspiration in his battle with cancer, she said.

When Young died in November 2004, he still had the ring, she said.

"I didn't want to ask his widow immediately, so I waited a month or so and then I couldn't find her," Porsche said. "She had left town."

After six years of trying to find the ring, a private investigator located Phyllis Young in Phoenix, Arizona, and began a legal battle that ended this week, Enenstein said.

When Porsche filed a lawsuit against the widow seeking the ring, Young counter-sued claiming it was given to her husband by Ali as a gift.

"The ring was my husband's to keep and an assurance of the personal bond between them, my husband and Muhammad Ali," Young said in her suit.

While the doctor had treated the boxer once or twice, they were not close friends, Porsche said.

Muhammad Ali signed a sworn statement to help his former wife's legal battle for the return of the ring, Enenstein said.

It was handed over to Porsche in a Los Angeles courtroom on Monday after U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson threw out the widow's counterclaim, he said.

The ring will eventually go to Laila Ali, the 32-year-old daughter of Porsche from her marriage with Ali, she said. The couple's other daughter, Hana, already has the ring the boxer was given when he became a two-time heavyweight champ.

The divorce of golfer Tiger Woods and wife Elin Nordegren was finalized Monday, according to a joint statement issued by their attorneys.

The marriage's end comes nine months after allegations surfaced that Woods carried on several extramarital affairs.

"We are sad that our marriage is over and we wish each other the very best for the future," the statement said. "While we are no longer married, we are the parents of two wonderful children and their happiness has been, and will always be, of paramount importance to both of us."

The judgment, issued Monday in Bay County, Florida, Circuit Court, allows for "shared parenting of their two children," their attorneys said in a statement.

The estranged couple asked for privacy as they "adjust to a new family situation."

In the dissolution of marriage petition filed Monday, Nordegren cites the marriage as "irretrievably broken" as the reason for divorce.

According to the document, the couple reached a settlement agreement July 3 in which they agreed to a joint parenting plan.

Both Woods and Nordegren agreed to waive the 20-day delay period offered in Florida before a final judgment.

"The parties have been separated for a substantial period of time ... and the delay would generate unnecessary public attention," according to the waivers.

The couple were married October 5, 2004.

Allegations of infidelity first began to surface in November when Woods crashed his Cadillac Escalade into a fire hydrant and tree outside his family's home in Orlando.

The November 27 incident, which left him with a sore neck and a cut on his lip that required five stitches to close, also set in motion the crash of his storybook life.

A few days beforehand, the National Enquirer had reported he was having an affair with a New York nightclub hostess, who denied it. But that allegation was followed by others, and Woods' tightly controlled world and image soon began to crumble.

Just after Christmas he entered a rehabilitation center, where he stayed for 45 days getting treatment for undisclosed "issues."

"It was to take a hard look at myself, and I did, and I've come out better," he said in April when he made his return to the PGA tour.

Woods also has acknowledged that he engaged in multiple extramarital affairs over the course of his nearly six-year marriage.

Former pro basketball star Jayson Williams was sentenced to an additional year in prison Friday after he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of driving while intoxicated, according to the Manhattan district attorney's office.

Williams had a blood-alcohol level of more than twice the legal limit when he crashed his Mercedes into a tree in lower Manhattan in January -- just a week before he pleaded guilty to aggravated assault for accidentally shooting and killing a limousine driver in New Jersey, the district attorney's office told reporter.

The year will be added on to the current five-year prison sentence the former NBA player is serving in state prison in New Jersey. He also was also slapped with a $16,433 fine to repair the tree he hit.

Williams had been sentenced to five years in prison after fatally shooting his limo driver, Costas "Gus" Christofi, in February 2002 at his New Jersey estate. Christofi had been hired to drive the former athlete and several of his friends to dinner after a sporting event in Pennsylvania.

The group, including four members of the Harlem Globetrotters, later went back to Williams' home. The prosecution argued that Williams was recklessly handling a 12-gauge shotgun when it discharged and that he and two others tried to make it look as if Christofi had shot himself.

Williams, who retired from the NBA in 1999 because of a leg injury, played nine seasons with the Philadelphia 76ers and the New Jersey Nets.

Wendy Wilson, who said she was Lorenzen Wright's former assistant, said she has been slandered since the day Wright's body was found.

"This is asinine," Wilson said. "It's really going to hurt them and not me."

Wilson filed lawsuits against three people in Chancery Court Thursday. She said her comments about Wright's death have resulted in a barrage of media misconceptions.

"It's going to stop here," Wilson said.

Wilson's troubles began when she showed up at the crime scene the day Wright's body was found and suggested investigators should question Wright's ex-wife, Sherra Wright.

"I mean, she saw him last," Wilson said. "The stories have changed. She went to bed at 10, woke up at 11, he wasn't there. I mean, what is really going on?"

Wilson said within days, radio talk show host Thaddeus Matthews gave his listeners her cell phone number.

"He used means of intimidation via large airwaves and had people call and threaten me and put me in a bad light," Wilson said. "And all I did was tell the truth."

Matthews admitted he gave out Wilson's number.

"To me, her lawsuit is frivolous," Matthews said. "And all I'd tell her to do is bring it on."

Wilson is suing Gail Mathes, Sherra Wright's divorce attorney, for $2.5 million for comments she made. She is also suing Commercial Appeal columnist Geoff Calkins for $1.5 million for what he has written about her.

Wilson said her personal knowledge of Wright's relationship with his ex-wife has helped with the investigation.

"I was the former personal assistant to Lorenzen Wright and I gave facts that were very helpful in this investigation," Wilson said. "No one has to tell me that, God has told me that."

All three people named in Wilson's lawsuits have 30 days to answer to her complaints, which should officially become public record tomorrow.

Mathes and Calkins did not return calls Thursday.

Vikings head coach Brad Childress said Thursday Percy Harvin is doing fine and will stay at Farview Southdale Hospital overnight.

Harvin vomited and collapsed during the team's practice Thursday morning at Winter Park and was taken away in an ambulance. It appears that the wide receiver suffered a violent migraine headache.

Harvin rejoined the team on Monday after missing two weeks at training camp following the death of his grandmother and a recent bout with migraine headaches.

Harvin started practice Thursday with the special teams unit, and his problems started when he looked up into the sky to catch punts. He was seen talking with trainer Eric Sugarman outside the locker room before Thursday's practice, then jogged to the field to watch practice. Shortly after, Harvin was seen vomiting and then collapsed.

The team's medical staff tended to Harvin, and after about 10 minutes, an ambulance from the Hennepin County Medical Center arrived and EMT's tended to him.

Coach Brad Childress said Harvin was unresponsive briefly, but was "stable" when he left Winter Park.

Harvin was sent in an ambulance to Fairview Southdale Hospital in Edina for evaluation. After practice, members of the team went to the hospital to visit him. They included Childress, Adrian Peterson, Sidney Rice and receivers coach George Stewart.

Harvin, the NFL's Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2009, has suffered from migraine headaches since he was 10. Harvin was scheduled to talk with reporters on Thursday for the first time since he left training camp on Aug. 1. It's the second time this season Harvin has had to go to the hospital because of migraine headaches.

Dr. Frederick Taylor, director of the head pain clinic at Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital, told KARE that migraine attacks can be triggered by a variety of outside forces, including sounds, odors, bright lights and blows to the head -- which are common in contact sports.

"Bangs on the head are bad for all of us," Taylor said, "Migrainers are more sensitive to them. Professional football players unequivocally get them."

He said a lot of people who suffer from migraines aren't being treated because they mistake the pain for some other malady, such as a sinus headache, tension headache or allergic reaction.

"You can do a lot of things, but if your threshold is low, you've got a bang on your head, you've got insufficient other prevention, well it's very easy to have an attack," he explained, "The light could do it. Exercise could do it."

But those who begin missing work or school need to seek professional help, and look for ways to avoid the prevent the episodes or lessen the severity.

"This is a disorder that can be largely controlled, and so you control it more than it controls you."

Vikings tackle Bryant McKinnie told reporters Thursday that Harvin has encountered trouble finding medications and therapies that work long-term.

"He says he's tried everything, so hopefully eventually he can find something," McKinnie said.

"I think what happened today kind of lets the team know exactly how hard it is, because a lot of times it doesn't take place in front of us. So now, by people actually seeing it, they'll see it's not a joke."

Miami Heat basketball player Udonis Haslem was charged with possession of marijuana on Sunday after a traffic stop, the Florida Highway Patrol said.

A state trooper stopped Haslem Sunday afternoon for speeding and illegal window tint, the patrol said in a statement.

During the stop, a trooper smelled marijuana, and a subsequent search turned up evidence of the drug, the patrol said.

Haslem, who was driving a 2008 Mercedes, and his passenger, Antwain Fleming, were scheduled to be taken to the Miami-Dade County Jail.

Both men were charged with possession of marijuana, according to the highway patrol. Haslem also was charged with speeding and illegal window tint.

Lee Richardson Jr.'s sister forgave his killers in court Wednesday afternoon -- but a judge wasn't so lenient.

Career stickup man Ishmael Clark will almost certainly die behind bars after Cook County Judge Joseph Kazmierski sentenced him to 180 years for the murder of NBA star Quentin Richardson's brother and the attempted murder of three Chicago cops.

Murder victim Lee Richardson Jr. (second from left) is shown in a family photo with siblings Quentin Richardson (from left), Cedric Richardson, Rochelle Howard and Tywan Richardson.

Clark, 34, and co-defendants Elbert Dunnigan and Gino Wilson, robbed 31-year-old Richardson and his father, Lee Richardson Sr., at gunpoint at the Richardsons' yard at 115th and Parnell on Dec. 5, 2005.

When the robbery went bad, they started shooting, killing the younger Richardson but missing his father -- who survived by playing dead -- before being captured after a wild 5-mile chase.

Clark, the getaway driver, hit and injured a Chicago cop with his "van from hell" as he fled, and he attempted to run down two more after leaving the Richardsons for dead in the snow, prosecutors said.

Assistant Cook County State's Attorney James McKay told Kazmierski that Clark "doesn't deserve to live," urging a sentence of natural life.

Previous victims testified to Clark's role in other brutal robberies.

But in emotional testimony, Richardson's sister Rochelle Howard told the killers, "I forgive you for murdering my brother, and I pray that you will find a way to come to repentance."

Howard said her father, who wasn't in court, didn't agree and wanted "no mercy" shown to the men who killed his son "right before his eyes."

Clark, who had at least four prior felony convictions, showed no reaction as the sentence was announced, though a female relative ran from the courtroom crying and screaming.

Outside court, Howard hugged Clark's mother but said her father would be pleased with the sentence. Watching Clark's family's reaction was "devastating," she said.

She said gun violence, which also claimed the life of Richardson's older brother Bernard in 1992, and the life of one of Clark's siblings, "is a terrible disease in this city."

Wilson was sentenced to 15 years in a plea deal before Dunnigan, and Clark were convicted at a bench trial earlier this year. Dunnigan is due to be sentenced Friday.

It's August, but Charles Barkley is in mid-season form.

He went on ESPN Radio in Dallas Thursday (via FanHouse) and aligned himself with the many people who now see the Miami Heat as the league's villains. And he's having none of LeBron's "taking mental notes of everyone taking shots at me" either.

"I heard about LeBron's little tweet today that he's remembering everybody who said anything bad about him. And he said 'everybody. Well, I want him to make sure that he puts my name on that (list).

"I thought that his little one-hour special was a punk move. I thought them dancing around on the stage was a punk move, and I thought he should've stayed in Cleveland. Him joining Dwyane Wade's team was very disappointing to me."

Barkley did not recruit and team up with another superstar while playing in Philadelphia or Phoenix. He also does not have a championship ring.

Barkley speaks with the new basketball populist voice -- there are a lot of people inside and outside the league now rooting against the Heat. There will be plenty more negativity like this for James to take note of.

And yet when the Heat are on the television ratings will go up, when they are in your town tickets will sell out. And they will win. A lot. And if they can get a ring in the next few years, anything Barkley says will go in one of LeBron's ears and right out the other.

Former NFL Player Mark Fields, 37, was arrested on suspicion of beating the mother of his 6-year-old daughter outside of her day care center, according to court documents.

When police arrived at Tutor Time in Goodyear on Monday, a woman, identified as Field’s ex-girlfriend, was bruised on her arms and scratched, records show.

Police asked Fields what happened, according to the document, and he said the woman had attempted to take the child out of his arms.

Witnesses later told police Fields had confronted the woman outside of the child care facility, grabbed her and choked her by the throat, the court said. Fields then proceeded to place the woman in a choke hold with his arm and throw her to the ground, records state.

The woman told police Fields was not to have contact with their child and while she was attempting to drop off the court order at the facility, Fields showed up, according to the report.

Fields was arrested about at his Litchfield Park home on Monday and was booked into Fourth Avenue Jail on felony counts of aggravated assault and interference with education, and misdemeanor counts of endangerment and disorderly conduct, according to booking documents. He was being held on $10,000 bond.

Fields played with the New Orleans Saints, St. Louis Rams and Carolina Panthers.

Former Fresno State Bulldog and NFL star Lorenzo Neal is asking for the public's help after thieves broke into his Fresno County home and took hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of sports memorabilia.

Neal returned to his Fresno County home with his family Tuesday and discovered pieces of his NFL past had been stolen. He's offering a five thousand dollar reward for their return. "25 years of doing this sport and in one day or a couple of hours, someone comes in and takes that from you, part of your life that you can't replace. That's what's tough," said Neal.

Neal listed some of the items taken in Twitter messages and asked fans to be on the lookout on Craigslist and EBay. The stolen memorabilia includes jerseys from his 16 years in the NFL and items autographed from other sports greats. "These are not cheesy items you'd buy at a swap meet. These are very high end items worth a lot of money," said Fresno County Sheriff's Department spokesperson Chris Cutice.

Fresno County Sheriff's detectives wouldn't say how the thieves got inside Neal's home but confirmed it was a forced entry. They're asking neighbors with security cameras to come forward in hopes of following up on a few leads. In the meantime, Neal says he's thankful he and his family weren't home at the time of the crime. "We just hope someone out there is listening and they feel the need to do the right thing," said Neal.

Sheriff's investigators said they don't know if Neal was specifically targeted, but based on what was taken, it's a definite possibility. It also appears whoever broke in was there for an extended period of time.

Eric Berry comes home Friday to the artificial turf of the Georgia Dome, the acclaimed fifth pick in the 2010 NFL draft. The rookie safety for the Kansas City Chiefs will debut in an exhibition game against the Falcons.

But Berry’s real home field lies 22 miles southwest of the Dome, down Interstate 85 to Jonesboro Road and out Rivertown Road.

Clarence Duncan Park is where Berry, from ages 5 to 13, put down roots in football a few miles from the HUD home his parents fixed up and quickly filled with their sons’ trophies.

Back then, Berry needed the park. Recently he returned because the now-ragged 50-acre park really needs him.

“If you got hurt at Duncan Park, if you weren’t dying, you just did it [kept playing],” Berry, 21, said. “I did that for seven years. That’s how I built [myself] to be tough. ... I think we were brainwashed because we thought we could do anything.”

Today there’s no playground equipment. The pool is drained. In late spring, the football field's weeds were so high that the tops of blocking sleds looked like mailboxes.

Enter Berry, who felt such pride in his roots that he intended to wear his Fairburn Flames T-shirt on stage in New York at the NFL Draft. Later he realized that to make a difference, he had to get in the dirt again.

“This place is like a part of me,” he said.

Berry played football for the Fairburn Flames program at Duncan Park. Across metro Atlanta, programs such as Duncan’s tag talent early and seed rivalries.

“Playing Ben Hill was like Tennessee playing Alabama,” Berry said. “The stands were filled up.”

Boys played for the Fairburn Flames for $75 a season, against park teams from across Southside Atlanta that included future NFL players such as Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson.

Rokevious Watkins remembered when his team from College Park Recreation Center met Berry.

“He scored on the first play of the game and two more times before we could even talk about it,” said Watkins, 21, now a junior guard at South Carolina.

If not at Duncan, Berry "would have had a place to play anywhere,” said Marion Brown, his coach at age 11. “The problem with most kids is that they grow before they’ve grown up. He was the type who was always listening.”

Duncan Park was where Berry heard the coaching voice he most wanted to listen to.

“That’s where I got to see my dad before he went to work,” said Berry. “His heart is deepest into the park.”

James Berry coached the Flames before his overnight shift as a machine operator at the Owens Corning plant. A former running back at Tennessee, he saw Eric’s big hands and moved him up to play against older boys -- as quarterback -- at Duncan.

The only game Berry missed was the morning his mother’s water broke. Then 7, he begged to go to Duncan, but his parents took him to Piedmont Hospital. His twin brothers Evan and Elliott have since followed his football path through Duncan Park and the Flames program.

Berry played the season he turned 12 as a way to recover from the August death of Huel Young, his grandfather and caregiver who took him to practice.

In the early 1990s, Duncan Park “was thriving,” James Berry recalled. “All the buildings were in use. The pool was functional. There was an afterschool program and tutoring. Seniors had an exercise class. It was flourishing.”

Eric Berry moved upward from Creekside High School to Tennessee, where he won the 2009 Jim Thorpe Award as the best defensive back in America.

Meanwhile, Duncan Park went down.

When Fairburn reached 3,500 residents, state law forbade Fulton County to continue maintenance. As the city coped with this and other growth issues, the park languished. The football Flames suffered, too.

No longer could Carol Berry, Eric’s mother, peacefully cut coupons at Duncan Park while Eric’s younger brothers worked out.

“The city sent the police out to keep them from practicing because they said we didn’t have permission,” she said. “The kids were crying and complaining.”

If James Berry didn’t mow the field, his team would play in waist-high weeds -- which at least, he said, was an improvement from his own roots. “Where I grew up [in Natchez, Miss.] we played in the backyards of other peoples’ homes.”

“We were growing, and we hadn’t figured out who we were yet,” said city council member Scott Vaughan, also a Creekside teacher who coached Berry to several state track titles.

To reinvigorate and renovate Duncan Park, Berry pooled his status and resources. He, his family and corporate sponsors unveiled the results with a big party in late July on “Eric Berry Day.”

Adidas donated 300 uniforms for the Flames. Because Berry has helped test prototypes of safer synthetic turf, AstroTurf is installing a new football field at Duncan Park.

Fairburn put up $150,000 toward the field. Local officials showed up at the party to raise support for a November referendum that would fund a park overhaul.

“It’s a blessing ... to have an athlete of this regard with the finances to help the renovation,” said mayor Mario Avery.

For Berry, returning evoked nostalgia for a childhood free of negotiated salaries, long before Sports Illustrated called him “The Sure Thing.” His college freshman souvenir is the Atlanta skyline tattooed across his abdomen, with the acronym DSGB for “Down South Georgia Boy.” He seeks an authenticity in action, not just words.

"I don’t want to be someone like, ‘He made it, but he didn’t come back,'" Berry said. “I want them to see they can reach a goal ... I don’t want to just be from here, someone they see on TV and not in the community or the park.”

Berry said he hopes to return for Duncan Park's homecoming. It's scheduled for the Chiefs' off week.

Tony Dungy believes in mentoring and says it puts people on the right path — including his most famous pupil, Philadelphia quarterback Michael Vick.

On a national tour to promote his new book on mentoring, Dungy told The Associated Press on Monday that Vick still has a lot to learn about his image.

Dungy says even if Vick isn't doing something illegal, he still can better decisions to stay out of harm's way.

Vick hosted a birthday party that ended with a shooting June 25 in Virginia Beach, Va.

"The first thing people have to realize is that probation officers detail everything, and if he is off track even a little, they're going to come down," Dungy said. "They reviewed the situation that went on and moved forward. The NFL did and moved forward. Michael would like to have all the negative publicity back, but it really wasn't the type of thing that people have blown it into. But that's the lesson for him."

Vick is on probation after serving an 18-month federal prison sentence that ended in May 2009 for dogfighting.

According to police in Virginia Beach, Vick was not present when a person was shot. Vick's attorney, Larry Woodward, identified the victim as Quanis Phillips, a co-defendant in the dogfighting ring.

"Tony Dungy can go somewhere and if something happens, I'm not going to get singled out," Dungy said. "Michael Vick goes some place and the same thing happens, and you're the center of attention. You're the focus. Now is it fair? Who knows?

"But that's the bed you've made and you've got to sleep in it and be prepared for that. That's the lesson he's learned."

Dungy shares life lessons in his new book, The Mentor Leader. It went on sale last week, and Dungy spoke at the national offices of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America in midtown Atlanta. He will also make stops during the promotional tour this week in Central and South Florida.

Dungy writes at length about his work with Vick.

"Whether Michael manages to regain the status he once had in the league is not nearly as important as the kind of man he becomes," Dungy said. That's what I wrote about him in the book."

During Vick's imprisonment in Leavenworth Kan., Dungy visited with the former Atlanta Falcons star. Since Vick's release in May 2009, Dungy has stayed in contact with him regularly and talks occasionally with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and Eagles coach Andy Reid to ensure Vick is making good decisions off the field.

"He didn't do anything other than maybe put himself in a place where he shouldn't have been," Dungy said. "But people will look at that one incident and forget about the other 364 days and a lot of the good things that have gone on."

Vick is Philadelphia's No. 2 quarterback behind starter Kevin Kolb. Last week at Eagles training camp, Goodell met with Vick — who does not face any disciplinary actions from the NFL as a result of the birthday bash shooting.

Dungy coached the Indianapolis Colts to the 2006 Super Bowl title.

Former Falcons cornerback Glenn Sharpe was arrested and charged with drug possession Wednesday during a traffic stop, Gwinnett police said.

Officers stopped Sharpe around 11 p.m. along Interstate 85 near Lawrenceville-Suwanee Road for speeding, said Cpl. Edwin Ritter, Gwinnett police spokesman.

Police discovered Metronidazole, an antibiotic, inside a prescription bottle and several Vicodin pills, Ritter said. A .9mm pistol was located near the pill bottle, he said.

Sharpe is charged with illegal possession of a narcotic and possession of a weapon during the commission of a felony.

Sharpe, 27, who played in college at Miami, was with the Falcons during the 2008-2009 season. He was on the practice squad of the New Orleans Saints last year. Sharpe is currently a free agent.

He is being held at the Gwinnett County Jail on an $11,400 bond.

His accomplishments at the time of his retirement spoke for themselves: six Pro Bowl appearances, third all-time among NFL sack leaders, six times All-Pro, and the crowning achievement, Super Bowl champion.

Rickey Jackson struggled through the first few years after football, in part because he was dealing with the death of his mother at that time.

That last noteworthy event, however, came as a member of the New Orleans Saints' most hated NFC West rival, the San Francisco 49ers, a sad footnote to the franchise's listlessness of that era, when the 49ers were the team by which greatness was measured, and, sadly for the Saints, the one in the same division that annually seemed to be standing in New Orleans' path to success.

"That was the history of the Saints," said former NFL player Hugh Green, who spent four years rooming with Rickey Jackson at the University of Pittsburgh, where the two forged a lifelong bond that thrives today. "The greatest players who ever came through there, the Saints traded away. It was business for them, and they looked at things like a business. All the great players want a team that's going to put people around you to make you better."

As good as the Saints' defense was during the final seven years of Jackson's time in New Orleans, which resulted in then-unprecedented seven consecutive non-losing seasons and four postseason appearances, all losses, New Orleans could not get over the hump.

Jackson's free-agency exit to San Francisco enabled him to take that final on-the-field step of success, winning a title, which provided until now the professional satisfaction for which all players strive.

"He did have the opportunity to go to San Francisco and get a Super Bowl," Green said, "and a lot of guys don't get that opportunity. That's the chief factor in the league: If you don't have a ring, what does it mean?"

Norma Williams Jackson, who was married to Jackson for 13 years and bore three of his nine children, was a hometown sweetheart in Pahokee, Fla., and opened her heart to Jackson and home to all of his children when the couple lived in Destrehan during his time with the Saints.

After the couple divorced in 1996, she watched as Jackson left his final association with the Saints as a sometimes assistant coach under Mike Ditka, after a failed attempt to come out of retirement and resume his playing career under Ditka in 1997. That was one year after Jackson had been feted in the Superdome in a ceremony in which his Saints' number 57 was affixed to the stadium wall.

"From what I could tell," Norma Jackson said, "he stayed around New Orleans for a while, and I think he coached with Mike Ditka for a time, so he was around football. He came full circle. He had a good career and he got his Super Bowl. I think he was fulfilled in that respect."

But Jackson's beloved mother, Leila Pearl Jones Lawson, had been incapacitated by a stroke, and was living in a nursing home, her health deteriorating.

It wasn't easy for Jackson, the youngest of five children, who'd always had a special bond with the woman who raised her kids as a single parent and had mapped out a life plan for each: athletics for the two boys, teaching for the three girls.

"He concentrated on her a whole lot," Norma Jackson said. "He was visiting her a lot there in Pahokee. He was the baby of five, and his mom raised him as a single parent. She was always there, always at his game. When I asked him why he got out of coaching, he said, ÔI've got to stay close to my mom. I don't know when she might go, so I want to be here.' "

In 2006, Jackson's mother, Leila, died. She was 67.

"I came back to Pahokee for my mother," Jackson said of those days shortly after his football playing and coaching life ceased, and his adjustment to the real world began in earnest. "I was always a guy who was never looking for a whole lot. I was never looking for much. I said God always blessed me with a lot.

"(His mother's illness and eventual death) affected me, made me come back home. I thought she was too young. But that was life. I got into the church, and it helped me to see some stuff. Once you get with God, he begins to show you that everything here you're going to leave. Don't be taking anything on earth you think you're going to leave with. That helped me out a lot.

"Toward the end of (his mother's) life, I got with a good church. Once I did that, and started reading the bible, it really helped me out. The Bible Church of God. I was raised in the Church of God in Pahokee. They're about the same. The word is the same, the music is different. God is God."

During the time Jackson was dealing with his mother's illness, he was also dealing with a legal issue regarding unpaid child support of reportedly more than $150,000 for the youngest of his nine kids, Tyler.

Jackson's name appeared at the top of the list of about 60,000 individuals identified by the Louisiana Department of Social Services, labeled deadbeat dads because of unpaid child support.

Jackson fathered three children with his wife, Norma: Rickeyah, 26, Rickeem, 21 and Rickeyvis, 19. He has six others: Tamara, 32, Brandy, 30, Rickey Jr., 31, Javin, 26, Richard 20 and Tyler, 14, four of those by different mothers.

He has addressed the child support issues and now is no longer listed on the Department of Social Services website as an individual in arrears.

"My thing is that was blown out of proportion," Jackson said recently. "Me and my kids have always been tight. I've always been in their life. I don't know. Sometimes, I wonder now, being with Tyler, how stuff like that went down like that. That was a bunch of mess. If it was so bad, why didn't I get arrested? You know guys owe $10,000 and they get arrested.

"Being an athlete coming up, all my kids were young, when I was young . . . . my daddy's got 20-something kids, and I've got nine. That's one thing I tried to always say I wasn't going to follow him with. I know we're a lot alike, but I tried to stay out of it. I got burned at times I shouldn't have. I chalk it up as something I did wrong."

Rickeyah Jackson, one of two individuals Jackson considered to present him at his enshrinement in Canton, Ohio, on Saturday (he chose Saints owner Tom Benson), is especially close to her father. Mom Norma said that is because Rickey was present for her premature birth, seven months early.

"She was 4 pounds when she was born," Norma Jackson said, "and it was his very first time witnessing something like that. He told me, ÔThis is the first time I've ever been through anything like that.' She wrapped her little fingers around his pinkie finger and they've been tight ever since."

It is a bond Rickeyah obviously enjoys, caring for her father and his football legacy.
"We're very much alike," Rickeyah said. "I'm stubborn like he is ... all of his ways, the good, the bad and the ugly. He's very kind-hearted, but very strong-willed, which can be a good thing and a bad thing because of his stubbornness. But he's got a very humble spirit.

"He had to go through a time when he had to find himself, so to speak. Because football wasn't there any more. I'm happy now that he's doing well and back on track. That was a very humbling experience for him too. That, and finding Christ, that helped him to where now he does have the Hall of Fame, he appreciates it more. When he lost his mom, who was his everything, I think it put a lot of things into perspective. It showed him different priorities, how to live better and do better."

Former NBA star Dennis Rodman walked away unhurt after riding in an SUV that flipped over on an interstate in South Florida.

Sgt. Mark Wysocky of the Florida Highway Patrol said Rodman and another passenger weren't injured in the single-vehicle crash on Saturday on Interstate 95 near Fort Lauderdale. The driver was taken to a hospital.

Wysocky said the Land Rover flipped over after having a tire problem. No charges are expected.

Rodman's agent, Darren Prince, said he spoke with his client on Sunday, and he confirmed that he was unhurt. Rodman had just returned to the U.S. from the Caribbean island of St. Tropez, where he had a disc-jockey gig.

"Thank God he's OK," Prince said. "He walked out with a little scratch on his finger."

Prince said that Rodman told him, "'I'm still living brother. They can't get rid of me.'"

Rodman told his agent that the driver had a gash in his head and was in stable condition.

Known for his flamboyance on and off the court, Rodman won three NBA championships with Chicago and two with Detroit. He led the league in rebounding seven consecutive seasons in the 1990s and was named defensive player of the year twice.

He has appeared in several movies and TV shows, including the 1997 film "Double Team" with Jean Claude Van Damme and "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew."

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Memphis police aren't talking -- usually a sign they have some solid leads and information -- but their actions suggest they are focusing on former NBA player Lorenzen Wright's ex-wife in the investigation of his murder.

Sunday police combed through the home of Sherra Wright, who was apparently the last person to seem him alive and unharmed. Now Wright's former personal assistant Wendy Wilson told the local ABC affiliate in Memphis she has audio recordings of Sherra threatening Lorenzen.

"I have the evidence that she said these things and she knows it," Wilson told myeyewtinessnews.com, Memphis' ABC affiliate.

Wilson went on to say Sherra said "things like, if she caught him with anyone else, she'd have him 'f'd up' or whatever."

Sherra Wright's attorney says that the police looking through the home was just a normal part of an investigation, something he told the same affiliate.

"I just assume it's part of the routine investigation," said (Coleman) Garrett. "They're looking for clues, they're looking for evidence. They're trying to find answers, and that would be one of the logical things to do, to search any premises where Lorenzen was last known to be."

Also, despite rumors to the contrary in Memphis, Wright has not been arrested.

"No, she's never been in police custody, and I don't know where all these rumors come from," said Garrett. "And that's why we don't intend to add to them with her speaking on camera or present, what have you, because it's just going to exacerbate a bad situation, and people are going to have their opinions and misconstrue what is said."

Lorenzen Wright had been at his ex-wife's house on July 18 visiting his children. Several hours later a brief 911 call came from Wright's cell phone to a Germantown, Tenn., dispatcher and gunshots were heard. On July 22, Wright's family filed a missing person's report. On July 28 police found Wright's body, shot multiple times, in the area where the 911 call had come from. The delay in using that call is also being investigated, according to the Memphis Commercial Appeal.

Wright had been a star at the University of Memphis and had gone on to a 13-year NBA career.