Second thoughts

Former Dallas Cowboys defensive tackle Tony Casillas (center) said deer antler spray isn’t the first strange thing athletes have tried to aid recovery.
Former Dallas Cowboys defensive tackle Tony Casillas (center) said deer antler spray isn’t the first strange thing athletes have tried to aid recovery.

— Put simply, this idea just stinks

Maybe they should have just said “neigh.”

Former NFL defensive tackle Tony Casillas, 49, told radio station KRLD-FM in Dallas that the recent deer antler spray story wasn’t the first time athletes have tried something odd to help them recover from injuries.

“When I heard about deer antler spray, I said, ’That’s nothing,’ ” Casillas said. “We used to use this stuff called DMSO.

That’s what veterinarians put on horses’ muscles ...

“You put it on your skin and you put it on a muscle, and I guarantee you, in about 30 minutes you’d feel great.”

According to ESPN Dallas, former Cowboys offensive lineman Nate Newton, the co-host of ESPN Dallas 103.3 FM’s Coop & Nate show, confirmed Casillas’ comments Thursday.

“Horse liniment. I used it one or two times,” Newton said. “It helped heal horses, muscles, aches and pains and little whatnots. It helped you.

“When you put this stuff in you, you had to be careful because it’s kind of like a poison.

It ain’t something you can drink.

It’s something you’ve got to rub on you. You can taste it all in your mouth. Your breath smells like onions. You could tell a person that’s been using it. I walked by Tony and was like, ‘Woah. Tony, you’re back on the DMSO?’ You could smell it. You could smell it all over the locker room.”

Oh, good. Another interesting locker room smell.

Ring for Cutler

Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler is engaged - again - to girlfriend Kristin Cavallari.

Cavallari told Giuliana Rancic of E! News that “the wheels are in motion” when it comes to her wedding plans with Cutler.

The couple was previously engaged in 2011 but broke it off before recently reconciling.

“We actually have a date,” the bride-to-be said in an interview that will air as part of an E!

special March 10. “But we’re not, you know, telling anyone details.”

When asked if Cutler proposed a second time, Cavallari said, “Yeah, kind of.”

“It was so silly,” Cavallari said.

“I was in the airport, leaving Chicago. We had just spent however many days together and we were texting and somehow it came up, like, ‘Oh, shall we get married?’ We’re like, ‘Yeah, OK.’ And then he sent my ring in the mail. So I actually had my ring sitting at home for a couple of weeks before I put it on.”

Talk about mailing it in.

Strike four

Beginning Feb. 13, the MLB Network will debut its first reality competition series, The Next Knuckler, in which former Boston Red Sox knuckle baller Tim Wakefield will attempt to teach the squirrelly pitch to five quarterbacks, including 50-year old Doug Flutie, in four episodes.

That’s right. Quarterbacks.

While the premise might sound odd, the stakes are real.

The winner gets an invitation to spring training with the Arizona Diamondbacks and the chance to pitch in a spring game.

The other contestants will be John David Booty from Southern Cal; former LSU quarterback Josh Booty, the fifth overall pick by the Marlins in 1994; former Georgia quarterback David Greene, and Ryan Perriloux, who took snaps at LSU and Jacksonville State.

The smart money is on Flutie, even at 50. If he can figure out how to drop kick a football successfully, surely he can handle a knuckle ball.

Quote of the day

“We want to take it to the next level. That’s the next step, taking it away from here.” Mike Anderson, who is 31-5 at home in two seasons as Arkansas’ men’s basketball coach but 1-17 in games played outside the state

Sports, Pages 20 on 02/09/2013

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