Second thoughts

— Primetime not sold on bikini ball

Deion Sanders was a two-sport athlete.

Now his daughter is making a name for herself by playing a sports league named after a twopiece bathing suit.

Deiondra Sanders, daughter of the Hall of Fame football player, has agreed to play in the upstart Bikini Basketball League this season. Featuring several former professional basketball players including some who have played in the WNBA and overseas, the league is a bit of a misnomer as the players wear shortsand sports bras and not actual bathing suits.

Still, it amounts to a little more material than Deion’s famous bandanna he’d wear on his headon game day. And even though Deionwas known for his flamboyant personality, including gold chains and exuberant touchdown dances, his daughter’s signing with the league didn’t originally sit well with dear old dad.

“My dad was kind of upset, but that’s like any parent who just sees ‘bikini league,’ ” Deiondra said. “He thought I was going to be out therein a bikini. He [saw] a picture of our uniform and stuff like that, so I think once he saw that we’re actually covered up a little bit, he wasn’t as concerned.”

Deiondra said she hopes that playing in the league will put her in primetime position for her career and for being a “positive voice.” She will play for the Atlanta Peaches.

Winner, winner

From Reggie Hayes of The News-Sentinel of Fort Wayne, Ind.:

“The University of Mississippi has agreed to pay former coach Houston Nutt a lump sum of $4.35 million to complete his contract buyout. Athletic Director Ross Bjork said the deal will save the athletic department $550,000 and is a ‘win-win’ for everybody.

“Coincidentally, Ole Miss’ record [in Nutt’s final season] was win-win and 10 losses.”Quote of the day

“Right now you look at

our team and Marshawn

[Powell] has probably been like a one-man

wrecking force for the

most part. We’ve got to

get other guys involved.” Arkansas Coach Mike AndersonBlind ambition

Michael Oher is an offensive tackle for the Baltimore Ravens, but that’s not Oher’s true claim to fame. Oher was the subject of the movie The Blind Side.

Oher,however, has never been happy about the inaccuracies of the movie and when Super Bowl media day came around, he was short with thosewho mentioned the movie.

“I’m tired of the movie. I’m here to play football,” Oher said early during his media session on the floor of the Superdome.

“Football is what got me hereand the movie, it wasn’t me.”

In the film, he is portrayed as an oversized kid who happened onto football as a way out of his life in the inner city, and while football did prove to be his golden ticket, the subsequent assumption that he was some sort of monosyllabic football savant hasn’t gone over well.

“I’m not in the movies, man.

I play football,” Oher said. “I work hard on the field. That’s why I don’t like talking about [the movie], because it kind of takes away from my hard work on the field. I kind of feel a little bit under-appreciated, but as long as my team and the guys in the locker room know what I bring to the table, it’s all good.”

Sports, Pages 20 on 01/31/2013

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