Te’o helps teammate stay afloat
Manti Te’o hasn’t played a down in the National Football League yet.
But the former Notre Dame linebacker is already endearing himself to at least one teammate with the San Diego Chargers - a player who helped beat the Fighting Irish as a member of the Alabama Crimson Tide in January’s BCS National Championship Game.
Right tackle D.J. Fluker had a fear of drowning. At age 4, the former Alabama player fell and sank to the bottom of a 12-foot swimming pool, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. Fluker’s mother jumped into the pool and saved him. After the incident, Fluker developed a fear of drowning.
Earlier this summer, Te’o and Fluker were together at the NFL Rookie Symposium in Ohio. Te’o helped Fluker overcome his childhood fear. Te’o was swimming laps for a workout while Fluker stood in the shallow end.
“I was terrified of water,” Fluker said. “He [Te’o] was like, ‘Man, relax. I got you.’ “
Te’o said that he began the lesson by telling Fluker to get comfortable with the face being underwater, similar to what his father told him when he was a child. Fluker couldn’t see underwater since he wore contact lenses.
Te’o lifted Fluker’s stomach to keep him parallel and told Fluker to simultaneously kick his legs and dig his hands into the water.
Fluker’s size-22 feet and 10½ -inch hands created a big splash and Te’o then let him go.
“He said, ‘All right, I’m going to let you go,’ ” Fluker said. “I’m like, ‘Let me go? No, no, no, no, no.’ I just sank.”
“His head was still above the water,” Te’o said. “He just wasn’t as flat as he should have been.”
On his second attempt, Fluker made it a few feet and his next two attempts were better before he began to swim a longer distance.
Te’o didn’t have a problem helping a teammate overcome a fear of drowning. But don’t expect him to help out with another water-related activity.
“Don’t ask me how to surf, though,” Te’o said. “I don’t know how to do that.”New number
Denver Nuggets guard Nate Robinson is looking to the soccer pitch for his new number.
Robinson, who signed with Denver earlier this month, will wear No. 10 in honor of Argentina soccer player Lionel Messi, who plays for FC Barcelona.
The veteran guard has worn Nos. 2, 3, 4 during his career.
But with No. 2 being retired for former Nuggets great Alex English, Robinson decided to go in a different direction.
“I’m going to change it up and wear No. 10,” Robinson told DenverStiffs.com, a Nuggets fanblog. “I’m going to wear it for [Lionel] Messi, that’s my favorite soccer player. I’ve been playing a lot of FIFA lately and watching the games. He’s the best little guy to do it and I’ve gotto be the best little guy to do it at No. 10 in the NBA. That’s my goal.”
(For the record, Robinson is 5-9, while Messi is 5-7.)
“Here’s hoping Messi hears about Robinson’s gesture,” Yahoo!
Sports writer Eric Freeman wrote. “Maybe the two of them can even meet up to play with Legos together.”
No phone, no phone
Former major league outfielder Gabe Kapler had his own take on Twitter on Boston Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz’ post-ejection tirade Saturday in Baltimore where he damaged a telephone in the dugout with a baseball bat.
“I don’t blame David for being upset,” Kapler said. “He clearly didn’t want to take any phone calls.”Quote
of the day “We win as a team,
lose as a team.”
NASCAR Sprint Cup driver Jimmie Johnson, after finishing second in
Sunday’s Brickyard 400
Sports, Pages 14 on 07/29/2013