TAMPA – So, look who’s talking.
It turns out that Joe Maddon, the skipper who piloted the most unlikely run in baseball history last fall when his worst-to-first Tampa Bay Rays went all the way to the World Series, is tight with Arizona coach Ken Whisenhunt.
“Actually, I called [Maddon] a few times before his games in the playoff run and wished him luck, and he’s done the same for me,” Whisenhunt said. “It’s been an exciting relationship for me, from the standpoint of his team kind of coming out of nowhere and … getting to the big game, and us being able to do the same thing.
“We draw parallels all the way up to the last game, hopefully,” he said. “Maybe it’ll go a little different for us.”
Of course, the Rays lost in five games to Philadelphia.
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That Lamborghini parked outside the Grand Hyatt where the Arizona Cardinals are staying? Yeah, it belongs to running back Edgerrin James.
He bought the six-figure ride as a reward to himself for making it to the big game, but doesn’t plan on driving much this week. His new wheels are eye candy near the valet stand for now.
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It’s not something most players will throw out there in a scrum with the media, but Santonio Holmes admitted Wednesday to having spent about a year selling drugs as a kid growing up in Belle Glade, Florida.
Friends and even some family members were hauling in easy money peddling dope, he said, and though Holmes would not specify what he sold, he succumbed to the lifestyle for a short while. “I’ve only told three or four people about it,” said Holmes, who hopes that young at-risk kids might see his story and realize they a pull themselves out of that lifestyle. “I feel it's time to share things. I'm on the biggest stage, everybody’s going to be watching.”

