Brothers Vernon Davis and Vontae Davis make history

No, not because both brothers were drafted in the first round of the NFL draft... Vontae will tell you that Peyton and Eli Manning also hold that honor. But Vernon and Vontae are now the first pair of brothers to have verified athlete blogs on Yardbarker! Head over to Vontae's new blog and welcome him to the blogosphere.

Pictured here is Vernon convincing Vontae that he needs to blog on Yardbarker (you can see the video on Vernon's blog). Thanks for doing my job for me Vernon!

Yardbarker goes Hollywood, partners with TV network VERSUS

Yardbarker and VERSUS have just announced a new bromance, aka strategic partnership. As one part of the relationship, Yardbarker will have a special involvement with the new VERSUS television show Fanarchy, which will feature regular sports fans arguing with each other via webcam.

Fanarchy got a few early bad reviews based on its press release a few weeks back, and I can't blame the doubters. The concept of the show could sound like a "trainwreck" if produced poorly. But I've worked with the producers the last couple of months and I've seen early versions of the show -- it will actually be really good. The sports fans will be entertaining personalities and the TV producers know how to edit the whole thing together to look slick. And we've got some tricks up our sleeves for a special Yardbarker segment that will be part of each show as well.

I've been watching VERSUS's original show Sports Soup for the last few weeks and I really like it (though I might be biased because I totally have a crush on the host Matt Iseman). I'm looking forward to adding Fanarchy to the TV viewing rotation as well. The first show will air Sunday June 7th at 11pm Eastern (and then the regular time slot will be Tuesdays at 10:30pm).

Oh, and if YOU want to be on the show? Stay tuned, I'ma hook you up with info on how to audition...

UPDATE: Ben Koo has some great thoughts on the deal.

More dreamy Mark Sanchez... Plus new hair-heartthrob Troy Polamalu

Dewey was in L.A. covering some events for Yardbarker and ran into our old friend Mark Sanchez, he of the dreamy locks of hair. Mark clarifies his response about his hair care and then goes on to discuss the proper way to hit on ladies, in response to Chantelle Anderson's Yardbarker blog post about the issue. Many thanks Dewey for bringing this magic to us:



For those wanting a little more Sanchez, Sports by Brooks also has the pics from his GQ photo shoot...

And then there's Troy Polamalu, who just may give Mark a run for his money in the "dreamy NFL players with hair" category.

Larry Fitzgerald races blogger Dewey Hammond, takes his camera and shoes

At a recent Nike event, our friend Dewey Hammond came up with the bright idea of challenging Larry Fitzgerald to a footrace. You know, because it's not like an NFL wide receiver would be good at the 40-yard dash or anything. Dewey thought he's lose a dollar on the contest, but ended up losing both his camera and his shoes. At least he didn't bet his laptop, or else he wouldn't have been able to tell the story.



Thanks to JockLife for the video. And to WithLeather for making Dewey's day by identifying him as a "20-something" kid.

Brendan Haywood is blogging and he has a lot to say

Brendan Haywood just joined Yardbarker and is already trying to give teammate Gilbert Arenas a run for his money in the epic blog department. His first post tackles such issues as hard fouls in the NBA, steroids in baseball, and Manny Pacquiao's domination of Ricky Hatton. The most quotable part is his complaint about the referee favoritism towards LeBron James:

I think we all know that anytime you touch LeBron James, you’re going to be sent to the showers! You accidentally bump into him and you’re going to be “rub-a-dub-dubbing” in the locker room bathtub!

Read his full post on Yardbarker and keep checking his blog for more.

New and improved NBA Playoff spots -- now with CGI technology!

No, the NBA doesn't pay me to do PR for them, I just honestly think they've done a great job with some of these ad campaigns. The latests playoff spots will debut on Sunday and use CGI technology and some clever audio to build the excitement of the moment. Here's one featuring the old dynmaic duo Kobe and Shaq from the 2000 Western Conference Finals:



There's also a spot featuring Larry Bird.

The one time I met Phil Jackson, his pants were down

True story. It was not a compromising situation for him. Phil Jackson is a good dude.