• A source says that the wife of Steve McNair was “blindsided” by news that the ex-NFL QB was having an affair with 20-year-old Sahel Kazemi.

Meanwhile, Nashville police are saying that the gun found at the scene of McNair & Kazemi’s death had been bought by Sahel.

• Sunday was a good day to be a Gillette spokesman. Just ask Roger Federer, Tiger Woods & Derek Jeter.

• Chris Cohan may soon not be one of the worst owners in the NBA, as he looks to sell his majority stake in the Golden State Warriors.

• F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone a defender of Hitler? Oh, heavens no - that was just one of those wacky British sitcom-esque misunderstandings.

• How did Ron Artest end up with the Lakers? Would you believe by barging in & setting up a shower summit with Kobe?

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For years, governmental safety-advocate types have been warning America about the dangers facing us on the 4th of July. You’ll set the house on fire with sparklers! You’ll die of alcohol poisoning! Well, OK, maybe that one’s true, but the nanny state machinery has been working for generations now to ensure that nobody has any real fun on America’s Birthday.

(Not as cool as it looks, trust us.)

But in their zealotry to protect our livers/relationships/fingers from the scourges of alcohol and fireworks, the hand-holders forgot to warn America about the real Fourth of July menace - meat-eating boat propellers lurking just below the surface of our lakes and rivers. Maritime resort states Idaho and South Dakota each suffered nasty propeller-foot interaction this holiday weekend, resulting in dinner for the vicious propellers and more work for local prosthetic foot makers.

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We’ve been entertained by the amusing antics of Joanna Krupa, as the buxom blonde beauty berated teammate Terrell Owens during their debut appearance on ABC’s “Superstars”. (The network execs must have enjoyed it, too, as the J.K.-T.O. team were invited back on the show even after being eliminated.) If only there was another cute Krupa to care about.

Lucky enough, there is! Joanna happens to have a sister by the name of Marta - and she’s just as marvelous to admire as her T.O.-trashing sibling. Don’t believe me? Then check out more photographic evidence after the jump.

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The free agent signing frenzy is one of the most exciting periods in offseason sports fandom. Will such-and-such big-name free agent finally be the missing piece your team needs to compete for a championship, or will it end up destroying the team (and its salary cap) for years to come? It’s an exciting time, sure, but it’s funny to watch fans, players, and team executives alike get carried away in the moment. One of the silliest parts of this frenzy is the introductory press conference. They’re completely meaningless; it’s just a bunch of executives, coaches, and athletes grinning into the camera and spouting trite sports cliches.

Just be thankful you don’t live in Europe. Superstar Cristiano Ronaldo was introduced to 80,000 assembled Real Madrid fans and media today in a spectacle that made even the most overblown of press conferences look like a Quaker church meeting.

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Kobe Bryant is bad, he’s bad, you know it (come on). So Bryant is going to be one of the big celebrities at the Michael Jackson Memorial on Tuesday; of course he is. But what I’m unclear on is what his function will be at the big party - will he favor us with a tune? Break out a red leather jacket? Reenact the “Black or White” video with Luke Walton as Macauley Culkin? The answers are shrouded in mystery.

What is known: Magic Johnson will also be there, along with thousands of others who were lucky enough to get tickets by whatever means or form of random drawing they used. And because what this thing needed more of was additional celebrities, let’s throw in Berry Gordy, Brooke Shields, Smokey Robinson, Lionel Richie, Usher, Martin Luther King III, and, in a bit of troubling irony, Shaheen Jafargholi, the 12-year-old who was a finalist on the latest edition of “Britain’s Got Talent” recently. Read more…

With everything that happened over the past 48 hours, I’ll excuse you if you weren’t paying much attention to the LPGA Tour. Which is the problem: nobody really is. Despite having young & talented players, pushing the sex appeal angle as hard as they can, and taking draconian steps to improve the tour’s visibility (remember English Only-Gate?), the tour is sinking to WNBA levels of irrelevancy.

(Anna Rawson might have more free time to secure domain names.)

This became painfully evident last week, when word came out that the tour was being forced to cancel its event at Kapalua in Hawaii scheduled for October because of the lack of a title sponsor. Which means that the tour schedule might have only 10 stops in the U.S. next year, including none in Hawaii, Arizona or Florida. But - to paraphrase “This is Spinal Tap” - that’s OK: those aren’t big golfing areas, anyway.

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The gun that was found at the Steve McNair homicide scene had been purchased by Sahel Kazemi, the woman with whom he was having an affair and who was found dead with him in his condo, Nashville police just confirmed. Although other theories are still on the table, according to police, the possibility of a murder-suicide is emerging as the more likely scenario. At this point, however, is it wise to assume anything in the case that blurs the line between real life and film noir?

Kazemi’s nephew, Farzin Abdi, has said earlier that police are “almost certain” that Kazemi was the shooter, and that she had purchased the handgun that was found beneath her body at the scene. Police would not say that publicly until just moments ago, however. And that gives credence to the most likely scenario of all — jilted lover, who had expected her boyfriend to divorce his wife and marry her, snaps when he gets cold feet and tells her it’s over. Crime fiction wouldn’t exist without this staple; Greek Tragedy, indeed. Read more…

Hey, you there - yeah you, about to go for a run. I see you over there doing your ridiculous overdramatic stretching, with your designer moisture-wicking running clothes on, $300 running shoes, and iPod attached to your upper arm. You think you’re pretty rad, don’t you? Congrats on running that 5k last weekend, that $50 you and your firm (matching funds, brah) raised for the fight against Brain Cloud will really make a huge difference in the world.

(Don’t mind me, just out for a quick run.)

But do us all a favor, won’t you? Stop acting like you’re some sort of hardened athlete. Jogging around on flat asphalt is something that anyone with a BMI under 40 can do with a little bit of effort. You want to impress the ladies? Enter a real man’s race like the Welsh Bog-Snorkelling Triathlon, which a true badass by the name of Dan Bent won over the weekend. Get Bent and learn how real men race, after the jump.

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Because he grew up in England and lived near London, at around the age of 14, when the Germans bombed certain neighborhoods there to smithereens, one would think Bernie Ecclestone have a firmer grasp on the role that Adolf Hitler played in world history. Apparently not. The World Jewish Congress has called for Ecclestone to resign as president and CEO of Formula One racing after comments in THE TIMES of London on Saturday, about how Hitler was led astray, and was “able to get things done.” This coming right before the German Grand Prix. Nice.

(Looking down on Bernie is easy — just as ex-wife Slavica Radić)

But now Ecclestone is saying that the whole thing was all a big misunderstanding. And he even — get this — pulled out the “some of my best friends are Jews” line. I’d be willing to bet that some of his other best friends are racist dipsh*ts. Read more…

St. Louis, Missouri is a miserable place to be in the middle of summer, even in years when the Mississippi River’s not threatening to flood its banks. Temperatures rise regularly to the upper 90s, as do the humidity levels. Large swarms of flying insects (including mosquitoes) make even the shortest of outdoor walks miserable, if not painful. Even larger swarms of enormous red-clad hilljacks from southern Illinois and the inner wilds of Missouri eat their way through the city on the way to their annual Busch Stadium pilgrimages. Oh, and don’t get mugged.

(Is this what they mean by Show-Me State?)

If all that wasn’t unpleasant enough for visitors, at least most of us don’t have the St. Louis city government (motto: “60% Population Decrease Since 1950″) trying to take our hard-earned and ever-decreasing work bonuses away from us. Unfortunately, the same can’t be be said for the players selected to the 2009 MLB All-Star Game in St. Louis, who stand to lose a chunk of their All-Star bonus to The Man…even if they don’t play in the game.

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