Bottle Rocket In football, everyone expects the big hits to occur on the field, not in the locker room.
Yet, on Oct. 17 Braden McMonigle, a junior wide receiver for the Monroe (Ohio) High Hornets sustained a serious injury in his school's training room when someone tossed a bottle of Gatorade that struck McMonigle above the eye, causing a laceration.
While teammates and coaches tended to McMonigle's cut brow, he lost consciousness and was subsequently rushed by helicopter to a Dayton hospital.
No one among Hornets school officials and supporters ever expected a nearly empty, plastic Gatorade bottle to pack such a wallop. "It just hit him in the right spot," Monroe assistant basketball coach and football statistics keeper Tim Kellis told the Middletown Journal.
Because they couldn't understand why such a seemingly minor incident would knock out one of Monroe's "hardest hitters," doctors attending to McMonigle chose to keep him hospitalized for a few days. However, the 16-year-old was expected to fully recover and return to the Hornets' sideline by week's end, just in time for their game against rival Waynesville.
Fancy Feet Baseball caps have been a staple of the sports fan's wardrobe for generations. And it has been at least a decade since fans were first able to wrap themselves in jerseys as authentic as those worn by the pros. But not until now have fans truly been able to don the look of their favorite athletes from head to toe.
Last week, Reebok launched RBKCustom.com, a web site that for the first time ever allows fans to design and customize NFL- and MLB-licensed shoes. The NFL Recline and MLB Clubhouse shoes are now available with team logos of all 32 NFL and all 30 MLB teams.
Shoes can be ordered in team and seasonal colors, and color and texture variations to every part from the tongues to the soles can also be specified. Other custom options include team logos in various colors, multiple leather materials, contrast stitching, heel clips, lace eyelets, different sole types and personalization, with the wearer's name printed on the back heel.
On the web site, customers can rotate their customized shoe 360 degrees in two dimensions, as well as - get this - preview how their shoes will look when paired with jeans. Customized shoe designs can be saved in a virtual closet and shared with friends via e-mail.
As one might expect, the custom shoes come with a no-return policy, with the exception of those exhibiting manufacturing defects. Men's and women's shoes start at $90.
