WATERCOOLER CHAT: MANZIEL KICKED OUT OF MANNING CAMP, EA SPORTS OUT, LAKERS WANT LEBRON
FOOTBALL
In college football, there has been a lot of controversy around the Manning Passing Camp. This is a camp hosted by Peyton and Eli Manning in which they bring out some of the best young college quarterbacks and show them what it takes to make it in the pros. The #1 name in college football, Texas A&M’s Johnny Manziel, was forced to leave early. Many thought that it was because Manziel spent too much time partying, and was hungover one morning because he didn’t show up for camp. But Manziel said he merely overslept — that he was extremely exhausted, and his phone died.  Either way, he was asked to leave the camp.
And speaking of college football, the NCAA has ended its 20-year marriage with EA Sports. For 20 years, EA sports has made games with the NCAA Football franchise. They couldn’t have the real names of players in the game, but the jersey number always corresponded to the real life players. There have been a lot of lawsuits from players saying that their likeness has been used in these best-selling video games. EA Sports has denied that, but the lawsuits keep coming. So the players started to attack the NCAA, and the NCAA was tired of dealing with all of this, and just decided to let it go. Now, if EA Sports wanted to keep making the game, they would have to individually secure clearance from each of the schools in the game.
BASKETBALL
Finally, in the NBA, the Lakers are clearly set for a mediocre season in 2013/2014. They will have Kobe, Nash, and a bunch of role players to make sure the show doesn’t get too boring. But the Lakers have said that they are not taking on any contracts past this season. This means, that after the end of year, they will pretty much have a clean slate in terms of their future. And now, the Lakers have leaked that they are going to make a serious run at BOTH LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony in the next off-season. It may be tough to secure James, but they will surely be offering a handsome paycheck.
