Von Miller has plans. Big plans. Plans involving chickens.
The Denver Broncos linebacker and Super Bowl MVP spends a good portion of his free time running a small chicken farm in his hometown of DeSoto, Texas, and now that he's getting a contract extension with the Broncos, he plans to expand.
"My operation is really intimate. I was waiting on the Broncos to give me a little bit more money where I could go commercial, but right now it's just intimate," Miller said, via ESPN . "I only have about 20 to 35 birds. They're not really for eating. They're more like pets. Those are my guys."
Miller, who studied poultry science at Texas A&M, wants his birds to live well.
"It's going to be something that I'm definitely going to be involved with. It's not going to be like all these other big corporations," Miller said. "The healthcare for my birds is going to be like any other company."
Guess you'd call it an egg plant?
"The life of my birds is going to be great. I'm going to have a live feed in the cages so you can see how the birds are living ... They're going to want to live with me. They're going to be treated good."
His affection for his flock is no secret. Just ask his friends.
"The Super Bowl MVP has a real chicken farm," said Miami Dolphins defensive end Damontre Moore, in a Miller-penned piece on the The Players' Tribune website. "A legitimate farm. That he maintains himself. He's even got roosters. If you go down to DeSoto, Texas, you can stop by Von's farm and get yourself a dozen organic eggs. This is real."
"You're the first Super Bowl MVP with a tattoo of a rooster, I'm pretty sure about that," added Denver teammate Cyrus Gray.
"Roosters are dope," Miller said.
Easy, Von. Don't get your feathers ruffled.
Winging it
Former UFC women's bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last week and told a story about what happened after she attended the Marine Corps Ball in Myrtle Beach, S.C., December with a fan, Lance Cpl. Jarrod Haschert, who invited her to be his plus-one back before she lost her belt to Holly Holm.
Rousey revealed that, after the ball was over, she went to a local Hooters with Haschert and his friends.
While they were there, Rousey got into an argument with one of the Hooters waitresses. About Ronda Rousey. It seems that the waitress didn't recognize her, and Rousey, in a playful mood, decided to mess with her.
"She was like, 'Oh yeah, we have fights here all the time. We love watching Ronda Rousey's fights,' " Rousey told Fallon. "And I was like, 'Oh, I hate her. She's the worst. She's such a b****. I can't stand her.'
"She got really offended. She was like, 'No. She's awesome, OK? We make lots of money in tips when she fights. She makes us a lot.' She got into this whole big argument with me about me."
Eventually, Rousey confessed, and the waitress, clearly able to take a joke, gave her a bunch of free wings.
Free wings are the best wings.
Head on a swivel
According to Chris Murray of the Reno (Nev.) Gazette-Journal, Texas Rangers catcher Chris Gimenez had a close call during a traffic jam a couple weeks ago in his home town of Reno, when a 36-pound drain grate slammed into the cab of Jimenez's truck and nearly decapitated him.
"It sounded like a cannon went off," Gimenez said. "I looked to see what appears to be a yellow snow plow go by and all of a sudden glass is flying through the cab of my truck. I just instinctually ducked. It turns out a snow plow clipped a drain grate on the ground. It blew out the grate and the asphalt that went along with it, somehow flung it 150 feet away and it went through the cab of my truck.
"I was starting to think about it and if my truck isn't lifted, I'm done. If I'm 5 feet further back, I'm screwed. What if that would have been the way I would have gone out? That wouldn't have been cool."
Sounds like this could be the Rangers' lucky year.
Sports on 02/22/2016