Len Berman on Sports: Lingerie Football League … and World Cup Prostitutes …

BY LEN BERMAN

TOP 5 FOR JAN. 9, 2013

1. Quick Hits

Baseball Hall of Fame ballot results will be announced at 2pm Eastern today.

Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III is undergoing surgery today for a torn knee ligament.

Former Chicago Bears coach Lovie Smith will interview for the Philadelphia Eagles job tomorrow.

The Dallas Cowboys have fired defensive coordinator Rob Ryan.

NHL training camps are expected to open Sunday.

Dustin Johnson wins the opening PGA event of the year, the weather-delayed Tournament of Champions.

2. Big Announcement

Can’t wait for the big announcement today. No, not the Hall of Fame voting.

The Lingerie Football League. Today in Los Angeles they’re going to announce a major rebranding with uniform modifications. Obviously the lingerie has got to go.

3. Letdown

File this under “don’t wish too hard for something.” The New York media was livid that Rex Ryan and Woody Johnson waited so long to address them after the season. Maybe they didn’t wait long enough. The sought-after newser was held yesterday and was it really worth all that hand-wringing? What did we learn? That the owner loves the coach. Next! Ryan had the best line when asked about his tattoo that shows his wife wearing a Mark Sanchez jersey, “Obviously if Sanchez doesn’t play better that number is changing.” Left unsaid is where Sanchez might be playing next season.

4. The PC Police

I’ll admit ESPN fawned a little too much over Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron’s girlfriend Katherine Webb during the BCS Championship game telecast. OK, it was more like drooling. But did they really have to apologize yesterday? They said “it went too far.” Seems a bit too PC, no? By the way, her twitter followers have doubled again. Before the game she was around 500. Now she’s well over 200,000. ESPN isn’t the only one revved up.

5. I Before E

Talk about pregame preparation. In advance of the 2014 World Cup soccer tournament in Brazil, Brazilian prostitutes are signing up to take free English lessons. Prostitution is legal in Brazil. Just another example of sports advancing the common good.

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Happy Birthday: Golfer Sergio Garcia. 33.

Bonus Birthday: Princess Kate. 31.

Today in Sports: After missing 3 years of baseball in World War II, the Marines recall Ted Williams to serve in Korea. 1952.

Bonus Event: Remember Wendy’s “Where’s the Beef” commercial? It aired for the first time. 1984.

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The next time you need a gift for that young sports fan in your life, check out my books. And if you’d like a personally autographed copy contact the Dolphin Bookshop at 516-767-2650.

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To receive Len’s free Top-5 email go to www.ThatsSports.com.

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About Len Berman:

Len is an Emmy-Award winning sportscaster and New York Times Best Selling Author who has covered just about every major sports event including multiple Super Bowls, World Series, and Olympics during his 40-year career in broadcasting.

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Bill adding up for Pevely taxpayers over lingerie store court battle

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By Alex Fees

PEVELY, Mo. (KSDK) - A local battle over decency has ended in Pevely with a lingerie store winning a federal court case to open a retail outlet here.

Pure Pleasure Boutique is located just off Interstate 55. Attorney Bob Kister represents the owners of the store locally.

“What they were planning to do in Pevely, a new concept, was have a store that sold lingerie, marital aids, lubricants, things of that nature,” Kister said. “But not have any pornography; nothing that would be embarrassing, such that women wouldn’t want to go into the store, things like that.”

In late December, Kister said a federal court decided in favor of Pure Pleasure Boutique.

“The store actually opened in 2010,” said Kister. “They’ve been there but without any signage, without water or sewer hooked up to the building. And unable to get building permits to complete about four-fifths of the square footage of the store.”

Kister said the court ruling came December 21.

“The court ruled completely in our favor because the Constitution prohibits any government entity from denying First Amendment rights. My clients have been in full compliance with all of the city’s ordinances from the outset and although we sell lingerie and marital aids and so forth, under state law they are not what they state statutes describe as a sexually-oriented business. And therefore the city’s efforts to regulate the store as a sexually-oriented business were off-base.”

Now comes the penalty phase of the court proceeding.

“So the attorney fees will be a big part of it and we have a store accountant working on getting us some figures on what the damages are,” said Kister. “It’s what the store would have been able to take in if it had proper signage and licensing.”

Kister said the court has also ordered that Pevely violated the store owners’ civil rights, entitling them to recover their attorney fees. Kister said his office has billed about $28,000. Kister said a Constitutional law attorney out of Florida has billed more than $40,000.

Then there’s the question of damages.

“It’s been 2 years that the store has not been making that much compared to other, comparable stores that are being looked at. I’m sure that’s going to run into many thousands of dollars.”

Tens of thousands? Hundreds of thousands?

“I would expect tens,” said Kister.

Kister said city officials were concerned because of the other stores his clients operate. But he says they needed to consider what’s being sold in the store located within their city limits.

“The other stores are called Megacenters and there’s one in North Broadway in St. Louis, there’s one in Fairview Heights in Illinois, and they sell some racier things.”

He said some of the merchandise in those stores would be considered pornographic under state statutes.

“And sexy is not the same as sex,” he added.

NewsChannel 5 contacted Pevely Mayor John Knobloch and City Administrator Jason Eisenbeis regarding this story.  Neither returned a voicemail.

 

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