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Potential Paranoid Schizophrenic Accuses Sidney Crosby Of Narcisissm, Penguins Of Hacking

Earlier this week, rumors surfaced of an email accusing Sidney Crosby of a variety of transgressions, including Tiger Woods-esque dealings with escorts and intense narcissism, and were passed around to several Penguins- and NHL-themed blogs.  As Adam from the Pensblog posted on his Twitter:

Yikes. Just read all these Crosby emails. WTF. Serious allegations in them. Sorry to dangle this in front of everyone.

Citing integrity issues, the Pensblog vowed not to post the email until something was proven, one way or the other. Others, however, were more willing to share.

Today, Peter Hassett of the Washington Capitals blog Russian Machine Never Breaks revealed some of the e-mail in a post accurately titled "This Email About Sidney Crosby is Craaaaaazy.'

The email, changed by Hassett to conceal the writer's identity, read:

The Pittsburgh Penguins and their PR team are a bunch of criminals. They are using Bot software and they are dropping malicious cookies and hacking the computers of hockey fans to control what the world sees about Sidney Crosby. I had a malicious cookie in my computer that is a browser hijack and the only search term I recognized was Sidney Crosby’s name. The rest are women’s names and the names of escort services. His PR team hangs out on web boards for hockey lovers promoting him without disclosing who they are which is illegal. When I confronted them about the browser hijack file they hacked my computer and destroyed my personal files and my business files. They are criminals who think that everyone else in the world should pay a consequence for Sidney Crosby’s indiscretions. Crosby is a somatic narcissist and in the words of his own PR firm " a PR nightmare waiting to happen worse than Tiger Woods because he is a drunk who makes heavy use of escort services" If you doubt me I will send you or anybody else a copy of the hijack file. I printed it out

Soak all of that up for a second... okay?

Good. So, where do we go from here? Well, for the time being, nowhere. There's not much to do until any evidence, as unlikely as that truly is, turns up. Hasset, however, did some extra legwork in asking a licensed professional counselor to analyze the email and say what he thought. Some choice quotes follow:

Sounds like Paranoid Schizophrenia.  Possibly Paranoid Personality Disorder. But it sounds like the author is delusional, which usually doesn’t occur with personality disorders.

...

To me it says, that the author has done his or her psychology homework. Although Narcissism is well known in society the qualifier "somatic" is not. How else would the author know that without doing some research? Which also leads me to believe that he or she has had some experiences herself with psychologists/psychiatrists hence why she felt the need to read up on mental health issues.

Perhaps the author felt scorned by Crosby in some way (this would be delusional of course since she has probably had no actual interaction with him) and identifying him as having a mental illness would be classic projection. "I’m not the crazy one! He is!"

And that's that. So, what have we learned today?

The Penguins have an insidious public relations team, responsible for all sorts of malevolence, such as hacking and giving away thousands of Penguins tickets to children for free.

To be fair, I'm not a fan of character assassination when someone comes out of the woodwork and accuses an athlete of wrongdoing. Every time unflattering or illegal accusations towards an athlete come to life, their handlers do a tremendous job of painting the accuser in the worst light humanly possible (see: Bryant, Kobe; Roethlisberger, Ben).

The difference here? This response comes from a mental health professional contacted by a blogger unaffiliated with the athlete ... who supports a team that actually loathes the Penguins. Odds are this will never reach print news and, if it does, there should be something a little more concrete to reveal. Hopefully, the malware didn't destroy all of the evidence.

In other, shorter words: move along, nothing to see here.

1 comment

by Stephen Catanese • Sep 1, 2010 11:18 PM EDT

Pitt And West Virginia Among Ten Teams To Receive Nike Combat Uniforms

Pitt and West Virginia will wear specially made Nike Combat uniforms for the 2010 Backyard Brawl in November. The two schools were chosen as part of a group of ten that will wear the Combat uniforms for one game this season. You can view all ten versions here.

Pitt fans hoping for the old script logo will be disappointed. Nike instead opted for yet another sleeker version of Pitt block script.  I'm not all that enthusiastic about the all-blue uniform that Pitt will don or West Virginia's all-white uni. I don't think either is awful, but I wouldn't say I'm a huge fan.

Other schools that were selected for the uniforms are Alabama, Florida, Miami, Ohio State, Virginia Tech, Boise State, TCU, and Oregon State.

0 comments

by Anson Whaley • Sep 1, 2010 8:19 PM EDT

Big Ten Division Alignments, Protected Rivalries Set

Exciting news from Jim Delaney today, as he announced the new divisions within the Big Ten, along with revealing the schedules for 2011 and 2012. The new divisions, as of yet unnamed, will be as follows:

Michigan, Nebraska, Iowa, Michigan State, Minnesota and Northwestern will make up one division when the league grows to 12 teams in 2012. Ohio State, Penn State, Wisconsin, Illinois, Purdue and Indiana are in the other.

Every Big Ten team will play the five teams within its division every year. In addition, each team will have a protected cross-division rival whom they will play every year.

Protected crossovers: Michigan-Ohio State, Penn State-Nebraska, Minnesota-Wisconsin, Northwestern-Illinois, Purdue-Iowa, Michigan State-Indiana.

Finally, the schedules for 2011 and 2012 have been released. Check in with Penn State blog Black Shoe Diaries for the most up to date news and analysis.

0 comments

by Jeff Junstrom • Sep 1, 2010 7:58 PM EDT

Tony Sanchez To Join Three Other Pirates Prospects In Arizona Fall League

Tony Sanchez will join fellow Pirates prospects Andrew Lambo, Jordy Mercer and Josh Harrison in the Arizona Fall League, MLB.com reports. The AFL is a prestigious prospect league that typically features players who are around the Class AA level. 

Sanchez was one of several Pirates prospects whose 2010 seasons were interrupted by freak injuries; Sanchez got hit in the face with a pitch, broke his jaw, and then couldn't eat solid food when the jaw was wired shut. The AFL will help him make up for the development time he missed. 

Lambo, too, is one of the Pirates' better prospects. He was acquired from the Dodgers in the Octavio Dotel trade.

The Pirates will also send three pitchers to the AFL, although those haven't been announced.

0 comments

by Charlie Wilmoth • Sep 1, 2010 2:34 PM EDT