Trending on Wednesday - June 29, 2011

1. NFL lockout
2. HIV testing
3. Beyoncé Knowles
4. Ron Artest
5. Miracle of the Day - Wonderful Counselor indeed!

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Thrown for a loss

At a time NFL players and coaches usually would be preparing to open training camp, they instead find themselves sidelined by labor strife. We caught up with four individuals with Texans ties to get an up-close look at what it’s like to be locked out.

The NFL lockout has surpassed 100 days. While the owners and players continue to meet toward compromise on a new collective bargaining agreement, we decided to take a look at how the lockout has affected four individuals affiliated at the moment or most recently with the Texans.

The Free Agent: Bernard Pollard

Current location: Los Angeles

Bernard Pollard isn't under contract. But once he is, wherever that might be and once the lockout is lifted, his future employer will understand what it is gaining from the hard-hitting strong safety.

Pollard will make sure, even if there might not be much time. And by doing so, he'll no longer have to worry about being viewed as a scapegoat — as Pollard maintains he was this past season during the Texans' defensive collapse in the back end.

He said the criticism was unfounded. Instead, he points to the organizational decision to rely on inexperienced cornerbacks instead of veterans as the biggest reason for the secondary's decline.

Nevertheless, the same cast of characters likely will be back on the field for the Texans when play resumes. All except for Pollard, 26, who packed up his stuff and moved west, training at high schools in the Los Angeles area under the direction of Christian Pierce, a friend from his hometown of Fort Wayne, Ind., who is football coach at Calabasas High School.

"The only thing we can do is continue to work," said Pollard, who also is working out with New England defensive back Jarrad Page. "I have to be ready when the bell rings. I don't have the luxury of doing seven-on-sevens with the Texans. I'm out here to shut the naysayers up."

He has moved on, just as the Texans did in March when they refused to issue Pollard a free-agent tender. But because agents can't contact or negotiate with teams, Pollard (6-1, 224 pounds) can only dream about where he might land - and he has.

"I'm from up north, and I know a lot of people want to see me in Indianapolis," he said. "I'd love to be there."

And once he decides or once he's chosen, he plans to make it clear that, if employed properly, he's "a weapon that can cause destruction" - as he was in 2009, his first year here.

"If the Steelers play Troy Polamalu in a Cover 2, he won't be Troy Polamalu," Pollard said. "If you put Ed Reed in the box, he's not Ed Reed. He's not a ball hawk.

"When it's all said and done, I just want to be used."

But he can't do anything at the moment. His career is on hold. But because this will be his sixth season in the NFL, Pollard believes his experience is a boon - especially if coordinators are forced to "dumb down" playbooks because of less preparation time.

"Veterans benefit," he said. "We know the schemes. Cover 3 will always be a Cover 3."

The Veteran: Eric Winston

Current location: Seabrook, N.H.

Linemen can be forgiven for not sticking to their playing weights during the offseason. Really, it’s kind of expected, especially for those 300- pound-plus behemoths who generally struggle with such maintenance.

Which is why Eric Winston, the Texans’ starting right tackle, is proud to reveal he’s at his playing weight of 315. How’s he done it? Primarily through running workouts at Rice and by lifting weights with teammates.

Mainly, though, because he understands the situation.

Like Bernard Pollard, it’s his sixth season in the NFL. But unlike Pollard, he knows where he’ll be when the lockout ends.

“You’re in a better situation if you’re a veteran of a team where the coach is still there,” Winston, 27, said. “Guys like Bernard, they’re waiting for their payday. They’re feeling the brunt. I feel for them.”

He also mentioned his fallen counterparts, those players such as linebacker Darryl Sharpton, who was placed on injured reserve after a shoulder injury suffered in late December.

The league has denied Sharpton and others like him access to team trainers during the rehab process, which Winston, one of the Texans’ player representatives, termed “disruptive.”

As is, this is a tricky time for Winston. He’s outspoken, known for being passionate about virtually everything he does. The players’ cause in the labor battle with the owners is worth fighting for, he says, and he’s willing to engage or argue with anyone who says otherwise.

He knows he should be playing football at the moment, or at least in the midst of a scheduled break in between organized team activities.

But then again, he’s been able to handle activities that might seem mundane to the rest of us, such as taking his daughter to school. He’s been able to attend many charity events that he might not have had the time for the past five years.

And at the moment, he’s relaxing with his in-laws at their beach residence.

Winston appreciates setting his schedule — but only as long as it’s temporary.

“It just takes everyone out of our comfort zone at this time of the year,” Winston said. “From a football standpoint, yeah, I know the system. A lot of us could go out from day one and be fine. We have a leg up. The veterans who have made the team will be set.

“Most of us have simulated those workouts well and we know where we should be, but it’s not the same.”

The Coach: Vance Joseph

Current location: Somewhere in Reliant Stadium

Nothing has changed. Vance Joseph, the new Texans defensive backs coach, is sick of being asked how the coaching staff is keeping busy during the lockout — and only been here only three or four months.

“It’s been normal,” Joseph said. “When the players were in last offseason, we just had them for an hour. It’s no different. We’re still game-planning. We haven’t had any players to coach, but that’s just two hours a day.

“We’re still working 12-hour days.”

Doing what, exactly?

There is much tape to consume — of free agents who might help, undrafted free agents who might fill the roster, and then the Texans themselves.

Especially for someone such as Joseph, who was in San Francisco a year ago.

And this is where Joseph relents. If there is a difficulty in this stalemate, it arises here. The Texans’ secondary, the unit he’ll be tasked with improving, was almost historically bad this past season. So even if there is a strong impulse to bury the evidence, it must be inspected.

“You have to watch film and make an estimate of what he is,” Joseph said. “You can’t go cold turkey. We’re going to have camp, and hopefully those things will show up quick. But you have to see what they’re good at and what they have to work on. You have to.”

As far as implementing Wade Phillips’ new 3-4 defense, that’s not a concern. Phillips is known as a master, and he keeps his schemes simple. Instead, Joseph is focused on improving his beleaguered secondary’s collective technique, particularly someone like maligned second-year cornerback Kareem Jackson.

“I’m missing an opportunity with Kareem,” he said. “You can draw plays for days, but players play. That’s what I’m missing.”

Plus, there are personalities to navigate and explore, which takes time — time the Texans might not have once a resolution is reached. But that’s not worrisome to Joseph, who refers to these days as “the status quo.”

“We’re going to have camp,” he said. “No one has had OTAs. Most players and teams are different every year — we’re not the only team that changed assistant coaches and coordinators. It is what it is. When they come back, we’ll coach them and get them ready to play.

“I’m not stressed at all.”

The Rookie: Cheta Ozougwu

Current location: Newport Beach, Calif.

The 2003 Honda Civic, a high school gift, has about 85,000 miles on it. Cheta Ozougwu, the Texans’ seventh-round choice out of Rice, figures his ride has at least 70,000 miles before it expires, so imagine the ribbing the rookie will endure in the players’ parking lot at Reliant Stadium in the coming years.

Actually, Ozougwu, 22, can’t wait. He hopes he’s around long enough to hear barbs about his tiny car. Realizing that special teams is likely his best chance at making an impact — if not the team — in his first year, his stated goal is to be the hardest-working player on the roster. He’ll learn all four linebacker positions in Wade Phillips’ 3-4 defense and hopes to become indispensable, the hometown kid (Alief Taylor graduate) sticking with the hometown team.

“All I want is an opportunity to play this game as long as I can,” Ozougwu said. “The Texans were great to give me an opportunity, and I’m going to take advantage.”




But he’s at a disadvantage because he’s lacking proper instruction and guidance, yet another unfortunate byproduct of the lockout.

Ozougwu (6-2, 255 pounds) is doing drills with former Owl and Texan N.D. Kalu twice a week, and he has joined the Texans’ seven-on-seven workouts at Rice. In addition, training with Arian Foster and others at Elite Life Training has helped, especially with explosion, which Ozougwu said he lacked.

“It’d be great to be on the field, but I know what I can control, and that is my technique,” he said. “I know what I need to keep working on.”

He’s driven, even committed to workouts this week in Newport Beach. As the last pick in the NFL draft, Ozougwu is honored as “Mr. Irrelevant,” a weeklong fete that includes being given the Lowsman Trophy, which is essentially the opposite of the Heisman Trophy. (Get it?)

It might sound like a vacation — and really, it is — but he refuses to view it that way.

“I’m having a great time, but I have to stay in shape,” he said. “I have to — that’s the most important thing.

“The gifts have been crazy, but at the end of the day, I have to hit the ground running. I have to be prepared for camp.”

All of this sudden “fame” won’t change Ozougwu, an economics major. The money won’t, either. In addition to the Civic, the rookie plans to hang on to his digs, a modest apartment near Rice’s campus.

“It’s very convenient,” he said. “It’s really close to Reliant and it’s really cheap, extra affordable.”



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HIV testing is not just for high-risk groups

When Naina Khanna wanted to get tested for HIV in 2000, doctors told her she didn't need to be.

In her early 20s, the Oakland resident was a South Asian woman in a heterosexual relationship who didn't display any of the behaviors that would have put her in a high-risk category.

But a year and a half later in 2002, Khanna did get tested and found she was HIV positive.

Khanna's case illustrates the need for regular HIV testing of everyone, as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2006. The CDC suggests that everyone between the ages of 13 and 64 should be screened for human? immunodeficiency virus.

Monday is a good day to take care of this, since it is National HIV Testing Day.

The Asian and Pacific Islander community is the only ethnic group to show an increase in new HIV cases, according to research published in the Journal of the International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care by researchers at the CDC in April. That group has the lowest testing rates, said Hyeouk Hahm, an assistant professor at Boston University who has studied acquired immune deficiency syndrome in the Asian and Pacific Islander community.

The increase is attributable to a number of causes, including the stigma related to HIV and AIDS and ingrained stereotypes, along with low testing rates, Hahm added.

The model minority stereotype, the idea that everyone in the Asian and Pacific Islander community is high-achieving, is problematic, she said. It feeds a cultural practice of only showing a perfect family image to the rest of the world. As a result, people in the Asian and Pacific Islander community don't want to talk about HIV or get tested because they feel that would shatter the image.

It was one year before Khanna, policy director for Women Organized to Respond to Life-Threatening Disease, sought medical care for her HIV because she didn't want to talk about it with anyone. She worried about how disclosure would affect her family.

The model minority stereotype oversimplifies an incredibly diverse community, said Dr. Royce Lin, a physician in San Francisco General Hospital's HIV/AIDS division and an associate professor at UC San Francisco.

And assumptions about people can cause things to be missed, he said. Doctors may not ask about a woman's sexual history or her partner's sexual history because she doesn't fit into what's typically considered a high-risk group.

But knowing this kind of information is particularly important for women in the Asian and Pacific Islander community, because 86 percent of such women with HIV were infected through heterosexual sex with their partner, said Lin.

That's how Khanna said she was infected.

"One in three people in the API community living with HIV don't know they have it," Lin said. He thinks that if HIV testing were routine, like getting your cholesterol checked, it would help dispel the stigma around HIV and getting tested.

"My family has been extremely accepting," Khanna said. But she thinks they don't talk about her HIV status in their broader community.

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Beyoncé Knowles spoils sister with shoes

Beyoncé Knowles bought 25 pairs of designer shoes for her sister Solange’s birthday, according to reports.

The 29-year-old star, who wowed crowds with her finale performance at Glastonbury music festival yesterday, treated her younger sibling to the generous gift for her 25th birthday on Friday.

Beyoncé sorted out the present while preparing for the show in England last week. The singer’s assistant placed the orders for designer heels at Saks and Bergdorf on Thursday to be delivered to her sister the next day, according to the New York Post.

Beyoncé, who is famed for her gorgeous looks and enviable curves, is known for giving generous gifts to family and friends.

The American songstress bought husband Jay-Z a $2 million Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport car for his 41st birthday at the end of last year.

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Lakers’ Ron Artest wants to legally change his name to Metta World Peace

Los Angeles
Just when you thought you had seen it all regarding Ron Artest …

The Lakers forward filed papers Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court to legally change his name to "Metta World Peace."

Among the definitions for "metta" is a Buddhist virtue of kindness.

Artest has informed the Lakers of his plans but has not yet filed the necessary papers with the NBA to apply for a name change on the back of his jersey, Lakers spokesman John Black said.

"My understanding is ‘Metta’ will be his first name and ‘World Peace’ will be his last," Black said.

Cincinnati Bengals receiver Chad Johnson went through a highly publicized name change to Chad Ochocinco in 2008.

For a long time, Artest carried the reputation as an instigator in the infamous "Palace Brawl" in 2004, but he seemed to complete a personality turnaround in recent years.

Last December, he raffled off his 2010 Lakers championship ring, raising about $600,000 for various mental-health entities. Two months ago, he received the NBA’s citizenship award for the 2010-11 season, as determined by pro basketball media members.

The charismatic Artest, 31, is due back in court for a name-change hearing on Aug. 26, according to court records.

The attorney who filed the proposal, Jill Rubin, said she was handling the change of Ronald William Artest Jr.’s name but had no additional information as to why he was doing so.

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Miracle of the Day

Wonderful Counselor indeed!


"God really is a wonderful counselor! From the time I allowed him wholeheartedly to intervene in my relationships esp. my marriage it has been smooth sailing even in time of storms :) My husband and I have nothing in common and so we end up arguing or fighting all the time, but since I got baptized, I knew that God has touched not jut mine but my husband's heart. He is very supportive of the commitment I have made with God and he even allowed our seniors in church to help us in our relationship through weekly biblical counselling (my husband is a Hindu). I could also see that he's applying what we discuss. I know that in God's help my husband will soon surrender to Lord Jesus, God can really soften and change peoples heart especially thos who seek him. Prais the Lord!"
 








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