Locker Room

Oil and water. Fire and rain. Women in men's locker rooms?Some things just don't mix.The case of the New England Patriots players accused of exposing themselves to a female sportswriter in their locker room -- and team owner Victor Kiam defending them by saying they can "wiggle their waggles in front of her face as far as I'm concerned" -- has become as much a part of the current sports chatter as the down-to-the-wire American League eastern division race."The...

Ravens veteran special teams performer Bennie Thompson agreed to a one-year contract yesterday and began practicing with the team. Thompson may be the final addition of consequence until the free-agency period virtually re-opens June 1. Thompson, 37, has played in the league nine seasons. He has led the Ravens in special teams tackles three of the four years the team has been in Baltimore, including 24 tackles last season. Thompson was named to the AFC Pro Bowl team in 1998 and named an alternate last season.

There is no doubt that left tackle Jonathan Ogden is the most talented player on the Ravens' offensive line. But the consensus in the team's locker room is that right guard Jeff Blackshear deserved Ogden-like recognition among the fans, players and coaches who decided on this year's Pro Bowl team.At 6 feet 6, 323 pounds, Blackshear cuts an imposing figure. He has become known for his no-flash, bruising style of punishing defensive linemen and linebackers. His toughness and consistency may be his biggest assets.

City school officials said a student hit another student with a handgun inside the locker room at the Institute for Business and Entrepreneurship high school in West Baltimore Monday. City Schools police received a report from a school coach that a student had a handgun in a locker room after school Monday. The incident remains under investigation and school officials said a warrant has been issued for the student's arrest. The unidentified student has not returned to school, officials said.

Please sign my yearbook, Michael. "It's too good and too nice to be around this group of guys, and I don't think anybody wants to see it end." DE Michael Strahan, NY Giants, No. 92. Thanks. No, that's all right, keep the pen, big guy. With Graduation Day less than two weeks away, when New York faces the Ravens in the Super Bowl, the Giants are starting to reflect on how much they've grown, learned and bonded, a mood their star defensive end captured Monday. Led by gentlemanly professor Jim Fassel, a locker room once infamous for its griping and internal rifts has made choir practice seem like a den of vipers by comparison.

The Ravens may look to the free-agent market to fill the void left by center Steve Everitt, although offensive line coach Kirk Ferentz expects the team to stick with Wally Williams as Everitt's replacement."

Clarence H. Du Burns, a self-made politician who rose through grass-roots involvement in his native East Baltimore to become the city's first African-American mayor, died yesterday of renal failure at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. He was 84. Throughout his career, Mr. Burns never let the public forget his humble beginnings, growing up in a house at 424 N. Caroline St., his jobs hawking newspapers and vegetables, and getting hired as a locker room attendant at Dunbar High School the old-fashioned way - through City Hall connections.

Cincinnati Bengals coach Sam Wyche said yesterday that the National Football League hasn't heard the last from him about restricting female reporters' access to the locker room.Wyche said he received a $10 donation in the mail yesterday to help pay his $27,941 fine from commissioner Paul Tagliabue for keeping a reporter out of the Bengals locker room. Wyche said the $10 gave him $30,000 in donations from 37 states and 12 countries."Thank you, America, for knowing what's right," Wyche said.

The NFL is suing a Westminster sports marketing company over nearly $32,000 worth of sports memorabilia that the league says the company hasn't paid for.National Football League Properties Inc. -- the league's marketing arm -- filed the two-count suit this week in Carroll Circuit Court against Locker Room Communications Inc. of the 100 block of E. Main St.At issue are deliveries of sports merchandise items to Locker Room Communications between Jan. 15...

At 51, Rodney "Pop" Wright is as buoyant as ever as he bursts into a high school gym amid cheers from the crowd. But where the one-time Lake Clifton basketball star once wowed them with jump shots, his game now is all talk - though just as electric. Wright's message is a slam-dunk. Steer clear of drugs and booze, he tells the Iowa teens who pack the room. For almost an hour, Wright, 6 feet 3, 240 pounds, shares the tale of a promising young athlete from East Baltimore whose addiction to heroin, cocaine and alcohol cost him his basketball career, his freedom and, very nearly, his life.