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Jets Wide Receiver Laveranues Coles Becomes a Free Agent

One of our favorite football players, uber-sexy Laveranues Coles, is a free man. The New York Jets restructured the contract of their veteran wide receiver, allowing the player to become an unrestricted free agent when the signing period begins at midnight. The Jets are off the hook for the guaranteed $6 million Coles was due this upcoming season.

"I'm leaving $6 million on the table," Coles tells the Daily News. "It's a roll of the dice, but I thought it would be in my best interest to try free agency."

In late 2005, Laveranues Coles went public with his story of childhood sexual abuse to help others who may have been similarly traumatized. For three years in middle school, Coles says his stepfather molested him at gunpoint. The reaction has been mostly positive, "but every so often somebody will say something that causes Coles" to isolate and return to his shell, Coles tells the New York Times. Coles says after the Jets’ 2005 finale against Buffalo, "a Bills player, whom he would not identify, approached him and made a coarse homophobic comment." 

Congratulations and best of luck to Laveranues Coles. Oh and here is to the tenth straight year without a playoff appearance for the Buffalo Bills.

Jets WR Coles to Become Free Agent [SI]
Jets Release Coles, Shed $6 Million [NYDN]

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Eye Black is the New Black

The New York Times travels to high school, college and pro football locker rooms across the country to discuss this year's must-have fashion accessory: Eye Black, as modeled by Will Demps above.

On the high school level, "most kids think it’s intimidating or it looks good. No one uses it to block out the light." Not necessarily the case in the National Football League where Jerricho Cotchery described...

"A scene in the Jets’ locker room before a game last Sunday, when he and his fellow receiver Laveranues Coles applied eye black as if they were showgirls applying false eyelashes."

Laveranues Coles says that playing without eye black grease was like “playing with no shoulder pads or no helmet.” Although he grew up in sunny Florida, Coles said he never used eye black until he reached the N.F.L. and struggled with glare from stadium lights.

Of course, most athletes do not seem to care much about its intended use and the smudges, pathches and decals have become popular fashion accessories. In case you're wondering if eye black actually works or just help athletes to look even sexier—the answer is yes. A Yale University study tested sensitivity to the sun while wearing eye black grease (Coles), adhesive stickers (Demps) and a placebo. Survey says: "A small, but statistically significant, improvement in contrast sensitivity and glare reduction for participants who wore the eye grease."

The secret is in the grease.

Eye Black Used to Cut Glare or Turn Up Spotlight (NYT)

More Will Demps and Laveranues Coles:

Will Demps on Gays (Rod 2.0) Happy Birthday Will! (Rod 2.0) In the Kitchen (Rod 2.0) A Very Special Oprah (Rod 2.0)

A Very Special Oprah

Laveranues Coles is the guest on today's Oprah. The New York Jets wide receiver details years of sexual abuse as a child by his former stepfather. It's a significant story, first reported by the The New York Times last month and well outside the norm for sports and the NFL where players rarely expose potentially embarrassing stories about their past. Laveranues' motivation was quite simple; the baller says that he came forward because he doesn't want other young boys to suffer in silence.

Highlights, more captures, video clips and a few spoilers below.