From the AP :

Ohio State tight end Ryan Hamby has received a couple of hate letters since dropping a sure touchdown pass during the Buckeyes’ loss to Texas last week.

Cutting over the middle into the end zone, Hamby (above) was open when Justin Zwick’s pass bounced off his chest and into the air. He had a second chance to grab it but was slammed by a defender just as the ball touched his hands.

A touchdown would have given Ohio State a 10-point lead in the third quarter. The Buckeyes ended up settling for a field goal and eventually lost 25-22 to Texas.

Asked about the content of the letters, Hamby said, “I’m not going to talk about them, but they’re just dumb things. You almost want to say, ‘You know, in the scheme of life there are things going on around the world. It’s just a game.”‘

Indeed, there are “things going on around the world”, large amounts of money being wagered on college football being just one that comes to mind.

If young Mr. Hamby ever makes it to the NFL, he’ll learn there’s a big difference between a mature professional and weak-kneed amateur. In the big leagues, it’s the professionals that make the threats, as the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s Jim Thomas explains.

Rams president John Shaw said team executive Samir Suleiman would be reprimanded for leaving a threatening phone message on the voice mail of Post-Dispatch columnist Bernie Miklasz.

“It’s shocking that he would leave a message like that,” Shaw told the Post-Dispatch on Tuesday. “It’s the type of behavior that we don’t condone on any level. He will be reprimanded, and it will be handled internally.”

Shaw declined to say what the reprimand would entail.

In an Aug. 28 column in the Post-Dispatch, Miklasz wrote that Rams executives owed the head coach – no matter who he was – their support instead of back-stabbing him.

Apparently in response to that column, Suleiman left a message on Miklasz’s voice mail stating, in part, “tell your source that I’m not a back-stabber, I’m a (expletive) throat slasher, and he’ll know the difference before it’s all said and done.”

Presumably, Suleiman’s punishment will not include having to spend quality time with Mike Martz. This is, after all, America.