Florida Sentinel Bulletin

Antron Brown opened the week at Miramar College in San Diego telling students not to set limits on what they believe they can accomplish in their careers.

He did that at the start of his NHRA career, when he mistakenly believed Pro Stock Motorcycles was all he could ever accomplish. But after a decade on bikes, Brown made the leap to Top Fuel dragsters.

Five years after moving up to NHRA’s most prolific division, Brown goes into this weekend’s finals at Pomona with the chance to become the first black champion. He takes a 65-point lead over teammate Tony Schumacher.

Under new head coach, Greg Schiano, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers have to be considered one of the hottest teams in the NFL right now.

The numbers the offense has put up in their last two games, and the coming out party of first-round pick, Doug Martin, have indicated a turning point in the team’s fortunes. If not for the amazing start of the Atlanta Falcons, the Bucs would be right in the thick of the NFC South race. Right now, they are a game ahead of New Orleans and the Carolina Panthers.

Playing the Chargers at home will be a special treat for the Buccaneer fans and everyone will be expecting encore performances from Martin, quarterback Josh Freeman, wide receivers Mike Williams and Vincent Jackson, and a defensive unit that is finally getting noticed by the rest of the league.

BY TED TAYLOR

In what Rattler followers call the worst performance in years, Florida A&M fell to the Aggies of North Carolina A&T 16-3, on Saturday afternoon in Greensboro, North Carolina.

On the day in which Florida A&M Coach Joe Taylor announced his retirement earlier, the Rattlers performed in such a way the 6,346 fans in attendance and those on the radio broadcast were left wondering.

The Aggies used two first quarter field goals of 27 and 30 yards, respectively, by Zach Cimaglia for a 6-0 lead. The lead was cut in half by FAMU’s Chase Varnadore, when he connected from 19 yards out. At 3-6, the Rattlers are assured of the first losing season since 2007. The upcoming Homecoming game against North Carolina Central is pivotal for the Rattlers to bounce back and salvage what they can for the season.

One day you’re dreaming of championship rings with your buddies; the next you’re stepping off of a charter plane as the face of a rebuild. Rockets guard James Harden can be forgiven if his head is still spinning after the Thunder moved him in a blockbuster trade just days before the start of the 2012-13 season.

Over the last 10 days, with his whole life turned upside down, he’s signed an $80 million contract extension and keyed a nice start to the Rockets’ season. Still, it sounds as if he’s not totally content with how the process played out. Harden wishes the Thunder hadn’t rushed him to make a decision during the final stages of contract extension negotiations.

Why didn’t officials give him longer than an hour to consider a final four-year, $54 million offer before trading him? “After everything we established — everything we had done — you give me an hour?” “This was one of the biggest decisions of my life. I wanted to go home and pray about it. It hurt me. It hurt.”

PITTSBURGH – The Steelers will likely be without receiver Antonio Brown when they host reeling Kansas City Monday night. Brown sprained his right ankle early in a 24-20 victory over the New York Giants last Sunday and Coach Mike Tomlin doesn’t anticipate Brown being available.

WEST PALM BEACH, FL – Former NFL wide receiver David Boston could face nearly three years in prison for punching a woman last year.

Palm Beach County prosecutors say the 34-year-old Boston pleaded guilty Monday to aggravated battery. He faces up to 35 months in prison at a Dec. 7 hearing. Authorities say Boston had been drinking at a Boca Raton home last November when he punched a woman twice in the head, leaving a wound requiring 10 stitches.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass.  — The New England Patriots moved to shore up their shaky secondary on Thursday by obtaining cornerback Aqib Talib from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The Patriots traded their fourth-round pick in next year’s draft for the former first-round choice, who is coming off his second NFL suspension, and a seventh-rounder in 2012.

Talib, who has 18 interceptions since being taken by Tampa Bay with the 20th pick in 2008 out of Kansas, will be eligible to play in the Patriots’ next game on Nov. 11 after serving a four-game suspension for violating the league’s policy on performance-enhancing substances.

He said at the time of the suspension that he took an Adderall pill without a prescription “around the beginning of training camp.” He also was suspended without pay for the regular-season opener in 2010 and fined one additional game check for violating the NFL’s personal-conduct policy. That penalty resulted from an altercation with a St. Petersburg cab driver during training camp in August 2009.

DALLAS – The Dallas County District Attorney’s Office said on Wednesday that it will pursue a misdemeanor family violence charge against Cowboys star wide receiver Dez Bryant.

District Attorney Craig Watkins said Wednesday afternoon that his office has accepted the charge against Bryant and that a court date will be set.

However, Watkins said his office could still decide to handle the charge differently in the future. In other words, the DA’s office could still drop the charge or reach a plea deal, just as prosecutors could in any criminal case.

Dallas Cowboys offensive lineman Tyron Smith spends his Sundays helping to protect star quarterback Tony Romo from being harassed and tormented by opposing defenses. On Tuesday, police had to protect him from being harassed and tormented by his closest family members over money.

On Tuesday afternoon, Dallas police responded to a 911 call to Smith’s North Dallas home, where two of his sisters along with a third unknown person showed up to “harass and torment” him “in the pursuit of collecting financial gain,” according to police reports. It was the second time in four days that the siblings showed up at his home.

Smith, 21, is in his second year with the Cowboys, his first as their starting left tackle, is considered to be a rising star. The ninth-overall pick out of Southern California in 2011, the 6-foot-5, 308-pound Smith signed to a four-year, $12.5 million contract last season with “America’s Team” and it has brought with it a lot of unwanted attention from his family.

Over the summer, Smith filed a restraining order through his attorneys against his stepfather, Roy Pinkney, and his mother, Frankie Pinkney, barring them from contacting Smith, even through siblings.