Asamoah Gyan is the all-time leading goalscorer for Ghana's national football team. He is also the top African goalscorer in the history of the World Cup.
But did Gyan recently have a rapper ritualistically sacrificed to further his own career? No, he almost certainly did not, but that didn't stop Gyan's lawyer this week releasing a 2700-word statement denying the allegations.
The story started in the wake of Ghana's elimination from this year's World Cup. Gyan and his brother were on holiday with Ghanaian rapper Castro when he and his girlfriend disappeared.
The pair were last seen on a jet ski and, after an extensive search returned no bodies, police declared the two had accidentally drowned.
That sparked a rumour that kicked into overdrive when a reverend and self-described "prophet" hinted he knew more about the death of Castro.
A theory soon sprung that Gyan had orchestrated the rapper's killing for the purposes of black magic, a theory that journalist Daniel Kenu put to Gyan at a press conference before a Ghana game last month.
The probing saw Kenu beaten to within an inch of his life by Gyan's brother and his associates, leading to this week's surreal statement in which the Gyan family denied the rumours.
Safe to say Gyan is the first athlete forced to write "the allegation of spiritual sacrifice can by no stretch of the imagination be propped up".
#FreeSimmons view shared
With almost three million followers on Twitter, Bill Simmons is perhaps the most well-known sports writer in the United States. And with a penchant for speaking his mind, Simmons has repeatedly fallen foul of employer ESPN.
Simmons has previously been censured by the Disney-owned company for his outspoken views, but the employee-employer relationship reached a nadir yesterday when Simmons was suspended from duty for three weeks. The punishment came after an incensed Simmons repeatedly called NFL commissioner Roger Goodell a liar for his handling of the Ray Rice domestic abuse case. It's a view shared by many and saw #FreeSimmons trend worldwide on Twitter for much of the day.
It's also worth noting that Simmons' suspension is a week longer than that initially imposed by Goodell on Rice after the Ravens running back was seen on video dragging his unconscious fiance out of a hotel elevator.
Mayweather's alternative reality
It will surprise few to hear that what they watch on a reality television show is in fact rather far from reality. But that's what boxer Floyd Mayweather had to tell a Nevada State Athletic Commission this week after getting into a spot of bother over his own reality show.
Mayweather's All Access, filmed and aired in the lead-up to his recent dismantling of Marcos Maidana, featured a brutal 31-minute uninterrupted sparring session between two boxers at Mayweather's gym. The session was presented on All Access as a "fight to the death" and the show captured other members of the gym gambling on the action, impinging on several Nevada State Athletic protocols.
To avoid sanction from the commission, Mayweather told the members it was all an act and the footage was edited.
At least we still know judging in boxing is free from such impropriety.
Poltergeist comes to the NFL
Unable to explain the prolonged mediocrity of the Miami Dolphins, a local paper has put forward an interesting theory: it turns out Sun Life Stadium, where the Fins play home games, is built on an Indian burial ground.
When work began on the stadium in 1985, the Dolphins sought and received permission to dig up the burial ground, where the Tequesta tribe and the Seminole tribe had buried their dead before being wiped out or resettled when the Spanish came to America in the 16th century. Four months before excavating the area, the Dolphins went to the Super Bowl.
They haven't been back since.
