Over The Top, Down Under

The more we learn about Australian athletes, the more we love them. Seriously, every day is a Lake Minnetonka Love Cruise down there, only with more drinking. The latest incident, of which we swear there's at least one per day, involves Penrith team rugby star Craig Gower. During a recent celebrity golf tournament, Gower allegedly groped the 17-year-old daughter of rugby league legend Wayne Pearce, threatened Pearce's 16-year-old son and held a butter knife to the throat of an Australian radio personality — an impressive hat trick which our athletes would be hard-pressed to duplicate. But there's more. "Earlier he was accused of turning up to the tournament drunk, damaging a golf cart and being nude at the resort," reported The Daily Telegraph. "He is accused of throwing a knife at other guests during Wednesday's presentation dinner, from which he was then ejected." As a result, Gower was dropped as team captain and fined $100,000 by a league tribunal. He has a history of such behavior — in 1999 he was fined after exposing himself to a tourist at the Coogee Bay Hotel. He was due to marry former cheerleader Amanda Flynn later this month.

We were just thinking, what are the odds that Gower knows Russell Crowe? Probably similar to those of the sun coming up tomorrow morning.

Stars In Showdown [Daily Telegraph]