FROM THE BIZARRE SIDE OF LIFE....

This story came out yesterday in Iowa

Vikes star Peterson to save NIACC football?
The NIACC football team has hope.

It was announced Tuesday that the program is being canceled due to budget cuts, but head coach Steve LaLonde said Thursday that Minnesota Vikings star Adrian Peterson is willing to give the program enough money to help get it through the 2009 season.

“Adrian Peterson has agreed to donate money to our football program, as well as three other NFL players,” said LaLonde, who spoke today for the first time since the announcement was made that football was being dropped. “This was confirmed this morning," LaLonde said.

Then, today, this came out:

Griffin fesses up: No offer from Peterson

Minnesota Vikings all-pro Adrian Peterson never offered to help save the NIACC football program.

Kevin Griffin, who initially was identified as a NIACC assistant coach, told head coach Steve LaLonde on Thursday that Peterson and three other NFL players were willing to give the school up to $150,000.

It turns out that wasn’t the case as Griffin said in a phone interview with the Globe Gazette Friday evening that he never spoke directly to Peterson.

“I made a mistake and anything that comes out of this falls on me,” said Griffin, who started coaching duties at NIACC on Monday. “Nothing ever came out of Adrian’s mouth.

Another bizarre one to read

WEST CHESTER, Pa. -- A former Lions quarterback who failed to show for sentencing on drunken driving charges nearly four years ago was killed in a car crash in Greece, authorities said, leaving behind an unsolved mystery involving two suspicious fires and years spent on the lam.

The State Department used fingerprints to determine that the victim of Saturday's crash was William "Jeff" Komlo, according to Jim Vito, Chester County's acting chief detective. Vito said he was initially skeptical, concerned because of Komlo's history that he might have faked his own death.

"Even though we heard that he was deceased, the first reaction was that, well, we better make a positive identification," Vito said.

Once the State Department verified the fingerprints were those of the 52-year-old fugitive, Vito was satisfied.

"As far as we're concerned, we're closing this now."

A State Department spokesman, Noel Clay, declined to comment "out of respect for the family." He would not say where in Greece the accident happened or release any details of the crash.

Komlo played for the Lions, Atlanta Falcons and Tampa Bay Buccaneers over five NFL seasons from 1979 to 1983.

In July 2005, Komlo failed to show for sentencing on two drunken driving convictions.

Two months earlier, authorities had issued a warrant for Komlo when he didn't appear for a May 10 preliminary hearing on charges in an alleged assault on his girlfriend.

At the time he went missing, Komlo was under investigation for fires at his home in Chester Springs, Pa., and another home in Florida.

Komlo had lived in Chester Springs and worked as an insurance broker in the nearby Philadelphia suburb of Wayne. Authorities did not know what happened to him after he skipped the hearings in 2005.

"This guy apparently has created some intrigue over the years," Vito said.

After getting into 16 games his rookie year with the Lions, the 200-pound, 6-foot-2-inch quarterback played sporadically the rest of his career.

An NFL spokesman did not immediately comment Friday.

Komlo starred at the University of Delaware, leading the Blue Hens to the Division II national championship game in 1978. The Lions picked him in the 9th round of the 1979 NFL draft.

Scott Selheimer, Delaware's sports information director, said the school's thoughts go out to Komlo's friends and family.

"It's a tragic situation where someone, when they were here at the university, was kind of like a hero," Selheimer said. "It's a shame that his life kind of tumbled. He was going through so many troubled situations for so long."

An attorney who had represented Komlo in Palm Beach County, Fla., declined to comment Friday.

Two other attorneys who had represented him in Pennsylvania did not return telephone calls from The Associated Press. A telephone number for his ex-wife could not be located.

Komlo completed 183 of 368 passes for 2,238 yards and 11 touchdowns in 1979. He also threw 23 interceptions as the Lions finished 2-14.

During the next four seasons, he played in a total of nine games for the Lions, Atlanta and then Tampa Bay, where his career ended in 1983.