The most bizarre sports stories from December 2015

The Panthers breakout star shared the secret of his motivation: pretending to be a different iconic movie character for every game he plays.  “For the Tampa Bay game, I was Maximus [from Gladiator]”. Norman also says he's 'portrayed' characters from '300', 'The Dark Knight' and 'Troy'. No word on whether he was pretending to be Jake LaMotta from 'Raging Bull' when he infamously squared off with Odell Beckham in Week 15. 

After defeating Wladrmir Klitschko to win the heavyweight title back in November, Tyson Fury had this to say about his opponent, 
"To be honest with you, I know Klitschko is a devil worshipper. You can go on YouTube and watch him playing with magic and all that sort of stuff. A man who does evil things and worships an evil one, how can he win over a man who wants to do good things and preach good stuff?" 

Lakers coach Byron Scott, on when he learned about Kobe's impending retirement, ' “I said, ‘KB, I played you 20 minutes in the first half. I’m going to cut those minutes down. I’ve got to cut them down'. He said, ‘That’s good, coach. That’s all right. I’m going to announce my retirement after the game.'” The Black Mamba does things his way, right until the very end. 

With all the struggles the Pats had at the receiver position in 2015, who knew that their future Hall Of Fame QB was also quite possibly their best wideout. Ok, that might be a stretch, but it was still quite odd to see the 38-year-old Brady haul in a 36-yard catch from Danny Amendola on trick play against the Eagles. 

"I had to use the bathroom and I told the team doctors we could do the protocol in the back.” So, there you have it folks. The presumptive NFL MVP not only had an amazing season, but he also passed the concussion protocol while taking care of other business. Multi-threat indeed. 

The reigning MVP is having the best season of his career, and he's giving a lot of the credit for that...to his toilet bowl? “I bet if I did a case study on my performance since I got that toilet, you’d see the difference. I was in Minnesota when Ayesha told me about it. And the next day I had 46. There’s a reason for that.”

The mercurial Lakers guard has never been known for his shut down defense. But don't tell that to the man himself, who was quoted in December as saying, “When you think of defense, just think of Swaggy P.” Whatever you say sir, whatever you say. 

When the league you run is suffering through a concussion crisis, you would think the last you would want to do in public is be caught laughing on camera when an NFL legend like Roger Staubach makes a joke about how concussions have caused him to lose some brain functionality, but apparently that's not how Roger Goodell functions. 

Conor McGregor fans + five-hour flight = recipe for disaster. The brash UFC fighter is known for his iconoclastic style, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that legions of his fans have the same attitude. Just don't let too many of his fans on an airplane at one time, and we should be good to go going forward. 

An NBA team losing a game in the middle of December should not be a peculiar occurrence, but the 2015-16 Warriors are not a regular NBA team, as witnessed by their lone loss to the Bucks. NBA fans haven't seen a team make things look THIS easy since, well, pretty much ever, so seeing the team take a loss made it seems like something was off with the Earth's axis for a night. 

The Washington professional football team has been in the midst of a PR crisis since, well, since Dan Snyder took over the team, if we are being honest, and getting caught operating a Twitter account that is supposed to be run by fans isn't a massive scandal, but it certainly isn't a good look for the team either. 

The Colts coach had this to say after a midweek practice back in the middle of the month, "We are not the only ones pregnant right now." If you're waiting for us to provide context to that quote, that is more than fair, as we are currently waiting on Pagano to do the same. 

In a situation that could have turned out WAY worse, King James dove into the crowd to go after a loose ball when he barreled into a female fan, who just happened to be the wife of one of the greatest pro golfers in the world. A few bumps and bruises aside, she turned out to be OK thankfully, and now has a killer story to tell all her friends at dinner parties. 

Ole Miss star Robert Nkemdiche is lucky to be alive after taking a four-storey fall where he may or may not have been under the influence a some sort of substance. The details around this story were never made 100% clear, but Nkemdiche later apologized, denied any drug abuse and declared for the NFL Draft in the same letter. A bizarre end to an otherwise wonderful college career. 

The Cavs star didn't have time to take his fiancée to the hospital when she started giving birth in the early morning of December 16, so Shumpert did what any good spouse would do and went ahead and delivered his child himself, an impressive feat to say the least. 

Because Iman Shumpert Jr. is a beautiful name, regardless of sex. 

The weirdness of this one has multiple layers. First, NHL enforcer John Scott, by his own admission, has no business being in an NHL all-star game. But that hasn't stopped the internet from starting a semi-ironic campaign to get him there. And it's working. He is the current leading vote-getter. Only problem: he doesn't have a team at the moment. The Coyotes waived him for the third time on December 18, leaving the NHL without a clue as to what to do. Stay tuned!

In the same manner that it is really difficult to lose 20 games in baseball because at some point, the team will stop tossing you out there, it's not easy to break the NFL's penalties record either. Why would a team keep putting that player on the field? Well, if you're the struggling Saints and you don't have many other options, you do just that. And now Brandon Browner and his 24 penalties in 2015 are the new low as far as this dubious achievement goes. 

" I would never discourage my son from playing football or baseball or anything else, but I would probably say ‘Hey, listen, you ought to try golf.’ Seriously." If the impending Donald Trump presidency isn't a sign of the apocalypse, then this quote from the toughest coach to ever coach the game most certainly is. 

Falcons running back Tevin Coleman proved one thing in December: silly off-the-field, non-sport injuries aren't just for baseball players any more!

The former Warriors coach has had a peculiar relationship with his old team over the last two seasons. He did help the team start its turnaround, but he also hasn't always done and said the right thing when asked about the Warriors. Case in point: saying Steph Curry's way of playing is actually hurting the game. Yes, he was trying to pay him a compliment and the quote was somewhat taken out of context. However, still an odd thing to say about the player whom everyone currently considers to be the best in the world. 

Sure, he's come out and called Al-Jazeera's explosive report 'complete garbage', but still, seeing the five-time MVP's name next to a PED report is alarming to say the least, even if it does all turn out to be much ado about nothing. 

Was it a case Bill Belichick being an evil genius, and giving weaker Jets team a better shot at making the postseason over a more-seasoned Steelers squad? Or did the mighty Pats actually mess this one up? Either way, the Jets prevailed with a TD on the opening possession, and the Pats were left trying to explain their rationale. 

Miko Grimes, wife of Dolphins defensive back Brent Grimes, is certainly no stranger to speaking her mind and the subsequent controversy that stems from that, but even so, going on Twitter tirade where you blame all of the team's faults on its franchise QB has to make for an awkward moment or five in the locker room the next day.