Kansas football players Daymond Patterson and A.J. Steward earned themselves a bit of viral success and some national attention in a back-and-forth exchange with ESPN analyst Mark May on College Football Live two weeks ago thanks to the first installment of their 'DP & A.J. take on KU' series.
In their first of what will allegedly be several challenges against other Jayhawk athletes during the summer, the duo edged a pair of KU women's soccer players in a shootout. The event was filled with trash-talking and capped by Steward crashing into a camera and cutting his forehead while celebrating a 4-3 win with a shirt pulled over his head.
May, while taking a shot at the duo, suggested that they take on the men's basketball team, saying that: "Those guys are 6-3, 230-250. They're going against girls that are, like, 5-8, 160. That's a mismatch. It's not fair."
Ask, and you shall receive.
If their heads were a bit inflated after the initial triumph, then they were humbled some this week by KU basketball players Thomas Robinson and Travis Releford, who took them on in a game of K.A.N.S.A.S. (or, a modified version of H.O.R.S.E.) at Allen Fieldhouse.
The challenge begins with Patterson and Steward claiming that "Basketball is hella easy, people go to the rec and do it every day."
It ended with them walking away defeated after pushing Robinson and Releford late in the contest.
The highlight of their spirited effort even included Patterson knocking down a three from the right wing off of a hand-off from Steward, copying the most famous shot in Kansas basketball history ? Mario Chalmers' game-tying trey late in the 2008 national championship against Memphis. But reality set in when Releford then matched it, making it appear all but certain that the pair of gridders would not be leaving the Phog with a 2-0 record in their fledgling reality series.
It was a fitting end, though, as basketball remains king in Lawrence. The football program saw a significant spike late in the Mark Mangino Era, but was just 3-9 last season in a disappointing first campaign under Turner Gill. Patterson, a 5-foot-9 speedster who caught 60 passes as a junior, will be one of the key figures in KU's attempt to turn things around in 2011.
Maybe the best thing to take away from the second installment of the reality series is living proof that the football and basketball teams at KU are again peacefully co-existing, because it wasn't too long ago when that wasn't the case.
Ryan Greene also covers UNLV and the Mountain West Conference for the Las Vegas Sun. Read his Rebels coverage and follow him on Twitter.
Natassia Malthe Victoria Silvstedt Hilary Swank Whitney Port Minka Kelly
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