beam, a steadying hand that let us know she was, in fact, human,

It was like walking on eggshells at the North Queensland Cowboys on Tuesday.Kiwi Test star Jason Taumalolo said he had put an alleged egg-throwing incident behind him after being the high profile player among five Cowboys accused of pegging them at cars in Townsville last week.The North Queensland backrower reckoned he now only had Brisbane in his sights ahead of Friday nights NRL sudden death semi-final in Townsville.He claimed he owed his teammates a big game.And it seemed only a standout display from Taumalolo would appease his teammates after clearly polarising the Cowboys player group ahead of the NRL grand final re-match.Taumalolo and Tautau Moga were slapped with $2500 fines by the Cowboys on Monday over the Wednesday night incident, just days before the teams first finals game.All five players involved face court next month on wilful damage charges.Cowboys co-captain Johnathan Thurston could not hide his disappointment with Taumalolo on Tuesday.And he was obviously unimpressed the matter had become a talking point ahead of a match that threatened to derail their title defence.Asked if he was concerned Taumalolo could still be distracted by the incident, Thurston said after a long pause: Yes and no. (But) hes a big boy.In contrast Test prop James Tamou believed Taumalolo had nothing to apologise for.I dont think he has let anyone down, he said.This year he has been one of our best players and I think his head is screwed on right for this game.For the record Taumalolo faced the music on Tuesday and admitted to a media scrum he had a point to prove against the Broncos.I owe it to the boys, he said.Just days after being charged, the New Zealand wrecking ball made little impact in North Queenslands 16-10 opening finals loss in Melbourne last weekend, amassing 86m from eight runs.I need to put in a better performance. I thought I owed them one last week and didnt come up with the goods, Taumalolo said.I am not going to lie, it kind of got to me in the end (against Melbourne).It obviously affected my performance on the weekend, something I was pretty disappointed about.I didnt help myself with the stupid things I did.Its been a long couple of days. Today is all about moving on and focusing on Friday night.Cowboys coach Paul Green was confident Taumalolo had put the incident behind him.I think so, we have dealt with it. Its last weeks news. As a club we have moved on, he said.I would say he will bounce back with a big game on Friday night. Michael Jordan Bengals Jersey . Haas said he "felt a lot of pain" in his right shoulder when he slammed his racket to the ground in frustration after losing his serve at 3-3 in the first set. Boomer Esiason Jersey . The 27-year-old Scrivens will be joining his third NHL club since signing with the Toronto Maple Leafs as a free agent in 2010. The move also reunites with him with head coach Dallas Eakins from their time together with the American Hockey Leagues Toronto Marlies. http://www.bengalsrookiestore.com/Bengals-Jonah-Williams-Jersey/ . LOUIS -- Roman Polak was celebrating even before Alexander Steen scored the winning goal in Saturdays 4-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes. Renell Wren Jersey . Now that hes hitting streaking teammates with pin-point passes for easy layups, Love is asserting himself as one of the true superstars in the league. Anthony Munoz Youth Jersey . Bradwell was scheduled to become a free agent Tuesday. Born and raised in Toronto, Bradwell is entering his sixth CFL season, with all six played for his hometown Argonauts. I watched the Rio Olympics with my two teenage daughters. It was the U.S. women athletes who would come to dominate the Games, winning 27 golds and 61 total medals -- six more than the mens overall tally. This was edifying, especially for my girls, who found themselves unexpectedly stirred and rooting for women whose excellence and achievement were not up for debate-women whose dedication, fortitude and will broke through the media clutter, leveled false gods and showed us all what greatness can and should look like.And then there was Simone Biles.Biles, 19, came into the Olympics not simply a favorite but a legend, her exceptionalism as rousing as a drum line, an athlete soaring so far above her peers she may as well have been eyeing them from space. The Nadia Comaneci narrative-that of the adorable imp who stunned the world with unprecedented perfection-wasnt for her.It was assumed that Biles would be perfect, her superiority a given. Her mind-bending world championship triumphs had already offered a preview of coming dominance: Biles the proverbial gun at the knife fight. And this, arguably, is a much harder burden to bear.There is the risk of potential humiliation, of letting people down, of not being the gilded, galloping unicorn youve been advertised to be. A favorite is not allowed to falter. A lock can never be a surprise. Worse, confidence can read as smugness, inviting schadenfreude. America is nothing if not invested in the narrative of the underdog.Biles has never been the underdog in the gym. She has had agonizing struggles over the years, notably entering foster care after her birth mother lost the ability to care for her and her sister because of drug addiction. Biles, whose grandparents became her parents when she was 6, took pains to busy herself with things she could control, like learning how to do back handsprings in her yard. When the role life handed her was too limiting, Biles rewrote the script and gave herself better lines.So it was with her gymnastic career, in which she quickly conquered every skill and maneuver on offer. And still she kept workinng, doing the hard math.ddddddddddddShe learned how a slight feint to the right midair would rotate her body like a pinwheel in the wind. She calculated how many steps it took to launch her body twice her height above the mat. She embraced dismounts no one else dared try. Then she added flair. Joyful punctuation-a shimmy, a leap, a swivel of the hip-showmanship married to excellence that delighted all fortunate enough to see her compete.There are others who have inhabited their significance thus, the rare few who possessed enough confidence to play, even as they fought to be the best in the world. Babe Didrikson Zaharias. Jim Thorpe. Muhammad Ali. Artists, like Biles, who left us gasping and misty-eyed at their performances even though we already knew the ending. Magicians who mastered every trick, then invented new ones.Such was the case with Biles in Rio, where she cemented her status in the athletic firmament with every stuck landing, a physical planting of the flag on a planet all her own. My girls watched her, applauding victory after victory, never tiring of her virtuosity, Biles pre-eminence a comfort of sorts, like that of a superhero coming to save the day. She bobbled once on the beam, a steadying hand that let us know she was, in fact, human, but that second no more defined her Olympic showing than a stray thread on a couture suit.Here was a woman who knew, to the millimeter, how far she had to run. Here was a woman who bent physics to her will. Here was a woman who found balance in the air. Here was a woman unafraid of a blind landing. Here was a woman who wouldnt choke, wouldnt let us down, a woman we could trust to take care of business.Here was a woman who also happened, just by her very existence, to be forcing every coming generation to do better. Because she did better. (A lot better.) And with that mandate came the comfort of knowing better could still be done, that our future could be as bright and certain as we dared allow. ' ' '