So, I'm sure everyone's heard by now about our good friend Ronnie Belliard's legal difficulties. Belliard had a sordid affair with a young lady, who supposedly ended up pregnant. The rest is pure soap opera genius:

Laura Edwards and the athlete had an "encounter" on Sept. 29 and she left messages for him in late October or early November. He had a friend call back. That friend's message was returned by George Edwards, who met with the friend and said his daughter was pregnant and wanted money.

The friend offered several thousand dollars. Later in November, a sports agent worked out a deal to pay $25,000 for a paternity test, and $125,000 more if the child was the athlete's.

Oh, the life of a professional athlete. Knock 'em up and pay 'em off. Things went awry with that little plan, however, as the father of the young lady decided that Ronnie's $150k payoff wasn't enough. So he got served with an extortion charge, and the whole thing gets thrown out into the public arena. Yippee!

Belliard, incidentally, went 0-for-4 with a K on September 30. Must've been a hell of an "encounter".