David Akers' Daughter had Cyst Removed

After David Akers missed two kicks in the Philadelphia Eagles' playoff loss to the Green Bay Packers earlier this month, safety Quintin Mikell said his teammate was distracted by an off-field issue.

His agent, Jerrold Colton, said it was a "private family health concern". Akers had been silent on the issue but told The Philadelphia Inquirer in a story that appeared in Sunday's editions that his 6-year-old daughter Halley had a malignant cyst in her left ovary that was removed in the week after the game.

"They used the word tumor or cyst or growth," Akers told the newspaper. "And you're like, 'OK, what does that mean?' Cancer is what that means."

Akers' wife, Erika, told the newspaper that she could tell from her seat in the stands at Lincoln Financial Field that her husband's mind wasn't solely on the game against the Packers.

"I could tell he was there doing his job," she told the newspaper. "But he wasn't there."

Akers missed field goals of 41 and 34 yards in the Eagles' 21-16 loss to the Packers.

According to early tests, doctors believe they removed all of the malignant tumor. Halley has to get blood tests each month for the rest of the year and then more tests periodically. Even is she remains cancer-free she likely will also eventually have to have her right ovary removed.

"I think a lot of it is the unknown for us, and still not knowing, still kind of holding on," Akers told the newspaper. "You just don't think this is going to happen to your kid."

Akers, who will be the NFC's kicker in Sunday's Pro Bowl, will be a free agent this offseason.

Arianna Huffington ,Removed ,Plane, After ,BlackBerry, Feud

When airline authorities first made the rule to turn off your cell phones before takeoff, they clearly didn't take into account the impending era of "the CrackBerry." The New York Post reports that Huffington Post founder and media titan Arianna Huffington wasn't quite ready to put her BlackBerry phone down during takeoff for her short flight from Washington, D.C., to NYC over the weekend, prompting a jabber match with a nearby passenger and an escorted removal by security after landing.

"She wouldn't turn off her BlackBerry, even when we pushed back from the gate," one passenger told Valleywag."We took off, and it became apparent that the phone was still on, which very much upset her neighbor."

After the passenger, Ellis Bellodof, 53, repeatedly asked Huffington, 60, to turn her phone off at around 10PM, the two caused a disturbance and were removed from the plane for questioning after landing in New York's LaGuardia Airport. Both were released without charges.

After the incident blew over, Huffington's publicist could only make jokes about the matter.

"There was a passenger who seemed upset. Arianna thought he didn't like the snacks. Guess not. Maybe he was an iPhone fan. As you know, the battle between iPhone lovers and BlackBerry users can get pretty heated," Huffington's rep Mario Ruiz told the Post.