ajd Page 123 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

It's All Fun And Games Until Someone Gets Hurt
Fun week this week. Painful, but fun. Thankfully, it's now over and we can all go back to our not-so-normal lives. Here's a rundown:...

Jennie Finch's Son Being Groomed For A Life Of Separation Anxiety And Ass-Kickings
Saw this little tidbit in, of all places, SI writer Jack McCallum's "Bottom 10" list: Softballer Jennie Finch is positively distressed about taking away her son's pacifier and blanket....

Scott Pioli Mercifully Pulls Plug On Herm Edwards
According to ESPN, the Chiefs coach was just fired. [ESPN]...

Al Michaels Loves His Job, Hates Vegetables
"If you threatened me at gunpoint and insisted I have two on my plate, one would look like a big, juicy Porterhouse and the other would look eerily similar to lemon meringue pie." [The Big Lead]...

Rocker Says Steak Shapiro Deserved It, Denies Very Little
John Rocker was kind enough to call back and respond to Atlanta sports radio host Steak Shapiro's claims that he verbally assaulted him last night. Rocker says he was provoked....

The One Where Dwight Howard Supaman's Dat Ho
We get a massive amount of tips in our inbox each week. Some are pretty interesting, but don't get published for one reason or another....

Your Playboy Sexiest Sportscaster Finalists Are Revealed
Charissa Thompson. Bonnie Bernstein. Molly Sullivan. Lauren Shehadi. And some Erin chick I've never heard of. [Playboy.com]...

Giants Receivers Shouldn't Be Allowed To Go Outside, Near Guns
Giants receiver Taye Biddle, called up from the practice squad to replace Plax last fall, is recovering nicely from gunshot wounds. No, he didn't shoot himself. [ESPN]...

Raise Your Hand If You Know The Lyrics To "Grab Them Cakes"
Writer with extremely large brain and embarrassing music collection does an amazingly thorough job analyzing the genius and nuances of "The Wrestling Album". [Mental Floss]...

Matt Cassel Knows He's Still The Guy Behind The Guy
"This is Tom's team. The Patriots have been Tom's team. He's built that franchise up with his own two hands." [ESPN]...

Australian Open: Come For The Tennis, Stay For The Chair-Throwing Melee
Bosnian and Serbian spectators attacked each other with lawn chairs after the third-round Australian Open match between Serbian Novak Djokovic and Bosnian-born Amer Delic. Police arrested two men and kicked 30 people off the grounds for fighting....

Punchy Gymnast Finds Love With Brown Footballer
• Alicia Sacramone's got a man: And he's a defensive back for the Brown University football team. [The Big Lead]...

The Halcyon Days Of Blackball-dom Are Seemingly Behind Us
It's a little ironic that Deadspin was finally credited on SportsCenter for "breaking" a story, which for whatever reason, does give it more of that elusive credibility in mainstream media....

Ex-Fiancee Corroborates McGwire Steroid Claims Made In Book Proposal (Updated)
Lauren Brown was engaged to Jay McGwire in 1996, the same time he was consistently supplying the former home run king with steroids. She's relieved the truth about Mark's steroid use is finally out....

And Let's Get Bashed In The Face
Second part of the Deadspin Civil War Mayor's bet is complete. This was actually more painful than the tattoo....

Jay Mariotti: "Roger Ebert Can Kiss My Ass"
Remember back in the summer when venerable Chicago Sun-Times movie critic, Roger Ebert wrote that scathing farewell letter to Jay Mariotti? Jay does — and he's finally responded....

The Buttsaw That Is The NFC Champion Arizona Cardinals
Well. That happened. If anything this exercise in permanent body desecration has taught me this: I will never, ever bet on the Philadelphia Eagles again....

Rex Ryan Gets All "They Pull A Knife, You Pull A Gun" For Fawning New York Media
"The players will have each other's backs, and if you take a swipe at one of ours, we'll take a swipe at two of yours." [NJ.com]...

ESPN Is Officially Trying To Get Rick Reilly To Do More
WWL multi-media superstar Rick Reilly's been busy with many new ESPN projects lately, but apparently it still isn't enough to justify his expensive paycheck....