jackdickey Page 56 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

An Interview With Jim Everett About "Teeny, Tiny" Jim Rome's Departure From ESPN
With all this business about Jim Rome leaving ESPN today, we figured we should check in with Jim Everett, the Rams, Saints, and Chargers quarterback whom Rome repeatedly called "Chris" on ESPN2 in 1994. Everett charged Rome. The video endures on YouTube. Everett is now a financial professional in...

Readers, You Are Free To Roast A.J. In The Comments
We've given everyone the chance to roast A.J. this week. Now it's your turn. Do your worst, commenters....

Was Ron Jaworski The Puppetmaster Behind Penn State's Odd Coaching Hire?
Yahoo's Pat Forde, late of ESPN, had an interesting aside in his column today, a piece otherwise devoted to blasting Penn State for hiring Bill O'Brien, the chin-holed rookie Patriots offensive coordinator, as its new head coach:...

Starlin Castro Under Investigation For Alleged Sexual Assault, Reports WBBM In Chicago
A woman in her 20s accused Castro, the Cubs' 21-year-old shortstop, of sexually assaulting her last fall. Chicago police now want to question Castro. Castro's lawyers say that the charges are "baseless," while the Cubs say they've only received "limited information." [WBBM News Radio]...

I-Team: Why Does New Penn State Coach Bill O'Brien Have A Hole In His Chin?
New England Patriots offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien agreed last night to take the head coaching job at Penn State. O'Brien, like Joe Paterno, graduated from Brown and has since coached at Georgia Tech, Maryland, and Duke. He's never before had a head coaching job and ran the Patriots' offense fo...

Deadspin Up All Night: Talk Around The Campfire
Thank you—yes, even you, Leitch—for your continued support of Deadspin. See you all tomorrow....

The Kings Have Canned Paul Westphal After The Weekend Brouhaha With DeMarcus Cousins
Cousins complains to Westphal, coach benches him and says DeMarcus asked to be traded. DeMarcus said he did not request a trade. Cousins plays in the Kings' next two games, scores four points in one and 26 in the other, Sacramento loses both, coach canned. Westphal was an impressively bad 51-120 dur...

Is This Guy The Most Hated Coach In Pro Football History?
Remember the 1961 Houston Oilers? No? Well, as Mike Pesca explains in our weekly excerpt from Slate's Hang Up and Listen podcast, they had the fifth-highest point differential of any team in pro football history. They won the AFL that year. 34-year-old George Blanda threw 36 touchdowns and Heisman w...

If You're In NYC Tonight, Come Hear Some Real Sportswriters Read And Talk
It's time for this month's installment of Gelf magazine's excellent Varsity Letters series: there'll be George Vecsey, who just retired from the Times, Mark Ribowsky (he wrote this about Howard Cosell), and Dave Zirin (he wrote this, with John Carlos). 7:30 p.m. tonight at Le Poisson Rouge, Bleecker...

HOLY SHIT JEFF GARCIA IS THE TEXANS' THIRD-STRING QB
We saw Jake Delhomme stumble through three quarters of Titans-Texans on Sunday after TJ Yates' injury, and we got to wondering who the Texans' third quarterback was. (You'll recall that Matts Schaub and Leinart are both out for the season.) We figured it was a reliable old guy, like Brian Griese, or...

Some Guy Got A Giant Tattoo Of Stevie Johnson's Head On His Arm
Johnson, the Bills wide receiver who was benched over the weekend, did this not so long ago. He still wound up with 1007 yards on the year. And now he tweeted a photo of the dude's tattoo. Everything about this is so dispiriting I don't know whom I should call classless. [@StevieJohnson13, via Sport...

For Some Reason, The Chargers Did Not Fire Norv Turner And A.J. Smith
You probably have a friend who doesn't follow football that closely and thinks the Chargers are really great. He likes that they have Antonio Gates, who is a killer in fantasy, and Vincent Jackson. He thinks Philip Rivers deserves to be mentioned with Tom Brady and Peyton Manning as the best quarter...

If You Wanted To See Journeyman Infielder Jack Wilson Kick A Football Into A Moving Jet-Ski, Here You Go
Bucs Dugout reports, "Jack Wilson on vacation. His dad sent me this." Wilson, who was an all-star for the Pirates in 2004, hit .243/.274/.285 over 79 games with the Mariners and Braves last year. Shockingly, he is still a free agent....

Dwight Howard To The Nets Is Almost A Done Deal, Reports... Jermaine Dupri
You can have your Wojnarowski, your Broussard, your Aldridge. We've got early-2000s hip hop producer and frequent Mariah Carey and Usher collaborator Jermaine Dupri, thank you....

Deadspin Up All Night: Break's Over
Thank you for your continued support of Deadspin. Hope you had a pleasant New Year's Day (observed)....

"Pedobear" Showed Up At The Houston-Penn State Game Today
We got an email, telegram-style, this morning: "Pedobear spotted tailgating outside ticket city bowl in Dallas complete with joepa cleats." We figured it was just a gag tailgate outfit that would never make it into the TicketCity Bowl (at the Cotton Bowl) and that we might not wind up with photograp...

Your Rose Bowl And Fiesta Bowl Open Thread
Rose Bowl's right now on ESPN. Wisconsin and Oregon. That should be a fun one. Fiesta Bowl's on ESPN at 8:30. Stanford and Oklahoma State. That should be, like, a little less fun. But there's Andrew Luck and Justin Blackmon if you're one of those people who cares way too much about the NFL draft....

Your Rangers-Flyers Winter Classic Open Thread
Hockey time in Philly. Our man Barry is there, but we are here. Anyway, the Rangers are tops in the East, and the remade Flyers are two points behind them. 24/7 superstar Ilya Bryzgalov won't be starting for the Flyers, Sergei Bobrovsky will. Meanwhile, the Rangers waived their 24/7 superstar, Sean ...

Redskins Mgmt. To Players: Wham, Bam, Thank You, Men
Tweets Sean Locklear, tackle extraordinaire: "Worst exit meeting ever! No coaches,no front office, just physical's and goodbye to teammates! We did just spend 5 mos together, WOW!" And what months they were. [@SeanLock75, via Dan Steinberg]...

Jason Taylor's Final Locker Room Speech Was Actually Pretty Touching
We told you yesterday about the farewell billboard Jason Taylor bought in Miami, and now we have a video message from the guy who somehow beat D'Brickashaw Ferguson around the edge yesterday. It's vaguely tender and worth your time....