Football Page 1477 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Your Late Games Open Thread
Brandon Marshall was reportedly benched for missing a therapy session. (It was physical therapy for his ostensibly injured hamstring, but it's funnier if you leave that part out.) Let's watch the Chiefs and Raiders try to play spoiler. [ESPN]...

Pat White Carted Off After Helmet-To-Helmet Hit (Update)
For now, here's the highlight on NFL.com. But who's got that video? UPDATE: We do!...

Introducing: The Curtis Painter Rule
The NFL is reportedly considering persuading playoff-bound teams to play their starters by rewarding them with additional draft picks. Sounds good in the wake of last week's Colts abortion, but let's back the fuck up for a second....

Your Early Games Open Thread
Jackpot! Both FOX and CBS have two games today. Too bad most of the rosters will be UFL-quality. It's Curtis Painter's time to shine! [The506]...

Mike Leach Has Never Been Particularly Nice To Adam James
This just gets better and better for Leach, doesn't it? Two of his witnesses just turned stoolies for the university, and now video emerges of him cussing out James and kicking him out of practice....

The Demolition of Texas Stadium, Brought To You By Macaroni and Cheese
Kraft is sponsoring the upcoming destruction of the Cowboys' old home, along with a children's essay contest where the winner gets to pull the trigger. Bet you wish you'd taught your kids to read and write now, eh Philadelphia?...

Didn't Throw Up Enough On New Year's Day? This Should Do the Trick
Warning: the image after the jump, of Florida Gators running back Jeff Demps's elbow doing something it's not supposed to, isn't for the squeamish. So go ahead and skip it while I mock you by prancing around the room daintily....

Emails Provide Deliciously Candid Insight Into Mike Leach's Relationship with Texas Tech
Earlier this week, Spencer Hall alluded to the "contentious" nature of the negotiations surrounding the contract from which Mike Leach was recently relieved. Now, emails obtained by the Dallas Morning News illuminate just how contentious those negotiations really were....

Outback Bowl Open Thread: Auburn. Northwestern. Go.
The Throbbing Purple of Northwestern face-off against the Auburn Eldricks. What say you, Todd McShay?...

The Urban Meyer 911 Call Is Unbearably Sad
"Urban, Urban, talk to me," says his wife, Shelley, while on the phone with the dispatcher. "He almost sounds like he's kind of trying to cry." [ESPN]...

The Mike Leach Firing: What The Hell Happened?
Mike Leach's treatment of Adam James, in the midst of a sport-wide awakening to the perils of concussions, was unforgivable. But as Spencer Hall suggests, Leach was probably a goner before Craig James even picked up the phone....

Mike Leach Fired
"Terminated with cause effective immediately," according to the school's letter, which was handed to Leach's attorney just before today's hearing on the suspension. [AP]...

Mike Leach Situation Helpfully Summarized By Diss Track
Oh, good. Someone did that. "Singers" "KaiN" & "RyZe" (there aren't enough ironic quotes to adequately express my feelings here) have recorded their Team Leach version of "Cleaning Out My Closet," which makes it pretty clear that Craig James and his son are whiny sissy boys. A lot of it even rhymes!...

Tom Cable Did "Exceptional" Job Coaching Terrible Quarterbacks
The Raiders were this close to having an outstanding season. When I say "this close" imagine me holding a picture of JaMarcus Russell, because it was pretty much all his fault that they didn't. It sure wasn't Tom Cable's doing!...

At A Junction: Mike Leach And The Fading Autonomy Of The Coach
So it appears that even the sharpest, most forward-thinking free radical in college football isn't any more evolved than Bear Bryant in the Texas hills. Mike Leach, for all his smarts, is on the wrong side of a movement now....

Todd Haley Gives Man At Bus Stop A "Stack" Of $20 Bills To Prove He's Not A Tyrannical Nutbag
PFT calls it the Todd Haley "image-bolstering tour", but apparently this story is 100% true. How soon after this will Haley get mugged at the same bus stop now that everyone knows he's carrying wads of cash on him? [KCTV5]...

The Worst Bowl Game In The World (2009 Edition)
Are you busy this afternoon? Probably, because you have a life. However, if you're unemployed or otherwise indigent, get out your scraper because we've reached the very bottom of the college sports barrel. It's time for the EagleBank Bowl!...

Mike Leach Walks The Plank (MORE UPDATES)
Texas Tech has suspended its coach after receiving a "complaint from a player and his parents regarding [Leach's] treatment of the athlete after an injury." He won't coach in the Alamo Bowl. UPDATE: It's Craig James's kid. See below....

The Chiefs Hate Children
The poor Kansas City beat writers are running out of angles; there's only so many ways to write about how a team sucks. But here's a new one: won't somebody please think of the children?!...