Football Page 1535 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Tom Petty Set To Rock Your Balls Off At Super Bowl XLII
For those of you who take your musical cues from the National Football League, you should be happy this year: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are playing the halftime show. Well, at least your dad will be happy. If he's stoned....

Join The Deadspin Bowl Party Pool
We congratulate B. Sullivan, who, with his "Faux Schizzle" entry in our College Pick 'Em pool, scored 536 points to finish first out of 1,517 entries. If he contacts us this week, we'll make sure he gets a copy of that God Save The Fan business when it comes out in January. Now, for the next round: ...

Oh, Like You Didn't Know This Picture Was Coming
Yep, it's really happening: Illinois — Illinois! — is in the Rose Bowl. The game they play on New Year's Day. That one. Seriously. Zook in Pasadena. Zooooooooook....

Praising Thigpen, Blasting Gibbs
The Mighty MJD's Smorgasbord runs every Monday. Do enjoy....

Yeah, Yeah, We Get It: You Hate The BCS
Dan Shanoff writes a weekly college football column for Deadspin. Email him to let him know what you think....

Winslow Soldiers A Catch, But You Didn't See It, And It Didn't Happen
Tiny tidbits and info smidgens from Week 13 of the NFL ......

Whatever Choice Was Made, It Was Going To Be Wrong
We enjoy this picture of Georgia center Fernando Velasco, taken after the Bulldogs' win over Georgia Tech Saturday, because he is holding an orange. Presumably, a fan through him — and some other Bulldogs — an orange to symbolize the Orange Bowl. This is odd not because Georgia is not going to the O...

McCowns For Everyone!
With just four games on the 4 o'clock table, three turned out to be amazing, while the fourth turned out to be Denver-Oakland, which was still passable as a competitive event....


Only YOU Can Prevent The Giants Passing Attack
The matchup of Rex Grossman and Eli Manning is one you'd think would result in one of the QBs getting benched in the near future if they don't play up to snuff. Grossman is throwing pretty well, all things considered, with over 200 yards passing and a score, even though most of his incompletions wer...

Peyton's Good, But He'll Never Be A QB Like His Brother
About that "poor 1:00 game slate" thing: somehow I kept forgetting about the Indianapolis/Jacksonville game. Maybe we take for granted that they play twice a year and the matchup's always decent, or maybe it was just infected by all the other bad games much like Gary Gulman's theory about grapefruit...

Traditionally, 11 Man Defenses Work Better
I've read in a couple places that the Redskins' first defensive play featured a 10-person formation in honor of Sean Taylor, which the Bills also thought was proper, because they used that play for a 22-yard gain. (Good thing it wasn't a 21-yard run.) The pride of Wallaceburg, Ontario and BGSU's own...



BCS Ups Dosage Of Crazy Pills
To all who believe that yesterday's BCS Holocaust is a firm sign that the NCAA needs a playoff system, then you can just watch the happy little Championship Subdivision and enjoy yourself some playoffs. To me, it's just yet another reason that this maniacal device of power conference destruction we ...

Mizzou vs. Oklahoma - Disrespect For Everyone
Gary Pinkel has a big challenge tonight as he — wait, is Les Miles coaching Missouri now? No? He's still at LSU? Okay, carry on — coaches his top-ranked underdog Missouri Tigers against Oklahoma. It's a difficult decision, really, to pick one team over another. One can easily make a convincing case ...


I Hope Hugh Had The Time Of Your Life (Good Riddance)
The game to watch right now is Virginia Tech and Boston College, tied at 16-16. Earlier, Central Florida pulled away from Tulsa and won 44-23, and UCF tailback Kevin Smith is close to breaking the single-season rushing record set by Barry Sanders. Navy's water invasion of Army proves successful for ...

Reports Indicate Les Miles Reports Contradict Other Les Miles Reports - A Special Report
There was a really cool fake punt in the Tulsa-UCF game, because Tulsa's quarterback was lined up at punter. Obvious fake, right? Well, he's actually averaging 40 yards a punt, which is better than their main punter. He also installed the goalposts before the game, and sometimes mans the down marker...

MAC Championship Breaks Sound Barrier
The quantity of games is light, which is compensated with a hint of quality. Central Michigan leads Miami 7-0 for the MAC championship, Central Florida is up 10-7 on Tulsa for the C-USA crown, and Army-Navy is scoreless. And for a I-AA update, Appalachian State leads Eastern Washington 7-0. Virginia...