1 Page 372 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

It Took Negative One Day For Euro 2012 Fans To Start Their Racist Chants
The tourney doesn't start until tomorrow; today was merely a practice for the Netherlands. A practice open to the public. The Dutch team began the practice session by jogging around a track in Krakow, and when they reached one end of the circuit, "several hundred" or around "500" fans began hooting ...

108-Foot Roy Hodgson Erected On English Coast
"Roy the Redeemer" was unveiled this week, a massive statue of England manager aping the famous Christ sculpture in Brazil. He stands above the cliffs of Dover, and is supposedly visible from France. (The two nations face each other on Monday.)...

Piss Cannons And Scrotum-Seeking Dogs: Poland Is READY For Euro 2012
We already dealt with the possibility of trouble inside the stadiums at the European Championship, starting tomorrow. But what about non-matchdays? It's one solid month of foreigners, drunk and nationalistic, roaming an unfamiliar country. Some countries (England) have a reputation for traveling in ...

Just Try To Ignore Those Racist Chants At Euro 2012
The theme of the European Championship, which begins tomorrow, is racism. (To be fair to Poland and the Ukraine, the themes of international soccer over the last five years have been racism and goal-line technology. UEFA has made roughly the same progress on the two.) The BBC kicked it off with thei...

Should Brent Musburger Apologize For Calling John Carlos And Tommie Smith "Black-Skinned Storm Troopers" 44 Years Ago?
John Carlos and Tommie Smith, each raising a fist on the medal stand at the 1968 Olympics, have become an icon of that decade, and that climate, and of the changes that were a-coming. They're heroes now, but that the time they were seen by many as traitors, and agitators, and by at least one up-and-...

Claude Giroux Says Ilya Bryzgalov Will Be The NHL's Best Goalie Next Year
Every morning, the fine folks at Sports Radio Interviews sift through the a.m. drive-time chatter to bring you the best interviews with coaches, players, and personalities across the sports landscape. Today: Giroux kind of has to say that....

"Athletic" Shawn Johnson Retires: How Gymnastics Talks About Bodies In Code
On Sunday, former world and Olympic champion gymnast Shawn Johnson, 20, retired from gymnastics. Citing a bum knee, she withdrew from this coming weekend's national championships, the first competitive step towards the 2012 Olympic team....

Early Results Are In: Gawker Media Census Proves You’re Probably Drunk Right Now
Last week we asked you to take the 2012 Gawker Media Census, and in return offered one lucky survey-taker the opportunity to win a new iPad. Well, early responses are in, and we learned some interesting info about you guys—like the fact that 77% of you are more likely to buy alcohol than any other p...

Tiger Woods Streaks Back To Win The Memorial Thanks To This Astounding Chip-In At 16
He's back! Maybe! While Tiger Woods is casting a somewhat-less-imposing shadow these days (blame the therapeutic shoes) his round today was nothing short of amazing—battling illness, he came from behind to win the Memorial in Dublin, increase his tour ranking to #4, and inspire the sort of expect...

Men's Field Hockey Has The Olympics' Best Blood Feud
Men's field hockey, as Stefan Fatsis explains on this week's excerpt from Slate's Hang Up and Listen podcast, will be one hell of a trip in the 2012 Olympics, even though the USA isn't playing....

The New Orleans Hornets Will Pick First In The 2012 NBA Draft
The New Orleans Hornets, currently owned by the NBA and soon to be owned by Saints owner Tom Benson, will select first in the 2012 NBA Draft (most likely choosing Kentucky forward Anthony Davis). The Charlotte Bobcats, which had the worst winning percenatge in NBA history this past season, will pick...

Mario Balotelli Does Thing
Mario Balotelli's prepared for any racism that might erupt during this summer's Euro 2012 competition in Poland and the Ukraine. Prepared to go to jail, that is, telling France Football he's all too willing to face hate with violence:...

U.S. Gymnastics Turns Its Back On Chellsie Memmel, Genuine Badass
At the 2006 world championships, Chellsie Memmel botched a release during her uneven-bars routine and tore her labrum. This was more or less the beginning of a prolonged shoulder nightmare that would culminate this weekend in the cold-eyed rejection of her bid to compete in the national championship...

"They Had To Apply Electric Shock To Bring Him Back": The Decline Of Boxer David Reid, Hero Of The 1996 Olympics
Republished from The Ring....

Take The 2012 Gawker Media Census, Win An iPad, And <i>Then</i> Resume Your Quest for 3rd Base
After last year's census, we discovered that 66% of you stud muffins were in relationships and 51% of you dined out at around 3 times a week—we can only assume that all that wining and dining is how you keep the ladies coming back. Take a quick 10-minute break from the drunken hookups to answer the...

How A Career Ends: Ron Darling Celebrated His 35th Birthday By Getting Cut And Being Left Alone At Home
Tell Me When It's Over is an interview series in which we ask former athletes about the moment they knew their playing days were over. Today: Pitcher Ron Darling, one of 37 major leaguers in history born in Hawaii and the record holder, by far, for most major league seasons by a Yale University alum...

"The Kings Have The Ball": More Hockey Coverage From Los Angeles
You do have to feel for FOX 11's newslady. Hockey highlights are tough if you've never watched a hockey game. Kopitar and Doughty aren't easy names to pronounce. But in the wake of another LA station's Kings ignorance, it's entirely possible that a team is going to win a Stanley Cup without anyone...

Big 12, SEC Join Forces For Transparently Money-Grubbing New Year's Day Bowl
It's been a busy offseason for the Big 12 and the SEC. Both added two new teams to their conferences—the Big 12 replaced Texas A&M and Missouri, who defected to the SEC, with TCU and West Virginia—and their commissioners, Chuck Neinas and Mike Slive, shilled for the new four-team playoff that will f...

Azerbaijan's Stinky Olympic Wrestling Team Is Sponsored By Febreze
It kind of makes sense for a group of sweaty, smelly wrestlers to partner up with a product that stakes its business model on eliminating odors. If nothing else, we get to see some poor sap take a hefty whiff of some wrestler's headgear and compare it to passionfruit. (Related: Don't ever put a bl...

CBC's Ron MacLean Attempts Tortured Comparison Of Hockey Players To 9/11 First Responders, Fails
CBC host Ron MacLean opened tonight's coverage of the Stanley Cup playoff Game Six bout between the Capitals and Rangers with an extended and tortuous metaphor claiming the players were "like firefighters, like police officers," and throwing in 9/11 references....