1 Page 372 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Thousands Of Irish Soccer Fans Sing Their Team Off After A Crushing Defeat
Ireland got thrashed by Spain today, 4-0, in the second match of the group stage, but the loyal Irish faithful that flew into Gdansk for the match nonetheless sang their team off the pitch with a rousing rendition of "The Fields of Athenry" in the waning moments. It's basically like a couple thous...

Olympics Field Guide: Chris Hoy, The Incredible Hulk Of Track Cycling
Name: Chris Hoy...

Swedish Team In Trouble After Bare-Assed Game Of "Butts Up"
In my schoolyard it was called "butts up." In yours, it might have been "asses up," "wallball," "red ass," "suicide," but the game is the same, and taps in to the primal center of young boys' brains. It's essentially handball, but the first one to run up a certain number of "outs" must lean against ...

From Ukraine With Love: 24 Racism-Free Hours At Euro 2012
KIEV & KHARKIV, Ukraine—The fast train from Kiev to Kharkiv takes four hours. I know this, although I am not on it. I want to be on it, but tickets are gone, sold weeks ago to assorted Germans and other more prepared fans traveling from the Ukrainian capital to the industrial city that lies 300 mile...

Two Croatian Government Workers Are In Trouble For Flashing Everyone At Euro 2012
Croatia took a vital three points from Ireland over the weekend, sending fans into spasms of joy and occasional nudity. Now two women face losing their jobs after photos of them baring their chests at Sunday's match—including one of an Irish fan licking one woman's breasts—have been seen by pretty m...

Olympics Field Guide: Phillips Idowu, The Dennis Rodman Of The Triple Jump
Name: Phillips Idowu...

Russian And Polish Fans May Kill Each Other Before Their Match Starts
Here are some of the videos that have surfaced from this morning's clashes between Russian and Polish soccer fans, before their teams' match later today at Euro 2012. According to one (biased) account, a Russian fan march was set upon by Polish supporters, and broken up by police firing tear gas a...

Kenyan Schoolchildren Reenact Game 6 Of The 1986 World Series
This has been going around for a week (we saw it when Keith Law tweeted it this morning) and it is picture perfect. From "Mookie Wilson" waving Kevin Mitchell to the plate, to "Bill Robinson" jumping up and down as the ball rolls through Buckner's legs, to "Ray Knight"'s hands on the back of his h...

Ukraine's 2-1 Comeback Win Left This Swede Feeling Black In The Face
So, yeah, the racism promised to emerge at Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine actually did, though in classic 1960's spy drama fashion everyone's blaming the Russians. Sweden had no one to blame but themselves, meanwhile, after a stunning performance by Andriy Shevchenko led Ukraine past the Swedes fo...

Olympics Field Guide: Nick D'Arcy And Kenrick Monk, Idiot Gun-Toting Aussie Swimmers
Names: Nick D'Arcy and Kenrick Monk...

The Dream Team Even Practiced Better Than Anybody Else Did
Michael. Magic. Bird. Barkley. Mullin. Drexler. Malone. Robinson. Pippen. Ewing. Stockton. (Oh, yeah, Laettner, too.) Lang Whitaker has put together a terrific oral history of the 1992 Dream Team over at GQ, and if you haven't already, you really ought to read it....

Polish Riot Police Vs. Croatian Hooligans—Who Ya Got?
We knew Polish police came prepared for Euro 2012, pants-pissing sound cannons and all. And we expected Eastern European fans to make trouble, because that's what they do. (UEFA has already opened an investigation into racist abuse from Russian fans.) But it turns out our first battle in the stree...

Twins Fans Grasp Coprophilia-Based Humor Better Than Any Other MLB Fanbase
Francisco Liriano fell to 1-7 on the season as the Cubs rocked the Twins in Minneapolis Sunday. While some Minnesota fans think the team as a whole is playing like shit, insiders point to the crappy performance by several players—Liriano and fellow pitcher Carl Pavano among them. Don't count the Tw...

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....