book Page 44 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Facebook Data Provide The Most Accurate NFL Fandom Map Ever Created
It's long been a dream of mankind to put together a map showing the geographic locations of NFL fanbases. The CommonCensus map tried to do it though polling; we took a crack at one based solely on proximity. But all previous efforts have been self-selecting or otherwise flawed. If only there was a m...

Taj Gibson Posterizes Anthony Tolliver; Stacey King Enjoys It Immensely
The dunk itself is pretty good, but Stacey King's reaction is even better. This is sort of a thing, I've learned, that King does so maybe you Chicagoans are yawning, but the rest of us can still enjoy his enthusiasm....

Justin Tucker's Practice Kicks Before His Game-Winner Were Not Allowed, But They Were Also Not Not Allowed
Before Justin Tucker made the field goal that ended the the fifth longest game in NFL history yesterday, he jogged onto the field between the two overtimes and had an assistant coach hold the ball for him while he practiced his kicks. Champ Bailey was dismayed, as you can see in the video above, b...

I Was Wayne Gretzky's (Hungover) Linemate: An NHL Journeyman Picks The Wrong Night To Drink
To say I was a Wayne Gretzky fan as a child would be like saying that my brother has a small gap in his teeth. The Oilers were my team and Wayne was my idol. When Chris and I played hockey in the basement, I was always Gretzky and he was always Mike Bossy. Two of the most creative offensive forwards...

The Boy On The Edge Of The Bathtub: Sam Lipsyte On Growing Up A Sportswriter's Son
Whenever somebody makes the connection between my father, Robert Lipsyte, the legendary sportswriter, and me (usually because Lipsyte is a rare name, unique to our family, a family that may or may not include a Lithuanian paratrooper I once found online who boasted in emails about our fierce mountai...

Bonnie Bernstein Explains Ray Lewis's Crimes With An Unfortunate Parable About Middle Schoolers Smoking
Somewhere along the line, we as a nation apparently chose to forgive/forget the fact that Ray Lewis was involved in a murder at a Super Bowl party in 2000. That Lewis and his friends got into a fight with another group, and two people in that other group were stabbed to death. That Lewis lied to cop...

The Betting Public Killed Las Vegas Sportsbooks In The 2012 NFL Season
So the NFL did its ouroboros thing again this year. Lots of parity. Or so it would seem. But 2012 mostly just brought us a handful of excellent teams—Football Outsiders says three of the 12 best teams since 1991 (Seahawks, Broncos, and Patriots)—and some supremely terrible ones. The result is that, ...

Alex Rodriguez Has Given Himself A New Nickname, So Everyone Be Sure To Call Him That
Say hello to Captain Rodriguez. A-Rod has been spending the holidays in Florida with his family (and Torrie Wilson), and he's documenting it all on his Facebook page. He put this photo up yesterday, but quickly deleted it. Maybe because the Yankees already have a captain, or maybe because he realize...

Gift Guide Roundup: Last-Minute Gifts For People Who Read
We asked you, our scholarly readers, to let us know what books would make for great Christmas gifts. We had some suggestions of our own, too. Here's what to buy for the bookworm in your life—there's still time!...

How Maurice Clarett Lost His Way, Bombed Out Of The NFL, Planned A Murder, Missed An Exit, And Found Himself (And Warren Buffett) In Prison
In 2009, Joe Moglia, then the CEO of TD Ameritrade, quit his job to coach football. He wanted to coach a college team. But no athletic director wanted him. So he took a job, in 2011, as head coach of the UFL's Omaha Nighthawks, a team that included former Buckeye Maurice Clarett. Moglia had an unort...

Ray Lewis Has A Terrifying New Facemask
Ray Lewis returned to practice Wednesday for the first time since tearing his tricep in Week 7. He's not eligible to play this Sunday, but the Ravens posted a photo of the new facemask Lewis will be wearing....

Jim "Jimbo" Leyland Was The Most Popular Boy At His High School 50 Years Ago
Jim Leyland held court for the media today at baseball's winter meetings, and by all indications, he put on quite a show. Craig Calcaterra over at Hardball Talk has all of the highlights—Leyland on the World Baseball Classic: "I support it because the Commissioner gets mad when I say I don't support...

If You're In New York Tonight, Come Hear Some Splendid Writers Talk About Some Sports Lightning Rods
The November installment of Gelf Magazine's Varsity Letters reading series is tonight. Seth Wickersham, Eric Kester, and Bill Strickland are talking, respectively, about Michael Vick, Harvard, and Lance Armstrong, three beloved American institutions. The reading is tonight, 7:30, at Le Poisson Rouge...

All The Mystery Of Kobe Bryant, In One Photo
From Kobe's Facebook page: "Still not feeling well, it's a day in bed for me. Nothing like a good book to take my mind of last night's tough loss. I'm lovin this one!" The book is, per Amazon, a funny memoir of a father's descent into poverty and alcoholism. This guy. [Kobe]...

Holiday Gift Guides: For People Who Like To Eat Meat And Cheese
We suggested bacon-themed gifts last Christmas, but now we're opening things up a bit, because your arteries aren't all the way clogged yet: What do you get for someone who likes to eat meat and cheese? Cookware suggestions, meat suggestions, whatever—we want all of it. Just none of that Williams-So...

Interviewer Solicits Questions For Danica Patrick On Facebook; It Goes About How You'd Expect
Before interviewing Danica Patrick yesterday, SBNation's Amy K. Nelson asked her Facebook fans to help her come up with questions for the famous driver. She got over 80 submissions, and right off the bat, they were about as awful as you'd probably expect. Toward the end, Nelson jumped in to express...

Holiday Gift Guide: Gifts For People Who Read
Books! Everyone loves them, and they can make for great Christmas gifts, so long as they are not written by Mike Lupica or Mitch Albom. With that in mind, we'd like to know what books you read this year that you think other people should read. They don't have to be sports-themed, but those are cert...

This Week's Signs Of The Apocalypse
For nearly two decades, Sports Illustrated has stirred the tea leaves to discern a weekly Sign of the Apocalypse. Deadspin salutes the magazine's ongoing effort to cover the end of times but declines to cede the scoop on the biggest event in world history....

ESPN Posts Robert Griffin III "'Merica" Meme To Facebook, Enrages Facebook Users
ESPN's SportsCenter Facebook page attempted to capitalize on Robert Griffin III's solid game against the Eagles yesterday by posting the mangled meme you see above. In addition to the expected racist arguments, among the 1,000-so comments were dozens of users angered by the meme. Here is a sampling...

Vincible. <em>Silver Linings Playbook</em>, Reviewed.
1. She's a grieving cop's widow, prone to nymphomania, locked away in a shed behind her parents' home, profoundly damaged—not broken, but close. He's a bipolar basket case who nearly beat a man half to death for showering with his wife, the same wife with whom he obsessively wants to reconcile, even...