da Page 888 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Did ESPN Double Darren Rovell's Salary?
It's Darren Rovell's first day back at ESPN, and he started it with an Twitter interview with Those Guys Have All The Fun author Jim Miller....

Man Who Threw Bottle Before Bolt's Record-Breaking Run Allegedly Gets Olympic-Sized Beatdown From Judoka
The man who hurled a Heineken bottle at Usain Bolt just before the 100m men's final yesterday earned a beating from an Olympic judoka, according to the always-reliable Daily Mail. ...

Daniel Gyurta Will Make A Copy Of His 200m Breaststroke Gold Medal In Memory Of Norway's Alexander Dale Oen
Norway's Alexander Dale Oen was considered a favorite in the 100m and 200m breaststroke at these London games. Dale Oen, however, died earlier this year due to a rare heart disease at the age of 26. To pay his respects and honor a friend, 200m Gold medal winner Daniel Gyurta of Hungary said he will...

Canada Is So Salty About American Women's Soccer Dominance
Canada and the U.S. will square off at Old Trafford in the women's soccer semifinals on Monday. On Sunday, Canadian head coach, John Herdman whipped out the western hemisphere's smallest violin and played a little ditty for the officials....

Usain Bolt Nearly Walks Across Finish Line Of 100m Semifinal, Wins It At 9.87 Anyway
Usain Bolt cruised to a win in his 100m semifinal today, pacing at 9.87 despite taking a break for tea mid-race and cruising his way home in the end. He'll face three Americans in the final, which takes place in about an hour....

Vinny Cerrato Backs Out Of Charity Dunk Tank Event
Vinny Cerrato, the former corporate-sounding-title-holder for the Redskins and Dan Snyder minion, was supposed to take part in a minor league baseball promotion for the Bowie Baysox that involved himself, aggrieved D.C. area fans and a dunk tank. Unfortunately, one of those three won't be showing u...

Vikings Punter Chris Kluwe Explains Why He Thinks Joey Porter Is "A Frothing Dingleberry"
There was so much goodness in our rollicking Chris Kluwe live chat from the other night that it almost seems unfair to single out just one of Kluwe's responses. But one answer in particular caught my eye and demanded some additional details:...

And Now The Paterno Family Is Appealing The NCAA Sanctions Themselves
Onward State has the complete letter the family sent this afternoon to the NCAA, but here's the gist:...

Hours After Defeat, An Australian Rower Was Smashing Store Windows: Foreign Olympics News That Couldn't Fit On The Desk Of Bob Costas
Deadspin and Gelf Magazine bring you the best (or at least the most interesting) foreign-produced journalism about the London Olympics. ...

German Rower Quits Games Over Nazi Boyfriend Allegations
German rower Nadja Drygalla has left the Olympic Village following a media firestorm in her home country about her boyfriend's ties to an extremist right-wing political party. (Drygalla is the third rower from the left seen above.)...

The Hussars Are Coming
Here's a Polish volleyball fan in a rather interesting outfit. I didn't actually know what this was, so I consulted Twitter who informed me of the legendary Polish Winged Hussars. I'm impressed with the build quality but mostly with the fact I'm quite sure there's a cache of beer stored in the cent...

A Vote For Haiti Is A Vote For Yourselves: Foreign Olympics News That Didn't Fit On The NBC Teleprompter
Deadspin and Gelf Magazine bring you the best (or at least the most interesting) foreign-produced journalism about the London Olympics. ...

Visual Confirmation That Mario Seneca Is The Most Sensitive Umpire In Baseball History
Last night, we told you about minor league umpire Mario Seneca, who ejected the music guy/college intern working for the high-A Daytona Cubs for playing "Three Blind Mice" after a questionable call. Today, video of the incident has surfaced (thanks to the Daytona Cubs themselves) and it confirms o...

Was This Disgraceful Olympic Boxing Match Fixed?
Knockdowns are exceedingly rare in Olympic boxing. Japan’s Satoshi Shimizu knocked down Azerbaijan’s Magomed Abdulhamidov five times in the third and final round of their bantamweight bout yesterday. And yet, the judges scored the round in favor of the one who spent more time on the canvas than on ...

Recruiter In UCF Scandal Tries To Clear His Name With Bizarre YouTube Explanation
The University of Central Florida football and men's basketball teams were hit with one-year postseason bans Tuesday for allegations that both squads conducted under-the-table business, primarily with a man named Ken Caldwell, that basically amounted to shady recruiting tactics between a third par...

NBC Has Awarded Justin Bieber U.S. Citizenship
NBC's been on the social networking kick these Olympics, and the Peacock Network has taken great pride in illustrating tweets of the rich, famous, and otherwise. They stumbled a bit yesterday, though, as the very Canadian black metal rocker Justin Bieber found himself identified as an American in N...

Disgraced Badminton Player Announces Retirement, Blames Poor Performance On Injuries
One of the eight badminton players who was disqualified from the Olympics for match-fixing is fighting back against those allegations, while also announcing her retirement from professional competition. ...

Gore Vidal's First Love: The Baseball Star Turned War Hero
As of Wednesday morning, administrators at Rock Creek Cemetery in D.C. hadn't heard yet whether Gore Vidal would actually be filling the burial plot he reserved there for himself some years ago. But Vidal, who died yesterday in Los Angeles at 86, has a couple reasons to get shipped back to his boyho...

NCAA Names Former Sen. George Mitchell As Penn State's "Athletics Integrity Monitor"
The appointment of an Athletics Integrity Monitor (note the capital letters) is part of the oh-so-serious sanctions the NCAA dropped when it smacked Penn State with its shithammer. This is straight from the statement the NCAA issued today:...

Gore Vidal's <em>Myra Breckinridge</em> Became One Of The Weirdest Movies Ever Made
Gore Vidal died yesterday, and though he appeared as an actor in a few movies—he played a professor in With Honors, an evil futuristic fellow in Gattaca and, most memorably, as Tim Robbins' lefty opponent in Bob Roberts—he'll be remembered, in a movie sense, as the guy responsible for Myra Breckinri...