dont- Page 11 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Smart People Talk About <em>Sports Illustrated</em>'s 1968 Series About Black Athletes
On Monday, we excerpted from Jack Olsen's 1968 Sports Illustrated series, "The Black Athlete—A Shameful Story." Slate's Hang Up and Listen podcast discusses those stories with one of Olsen's subjects, Donald Smith (now Zaid Abdul-Aziz). Go listen....

When A Dance With A White Woman Divided An NFL Team
Occasionally, we'll select stories — old and new, sports and otherwise, relevant and merely sublime — that we urge you to read for one reason or another. Today: the St. Louis Cardinals of the mid-1960s and their "racial problem."...

The Sad Tale Of The Umpire Spat On By Roberto Alomar
Occasionally, we'll select stories - old and new, sports and otherwise, relevant and merely sublime - that we urge you to read for one reason or another. Today: a portrait of an umpire battling to save his sons from a rare disease....

The Best, Most Deranged Story About Gwar You'll Ever Read
There are band profiles and there are Gwar profiles and then there's this: The first part of J. Bennett's monstrous, satisfyingly disturbing Gwar piece, "Slay Bells," is after the jump, courtesy of Decibel. Prepare for words that haunt....

My 2003 Interview With Fred Phelps Of The Westboro Baptist Church
The Westboro Baptist Church will be disrupting the funeral of Elizabeth Edwards this weekend. Here's an interview I did with Pastor Phelps right before he and his church were headed to Pittsburgh to protest poor Mr. Rogers' funeral. [TheMightyBlackTable]...

Read This: "One Throw," By W.C. Heinz
Bronx Banter has dug up a charming old short story by W.C. Heinz, author of one of the all-time great pieces of sportswriting....

How To Identify Satanic Sacrifice: A Helpful, Creepy Police Training Video
This old police training video teaches up-and-coming detectives how to look for signs that their murder victim has been sacrificed to Satan. One such clue: often "a penis is placed inside the mouth of the deceased person." Good to know. [Metal Insider]...

What The Hell Is Going On During This Burt Reynolds Interview?
So, Burt Reynolds is getting interviewed. That sort of thing happens all the time. But then he starts antagonizing the interviewer. There's laughter—some of it forced—and eventually a question's repeated while two guys carrying a body try to get by....

Stories That Don't Suck: David Halberstam On Maurice Lucas And The Powers That Be Scared Shitless
Occasionally, we'll select stories — old and new, sports and otherwise, relevant and merely sublime — that we urge you to read for one reason or another. Today: the late Maurice Lucas, menacing the whistle right out of a ref's mouth....

The Invention Of Air: The Myths Of Young Michael Jordan, Deconstructed
There was a time when Michael Jordan was a very different kind of superstar, writes Bethlehem Shoals in this excerpt from FreeDarko's wonderful and wonderfully idiosyncratic Undisputed Guide to Pro Basketball History. That MJ was edgy and menacing, and he helped make embarrassing music that no one r...

A Yankee Stadium Memory: "Their Look Didn't Say, 'Shut Up.' It Said They Wanted To Kill Me."
The following is taken from Bronx Banter Presents: Lasting Yankee Stadium Memories, edited by Alex Belth and featuring recollections of the old ballpark—sorry, stadium—from the likes of Pete Hamill, Charles P. Pierce, and Joe Posnanski. Bob Costas has something in there, too, I guess. Here, the grea...

Jeff Garcia Pisses In Hand Towels, And The Art Of Breaking Thumbs In The Loose-Ball Pile
Today, mongrels, we're excerpting from Anthony Gargano's tremendous NFL Unplugged, which offers a ruthlessly entertaining portrait of the NFL. It has all the lawlessness, the poop, the broken fingers, the organized insanity that the league would prefer you not know about....

You Can't Write A Pot Story About The NBA Without Including Michael Beasley
The following is an excerpt from High Times magazine's story "Pot and the NBA," found in the December issue of America's favorite dank rag. Super Cool Beas, indeed....

<em>ESPN The Mag</em>'s Epic Tale About Pro Athletes Who Poop During Competition
Squished between the naked bodies of athletes comes this amazing story about some of their unfortunate bouts with uncontrollable gastrointestinal eruptions. Here are some excerpts from David Fleming's story, which will be online eventually. [UPDATE: It's online.]...

A Meeting With The Godfather: How Youth Basketball's Sausage Gets Made
In the world of grassroots basketball, the sneaker companies are kings, the coaches their vassals, and the players their serfs. However, these links are symbiotic: the companies need the coaches and players for marketing purposes and the coaches and players need the sneaker companies to get exposur...

Here's What The Fuck We Did With Judah Friedlander
Judah Friedlander didn't want to write an essay—or do any of your suggestions—so he dropped by the office and fucked around on the roof. Here's what happened. ...

Stories That Actually Do Kind Of Suck: John Updike On Ted Williams
It's the 50th anniversary of Ted Williams's final game, which means someone, inevitably, will want to talk about John Updike's gooey poetastering all over the pages of New Yorker. Read the story again, if you can bear it, and then explain to me what a "peeping-type Easter egg" is....

What The Fuck Are We Supposed To Do With Judah Friedlander?
Greetings, faceless demographic. So the folks at HarperCollins are trying to promote Judah Friedlander's book "How To Beat Up Anybody" and I'm having trouble trying to figure out how to promote it. It doesn't help that the publicist lady referred to the site as "Deadpin" several times....

The Day Jeremiah Pharms's Wife Attacked His New Girlfriend In The Stands
You might remember the brilliant, scary reporting about the 2000 Washington Huskies by the Seattle Times' Ken Armstrong and and Nick Perry in 2008. Now, all the stuff that couldn't make a family newspaper has been released in the book, "Scoreboard, Baby."...

The 1970s Oakland Raiders: Boozin' And Coozin' Through El Rancho
In "Badasses," author Peter Richmond chronicles the whiskey-drinking, horse-stealing, panty-poaching lunacy that surrounded John Madden's Oakland Raiders....