esports Page 7 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The John Smoltz Urban Legend That Was Too Good To Check
John Smoltz is, at this point in his second career as a color commentator, not really that good at the job. He understands the game well, but he’s also drowsy and grouchy in all the ways that old ballplayers tend to be: checked out and skeptical and reflexively salty about today’s players, grumpily ...

The NCAA Is Gaslighting You
In last month’s antitrust case in Oakland challenging the artificial caps on athlete compensation, the NCAA’s defense included the restatement of an imaginary economic principle that is fundamental to its existence: College athletes shouldn’t make money, the NCAA argued, because if players were paid...

Brian Bowen's Dad Describes Black Market Payments For Top Recruits At Every Level Of "Amateur" Basketball
Brian Bowen’s dad testified Thursday in the federal criminal trial of agent Christian Dawkins, Adidas executive James Gatto, and former Adidas operative Merl Code, who are accused of committing felony wire fraud as part of the FBI’s massive investigation of corruption in basketball recruiting. Bowen...

Shaq's Large Teenage Son Will Miss Freshman Year At UCLA Due To Heart Surgery
Well, here’s some rotten news: Shareef O’Neal, the hooping son of Shaquille O’Neal, will be forced to medical redshirt his freshman season at UCLA after doctors reportedly discovered a heart ailment during an otherwise routine checkup....

FBI's NCAA Investigation Bags Sleazy Financial Adviser For Bribing Assistant Coaches For Access To Players' Future Wealth
Not everything dredged up in the big FBI investigation of recruiting violations in college basketball is worth the attention of federal law enforcement. An apparel company funneling actual money to elite players so they’ll play for elite basketball programs, for example, is a function of a blackmark...

The Hater's Guide To The College Football Top 25
College football, the looser and more fun but also worse version of football played by younger and less well-compensated people than those in the NFL, is back baby. Or maybe is already back? Anyway the timing is complicated, because while the good stuff gets going this weekend, college football’s la...

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Is On Twitter, And He's Got Sports Takes
If you read about the French Open’s plan to change its dress code, all because Serena Williams wore a catsuit at the tournament this year, and thought, Hmm I wonder what former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad thinks about this, well, now you know....

Judge Dismisses Rick Pitino's Emotional Distress Lawsuit Against Adidas
Rick Pitino’s emotional distress lawsuit against Adidas—truly a bold “vehicle for proving that he had nothing to do with Adidas’ outrageous, wrongful, and illegal conspiracy” to put good basketball players onto his basketball team—was dismissed Tuesday by the U.S. District Court judge for the Wester...

Maryland Places Head Football Coach D.J. Durkin On Administrative Leave
The University of Maryland has added head coach D.J. Durkin to the list of coaches and trainers on administrative leave, in the wake of reports that the football program was “toxic” in ways that may have contributed to the death of sophomore Jordan McNair this summer....

Fuck These Motherfuckers
Frothing, militaristic football coaching has always relied on the premise that in order to win, players need to be trained and disciplined to the point of breaking down, so that their temperament and habits can be rebuilt in line with the goals and ambitions of the team. It’s a gnarly, brutal way of...

Reports: Circumstances Of Jordan McNair's Death Fit Into Pattern In "Toxic" Maryland Football Program
19-year-old Maryland sophomore Jordan McNair died June 13, two weeks after he was airlifted from an offseason football workout to a local shock trauma center following an on-field collapse. Details of what caused McNair’s collapse and subsequent death were sparse and vague at the time, but a pair of...

Massachusetts Accidentally Bans, Hastily Unbans Horse Racing In One Week
Horse racing was made illegal in Massachusetts this week, when the state law making it permissible was unintentionally allowed to expire at the end of a chaotic formal session, on July 31. The effect of this expiration was a ban on live and simulcast horse racing, across the state, starting August 1...

Report: Celtics Assistant Coach Jerome Allen Allegedly Bribed By Accused Medicare Fraudster While At Penn
A Miami Beach business executive charged with running a billion-dollar Medicare fraud scheme allegedly bribed then-Quakers head coach and current Celtics assistant Jerome Allen to get his son admitted to the University of Pennsylvania, according to a new indictment reported by the Miami Herald:...

Ultramarathon Leader Kicked Out Of Race For Drinking Illicit Water<em></em>
The 25th running of the Hardrock 100 ultramarathon took place this weekend, with 114 of the 146 runners who started the race making it the full 100.5 miles. Of the 32 who didn’t finish, 30 fell short of completing the arduous race, while two were controversially disqualified....

Wallace, The Good And Humble Mule, Defeats Fancy Dressage Horses At Their Own Game
Wallace is an 11-year-old mule who used to annoy Irish villagers by eating their flowers. After a lengthy battle over his right to compete in dressage, he is now a winner and hero to common beasts....

Former Ohio State Wrestlers Sue University For Not Stopping Team Doctor's Sexual Abuse
Four former Ohio State wrestlers sued the university on Monday, claiming the school failed to respond to complaints of sexual harassment and abuse for decades....

Pizza Boy John Schnatter Resigns From Louisville Board Of Directors After Admitting To Offensive Conference Call Statements
Pizza dipshit John Schnatter reportedly resigned from the University of Louisville Board of Trustees Wednesday, after admitting to using the n-word in a conference call with marketing executives in May....

Texas A&M Addresses Questions About Sexual Assault Investigations With Hollow Statement
People began asking questions about how Texas A&M handles reports of sexual assault after multiple students spoke out about their negative experiences last week. The university responded by joining in the longstanding tradition of powerful institutions issuing statements late on a Friday afternoon,...

Tough-As-Nails Racehorse Falls, Nearly Dumps Jockey, Recovers, Wins
This happened at something called the ITM Frame and Truss Maiden Steeplechase, in New Zealand. What we’ve got here is a horse falling over on a jump, nearly dumping its jockey, improbably recovering, then blazing back from the dead to win the whole damn race:...

Students Are Calling Out Texas A&M For How It Handles Reports Of Sexual Assault
Last week, a Texas A&M student tweeted that she had reported to the university that a member of the swimming and diving team had raped her—and that the swimmer was back with the team. These are what she posted, first on June 7....