et Page 1755 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Premier League Teams Are Hemorrhaging Money, And TV Revenue Sharing Could Be To Blame
Here's some not-so-great news on the heels of a thrilling end to the Premier League—no one's making any money. Actually, that's not true—five teams turned a profit in 2010-2011, the last season for which financials are available. But despite a record $3.6 billion income, the 20 Premier League clubs ...

Would The Steinbrenners Really Sell The Yankees?
Perhaps we ought to wonder about the merits of a bombshell story when it begins "rumors are flying." But that's the less-than-solid underpinning of the big Daily News report, which owns both front and back covers this morning, that claims the Steinbrenner family could be looking to sell the Yankees....

Hate Hockey? Hate Women? The CBC's Women-Only Stanley Cup Feed Is For You
Canadian national broadcaster CBC announced today the network's Stanley Cup Finals coverage will include an alternate audio channel featuring Lena Sutherland and Jules Mancuso of While The Men Watch, a site dedicated to "sports commentary that women actually want to hear."...

Mike Francesa Says Ike Davis Is Slumping Because Of "Jungle Fever"
Mets first baseman Ike Davis has looked terrible all year. He missed some time in spring training with a mysterious ailment—doctors identified Valley Fever, a lung infection—and, after a torrid stretch at the end of spring, OPSed .550 in April and .439 in May. There's plenty of talk of sending him t...

KG: "Philly Fans Are Fair-Weather." <i>Inquirer</i> Writer: "Oh Yeah? Boston's Racist!"
A few days back, Kevin Garnett said — or at least implied — that 76ers fans are fair-weather. It stung a bit, considering the Sixers have been terrible for the better part of a decade, and basketball is a distant fourth in Philly hearts. (That's not a knock; some sport has to be fourth.) Mostly it w...

Reeves Nelson Files Defamation Suit Over <i>Sports Illustrated</i>'s UCLA Story
SI's big UCLA expose came...and went. George Dohrmann (who won a Pulitzer for his coverage of academic fraud at Minnesota, a real scandal) painted a picture of a dysfunctional Bruins program, but there wasn't any there there. It didn't slow UCLA: they completed their recruitment of the best prep pla...

Better Know An Umpire: Mike Winters
Welcome to Better Know An Umpire, an effort to educate ourselves on the human elements who have ultimate decision-making power over some 2,500 Major League Baseball games a year. (All cumulative statistics are through the 2011 season, unless otherwise stated.)...

Bristolmetrics: Stephen A. Smith Is Slowly Retaking ESPN
This is a regular feature breaking down, minute-by-minute, the content that appears on ESPN's 11 p.m. edition of SportsCenter throughout the week. Graphic by Jim Cooke....

Union Files Collusion Lawsuit Against NFL, Alleging Secret $123 Million Salary Cap In Uncapped Year
I've never been happier to admit I was wrong. Yesterday, the Redskins and Cowboys dropped their appeals of the NFL's salary cap penalties after being ruled against by rubber-stamp arbitrator Stephen Burbank, and I thought that was the end of it. The bad guys won. But the NFLPA had been saving its se...

Roger Goodell (And Nike) Will Not Tolerate The NFL's Epidemic Of Bruised Thighs Anymore
When we last left the Ginger Hammer, he was sending Gregg Williams to the bad corner and proving, once and for all, that violence has no place in football. And today, Roger Goodell has yet taken yet another step in showing the world that HE MEANS GINGER BUSINESS when it comes to player safety. Pendi...

What Did Joe Paterno Know About Jerry Sandusky In 1998? <em>Esquire</em> Unearths Curious New Details From Paterno's Papers
In the final interview of his life, the infamous "rape and a man" interview, Joe Paterno told Sally Jenkins of the Washington Post that he knew nothing about a 1998 police investigation into Jerry Sandusky, who, at the time, was still Penn State's defensive coordinator. (That investigation was launc...

I'll Have Another's Trainer Talks Strategy With His Horse, But Quietly, So Other Horses Don't Overhear
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: Doug O'Neill and I'll Have Another have some secrets heading to Belmont....

Where In The World Was Chuck Knoblauch This Weekend?
When a story involving a visibly intoxicated Chuck Knoblauch hitting on women on a late-night Brooklyn subway ride surfaced yesterday, we were surprised and not surprised. Surprised because Knoblauch is about the most random former major leaguer imaginable—a good-to-very-good infielder who won four ...

Better Know An Umpire: Brian Runge
Welcome to Better Know An Umpire, an effort to educate ourselves on the human elements who have ultimate decision-making power over some 2,500 Major League Baseball games a year. (All cumulative statistics are through the 2011 season, unless otherwise stated.)...

The Phillies Had Extra Security In Right Field For Bryce Harper Last Night
Bryce Harper's main crime, since arriving in the big leagues, was his haircut, which was the most offensive thing not attached to a reliever's chin. Now that the haircut's gone, Harper's just a young, captivating, toolsy outfielder. Who should hate him?...

Rickie Weeks Would Have Tried To Turn A Double Play, But He Forgot
The situation: Giants-Brewers, top of the second. Runners on first and second, one out. Brandon Crawford bounces one toward Cesar Izturis at short, but a chance to turn an inning-ending double play instead becomes a routine 6-4 putout because Rickie Weeks has a brain fart and thinks he just recorded...

How Readable Are Bill Simmons, Jason Whitlock, Rick Reilly, And Other Sportswriters? Science Investigates
The last time we played around with sportswriter analytics, we wondered if we could algorithmically determine a column's author based on his favorite words. (We could!) For a followup, I decided to look at the readability of different writers. Reading level is a nebulous concept and hard to define p...

LaDainian Tomlinson No Longer 95 Percent Retired, Is Now 96 Percent Retired
A lot can happen in a few days. On Thursday, the free agent running back told San Diego sports radio that he was 95 percent retired from football. On Saturday at a hospital fundraiser, LaDainian Tomlinson gave an updated figure....

Stan Van Gundy Fired, Dwight Howard Tents Fingers And Cackles
Dwight Howard, the NBA's first player-coach-GM-CFO, may be limping around Beverly Hills. But that doesn't mean that he's not still doin' work: today the Magic announced that Stan Van Gundy has been fired, and President of Basketball Operations Otis Smith is peaceing out as well. That brings Dwight's...
