ew Page 2770 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Rejoice, NFL Fans: The Referees Are Coming Back This Weekend
After 48 regular season games that nearly brought the National Football League to its knees and turned the league's officiating into a recurring national joke, the NFL and the referees union have agreed to a new eight-year deal and the officials will be back on the job Thursday night in Baltimore. ...

Joe McKnight Is Really Sad About Having To Play Cornerback
The Jets lost all-universe corner Darrelle Revis to a torn ACL on Sunday, so—being a resourceful and depth-strapped organization—they're converting Joe McKnight, their kick returner and third-down running back, into a cornerback. Joe McKnight is not happy about this:...
![ESPN Personality Rob Parker Pissed Off Every Intelligent Baseball Fan On The Internet Today [UPDATE]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/180cczvkj8iyqpng.png)
ESPN Personality Rob Parker Pissed Off Every Intelligent Baseball Fan On The Internet Today [UPDATE]
Do you know who Rob Parker is? You probably don't because there's really nothing special about Rob Parker. He currently exists as a member of ESPN's stable of chuckleheads who are periodically rotated into duty on First Take, where their main job is to sit there and let Skip Bayless do his thing....

Why Are The Scab Refs Screwing Up Illegal-Contact Penalties?
The replacement officials made many mistakes over the weekend, some of such great consequence that they inspired incredible anger, others bad enough only to prompt a very loud "bullshit" chant. But they've all been bad. Instead of focusing on one specific mistake, or all the mistakes as a whole, tho...

Chris Kluwe Received A Hate Cartoon For His Gay Marriage Stance
Chris Kluwe has been pretty busy these last few weeks. Not punting—the Vikings look pretty good!—but dealing with the fallout from his op-ed supporting gay marriage. Turns out there are lots of people who don't support gay marriage! Who knew?...

Charles Barkley Lost Money On Packers-Seahawks, And He's Mad As Hell
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: Barkley learned a valuable lesson about replacement refs and bad breaks....

The Oakland Raiders' 2011 Draft Class Is A Big Pile Of Suck
It's being reported that the Oakland Raiders have waived offensive tackle Joe Barksdale. Barksdale was a third-round pick in Oakland's 2011 draft class. Yes, 2011....

Bob Backlund Is An Insane Person: More Wrestler Run-Ins
Inspired by the saga of "Wrestling Superstar Virgil," we continue with readers' encounters with the titans of the squared circle. If you've had your own run-in with pro wrestlers past or present, e-mail us, subject line "Virgilbag."...

Six Times As Many People Watched A Rerun Of <i>The Vampire Diaries</i> As Watched MLS On ESPN2: Last Week’s TV Ratings, In Context
A weekly feature wherein we contextualize TV ratings for national sports broadcasts. Data via Nielsen and Sports Business Journal's John Ourand. Viewership numbers represent approximate number of persons tuned to a given program; ratings share refers to the percentage of all households using a telev...

Bristolmetrics: Everybody Hates Lane Kiffin
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....

Which MLB Pundit Makes The Worst Predictions? Grading ESPN And <em>Sports Illustrated</em>
Republished with permission from PunditTracker.com, which just launched its fancy new site....

Hoax Website Fools Reporters Into Thinking Ben Roethlisberger Broke His Legs In A Car Accident
What you see above was the story that went screaming out on something called the Global Associated News early this morning. That the item appeared on a web page with a warning at the bottom that says "THIS STORY IS 100% FAKE" didn't stop people on Facebook and Twitter from believing it:...

Texas A&M Has Added Fine Print To Those Conference Championships It Invented Over The Summer
Kyle Field got some interesting additions in the offseason. Maybe you thought that Texas A&M only had one national title, because they do. But the Aggies decided to add two more, and two conference championships on top of that. How'd they do it? A little creative accounting....

Packers Players Who Disparaged The NFL On Twitter Reportedly Won't Be Fined
Any Green Bay Packers player who used Twitter to rip the NFL following Green Bay's controversial loss to Seattle on Monday (and there were many) will not be fined by the NFL, according to a report....
![Touchdown? The Real NFL Referees Reportedly Are Coming Back Soon [UPDATE: Maybe]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/18081ugw1gpsrjpg.jpg)
Touchdown? The Real NFL Referees Reportedly Are Coming Back Soon [UPDATE: Maybe]
The following tweet was sent out by Adam Schefter just a few minutes ago: ...

No, The City Of Detroit Will Not Lose $84 Million If The NHL Season Is Canceled
The lockout has officially arrived when newspapers start reporting half-baked economic impact projections that are so far removed from reality as to be laughable. You know the sort. "Team X brings in so much money, without them the city would go broke and revert to feudalism OMG." These studies are ...

Official Who Signaled Seahawks Touchdown Was Deemed Not Ready For Division I Football This Summer
To clear things up: Yes, the owners are wholly responsible for the lockout. But we identify and delve into the backgrounds of the replacement refs not to be mean, but for two legitimate reasons. First, they're scabs, and without them crossing the picket line, the lockout would have been over months ...

Rays Fans Have Found A Unique, Horrifying Solution To The Attendance Problem
The Rays extended their winning streak to six in beating the Red Sox last night at Fenway, on a night that attempted to take Bostonians' minds off this year's misery and focus it instead on the glory of 2004. It brought out the rich and famous, as well as these Rays fans who brought along a few hea...

Eric Gagne Estimates 80 Percent Of His Dodger Teammates Were Taking PEDs
"I knew I had the mental attitude to be a closer, it was just a matter of doing it in the major leagues." That was Eric Gagne after he won the 2003 Cy Young Award, following a perfect season in which he converted all 55 save opportunities and struck out 100 more batters (137) than hits allowed (37)....
