hang Page 25 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Remembering The Glory Days Of The Bacardi Bowl In Havana
There's a good chance you'll stumble (if you haven't already) into one of the awful bowl games with tacky corporate sponsorships—Beef O'Brady's was last night, the Famous Idaho Potato was on Saturday, the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia is tonight—over the holiday season. But none of these ...

The Honey Badger's Father Don't Care Either
Though Baylor's Robert Griffin III won the Heisman Trophy this weekend, he probably hasn't been the most captivating player in college football this year. That distinction belongs to LSU's Tyrann "Honey Badger" Mathieu, a sophomore defensive back and returner, who finished fifth in the Heisman votin...

Fantasy Curling Is A Real Thing, And It Is Glorious
Remember how much fun we agreed curling was during the 2010 Winter Olympics in that city that got burned down? We had the choke-tastic American captain, that Canadian lady everyone loved, and everyone wrote about it the same way....

After LSU-Arkansas, An Examination Of Great Moments In Running Up The Score
You can tell, from the above video, and Josh Levin's comment in this week's excerpt from Slate's Hang Up and Listen podcast, that Les Miles got under Bobby Petrino's skin last Friday by running up the score. LSU beat Arkansas, 41-17, and scored 17 points in the fourth quarter. (Petrino mouths "fuc...

Why Philip Roth Declined To Blurb Scott Raab's <em>The Whore Of Akron</em>
Philip Roth, American literary titan. He's prolific, evocative, and controversial. LeBron James, American basketball titan. He's prolific, evocative, and controversial. Scott Raab, occasional Deadspin contributor. He hates LeBron James and loves Philip Roth....

Meet Jim Hawthorne, LSU's Lovable Play-By-Play Man Who Gets Every Call Wrong
Many Yankees fans love their clumsy, theatrical announcer John Sterling, even though he whiffs on so many calls. But Sterling errs when calling baseball, of all sports. Think about the football announcer's plight. Not just football, but SEC football—it's fast. So we sympathize with LSU's Jim Hawthor...

Meet Tennessee's Emergency Kicker, Who Was Sitting On A Frat Couch, Possibly Drunk, An Hour Before Kicking In The Game
SEC football's a big thing, but the Tennessee Volunteers really aren't. (Opportunity is nowhere, and all of that.) And the Vols especially aren't a big thing when they're playing out-of-conference, like they were last Saturday, against the Middle Tennessee State Blue Raiders. Tennessee won, but only...

Kelly Slater Became the Oldest Surfer To Win An Award He Was Already The Youngest To Win
Earlier this week, Kelly Slater became the first person to win 11 ASP World Titles. Presumably the ASP title is fairly prestigious, but the press release doesn't elaborate....

The Spinning Magic Of Left-Footed Punters
Why did the Saints, Chargers, and Ravens—three teams with above-average punters—all work out free agent punters last week? No, it's not because any of those teams is scapegoating their punter for the whole team's jaw-dropping inconsistency. Rather, they wanted to practice against left-footed punters...

The Monster.com For Locked-Out Basketball Players
Lots of hoopsters will spend the lockout overseas—we told you about six-foot-nine human cannoli Brian Scalabrine, who is wrecking the Italian league, and Nets guard Deron Williams, who'll be hanging in Turkey. But there are others who don't have the immediate name recognition of Scal and Deron, and ...

Remembering The Best Punt Return That Never Officially Happened
Bears wide receiver/returner Devin Hester—as Drew explained Monday—is the human highlight reel that opponents have to kick to. He gave us a splendid return on Sunday night. But perhaps his best play of the season came on a play when he never touched the ball, on a play that never happened, as far ...

Celebrating A Spectacularly Inept Series In College Football History
Georgia defeated Tennessee in a wacky game on Saturday. The highlight was a fourth-quarter Georgia series in which the Bulldogs reached Tennessee's 23-yard line and were promptly penalized four times for 45 yards: Holding, holding, holding, personal foul. In between, the Bulldogs managed to run the ...

Dear Joe Posnanski: Baseball Is Not Like Life
In our weekly excerpt from Slate's Hang Up and Listen podcast, noted author and occasional NFL roundtabler Stefan Fatsis wants to quibble with those writers who took last week's two-hour-long orgasm that ended the baseball regular season, and turned it into some kind of metaphor for life. In particu...

The David Justice Lookalike Who Bombed Out Of Pro Baseball And Wound Up Playing David Justice In <em>Moneyball</em>
Moneyball popped into theaters on Friday, and it did well, among critics and audiences alike. The movie's impressive with its depiction of that A's team—fake Chad Bradford conjures up Chad Bradford, fake Jeremy Giambi reminds you of Jeremy Giambi, and so on....

How Dan Snyder Is The Elvis Of NFL Owners
Yes, you may have read recently that Washington Redskins owner dismissed his dumbass libel lawsuit against the Washington City Paper after admitting that he had never read the story in question. Craggs suggested this was because Dan Snyder was a "churlish little shitbag vulgarian." But perhaps he is...

Finally, A Chance To Dress Up Like The Super Bowl Grounds Crew
This week's excerpt from Slate's Hang Up and Listen podcast deals with an auction of sports memorabilia that includes, for the first time, Super Bowl grounds crew attire. There are pullover shirts. But there are no NFL-branded lawnmowers. Of course, Roger Goodell has plenty of time to develop corpor...

Meet The Miami Marlins (New Look! Same Slightly-Below-.500 Taste!)
Next year, the Florida Marlins will become the Miami Marlins. So, I guess, another hollywood as hell team to hate, then?...

Chris Kluwe And Nate Jackson Have Made Up
In August, former Broncos tight end Nate Jackson questioned in this space whether Vikings punter Chris Kluwe had the right to call Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, Logan Mankins, and Vincent Jackson "douchebags."...

Why The 1991 Saints Dropped Their Lame "Cha-Ching" Catchphrase
The New Orleans Saints won their first division title in 1991, which is weird both because the Saints had been around for more than two decades before that point and because the 1991 Saints were a weird team. They were 11-5. Steve Walsh and Bobby Hebert split time at QB, and neither played well. Gil...

John Starks Was A Gifted Grocery Store Employee, And Other Stories From Slate's <em>Hang Up And Listen</em> Podcast
Our friends at Slate do a fine weekly sports podcast called Hang Up and Listen, which is a thing that callers to WFAN often tell Mike Francesa they will do. But Josh Levin is more insightful than Mike Francesa!...