history Page 7 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
You Found Our Tribute To Vikings History
Last night, the Minnesota Vikings inaugurated their new stadium with a 17-14 victory over the Green Bay Packers. Deadspin celebrated the team’s rich history by buying a commemorative “Legacy Brick” in the plaza outside the stadium, and asking readers to find it....
Forget What You Learned In School; The Goths Sacked Rome For Good Reasons
If you ever learned about the Roman Empire in history class, the barbarian Goths’ sack of Rome in 410 was probably one of the points your teacher hit. After all, if you’re looking for an endpoint for an empire, the looting of its namesake city is probably a good place to start....
Phyllis Schlafly Finally Croaks
Phyllis Schlafly, who spent her adult life encouraging the American courts, legislature, and public to oppress women, among others, died tonight, not a moment too soon. She was 92....
Whatever Your History Teacher Said, The Goths Crushed Rome Because Rome Had It Coming
The fall of the Roman Empire is one of the central events in human history, and chances are good that at some point in your education, you were forced to sit through a godawful lecture or two filled with weird-ass names—seriously, Gundobad? Stilicho?—and dates that you forgot as soon as the test was...
Ancient Barbarians Weren't, Well, Barbarians, Whatever The Movies Say
Your high school or college history instructor probably spent some time on the fall of the Roman Empire. If you remember anything from those hazy days, it was probably something to the effect that the barbarians toppled a declining empire like a particularly destructive toddler going after her Leani...
Michael Phelps Tied A 2,168-Year-Old Olympic Record
Another two golds last night for Michael Phelps, the most decorated American Olympian ever: That makes 21 gold medals in his career, 25 medals overall, and with his win in the 200m butterfly—a particularly personal win, given his loss in that event four years ago—Phelps now has 12 individual wins to...
The True Story Of The Fall Of Rome Is A Hell Of Lot Better Than The Hollywood Version
If you were ever forced to sit through a high school or college history class, you probably heard the story of the fall of the Roman Empire. At best, you remember that savage, fur-clad barbarians poured through the gates of a rotting, decrepit empire and snuffed out the light of civilization for a t...
The Modern Olympics Were Founded By A French Baron Who Was Sad That France Kept Losing Wars<em></em>
If you were looking to create an object that was the perfect physical manifestation of the Summer Olympics’ contradictory relationship with the partially invented history they sprang from, you could do a lot worse than the Olympic Torch....
How Did Barbaro Really Get Hurt?
As of today, it’s been a decade since Barbaro, the 2006 Kentucky Derby winner, answered the starting bell at the Preakness Stakes, moments before jockey Edgar Prado pulled him up with a broken hind leg. Eight months later, he would die of the complications from that injury....
Who Was The Actual Best Player In The NBA Every Year During Kobe Bryant's Career?
Kobe Bryant’s career spans a remarkable amount of NBA history, from the late years of the Chicago Bulls dynasty through the rise of the Golden State Warriors. If there’s been one constant through all those years, it’s that the best player in the league has never, ever been Kobe Bryant....
DeMarcus Cousins Had Kings Remove Lunar New Year Giveaway T-Shirts
Lunar New Year is next Monday, and the Sacramento Kings are celebrating the holiday during tonight’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks with player introductions in Mandarin and a pregame celebration. Originally, their celebration was also supposed to include these Year of the Monkey shirts given away...
The First Basketball Game Was Just A Big Brawl
The University of Kansas has unearthed a rare audio recording of basketball inventor James Naismith discussing the first-ever basketball game. The audio, recorded in 1939, is a fun listen, and not just because Naismith sounds like a real-life Simpsons character. The best part is when Naismith descri...
Watch DeAndre Jordan Miss 22 Free Throws In One Game
Clippers center DeAndre Jordan made a bit of NBA history last night, tying the record for most missed free throws in a game. While getting maimed by the Trail Blazers’ hack-a-Jordan strategy, Jordan bricked 22 freebies....
How <i>A Brief History Of Seven Killings</i> Embodies The Real Jamaica
Jamaica’s biannual Calabash International Literary Festival is held in Treasure Beach, on the southwestern coast of the island. It’s the kind of stereotypically beautiful place most people—especially tourists—think of when asked to picture Jamaica. Once a year, the town setting hosts readings from w...
The Quiet Century: How Osama Bin Laden Destroyed Baseball
Reader: As you undoubtedly know, the play-offs will soon be upon us. These are heady days; days that call for reflection, reflection upon both our future and, yes, reader, our past. But before I unveil yet another world-historical revelation, I would like to take a moment to offer my readers a clari...
America Has Always Wanted To Pretend That Sports Aren't Work
Last month, given the chance to affirm that college athletes have basic labor rights, the National Labor Review Board punted. It’s rare that a sports metaphor so perfectly crafted for lazy headline writers is so fitting, but punting—the most cowardly, spineless, and responsibility-evading decision r...
Scoundrel Mountain: The Sordid, Untold History Of The Pitching Mound
The modern Baseball pitcher utilizes myriad sleights of hand in his quest to fool and demoralize the slugger. Taunts, curses, incantations. Foreign substances added to the ball, including but not limited to urine and faeces (both human and animal) or reproductive fluids (both human and animal). Divi...
Kevin Garnett Once Headbutted A Wall While Watching <i>Making The Band</i>
Kevin Garnett will probably go down as the most charming crazy person in the history of the NBA, and there are plenty of moments in Howard Beck’s massive new oral history on Garnett to support that thesis. Perhaps no Garnett-related anecdote has captured the man’s essence as perfectly as this one, f...
Michael Jackson's Moonwalk Is Old Enough To Be Somebody's Ornery Dad
This day in 1983 was the taping of the Motown 25 TV special. It was a great night, with performances from Stevie Wonder, a reunion for the Supremes, and a rare TV appearance from Marvin Gaye. But it was also an important night, because it was witness to a huge transformation. It was the first time M...
What Happens When A 38-Year-Old Man Takes An AP History Test?
I never took an AP course in high school. I'm pretty sure it was because I never qualified for it (I went straight B-minuses throughout my high school career), but it was also because I went to school back when taking AP courses wasn't the dire necessity that it is for today's students. According ...