john Page 157 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
You Should Absolutely Not See <em>The Lone Ranger</em>
I just moved halfway across the country and didn't get a chance to see The Lone Ranger. I figured it was probably terrible and figured I'd ask Grierson to make sure. Thus, a conversation between someone who hasn't seen The Lone Ranger but suspects it's lousy and someone who has seen it and therefor...
New ESPN Ombud Finds Breezy Forgetfulness Over Broussard Fracas
Robert Lipsyte's first column as ESPN's ombudsman dissected the squirmworthy Chris Broussard-LZ Granderson showdown when Jason Collins came out. It's just as ombudsy as you like it, 3,300 words of media-ethics spinach. Lipsyte swings his prose like a lead pipe when he sees a deserving target; his re...
Anthony Bennett Explains His Meteoric Rise: "I'm A Great Guy"
A news conference starring a 20-year-old is generally doomed to devolve into scripted platitudes unless the 20-year-old in question strays into honesty. Therein, we prod Anthony Bennett into discussing the reasons the Cleveland Cavaliers made him the surprise top pick in this week's NBA Draft. His ...
The Art of Storytelling
There’s a fine post on John Huston over at Cinephilia and Beyond, which has quickly become one of my favorite all-time sites. They give us a 1965 interview with Huston inFilm Quarterly. Dig this:...
"So," ESPN Prez John Skipper Says, "We Eliminated A Bunch Of Jobs"
ESPN has been very quiet about the hundreds of workers they've sent packing over the past month. There wasn't any word circulating about the job cuts until the morning they came, and ESPN president John Skipper has kept communication about the job cuts to the bare minimum. ...
Kevin Sumlin Helped Johnny Manziel Overturn His Suspension
There was almost no Johnny Football. No Heisman Trophy. No two-loss season culminating in a Cotton Bowl win for the Aggies' successful SEC debut. After being suspended for the entire 2012 season, Johnny Manziel started making plans to transfer from Texas A&M. That's when the coach stepped in....
Someone Wrote The World's Dumbest Column About John Wall's New Tats
This, from the Washington Post's Jason Reid, is not so much a column as it is an extended pageant answer. It's as if someone had just asked: "Miss DC, do you think the Washington Wizards should give John Wall a max contract in light of his recently revealed predilection for body art?" And Miss DC h...
Bet a Million
I once had dinner with Vic Ziegel and asked him to name the most literate sports writer. And he laughed at me, laughed at the idea that someone working on deadline would stop to consider what they were doing literate. ...
The Toronto Blue Jays Are Out Of The AL East Basement, Barely
The Blue Jays were so far south of their preseason projections that even after a 10-game winning streak they're still the most disappointing team in baseball this season. But! After a wild 11-day charge, they've gone from 12 games back in the AL East to 6.5 back. They're now above .500 for the first...
Cheaters Are Winning The Bucci Overtime Challenge (Update)
Damn it, this is important....
Johnny Manziel Was All Pissed Off Because Of A Parking Ticket
When Johnny Manziel said something something on Twitter something something bullshit something something he can't wait to leave College Station something something, the world wanted to know what was bugging him before he deleted his words....
Texas A&M Initially Suspended Johnny Manziel After His 2012 Arrest
The Dallas Morning News reports that Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel faced a season-long suspension after a June 2012 arrest for a role in a barroom brawl, and had the suspension been upheld, Manziel would have transferred from College Station....
Pixar Inches Back On Track: <em>Monsters University</em>, Reviewed.
Monsters University isn't amazing. Yet it is bright, shiny, amusing, and charming, and after the disappointing Cars 2 and Brave, it's a relief to leave a Pixar movie feeling properly entertained. It wasn't always that way; the animation studio once delivered gems on a consistent basis. But Pixar spo...
Who Shot Battling Siki? The Life And Murder Of A Prizefighter
Originally published in 1949 in The New Yorker and anthologized in The World of John Lardner. Reprinted with permission of Susan Lardner. For more on John Lardner, read Alex Belth's introduction to a new Lardner collection, Southwest Passage....
A Sportswriter Goes To War: John Lardner In The Pacific Theater
From my introduction to Southwest Passage: The Yanks in the Pacific. ...
The Real McCoy
Another classic from Lardner, "The Life and Loves of the Real McCoy":...
Lede Time
Michael MacCambridge does us all a mitzvah with his "Director's Cut" series over at Grantland. Earlier this year he blessed us with one of Lardner's best profiles, "Down Great Purple Valleys," which is most famous for its first sentence:...
Family Business
Today gives tribute to John Lardner. Where to start? How about The John Lardner Reader: A Press Box Legend's Classic Sportswriting (edited by John Schulian). ...
Chad Johnson Gets Out Of Jail, Claims To Be Losing $46,000 A Month
It's been one week since Chad Johnson earned himself a trip to jail for excitedly patting his attorney on the backside (he thought he was getting off without jail time, you see). But the judge has decided that Johnson learned his lesson, and after an apology, he's a free man....
Daddy Was The Coach
We conclude our Father's Day series with the following excerpt from John Ed Bradley's wonderful memoir, It Never Rains in Tiger Stadium. (And in case you missed 'em, check out previous entries from Paul Hemphill, Pat Jordan, Mark Kram Jr., Glenn Stout, Larry L. King, Eric Neel, and yours truly.) ...