k Page 3352 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Cal Ripken's Mom Safe After Tuesday Morning Abduction At Gunpoint
There's not a whole lot of information available on this story yet, but what is is crazy:...

I Wanna Be Anarchy, Please: A Guide To Olympics Protesters And The Polite, Lovable Chaos Of London
LONDON—Summer does strange things to big cities. When the days get long and hot, it feels as if all the normals go take shelter somewhere in the countryside, and all the weirdos start coming out of the woodwork. In this haven of eccentricity known as London, where summer often lasts only about 10 da...

Yes, Theo Epstein's Accused Stalker Wore A Red Sox Shirt To Her Mental Competency Hearing
The Harvard-educated crazy lady who showed up in Chicago last week on Cubs GM Theo Epstein's doorstep can't sue us for calling her "crazy lady," it turns out. Kathleen Kearney was named a ward of the state of Massachusetts nine years ago because of mental illness, and she was released on bond in Ill...

Greek Olympian Banned For Racist Twitter Joke
If we learned anything from Euro 2012, it's that Euros can be casually racist on a stunning level. But how about some casual racism infecting the Olympic spirit? Greek triple jumper Voula Papachristou will not be going to London, just two days after a tweet that seems to have sent the whole nation i...

Nostradamus On Paterno (The Town In Sicily): "Flee Oh, Flee ... The Dreaded Pestilence!"
There is a new translation of Nostradamus's The Prophecies, the text that when read just so manages to predict everything from 9/11 to the rise of the Kennedys (and whose contents were the subject of roughly 98 percent of all emails forwarded from AOL accounts between 1998 and 2004). In a review on ...

Ryan Kalil Takes Out Full-Page Newspaper Ad Guaranteeing A Panthers Super Bowl Victory
Athletes have to mince words. You ask them if they think they're the best, or if their team is going to win it all, and they probably believe the answer is yes, but know they can't just say that. They know they'll get roasted in the media and by opposing fans and players, so they pussyfoot around. T...

Daily Screencap Classic: Jim Tressel Can't Believe His Eyes
I'm in the office this week instead of my usual militarized sports media bunker in Jacksonville, which (ironically?) means it won't be easy to do my job grab our usual screencaps. Thus, I elected to remind ourselves of the mass outrage just one short year ago when we learned Jim Tressel did various...

Lane Kiffin Just Can't Wait To Steal Penn State's Star Running Back
It's practically open season on Penn State's football roster, as far as other Division I coaches are concerned. As part of Monday's sanctions handed down by the NCAA, any current Penn State player can transfer without penalty, and so long as another team has a scholarship opening, then all that's ne...

Female Russian Skydiving Team Sets World Record With 88-Member Jump
Apparently, there's a women's skydiving team based in Russia called "Pearls of Russia," and each of them seems to be incapable of processing normal human emotions, including fear, tension, or sound judgment. Even more astonishing is that this wasn't their first or second attempt, but rather a thir...

Pac-12 Football In A Nutshell: Reporter Addresses Coach By Name Of Guy Who Left Ten Years Ago
After the madness of SEC Media Days, the other FBS conferences' pre-season football bazaars tend to be a bit more understated. That doesn't mean there aren't occasional weird moments, like earlier today at the Big 12 media day when Oklahoma State coach Mike "I'm a man! I'm 40!" Gundy was interrupt...

<em>Killer Joe</em> Is the Most Amoral, Repugnant, Fantastic Movie You'll See All Year
About three-quarters of the way through Killer Joe, the terrific and cheerfully evil film opening this Friday, Matthew McConaughey pointedly, if seemingly absently, picks up a chicken leg from a bucket of KFC. You might not realize it at the time, but this is the Chekov's Gun of chicken legs. This i...

USA Vs. Spain: Let's Discuss
The US men's basketball team is set to tip off its exhibition match against Spain in just a few minutes. Earlier, we wrote about what this game could mean, and now we want to yak about it with you as it unfolds (4:30 ET, ESPN2 and WatchESPN). Please report to the discussion section below with all o...

The Olympics Opening Ceremony? Giant Voldemort Fighting 30 Mary Poppinses, Obviously
London's Sunday Times is reporting that Friday's Olympics opening ceremony may not be unwatchably boring. According to Yahoo, which excerpted parts of the Times' subscription-only story, a 40-foot Voldemort (hologram? parade float? ventriloquist's dummy?) will take center stage for the ceremony and ...

Why All Pro Sports Would Be Better If They Were Rigged
Your letters:...

Today's USA-Spain Basketball Game Could Mean Everything Or Nothing
The last time the United States and Spanish Olympic basketball teams met each other, they gave us one of the greatest basketball games that nobody watched. That was the 2008 gold medal game in Beijing, which the USA won 118-107 after being up by only four points with under three minutes to play. It...

Stop Filming Your Kids Crying Over Sports
Here's a little girl in tears over Ichiro Suzuki being traded away from the Seattle Mariners. We've been sent this video a few times, and we'll take the chance to address this now, rather than respond to each individually: We don't care about your or anyone else's little kids crying over sports....

Ricky Williams's Foundation For At-Risk Kids Has Been Taken Over By A Rasputin-Inspired Cult
The Ricky Williams Foundation was started "to be instrumental in the physical, mental, emotional and educational development of at-risk individuals from low social-economic communities." You wouldn't expect anything less from Ricky Williams, by all accounts one of the nicest, most genuine guys in fo...

San Francisco Has The Most Helpful Fans In Baseball
Melky Cabrera made a nice grab in the sixth inning of last night's Giants game, but not as nice as the grab three fans made on Melky. A stylish bow on yet another three-hit game from Cabrera, as the Giants downed the Padres to remain a game-and-a-half up in the NL West....

Ichiro's First At-Bat As A Yankee: A Double Bow To Mariners Fans, Followed By A Slap Single Up The Middle
It's a little weird to see Ichiro sporting a Yankee cap (especially the custom low-profile 5150 they seem to have given him) but how his first plate appearance for the Yankees went couldn't have been more predictable. And, yet, it was wonderful, as the veteran gave a respectful bow to both sides of...

"I HOPE U ALL FUCKIN DIE" And Other Reasoned, Measured Responses To The NCAA's Penn State Punishment
The NCAA's announcement of penalties against Penn State football brought forth strong reactions—including our own—but none more, say, fervent than from those on social media. Here, then, are the most angry, sometimes regrettable, and generally depressing reactions from those on Twitter and Facebook...