l Page 7427 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Why Audience Research Sometimes Comes In Handy
Continuing our recent habit of saving our favorite stories until the end of the day, a rock band named Machuca was playing a show in Santiago, Chile. As tends to be the case for bands on tour, they gave a shoutout to the local soccer team, in this case, the University of Chile. Turned out to be a bi...

A Look At Harold Reynolds' ESPN Contract
Nice little update on the Harold Reynolds Vs. ESPN lawsuit: Those sainted souls at The Smoking Gun have dug up an amended version of Reynolds' suit against the network for firing him — a firing they STILL haven't given a reason for. There isn't that much more new in the suit, except that it includes...

To Watch Tonight
What to watch as you lead your troops across the Rubicon, if you know what we mean ... • College basketball: Georgetown at Louisville; North Carolina at Duke. Ah, don't worry. There'll be tickets available at the gate. [ESPN] • College basketball: Illinois at Northwestern. Live, from Evanston! Hey, ...

Welcome To Indianapolis, Mr. McLeod
"So, Keith, welcome. Glad to have you on the Pacers."...

Leftovers: Drinkin' Bears
• Was somebody drunk before the Super Bowl? Who might that have been? [Kissing Suzy Kolber] • The ultimate Dee Mirich/Barbaro graphic. [With Leather] • Terence Kiel's money problems might have been gambling related. [SignOn San Diego] • DRAMA! at an A-Rod book signing. [New York Post] •...

Prepare For The Pink Taco In '08
It's never too early, friends: Time to get your thinking caps on about Super Bowl XLII! That's right, next year's Super Bowl — which we will not be glogging — will be at the Buzzsaw Pink Taco Stadium, and they've already come up with the logo. It's not quite Olympic-level Nightmare Fuel — he looks l...

Hey, Why Is Kenny Chesney Suddenly Calling Me?
In our original neck of the woods in Mattoon, Ill., NFL loyalties are rather split. Some people root for the Chicago Bears (four hours away), some root for the Indianapolis Colts (90 minutes away) and some odd souls hopped on the Rams bandwagon (two hours away). (Some insane people stuck with the fo...

Blythe: A Creepy Feeling In Chapel Hill
We are quite honored today to welcome Will Blythe, the former literary editor of Esquire and author of the great book "To Hate Like This Is To Be Happy Forever", to the warm embrace of Deadspin. (We interviewed Blythe about the book when it came out in hardcover. The paperback is out now....

The Last Of Those Old Spice Polls
You know those Old Spice ads they're running around here, where you can win Final Four tickets? (That's what they tell us, anyway.) Well, here's the last one. Hope you got the first two right, we guess....

Behold The Power Of Cheese
As if you didn't know, the New Zealand Cheese-Rolling Championship was Tuesday, with Gore's Tom Mackay claiming the title. For those not "with cheese," the object of the event is to hurtle down a steep incline with 10 or 15 other participants in pursuit of a large wheel of one of the town's finest c...

Blogdome: You Cannot Kill Norv
• The Cowboys wouldn't really hire Norv Turner as coach ... would they? [And Here Come The Pretzels] • What football play is this, exactly? [copyranter] • This is pretty much exactly how spring training is gonna go. [Kill All Poets] • The Yankees should probably cool it with this Phillip Hughes char...

Deconstructing Puppy Bowl III
Normally we would say that we take a back seat to no one when it comes to Puppy Bowl coverage; we love puppies, and even watched a few moments of the Bissell Kitty Halftime Show on Sunday. But we didn't count on Planet Haystack, whose coverage of this event was, well, comprehensive, to say the least...

The "Out" Scoop On Amaechi's Book
After we told you about John Amaechi's coming out in a few weeks as the gay former NBA player, the fine folks at OutSports, who had known about this for a while, released their story about the book, sections of which they have seen. Some fun tidbits:...

Ron Zook Will Turn Your Conventional Wisdom Upside Down
Our beloved alma mater, the University of Illinois, is having a mediocre year in basketball and has won, like, four games in two years, even forcing us to sit through a 33-0 loss to Rutgers last year that mostly resembled a cock fight between a rabid rooster and an egg. But worry not, fellow alums: ...

We Have To Ask ...
Suggested questions for today's ESPN SportsNation chatters ... • Noon. National Signing Day: For, like, anything in particular? Will there be snacks? Do I have to go to work? • 2 p.m. Baseball America's Jim Callis: May I openly loathe A-Rod now, or simply hold him in secret utter disdain as usual? •...

But When You Get Down To It, Does Michael Irvin Make Any More Sense?
Only a little more than a year to go before the 2008 Summer Olympics, which should just give the Chinese government enough time to run Beijing through spell check....

The Dakota Wizards Know How To Party
Not much on this sporting planet more glamorous than the NBA's Development League, nope. As evidence of the league's ability to raise the profile of a mere basketball player into an international superstar of unqualified proportions, we present this DraftExpress diary of Rod Benson, former Cal Golde...

Stephen A. Smith, Voice Of Reason In A World Of Insanity
OK, now we're not gonna get into politics this morning, but someone sent us this clip of Stephen A. Smith — listed as "Stephen Smith" — debating atheism on CNN. This isn't the first time he's debated non-sports topics on CNN, but this is the first time we've grabbed a clip....

NBA Roundup: It's Not Easy Being Celtic
Notes from Tuesday's games in the National Basketball Association ......

About Last Night ...
What you missed while celebrating your town's Return Carts to the Supermarket Month festivities... • NBA: It's a real Irish wake, and you're invited! Pistons hand Celtics 15th straight loss. • College basketball: Ohio State trounces Michigan? We have never heard of such a thing. • NHL: Devils beat R...