mad Page 121 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Big Ups to the Jews
Thanks for the tips, fellas. This day will go a lot smoother now on all fronts. And thanks Muselix!...

Perhaps An 'Ali Brush And Floss' Would Be More Accurate
If Muhammad Ali's being looked at as some kind of grandfather of rap now, this is going to put a major dent in his street cred. There are probably a lot of artists out there who look back at their early albums and wish they could do a few things over, but at least none of them did this: The Adven...

Why You Shouldn't Buy This Ali Rap Nonsense
The big event on ESPN this weekend is "Ali Rap," a documentary hosted by Chuck D that posits the theory that Muhammad Ali was the originator of what we think of today as "hip-hop." (That's the other half of the music they did on the "Judgment Night" soundtrack, if you're confused, rockers.) It's a f...

'Dallas Clark Is Awesome. Seriously. (Please Don't Hurt Us)'
The folks over at Rooster Teeth.com are small-boned, practical folk. So when they angered large, muscular Indianapolis Colts tight end Dallas Clark recently with a rather unflattering portrayal of him on a video game commercial, they quickly scrambled to make amends. They drafted a letter of apology...

Ethan Albright Is In Fact Able To Walk Upright
As Madden 07 obsessives know, Washington Redskins lineman and ginger kid Ethan Albright is the lowest-rated player in the game, with a rating that barely gives him enough aptitude to stand up and walk in something resembling a straight line. We have wondered if Albright knows about this, or cares, a...

Madden Curse Soon To Attack Rest Of Humanity
You know, all told, Ray Lewis never actually suffered from the Madden Curse: People always forget nothing happened to him that year....

OK, We Get Dibs On The Vikings
For those who find the pace of Madden '07 a little too frantic, here's some good — that is to say, fake — news. Introducing Madden Bye-Week '07, in which you control your various NFL players' off-the-field activities during their team's bye week. We're still waiting for our copy, but the "reviewer" ...

Your Madden Power Rankings
This will be our last Madden post of the week, promise....

It's Madden Day Eve ... Get To Bed Early, Kids
The guys at the Tecmo Blog are having all kinds of fun, simulating a day in the life of a Madden player and a glance back at Madden 99, along with more stuffs....

Make Your Pretend Person Lift Pretend Weights
Obviously, we're as excited about the release of Madden 2007 as anybody else, but we'll confess something: We're not as into the role-playing aspects of the game as some apparently are. We'll play exhibition games against our friends — as the Buzzsaw, of course — and if we're feeling frisky, we'll p...

The Closer: The Day The Bats Stood Still
Notes from a day in baseball:...

Madden Player Ratings Are Out, If You're Into That Type Of Thing
We are just 11 days away from the release of Madden 07, and the fine folks at IGN, for the real diehards out there, have released the rosters and player ratings of everyone in the game. Looking at our Buzzsaw, we see, as usual, two of the three best players are the kicker and the punter....

Greg Maddux, Wise Man In The Clubhouse
Earlier, we talked about new Dodgers pitcher Greg Maddux's pretty debut for Los Angeles, tossing a no-hitter for six innings and generally showing why it's always a pleasure to have a Greg Maddux on your team....

The Closer: Maddux Throws Himself A Housewarming Party
Notes from a day in baseball:...

People Talking About A Video Game: That'll Be 20 Bucks, Please
Sometimes we wonder if we're piling on ESPN, if we're just looking for things that are wrong, never giving them the benefit of the doubt, just out to criticize all the time, whether it's merited or not. Are we just being Negative Nellies? Are we unreasonable? We wonder. We're introspective that wa...

A Look At The Sunday NBC Crew
Earlier today, new NBC broadcaster — it feels weird to type that; we haven't quite adjusted to the NFL being back on NBC — John Madden went to visit Oakland Raiders camp and hang out with his former player Art Shell, the new coach (again) of the Raiders. Since it's a slow, non-sexual-harassing day...

Expanding The NCAA's Grip On Your Life
The men's NCAA basketball tournament is the one major postseason event that seems perfect. It's not possible for it to fail. It will be exciting. There will not be controversy about the champion. It is the single greatest gambling event that has ever existed. And there are coaches out there who want...

Video Game Football, A History
Helpful blogger Free Meat, inspired by our "Three and a half months until Madden!" post from earlier this week, went out and tracked down screenshots from various moments in football video game history....

It's An Honor Just To Be Nominated
So, who remembers the Bill Simmons cartoons? Launched, what, a year ago now, the three one-minute tidbits of the life of The Sports Guy were almost universally derided, first by readers, then, ultimately, by Simmons himself. (He called them "a mistake on a lot of levels.")...

Crazy Sunday
There are five more championship games on tap today on Selection Sunday. We've got the SEC, the ACC, the Big 12, and the Big Ten. Oh, and of course, the Southland championship game is today, which forces the selection committee, in their all-day meetings, to write "whatever suck-ass team wins the ...