mad Page 76 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Pot Isn't Life And Death, And Tyrann Mathieu Isn't A Redemption Story
Tyrann Mathieu smoked some weed in college. If we're going to play this brain-dead association game, let's start by being clear about what he actually did. He smoked some weed, somehow got vilified for it, was thrown off his football team, went to rehab for weed, and now plays for the Arizona Cardin...
How The Jets' Run-Stuffing, QB-Ruining Defensive Line Came To Be
It's up in the air who named the Jets' defensive line of Sheldon Richardson, Damon Harrison, and Muhammad Wilkerson the "Sons of Anarchy," but there's no question how disruptive and dominant the line has been. Without much help from the secondary, it's helped return Rex Ryan's squad to its place as...
Real Madrid Player Makes No-Look Buzzer-Beater
No, not the soccer club. With 0.4 on the clock, Real Madrid Baloncesto's Felipe Reyes caught a full-court inbounds pass and blindly tossed it up. It somehow hit nothing but net....
Joe Frazier Was Cooler Than Ali. Discuss.
Joe Frazier died two years ago today. Now is as good a time as any to pay tribute to the former champ through a single photograph that best captured the unbridgeable distance between the two premier fighters of the age — a picture made at the very moment when the rivalry between Ali and Smokin' Joe ...
Young Superstars Neymar And Gareth Bale Are The Future Of El Clásico
Tomorrow is El Clásico, a matchup between two of the biggest, most storied clubs in the world: Real Madrid and Barcelona. It's the best rivalry in sports because it's the best kind of rivalry in sports. For 90 minutes, decades of shared history, clashing politics and nationalism will intersect with ...
Remembering Pat Summerall's Wonderful <em>Murder, She Wrote</em> Read
Yesterday's episode of A Football Life profiled longtime broadcaster Pat Summerall, who passed away earlier this year. It was loving without being hagiographical, devoting an entire segment to Summerall's alcoholism. But the most fun bit was this, noted and pulled out by Kissing Suzy Kolber....
Facebook Map: The Manchester United States Of America
Champions League action resumes today, but who is America rooting for? The map above, using data provided by Facebook, shows which of the qualifying teams have the most "likes," by state. While Americans like to make fun of all the people overseas who randomly wear Yankees caps, it's a clean sweep i...
Here Are The New Sky Bridges At Madison Square Garden
For the last three summers, Madison Square Garden has undergone massive renovations. The most instantly recognizable additions are a pair of sky bridges above the action, and just 11 days out from their debut, MSG has released some photos. They look nothing like the awesome lawsuit-magnets we were p...
The Meaning Of The First Sonny Liston-Muhammad Ali Fight
Over on The Stacks, we're republishing Murray Kempton's classic dispatch from the first Clay-Liston fight, in 1964; you can find the story below. Kempton was an elegant columnist and essayist with a great ear for the overtones and undertones of any public spectacle—mob trials, nominating conventio...
The Champ And The Chump: The Meaning Of Liston-Clay I
Originally published on March 7, 1964, in The New Republic. Reprinted here with the permission of the author's family....
What The Heck Was Joe Maddon Doing Last Night?
If he were anyone else (and the box score looks like a Tony La Russa special), the Rays manager would be getting flayed this morning. But everybody loves Joe Maddon, and his magnum opus of overmanaging in the Rays' 5-4 win over Boston somehow came back around to directly stave off elimination. That ...
From Louisville To The Nation Of Islam: My Ups And Downs With Ali
This story was originally published in a 1971 issue of Sport magazine. It is reprinted here with permission....
The Challenger And The Muslims
In this story, Dick Schaap writes about the newspaper article that first revealed the connection between Ali and the Black Muslim movement. Schaap's "scoop"—which ran on the front page of the Herald Tribune of January 23, 1964, three weeks after I became city editor of the paper—follows....
Here's Pepe Getting A Gash In His Face Stapled Shut On The Pitch
Real Madrid defender Pepe got his face busted open during a Champions League match today. He then got the gash on his face stapled closed right there on the pitch. Click through for a wince-inducing GIF of the stapling....
Ali In Exile: The Once And Future Champ Clowns In NYC, 1968
For several years in the late Sixties, while (largely) lesser fighters vied for the heavyweight title and while his great nemesis Joe Frazier was powering his way through the ranks, Muhammad Ali was effectively in exile. Barred from the prizefighting ring for refusing induction into the Army ("War i...
Mother of Re-Invention
I've never cared for Madonna’s records or her acting. Watching her in interviews is painful. Even when she was in her prime, I didn’t dig her....
NFL Considers Fines For Two Jets For Jake Locker Injury
The Titans are feisty as all hell, only an overtime loss away from being undefeated. Jake Locker has started to look like an honest-to-goodness NFL quarterback, tossing six TDs to zero interceptions in his last three games. So, naturally Locker's going to be out a while, and Adam Schefter says the t...