mat Page 113 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Animation: How NFL Players Have Gotten Bigger (And Fatter), Year By Year
We know that NFL players have gotten bigger, and that it's a relatively recent phenomenon. But this animated tool by Noah Veltman (GIF above) is the coolest way we've seen to watch how it happened over the years. ...
Dumb Person Has Bad Idea For How To "Control" College Athletes
This, by Matt Hayes at the Sporting News, was actually published yesterday, but since I haven't seen any angry reaction to it yet, I can only assume it's because we're all still so taken aback by the strangeness of a screed that wouldn't be out of place scrawled on a bathroom wall in feces. But you ...
Robbie Lawler Returned From Oblivion To Impose His Will On The World
Sometime shortly after Robbie Lawler started hitting Matt Brown unreasonably hard in San Jose, Calif. Saturday night, a low rumble shook my apartment. It felt and sounded strangely like—and turned out actually to be—fireworks. This was silly, entirely too literal, but given that the fight featured L...
How To Get Paid To Drop Out Of Races: A Professional Pacer Tells All
David Rudisha covered two laps of Icahn Stadium under his own flowing power. And Mo Farah, he sliced through the eight laps of the indoor mile with his own knife-sharp legs. Galen Rupp crushed the 1500, Silas Kiplagat, Nick Willis, they all propelled themselves very quickly around an oval. But they ...
Queen Elizabeth's Racehorse Fails Drug Test
Estimate, a five-year-old mare owned by Queen Elizabeth II, tested positive for morphine following a recent race. Morphine is illegal on race days, but it appears this may all have been a big mistake....
Matt Bonner Brings Larry O'Brien Trophy To New Hampshire For A Day
San Antonio Spurs bench player Matt Bonner is one of the few active athletes New Hampshire can boast about. (Sam Fuld's the other big name on that list, which should tell you something.) The Red Mamba grew up in Concord and played for the high school's basketball team, and look at him now, a two-tim...
Say Goodbye To The World Cup With This Gorgeous Animated Highlight Reel
These are still so awesome. Richard Swarbrick has made a few of these animated highlight reels and they are always great bits of eye candy. ...
Irish Comedy Show Pokes Fun At Brazil-Netherlands Match With "Highlight"
Après Match is a comedy show on Irish station RTÉ that mocks various soccer commentators from Ireland and Great Britain. (Here's more of their stuff; it's amusing!) Yesterday, the crew found their "Great Dutch Play" from the third-place World Cup match between Brazil and the Netherlands, and the hig...
Tomato-Beer Smackdown: Bud Clamato Vs. Modelo Especial
Last week, Drew Magary issued his Definitive List of Excuses for Day Drinking, a timeless document of unrivaled beauty and precision from which he intentionally omitted brunch, because he likes to leave the odd scrap for the rest of us. So let's address brunch booze....
Great Ape: <em>Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes</em>, Reviewed
Three years ago, expectations for Rise of the Planet of the Apes were understandably low. The director (Rupert Wyatt) wasn't well-known, a lot of people despised the film's star (James Franco) for his Renaissance Man routine, and we all remembered how terrible Tim Burton's 2001 Planet of the Apes...
Head Of FIFA Corporate Partner Arrested In Ticket-Scalping Sting
It took a few weeks, but we've finally gotten a 2014 World Cup corruption story. Ray Whelan, the chief executive of Match Hospitality, a FIFA corporate partner that sells tickets and hospitality packages for the World Cup, was arrested on Monday as part of a Brazilian investigation into the illega...
Belgium's Extra-Time Goals Put Them Up 2-0
A rough sequence for Matt Besler led to Belgium's goal early in extra time. He got run through by just-subbed-in Romelu Lukaku, then over-committed while trying to help out on Kevin De Bruyne. Tim Howard can't save 'em all; but there's plenty of time left. ...
Cameroon To Investigate World Cup Match-Fixing Allegations
Following some very specific and accurate predictions from a convicted match-fixer, Cameroon soccer's governing body has announced it will probe the possibility of fraud in the team's World Cup performance....
Phillies Play-By-Play Guy Catches Home Run, Throws Ball Back On Field
The Phillies announced earlier in the week that their three-man broadcast team of Tom McCarthy, Canadian Stone Cold Steve Austin Matt Stairs, and Jamie Moyer would call Friday night's game against the Braves from a special location in centerfield. Good idea!...
Walter Matthau, '70s Action Hero: The Lurid Charms Of <em>Charley Varrick</em>
For much of his adult life, Walter Matthau looked like a weathered chew-toy version of Ronald Reagan, not like anyone's idea of an action hero. But for a three-movie run of early-'70s crime thrillers, he made a case for himself as one of the all-time great movie tough guys, a calm and sardonic every...
Listen To Vin Scully Tell A Charming Story About Bird Shit
"And that's the story of Mike Matheny and the bird poop."...
Pat Sajak Asks Gay <em>Wheel</em> Contestant About The Woman In His Life
A man named T.K. Klotz appeared on Wheel of Fortune tonight, and apparently put on his contestant questionnaire that he's recently engaged. Show host Pat Sajak brought up the "woman who agreed to marry" Klotz during the introductions; no, no, that's not right....
Ghana Soccer Official Involved In Match-Fixing Sting
The president of Ghana's soccer association was caught on camera negotiating a contract that would have Ghana playing in fixed international matches. The Telegraph and Dispatches conducted a six-month undercover investigation into Ghana's soccer association and found that they were set to pay a comp...
Matt Joyce Hits Ball Back Into Pitching Machine; Machine Fires It Again
Your latest baseball oddity comes courtesy of Matt Joyce. During Thursday's batting practice, the Rays designated hitter fouled a ball that bounced off the top of the cage and right back into the pitching machine's loading slot. The machine then zipped another strike before Joyce realized what had h...