mat Page 127 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

A Pixar Animator Sketches The NFL Season
Austin Madison is an animator for Pixar, and has worked on movies including Ratatouille, Toy Story 3, and Up. But this is perhaps his finest work: a series of sketches throughout the NFL season, previewing one or two of each week's games....

Investigation Finds Hundreds Of Fixed Soccer Matches, Including World Cup Qualifiers And Champions League Games
The day after the Super Bowl, you might have an annoying European friend or co-worker tell you he's unimpressed. He'll say how football is filled with commercials and downtime and Beyonce instead of game action, how the third-quarter brownout is an embarrassment to American infrastructure, how it's ...

ESPN Misreads Matt Barkley Quote, Causes Confusion For USC
Here's ESPN's Arash Markazi, writing about a radio interview former USC quarterback Matt Barkley did earlier today (emphasis ours):...

Matthew Barnaby Is Suing The Former Miss Buffalo To Get Back A $50,000 Engagement Ring And An SUV
Matthew Barnaby's love life just can't stay out of the penalty box. Less than two years after he was arrested for harassing his ex-wife, the 39-year-old former NHL troublemaker and shitcanned ESPN hockey analyst filed suit this week in the New York State Supreme Court to get back both the $50,000 di...

The NFC Is Running Low On Pro Bowl Quarterbacks
Matt Ryan hurt his shoulder when he was pancaked to the turf by Ahmad Brooks with 1:55 remaining. It looked ugly, and Ryan got up slowly. It was his left, non-throwing shoulder, but his next two passes were incomplete. When Atlanta recovered the ball with time left for one play, Ryan's "hail mary" o...

Massive Gym Light Fixture Falls Directly On High School Wrestler
"Madison Square Garden" is a big deal for the Madison (S.D.) Bulldogs—an annual wrestling triangular, featuring "one of the most unique atmosphere's in the state for a dual. A packed gym, ridiculously loud music played at ever stop in the action, one big light over the mat, 1000 glow sticks, stats...

Manti Te'o's Mom Tried To Convert Lennay Kekua To Mormonism Via Text Message
According to USA Today, the latest piecemeal bit to be released in this bizarre saga is the revelation that Ottilia Te'o, Manti's mother, tried to convert Lennay to Mormonism via text message. His family also engaged in bible study with Kekua, via text message, which Te'o alluded to with Jeremy Scha...
![This Jim Harbaugh Freakout Is Priceless, The Ray Lewis Freakout Is Just Weird: Your NFL Conference Championships GIFs Roundup [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/18c4ee9sjqtxkgif.gif)
This Jim Harbaugh Freakout Is Priceless, The Ray Lewis Freakout Is Just Weird: Your NFL Conference Championships GIFs Roundup [Updated]
We're going to be putting our GIFs from the respective Conference Championship games right here. So if you're looking for Julio Jones's touchdown scoring, a security guard eliminating prowess, here's your spot, or weeping Ray Lewis, this here's the place. ...

Why Katie Couric's Manti Te'o Interview Will Suck
Lennay Kekua's story tempted the many outlets that wrote about her partly because her death gave Te'o's rise, not in itself particularly moving or dramatic, a dimension of tragedy. It made writing about Te'o easier (by reducing the time a story had to spend on his place in the Notre Dame defense), a...

Here's A Photo Of Manti Te'o With Ronaiah Tuiasosopo's Sister The Night Before The Notre Dame-USC Game
This photo, provided to us by a friend of the Tuiasosopos, was taken on Nov. 23, 2012—the night before the Notre Dame-USC game. It shows Ronaiah Tuiasosopo's younger sister, known as Pookah, with Manti Te'o. (According to Manti's uncle Alema Te'o, Pookah supposedly posed as Lennay Kekua's cousin.)...

"I Know A Liar When I'm Around One.": Manti Te'o's Uncle Comments On Ronaiah Tuiasosopo
Manti Te'o's uncle Alema Te'o went on The Zone Sports Network last night and spoke to radio hosts Scott Garrard and Riley Jensen about the Manti Te'o-Lennay Kekua story that we broke on Wednesday. Alema didn't have much to say about Manti, but he did offer some personal insight into the character o...

Matt Kemp Now Has A Massive Tattoo Of His Grandparents On His Chest
The Dodgers' outfielder got the custom ink to pay tribute to his grandparents, Doris and the late Vernon Mukes. Vernon had died in November. What's not known is whether Doris is cool with Kemp's decision here. In August 2011, on the subject of Kemp getting any tats at all, Sports Illustrated quoted ...

Reports: USC Players Had A Locker-Room Brawl Over Matt Barkley's Honor
USC came into the Sun Bowl with a disappointing record—and without senior QB Matt Barkley. Barkley had missed the regular-season finale with a separated and sprained right shoulder, and was ruled out by the team's medical staff. The Trojans lost 21-7, and after the game, according to multiple report...

ESPN's Matthew Berry Is A Big ***** Van ***** Fan, Says ESPN's Content Filter
The screencap above was taken from ESPN's fantasy homepage, which features a live-updating, scrolling box containing tweets from ESPN's various fantasy sports writers. You'll notice that the second tweet on the list, sent by Matthew Berry, looks a little odd. Who the hell is ***** Van *****?...

Matt Bryant Went To His "Happy Place" Before His Game-Winning Kick
Every morning, the fine folks at Sports Radio Interviews sift through the a.m. drive-time chatter to bring you the best interviews with coaches, players, and personalities across the sports landscape. Today: The Falcons kicker is a Happy Gilmore fan....

H, Y, and Z Are Your Money Letters: How To Beat Scrabble's Flawed Points System, Using Google-Powered Math
This week the director of research at Google, a fellow named Peter Norvig, published on his blog the results of a fascinating deep-dive into the English language. If you're at all interested in letter frequency or word frequency, you owe it to yourself to at least skim Norvig's post. Essentially the...

Biggest Kid On The Court Makes Over-The-Head Buzzer-Beater
Exactly how they drew it up. This is eighth-grader Matt Demember making it rain in his Maryland church league, and he's got so much swag, his opponents get just as excited as Matt's teammates....

Who Was On The Ballots Of The Hall Of Fame Voters Refusing To Go Public?
For just the second time, the Baseball Writers' Association of America has given its voters the option of having their Hall of Fame ballots made public. Of the 569 voters who cast ballots, only 108 chose to reveal who they voted for. (Of course, many more discussed their selections in their own colu...

Who Wants To Sex J.J. Watt? Bengals-Texans, In Three Gifs
So, 23 years now, and a guaranteed extra 365 days (at least) on that 8,400 day playoff winless streak for the Bengals. Yikes! They sure do suck. Matt Schaub played just OK but still completed 29/38 passes, Arian Foster ran for 140 yards, and J.J. Watt continued to be a sort of revolutionarily good ...

Your NFL Wildcard Open Thread
Cincinnati at Houston (NBC), 4:30 p.m.: The Texans may have the superior record but they backed into the playoffs, losing three of their last four, while the Bengals haven't lost a game by more than one point since Week 9. Plus, it'd be more fun if they won, so root for them....