mbl Page 86 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The USTA Will Make The U.S. Open The Most Fogeyish Grand Slam Tournament
For years, the U.S. Open was the antidote to Wimbledon and Roland Garros' fussiness (the Australian was basically just irrelevant and a big Whatever). At the Open there were ungodly late matches, bigger stadiums, the made-for-TV scheduling bonanza in Super Saturday, loud music, longer commercial bre...

108-Foot Roy Hodgson Erected On English Coast
"Roy the Redeemer" was unveiled this week, a massive statue of England manager aping the famous Christ sculpture in Brazil. He stands above the cliffs of Dover, and is supposedly visible from France. (The two nations face each other on Monday.)...

"A Drunk Chuck Knoblauch Hit On Us On The G Train"
The G Train, after dark, on a weekend, is a place where magical things happen. You may never get to where you actually want to go, but you'll find yourself right where you need to be. Witness the tale of Erin, a young woman from Brooklyn, who just wanted to get home last night. What she never expect...

Everything You Need To Know About Sarah Phillips, Former ESPN Columnist And Social-Media Scammer
Last week, we published a long story about Sarah Phillips, the ESPN columnist who, among other things, used her connections to the Worldwide Leader to hijack a teenager's Facebook venture. The story developed quickly from there, getting progressively more complicated as more tipsters came forward wi...

Source: Sarah Phillips Steered Business To A Bookie Who Was Probably Nilesh Prasad
So far, we know that former ESPN columnist Sarah Phillips and her partner, Nilesh Prasad, hijacked a 19-year-old's Facebook page, misrepresented their connections to ESPN, and engaged in some sort of minor-league hustle at a Corvallis, Ore., T-Mobile store. To that list, let's add another, more seri...

In The Realm Of Gambling Message Boards, Anyone Could Be The Next Sarah Phillips
How did a poseur like former ESPN columnist Sarah Phillips get so far in the gambling world, a place where you might expect people to value experience, wisdom, and verifiability above all else? Well, remember where she—and presumably her partner, Nilesh Prasad—got her start: the gambling message boa...

How Bill Simmons Gambled Away His NBA MVP Vote
If you've never seen the film Eight Men Out, by all means rectify that and watch it as soon as possible. It's based on Eliot Asinof's celebrated book about the 1919 Black Sox scandal and directed by John Sayles, who, in a bad-ass bit of self-casting, plays the legendary sportswriter Ring Lardner tha...

Is An ESPN Columnist Scamming People On The Internet?
A few weeks ago, ESPN columnist Sarah Phillips concluded her weekly “Junk Mail” column with a question from an unnamed reader:...

Joss Whedon: Revenge Of The Nerd
Five years ago, Joss Whedon's career wasn't going so well. The man behind the TV shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel had recently written and directed Serenity, a big-screen version of his short-lived series Firefly. It was his feature directing debut, and it was a commercial disappointment. No...

This Guy Bet On The Clippers When They Were Down Big And Turned $75 Into $41,000
We love when the house loses. Nothing brought us more joy than seeing a Vegas patron get 999/1 odds on the Cardinals when they were seemingly out of the race in Mid-September, then cashing in big time. So while the Clippers, down by as many as 27 to Memphis in game 1 on Sunday, couldn't offer odds t...

What <em>The Avengers</em> Means For The Future Of Comic-Book Movies
Tomorrow, Marvel's The Avengers will open in certain parts of the globe—not the U.S., which won't see the film until May 4—and Marvel's four-year odyssey of laying the groundwork for this action blockbuster will finally be over. It's been an impressive run commercially, if not always critically. (Ca...

The Charlotte Bobcats Can't Even Beat The Spread
The Bobcats' losing streak has reached 18 games, and they're flirting with the all-time worst single-season winning percentage in NBA history. You would expect an experienced gambler to see them as a good bet because the entire world thinks so little of them. Er, no....

A Guide For Sports Fans (And Would-Be Plutocrats) To Doing Your Taxes
Those of you who are not Darryl Strawberry will be spending the next few days on your tax returns. Here are a few practical things—and a number of not-so-practical things—that every sports fan should know about his or her taxes. ...

WrestleMania Betting Odds, And How To Gamble On Pro Wrestling
WrestleMania XXVIII will go down Sunday in Miami, and I'd like you to ask yourself some questions. Can the Undertaker extend his Wrestlemania record to 20-0? Will Chris Jericho or CM Punk get the better of what could be an all-time classic? Does the Rock still have what it takes to bring down John C...

How A Career Ends: I Made 11 Threes In An NCAA Tournament Game And Hit Rock Bottom Overseas
Tell Me When It's Over is an interview series in which we ask former athletes about the moment they knew their playing days were over. Today: Jeff Fryer, teammate of Hank Gathers and Bo Kimble at Loyola Marymount and a record-setting NCAA tournament sharpshooter. ...

If You're Gambling On March Madness With Your PayPal Account, You Might Want To Stop Now
If you're a tech-savvy gambler of a certain ilk, then you may already be using PayPal to make your payments and transfers convenient and easier to track (illicit or otherwise). The thing is, that's not kosher as far as PayPal is concerned, and eBay's in-house payment subsidiary has started actively ...

Picking The NCAA Tournament By Following The Real Money
Every pick'em pool shows you who pickers are picking in the NCAA Tournament. But keep in mind those numbers include oblivious office drones choosing teams based on best mascot or uniform color. The smart bracket-filler-outer pays attention to the folks who really have something on the line: their ca...

The NFL Will Happily Pretend A Bounty Is The Worst Scandal Ever
Today, Gregg Williams has his heart weighed by Anubis. Williams is in New York to meet with Roger Goodell in the NFL's impenetrable Park Avenue fortress, but Goodell isn't alone. He's accompanied by Jeff Miller and Joe Hummel, the heads of the NFL's investigative and security teams, and I don't know...
![Green Bay Beat Loyola On A Last-Second Overtime Three-Pointer, Then Tackled The Ref [UPDATE]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/Image_Not_Found_1x_qjofp8.png)
Green Bay Beat Loyola On A Last-Second Overtime Three-Pointer, Then Tackled The Ref [UPDATE]
A rumble-tumble Horizon League matchup between Green Bay and Loyola-Chicago ended with a Kam Cerroni three-pointer as time elapsed in overtime, launching an explosion off the Phoenix bench in which a referee took a nasty fall....

Poker Legend Doyle Brunson Fondly Recalls The Time A Moonshiner Almost Killed Him During A Card Game
There was a time in poker—and it really wasn't all that long ago—when men played cards like men, goddammit. A time before sponsorship deals and under-the-table cameras and sanitized modern-day casinos. In this earlier era, poker players honed their skills and filled their pockets working illegal g...