media Page 131 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Bill Polian Is Talking Out His Ass
I don't know Bill Polian. Seems nice enough. Had success everywhere he's been. He's probably a bright guy. But in his new life as ESPN talking head, he's taking just about the dumbest possible position on the latest Saints scandal, and sticking to it with all his might....
Fernando Torres's Goal Drew Orgasmic Moaning From Gary Neville
It wasn't so much that £50m man Torres scored a goal — though, holy crap, Fernando Torres scored a goal! — as it was Chelsea completing a 10-man comeback and 45-minute stand against Barcelona in the Champions League semifinal. But Gary Neville, working the game for Sky Sports, was driven to what c...
ESPN Writer Has <em>The Protocols Of Zion</em> On His Bookshelf
Late last week, ESPN's MMA writer Franklin McNeil appeared on an ESPN.com video previewing the big UFC pay-per-view fight between Jon Jones and Rashad Evans. In the video, McNeil talked about the bout while sitting in front of his bookshelf at his home. Clever D.I.Y. stagecraft! (Just a few weeks ag...
Tonight's Weather Forecast Will Not Be Seen Because Our Set Has Been Invaded By Bears
Havoc reigned in Scranton tonight when WNEP-TV's 11 p.m. newscast was interrupted by bears. Black bears, specifically, at least four of which decided to invade the outdoor set from which meteorologist Kurt Aaron was preparing to deliver his weather report. Aaron was, understandably, concerned for ...
LOL OMG NHL: Hockey Goes After The BuzzFeed Generation
Our friends at Jezebel pointed us to this post on BuzzFeed: "The Hottest Guys In The NHL." It's a standard BuzzFeed numbered list of large photos, with a sentence or two apiece, perfectly designed to be shared around Facebook and Pinterest by a very specific subset of the internet. But the top text ...
Dope Scandal: Why Is ESPN's Drugs-In-College-Football Story So Stupid?
Honestly, I feel bad for everyone involved in the making of this ESPN The Magazine feature about college football's marijuana "problem," which has to be the stupidest sports-and-dope story I've read in an allegedly reputable outlet since the Yahoo guy went running around the Syracuse campus with a p...
Breaking Down The Athletes Of The <i>Time</i> 100
Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People list is out, and I checked, you aren't on it. But some athletes are! But how did they get there? How can a pro athlete who's not Muhammad Ali or Jackie Robinson or Maximus from Gladiator possibly qualify as "influential?" Time's metric for selection is top...
Boston Paper Already Declares Red Sox Clubhouse Mutiny
The Red Sox lost a frustrating game yesterday, highlighted by a questionable strike zone, a mid-conversion Daniel Bard looking great but clearly tiring, and the manager crossing swords with the team's two most beloved players. So today the Herald leads not with a game report, but a rush to be the fi...
James Jones Flopped, And It Sent Jeff Van Gundy On An Apoplectic Rant
ESPN basketball analyst Jeff Van Gundy has gone on rants about flopping before, but today's (sparked by a third-quarter dive by James Jones in the Heat-Knicks matchup) is one for the ages. Play-by-play man Mike Breen tries his hardest to get Van Gundy off the topic, but fails—JVG even runs over t...
Ian Eagle Had A Whiny Meltdown Last Night, Accused Partner Mike Fratello Of Being "Patronizing"
The final minutes of last night's YES Network broadcast of the Celtics-Nets game were awkward after veteran play-by-play rock Ian Eagle inexplicably voiced his complaints to analyst Mike Fratello on-air....
This Is How Angry People Get When A Radio Station Pretends To Hire Jim Rome
Houston's KILT-AM recently ditched The Jim Rome Show after a longtime affiliation with the program. (14 years of Rome? Where are the Visigoths when you need them?)...
Bay Area Sports Radio Legend Fired For No Apparent Reason
Imagine if Mike Francesa just walked into WFAN one morning for work, ready to start his regular shift, and management hauled him into an office, told him he was being fired, gave him 100 pages of paperwork, and said he had minutes—not hours—to clean out his desk and leave. Twenty minutes after that,...
10 Years Of Newspapers Declaring That Mariano Rivera Is Too Old
On Friday, Mariano Rivera blew the save. It was the 73rd blown save of his career, and one of many from baseball's opening weekend. Predictably, it brought out the old standby storylines: Is this it for Mariano Rivera? Has Father Time finally caught up with the cutter?...
The <i>Baltimore Sun</i>'s Entire Predators-Red Wings Recap: "Type Here"
It's 2012, so hopefully you're not reliant on the morning paper for game results from the night before. Still, maybe there are a few elderly Baltimore hockey fans a little confused by today's Sun, which omitted the Nashville/Detroit capsule for some very unhelpful dummy text....
Will ESPN Walk Away From Rick Reilly And His $3 Million Contract? Probably, Source Says
Since 2007, Rick Reilly's "ridonkulous" ESPN contract has been the envy of sports journalists everywhere: He reportedly earns $3 million a year or so to do … whatever it is he does. Write a bunch for the site! Appear on TV! Go on the radio once in a while! Tweet photos of his wife!...
TV People Have Mispronounced Louis Oosthuizen's Name At Least 20 Different Ways In The Past 24 Hours
Bubba Watson's sudden-death Masters win yesterday over Louis Oosthuizen and the albatross Oosthuizen hit early in the Sunday round have placed television anchors and reporters in the unenviable position of having to pronounce the name of the South African pro. We found dozens of mispronunciations...
Here's How Four Broadcast Teams Described The Orioles Streaker On Friday
The ad hoc policy to not televise fans who run onto the field during baseball games is intended to discourage copycats, though its effectiveness is debatable at best. Yet while viewers may be blind to the rogue fan's activities, announcers can't resist providing their own take on the action....
Warren Sapp Is Broke
TMZ has the exclusive on QB-Killa's bankruptcy, and it's grisly. Sapp owes $6.7 million to his creditors—nearly a million of that to the IRS—and only has $6.45 million on hand. Among that $6.45 million are some distinctly Sapp-y assets:...
Here's Terry Francona And Bud Selig Arguing Over Who Finished Each Other Off
ESPN's inaugural 2012 baseball broadcast last night didn't exactly go smoothly, what with people flipping off the Baseball Tonight set and cameras catching players pantsless. There was also the issue of Terry Francona's microphone, which had him either sounding like he was broadcasting from a clo...
Rick Telander: Cubs President Theo Epstein Might Walk On Water This Season (Or Something)
Robot-fearing Chicago Sun-Times sports columnist Rick Telander senses a higher power surrounding these 2012 Chicago Cubs. It's something holy and ethereal, or maybe it's grounded in hard, empirical data. Gosh, maybe we'll let him sort this out....