nas Page 116 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

We Have Our First NASCAR Wreck Of The Season
We have David Ragan to thank for opening the NASCAR season properly, with his push of Paul Menard leading to a multi-car wreck on the ninth lap of tonight's Budweiser Shootout....

Plans Are Forming For A New NBA/NHL Arena In Seattle
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: Seattle's mayor talks about the state of the arena plan....

ESPN Combines Pirates And Astros Into Something "Other" That Might As Well Give Up
It's one thing to have no chance. Quite another to not even have the chance to show the world you have no chance. ESPN has since made a correction, but they probably had it right the first time. [HardballTalk]...

Stephen A. Smith Did America A Favor And Flipped Skip Bayless The Bird
While I'm hesitant to praise ESPN First Take blowhard Stephen A. Smith for anything, an exception can be made for moments of distinguished valor—or at least doing something every single one of us has wanted to do on multiple occasions, like flipping Skip Bayless the bird. Last week Terrell Suggs ...

NC State's Lorenzo Brown Just Hit An 80-Foot Buzzer-Beater
It didn't help his squad (still down 37-23 to eighth-ranked North Carolina) but North Carolina State guard Lorenzo Brown hit a nifty long-range buzzer-beater to draw the Wolfpack a bit closer at intermission. [ESPN]...

What Do Premier League Stars Read When They're Not Busy Not Reading?
It's time for the 2012 Premier League Reading Stars program, in which England's schoolkids are encouraged to read by professional athletes pretending to love books. To kick off the program, 20 Premier Leaguers—one from each club—were asked to name their favorite adult and children's books. The resul...

Stephen A. Smith Plays Blutarsky To Skip Bayless's Fawning Coed In This <em>First Take</em> Parody Of <em>Animal House</em>
While most of what actually airs on ESPN First Take is unwatchable trash, the show's web content occasionally comes through with evidence there's at least a few people behind the scenes with self-awareness....

Last Night's Phoenix Coyotes Broadcast Featured Some Lady's Five-Hole
It's unclear where the blame falls for this shot that lingered for several seconds up this woman's skirt: on the director who zoomed in, on the woman for whom modesty seems not to be an issue, or on Fox Sports Arizona reporter Tyson Nash for wearing such a ridiculous outfit. Either way, it's a howl...

A Confusing NHL Racial Controversy Gets Muddier, As Banana Reference Nets A One-Game Suspension
We thought this one was going to be cut-and-dried. We thought Krys Barch said something hateful and racist and unacceptable to P.K. Subban, and the NHL would come down with all its disciplinary might to show that there's no place for racism in hockey, and then we'd all move on. Naturally, nothing's ...

ESPN's Keith Law Interviewed For A Job In The Astros' Front Office
According to the estimable Ken Rosenthal, Keith Law of ESPN—last seen around these parts ragging on Moneyball—interviewed with the Houston Astros for a position (Rosenthal mentions scouting director) in their front office. Law just tweeted, "My day just got a lot more interesting."...

The Dennis Erickson Era At Arizona State, Encapsulated In One Play
Arizona State fired head football coach Dennis Erickson almost a month ago, but allowed him to coach the team through the end of the season—including tonight's Las Vegas Bowl matchup against Boise State. If there's any play that demonstrates the futility of the Sun Devils under Erickson's tutelage...

Arizona State And Southern Miss Rumble After This All-Time Classic Sucker Punch
The resulting fight in Tempe wasn't on the scale of the one between Xavier and Cincinnati last week, but the punch that sparked it is so brutally dirty it's almost a work of art. After getting a forearm to the jaw from USM's Torye Pelham, ASU's Muscovite center Ruslan Pateev returns the favor with...

ShortCenter: An Unhinged Stephen A. Smith Breaks Down The CP3 Trade
What is ESPN prattling on about right now? We condense your morning SportsCenter to its essence....
![Pitt's Football Coach Told His Players He Quit Via A Forwarded Text Message [UPDATE]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/18j4q1jqk7geijpg.jpg)
Pitt's Football Coach Told His Players He Quit Via A Forwarded Text Message [UPDATE]
Todd Graham came on as Pitt's football coach last January, and he almost lasted an entire year with the Panthers. He announced today that he's leaving, after a 6-6 season in Pittsburgh, for sunny Arizona State University....

Montana State's Elvis Akpla Just Made The Catch Of The College Football Season
Unseeded Montana State has its work cut out for them today against top-seeded Sam Houston State in the FCS playoffs. Nevertheless, Bobcats receiver Elvis Akpla is doing his best to get his team to the next round with this ridiculous catch—the best I've seen at any level of college football this s...

There's A Great Salad Bar At Maple Leaf Gardens: The Second And Third Lives Of The Original Six Arenas
While we're on the topic of the sad fates of arenas without teams, it's worth noting that this week saw the beginning of a rebirth for the old Maple Leaf Gardens. The art deco masterpiece, which the Leafs abandoned for new downtown digs in 1999, is a National Historic Site. But lying largely dormant...

"The Eighth Wonder Of The World Essentially Crumbling Before Our Eyes": What Happens When Teams Leave Their Stadiums
Ryan Holeywell at Governing.com decided to check in on Houston's Astrodome, which has become a blighted mess:...

Predators Player Breaks Away On Empty Net, Sends Puck Flying Over The Crossbar
Craig Smith channeled Patrik Stefan in the third period of the Predators' 4-1 win in Nashville last night. Sometimes, I guess, the net just looks that big....

For The 2013 Season, The Astros Will Go To The AL West And Basically Everyone Will Go To The Playoffs
MLB's owners unanimously approved the sale of the Houston Astros from Drayton McLane to Jim Crane today, and included a $65 million price cut in the deal. The Astros will leave the NL Central and join the AL West for the 2013 season, and, to the relief of symmetricists everywhere, each league will h...

ShortCenter: Shaq Torments Stephen A. Smith
What is ESPN prattling on about right now? We condense your morning SportsCenter to its essence....