nf Page 766 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Future Of NFL Playoffs Could Look Very Different
At a public forum at Manhattan's 92nd Street Y last night, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell sounded optimistic that the league's competition committee will soon approve an expansion of the playoffs to 14 teams, with the extra games possibly held on Friday or Monday....

NFL Betting Lines, Visualized: Divisional Round (Early Edition)
Here is your early betting info for the Divisional round of the playoffs this weekend. Money lines for all the games are already available, but we'll update on Thursday with spread movements. Like last week, we've included the average spread and average over/under for each team, as well as the appro...

Trademark Agency Rejects "Redskins" Application As "Derogatory"
Late last month, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office denied an application to register a trademark for "Redskins Hog Rinds," a product wholly unrelated to the Washington football team. The USPTO's reasoning for refusing the trademark is simple: It's offensive....

Watch Auburn Fans, Announcers In Slow Meltdown As BCS Title Slips Away
ESPN did an enormous public service last night in offering a video feed trained on fans in Tallahassee and Auburn watching last night's BCS Championship game. Here are some clips of Auburn fans watching their title dreams disappear, matched up with Auburn IMG Sports Network radio announcer Rod Bra...

Is "Discipline" Overrated In The NFL?
The 2013-14 Seahawks finished the year with a 13-3 record, a +186 point differential, and +40.1 percent DVOA, making them arguably the best team in the NFL. They also led the league in penalties (128) and penalty yards (1,193). Baltimore led in both categories last year and won the Super Bowl over t...

Former NFL Player Dies Mysteriously At Age 35
Todd Williams, who briefly played as a reserve right tackle for the Tennessee Titans in 2004 and 2005 after playing college ball at Florida State, was found dead in Bradenton, Fla. on Monday. ...

[Outside SL Benfica's Estádio da Luz, there stands a statue of the club's and Portugal's greatest ever player, Eusébio. Today, the day of the Mozambique-born Portuguese legend's funeral, the monument is wrapped in the scarves of some of the thousands of fans on hand to commemorate the life of "o Rei...

"Distractions" Are Bullshit
So Chris Kluwe blew up the Internet last week with this post, entitled "I Was An NFL Player Until I Was Fired By Two Cowards And A Bigot," and the sports world instantly split into two factions: Those who cheered on Kluwe, and those who thought he was a disgruntled ex-punter looking for revenge and ...

Fox Sports 1, CBS Still Struggling In The Graphics Department
USC freshman Nikola Jovanovic is a frontcourt star for the Trojans, but we have to wonder what age-defying magic they've got over in Serbia. Can they get some to Novak Djokovic? We'd love to watch him dominate tennis for another 75 years....

Two Of The NFL's Strangest Streaks Say The Chargers Will Be Champs
Let's be quite clear about this up front: We don't believe there's anything to this, any more than there was to the (now broken) streak of Redskins home games predicting the Presidential election. It's, statistical noise. But as far as random quirks go, these are pretty fucking weird....

Chart: Does Your Choice Of Booze Reveal Your Politics?
The chart above, produced by the right-leaning research firm NMRPP and first published in the Washington Post last week, shows the comparative political inclinations (and relative voter turnouts) associated with the drinkers of various major liquor brands....

NFL Films Taught Us How To Watch Football
Rich Cohen's great portrait of Ed and Steve Sabol:...

Mike Munchak Left The Titans Rather Than Fire His Assistants
After three seasons in Nashville, all with nine or 10 losses, and 31 years with the organization, Mike Munchak parted ways with the Titans this weekend. And to hear him tell it, he fell on his sword....

Colin Kaepernick Is Cold-Blooded
Colin Kaepernick forgot to strap on his wristband with his team's plays when he took the field for the second half, forcing the 49ers to burn a timeout. He let cornerback Micah Hyde read his eyes on a pass late in the fourth, and only Hyde's drop kept it from being a backbreaking interception. Cling...

Cool Offsides Penalty Has No Effect On 49ers Win
Joe Buck and Troy Aikman might have underplayed how close the 49ers-Packers game was to giving us extra football. Phil Dawson's game-winning kick went through Davon House's arms before it went through the uprights—though House may have been was offsides—as San Francisco won in Lambeau Field, 23-20....

Actual Photos Of Lambeau Field From Today
Remember when we thought it was really cold at Lambeau Field? Well, it still is cold—four degrees, currently—but that wasn't accurate evidence of how Lambeau Field is a frigid hellscape. Here are some real photos from today, thanks to AP photographers....

