of Page 519 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Boy Kicked Out Of National Scrabble Championship After Getting Caught With The Worst Cheating Strategy Ever
Division 3 isn't exactly the big time in the Scrabble world—It's roughly the skill level of "any great living-room player out there," says the National Scrabble Association's executive director—but this is still the championship. Not a county championship, not a state championship, but the national ...
The Sabanization Of College Football Is A Total Bummer
Yesterday we lauded San Diego State's Rocky Long for potentially eschewing the kick (field goals or punts) in fourth-down situations, a strategic move that's become something of a totem in the advanced football stats discussion. Today, kind of the opposite: it seems college coaches are lining up to ...
NBC Cut Nearly An Hour From Its Closing Ceremony Telecast. Here's Everything They Didn't Show You (Including The Kinks' Ray Davies)
We knew NBC would heavily edit its broadcast of last night's London Olympics closing ceremony; they cut out a bunch of stuff from the opening ceremony, too, in the name of "tailoring programming to our American audience." Last night presented an additional scheduling challenge for NBC, as they had ...
It Appears North Carolina Has Published Julius Peppers's Transcript For Some Reason
Little over a year ago the University of North Carolina threw one of its own on the altar of the NCAA, firing head football coach Butch Davis after the school was penalized for, among other things, improper benefits and academic violations. Having dispensed with Davis, the school sought to turn the...
Watch BBC Announcers And Commentators Go Berserk As Mo Farah Won Gold In The 5,000 Meters
Mo Farah scored a royal double for Great Britain in winning the 10,000m and today's 5,000m, and the importance of his win can really only be understood through how their media covered the event. Here, then, is the final 150 meters of his race, with isolated cameras on announcer Steve Cram and the...
Is A Monster Stalking The River Outside London's Olympic Stadium? An Investigation
LONDON—The River Lea winds its way southeast from the industrial town of Luton to London's East End, where it drains into Thames a couple miles upstream of the ingenious tidal barrier that keeps the capital dry. A tame body of water by any account, the Lea disperses toward the end of its course into...
How Bad Were Replacement Refs Last Night? Let's Examine The Video Evidence.
After the preseason teaser that is the Hall Of Fame Game, we got our first glimpse of the NFL's replacement referees during last night's slate of pro football action. The verdict? Just ask Bill Belichick, who despite an NFL ban on teams commenting on officiating suggested we seek the opinion of Mik...
Google's Pop-A-Shot Doodle Is Today's Best Timewaster
Over at Google, today's interactive "Doodle" is a pop-a-shot basketball game. It's highly addictive. Our high score is 39, though we forgot to take a screenshot and nobody believes us. Try it out, and share your high score below, and the first person to say they broke 40, let's all call them a liar....
Steve Corino Beats Up A Juggalo: More Wrestler Run-Ins
Inspired by the saga of "Wrestling Superstar Virgil," we continue with readers' encounters with the titans of the squared circle. If you've had your own run-in with pro wrestlers past or present, e-mail us, subject line "Virgilbag."...
Five-Year-Old Knicks Fan Devastated By Jeremy Lin's Departure Gets To Video-Chat With Jeremy Lin
I'm not going to say there's any one moment of this video that's particularly noteworthy, but catch any clip of this nine-minute segment* and you can't help but wonder why the shitbag Knicks management would let a guy like Lin move to another team under any circumstance. Sure, his time in New York...
Curtis Martin's Hall Of Fame Speech Was Actually Pretty Touching
The Pro Football Hall of Fame induction weekend isn't much of a treat. The color palette is too mustardy. The proceedings bore even their attendees: Last year, John Elway texted during it. The game that follows it inevitably features a short series from the first-stringers before they yield to slo...
A.J. Pierzynski's Home Run Hit A Toddler Because Two Adults Got Themselves Out Of Harm's Way
You might have already seen this clip of A.J. Pierzynski going deep off Jason Isringhausen in the seventh inning yesterday afternoon, since Pierzynski set a White Sox record by homering in his fifth straight game. But a reader named Chris alerted us to where the ball wound up: just inches in front o...
Pat Sajak Somehow Ended Up On A Sidney Crosby Hockey Card
This O-Pee-Chee Crosby card, from the 11/12 set, was released last August. But apparently not until this weekend did someone notice that Pat Sajak is just chilling in the background—"someone" being Pat Himself....
BBC Announcers Went Absolutely Bonkers As Britain's Mo Farah Claimed 10K Gold
It was a banner day for the Brits at Olympic Stadium Saturday, as Great Britain athletes claimed gold in heptathlon, men's long jump, and the men's 10,000 meters. It's that 10K gold that has Team GBR so fired up, as the Beeb's announcers are so happy to show you in this clip. ...
"Men Throwing Rocks With The Other Hand" Is Just Super
This video: sort of old. But we saw it on Kottke, and couldn't resist sharing it. What happens when you get a bunch of guys to chuck rocks with their weak arms? Hypnotic. Cathartic. Non-dominant....
And Now The Paterno Family Is Appealing The NCAA Sanctions Themselves
Onward State has the complete letter the family sent this afternoon to the NCAA, but here's the gist:...
Remembering When Bill Russell Played A Corrupt Judge On <em>Miami Vice</em>
I'd love to know the backstory behind this inspired bit of casting. Who is it that looks at a script calling for a corrupt Miami judge and says, "Get me Bill Russell on the phone now!" Indeed, in a second-season episode of Miami Vice, Russell makes a star turn as a crooked judge who pays off gambl...
Rob Van Dam Ate A Whopper Off The Ground: More Wrestler Run-Ins
Inspired by the saga of "Wrestling Superstar Virgil," we continue with readers' encounters with the titans of the squared circle. If you've had your own run-in with pro wrestlers past or present, e-mail us, subject line "Virgilbag."...
The 10 Films I'm Most Excited To See At The Toronto Film Festival
We've got about a month left of summer movie season, but the studios are about to start unveiling their Oscar candidates—that is, the films they think are actually good. A lot of these get their launch at the Toronto Film Festival, which will run from September 6 to 16....
Where Are They Still Making Kobe Bryant Rape Jokes? <em>WWE Raw</em>
With all the debate surrounding whether rape jokes are appropriate, we're kind of amazed this made it to air. Here's a segment from last night's WWE Raw in which Abraham Washington—manager to Titus O'Neil—lauds the strength of his wrestler by claiming "He's like Kobe Bryant in a hotel in Colorado....