off Page 277 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Berlin Marathon Ends In Controversy
Geoffrey Mutai won the Berlin marathon this morning, edging out his training partner Dennis Kimetto by one second with little fanfare. The racing community, however, is viewing this a little cockeyed exactly because of the ho-hum way this thing ended....

Ed Hochuli's Crew Got The Full CBS Starting Lineup Treatment, Complete With Stating Where They Attended School
How excited was CBS for the return of union officials? Ed Hochuli's crew did the full Super Bowl-style intros before tonight's Jacksonville-Cincinnati game; the officials even said where they went to school. It was cute, but a little weird; after all, we're already back to booing these guys. [CBS]...

Texas A&M Quarterback Johnny Manziel Set An SEC Record For Offense Today Against Arkansas
Sorry, Hogs fans, this is no joke. Texas A&M's Johnny Manziel—a.k.a. Johnny Football—racked up an SEC record 557 yards of total offense in A&M's thorough dismantling of Arkansas today. He was as busy today as the Aggie who kept trying to slam the revolving door....

Box-Office Grosses Aren't Sports Scores. Who Cares If <em>Looper</em> Flops This Weekend?
Last year, around this time, I started seeing a ton of ads on Fox NFL games for the movie Drive. I'd seen the movie early and thought it was terrific, but I couldn't help but notice how ill-fitting the promotions for the movie were juxtaposed against Pitbull's Dr. Pepper ads and Terry Bradshaw doing...


Michael Jordan And Scottie Pippen Allegedly Had A Dance-Off At Pippen's Birthday Party
Scottie Pippen's birthday was on Monday. (Happy belated birthday, Scottie Pippen!) He and his wife celebrated at a Chicago club, along with Antoine Walker, Ahmad Rashad, Nazr Mohammed and Michael Jordan. More importantly, it appears that the party ended with Pippen and Jordan engaging in a friendly ...

The NFL's Replacement Referees Will Not Be Missed, But They Did Entertain Us
Here's a greatest hits compilation that surfaced on YouTube within minutes of the news that the NFL and its referees had come to agreement on a new labor deal. Seeing all these lowlights strung together in one sad clip after another does give an appreciation for the unprecedented levels of suckitu...

Rejoice, NFL Fans: The Referees Are Coming Back This Weekend
After 48 regular season games that nearly brought the National Football League to its knees and turned the league's officiating into a recurring national joke, the NFL and the referees union have agreed to a new eight-year deal and the officials will be back on the job Thursday night in Baltimore. ...

Why Are The Scab Refs Screwing Up Illegal-Contact Penalties?
The replacement officials made many mistakes over the weekend, some of such great consequence that they inspired incredible anger, others bad enough only to prompt a very loud "bullshit" chant. But they've all been bad. Instead of focusing on one specific mistake, or all the mistakes as a whole, tho...

Who Was The Winner In Last Night's Scab-Ref Debacle? <em>SportsCenter</em>, With Its Highest Rating Ever
OK, so Twitter went nuts last night and TJ Lang's "fuck it" tweet has been retweeted more than 84,000 times. And SportsCenter, with more than 50,000 previous episodes under its belt, has what looks to be its highest rated-show ever with a 5.0 rating....

Kyle Shanahan Chased The Refs Into The Tunnel, Yelling "You Have No Fucking Balls"
Last week, the NFL issued warnings to coaches about abusing or berating the replacement refs. So naturally, multiple games yesterday ended in chaos, with coaches abusing and berating the replacement refs....

Here's What Baltimore's Minute-Long "Bullshit" Chant Sounded Like Inside The Stadium
Replacement refs once again became an issue Sunday night, as a controversial illegal contact penalty followed by a rare bench personal foul assessed to the Ravens stirred the M & T Bank Stadium crowd into a rage. Indeed, it nearly sounds as if the entire city of Baltimore is joining in the "Bullsh...

Bud Selig Hopes It Takes Tiebreaker Games To Decide The Wild Cards
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: The Commish on Melky, the wild cards, and labor peace....

They're Getting Worse, Not Better: Here Are The 28 Worst Replacement Official Mistakes From Week 2
After a lousy first week in the NFL, replacement officials again came under fire this weekend following trip-ups, missed calls, and general ineptitude. While Roger Goodell testifies to the NFL's increased emphasis on player safety, his continued lockout of union officials reveals the league really...

When Officials Blew A Call Even After Looking At The Replay, Rex Ryan Was Flabbergasted
Late in yesterday's Steelers-Jets matchup, New York challenged a play in which Steelers running back Isaac Redman was ruled down on a tackle by safety Yeremiah Bell. Rex Ryan challenged the call, believing Bell might have forced a fumble, but several replays showed Redman was actually down in the b...

Just How Tight Is The AL Playoff Race?
With three weeks to go in the season, over half of baseball is still in the race. Seventeen teams are within five games of a playoff spot. You might think that's mostly due to the new second wild card, and that's the case in the NL. With all three division leaders comfortable and the Braves safe at...

The Head Linesman From Sunday's Browns-Eagles Game Is Currently Refereeing A Seventh-Grade Game In Oklahoma
A reader in attendance for a seventh-grade football matchup between Bethany Middle School and Casady in Bethany, Oklahoma reports the referee for tonight's middle school game is none other than Kevin Akin, who served Sunday as head linesman for the Browns-Eagles game and will be working the Broncos...

Desperate Characters And A Director In Utter Control: <em>The Master</em>, Reviewed.
1. The Master is a movie that leaves you vibrating for about 20 minutes after it's over, though you might be at a bit of pains to explain why. I've only seen the film once, which is a shame; it's the sort of film you want to hit rewind and go through again, immediately, right as the credits get goin...

Maybe The Jets Really Are Not Planning On Using Tim Tebow At Quarterback
As much as the Jets insisted throughout training camp and the pre-season that there was no quarterback controversy ("Mark is our starting quarterback") is it possible they were telling the truth? Did the Jets decide sometime a few weeks ago that Tim Tebow was actually going to be exclusively a runni...

Paul Thomas Anderson: Waiting For <em>The Master</em>
In late July, the Weinstein Company announced it would be releasing The Master, Paul Thomas Anderson's new movie, on September 14, which is early for an Oscar candidate. Most Best Picture nominees come out no sooner than October so that they're as fresh as possible in voters' minds. Nonetheless, the...