ow Page 1005 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

If You're Breathing (And Maybe If Not) Someone Will Sanction Your MMA Fight
A five-time World's Strongest Man champion thinks his very specific skill set can translate to MMA. There's a reason he's never won the World's Smartest Man competition (no Polish jokes please)....

<em>Life & Style</em> Goes Fishing For Tiger Tales
A Life & Style reporter is searching for information about Joslyn James. If anyone can help her, please contact her immediately. I won't be able to help, unfortunately. Her email, after the jump....

An Angry And Bewildered Nation Watches Rick Reilly® Ruin <em>SportsCenter</em>
Someone let Rick Reilly® anchor the West Coast edition of SportsCenter again, and sweet sassy molassy was he awful....

The Machine Won: 10 Preposterous Moments From <em>SI</em>'s 1996 Tiger Woods Profile
In 1996, Sports Illustrated named a 20-year-old Tiger Woods its Sportsman of the Year, and Gary Smith's accompanying story portrayed a young man who somehow combined the best parts of Doogie Howser and Buddha. It seemed like a stretch....

Last Night's Winner: Mack Brown
In sports, everyone is a winner—some people just win better than others. Like Texas coach Mack Brown, who is about to get seriously paid. This is what is known as "striking while the iron is hot."...

Tennessee's "Hostess" Program Catches Recruits' (And NCAA's) Eyes (Updated)
The New York Times has a verrrrry interesting story about an NCAA investigation at Tennessee, concerning recruiting "hostesses"—i.e., hot Tennessee co-eds who get quite friendly with talented high school football players. (Updates below)...

Bowden Announces New Endeavor: Holding A Grudge
Because no one reads the newspaper, and SportsCenter's anchors are too perky for this early in the morning, Deadspin combs the best of the broadsheets and the blogosphere to bring you everything you need to know to start your day....

That One Line In "Empire State Of Mind" About Dwyane Wade And LeBron James, Explained
"If Jeezy's paying LeBron," Jay-Z raps, "I'm paying Dwyane Wade." As David Cho points out, the reference is to the price of a kilogram of cocaine, not, as is commonly thought, to a drawing by John Lennon's kid. [The Awl]...

Matt Bullard Delivers His Color Commentary Directly To Refs
Remember Matt Bullard? Of course you do. He's now working the sidelines for the Rockets TV team and recently got so worked up about the poor officiating he was seeing, he decided to share his thoughts directly with the officials....

The Analysis The NBA Wants You To Read
The TrueHoopheads have gone through Tim Donaghy's book and done the yeoman's work of checking some of his claims against box scores, play-by-plays and betting lines. They've found a few implausibilities. Go read. [TrueHoop, also]...

NFL.com Gives The Fans A (Stupid, Racist) Voice
Like most websites, NFL.com sets aside space to highlight the wittiest, most intriguing comments from its legion of readers in a special place labeled, "The Crowd Has Spoken." Unfortunately, the crowd is mostly angry, illiterate jacknobs....

Tim Tebow Messiah Watch: See How He Loved Football Edition
With apologies to Slate, the Tim Tebow Messiah Watch is our occasional look at the growing body of evidence — quotes, signs and wonders, excessively fawning prose — that the Florida quarterback is the Lamb of God....

Texas Wins The Weekend
In sports, everyone is a winner—some people just win better than others. Like the Texas Longhorns, who won the weekend by not having to prove they were better than everyone else. Welcome to college football!...

The BCS Tries To Manufacture A Little Drama (UPDATE)
We're about an hour away from the BCS selection show. Is there any chance the national title game will feature anyone other than Alabama or Texas?...

Verne and Gary's Not-So-Excellent Adventure
If you're like me, you may have found the announcing during yesterday's SEC Championship Game to be....underwhelming. Here's a compilation of Verne Lundquist and Gary Danielson's greatest moments of confusion, obfuscation and outright lies....

Nick Kroll On "The League," Fantasy Football, And How Chris "Mad Dog" Russo Is His Personal Cobain
FX's The League is TV's latest attempt to tickle the potbelly of the coveted "18-to-whatever male" demographic. The show centers on the friendships, relationships, and fantasy football league of a group of thirtysomething guys. Sound familiar?...

Welcome To The Errordome
Not sports, but must be noted. Washington Post: "A Nov. 26 article in the District edition of Local Living incorrectly said a Public Enemy song declared 9/11 a joke. The song refers to 911, the emergency phone number." [WashPost, via]...

Bobby And Me: Remembering College Football's Grand Old Coot
Bobby Bowden was the last of a species, a "big-time coach with an actual personality," writes Emily Badger, former Florida State beat reporter for the Orlando Sentinel, who once received the ultimate Bowden tribute: He forgot her name....

Having Eli Manning's Autograph More Humiliating Than Losing To Eli Manning
In the catalog of manufactured outrage, it's hard to think of a dumber example than Dallas players somehow being angry at Eli Manning for signing a wall in the new Cowboys Stadium. Plaster has never been so disrespected!...

David Stern's Nightmare Is Now Available For Purchase
Tim Donaghy's book, Personal Foul, is out and can be bought here. The New York Times and the Philadelphia Daily News weigh in. We'll have more on this soon, and I'd wager the NBA will, too. [CreateSpace]...