owl Page 231 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Texas Reinstates Two Football Players Linked To Alleged Sexual Assault; Police Say They're Still Investigating
It's been nearly three weeks since two University of Texas football players —linebacker Jordan Hicks and quarterback Case McCoy—were sent home from the Alamo Bowl for violating unspecified team rules. Hicks and McCoy were never arrested, and San Antonio police never identified them as suspects, but ...

Man Performs Feat Even More Incredible Than Making A Half-Court Shot For $1,000
No one will ever confuse me with Nate Silver, but I have to think attempting a half-court shot and having the ball firmly wedge itself between the backboard and the rim is much, much further down the list of likely outcomes than "made shot."...

Cold Weather Football Is The Best: Answering All Your Questions About Today's 20° Below Freezing AFC Divisional Game
So, what's the weather going to be like in Denver today? Accuweather says it's currently 12° Fahrenheit. The high today is 16°, and the temperature is expected to drop back down to 8° by the evening, when the game will be finishing up. There will be snow, too, if not blankets of it: Flurries fell a...

The St. Joseph's Halftime Show Featured A Dunk Crew Who Couldn't Dunk
It was a big game for St. Joe's. Kicking off the conference schedule, hosting No. 14 Butler. The university knew it would need halftime entertainment commensurate with the occasion. They got some guys throwing up botched dunk after botched dunk....

Why Does ESPN.com Insist On Referring To Bowls By Their Full, Corporate Names?
Reader Reggie pointed something out to us the other day: ESPN.com writers have a habit of referring to the various bowl games by their full, awkward, sponsored names. This is not how normal people write (unless it's to mock), so we went looking for examples. They were not hard to find....

An Oregon Player Faked An Injury During The Fiesta Bowl So That His Teammate Could Get Into His First And Last Bowl Game
According to The Oregonian's John Canzano, last week's Fiesta Bowl featured a real-life Rudy moment. Coming into the game, Oregon's Dane Ebanez had never made a bowl-game appearance, despite playing at the school for four years and being named scout team player of the year in successive seasons....

"Johnny Footbaaaaalllll": Two Drunk Ladies Hijacked The CBS Cotton Bowl Pre-Game Show
The Cotton Bowl was an occasion for much revelry for fans of Texas A&M, who went into the contest confident about their odds against Oklahoma and got to see local hero Johnny Manziel for the first time since he picked up his Heisman in New York. That means, of course, that filming the pre-game set p...

The Bengals Really Could Break Their 8,400-Day Playoff Winless Streak Today
For a summer in college I interned for the sports department of the Columbus Dispatch, which sent me for a few days to cover Cincinnati Bengals training camp. The 1990s had just come to a close—a dismal era even by the Bengals' standards—and the beat writers killed time during practice by stumping o...

Mike Stoops Hopping Around Like An Idiot Was Oklahoma's Only Defensive Highlight In Last Night's Cotton Bowl
Heisman hero Johnny Manziel lit up the Oklahoma defense last night en route to a 41-13 thrashing of Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl last night, accumulating 516 total yards—229 of them on the ground....

Dear ESPN Announcers: Please Stop Inventing Merits Of Terrible Bowl Games
We can understand why so many mediocre bowls line our on-screen guides every December and early January: They're lucrative for everyone (well, almost everyone) involved. Local dignitaries in moderate-sized middle American metropolises gotta eat. But we could really do without all the specious shilli...

Only Two One-Point Safeties Have Ever Happened In NCAA Football History, And Brad Nessler Called Them Both
Tonight's mostly-boring Fiesta Bowl has featured the expected Oregon offensive firepower, but it's how they scored a single point that will make this a game to remember. After a third-quarter touchdown put the Ducks up 31-10 on Kansas State, the Wildcats blocked Oregon's extra point try, recovered...

Passed-Out Drunk Guy Forces Fiesta Bowl Officials To Evacuate Women's Restroom
Even with Oregon's offense out on the field tonight in Glendale, it sounds like there's been nonstop excitement in the stands as well. Arizona NewsNet has just passed along word that the women's restroom in one part of the stadium had to be evacuated for a medical emergency:...

Tonight Is Probably Your Last Chance To Watch Chip Kelly's Oregon Ducks. Don't Miss It.
If you believe the reports, one of the most captivating eras in recent college football history ends tonight. Chip Kelly will coach Oregon against Kansas State in the Fiesta Bowl, and then he'll interview for NFL head-coaching jobs (chats with Philly, Cleveland, and Buffalo are scheduled so far), an...

College ShameDay: Why Is A Physics Professor Running The Fiesta Bowl? Your Non-BCS-Title Bowl Games FAQ
Our weekly college football shame index previews the rest of the Not National Championship bowls. ...

Pro Bowler Wins Tournament, Kisses His Husband, And It's Totally Not A Big Deal
Scott Norton won the WSOB Chamelon Championship back in November, but it only aired on ESPN this weekend. Fast-forward to about the two-minute mark of the video above, and you'll see the aftermath. Norton, overcome with emotion after just his second PBA win, first shakes the hand of his opponent, ...

Refs Botched Last Night's UConn-Marquette Overtime, Had Teams Shoot At Wrong Baskets, May Have Cost UConn The Game
Officials mutilated the start of an overtime period last night in Milwaukee, casting doubt on the outcome of what would eventually be a 82-76 Marquette victory over UConn and tarnishing the already-black reputation of referee Karl Hess....

ESPN's Heather Cox After Postgame Interview With Stanford Coach David Shaw Cut Short: "Are You Kidding Me?"
Rose Bowl officials—apparently ignorant to various contractual obligations involving ESPN's access to the winning football coach—pulled away Stanford coach David Shaw moments after his team defeated Wisconsin, and interrupted his postgame interview with ESPN's Heather Cox. Cox made every attempt t...

Jadeveon Clowney Decapitated Vincent Smith, Then Palmed The Football
Today's Outback Bowl in Tampa has brought the best of the Big Ten-SEC rivalry, and the top player in college football—yeah, we said it—had his way with Michigan's offensive line. Here's Jadeveon Clowney putting Wolverines running back Vincent Smith in a very bad place. [ESPN]...

College ShameDay: What Is The Heart Of Dallas? How Long Can Pat Fitzgerald Hold A Car Above His Head? Your New Year's Day Bowl Games FAQ
Our weekly college football shame index previews the New Year's Day bowl games. ...

The Sun Bowl Officiating Crew Botched A Missed Field Goal Call And It Had To Be Overturned On Replay
The Sun Bowl is scoreless midway through the first quarter, though if it were up to the bowl's Big Ten officiating crew, it would be a bit different. That's because they attempted to call a field goal attempt by USC's Andre Heidari good, even though it was obvious to viewers and everybody in the s...