pe Page 957 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Lance Thomas May Have Bought Improper Jewelry While Starting For Duke's National Championship Team
In 2009, Lance Thomas, then a forward for Duke (now a New Orleans Hornet), bought $97,800 worth of jewelry at Rafaello & Co. in midtown Manhattan; he paid $30,000 upfront and the store expected him to pay off the remaining balance in 15 days. He did not, according to a lawsuit filed by the jeweler a...

Are The Dolphins Really Super Bowl Contenders?
Oh my goodness, no. No, no, no. But it's the first week of the season! Anything is possible. In a few hours football becomes a reality, but for now, we can still dream. The Dolphins can dream that they will win more than they will lose. The Colts can dream that Andrew Luck will be just as good as Pe...

Deadspin's Sign of the Apocalypse
It was with no small degree of concern that Deadspin noted the lack of a Sign of the Apocalypse in this week's Sports Illustrated. Until August, the magazine had been chronicling the demise of Western civilization via sports news of the weird at least as far back as 1993, when it noted that "David C...

Your College Football Open Thread
A pretty light slate of early games, so you have plenty of time to get drunk and overly optimistic before the real action starts. Things get good in the early afternoon. Full schedule, with TV coverage, right here. We'll link back to this yak throughout the day, so all yakking can go in the same pla...

How To Eat A Popeye's Biscuit: A Guide For People Seeking The Harmony Of The Universe
Consider the Popeye's biscuit....

Al Pacino Will Play Joe Paterno In A Proposed Movie Based On Joe Posnanski's Book
We could have anticipated many of the byproducts of the Penn State scandal—flawed apologies, spunky T-shirts, cardboard cutouts—but we were not expecting a movie deal with Al Pacino attached....

The Mets Gave Chipper Jones This Wack-Ass Painting To Commemorate His Last Series In New York
LeRoy Neiman is dead, but goofily colorful sports paintings didn't die with him. See, look at this one here. It's a gift from the New York Mets to Larry Wayne Jones, Jr. of Atlanta, on the occasion of his impending retirement....

Saints Players' Bountygate Suspensions Overturned On Appeal
The NFLPA, arguing on behalf of four members of the Saints who were suspended for their roles in New Orleans' bounty scandal, was actually fighting the war on two fronts. There was one lawsuit in federal court, and a second, quieter appeal to a three-member panel, challenging Goodell's jurisdiction ...

It's Women's Semis Day At The U.S. Open. Let's Watch It Together
Every year, the Friday after Labor Day provides a pretty awesome respite: Two women's U.S. Open semifinals, played in the middle of the afternoon. It helps shorten the already short week. First up: French Open champ Maria Sharapova against Aussie Open champ Victoria Azarenka. Then we've got Serena W...

The USTA Told This Stellar Junior Player She Was Too Fat For The U.S. Open
Taylor Townsend is a 16-year-old tennis phenom. She's the No. 1 ranked girls junior and won the Australian Open juniors tournament earlier this year....

The Existential Farce Of A Royals Pitching Change
I believe there is a hell, and it's always early September there. Your team is long out of playoff contention, forever playing out the string, yet the season never ends. Just meaningless game after meaningless game, and football is supposed to start soon, but it never comes. The game goes to extra i...

Colorado School District Says Peyton Manning Is A Gang Sign
If you're a student in the Greeley-Evans (Colo.) School District and you want to wear your brand-new Peyton Manning jersey to school, you might be gang-curious, according to the people who run your schools....

Arkansas Interim Head Football Coach John L. Smith Files For Bankruptcy
Arkansas football coach John L. Smith, thrust into the interim role after Bobby Petrino's midlife crisis, is facing a crisis of his own after filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation in an Arkansas court today....

Here's The Latest Grown-Up To Steal A Baseball From A Sad Child
We already know that the worst people ever live in Texas. But Miami has its share of oblivious adults too! Like this guy. Norichika Aoki flipped a ball into the stands, presumably on a vector toward of the two precious youngsters leaning over the dugout, their little hearts riding on that priceless ...

Aaron Sorkin Wants You To Know Jay Paterno Was Really Moved By <em>The Newsroom</em>
Aaron Sorkin says Jay Paterno called him after Paterno watched an episode of The Newsroom earlier this summer. The episode, which was about last year's attempted assassination of then-U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, showed how some networks (like NPR) inaccurately reported Gifford had died. Which, com...

The Hilariously Inept Rockies Let A Run Score On A Throw Back To The Mound
With a runner on third in the second inning of this afternoon's game, Jhoulys Chacin got a little too casual snatching at the return throw from his catcher. He deflected the ball into the precise no-man's-land between the mound and second, and Juan Francisco scampered home with Atlanta's first run...

Chris Perez Drops Some Truth Bombs, Calls The Indians Cheap
There is, perhaps, no unhappier player than a closer on a crappy team. His one marquee statistic, saves, is all-important come contract time. But if a team's not winning, he's not getting the opportunities, and that'll hurt him in his free agency winter. So Craig Calcaterra's theory that Chris Perez...

The U.S. Military Has Built A Robot That Runs Faster Than Usain Bolt
Fifty years from now, let's not pretend we didn't see the warning signs. They were there the whole time. Hell, this post is a warning sign. DARPA, the wing of the Department of Defense that makes all the coolest shit everyday people don't usually get to see, has released this video of Cheetah, a f...

Andy Roddick Knocked Out Of U.S. Open, Ends Career, Leaves Door Open For Comeback?
Juan Martin del Potro eliminated Andy Roddick in four sets this afternoon, commencing Roddick's retirement but prompting an emotional speech that suggested the American might be open to returning to competition in the future....

A Movie About Books Made By People Who Don't Read Them. <em>The Words</em>, Reviewed.
1. When my first book was published—and "published" is honestly being kind; it's probably more accurate to say it was "repeatedly photocopied"—perhaps the most common question family members asked me: So, are you going to go on Oprah? They were joking (I think), but something about their question wa...