pr Page 701 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Michael Jordan At 50 Is <i>Citizen Kane</i> Without The Sled
The perfect Michael Jordan profile is some sort of journalistic unicorn by now—what's there to say about a guy about whom too much has been said already?—but Wright Thompson's story for ESPN is the closest we'll get to it....
You Know Spring Training Is Here When You Read Sentences Like "Denard Span Said He Started Screaming And Making Noises To Discourage The Bird"
There is no baseball, no real, meaningful baseball for another 44 days. But the dead zone of the sports calendar has quickened considerably by the advent of spring training. Camps in Arizona and Florida stir to life, as co-workers who haven't seen each other since September get back together for som...
Did The Movie <em>Heathers</em> Kill The Name Heather?
Welcome to Dataspin, a new weekly data visualization of whatever the fuck....
The Redskins Really, Really Want You To Know Their Team Name Is About Pride
Because the Redskins are relevant again, the periodic controversy about their use of a racial slur as a team name has flared up again. This time Dan Snyder and company have gone on the offensive, with a series of stories and statements about the name, and what it means to both the franchise and high...
Reports: Police Were Called To Oscar Pistorius's House Hours Before The Shooting, Reeva Steenkamp Was Shot Through The Bathroom Door
Oscar Pistorius appeared in a crowded Pretoria courtroom today, barely a day after he was arrested for the murder of Reeva Steenkamp, his girlfriend of four months. Steenkamp was found early Thursday morning in a puddle of blood, with four gunshot wounds to her head, chest, pelvis, and hand. A 9mm p...
<em>A Good Day To Die Hard</em> Is The Worst <em>Die Hard</em> of Them All
As far as action movie franchises go, the Die Hard films hold up pretty damned well. The first one is obviously a classic: Grierson summed up its enduring charms quite well over at IFC. But the way the movies worked never seemed a proper fit for a franchise. The greatness of Die Hard lies in large p...
Will Eating Decades-Old Athlete Candy Bars Kill You? A Taste Test
"You're not going to eat it, are you?" the eBay seller asked, after we had completed our purchase. "People have been asking me if they can eat it, and that's probably not a good idea."...
How One Man's Hard-Luck Journey Through The Indie Wrestling Circuit Ended Behind A Deli Counter
During his 10-plus year career, Nigel McGuinness, the former Ring of Honor World Champion, wasn't recognized much away from wrestling. There was that one time on the New York City subway, but he was commuting to a match and there were wrestling fans on the train. Being spotted in the Tampa delicate...
Valentine's Day Special: The Movie Couples That Don't Belong Together
We've never quite understood the appeal of going to movies for Valentine's Day. Movie-watching is, after all, a solitary activity in which a person sits in the dark staring straight ahead in silence for two hours. But people do it anyway. Perhaps that's because romance is the central activity of rou...
My Encounters With Ray Lewis's Deer-Antler Hookup, The Man Who Could Change The History Of Sports (Or Something)
"You're on the phone with someone who could change the history of sports," said Deer Antler Man....
Alabama Players Arrested After They Allegedly Concussed Two Guys And Robbed Them
It's hard not to respect Nick Saban. Not because he's a good coach or anything, but because he constantly reminds us of college football's rich history. Want physics-defying running backs who wow us for two years before flopping in the pros? He's got 'em. Want linebackers simply bigger and stronger ...
Bill Murray Fed His Divot To A Fan At The Pebble Beach Pro-Am
Last year, Bill Murray showed up at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am wearing a ghillie suit and ready to punt some footballs, so it was hard to imagine how he could possibly one-up himself at this year's tournament. And yet, that's exactly what he did....
How'd Those Fans Get There? A Deeper Dive Into The Facebook NFL Fandom Map
After weeks of us awkwardly guessing who wanted to watch which NFL games, Facebook finally used its terrifying trove of user data and made the map that no one else could. In our original post, we pointed out some of the more surprising fan pockets, but the data deserve a deeper dive. ...
The Solution To Football Withdrawal Is On Your Television This Weekend: A Guide To Rugby Sevens
For a certain brand of American sports fan, this has to be the worst weekend in sports. The NFL season is over, the NBA has hit its mid-schedule doldrums, and hockey is being played somewhere, we think....
The Second Weird Baseball Injury Of 2013: Red Sox Prospect Bryce Brentz Shot Himself In The Leg
How hard are guns to clean, really? "Man shot in leg while cleaning gun," "Man shoots self while cleaning gun," "SAPD: Man shoots self while cleaning gun," "Florida Man Shoots Himself In Crotch With Flare Gun." (The guy with the flare gun wasn't cleaning it—but the story does note that this Septembe...
An Alabama Signee's Father Was Arrested Today After 16 Years On The Run
After National Signing Day, the Alabama Crimson Tide once again boasted the nation's top recruiting class. One of that class's anchors was Reuben Foster, the five-star linebacker who notably got the Auburn logo tattooed on his leg before he de-committed....
The Associated Press Has Finally Gone About Correcting Its Lennay Kekua Reporting
Whoever said print media wasn't nimble? It's been three weeks and two days since we published our initial story, "Manti Te'o's Dead Girlfriend, The Most Heartbreaking And Inspirational Story Of The College Football Season, Is A Hoax." The Te'o story has made its rounds through the national media be...
Brand New Star, Same Old Crap. <em>Identity Thief</em>, Reviewed.
Everybody is happy for Melissa McCarthy. After years on TV shows (Gilmore Girls, Mike & Molly) and small parts in movies (she's great in John August's The Nines), she broke through with Bridesmaids, getting an Oscar nomination in the process. She's a really funny lady who's ridiculously effervescent...
Ray Lewis's Deer Antler Spray Was Another Imaginary Drug Scandal
Originally published in Bloomberg View...
Map: Which Parts Of The Country Were Calling Ray Lewis A Murderer During The Super Bowl?
The map above shows the concentration of geolocated tweets sent during the Super Bowl that contained both the words "Lewis" and "murder." We were looking for references to Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, who in 2000 was charged with murder in the stabbing deaths of two men after an Atlanta Su...