ric Page 560 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

NCAA Had Nevin Shapiro's Defense Attorney On Its Payroll, Suspends Miami Investigation
Not a good day for the NCAA. The enforcement program, the hired guns responsible for investigating and recommending penalties for NCAA infractions, has come under its own scrutiny. The probe into the University of Miami booster scandal has been put on hold today, as president Mark Emmert announced a...

Manti Te'o Tells Katie Couric He Lied
Manti Te'o's full sit-down with Katie Couric will air tomorrow, but highlights of the interview were shown on today's Good Morning America. (You can view some of it here.) Te'o's story seems similar in substance to the one he gave in his non-televised, late-night interview with Jeremy Schaap, with a...

A Pissed Off Bill Callahan Responds To Tim Brown And Jerry Rice
Someone finally got around to telling Bill Callahan that two of his former players have accused him of throwing Super Bowl XXXVII, and he is not happy. Here's a statement that Callahan released via NFL.com in response to accusations by Tim Brown and Jerry Rice that he lost the Super Bowl on purpose...

Caron Butler's Block Takes Out Unsuspecting Ref
With first place in the West on the line, the Staples Center was as raucous as its been for a non-Lakers game in many, many, many years. (Many.) Caron Butler did his part, nearly forcing a turnover from Kevin Durant in the corner, and then sneaking in behind Serge Ibaka to land this swat block. It...

Report: Tipped Off By Manti Te'o's Agent, ESPN Balked At Publishing Hoax Story Because It Hadn't Landed A TV Interview
ESPN knew something was up about Manti Te'o for six days before our story got published. But just how close did they get to breaking it? The New York Times's Richard Sandomir and Those Guys Have All the Fun co-author Jim Miller posed that question to Vince Doria....

Jerry Rice And Tim Brown Say Bill Callahan Threw Super Bowl XXXVII
Bill Callahan, the offensive coordinator of the Dallas Cowboys, just got a promotion today. Jerry Jones took the playcalling reins away from Jason Garrett and put them in Callahan's hands. (Was Dallas's offense a problem? They ranked sixth in yards per game and 11th in Football Outsiders' DVOA stat....

Rich Golfer Phil Mickelson Is Going To Take "Drastic" Action To Escape His Imaginary Tax Burden
This past weekend, wealthy golfer Phil Mickelson took some time during a press conference to express his displeasure with the current federal and state tax codes. Like Gerard Depardieu, Mickelson finds the burden of being a multi-multimillionaire in a confiscatory socialist political system too muc...

Patriots Player's House Robbed During AFC Championship
Patriots journeyman safety Derrick Martin nearly enshrined himself as a good luck charm—he was on the Packers two years ago when they won the Super Bowl (though he finished the season on IR) and was a Giant when they took the Lombardi Trophy last year. Instead New England came up a game short on Sun...

Cincinnati Will Host The 2015 MLB All-Star Game
The Cincinnati Enquirer is reporting that the Reds will host baseball's All-Star Game in 2015, the first time since Riverfront Stadium hosted in 1988. Bud Selig will officially announce it on Wednesday, but it's a done deal—after seven years of lobbying by the team....

Manti Te'o's Mom Tried To Convert Lennay Kekua To Mormonism Via Text Message
According to USA Today, the latest piecemeal bit to be released in this bizarre saga is the revelation that Ottilia Te'o, Manti's mother, tried to convert Lennay to Mormonism via text message. His family also engaged in bible study with Kekua, via text message, which Te'o alluded to with Jeremy Scha...

Here's A Woman Who Claims She's Dashon Goldson's Aunt Cursing And Screaming Incoherently On Live Television
Hat tip to ol' Diamond Joe on this one, from the NFC Championship Game postgame show today on KTTV, L.A.'s Fox affiliate. This segment was actually considerably longer than you see here, and includes several more minutes of ill-advised drunken fan interviews. But here's the best part: a woman clai...

Why Katie Couric's Manti Te'o Interview Will Suck
Lennay Kekua's story tempted the many outlets that wrote about her partly because her death gave Te'o's rise, not in itself particularly moving or dramatic, a dimension of tragedy. It made writing about Te'o easier (by reducing the time a story had to spend on his place in the Notre Dame defense), a...

High School Hoops Coach Fired After Telling Player To Flatten Opposing Coach
On Monday night, a junior guard at Amherst (Mass.) Regional High School twice ran full speed into the other team's coach, South Hadley's Jeff Guiel, knocking him to the ground. (One of those shoves can be seen below.) That player, Tyrell Jackson, was suspended indefinitely—but he and five teammates ...

How <em>Sports Illustrated</em>'s Manti Te'o Story Got Published
While reporting his cover feature for Sports Illustrated on Manti Te'o, Pete Thamel found what he called some "small red flags" in the story of Lennay Kekua, the dead girlfriend who never existed. So what did he do?...

The Stars Hired Their Own Beat Reporter. Will The NHL Be Able To Keep Its Hands Off This Time?
The Dallas Stars announced earlier this week that they're hiring Mark Stepneski to cover the team. He'll run a blog, StarsInsideEdge.com, and his work will appear on the club's official site. He's been writing about the Stars since 1996 on his personal blog, and covering them for ESPN Dallas for two...

Lacrosse Team Pulls Off Hidden Ball Trick To Perfection
Keep an eye on No. 15 Luke Wiles flipping the ball to No. 11 John Tavares at the start of this clip, from Friday's NLL game between Buffalo and Philadelphia. As the two separate after a stoppage in play, Wiles immediately cradles as if he's still got possession. It fools the referee, and it fools ...

Dirk Nowitzki Tries To Crash A Video Review, Gets Stonewalled By Awesome Security Guard
I was not previously aware of the fact that there are NBA security guards whose job it is to prevent players from getting too close to the referees during video reviews. But as the video above shows, such security guards do indeed exist, and one of them got into a hilarious tête-à-tête with Dirk N...

Cricket Fan Makes One-Handed Catch, Doesn't Drop His Food
Have you ever felt a cricket ball? It's hard—harder than a baseball. It can, and does, kill. Basically: it's no joke, and you're better off squealing and diving for cover than trying to make a play on a ball hit into the stands....

Every Headline About Derrick Rose Is A Black Pit Of Sadness
Here’s a bunch of headlines—written during the past week—about Derrick Rose’s attempts to return to the basketball court that will make you really sad:...

Here's Ken Rosenthal Comparing The Sabermetrics Community To The Tea Party
Fox MLB reporter Ken Rosenthal was on the MLB Network today, talking about the Hall of Fame vote and bow ties and whatever else it is Ken Rosenthal likes to talk about these days. At some point, the conversation turned to Jack Morris and his continued inability to garner enough votes to get into t...