si Page 684 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

RGIII Benched For Kirk Cousins
And here we are. According to reports from Pro Football Talk and the NFL Network, Kirk Cousins will start for the Redskins on Sunday, leaving Robert Griffin III to watch from the bench, possibly for the rest of the season....

Classic College Football Programs With Character
So in case you don't know from A Continuous Lean do yourself a favor and check it out. It's a consistently smart, stylish, and elegant place. ...

NFL Betting Lines, Visualized: Week 15 (Early Edition)
Here is your early betting info for Week 15 NFL; we'll update on Thursday with money lines and spread movements for these these games, and add info for Bears-Browns and Packers-Cowboys, which haven't opened yet....

Chart: The Voting Trajectory Of Every Hall Of Fame Candidate Ever
To aid in your Deadspin HOF ballot decisions, Kenny Shirley and Carlos Scheidegger of AT&T Labs have created a great interactive graph for exploring the voting trajectories of all 1,000-plus players/managers ever to be candidates for the Hall. The screencap above might make it look a little dense, b...

Is Kobe Blood Doping? What Those Trips To Germany Are Really About
Kobe Bryant is just back from a ruptured Achilles tendon, but that doesn't mean the rest of him is magically fixed. He's still got to deal with all the damage that 18 years of professional basketball inflicts on the human body. In recent years, that's meant a trip to Germany and a promising, somewha...

Nate Silver's Model Gives The USMNT A 39.4 Percent Chance To Advance
When the U.S. drew Germany, Portugal, and Ghana for its 2014 World Cup group, the immediate consensus was that we were totally boned. But is it possible, after rigorous quantitative analysis, that we are less than boned?...

This Picture Of George Brett Inspired That Lorde Song "Royals"
Lorde sings songs. One particularly popular song is called "Royals," which you've probably heard. Recently, she mentioned the song was inspired by a picture of a baseball player she saw in an old National Geographic. The magazine confirmed it was this picture of a happier George Brett signing autogr...

How Matt Prater's Record-Setting 64-Yard Field Goal Happened
Originally published on Slate....

ESPN Says The Ravens (Who Won) Had A Sub-Zero Chance Of Winning
The graph above, tweeted out by ESPN Stats & Info last night, shows the win probability for the Ravens and Vikings over the fourth quarter of their ridiculous Sunday game, which saw five lead changes in the final two minutes....

Reminder: Tough Calls Favor Home Teams
New England just got a huge break at the end of its game with Cleveland, but after it got jobbed against Carolina last month, Michael Lopez took a look at why home teams seem to benefit from tough, controversial calls. ...

Wisconsin Hockey Player Produces Filthy Between-The-Legs Goal
This goal's from Friday, but it's just so beautiful. Wisconsin's Tyler Barnes puts Tyler LaBate's pass between his legs and in for a goal that makes the play-by-play man screech in response. It definitely wasn't luck, though....

Taylor University's "Silent Night" Continues To Be Fascinating
It's a creative tradition. For Taylor University's annual Silent Night, fans don't make a sound at a men's basketball game until the Trojans score their tenth point. You can hear shoes squeaking. After Taylor gets to 10, though? Taylor's fans act like their team just won an award for Best Basketball...

"Mark May, Suck On These Nuts": Your OSU-MSU <i>GameDay</i> Sign Roundup
ESPN brought the College GameDay crew to freezing-old Indianapolis for the Big Ten Championship game today between undefeated Ohio State and one-defeated Michigan State. Turns out people don't like Mark May. Who knew?...

The MLS Cup Final Is Today. Here's Why You Should Watch.
Sporting KC and Real Salt Lake face off today in Kansas City at 4 p.m. Eastern for the Major League Soccer title. No, the biggest names in North American pro soccer won't be playing. But that's exactly why you should tune in....

Infographics: Where Does Your NFL Team's Offense Come From? (Week 14)
There are just four more weeks in the NFL season, so let's take a look in on how the offenses in the league are doing, and which positions have been most productive for them. ...

Non-QB Passing Plays Are Awesome, But Are They Actually Effective?
Jaguars receiver Ace Sanders threw a 21-yard strike in last night's win over the Texans, just one week after MoJo Drew threw an eight-yard touchdown in a win over the Browns. These variations on a play that, for lack of a better term, we'll call "someone who isn't the QB throws the ball" are always ...

"Death Star" Lotulelei Might Be The NFL's Next Great Defensive Lineman
Last season, Carolina drafted Luke Kuechly, who's currently one of the best inside linebackers in the league. This year it was defensive tackle Star Lotulelei. While he isn't even the full-time starter yet, every indication says he's going to be an absolute world-breaker, if he isn't already. ...

Who Said Girls Can't Jump?
Check out this winning piece by Mireille Silcoff for the New York Times Magazine:...

Accept The Mystery: The Brilliance Of The Coen Bros' Character Studies
Joel and Ethan Coen have been making movies long enough now that it's possible for fans not just to have a favorite film of theirs but a favorite type of film. Perhaps you love their loopy comedies: The Hudsucker Proxy, Raising Arizona, The Big Lebowski. Maybe you're partial to their heist-gone-wr...