si Page 753 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Tonight's <em>Saturday Night Live</em> Cold Open: The New York Children's Chorus Singing "Silent Night"
Given yesterday's devastating events in Connecticut, it seemed impossible for NBC to put together a Saturday Night Live cold open that could be seen in any way as appropriate for the mood. In the end, they eschewed any attempt at making the audience laugh—instead going with a touching performance f...

Unranked Butler Knocked Off No. 1 Indiana In Overtime On An Awkward Floater From Walk-On Sophomore Alex Barlow
It shouldn't have even been as close it was down the stretch—Butler has been a tough draw since Brad Stevens became coach after the 2007, and it's doubtful that Indiana took them lightly, but this was a match-up of a No. 1 ranked team against an unranked opponent on a neutral floor. Indiana had come...

Nate Silver Argues That The Breakaway Big East Teams Have A Chance To Rid Themselves Of Unsightly Football Baggage
News came down today that the Big East's non-FBS football schools have officially decided to leave the conference, a decision made by unanimous vote and one we've been expecting for a few days. It's easy to feel a little fearful about the Big East's basketball powers (sans UConn) striking out on the...

Mean Things John Hollinger Wrote About The Memphis Grizzlies Less Than Three Months Before They Hired Him
One of the many joys of reading John Hollinger, now departed from his job as ESPN's basketball analytics guru for a front-office position with the Memphis Grizzlies, was that he used his remarkably sharp read on the contributions of NBA players to point out, without reservation, when an NBA player ...

The <em>B.S. Report</em> Report: Time For Pizza
Julia Alvidrez, Gawker Media's operations manager, is an unabashed fan of Bill Simmons and everything Grantland. She is also an occasional reader of Deadspin. Every week, she will recap Simmons's podcast, The B.S. Report, for us....

Cockblocked By Grandpappy!
Welcome to Great Moments in Drunken Hookup Failure, where we showcase three heartwarming true stories of drunken love gone horribly awry. Off we go....

College ShameDay: Answering The Questions You Weren't Asking About The Early Bowl Games
Our weekly college football shame index previews the pre-Christmas bowls. ...

University Of Iowa Baseball Players Haunted By Underwear-Stealing Ghosts
From the Daily Iowan comes the story of six University of Iowa students, all of whom are on the school's baseball team, living in a house that is apparently super haunted. "Oh big deal, what did someone get the chills one night and now they are scared of ghosts?" is something you might be thinking ...

A Suffocating Triumph: <em>Zero Dark Thirty</em>, Reviewed
1. I've always thought the best compliment you can give a movie is that, while it's playing, you forget not only that you are watching a movie, but also that you are a person with a life that was going on before the movie and will continue going on afterward. These are the transformative films, the ...

Report: Jason Grilli Comes Right Out And Says The Pirates Suck
The Pittsburgh Pirates recently re-signed reliever Jason Grilli, locking him down for two more years at $6.75 million. Yesterday, during a press conference to announce the deal, Grilli said all the right things about wanting to win in Pittsburgh, about his admiration for Clint Hurdle, about all he's...

Which NFL Pundits Made The Worst Picks In Week 14? Grading ESPN, Yahoo, And CBS
Republished with permission from PunditTracker.com....
!["It Is Totally Out Of Control": Here's The Letter That Started Washington State's Investigation Of Mike Leach [UPDATED]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/1886jpikeef7zjpg.jpg)
"It Is Totally Out Of Control": Here's The Letter That Started Washington State's Investigation Of Mike Leach [UPDATED]
Washington State University announced today that an internal review had cleared football coach Mike Leach and his staff of any misconduct. Last month, star wide receiver Marquess Wilson was suspended for violating team rules, after which he quit the team and released a public letter alleging that co...

<i>The Big Bang Theory</i> Doubled Up <i>Thursday Night Football</i>: Last Week's TV Ratings, In Context
A weekly feature wherein we contextualize TV ratings for national sports broadcasts. Data via Nielsen, Sports Business Journal's John Ourand and @TVSportsRTGS. Viewership numbers represent approximate number of persons tuned to a given program; ratings share refers to the percentage of all household...

Ronjohn Dadd Was Robbed: <em>Inside Lacrosse's</em> All-Name Team Is Here
It's that time of year again. Inside Lacrosse has once again blessed us with its annual all-name team, compiling a list of the preppiest-named lax bros in the country. This year's list is an impressive one, and once again includes a collection of aristocratically named female players. We do have on...

My 100 Concussions: Notes From A Terrified CTE Study Participant
Former football player and pro wrestler Chris Nowinski recently set up a massive research project with Boston University to examine the long-term effects of concussion damage on the human brain. Anyone can volunteer to have his or her brain posthumously donated to the study, and one anonymous Deadsp...

The Only Thing Mike D'Antoni Detests More Than His Team's Play Is T.J. Simers' Questions
There's probably no other sports reporter/columnist out there who can ingratiate himself so well to a coach as T.J. Simers of the Los Angeles Times, if by "ingratiate" we mean "antagonize coaches coming off a bad loss by uttering outrageous allegations that make them to want to strangle you in fro...

Ilya Bryzgalov Can't Take Your Calls Right Now; He's About To Launch Into Space
The Russian men's national hockey team recently removed Flyers' goalie and philosopher Ilya Bryzgalov from their roster before the start of the Channel One Cup, an annual tournament for Europeans playing in European leagues. During the NHL lockout, Bryzgalov has been playing for CSKA Moscow of the ...

Manny Pacquiao's Mom Thinks He Lost Because He's No Longer A Catholic
Manny Pacquiao got knocked out on a devastating punch by Juan Manuel Márquez in the sixth round. Like many people, Filipinos were in utter shock to see their idol faceplant in the ring. Pacquiao's mom, however, provided a rational, well thought-out reason as to why her son lost his welterweight bou...
![Here's An Unverified Story About Cam Newton Buying Superman Onesie Pajamas [UPDATED]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/187y5xalysd46jpg.jpg)
Here's An Unverified Story About Cam Newton Buying Superman Onesie Pajamas [UPDATED]
Sup, gang. We got this email from a reader a few minutes ago. We're passing it along because, well ... do we really need to explain?:...

"Jimmer Got Moves, Dog. That **** Crazy.": DeMarcus Cousins Praises His Mormon Teammate
We can all thank the guys at Cowbell Kingdom for bringing us this audio clip, in which Sacramento Kings center DeMarcus Cousins dishes out some fervent praise for teammate Jimmer Fredette....