si Page 819 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The Real Reason For The NFL's Passing Explosion
We're doing a season-long NFL roundtable with our friends at Slate. Check back here each week as a rotating cast of football watchers discusses the weekend's key plays, coaching decisions, and traumatic brain injuries....

Unreal "Death From Above" Goal Is Greatest Moment In Slovenian Sports History
There's plenty of context for midfielder Dare Vršič's injury time free kick goal against Serbia yesterday in 2012 Euro qualifiers, if you want it. Slovenia had never beaten a team from the former Yugoslavia, their historic rivals. The goal continues Estonia's miracle run to the playoffs. But conte...

Steve Spurrier Kicks Reporter Out Of Press Conference, Announces Dismissal Of QB Stephen Garcia, Drops The Mic
At the start of his weekly press conference today—and just about an hour before announcing that former starting QB Stephen Garcia had been dismissed from the team—South Carolina football coach Steve Spurrier made an announcement to the gathered reporters. He would not, he explained, go through wit...

Hank Williams Jr. Gets Much-Needed Public Support From Kid Rock
Detroit native Kid Rock celebrated in the Lions' locker room after their 24-13 win on Monday Night Football last night. "I'm Detroit 'til I die," he told gathering reporters....

South Africa To Miss Out On Africa Cup Of Nations After Deliberately Playing To Boring 0-0 Draw
The South African national soccer team intentionally played to a 0-0 draw against Sierra Leone this past Saturday, and then danced across the field in celebration of having qualified for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations. The problem: Bafana Bafana, as the team is known, had not qualified for the 2012 ...

Grading NBA Players On Their "LET US PLAY" Twitter Pleas
Today is last day the NBA lockout can end without missing games. Too bad. The lockout isn't ending, despite the social media screeching of various union members. The NBPA thankfully has retweeted much of that screeching solidarity. Here's how we classify it....

It Is Tebow Time O'Clock In Denver
Just a week ago, it was not Tebow time in Denver. It was Orton time. Yesterday, though, the big hand turned during "The Most Exciting Broncos Loss of the 2011 Season." Here is a collection of time-keeping from the Denver timekeepers....

Rider University Website: Today's Volleyball Match Is Totally Comparable To A High Holy Day
"Saturday is Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement for the Jews. The Rider volleyball team will attempt to make amends for losing its last four matches when it hosts Loyola University Maryland in a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference match, beginning at 3pm. ... The last time Rider defeated the Greyhound...

A Rugby World Cup Quarterfinals Preview For Americans Who Don't Know Shit About Rugby
Chris Benz and Dave Shireley will be filing dispatches from the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, in the odd moments that they are sober. For a rugby glossary and position guide, click here....

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

Rescuing The Girl In The Star-Spangled Bikini From The Drunk Tank, And Other Rugby Stories
Chris Benz and Dave Shireley will be filing dispatches from the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, in the odd moments that they are sober. For a rugby glossary and position guide, click here....

The Drunk Girl In The Star-Spangled Bikini Responds
A reply from "Kendra" to Dave Shireley's dispatch....

This Evening: Andrei Kirilenko Joins His Old Team In Russia, Poses With An AK-47
Your p.m. roundup for Oct. 6, the day some really hung squirrel ruined a bake off. Photo via That NBA Lottery Pick. Got any stories or photos for us? Tip your editors....

The Many Faces Of Bomani Jones
Paul Finebaum doing what Paul Finebaum does was too much for the Outside The Lines panel to mentally handle. Most notably, it transformed mild-mannered Bomani Jones into a cartoon character. We've screengrabbed some of his more expressive countenances, so that history will never forget....

A Hank Williams Jr. Discussion Turned ESPN's OTL Into <em>The Morton Downey Jr. Show</em>
I mean, I think this conversation was about Hank Williams Jr. It was less than a minute old when Paul Finebaum, an Alabama radio personality, said Dave Zirin had uttered the "single stupidest [statement] [he's] ever heard in the history of this program." After that, Bomani Jones made some hilariou...

Why Sports Don't Need Concussions To Destroy Players' Brains
CTE. Scourge of the human brain. Recent cause célèbre that confirms that, no, evolution didn't design our heads to be beaten in repeatedly for 15 years. It's coming for our athletes one by one, whether or not they put themselves in harm's way. ...

Michael Oher Would Appreciate It If You'd Tell Him Who This Steve Jobs Guy Was
Drop the Baltimore Ravens offensive lineman and Sandra Bullock Oscar-prop a Twitter line at @michaeloher if you can help. If, in fact, "who was Steve Jobs" was a question and not a meta declarative statement....

California Teen Who Required Brain Surgery After Football-Related Concussion Released From Hospital
After Adrian Padilla, a senior safety with the Oxnard, Cal. high-school football team, suffered a serious concussion during a game last month, he collapsed on the sideline and ultimately required emergency brain surgery....

Dear Joe Posnanski: Baseball Is Not Like Life
In our weekly excerpt from Slate's Hang Up and Listen podcast, noted author and occasional NFL roundtabler Stefan Fatsis wants to quibble with those writers who took last week's two-hour-long orgasm that ended the baseball regular season, and turned it into some kind of metaphor for life. In particu...

25 Years And Four Presidents Later, The 1985 Bears Will Finally Visit The White House
The '85 Chicago Bears are one of the most iconic championship teams in NFL history. Payton. The Fridge. Ditka. McMahon. Buddy Ryan and his 46 defense. That rap song. A 15-1 record in a season that ended with playoff shutouts of the Giants and Rams followed by a 46-10 drubbing of the Patriots in Sup...