sports Page 615 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

No, Fans Won't Stop Watching If College Players Get Paid

Defending itself in the Ed O'Bannon lawsuit, the NCAA has made some stunning claims. One, backed by an NCAA-commissioned poll, is that people so hate the idea of paying players that they will stop watching college sports if amateurism ends. In the filings, ex-CBS Sports President Neal Pilson estimat...

No, Paying Athletes Won't Bankrupt College Sports

The NCAA's biggest and most bruited argument against compensating players is that athletics programs couldn't take on the additional burden of player salaries without going bankrupt. The argument has a certain appeal to a certain kind of fan, the one who thinks sports took a turn for the worse at ro...

Comcast SportsNet Airs Our Version Of Cubs Mascot With Cock And Balls

Earlier this week we introduced you to terrifying Cubs mascot Clark The Cub and invited you to do horrible things to him. We started you off with Jim Cooke's full-frontal rendition, which is exactly what Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic aired to viewers across the Washington, D.C. area tonight....

What You Need To Know To Bet On The AFC, NFC Title Games

Here is your early betting info for the championship round of the playoffs this weekend. We'll update on Thursday with spread and over/under movement....

A Brief History Of Terrible Chicago Mascots

The Chicago Cubs unveiled their new mascot yesterday to little acclaim. That's what happens when you create a mascot that looks like a nightmarish, perverted furry and lends itself to horrible Photoshop alterations. But Clark the Cub is just the latest in a long line of ill-advised Chicago mascots. ...

Do You Like Money?

This bizarre poll popped up on ESPN's SportsNation site the other evening and, just as quickly, disappeared. Do you like money?...

NFL Betting Lines, Visualized: Divisional Round (Late Edition)

Below is your late betting info for the divisional-round playoff games (you can see the early-week edition here). Spread movement is now included, and the money lines, over/unders, and bet trend have been updated. I've also added one extra data point: the over/under movement from the opening line. S...

NFL Betting Lines, Visualized: Divisional Round (Early Edition)

Here is your early betting info for the Divisional round of the playoffs this weekend. Money lines for all the games are already available, but we'll update on Thursday with spread movements. Like last week, we've included the average spread and average over/under for each team, as well as the appro...

Hey, Stupid Sports Radio Guy, You Owe This Man $100 [Update]

Last year, some dumb sports radio guy in Denver named Darren McKee did a thing that only a dumb sports radio guy would do: he bet reader Charles $100 that the Ravens would make the playoffs this year. Now, with the Ravens' season having ended without a playoff berth, it appears that McKee is not a m...

Heart of Darkness

The fear came for Willie Walker that November. He was not expecting it. Evening had dropped early and hard, as it does in Western Pennsylvania in the fall, but these were streets he had known forever. Hours had passed since the 2004 regional championship game had ended down in Pittsburgh; the adrena...

Fox Sports 1, CBS Still Struggling In The Graphics Department

USC freshman Nikola Jovanovic is a frontcourt star for the Trojans, but we have to wonder what age-defying magic they've got over in Serbia. Can they get some to Novak Djokovic? We'd love to watch him dominate tennis for another 75 years....

This Fox Sports 1 Commercial Is So Bad And Gross

What the hell, Fox Sports?...

Teams In The Orange Bowl Don't Make Any Money, And Other Lies

Originally published on Sportsgeekonomics....

NFL Betting Lines, Visualized: Wild Card Round

Below is your betting info for the Wild Card round of the NFL playoffs. In addition to the regular data, the charts now display the "season average" spread and over/under for each team, as well as their away/home split for these figures. We'll be back on schedule next week, with an early/late editio...

<em>SportsCenter</em> Is Drunk Already?

Tony Romo: Poor Bastard

Ordinarily, the idea of someone or something being "cursed" is reserved for those who think The Flintstones was based on a true story and baseball writers. But this? This is almost too much to bear, even for people with brains. ...

It Was A Great Year For Sportswriting; Here's Some Of The Best Of It

Every so often, some crank will write something suggesting that sportswriting is in decline. The argument goes that due to ease of publishing, a general lowering of standards, the reading public's divided attentions, and millennial narcissism and careerism, an entire art has been lost, subordinated ...

NFL Betting Lines, Visualized: Week 17

Below is your betting info for the final week of the NFL regular season. Aaron Rodgers status was settled a bit early this week, so all 16 games are included....

Ronda Rousey Curses On <em>SportsCenter</em>, Asked To Enter "Cuddle Tree"

UFC women's bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey went on SportsCenter today for a predictably ridiculous interview in which her Saturday bout against Miesha Tate was treated less like a title fight than as an opportunity to see two saucy broads who really don't like one another going at it. The best p...

A Christmas Tradition

Terry Lyons gives us a little Shelby Strother:...