sports Page 719 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Mike Lupica's Pro-Gun-Control Essay On Today's <em>Sports Reporters</em> Makes Bob Costas Sound Like A Right-Winger
Mike Lupica's Daily News columns often take an unabashed liberal perspective, but the Sports Reporters panelist has generally kept his political takes off of ESPN's airwaves—by apparent directive of the WWL itself....
Wake Forest Head Coach Jeff Bzdelik Will No Longer Be Taking Callers On His Radio Show Because They Were All Angry Wake Forest Fans
Wake Forest was once a proud basketball program: only two different men helmed the team from 1934-1965, Murray Greason and Bones McKinney, and those two built a strong winning tradition. Carl Tracy stabilized the ship after some turnover in the 70s, and from 1989-2007, it was again a tale of two co...
Here's Larry Merchant's Emotional Goodbye After A 35-Year Career As TV's Most Famous Boxing Commentator
With his HBO contract expiring, 81-year-old boxing analyst Larry Merchant announced earlier this week that he'd step down from a career that made him a household name among fans of the sweet science. Last night's bout between Nonito Donaire and Jorge Arce was Merchant's last, and following the dom...
The Giants, Jets And Patriots Will Wear Sandy Hook Helmet Decals
The NFL teams geographically closest to Newtown, Connecticut will pay tribute to the victims of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School by wearing decals on their helmets. The Giants (pictured above) and Jets helmets will be inscribed with the initials S.H.E.S....
ESPN Bent Over Backwards Not To Say "Pistol" During The New Mexico Bowl, Then Said "Shotgun" During The Idaho Potato Bowl
On Friday, ESPN senior vice president and executive producer Mark Gross sent a memo to his staff. It read in part:...
The Texas Basketball Holiday Song Wars Continue: Here Are The Dallas Mavericks, Trying To Sing "Sleigh Ride"
Not to be outdone by their rivals in Houston, who sort of sang the Dreidel Song, the Dallas Mavericks got together to sort of sing a "Sleigh Ride" karaoke. It's pretty good, especially, Chris Kaman, who is funnier than he looks. Rick Carlisle, too, and O.J Mayo, who only makes sound effects. Now a...
"Take That Nigger Off The TV, We Wanna Watch Football!": Idiots Respond To NBC Pre-Empting <em>Sunday Night Football</em>
NBC pre-empted the first quarter of tonight’s 49ers-Patriots game to show President Obama’s speech at the Newtown memorial for victims of the Sandy Hook shooting. As you might expect, many football fans didn’t take kindly to this. (So, too, some Bob’s Burgers fans.) Here are those idiots, led by so...
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...
The NHL Lockout Negotiations Are So Bad, The NHL Is Threatening To Make Every Player An Unrestricted Free Agent
The NHLPA will give its a members the option to vote for a disclaimer of interest—a renunciation of the legal right to benefit from the terms of a given trust—which essentially means that the leadership of the NHLPA would move to disband the NHLPA. This outcome helps the players in their negotiation...
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...
A Week After Court Filings Revealed Candace Williams's Claim That Terrell Suggs Punched Her And Dragged Her Alongside A Car, They Got Married
One week to the day. On Dec. 7, The Baltimore Sun obtained court documents filed by Candace Williams alleging that Terrell Suggs had "punched her in the neck and drove a car containing their two children at a 'high rate of speed' while she was being dragged alongside"; on Dec. 14—yesterday, three da...
Andrea Bargnani Calls The Raptors "Pretty Much The Worst NBA Team," Which Is Pretty Much True
Andrea Bargnani did an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport, an Italian newspaper dedicated to sports, in which he said some harsh words about the objectively awful team that employs him. Raptors coach Dwane Casey cautioned the press not to blow what might be a mistranslation out of proportion, ex...
"That Was Real, And That Was Spectacular!" Ian Eagle Shoehorned A <em>Seinfeld</em> Reference Into His Call Of Joe Johnson's Game-Winner
I watched this game while sort of glancing at the television and then looking away again, so when I first heard this call, from the YES Network's Ian Eagle, I thought it was pretty irredeemably dweeby, regardless of the quality of the source material. Now that I've watched again and seen that Jerr...
Steve From Greenfield Is Loaded And Would Like To Chat About The Steelers' QB Situation
Last night, Chris Mueller (on 93.7 FM from 10 p.m.—2 a.m.) provided a little insight, which you can see above, into what it's like working the telephones for a light night Pittsburgh-area sports radio call-in show. We may try to get the audio, or we may just let this one float around in all of our i...
Among About A Billion Candidates, Cleatus, The Dancing Animatronic NFL Today Robot, May Have Sent The Most Useless Tweet Yesterday
When the mascots of corporations send out painfully canned condolences—our thoughts and prayers, seriously, from this ridiculously stupid dancing robot—people always say, "Oh man, I pity the poor intern that had to write that B.S." I've got news for you: It probably wasn't an intern. It was probably...
Kevin McHale And Kevin Garnett Shared A Tearful Hug After Last Night's Game
As Kelly Dwyer noted, Kevin McHale and Kevin Garnett have been intertwined for a long time: McHale retired from the NBA in 1993, and was GM of the Minnesota Timberwolves only two years later. In the 1995 NBA draft, he made the seemingly risky decision to pick Garnett, an unseasoned high-schooler a...
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 ...
A Soccer Match Between Teams From Argentina And Brazil Ended Early Because Police Beat And Threatened The Argentine Team In Their Locker Room At Halftime
This happened a couple of days ago, but we missed it with everything else going on. At Wednesday evening's Copa Sudamericana—Wikipedia calls it "the second most prestigious club competition in South American football"—between Brazil's São Paulo and Argentina's Tigre, some pre-match gamesmanship and...
Kevin Durant Memorialized Sandy Hook Last Night With A Message On His Sneakers
It must be hard for professional athletes to figure out to respond to national tragedies like the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary yesterday. In times of national mourning, sports can seem pretty starkly trivial, and the juxtaposition between the day's news and the night's sporting events has a way...