sports Page 876 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

SHOTY First Round: Buzz Bissinger Vs. Mike Singletary
Fridays are always good days for mismatches. Most of you have probably skipped out to do holiday shopping anyway — do they still sell the Tickle Me Elmo? — so it makes voting anomalies less likely....

And Here Are Your Nominees For Playboy's Sexiest Sportscaster of the Year
So the nominees for Playboy's 2009 Sexiest Sportscaster have been unveiled — 30 in all — and besides the usual suspects (Andrews, Lindsay Soto, Krista Voda), there are quite a few additions this year. One of which is Michelle Beisner of the NFL Network, who received unfortunate notoriety two years a...

Will Anyone Be Able To Keep America's Sideline Princess from Being a Two-Time Champion?
So, tomorrow at some point, Playboy will supposedly announce who this year's contestants for their 2009 Sexiest Sportscaster of the year award. Last year's winner, of course, was Ms. Andrews who was still in the middle stages of Erin Andrewsness. Could her popularity hurt her chances this year? It m...

SHOTY First Round: Chris Berman Vs. Kevin Hart
It might seem odd to some of you that Chris Berman would have such a high seed this year. Wasn't his heyday around 2006, YWML time? Well, I would retort that you've had too much of the deux deux deux....

Michael Phelps' Funky Face Is SI's Sportsman of Year
In case you haven't heard, Olympic water boy Michael Phelps is SI's "Sportsman of the Year" this year, for his astounding 8 gold medals in Beijing. It's not a surprise pick, really, leaving most of the scrutiny for Phelps' spooky-ass Terri Schiavo face currently seen in the online version. According...

SI's Dr. Z Recovering After Two Strokes
This is sad news from the sports media world. Paul Zimmerman, the grouchy football columnist better known as Dr. Z, suffered two strokes in late November and is currently on a leave of absence while he recovers. He'll survive, but how it'll affect the rest of his writing career is still undetermined...

SHOTY First Round: Brett Favre Vs. Baby Mangino
All righty, kids, holidays are over, you have the next month of craziness to streak through — I never notice December has started until it's over — and it all begins now. Time to get serious, people. And nothing's more serious than SHOTY voting....

Curt Schilling Takes His Blog Diva-ness to WEEI
Here's an interesting bit of news sent a long through tips. Red Sox pitcher and 38 Pitches blogger, Curt Schilling, will take his candid Red Sox observations and weird right-wing ranting over to WEEI. As you know, WEEI is scooping up popular bloggers left and right, most recently signing up Will Lei...

SHOTY First Round: Mark Cuban Vs. Matt Leinart
It's the day after Thanksgiving! If you have any good sense, you're lying on the floor right now, surrounded by pieces of bird skin, dealing with a nog-throbbing brain and complete with a homicide-scene outline traced with pie crust. Congratulations on getting to this point. You've earned it. Now, ...

Jimmy Connors Takes a Handsome, Distinguished-Looking Mugshot
So there was this weird story about Jimmy Connors getting arrested last weekend after some sort of fan altercation outside the UCSB/North Carolina basketball game. The police report said Connors refused to "comply with an order", so basically he was most likely just being an arrogant prick to polic...

SHOTY First Round: Roger Clemens Vs. Vince Young
It's the day before Thanksgiving, and it's difficult to imagine much that would be more enjoyable than voting in the 2008 Deadspin Sportshuman Of The Year tournament. Like you're doing any work today anyway. In fact, you're probably not even in the office right now. Are you reading this from the fu...

The Creative Impasse Between Bill Simmons and ESPN Appears To Be Over
The rumor about Bill Simmons "quitting" his B.S. Report podcast on ESPN due to restrictive over-editing policies were apparently overblown, for today the B.S. Report has miraculously reappeared. The one noticeable change to it is the new pre-show disclaimer from the Sports Fella himself that states ...

SHOTY First Round: Isiah Thomas Vs. Nightmare Ant
All right, everybody, it's time for the voting to begin. We'll be going Monday/Wednesday/Friday until the end of the year to get this rolling and prompt-like. But first off: Everybody salute the big pile of genius that is Jim Cooke for his official 2008 SHOTY poster. Bless his heart. Voting will re...

Is This The Most Suggestive Sports Headline Ever Written?
When I worked at the Peninsula Times-Tribune in Palo Alto, Calif., (former home of Ray Ratto!) a young copy editor came up with a rather inadvertently amusing headline for a story in the features section: You May Be To Blame If Your Dog Won't Come. That still ranks in my top 10 of funny suggestive h...

What Is ESPN Sports Passport, And Should I Be Afraid?
Surely you've noticed by now that alongside every recap on ESPN.com is an ad for ESPN Sports Passport. But what is this exciting service and how will it affect my daily life? Let's let the WWL itself explain: WERE YOU THERE? Did you attend this game? If so, start chronicling your sports memories tod...

You Too Can Book Will Smith And Tony Romo For Your Pep Rally
When I was living in South Lake Tahoe, Kevin Costner randomly showed up one day at South Lake Tahoe High to talk to the students in the drama department. He had filmed The Bodyguard at nearby Fallen Leaf Lake, and returned to the area occasionally for vacations. Something similar happened at Dallas'...

Time For 2008 SHOTY Nominations
The time has come, ladies and gentlefolk. (We're actually starting a little bit late.) The 2008 Sportshuman Of The Year awards are about to grace you with their presence, and, as always, we need your nominations over here. This is the third annual SHOTY tournament. The first winner died, and the se...

Of Superbikes And Food Metaphors: FJM's Greatest Hits
A sports blog's success is usually measured by page views or unique visitors — these odd, mysterious numbers that merely serve as advertiser bait, but are woefully inaccurate in revealing overall quality. The true measure of a successful sports blog, like most other creative endeavors done for the r...

Some Things In The SI Vault Should Stay There
We were all excited when Sports Illustrated announced back in March that they were putting all of their old issues online: "150,000 stories , 2,800 covers, 500,000 photographs!" But for every intriguing journey into the SI Vault, there is also a very dark, disturbing one, as a tipster pointed out th...

Fire Joe Morgan Takes a Bow
It's a dark day in the sports blogosphere as one of its most hilarious, intelligent and entertaining participants is logging off for good. Fire Joe Morgan, which brilliantly skewered sports media in its own unique way, posted an announcement late last night that their work is done here. There are pl...