take Page 20 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Rob Parker: <em>First Take</em> Producers Knew What I Was Going To Talk About
Rob Parker's suspension for asking if Robert Griffin III was a "brother or a cornball brother" ends in a week or so and 1.) he really doesn't seem that sorry about what happened and 2.) he says First Take producers knew what he had to say....

Straight From 1984, Here's The Disco Version Of "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" That Never Quite Caught On
A reader named Brian, presumably going through his old VHS tapes, has been uploading a number of old Virginia news broadcasts. He sent along this one, a 1984 broadcast from Hampton Roads station WAVY-10, about the Tidewater Tides (then the Mets AAA affiliate) and a local band trying to update the ...

ESPN Suspends Rob Parker For A Month
After taking a week to think about it, ESPN has hit Rob Parker with a 30-day suspension for his "brother or cornball brother?" comments. Also, ESPN is promising "enhanced editorial oversight" over the show, which means ... well, I'm not sure what. In a statement, Marcia Keegan, vice president of pro...

ESPN Suspends Rob Parker After "Cornball Brother" Remarks, Promises "Full Review"
ESPN execs are not sitting on their hands on this one. A day after Rob Parker's "is he a brother or is he a cornball brother" comments about Robert Griffin III, ESPN said that Parker is suspended indefinitely....
![Rob Parker Lowers The Bar On <em>First Take</em>: Is Robert Griffin III "A Brother Or A Cornball Brother?" [UPDATE]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/Image_Not_Found_1x_qjofp8.png)
Rob Parker Lowers The Bar On <em>First Take</em>: Is Robert Griffin III "A Brother Or A Cornball Brother?" [UPDATE]
Yes, amazingly, today's cringe-inducing, bang-your-ahead-against-the-wall moment from First Take does not come from Skip Bayless. It comes from Rob Parker, who is First Take's new Saturday host! He's taking to the role perfectly....

Chargers Games May Have Been Staffed With Illegal Child Labor
The Department of Labor is investigating whether the staffing company contracted to work Chargers games has been using unpaid high schoolers as security, ticket takers, and head coach....

Beer Of The Week: Coney Island Human Blockhead
First time I ever stepped onto Coney Island was to cover the Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest, which is a lot of capital letters to ascribe to an event in which men and women choke down mountains of tube steaks on national television, yes, but indeed an event you should attend to if you consid...

The 76ers' Website Apparently Was Selling "Drew Holiday" Jerseys A Little While Ago
Drew Holiday! Isn't he the guy who leads the Sixers in scoring, assists, and minutes played this season? He's not? Really? Because I could swear that guy has a name that sounds a lot like Drew Holiday, which must be why the Sixers were so eagerly pushing his jersey with a banner ad at the bottom of ...

The Ballad Of The Other J.R. Smith, Web Designer And Recipient Of Much Of The Praise And Scorn Meant For The Knicks' J.R. Smith
Via Trey Kerby, the above mournful tweet, from J.R. Smith, the web designer (and, as his Twitter bio puts it, "NOT A BASKETBALL PLAYER"). If you're wondering how the other J.R. Smith can tell basketball season has started up, well, social media really has a way of putting people in touch with their ...

ESPN's Jemele Hill Is Here To Answer Your Questions
ESPN columnist Jemele Hill is live from Colorado and ready to answer your questions in the discussion below. She's got sideline duty—her first year doing it!—for Friday night's Hawaii-Air Force game on ESPN2. Also, it's been an eventful week at ESPN, and Jemele's done plenty of work at First Take. L...

Chris Berman Apologizes After <em>Monday Night Football</em> Graphic Reads: "Roethlisberger Drink & Drunk"
Ben Roethlisberger may be a "jagoff" notorious for his barroom antics, but when an item showed up in ESPN's televised rundown before Monday Night Football tonight titled "Roethlisberger Drink & Drunk," it caught many viewers by surprise....

How ESPN Ditched Journalism And Followed Skip Bayless To The Bottom: A Tim Tebow Story
In October, Doug Gottlieb, a radio host and basketball analyst who'd decamped for CBS the previous month after nine years with ESPN, went on The Dan Patrick Show and dropped something of a truth bomb about his time in Bristol: ...

First Take Lets Us Know That Tity Boi Still Likes The Lakers
Not everyone is panicking over the new-look Lakers' season-opening loss. Certainly not Southern rapper 2 Chainz, who used to go by Tity Boi, a fact that a First Take producer probably wishes they had noticed....

Stephen A. Smith Says "Nigga, Please" On ESPN2, And Everyone Gets Stupid In Response
On Thursday morning's First Take, Stephen A. Smith expressed his disbelief that Kobe Bryant would miss time with an injury by saying "nigga, please." This was not a thing he should have said on TV, yet he did. It was barely noticeable, but at least one person noticed, uploaded the video, and cert...

This Week's Signs Of The Apocalypse
For nearly two decades, Sports Illustrated has stirred the tea leaves to discern a weekly Sign of the Apocalypse. Deadspin salutes the magazine's ongoing effort to cover the end of times but declines to cede the scoop on the biggest event in world history....

<em>Men's Journal</em>'s Skip Bayless Article Contains The Saddest Paragraph In Recent Memory
Skip Bayless, as a major member of the sports discourse, is a lamentable thing. He gets an enormous amount of airtime to manufacture controversy, and his style of vacant carnival-barking is, if not actively lowering the intelligence of your average daytime ESPN-viewer, at least taking up time that c...

The Chargers’ PR Director Writes A Bitchy Letter To Chargers Fans
One of the most recent articles posted under the "News" tab at Chargers.com has "Take A Chill Pill" as its headline. That's an odd headline to see on an official team site that usually just runs straight, boring news stories about the Chargers....

Nationals Buoyed By Fans' "Magical" A-Ha Singalongs To "Take On Me"—And Tonight's Was The Best Yet
As noted earlier this week, Michael Morse's walkup music choice of a-ha's "Take On Me" has become a rallying cry for "Natitude." The intensity of the singing has increased as the series has gone on, and tonight's eighth-inning rendition was truly a sight to see. Er, hear. [TBS]...

God Bless Liam Neeson, He Sure Does Try. <em>Taken 2</em>, Reviewed.
If you liked the first Taken, it was probably because of Liam Neeson. With that unlikely hit, the Oscar-nominated actor established himself as a tough-guy action star, a development that was surprising not because he's a bad fit for the role but, rather, because he proved really adept at it. Anyone ...

ESPN Repeatedly Identifies Random Man As Former NFL Running Back Fred Taylor
Former Florida and Jaguars great Fred Taylor has a son, Kelvin, who like dad plays running back and is committed to play for the Gators. Kelvin's Glades Day squad made the trip up to Yulee for a battle of Florida high school heavyweights, and the ESPN broadcast focused mostly on Fred Taylor, who w...