the-u Page 133 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Michael Phelps Drops Tombstone On Chad Le Clos, Wins 20th Gold Medal
Chad le Clos, who took advantage of Michael Phelps’s collapse in the 200 butterfly four years ago, poked the bear last night. He didn’t make it to the medal stand, and Phelps won his 20th gold. Rest in peace....

This Is The Ultimate Florida Story
This week the Tampa Bay Times published a bonkers story that is so exceptionally Floridian that I have to share it with you all. It features partying, foreclosures, drugs, The Undertaker, racketeering, and a cosmetic surgeon, among other things....

The Undefeated Can't Find Anything Bad To Say About Jameis Winston
The Undefeated has published a soft-focus profile of Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Jameis Winston that is so remarkably bad that I honestly don’t understand how or why it ever saw daylight....

What's This Now
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The Undertaker: Old But Strong
WWE wrestler The Undertaker is 50 years old, but he can still deadlift 405 pounds....

ESPN's "Black Grantland" Hires Writers, May Eventually Publish Something
Today, two and a half years after the project was first announced, ESPN issued a press release about a fresh round of hires at its black-interest site, The Undefeated. While the site doesn’t yet exist, properly speaking, its staff has nonetheless managed to produce nearly two blog posts per month ov...

25 Years Later, The Undertaker Is Still Not Resting In Peace
Welcome to Deadspin’s irregular pro wrestling column, in which Tom Breihan and Ernest Wilkins will comb through the past month or so of superkicks, lariats, and 450 splashes in search of the greatest things that this most American of artforms has given us....

According to a Washington Post memo, managing editor Kevin Merida will become the editor-in-chief of The Undefeated, and a senior VP at ESPN. We reported two weeks ago that Merida was in serious talks for the job. Here’s some advice for Kevin from his predecessor: A leader recognizes leadership and ...


ESPN Wants Howard Bryant To Reboot "Black Grantland"
Two years ago, Jason Whitlock was hired at ESPN and charged with creating a black sports and culture site, originally billed as a “Black Grantland” and eventually named The Undefeated. Last month, he was ousted as the head of the site after failing to get it off the ground, undermining the entire pr...

So Why Did Jason Whitlock Bail On A <i>New York</i> Mag Profile?
New York magazine has a new 4,000-word feature on ESPN personality Jason Whitlock out, and while it offers a good (if familiar) rundown of Whitlock’s career and how he ended up getting fired from his own non-existent website before it even launched, it offers nothing first-hand from its subject. Wha...

Jason Whitlock Out As Head Of The Undefeated
ESPN has removed Jason Whitlock from the website it created especially for him, according to ESPN PR man Richard Sandomir. A weasely press release quickly followed:...

The Grierson & Leitch Top 12 Movies Of The First Half Of 2014
As of today, we are halfway through 2014. Most of your "prestige" movies aren't out yet—only a third of our top 10s last year were from the first half of 2013 —but that doesn't mean this year's first six months didn't have its delights. Surprisingly, many of the standouts were bigger-budgeted studio...

The Undefeated Champions of Defeat City
Head on over to GQ and check out this excellent story by Kathy Dobie:...

Jim Hellwig, Known As The Ultimate Warrior, Is Dead
Jim Hellwig, who portrayed the Ultimate Warrior, has died. He was 54....

A Lot Of People Made Money Betting Against Undertaker At WrestleMania
The Undertaker's 21-match unbeaten streak at WrestleMania is no more, after a surprise loss to Brock Lesnar last night. Fans were in shock, but no one was happier than those bettors who put money on Lesnar when he was a huge underdog....

Your Field Guide To WrestleMania XXX
WrestleMania is the kind of thing you can really only discuss in superlatives: it's the biggest, the loudest, the most-hyped, the most outrageous, the most ridiculous, and the most fun. Yes, pro wrestling is a totally unique performance art, one of the last direct links to an old, weird America, etc...

No-Win Scenario: Errol Morris' Great, Infuriating <em>The Unknown Known</em>
On February 29, 2004, director Errol Morris won an Academy Award for The Fog of War. Subtitled Eleven Lessons From the Life of Robert S. McNamara, it consisted of a one-on-one interview with the former Secretary of Defense as he looked back at his management—and mismanagement— of the Vietnam War. ...

Perfection
Slide on over to The Unbearable Lightness of Betting and read where you'll find a reprint of Brendan Boyd's essay, "Perfection":...

Hey, It's 15 Years (And A Day) Since Mick Foley Got Thrown Off A Cage
In keeping with our inability to notice anniversaries until it’s too late, we’d like to point out that it was 15 years ago last night that Mankind and the Undertaker faced off in one of the most memorable and brutal wrestling matches of all time....