the Page 529 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Report: Kliff Kingsbury Could Pay His Own Buyout At USC To Pursue NFL Head-Coaching Jobs
USC’s offensive coordinator, Kliff Kingsbury, could resign from his position with the program so that he can get a fair shot at following his NFL aspirations, according to Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio....
The Islanders Have Averted Disaster
Six months after they were dumped by their captain, John Tavares—the man who was both their best player and the most crucial piece of their long-term plan, who had publicly assured everyone two years ago that he would not leave them for his boyhood favorite franchise—the New York Islanders are one ...
The IOC Graciously Takes Credit For Improved Relationship On Korean Peninsula
The international sports cartel better known as the IOC released its annual statement about the year that was and what’s to come in 2019 and it’s very much like the IOC itself: bloated, self-congratulatory, and devoid of substance....
Is ESPN's Big Year-Long Love Letter To College Football Going To Suck?<em></em>
ESPN announced today that it will be running a year-long feature “on every platform” that is meant to act as a celebration of college football. The introductory story, written by ESPN senior writer Ivan Maisel starts like this:...
What Horrible Things Did We Do To Our Penises Last Year?<em></em>
Happy new year, one and all. This year, resolve to take better care of your dick and balls; last year you did a really bad job of it....
Floyd Mayweather's "Fight" With A Japanese Kickboxing Prodigy Was Dumber Than Anyone Could Have Hoped For<em></em><em></em>
Last night in Tokyo, Floyd Mayweather fought 20-year-old kickboxer Tenshin Nasukawa in an altogether embarrassing sham “exhibition” boxing match which was announced in early November, then unannounced two days later, and finally un-unannounced after that, with a strange set of rules and no convincin...
The College Football Coaching Carousel Is Busted
Miami Hurricanes defensive coordinator Manny Diaz had accepted the head coaching position for Temple on Dec. 13. Although the Canes still had their bowl game later in the month, Diaz was locked in for the early signing period, so as to keep his new school’s recruits and convince them that it was wor...
Dexter Lawrence Probably Should Have Skipped The Cotton Bowl
In the span of a week, Clemson defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence had a drug test come back positive for an anabolic steroid not approved for human use or consumption in the U.S., or in any other country, vehemently denied in front of reporters that he knowingly put anything illegal into his body, and...
ESPN Has Created Another Phony News Cycle Out Of Its Own Fart<em></em>
“Anthony Davis trade talk is the biggest story in the NBA,” screeches the headline on this Zach Lowe article on ESPN.com. In a blog making broadly the same argument over on the Ringer, Kevin O’Connor writes that a Davis trade could cause “a seismic shift in the league,” like trades involving Wilt C...
The Year In Sports Media Beef
We arrived at the studio hungry. A promise had been made: the last Deadcast of calendar year 2018 would be a review of The Year in Sports Media Beef, and our chef de cuisine and tour guide would be Laura Wagner, the site’s our in-house beefmaster. Lord knows this stupid and diminishing year provided...
Time To Check In On Jim McVay And His Ridiculous College Football Grift
Today the Washington Post published a story on Jim McVay, the guy whose only job is to run a lower-tier college bowl game, and the million dollars he makes for doing it. The report, which points out how the $1,045,000 McVay made in 2017 “ranks as extreme” even in the bloated business of college foot...
What Did We Get Stuck In Our Rectums Last Year?<em></em>
It’s here! It’s finally here! Every year it seems like the big day will never come, but it’s here. It’s the day to gather with your family and friends ‘round the hearth, warm beverages and sweet treats at the ready, and have a hearty chortle over the things America stuck inside itself and couldn’t r...
Dwayne Harris Is A Special-Teams Genius
In the NFL, if a player on the punting team touches the ball first before it lands in the end zone, a player on the return team can scoop it up and advance it without worrying about a fumble; the turnover wouldn’t count against them. Raiders return man Dwayne Harris is quite familiar with this rule,...
Falcons Punter Matt Bosher Absolutely Demolishes Panthers Return Man
The Falcons have found the solution to their defensive woes: just get punter Matt Bosher on the field and let him make plays. Bosher, who handles kickoffs, made the tackle of the day this afternoon when he kicked it off to Kenjon Barner then tossed him in the air and spiked him into the turf seconds...
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Brian Batko did an oral history of Pitt’s 3-0 loss to Oregon State in the 2008 Sun Bowl—the “worst bowl game ever”—and it’s great fun. There’s the game-week practice that had to be cut short because the Panthers players were hungover, the punter who broke a cinder block...
How Did $5 Million Of Vince McMahon's Money Wind Up In The Trump Foundation?
On Tuesday, the New York State Attorney General’s Office announced that they had reached a settlement in their suit against the Donald J. Trump Foundation over its (prolific) self-dealing and other assorted misdeeds. Beyond the usual Trump-scented malfeasance in which the foundation engaged, one de...
Spencer Dinwiddie Is A Refreshing Change Of Pace From The Standard Brandbot Athlete<em></em>
Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie—who after a patchy early career just inked a three-year, $34 million extension with Brooklyn, and seems to be a generally hilarious dude—has a refreshing worldview on the brands. Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic wrote about the population of NBA players who navigate the le...
High School Football Coach And Catholic Priest Derail Funeral Of Teen Who Killed Himself
University of Toledo freshman Maison Hullibarger killed himself on Dec. 4. He was 18. Hullibarger’s Dec. 8 funeral in Michigan was spoiled by not only the Catholic priest overseeing the service, but his former high school football coach who wasn’t invited. Quite a team effort....
The Browns Are Respectable, And That's Already A Major Achievement
The Cleveland Browns have not had a winning season since 2007. The closest they’ve been to .500 was a 7-9 campaign in 2014, and that becomes even sadder with the reminder that those Browns, under then-head coach Mike Pettine, had squandered a 7-4 start to get there. (He was fired after his second se...
Bill Fralic Was A Real-Life Incredible Hulk
Most legends grow to become something beyond their actual size. That never seemed to be true of Bill Fralic, the former University of Pittsburgh and Atlanta Falcons offensive lineman, who died Thursday at the age of 56. He was as big as he was often described to be, and if you’re a certain age and y...