things-we-actually-like Page 4 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Shirtless Tongan, Now A Skier, Qualifies For Winter Olympics
Pita Taufatofua stole the heart of the world back in 2016 went he spent the Rio Olympic Opening Ceremonies oiled up and shirtless while repping Tonga. He competed in taekwondo at those games, but this year, he’ll be back in a much different capacity—a cross-country skier....
UCF Is The National Champion, According To UCF
The University of Central Florida ended the season as the only undefeated team in college football, and though they didn’t make the playoff, they have decided to go ahead and claim the national championship. They’ve spent the time since they beat Auburn in the Peach Bowl justifiably boasting and gen...
I Can't Stop Watching These Buffalo Bills Celebration Videos
The Bills on Sunday ended an 18-year playoff drought, the longest active postseason dry spell in major U.S. sports. Understandably, Bills players and fans were pretty stoked. Some of this cathartic merriment was caught on video, and the spontaneity and genuine joy of it all makes for some fine hango...
Chicharito And Pablo Zabaleta Crack Each Other Up With Jokes They Don't Understand
For evidence of the contagious nature of laughter, just watch this video of Spanish-speaking West Ham players Javier Hernández and Pablo Zabaleta telling each other pun-heavy jokes in English. Note how they and you, the viewer, melt into giggly puddles even though they very clearly don’t have the sl...
Electric Guitar National Anthem Is The Best National Anthem
As Vince Staples once wisely put it, the national anthem doesn’t even slap. However, it can sound pretty rad when in the hands of a guitarist who can just really freakin’ shred, man....
Pat Neshek Will Autograph A Printed-Out Blog Post If You Mail It To Him
In September, we published a blog about Rockies reliever and avid baseball memorabilia collector Pat Neshek being miffed that Zack Greinke would not sign autographs for him. It ended with this line:...
There's Still Some Beauty In The World, And It's In Pittsburgh
Puerto Rico is struggling to stay alive....
Oh Hell Yes, Doris Burke Is Finally Doing The NBA Analysis She Deserves<em></em>
On Valentine’s Day in 1988, Leandra Reilly Lardner became the first woman to serve as a play-by-play commentator on an NBA game. It was a live telecast between the New Jersey Nets and the Philadelphia 76ers on SportsChannel, she recalled recently for the Chicago Tribune. It was a key moment—followed...
Soccer Fan Travels Halfway Around The World To Visit Tiny Club He Plays On <i>Football Manager</i>
You’d think that Runcorn Linnets, the name of an English soccer club currently competing in the North West Counties League a whopping eight divisions below the Premier League, wouldn’t hold much importance outside of the tiny pocket of ostensible fans tucked away in northern England. You’d be wrong....
Lovely Act Of Kindness And Sportsmanship Marred By Bullcrap Football Game
Tennessee and South Carolina played an ugly, low-wattage football game today, combining for one touchdown, six field goals, and a botched extra point, in a contest that didn’t even have the decency to include a couple goddamn turnovers. The Gamecocks came out on top after scoring 12 unanswered secon...
Outdoor Adventurer Thabo Sefolosha Saved A Woman From Drowning
Hey, what’d you do this summer? I built half a porch onto my house, badly, and now have to climb over a construction zone in order to enter my home, with no end in sight. Probably you did something a lot cooler than this. If you’re Thabo Sefolosha, some of what you did this summer is save a woman fr...
Come Bask In The Glow Of Rocky Gale's Delight At His First Major-League Home Run
Rocky Gale is 29 years old. He has been in San Diego’s minor-league system since 2010, and he has spent almost all of that time in Triple-A. Other than a very brief showing as a September call-up in 2015—eleven games, only one of which he got to play more than three innings, with ten plate appearanc...
Here Is A Nice Sports Moment
Last night, Rockies starter Chad Bettis made his first start of the season since his testicular cancer returned in March. After weeks of chemotherapy, Bettis took the mound in front of the home crowd and shut out the Braves for seven innings, helping his team to a 3-0 win. As the bottom of the seven...
How Doris Burke Became The Best Damn Basketball Broadcaster There Is
CLEVELAND—Doris Burke has never spoken a single word to Drake. And they never had dinner together, despite what the internet says. Before November of last year, when Drake famously wore a black shirt with Burke’s smiling face above the phrase “woman crush everyday” during a Toronto Raptors home game...
Seven Years After His First Major League Win, César Valdez Has His Second
The Blue Jays’ lack of rotation depth has forced them to be, uh, resourceful at times with their starting pitchers—29-year-old rookie Casey Lawrence, middle reliever Joe Biagini, a washed-up and struggling Mat Latos. Tonight gave them one more to add to that list: 32-year-old minor league journeyman...
Little British Lads Flip Their Shit After Meeting Manchester United's Jesse Lingard
It’s the sounds these Mancunian tykes make after running up to Manchester United attacker Jesse Lingard’s car—something between wanting to laugh and wanting to cry and wanting to puke—that makes this video:...
Russell Westbrook's MVP Acceptance Speech Was Worth The Wait
This year, the NBA decided to give out all of its regular-season awards at once, and to have them presented at an interminable awards show that aired last night, more than two months after the end of the regular season. This was all mostly annoying and unnecessary, but Russell Westbrook’s MVP accept...
Cardale Jones Graduates Today From Ohio State
Bills quarterback Cardale Jones, who as a Buckeyes freshman tweeted—and then deleted—that “we ain’t come to play SCHOOL, classes are POINTLESS” will graduate today from Ohio State with a bachelor’s degree in African-American Studies....
Gift Ngoepe, First-Ever African-Born MLB Player, Got A Hit In His First Career At-Bat
Earlier this week, the Pittsburgh Pirates were losing to the Cubs and they replaced Antonio Bastardo on the mound with Dovydas Neverauskas. The Lithuanian pitched two innings and became the first Lithuanian-born player to play in a major league game. Neverasukas was optioned back to Triple-A Indiana...
Rod Carew Is Alive Thanks To The Heart Of A Former NFL Player
While golfing in September 2015, Panamanian baseball legend Rod Carew suffered a huge heart attack and had to be hospitalized for six weeks. He was fitted with a pump in his left ventricle, and doctors determined that he would eventually need a heart transplant. After months on the transplant list, ...