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The Kings Have Canned Paul Westphal After The Weekend Brouhaha With DeMarcus Cousins
Cousins complains to Westphal, coach benches him and says DeMarcus asked to be traded. DeMarcus said he did not request a trade. Cousins plays in the Kings' next two games, scores four points in one and 26 in the other, Sacramento loses both, coach canned. Westphal was an impressively bad 51-120 dur...

A Confusing NHL Racial Controversy Gets Muddier, As Banana Reference Nets A One-Game Suspension
We thought this one was going to be cut-and-dried. We thought Krys Barch said something hateful and racist and unacceptable to P.K. Subban, and the NHL would come down with all its disciplinary might to show that there's no place for racism in hockey, and then we'd all move on. Naturally, nothing's ...

The Entire NFL Challenge System Needs To Be Destroyed
Drew Magary's Thursday Afternoon NFL Dick Joke Jamboroo runs every Thursday during the NFL season. Buy Drew's book, The Postmortal, through here. Find more of his stuff at his Twitter feed....

Is This Guy The Most Hated Coach In Pro Football History?
Remember the 1961 Houston Oilers? No? Well, as Mike Pesca explains in our weekly excerpt from Slate's Hang Up and Listen podcast, they had the fifth-highest point differential of any team in pro football history. They won the AFL that year. 34-year-old George Blanda threw 36 touchdowns and Heisman w...

Chargers Fire Defensive Coordinator, Solving All Their Problems And Making Them Favorites For 2012
Norv and A.J. are still there, but DC Greg Manusky has to hit the bricks. You should probably book your ticket to Super Bowl XLVII now, Chargers fans....

We've Found The Dirtiest HS Basketball Players In America, And They're Two Chunky White Guys
This has apparently been making the rounds (to the point where the local news did a story on the "viral video"), but it's new to us, and it's fantastic. It shows a high school game from Washington State, and a series of (uncalled) flagrant fouls at the hands of two Connell High School players who ...

If You're In NYC Tonight, Come Hear Some Real Sportswriters Read And Talk
It's time for this month's installment of Gelf magazine's excellent Varsity Letters series: there'll be George Vecsey, who just retired from the Times, Mark Ribowsky (he wrote this about Howard Cosell), and Dave Zirin (he wrote this, with John Carlos). 7:30 p.m. tonight at Le Poisson Rouge, Bleecker...

The Salsa Music That Played After Victor Cruz's Touchdown Sunday Was Entirely Planned By NBC
The NFL looks down upon premeditated celebrations, but it seems that restriction doesn't apply to the No Fun League's broadcast partners. Despite NBC's Bob Costas gasbagging about celebrations earlier this season, the Peacock Network elected to enhance Victor Cruz's celebration with a bit of Latin...

ESPN's Scott Van Pelt Sends His Regards To A.J. Daulerio, The Guy Who Called Him A "Classic Power Bottom"
We're roasting our former editor A.J. Daulerio, who has moved across the room to edit Gawker, a gay-interest website for heterosexual women. If you have an A.J. story to share, or if you would like to participate in some other way, please email [email protected]. Lightly sourced slander is welcome...

After Being Leveled By Darwin Cook, The Orange Bowl Mascot Will Never Juice Again
This actually came at the end of the 99-yard fumble recovery we showed you last night, and raises a greater paradox than Schrödinger's cat: how do you decapitate a mascot that is only a head? Darwin Cook tried his damndest with a clothesline on Obie, the anthropomorphic Orange Bowl orange....

ShortCenter: Jalen Rose Does Some Method Acting To Discuss LeBron's Post Game
What is ESPN prattling on about right now? We condense your morning SportsCenter to its essence....

The First Two Points Of Kenneth Faried's Career Came On This Silly Rudy Fernandez No-Look Alley-Oop
I hope Faried knows they're not all going to be this easy, or this pretty....

Here's Hipster A-Rod, Cindy Crawford, And Torrie Wilson In A Photo Capturing The Moment America Collapsed In On Itself
Your morning roundup for Jan. 4, the day we identified what doesn't belong. Photo via Hardball Talk. Got any stories or photos for us? Tip your editors....

The Orange Bowl Brought Us The Schrödinger's Cat Of Touchdowns
One thing is sure: a touchdown was scored on this play. Regardless of the officials' final verdict (they ruled in favor of West Virginia) there's still plenty of doubt as to exactly which team scored it. [ESPN]...

FBI Docs: How George Steinbrenner Made An Ass Of The FBI Director
The year was 1989. A group of luminaries had gathered to schmooze aboard the USS Intrepid, the World War II-era aircraft carrier on the west side of Manhattan. Among them: Yankees owner George Steinbrenner and then-FBI director William Sessions. The two men couldn't have been more dissimilar. Steinb...

Analyst Trent Dilfer Would Rip Quarterback Trent Dilfer
We're doing a season-long NFL roundtable with our friends at Slate. Check back here each week as a rotating cast of football watchers discusses the weekend's key plays, coaching decisions, and traumatic brain injuries....

Jerry Jones Repeatedly Insists That Tony Romo Was The Fourth-Best Quarterback In The NFL This Year
Every morning, the fine folks at Sports Radio Interviews sift through the a.m. drive-time chatter to bring you the best interviews with coaches, players, and personalities across the sports landscape. Today: sometimes numbers don't tell the whole story....

Tim Howard Just Scored A Goal
In the game featuring Landon Donovan's Everton debut it was another American, goalkeeper Tim Howard, who stole the show, scoring a goal to put his side up 1-0 on Bolton Wanderers....

We Simulated The NFL White Vs. Black Race Bowl On <em>Madden</em> So You Don't Have To
Earlier this week, reader Dustin asked who would win between an all-white NFL All-Pro team and an all-black NFL All-Pro team. Mind you, this question was asked without ANY ROOTING INTEREST, and without any hint of RAYCESSNESS. Are we clear on that? Good. BECAUSE WE TOTALLY SIMULATED THAT RACE WAR ...

Things You Don't Expect To See On <em>SportsCenter</em>: Chef Emeril Lagasse Shilling For BP
On the same day payments to victims of the BP Gulf oil spill were cut off, celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse appeared on SportsCenter to promote the Gulf Coast Seafood Tourism Bash (brought to you by BP)....