Sportscaster Al Michaels Charged with DUI: Sports announcer Al Michaels of NBC's Sunday Night Football was arrested and charged with misdemeanor DUI in Southern California on Friday night, Santa Monica police said. Officers detected a smell of alcohol when Michaels spoke to them at a DUI checkpoint at 10 p.m., police sources told TMZ. He failed a field sobriety test and blew a .08 and a .09 in two breathalyzer tests, the sources said.

posted by rcade to general at 12:13 PM - 8 comments

ESPN Suspends Bill Simmons from Twitter for Criticizing 'First Take': ESPN has suspended Bill Simmons from posting on Twitter after he criticized the network for airing a segment on First Take in which Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman repeatedly insulted host Skip Bayliss. "I am not defending this segment," Simmons wrote on Twitter. "I thought it was awful and embarrassing to everyone involved. Seriously." He then added, "But what bothers me about the reaction to that segment is people saying Richard Sherman 'won.' Nobody won. Everyone lost. Including ESPN."

posted by rcade to general at 02:24 PM - 10 comments

Basketball only schools to leave Big East: The seven Catholic schools that make up the Big East's basketball only schools (Notre Dame not included) are planning to leave the conference. No word yet on what Cincinnati, UConn, and South Florida will do in the wake of the Big East's collapse. Louisville and Rutgers announced their plans to leave the conference earlier this year. Syracuse, Pitt and West Virginia announced their departures last year. The new schools leaving, Marquette, Georgetown, DePaul, St. John's, Villanova, Providence and Seton Hall can avoid conference exit fees as long as they leave as a group.

posted by insomnyuk to general at 03:17 PM - 7 comments

Justin Kievit, Middle School Wrestler, Lets Boy With Cerebral Palsy Win Match: When Jared expressed that he wanted to participate in a wrestling match, Mayes said he called his friend Randy Stevens (no relation), a coach at another middle school. “It wasn’t about weight class,” Mayes told the Tennessean. “I told him to point me toward the kid who has the kindest heart.”

posted by johndurkin8 to general at 01:46 PM - 2 comments

Sports on Earth Covers Sports on Earth (but Mostly America): Former Sports Illustrated and Kansas City Star sportswriter Joe Posnanski is the senior columnist at a new sports website launched by MLB Advanced Media and USA Today. Opening day pieces from Sports on Earth cover the Red Sox/Dodgers trade, Rafa Nadal and Peyton Manning. In Posnanski's intro to the site, he writes a bit underwhelmingly, "The idea here is to build a sports website around great writing. That's not exactly a new idea."

posted by rcade to general at 04:13 PM - 0 comments

Greg LeMond smiles: As of today, he is the only US-born Tour de France winner. Lance Armstrong has been suspended for life and stripped of his titles.

posted by yerfatma to general at 10:19 PM - 38 comments

Turner Buys Bleacher Report for $175 Million: Turner has bought the user-generated sports article site Bleacher Report for $175 million. The site is powered by "6,000 mostly unpaid contributors who churn out more than 1,000 articles a day," reports Deadspin.

posted by rcade to general at 02:27 PM - 5 comments

Penn State Removes Paterno Statue Ahead of 'Unprecedented' Punishment: Penn State removed the 900-pound bronze statue of Joe Paterno from outside the campus stadium this weekend ahead of "unprecedented" punishment due to be announced Monday against the school by the NCAA. "I believe that, were it to remain, the statue will be a recurring wound to the multitude of individuals across the nation and beyond who have been the victims of child abuse," said Penn State president Rodney Erickson.

posted by grum@work to general at 10:37 AM - 23 comments

Sports Journalist Dies in Aurora Shooting: Jessica Redfield, an aspiring sports broadcaster in Denver, died in Friday's movie theater shooting rampage in Aurora, Colo, after narrowly escaping a June mass shooting at a Toronto shopping center. Redfield's last tweet to a friend at Sporting News: "Movie doesn't start for 20 minutes." On her personal blog, in her last entry she recounted her narrow escape, "It's hard for me to wrap my mind around how a weird feeling saved me from being in the middle of a deadly shooting."

posted by rcade to general at 11:35 AM - 4 comments

Paterno, Penn State Officials Knew About Sandusky in 1998: Coach Joe Paterno and other Penn State leaders "repeatedly concealed critical facts relating to [Jerry] Sandusky's child abuse" from authorities, investigator Louis Freeh states in a report he issued today. Paterno and the others "never demonstrated, through actions or words, any concern for the safety and well-being of Sandusky's victims until after Sandusky's arrest," the report states. Freeh found that they knew about the 1998 investigation of Sandusky, three years earlier than the shower rape witnessed by Mike McQueary. "The evidence shows that Mr. Paterno was made aware of the 1998 investigation of Sandusky, followed it closely, but failed to take any action," he writes. "None of them even spoke to Sandusky about his conduct. In short, nothing was done and Sandusky was allowed to continue with impunity."

posted by rcade to general at 09:41 AM - 26 comments

Where Are the Champions?: "An interactive map of every championship in the history of MLB, the NBA, the NHL, and the NFL."

posted by kirkaracha to general at 04:20 PM - 1 comment

Is ESPN columnist Sarah Phillips scamming people on the internet?: Eight months ago, a writer who specializes in sports-betting was hired by ESPN, sight-unseen. Fast-forward six months and accusations are swirling that she is either not who she says she is, or she is using her platform to grift internet gamblers and content creators. A story that's about fifty percent JT Leroy and fifty percent Nigerian prince (via MetaFilter).

posted by rcade to general at 07:49 PM - 7 comments

The Fencing Response: (youtube link) "The fencing response is an unnatural position of the arms following a concussion. Immediately after moderate forces have been applied to the brainstem, the forearms are held flexed or extended (typically into the air) for a period lasting up to several seconds after the impact. The Fencing Response is often observed during athletic competition involving contact, such as football, hockey, rugby, boxing and martial arts. It is used as an overt indicator of injury force magnitude and midbrain localization to aid in injury identification and classification for events including, but not limited to, on-field and/or bystander observations of sports-related head injuries." via The Concussion Blog

posted by apoch to general at 10:22 AM - 7 comments

Why Baseball is the Best—And Least Exploitative—American Sport...: according to Georgetown University Professor Michael Kazin. "Compared to the dysfunction, scandal, and discontent commonplace in other professional sport, baseball is looking better than ever."

posted by lawn_wrangler to general at 04:55 PM - 5 comments

States Passing 'Tim Tebow' Bills for Home-Schooled Athletes: Twenty-five states have passed bills allowing home-schooled students to play sports at public schools, a movement sparked by an obscure Denver Broncos quarterback who played for Nease High School near Jacksonville, Fl., despite never stepping foot in the place as a student. A bill before Virginia's legislature is hotly debated. "I support choice, but if you've chosen that, you can't use public schools as an a la carte system," said William Bosher, a former state superintendent of schools. "It's football today. Tomorrow it's a National Academy of Sciences project. The next day it's homecoming queen. Where does it begin and end?"

posted by rcade to general at 07:01 PM - 15 comments

An Open Letter from Kenny Powers to Tim Tebow: "The more I read about Tim Tebow, the more I see similarities to my own life story," writes Kenny Powers. "Though neither the strongest nor the fastest, he excels at sports. Many experts doubt the remarkable lad. They tell him he throws funny, and that he doesn't have the right physique for the game. It's science, they say. He'll only go so far. But the Gifted Young Athlete refuses to let the doubters shit in his Wheaties."

posted by rcade to general at 01:41 PM - 3 comments

For Your Soul: So, here’s the game: The Jon Lovitz Devil has consigned you to an eternity of being stuck in traffic in a wheezing Ford Escort without air conditioning, and the only radio station plays Michael Bolton 24 hours a day. But you have one chance to escape your fate. You get to choose one athlete, at his or her peak, and one sport. Ever. And if that athlete wins, you get a whole different eternity, with chocolate-covered strawberries, DirecTV and a deck that overlooks the ocean. Ah, but there is one catch. You get to pick the athlete and sport. But the Jon Lovitz Devil gets to pick the terms.

posted by gfinsf to general at 06:18 AM - 49 comments

Cat-Murdering Dog with Dorito's Wins Super Bowl Ad Meter: The USA Today Ad Meter panel's top pick during the Super Bowl was a spot -- produced on a $20 budget -- featuring a Great Dane that murders and buries the family cat and buys his owner's silence with Dorito's brand tortilla chips. The runners-up also featured canines in a VW spot about an overweight dog and a Skechers spot with a sneaker-wearing bulldog outracing greyhounds. The game's non-football content also featured a rapper flipping the bird during a Madonna halftime show that was highlighted by a slacklining acrobat.

posted by rcade to general at 11:25 AM - 37 comments

Florida Requires Pro Sports Teams to Take In Homeless: Two Republican state legislators in Florida have introduced bills that would require the state's pro sports franchises to house homeless people in their stadiums or give back the millions they've received from the state. "I want to make good citizens out of them," said state Sen. Mike Bennett (R-Bradenton), who authored the legislation with state Rep. Frank Artilles (R-Miami). A never-enforced 1988 law required teams that take state money to house the homeless when they're not playing. "The rule was you took the money you were supposed to use it for a program for homeless people and you didn't do it and therefore we want our money back."

posted by rcade to general at 10:06 AM - 10 comments

Do Sports Build Character, or Damage It?: Mark Edmundson, a University of Virginia English professor, asks the question through the lens of his own experience as a mediocre high school football player: "Over time, I came to understand that the objective of the game, on the deepest level, wasn't to score spectacular touchdowns or make bone-smashing tackles or block kicks. The game was much more about practice than about the Saturday-afternoon contests. And practice was about trying to do something over and over again, failing and failing, and then finally succeeding part way. Practice was about showing up and doing the same drills day after day and getting stronger and faster by tiny, tiny increments, and then discovering that by the end of the season you were effectively another person" (via MetaFilter).

posted by rcade to general at 09:52 AM - 7 comments

CBS Launching Fantasy Sports App Store: CBS Sports is opening up its fantasy sports services and data to third-party developers, according to TechCrunch. An app store will launch Jan. 31 that can offer free and commercial apps. CBS will take a 30 percent cut on sales of the latter. API documentation and more details are available from the CBSSports.Com Development Center.

posted by rcade to general at 09:44 AM - 1 comment

NBC Makes Run at ESPN with NBC Sports Channel: On Jan. 2, NBC is mounting a challenge to the ESPN empire with the launch of NBC Sports Channel, a renamed and revamped version of Versus. The NBC networks offer Sunday Night Football, the Olympics, PGA golf and the NHL and recently added Major League Soccer, an NFL divisional playoff game, Thanksgiving night game and three Super Bowls. The company wants to add college football, Major League Baseball, Nascar rating and NFL Thursday night games as rights come up in the next few years.

posted by rcade to general at 11:20 AM - 13 comments

Philly Sportswriter Bill Conlin Accused of Child Sex Abuse: Philadelphia Daily News sportswriter Bill Conlin, a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, retired Tuesday after being accused of sexually molesting four children -- including his niece -- in the '70s when they were ages 7 to 12. Several parents of the children were told at the time, and some confronted Conlin, but no one called police, according to a story in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Conlin's niece Kelley Blanchet, one of the alleged victims, said, "People have kept his secret. It's not just the victims, it's the victims' families. There were so many people who knew about this and did nothing." The four provided videotaped testimony to police last year but the crimes were beyond the statute of limitations. Conlin wrote a column about the Sandusky allegations last month, suggesting that it's easy to say you'd do the right thing if you witnessed sex abuse. "Everybody says he will do the right thing, get involved, put his own ass on the line before or after the fact," he wrote. "But the moment itself has a cruel way of suspending our fearless intentions."

posted by rcade to general at 07:43 PM - 6 comments

George Vecsey Quitting New York Times Column: George Vecsey is stepping down after almost 30 years as a sports columnist for the New York Times. One of the most prominent columnists in sports who does not appear on television, Vecsey is also known for books on baseball and coauthoring Coal Miner's Daughter with Loretta Lynn. He writes, "If I have one regret -- one pitch I'd like back -- it is my upbeat commentary during the McGwire-Sosa home run frolics of 1998, after Steve Wilstein of The Associated Press spotted androstenedione in McGwire's locker." As for his favorite moments, he writes, "[T]he Olympics and the Tour de France were great, but my eight World Cups of soccer, so far, were the best sporting events on the planet."

posted by rcade to general at 11:08 AM - 3 comments

Walter Iooss, Jr., Talks About Shooting Famous Athletes: Walter Iooss, Jr., a Sports Illustrated photographer for more than four decades, dishes some dirt in a great story for the magazine on his experiences shooting star athletes such as Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Tiger Woods and swimsuit models including Cheryl Tiegs and Paulina Porizkova. "All the guys who are perceived as a------s are a------s. Randy Moss, Albert Belle, especially Barry Bonds," he writes. "Brett Favre, on the other hand, was a party waiting to happen, back before he cleaned up his act. When he was young, he and his agent, Bus Cook, sometimes arrived at the shoots with beers in their hands."

posted by rcade to general at 06:45 PM - 6 comments

This Is the Classical: Kickstarter-funded sports site The Classical launched over the weekend. Just in time for the NBA's return, FreeDarko founder (and all-around great name haver) Bethlehem Shoals discusses the state of the NBA and soccer blogger Linda Hui expands on New Zealand's Rugby World Cup victory (via MetaFilter).

posted by rcade to general at 01:22 PM - 1 comment

Bankrupt Power Balance Owes Kobe Bryant $400,000: The makers of the Power Balance Wrist Band, a $30 rubber band with a Mylar hologram to "optimize energy flow" touted to improve athletic performance, filed for bankruptcy in January after agreeing to a $57 million class-action settlement and admitting there's no scientific basis for its product claims. The company owes celebrity endorsers Kobe Bryant ($400,000), Blake Griffin ($20,000) and skateboarder Ryan Sheckler ($25,000). It also owes the Sacramento Kings $100,000 after the team reached a deal to rename its arena Power Balance Pavilion.

posted by rcade to general at 12:40 PM - 9 comments

Ex ESPN Exec Commits Premature Masturbation Allegation Litigation: Former ESPN senior vice president Keith Clinkscales -- once the highest ranking black executive at the network -- has sued another former ESPN executive in a pre-emptive move, believing that the person was talking to Deadspin about how Clinkscales allegedly masturbated on a New York-to-Los Angeles flight in front of sideline host Erin Andrews. Deadspin's A.J. Daulerio writes this afternoon, "Just to be clear: A former ESPN senior vice president is suing another former ESPN executive on the grounds that she defamed him in a story that we hadn't written yet. That we're now publishing." Deadspin passes along this claim about the flight: "At some point during the trip, Andrews saw Clinkscales masturbating in his seat, beneath his iPad. When he realized he had been caught, Andrews told Connie, Clinkscales panicked and muttered, 'You know, I'm one of your bosses.'"

posted by rcade to general at 06:31 PM - 16 comments

Viva Las Vegas: Grantland's Bill Barnwell is writing an ongoing series demystifying sports gambling for the newcomer. His first two subjects: how to bet the middle and teaser bets (via MetaFilter).

posted by rcade to general at 04:36 PM - 0 comments

Runner carries injured foe half mile to help in middle of race: "I didn't think about my race, I knew I needed to stop and help him," Ripley said in the school district release. "It was something I would expect my other teammates to do. I'm nothing special; I was just in the right place at the right time." In today's "Everyman For Himself" society, its nice to hear stories like this.

posted by bo_fan to general at 02:02 PM - 4 comments

Big 12 Picking Up The Pieces: Now that the PAC 12 has rejected Oklahoma and Texas, the Big 12 is scrambling to pick up the pieces and rebuild a conference that seemed doomed to history only a few days ago.

posted by Tinman to general at 12:14 PM - 8 comments

61-year-old Vietnam vet makes the cut as a small-college kicker: What a great story. Be nice to know his stats/skill level at that age.

posted by bo_fan to general at 09:44 AM - 6 comments

North Dakota Ready to Drop Fighting Sioux: Because of looming NCAA sanctions, North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple will introduce legislation Nov. 7 that will give University of North Dakota officials the authority to change the school's Fighting Sioux nickname. Dalrymple said he expects that bill to pass and the school to change the name. A 2007 court settlement required the school to change its mascot unless both of the state's Sioux tribes could be persuaded to support it. The only holdouts keeping their names with a tribe's approval are the Florida State Seminoles, Utah Utes, Central Michigan Chippewas and the Catawba Indians.

posted by rcade to general at 11:35 AM - 7 comments

Sports Teams Ranked by Social Media Popularity: The most popular sports team is the Spanish soccer club Real Madrid, according to a metric of social media followers and views tabulated by Famecount. The team has 17.9 million Facebook fans, 2.1 million Twitter followers and 39.9 million YouTube views. The least is the Italian soccer club A.C. Siena, with just 1,516 Facebook fans.

posted by rcade to general at 07:24 PM - 2 comments

Ralph Nader Forms Sports Fan Advocacy Group: Consumer advocate and former presidential candidate Ralph Nader has founded the League of Fans, a sports reform group pushing to end public money for building stadiums, break up college football's Bowl Championship Series and end collegiate sports scholarships. The group opposes the "win-at-all-costs and a profit-at-all-costs mentality" of American sports, said its sports policy director Ken Reed.

posted by rcade to general at 03:42 PM - 21 comments

The Hall of Fame isn't real: The process is a lose-lose: It's either good (and then bad) or bad (and then good).

posted by tselson to general at 11:50 PM - 0 comments

Plane Crash Killed Sports Collector, Million-Dollar Memorabilia Hoard: In February 2009, a commuter plane crashed on approach to Buffalo and killed 49 people on board and a man in a house struck by the plane. The man, 61-year-old Doug Wielinski, had a "world-class" collection of sports memorabilia that could've been worth $1 million, much of which was destroyed by the crash. His widow Karen is telling the story of the Vietnam veteran, father of four daughters and sports collector -- who was assembling a 1933 Buffalo Bisons puzzle the moment he died. "They're worth $500 or $600 apiece, if you can find them, but they're impossible to find," said his best friend, Jim Maciejewski. "I've been collecting, what, 55 years now, and I had one. Doug was exuberant on the phone: 'Macie, I found the Bisons puzzles.' That was the last time we talked."

posted by rcade to general at 11:58 AM - 2 comments

ESPN Suspends Writer for Leach Book: ESPN has indefinitely suspended college football writer Bruce Feldman for contributing to Mike Leach's autobiography Swing Your Sword, SportsByBrooks reports. After being fired by Texas Tech following a dispute with his player Adam James, the son of ESPN analyst Craig James, Leach has sued ESPN and a public relations firm hired by Craig James for libel and slander. Though Feldman got ESPN's permission beforehand to work on the project and has not used any of his ESPN platforms to promote it, he was punished in a conference call Thursday, prompting a furious response from other sportswriters.

posted by BornIcon to general at 02:47 PM - 11 comments

Swing for the Fences: a review of Scorecasting: "Even if you calculate that on average away teams only ever had a 10 per cent chance of beating one of Mourinho's sides, the odds against going unbeaten for 150 matches are more than seven million to one." David Runciman reviews Scorecasting: The Hidden Influences behind How Sports Are Played and Games Are Won for the London Review of Books. The article mainly focuses on home advantage and what the reviewer thinks about the authors' hypothesis regarding its cause. via MetaFilter

posted by WalterMitty to general at 06:46 AM - 1 comment

Top Ten Evil Sports: Doesn't include cheerleading.

posted by owlhouse to general at 09:58 PM - 16 comments