2012 Summer Olympics bid cities to debate on BBC television: Is this being run by the Beeb to give an edge to the London bid (over those from Paris, Madrid, Moscow and New York)? Does this make the bid process more "transparent"? Do you think there is a favourite? (And by the way, will Mexican Farm Animal Stacking be on the debate agenda?)

posted by smithers to other at 04:04 PM - 1 comment

Rafael Benitez ... has treated me like the lowest a***hole on Earth.: Don't let the door knock you on yer keister on the way out, Mr. Henchoz! This Reds fan is pretty sure Jamie Carragher's quality in the middle is the reason for your absence on the field and not some deviousness from the new manager. Have fun in the Coca-Cola Championship next season.

posted by billsaysthis to soccer at 01:53 PM - 5 comments

Big Unit to the Big Apple: The Yankees' acquisition of Randy Johnson sets up a classic rivalry with Curt Schilling: "[They] do not seem to consider each other friends even though they were teammates." A revealing Johnson quote from a past interview about playing with Schilling in Arizona (emphasis mine): "I like to think we both helped one another throughout the time he was here, and he became a much better pitcher than he was before he got here. I like to think I helped him with that, and obviously he helped me get a little better."

posted by rcade to baseball at 10:01 AM - 28 comments

And we thought the Mailman delivered?: The link shows Dikembe Mutombo's rap sheet. Highlights include knocking Antoine Carr senseless and getting shots in at four Knicks in one night. Mutombo is not exactly a menace, but I wouldn't want to meet those elbows in a dark alley. Just ask Lebron.

posted by jasonspaceman to basketball at 06:30 AM - 0 comments

Yahoo! EPL Fantasy League Week 19: As the first half of the season comes to an end, and the transfer window screetches open, one wonders how injuries and inevitable spells of luck will change the table before mid-May.

posted by billsaysthis to fantasy at 03:41 PM - 3 comments

Half-Brained: The Green Bay Packers have been breaking the U.S. Flag Code by lowering flags to half-staff for Reggie White and other team figures. By tradition, only Memorial Day and "principal figures of the United States Government and the Governor of a State" rate the treatment.

posted by rcade to football at 01:47 PM - 47 comments

Ray suing NHLPA: because he wants to get paid despite betraying his union in the papers. Do you buy his explanation of said 'betrayal'? Me, not so much.

posted by garfield to hockey at 11:38 AM - 13 comments

Denver fires Bzdelik.: "I'm sure if they could fire us, they probably would.", says Kenyon Martin. Bzdelik who had a 73-119 record seemed only to still be around because of a contract clause that forced Denver to give him another year after he returned the Nuggets to the playoffs last year. So now, it is Showtime with Michael Cooper taking over and already calling out Melo. Now that the first firing of the season has occured, I ask, has Jeff Van Gundy been given enough rope?

posted by geekyguy to basketball at 11:12 PM - 0 comments

Top Sports Quotes: of 2004

posted by gspm to general at 09:01 PM - 19 comments

What should be the top sports story of 2004?: Is it the Malice at the Palace, the Sox winning the World Series, the great Super Bowl wardrobe malfunction ...

posted by roberts to general at 08:05 PM - 26 comments

It's the IIHF World Juniors!: Finally something for hockey fans to be excited about. (more inside)

posted by Samsonov14 to hockey at 02:31 PM - 5 comments

Reggie White dead at 43: Sad. Just sad.

posted by wfrazerjr to football at 11:19 AM - 101 comments

A little memory lane fodder...: Remember the USFL

posted by Proto_Helium to football at 10:28 PM - 7 comments

Tribute to a fan. : The Red Sox Foundation provides funding to refurbish three public ballparks on the Charles River Esplanade, in memory of Teddy Ebersol.

posted by lil_brown_bat to baseball at 06:58 PM - 0 comments

We had our say about: who should be voted into in the Baseball Hall of Fame this year. Now Page 2's Tim Kurkjian, Michael Knisley, Buster Olney and Jim Caple have their say as well.

posted by Bag Man to baseball at 09:50 AM - 1 comment

Take a pass on the media: Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban offers some advice to Chad Pennington, who flipped out recently with the New York press: Get a blog. "You can’t boycott the media, and then try to explain yourself through the same. To do so is to put yourself at their mercy."

posted by rcade to football at 05:00 PM - 1 comment

I HAVE MONO.

posted by lilnemo to basketball at 03:51 PM - 6 comments

Bill Simmons says Kobe needs to embrace the Dark Side: I say right on.

posted by Mike McD to basketball at 01:25 PM - 7 comments

The Pistons and Pacers can live down the brawl: They are two class franchises. So the Pacers season is shot and the Pistons are doing nothing. Are the two teams supposed to be defined forever by one bad incident one night?

posted by roberts to basketball at 12:49 PM - 5 comments

Fantasy League admin question: conducting online draft via chat session (MI)

posted by msacheson to fantasy at 12:07 PM - 2 comments

Bertuzzi pleads guilty. : It's official: as garfield posted last week, Todd Bertuzzi was offered a "conditional discharge" after pleading guilty to assault causing bodily harm for his attack on Steve Moore in a Canucks-Avs game last March. Bertuzzi gets sentenced to 80 hours of community service, and a year's probation, during which he can't play in any games against Moore (uh, Mr. Prosecutor, you haven't been reading the sports pages lately, have you?). And, of course, I expect he gets a big legal bill. What doesn't he get? Any jail time, or -- as long as he fulfills the extremely stringent requirements listed above -- any kind of a criminal record.

posted by lil_brown_bat to hockey at 06:32 AM - 7 comments

The Guardian Football quiz....: it might raise a titter.

posted by Fat Buddha to soccer at 11:23 AM - 8 comments

A.pparently P.ulledOut of BCS : Big names, like SEC commissioner Mike Slive and Senator Dick Ackerman are trying to help get fans what we want. (SEC link requires AJC login)

posted by danostuporstar to football at 09:20 PM - 8 comments

Down for the Count: Jack Newfield, a muck-raking journalist and author whose expose, The Shame of Boxing, was one of the best investigative sports pieces in years, has died of cancer at age 66. Newfield, who loved boxing writing so much he celebrated A.J. Liebling's 100th birth anniversary in October, had this take on the sweet science: "At its infrequent best, boxing can be the art of hitting and not getting hit -- a ballet with blood, geometry with guile. At its frequent worst, it is fakery, burlesque, cruelty, injustice, exploitation and death."

posted by rcade to boxing at 03:22 PM - 4 comments

EPL Fantasy League Week 18: - Bayern who? I'm top at Christmas, but perhaps not for much longer.

posted by BigCalm to fantasy at 03:06 AM - 55 comments

T.O. O.U.T.: Terrell Owens is out for the rest of the season and beginning of the playoffs with ankle damage and a broken leg. "If he [is] healing well, he could possibly be capable of running in five weeks. The Super Bowl is about seven weeks away." AP story. The Eagles clinched home field advantage for the playoffs.

posted by kirkaracha to football at 06:17 PM - 21 comments

MakeADealYouD***s.com: "We the fans are at the end of our motherf*****g rope. You aren’t talking. You spend more time in front of microphones spouting off crap to inflame the situation than you do in a room trying to make a deal. Newsf****gflash! Negotiating happens in a room together, not at a press conference. We don’t want to hear form any of you d***s unless it’s to say you’ve got a deal. We don’t want to see Trevor Linden until he puts a Canucks jersey on. Keep Bill Daly locked in the f****g room like he is supposed to be. We don’t want to hear another player, NHL executive or owner on another f****g talk radio station. Underf*****gstand? Bottom line: we are the fans and we’re not coming back unless you d***s make a deal and save some semblance of a season."

posted by docgonzo to hockey at 12:18 PM - 15 comments

"Giants Stadium, on this afternoon of Eli Manning's debut, is Plato's Cave. The millions of people watching the game are inside the cave, staring at shadows on the wall.: The shadows are distortions of the reality outside the cave, treated, erroneously, as the thing itself. No matter how he plays, some part of Eli Manning's game, like his personality, will remain hidden from public understanding. It may be a trivial part; it may be the telling part -- the point is that no one can know for sure if the Giants have given their money to the right guy."

Michael Lewis on Eli Manning, in the NYT Sunday Magazine.

posted by yerfatma to football at 02:01 PM - 24 comments

Majerus backing out?: Just days after being named USC's new head hoops coach ESPN is reporting that Majerus has backed out of the deal.

posted by lilnemo to basketball at 06:29 PM - 6 comments

Maurice Taylor drives a '72 Monte Carlo: Normally this would be a wise choice give Taylor's penchant for totalling cars at 5 am. But this is no ordinary '72 Monte Carlo. Thanks to his buddy, Detroit Piston Lindsey Hunter, it's all pimped out with a Scarface theme. Presumably this will match his crib. It also makes him the year's front runner for The Jose Jimenez Embodiment of a Racial Cliche Award.

posted by dzot to basketball at 02:59 PM - 2 comments

Swells Awardz 2004: For the Steven Wells fans out there here's his new column and his end of year awards.

posted by Pete to culture at 01:28 AM - 6 comments

Pedro,: I love you like a brother, but STFU already.

posted by Prince Valium to baseball at 12:35 AM - 16 comments

Arthur Agee's father killed.: Even after ten years since the release of Hoop Dreams, I am still interested in the lives of Arthur Agee and William Gates. So, with today's news that Arthur Agee's father was shot and killed in the alley behind his house, I feel kind of bad. Poor guy, he really turned his life around after the release of the documentary. Login info inside.

posted by NoMich to basketball at 04:36 PM - 2 comments

Air Swamp?: Vince Carter could be heading to New Jersey in exchange for Alonzo Mourning, Eric Williams, Aaron Williams, quite possibly Billie Dee Williams and possible picks.
(Warning: This is a Chad Ford story)

posted by lilnemo to basketball at 02:49 PM - 17 comments

Off the hook?: Bertuzzi is looking at a conditional sentence

posted by garfield to hockey at 11:40 AM - 5 comments

Kobe Bryant Needs a Big Brother: In a weirdly personal column on ESPN.Com, Jason Whitlock blames Vanessa Bryant for the soap opera between Kobe Bryant and Karl Malone. Whitlock, who once wrote a column in praise of divorce, writes, "You owe The Mailman an apology. If your wife didn't leave the mailbox wide open, The Mailman would've never bothered her."

posted by rcade to basketball at 11:12 AM - 22 comments

Champions League draw.: This morning, the draw was made for the final 16 teams, and there are some really interesting first-round matchups - Chelsea v Barcelona, Juventus v Real Madrid, AC Milan v Manchester United, Arsenal v Bayern Munich - any one of these could have been the final. Are we destined for a final like last year with two smaller teams, or will some giants make it through to the end?

posted by blarp to soccer at 09:10 AM - 22 comments

Big Unit to NYY: in a three-way deal with the Dodgers.

posted by mr_crash_davis to baseball at 08:45 PM - 23 comments

Georgia on his mind.: Billy Beane finally trades Tim Hudson, and sends him to the Braves.

posted by jerseygirl to baseball at 04:58 PM - 17 comments

And now for something completly different: When you're given a role, you do your role. People in this league gripe and moan when they don't agree with their situation. Griping and moaning isn't the way to handle it. You work harder and get ready for when your time does come.

posted by mick to football at 07:35 AM - 9 comments

The next time you have to listen to how terrible Ron Artest is: remind the fool in question that Bird, Kareem and MJ liked to mix it up too.
The great NBA fights, minus the obvious recent hullaballoo, to the tune of Bone.

posted by forksclovetofu to basketball at 05:06 AM - 15 comments

Marion Jones fires a $25million shot: across Victor Conte's bow. Her proof of him lying on 20/20 is that she passed a lie detector test and a statement from her doctor saying she never used steroids. The suit also goes on to claim that Conte's recent statements are, among other things, just a ploy to curry favor with the prosecution for a lighter sentence. mmmmm...curry...

posted by NoMich to culture at 10:48 PM - 3 comments

Steve Nash for MVP: Pass it on!

posted by dusted to basketball at 08:28 PM - 41 comments

Is American Soccer catching the NHL's flu?: The US Soccer Federation and the national team players association have been unable to agree to a new contract since the old one lapsed 24 months ago. Now the Federation is telling the players to sign a deal ASAP or Bruce Arena will be fielding a completely new team Feb. 9; the players have filed a compaint with the NLRB.

posted by billsaysthis to soccer at 08:25 PM - 15 comments

'Don't Put Words In My Mouth': Notre Dame Coach Charlie Weis chewed out a reporter who suggested his nearly fatal stomach-stapling operation was an effort to put more head coaching offers on his plate. "You want to know why you do it? Because for 10 years you're over 300 pounds and your father died at 56 of a second heart attack."

posted by rcade to football at 04:46 PM - 5 comments

Boston wraps up Renteria just in time for Christmas.: Deal reportedly is 4 years/$40m.

posted by jerseygirl to baseball at 12:20 PM - 28 comments

Get your Nationals gear now: because the DC City Council may have just killed the team before they ever started playing.

posted by 86 to baseball at 11:09 AM - 41 comments

Since nobody else is using it...: Boston's Fleet Center opened for public skating

posted by lil_brown_bat to hockey at 05:26 PM - 6 comments

"Everybody would get a turn.": Kris Benson's wife thinks she has the deterrent to sports star infidelity.

posted by rodgerd to baseball at 12:25 PM - 20 comments

Go Bowling: The college football bowl season begins tonight when my alma mater North Texas, the juggernaut of the mighty Sun Belt Conference, takes on Southern Miss in the New Orleans Bowl. "28 games in 21 days, and it begins with the nation's leading rusher on Bourbon Street."

posted by rcade to football at 10:00 AM - 0 comments

Pedro looks headed to the Mets. : It sounds like it isn't inked yet, but that's the intention. Only detail is that it's four years while Boston only went for three.

posted by lil_brown_bat to baseball at 07:02 PM - 30 comments

$345,000,000 over six years: not good enough

posted by garfield to hockey at 04:42 PM - 49 comments

Charlie Weis takes the job.: Notre Dame has hired the Pats offensive coordinator to take over the embattled program. He's a good football coach, but is he the right man for the job?

posted by 86 to football at 11:45 AM - 8 comments

Too Much Punting: The NYT glances over a really intense paper discussing the ideal marriage of sabermetrics and football.

posted by DrJohnEvans to football at 09:58 AM - 8 comments

Bryant says Malone's passes are pretty crisp: Kobe Bryant has accused teammate Karl Malone of putting the moves on Bryant's wife during halftime of a Lakers game. The Bryants passed the word on to Karl's wife first before confronting The Mailman, who reportedly replied, "Shouldn't you be a Colorado hotel room?"

posted by wfrazerjr to basketball at 09:31 AM - 28 comments

Alternative Sports Awards: Some strange stuff in here - the Kelly Holmes tattoo story takes some beating. From the Guardian, so some items are lost on the non-darts playing rest of the world.

posted by owlhouse to general at 02:53 AM - 5 comments

ETA drops Real Madrid to 4th: Today's match at the Bernabeu between the Galacticos and Real Sociedad was halted three minutes before time due to an authentic-seeming bomb threat by Basque separatist group ETA with the score 1-1, which would leave the hosts 11 points behind recently named World Player of the Year Ronaldhino's Barcelona. The Spanish FA will decide Monday how to handle the situation. Will disgruntled fans or football widows start using this tactic to disrupt matches?

posted by billsaysthis to soccer at 10:10 PM - 5 comments

Glenn Hoddle linked with Spurs: Despite being appointed as the Wolves boss on Wednesday, Hoddle - who is not unknown for making controversial statements - has claimed he is in talks with a group of millionaire businessmen who want to buy Tottenham Hotspur and place him in charge. Unsurprisingly, the Tottenham chairman is not too pleased about this.

posted by afx237vi to soccer at 08:19 AM - 7 comments

Smoltz back in starting rotation: Is this a good idea? While the Braves need a good starter, Smoltz could barely last the year as a closer. Now that they have Kolb to close, how long will Smoltz last as a starter? Four elbow surgeries might come back to haunt him this year.

posted by roberts to baseball at 06:14 AM - 9 comments

Swann tests gubernatorial waters: Former Pittsburgh Steeler wide receiver, NFL Hall of Famer and Super Bowl MVP, Lynn Swann is floating the idea of running for governor of Pennsylvania in 2006. Without any political experience will his plans fly, or will they sink?

posted by scully to football at 08:57 PM - 8 comments

Fans find zero tolerance: The Palace wants no more malice, so security is tightening up at Detroit basketball games. Fans get the word -- Play nice, or you're out of here.

posted by roberts to basketball at 11:24 AM - 6 comments

S.S. Lazio: will not have any fans for it's next European home game. Why? Because of "racist abuse and crowd disturbances" during the UEFA Cup match against Partizan Belgrade. Ouch! In the past officials have imposed a one-goal penalty against Rome's worse half for similar infractions (I'm not sure if the penalty was actully ever assessed). The punishment does not take effect until next year (pending qualification), but does this punishment go too far? Or was it fair? Anyone have a better idea for subduing crazy fans? The BBC story is here.

posted by Bag Man to soccer at 06:23 PM - 14 comments

McGrady scores 13 points in the last 35 seconds: Rockets 66, Spurs 74 with less than a minute remaining... most of the Houston crowd had left. A couple of steals, plus four 3s by McGrady [video] in a 35 second span won the game. Other than Reggie Miller's 8 points in 9 seconds, I've never seen anything like this.

posted by dusted to basketball at 12:41 AM - 46 comments

Bad, Sportswriter! Bad!: Huntsville Times sports columnist Paul Gaddis has defended his No. 3 vote for Auburn in a "mean-spirited and callow" tone, according to Editor Melinda Gorham.

posted by rcade to football at 02:09 PM - 13 comments

Final Offer: The NHLPA has put forth what is believed to be their best and last offer towards saving the NHL season. If this offer doesn't provide a basis for negotiation, and the owners reject it outright, we can probably kiss the season goodbye. Details of the proposal inside.

posted by Succa to hockey at 01:23 PM - 19 comments

Red on Roundball: The Celtics sat their newest members down with their oldest member for Chinese food and basketball talk.

posted by yerfatma to basketball at 12:04 PM - 6 comments

Is Tim Duncan Better than Kevin Garnett?: So here's this guy, Tim Duncan, who's got credentials galore — including six All-Star game appearances, five All-NBA citations, three MVPs, two gold rings, and probably even a partridge in a pear tree.

posted by LROD to basketball at 09:27 AM - 16 comments

Are You Ready for Some Flemball?: During the Jags-Steelers game Sunday, ESPN.Com's David Fleming took the kind of photos professionals overlook during an NFL game: "The game hadn't even started and I already had a booze-hound Santa, a man purse, cold coagulating beans, fire and a sinister robot-cam captured on film."

posted by rcade to football at 07:33 AM - 4 comments

Nomah stays in Chicago (and gets to keep Todd Walker by his side to boot): The Cubs and Nomar Garciaparra have agreed to a one-year deal worth $8M for 2005, which sounds like a pretty good bargain when you figure Jamie Wright got 21M over three years, and Sean McAdams thinks it's a good move for both teams. Who has moved that's surprised you, and who's the biggest fish yet to be landed?

posted by wfrazerjr to baseball at 09:52 PM - 15 comments

G8 hurts back imitating Torvill and Dean, blames Jimmie Five Bellies. David Seaman to the rescue.: You couldn't make this stuff up.

posted by gspm to soccer at 08:44 PM - 8 comments

Yahoo! EPL Round 16: A very highscoring weekend of action, unless your team name happens to be Blammos and your goalkeeper goes deep in the minus column.

posted by billsaysthis to fantasy at 07:28 PM - 7 comments

Champions League, MD 6: At the end of the group stage, all four English sides have made it through. Chelsea and Arsenal won their groups while Liverpool and Manchester United were surprising seconds--the former in a good way, the latter not so much. I remain atop our little fantasy league, which is now on a break until the knockout stages begin on 22 Feb.

posted by billsaysthis to fantasy at 07:11 PM - 4 comments

Notre Shame: As Urban Meyer arrives in Florida, Notre Dame continues to face repercussions from firing Tyrone Willingham. Retiring university President Edward Malloy said the decision made him embarrassed to be leading the school. The 2,000-member Black Alumni of Notre Dame also blasted the move: "This decision will affect the African-American community more than the University might anticipate in areas of recruiting, student and faculty retention and Alumni participation and contributions in the future."

posted by rcade to football at 06:19 PM - 22 comments

Marion Jones on the hot seat: The International Olympic Committee joined the investigation yesterday into allegations that Marion Jones, the American gold-medal sprinter, had used anabolic steroids and other illegal bodybuilding drugs. In a statement from its headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, the I.O.C. said that its president, Jacques Rogge, had appointed a disciplinary commission of three members to look into the matter. Jones and other track and field athletes and baseball players have testified before a federal grand jury in San Francisco, and the United States Anti-Doping Agency has been investigating Jones and other track figures.

posted by LROD to other at 09:29 AM - 14 comments

World Cup Germany 2006: : the all important mascot has been revealed. It's a lion. Does that mean we (in the UK) have to spend the next two years listening to Gary Lineker inferring that it's a sign of an impending England victory in the World Cup?

posted by JJ to soccer at 09:27 AM - 22 comments

Blog For Sports: exposes the sports memorabilia underworld of fake autographs. A must see if you plan on spending your hard earned cash for anything autographed.

posted by jasonspaceman to culture at 10:15 PM - 5 comments

"I think we've left the game in a better place." : Julie Foudy, Mia Hamm, and Joy Fawcett play their final game as members of the US team on Wednesday.

posted by lil_brown_bat to soccer at 03:41 PM - 13 comments

The legend of Latrine Sprewell grows: Dude is building up a Tyson-esque resume. Excellent timing considering the current public image of the NBA.

posted by dzot to basketball at 12:12 PM - 29 comments

Free Stanley!

posted by gspm to hockey at 09:08 AM - 21 comments

Bruce Lee - film star or sportsman?: "Lee owned more than 2,500 books on a variety of sports seemingly unrelated to martial arts, with relevant passages highlighted. He was undoubtedly way ahead of his time in the intellectual rigour he applied to his sport. (Come to think of it, he may have been ahead of his time in having a highlighter pen; I don't remember those in the early 70s.)" [from Martin Kelner in the Guardian]

posted by JJ to general at 06:29 AM - 34 comments

EPL Fantasy League Week 16: High scores all round.

posted by BigCalm to fantasy at 03:23 AM - 75 comments

Today, the Veterans Committee released their nominations for the Baseball Hall of Fame. Big names on the ballot include: Ron Santo, Gill Hodges and Jim Kaat. Who should they vote in? Should they vote any of them in?

posted by Bag Man to baseball at 11:08 PM - 8 comments

"I am Pat [expletive] Tillman, damn it!": Pat Tillman was killed by friendly fire April 22 as he tried to signal his platoon they were shooting at the wrong people, an accident the Army intentionally covered up, according to Sunday's Washington Post.

posted by rcade to football at 12:13 PM - 7 comments

Athletes in Action,: the sports arm of the Campus Crusade for Christ, is completing a 38 year run as NCAA preseason exhibition fodder after the NCAA has banned Div I teams from playing noncollegiate preseason opponents. As Jerry Tarkanian once said "they beat you up in the first half, pray for you at halftime, then beat you up in the second half."

posted by gspm to basketball at 10:36 AM - 3 comments

England happy to leave but a bad smell lingers: Possibly we're done this one to death but I thought this article made a couple of interesting points. Just cos the tour's over, doesn't mean the problem's have gone away.

posted by Pete to general at 10:34 AM - 2 comments

Ten For Ben: In a game decided when a last-second 60-yard field goal attempt by Josh Scobee inched right, Ben Roethlisberger led the Pittsburgh Steelers to a 17-16 win over Byron Leftwich and the Jacksonville Jaguars.

posted by rcade to football at 07:04 AM - 22 comments

On-field fatality: Cristiano de Lima Jr., a Brazilian striker playing in India, died on the field Sunday after scoring the winning goal and colliding with the opposing goalie.

posted by rcade to soccer at 04:56 PM - 9 comments

Angela Does NASCAR: How a femme fatale hoodwinked stock-car racing, then skipped town, leaving behind a dead husband and an embezzling lover.

posted by mr_crash_davis to other at 04:08 PM - 3 comments

McCain Wants MLB to Tighten Drug Policy : WASHINGTON - Sen. John McCain on Saturday demanded immediate action by representatives of major league baseball's players and owners to tighten the sport's drug-testing policy "to restore the integrity of baseball" or face possible congressional action. "I warned them a long time ago that we needed to fix this problem," McCain told reporters after attending the Army-Navy football game with President Bush. "It's time for them to sit down together and act. And that's what they should do. If not, clearly, we have to act legislatively, which we don't want to do."

posted by LROD to baseball at 07:00 PM - 18 comments

"I don't know if I'm a good fit for this team and I don't know if I'm a good fit for this league.": This boggles the mind. More inside...

posted by lilnemo to basketball at 03:20 PM - 11 comments

Ebony and Ivory: The Terrell Owens/Nicolette Sheridan skit on Monday Night Football was an attempt by ABC Sports to promote interracial sex, according to syndicated newspaper columnist Samuel Francis. "The message of the ad was that white women are eager to have sex with black men, that they should be eager and that black men should take them up on it."

posted by rcade to football at 02:02 PM - 20 comments

Spofi Fantasy NFL league: The first update in week 13? Oops.

posted by dusted to fantasy at 04:04 PM - 8 comments

Spofi Fantasy NBA Rotisserie and Head2Head leagues: Updated standings and trash talk inside.

posted by dusted to fantasy at 01:30 PM - 13 comments

ND really, really screwed?: If this (a former ND assistant from the midwest with catholic roots has chosen UF over ND) is true, ND has really, really shot itself in the foot. Serves them right.

posted by tieguy to football at 01:15 PM - 28 comments

Hockey game breaks out during water polo match

posted by garfield to culture at 10:03 AM - 11 comments

Are you qualified?: The US have changed the criteria for qualifying for their Ryder Cup team. "The new system rewards the game's hottest players," explained PGA of America president Roger Warren. I wonder who they'll get to decide who's hot and who's not...

posted by JJ to golf at 08:48 AM - 6 comments

Report: Bonds Admitted to Using Substances : SAN FRANCISCO - Baseball star Barry Bonds testified to a grand jury that he used a clear substance and a cream given to him by a trainer who was indicted in a steroid-distribution ring, but said he didn't know they were steroids, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Friday. The Giants' slugger told the federal grand jury last year that Greg Anderson, his personal trainer, told him the substances he used in 2003 were the nutritional supplement flaxseed oil and a rubbing balm for arthritis, according to a transcript of his testimony reviewed by the Chronicle. The substances Bonds described were similar to ones known as "the clear" and "the cream," two steroids from the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, the lab at the center of the steroid scandal.

posted by LROD to baseball at 08:18 AM - 55 comments

The Tsar goes to Graceland.: Mike Fratello is now head coach of the Memphis Grizzlies. Eric Musselman has been named an assistant.

posted by lilnemo to basketball at 06:00 PM - 8 comments

At least they're going to sit down:: The NHLPA is apparently putting together some kind of proposal to bring to the owners in an attempt to save the season.

I'm sure the timing of this (the owner's meetings in New York begin this weekend) is largely posturing, but is there any chance at all the Player's Association might shame the owners into at least paying lip service to moving the talks forward?

Is there any reason for optimism? At all? Please?

posted by chicobangs to hockey at 05:08 PM - 16 comments

10 of the best: - David Davies has been a golf correspondent with the Guardian for 21 years, but is retiring. Here are his ten best players and his ten best moments. My favourite has to be from the Ryder Cup in West Palm Beach in 1983: Having struck the shot of shots from a bunker at the 18th to force a half with Fuzzy Zoeller, but then seen the match lost by a point, Severiano Ballesteros went into the dressing room to find the team in tears. "Why you cry?" he shouted. "This is a great victory. And next time, we fuck them!" And in '85, they did. [Is it OK to do swearing on the front page? Sorry if it's not. I started asterisking, but it just felt wrong. It's OK when it's Seve, si?]

posted by JJ to golf at 04:41 PM - 5 comments

The Rules: all football clubs have rules, some are more secret than others. Brentfords manager has spilled the beans; if he gets into a scrap he gets fined £100, whereas a player who uses a sunbed gets fined a fiver.

posted by Fat Buddha to soccer at 01:56 PM - 4 comments

Players for Spanish first division side Getafe might play their next match with their faces blackened with shoe polish...: to prove they are not racist.

posted by gspm to soccer at 10:21 AM - 29 comments

Andrew Motion, the Poet Laureate, writes in the Observer: and gives us his take on the sporting year. "...an awful lot of our medal winners did their job sitting down... How brilliant, I think, to do so much, and do it so well, without fully assuming the vertical."

posted by JJ to general at 06:55 AM - 5 comments

Giambi admits steroid use.: No way!

posted by worldcup2002 to baseball at 02:09 AM - 41 comments

"There's always a bigger shmuck." : The worst deals in sports history.

posted by lil_brown_bat to other at 09:22 AM - 12 comments

Hero to Zero: Tyler Hamilton gets the boot.

posted by Fat Buddha to extreme at 09:00 AM - 23 comments