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All Other Sports

Odds and Ends: The hottest male athletes


SI, which never saw a slideshow they didn’t like (have you seen their top 20 athletes with herpes series?) released their hottest athletes list and it’s full of dudes… then we realized there’s also a female version. Any way, to balance out all the Women We Love stuff on here, we thought we’d just stick with the hottest male athletes. Apparently the hottest guy in the world is Kelly Slater who, like, surfs. Followed by a bunch of soccer players. The first major sport athlete to make the list? Of course, Tom Brady at #5. Can we use this to our advantage? Is there any way we can send Brady to coax once-very-hot Katie Holmes from the Dark Side?

In other news…

[Macondawg]: Two men banned for attacking UGA mascots

[Valentine’s Views]: Tiki Barber for the Hall of Fame?

[Can’t Stop the Bleeding]: Isiah To Cowardly New Yorkers : Say It To My Face

[The Offside]: Liverpool Players use Official for Target Practice (video)

[The Big Lead]: More on the fight between the son of Wellington Mara and some Eagles fan

Categories
NFL General

Around the NFL: Week 13 Recap


1. Rex Grossman stinks: The Bears clinched the division title even though Rex Grossman went 6 for 19 for 34 yards, 0 TDs, and 3 INTs. At one point in the game, Rex’s passer rating was 0.0 and he had as many INTs as he had completions. The fans in Chicago must seriously be worried about their QB situation. The defense and Devin Hester can only bail you out so many times. And Brad Johnson won’t be giftwrapping 4 INTs in the playoffs. From the Chicago Tribune: “I’ve hit a little slump,” Grossman offered, which is kind of what the Titanic said to the iceberg.”

2. “Nobody celebrates like a Grammatica“: Joe Buck and Troy Aikman can make fun of Bill Grammatica all they want but Martin came up clutch against the Giants and the Cowboys now have a stranglehold on the NFC East, where they were previously 1-3. The Giants meanwhile are looking like the Raiders with their personal fouls and false starts at home. By the way, why does Tom Coughlin stare in disbelief after every single play. Yeah, Tom, it happened. Stop acting like some act of God went against your team and just focus on coaching up the next play.

3. Bush’s breakout game: Reggie Bush certainly was impressive in the Saints’ win over the Niners yesterday. He had 3 rushing and 1 receiving TD but let’s not go overboard and give him the rookie of the year award yet. He isn’t even the Rookie of the Saints. That distinction (and offensive ROY) belongs to Marques Colston with 54 catches, 869 yards and 7 TDs. While Bush’s 4 TDs in one game is impressive, Colston has been more of a consitent scoring threat this season and has been very important in Drew Brees’ stellar year and the Saints run to the playoffs.

4. So much for the Dolphins: Remember Joey Harrington’s “Why can’t we win 9 in a row?” statement? Well, Joey, because you threw an interception at the Jaguars’ 8 yard line and then you threw another interception at your own 23 yard line. Any talk of the Dolphins making a run to the playoffs with was squashed in a 24-10 loss to the Jaguars. Instead of being 6-6 and within a game of the wildcard, the Dolphins are 2 games out and behind 5 teams for the 2 wildcard slots. What if Nick Saban had gone with Drew Brees or even Joey Harrington from the get go?

5. We want Jake!: While most people agree that Jay Cutler will be a fine QB eventually, the move by Shanny to bench Plummer isn’t looking as good as Parcell’s decision to bench Bledsoe. Other than the 71 yard TD pass towards the end of the game, Cutler was completely underwhelming in his debut. The only lengthy drive that he steered was in the second quarter but that TD drive was mostly a result of a Tatum Bell 31 yard run and a 15 yard personal foul on the Seahawks. (Cutler did throw a nice ball to Stephan Alexander for the TD.) The road doesn’t get any easier as the Broncos head to San Diego next week. However, the rest of the season does include two games against JV secondaries (Arizona and SF) where Cutler can get tuned up for the playoffs.

6. BORRRRRRRRRING!: Finally, ESPN gets hosed again with another Monday Night matchup that shouldn’t be interesting to anyone not in Carolina or Philly. While NBC has been getting great games on the Sunday night broadcast, we’ve had to sit through such coma inducing games on MNF like Chargers @ Raiders, Packers @ Eagles, Patriots @ Vikings, Raiders (again?) @ Seattle, Bucs @ Panthers, and Seahawks @ Packers (again?). Why exactly were the Packers on MNF twice this season? Oh right, Theisman and Kornheiser made sure their contracts included ample opportunity to knob Brett Favre.

Categories
LA Lakers

Nov 7 in Sports HIstory: Magic Johnson announces he has HIV


In 1991 Magic Johnson shocked not just the basketball world but the entire nation by announcing that he was HIV-positive and would retire immediately from basketball. (video here) At the time, relatively little was known about HIV and AIDS and it was assumed that Magic would soon be gone. (At his press conference, Larry Bird/Basketball Jesus wept.) However, 15 years later, Magic is alive and well.

Even though he was retired, Magic was voted into the All-Star Game in 1992 and won the All-Star MVP award. Magic’s basketball career continued briefly when he won gold with the 1992 Dream Team.

In 1943 the New York Giants and the Detroit Lions played to a 0-0 tie, the last scoreless tie in NFL history. The Giants were terrible that day, only getting into Lions territory once and finishing with three passing yards. The Lions on the other ahnd managed to get into field goal range three times but Augie Lio missed from 32,50 and 25. Now if only the Raiders could play the Raiders on Monday night, we’d have our first scoreless tie in 63 years.

Categories
New York Giants

Say it isn’t so Tiki!


Last week we said, “we kinda like Tiki Barber” — he walks away at the top of his game, calls Michael Irvin an idiot… And of course, what happens? A story comes out in the NY Post that he’s completely pussy whipped. Nice Tiki, real nice.


Tiki Barber’s wife was the catalyst behind the Giants star’s decision to hang up his helmet. A longtime friend of Barber says she made him afraid he’d suffer a catastrophic injury that would turn him into a lousy dad. The 205-pound running back is heading for the broadcasting booth at age 31 because Ginny Barber has been “nagging him for a long time – and with others present – that he’d better retire before he has a crippling injury,” Barber’s friend says. If that happened, Ginny told him, “he couldn’t participate in raising his children.

This story makes us sad. Like when rock stars have kids and start making shitty music.

Categories
New York Giants

Tiki Barber takes Michael Irvin off Christmas card list



idiot

We’ve always kind of liked Tiki Barber. As far as NY players go, he’s the one you least want to kill. So it comes as no surprise that he actually gets it and isn’t afraid to lash out at the retarded media and ESPN.

I will call them ‘idiots’ because they have neither spoken to me nor any one of my teammates or any of my coaches, yet all they do is criticize me for being a distraction with this retirement thing.

That includes [Daily News columnist] Gary Myers, that includes Tom Jackson on ESPN, that includes the ultimate character guy, facetiously speaking, of course, Michael Irvin [of ESPN], please get a clue how to be a journalist. Don’t make blanket assumptions about it.”

Barber then sarcastically wondered whether he looked distracted in helping the Giants beat the Cowboys Monday night.

Did Tiki really have to add “facetiously speaking, of course”? You’d have to be some kind of idiot to think that anyone would call Michael Irvin a character guy and be serious. Well, some kind of idiot or Deion Sanders. In the NFL version of hell, you’d have Deion, Irvin and Sean Salisbury doing the pregame.

Links:
[Newsday]: Tiki calls critis “idiots”

[Newsday]: Irvin: Retirement makes Tiki quitter

Categories
MLB General

Oct 26 in Sports History: A couple of game 6 meltdowns


In 1985: While everyone remembers the tremendous gag-job by the 1986 Red Sox in the World Series, the previous Fall Classic featured a similar meltdown. This one, many felt was caused by an umpire, as the name Don Denkinger will forever be cursed on the eastern side of Missouri. With the St. Louis Cardinals leading the I-70 World Series three games to two and holding a Game 6 advantage 1-0 into the bottom of the 9th inning, Royals pinch hitter Jorge Orta tapped a weak grounder to first. Pitcher Danny Cox of the Cards cleanly fielded Jack Clark’s flip and clearly had Orta beat by a step. One problem: first base ump Denkinger was the only person in America who thought Orta was safe. The Cards argued bitterly, became completely unglued in the field as Clark misplayed a popup, catcher Darrell Porter had a passed ball, and Dane Iorg drove home the winning run with a bases loaded single to send the series to a seventh game. There, the Royals promptly smacked the shell-shocked Redbirds 11-0 to win their only championship. Karma rules, though, as they haven’t sniffed October baseball since and now are as formidable a ball team as the Springfield Power Plant softball team (pre-Mr. Burns’ ringers).

In 2002: Speaking of awesome, The-Cosmos-Are-OK, Game 6 meltdowns, who can forget the collapse of the Barry Bonds-Dusty Baker-led San Francisco Douche Giants against the Whatever Angels? The Giants built a 5-0 lead through six innings and a smug Bonds was about to wrap up his coveted, undeserved World Series ring. Funny thing was, the Baseball Gods knew stuff we didn’t at the time, and let the Angels claw their way back with a huge rally and a 6-5 win. Baker (who thought it was such a cute idea to almost get his three-year-old son mauled at home plate as a bat boy), suddenly couldn’t manage a Quick Stop let alone a baseball team, made wrong move after wrong move and the Angels eventually ripped the ring off Bonds’ puffy finger in seven games. Those thundersticks and the Rally Monkey were wicked-stupid, though. Baker quickly bailed on the Giants and went on to an even better punishment with the Cubs the following season, when he was introduced to a nerd-fan named Steve Bartman.

Categories
MLB General

Oct 3 in Sports History: the shot heard round the world


In 1951: Bobby Thomson of the New York Giants hit one of the most famous homeruns in baseball history. His ninth-inning, two-out, three-run shot off the Dodgers‘ Ralph Branca became known as “the shot heard ‘round the world“ and clinched an unlikely pennant for the Giants. The teams were battling in the third game of a playoff series to determine the NL pennant winner. The Dodgers led 4-2 in the bottom of the ninth when Thomson stepped up to the plate and delivered the famous round-tripper (although the Dodgers to this day accuse the Giants of stealing signs that allowed Thomson to know what pitch was coming) that sent the jubilant Giants and their fans to the 1951 World Series. After Thomson’s homer, Giants’ broadcaster Russ Hodges made the famous call, “THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT! THE GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT!” (baseball library.com)

In 1995: After a 252-day trial, former football star OJ Simpson was acquitted by a jury of murdering his ex-wife, Nicole Brown-Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman. Simpson was later found to be liable for their deaths in a civil trial and was made to pay over $30 million in damages. (espnradio.com)

In 1974: Almost 32 years to the day he was fired as manager of the Washington Nationals, Frank Robinson became the first black manager in the major leagues when he took the job as skipper of the Cleveland Indians. He would also continue to play for the Indians the next two seasons. (baseballlibray.com)

And in 1989: 15 years after Robinson‘s hiring, Art Shell became the first black head coach in the NFL when he took over the Los Angeles Raiders. He led the Raiders to the AFC Championship game in his second season with a 12-4 record. He was rehired by owner Al Davis to be the head coach of the Raiders for the 2006 season.

Categories
Philadelphia Phillies

Odds and Ends (06.23.06): Phillies’ Brett Myers arrested



Throws righty, hits…

Phillies pitcher Brett Myers was arrested early Friday morning for hitting his wife in the face on a street near Fenway after a trip to the bars. According to witnesses, Myers was dragging her by the hair and slapped her in the face when people tried to intervene. They then called the police. Myers was arrested and bailed out by his wife. The bail was $200.

In other news…

[The Record]: Former Marshall cheerleader says squad sexually harassed her

[Miami Herald]: Dave Barry on Miami’s bandwagon fans

[Can’ Stop the Bleeding]: Get yer MLB officially licensed caskets here…

[SI.com]: Not going out on top: Reyna retires from international play

[Yahoo]: Joe Thornton wins MVP; Kiprusoff wins the Vezina; Ovechkin wins Calder

Categories
New York Giants

Soon-to-be-ex-wife: Strahan’s lavish and gay



Ian Smith and Michael Strahan

Here’s a lesson for all young athletes — you better be sure she’s the right one before putting that ring on her finger because who knows what will come out in a divorce. Yesterday, she testified that Strahan’s friend, Dr. Ian Smith set him up with his current mistress and with girls on road trips but she really dropped the bomb when she accused she said the two were more than friends.


Michael moved in with Ian in his one-bedroom apartment for the next year. And you can say an alternative lifestyle sprouted.

Ian Smith countered with, “Michael Strahan is one of my best friends and needed a place to stay after he was kicked out of his own home. I let him sleep on my couch as any best friend would do.” This sounds reasonable except that this is Michael Strahan, a professional athlete with a $32 million contract. And it was for a whole year? I’m sure TO has something to say about rats.

We don’t want to get sued so we’ll just quote Outsports.com on this one.


On Tuesday, Smith seemed to claim that, because he is a “happily married man,” it was impossible for him to have been in a sexual relationship with Strahan. However, not only are the cases of married men having sex with one another well-documented, but it has become so common among black men that it even has a name – “the down low.”

Links:
[NY Daily News]: Strahan’s divorce trial gets real ugly
[NY Daily News]: Strahan & his wife swap charges of wild spending
[Star Ledger]: Strahan’s wife reacts to testimony

Categories
New York Giants

Looking for the next Antonio Gates

Ever since Antonio Gates made it big in the NFL, everyone has been looking for the next athletic big man who isn’t NBA worthy but could make it as a tight end in the NFL. (Some people have even wondered why not just use Shaq for goaline jump ball situations.) Enter Jai Lewis.

Despite George Mason’s improbable run to the Final Four, Jai Lewis isn’t going to be an NBA player. However, about half of the NFL’s 32 teams inquired about Lewis before the draft. Today, the Giants signed him as an undrafted free agent.

Unless Lewis is a complete stiff, at 6’7″ and 290 lbs, he’s got a good shot to at least make the practice squad. And that beats playing basketball in Europe. Giants GM Ernie Accorsi seems to understand that it’s a project and that means he’ll be patient as he waits for Lewis to develop.


It’s not going to happen overnight. Basketball teams are filled with great athletes. The question is, does he have the fortitude to play this sport, where you’re getting hit in the mouth every play?

This mean’s Lewis is the anti-Mario Williams, who better produce from day 1 in minicamp and better have more impact than Reggie Bush from the get go. Although, come to think of it, would you rather have no pressure or $26.5M in guaranteed money? Yeah, us too.

Links:

[Newsday]: Giants sign George Mason hoops player