An ode to the coolest jacket (with a built in fanny pack!) that's ever existed.
They loved each other almost as much as they loved Joe Wolf.
It's about time we get a movie about history-making Dodgers player Jackie Robinson, and the fact that Harrison Ford costars makes it even better.
Sit down and shut up: I'm going to put my face inches from yours and scream “SMALL SAMPLE SIZE” at you until you cry.
Image by Mike Roemer / AP
Here are the top eight quarterbacks by Average Draft Position, paired with their current QB ranking in total points scored:
1. Aaron Rodgers (14)
2. Tom Brady (15)
3. Drew Brees (3)
4. Matthew Stafford (22)
5. Cam Newton (5)
6. Eli Manning (4)
7. Michael Vick (6)
8. Peyton Manning (19)
WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN. Does it mean that black is white, cats are dogs, and we should all accept Alex Smith as our new Dark Lord? Should we trade Aaron Rodgers and Peyton Manning for scraps of bread and/or old Simple Plan CDs? The answer is... no! It's been two weeks. Rodgers and Manning both faced two of the leagues' best defenses in Weeks 1 and 2 — Rodgers had San Francisco and Chicago, and Manning tore up Pittsburgh before having a tough time with Atlanta. Meanwhile, New England dominated Tennessee and struggled against a surprisingly good Arizona defense, explaining Brady's difficulties. All three of these guys should get their sea legs pretty soon, and you shouldn't panic.
Meanwhile, Eli Manning and Drew Brees owners should feel pretty swell — both of those guys should be doing a ton of passing this year.
(Stafford's a slightly less clear-cut case: I've been saying for weeks that the Lions are due for a downturn, and though he understandably struggled against the 49ers, his Week 1 debacle vs. St. Louis is a little less easily excused — Robert Griffin III fared far better than he did.)
Image by Phelan M. Ebenhack / AP
I've actually read in two different places this week that the Houston Texans' secondary has suddenly become this dominant, suffocating force of nature. Yes, they've allowed zero touchdowns in two games so far, and that's great. 124 yards per game? Wonderful. But those achievements came against the league's two worst starting QBs, Ryan Tannehill and Blaine Gabbert. ESPN's prognostication for the Texans' D right now is, "With Denver coming off a short week to prepare for this unit, expect Houston to have a field day giving Peyton Manning and his receiving corps fits." This is hyperbole. Houston's D was a very good-but-not-great squad last year that feasted on a cupcake schedule. This year, they're good, again, but they're also not the behemoths they're being made out to be. You can also file the Seahawks and the Patriots in this category.
Sensitive female singer + deft color manipulation = STONE COLD TESTOSTERONE EXPLOSION!!! Watch until at least 1:40, but don't skip ahead.
The Michigan football team was terrible in 2009. They had a fun win over Notre Dame early in the year and then lost, as I recall, their next 58 games. But it's still a season I remember fondly as a fan, almost solely because of a four-minute YouTube clip I watched in September of that year — one which actually chronicled the even worse 2008 season and starts with 90 seconds of failure. Fans often create and share these kinds of sports-highlight music videos online, but this was not your typical hype video. Created by the site MGoBlog, it was set to the song "A Better Son/Daughter" by folksy, female-vocalist-fronted indie band Rilo Kiley — not an obvious choice to pair with college football, which is not a particularly "indie" pursuit.
I was reminded of that song and that video recently by this piece by Sean Collins about music and "the chills." Namely, I was interested in the assertion by Lisa Margulis, a University of Arkansas professor, that the most chill-inducing musical passages tend to involve sudden changes, especially when the change confounds our subconscious expectations about musical form. This video is so great, I think, because it piles changes on top of each other, adding visual and narrative surprises to the sudden turn in the Rilo Kiley song. It's got Triple Chills. The long buildup gets you accustomed to derfs in black and white (there were many derfs in 2008, the program's worst season ever, its inescapable badness being the reason a 100% rah-rah video wouldn't have worked), and then suddenly it's triumph in super-color. It's even better, of course, if you're a Michigan fan and the colors and images (end zone, home fans) are ones that you have a positive Pavlovian response to.
I can't even think of any other level of sensation that a video could work on, short of actually giving me a beer on Friday around 7 p.m., to induce good vibes. I even tested it on non-Michigan fans; my colleague Kevin, who is not only not a Michigan follower but someone who was born without some crucial "human soul" lobe in his brain and roots for Duke, admitted that it left him smiling involuntarily. My fiancee, who is not always totally on board with the all-consumingness of my interest in the athletic accomplishments of 20-year-old kids at a school I didn't even go to, actually gasped involuntarily at the crucial point.
As Collins wrote, "frisson [a term for the 'chills' experience] is a matter of expecting the unexpected: building to something big, something listeners can hear coming — but then doing it so much bigger, more exciting, more unexpected, that it blows up their nervous system anyway, every time." Sounds like a pretty good description of this video, and of great sports moments in general. Standing for three hours packed together with thousands of strangers, it turns out, is not all that different from going to the symphony.
Because someone had to.
Source: s3-ak.buzzfed.com
Not to mention RGIII is a division rival with Michael Vick
Against the Redskins, Cincinnati receiver Mohamed Sanu threw a 73-yard touchdown to fellow wideout A.J. Green on the first play of the game.
God, this is depressing.
Harking back to the legendary Music City Miracle, Tennessee's Darius Reynaud used a little trickery to get Tommie Campbell his touchdown.
Source: youtube.com
33 fails in 55 seconds. Good.
The punter for the Minnesota Vikings has been making waves on and off the field but for all the right reasons.
Via: facebook.com
Source: blogs.citypages.com / via: blogs.citypages.com
Source: itsconceivablenow.com / via: itsconceivablenow.com
Orlando Cruz, a Puerto Rican featherweight, could also have a shot at a title soon.
Add boxing to the growing list of sports with openly gay stars. Orlando Cruz, a former Olympian and current #4 WBO featherweight, just revealed that he's gay, saying, "I've been fighting for more than 24 years and as I continue my ascendant career, I want to be true to myself."
Cruz, 31, could have a shot at a major title soon, too, potentially positioning him to be a major figure in the ongoing discussion of LGBT presence in pro sports.
This is what happiness looks like.
The Rangers now have to play in the newly created wildcard game.
Image by The Sacramento Bee, Jose Luis Villegas / AP
Image by Robert Galbraith / Reuters
Image by Robert Galbraith / Reuters
Plus he says he knows nothing about football, and the anchor still asks him about Tim Tebow. We get it, ESPN. You love Tim Tebow.
This one will kick you right in the childhood. WARNING: We've scrubbed the naughtiest bits, but salty language ahoy!
His commentary is adorable .
Via: reddit.com
Respect, respect, respect. This guy is a total badass.
Source: youtube.com / via: uniquedaily.com
Apparently amazing achievement in one sport just wasn't enough for the greatest Olympian of all time.
Source: @BryanAGraham
We can't let gay people get married, think of the kids!
Source: youtube.com
Brendon Ayanbadejo in the Huffington Post, 4/23/09
If Britney Spears can party it up in Vegas with one of her boys and go get married on a whim and annul her marriage the next day, why can't a loving same sex couple tie the knot? How could our society grant more rights to a heterosexual one night stand wedding in Vegas than a gay couple that has been together for 3, 5, 10 years of true love? The divorce rate in America is currently 50%. I am willing to bet that same sex marriages have a higher success rate than heterosexual marriages.
Maybe I am a man ahead of my time. However, looking at the former restrictions on human rights in our country starting with slavery, women not being able to vote, blacks being counted as two thirds of a human, segregation, no gays in the military (to list a few) all have gone by the wayside. But now here in 2009 same sex marriages are prohibited. I think we will look back in 10, 20, 30 years and be amazed that gays and lesbians did not have the same rights as every one else. How did this ever happen in the land of the free and the home of the brave? Are we really free?
LINK: Read more about Ravens LB Brendon Ayanbadejo's outspoken support of marriage equality.
