They were pretty freaking psyched.
Dude, the Buccos made the playoffs!!!!
Wake up... Wake up!... WAKE UP!!!
Did you hear what that bear said, human? The Pirates made the playoffs!!
Wait... the ones that play in Pittsburgh?!
How 21 Cute Animals Reacted To The Pittsburgh Pirates Making The Playoffs
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NFL Player Bravely Overcomes Fear Of Own Team's Mascot
His team’s mascot is a horse.
On Tuesday, "NFL Films Presents" ran a story about Kansas City Chiefs safety Eric Berry and his fear of horses.
Via nfl.com
A fear he must face every home game, since the team mascot is a real live horse named "War Paint."
Via nfl.com
The horse takes a victory lap every time the Chiefs score a touchdown, which is great news for fans, but terrible news for Eric Berry.
Via nfl.com
And if you think that's ridiculous, just wait until you hear him explain it all. It's easily one of the best videos you'll see today. And trust me, you'll want to watch the whole thing.
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The International Olympic Committee Blesses Russian Olympics Despite Anti-Gay Law
IOC says it is “satisfied” anti-LGBT advocacy law doesn’t conflict with Olympic charter. Jean-Claude Killy, who just completed the last Sochi site visit, washes his hands.
The International Olympic Committee has pronounced Russia ready to host the 2014 Winter Games, with the IOC announcing it is "satisfied" the country's law banning LGBT advocacy doesn't conflict with the Olympics' anti-discrimination clause.
The Associated Press reported that Jean-Claude Killy, chairman of the IOC Coordination Commission, said IOC doesn't have the authority to intervene and is convinced there will be no discrimination against athletes or spectators at the Winter Games in Sochi.
"The Olympic Charter states that all segregation is completely prohibited, whether it be on the grounds of race, religion, color or other, on the Olympic territory," he told the Associated Press. "That will be the case, we are convinced. Another thing I must add: the IOC doesn't really have the right to discuss the laws in the country where the Olympic Games are organized. As long as the Olympic Charter is respected, we are satisfied, and that is the case."
An initial version of the AP report stated, "The International Olympic Committee has dismissed concerns over Russia's law banning gay propaganda," but the updated version of the story focused on the IOC's satisfaction that there would be no discrimination at the Olympic Games.
IOC spokesman Mark Adams told BuzzFeed, "The rewrite was to make it clear we are NOT endorsing the law - the original said we were 'satisfied' with the law. Our concern is that the games can take place without any discrimination on grounds of race sex or sexuality. We cannot however intervene in national legislation."
The games kick off in Sochi on Feb. 7.
The IOC gave its blessing to the Sochi Games at the conclusion of a final site visit to Sochi and in the face of mounting international criticism over Russia's law, which outlaws "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations among minors," which many worry could be applied to gay athletes and visitors to the games.
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the propaganda ban into law in late June. In August, he signed an additional decree banning all demonstrations and rallies in Sochi for two and a half months around the time of the games, a measure that would thwart protests by gay rights activists during the games.
In a statement from the IOC, it truncated the quotation in question from Killy:
[UPDATE: This story was updated with further explanation from the IOC and a rewrite of the Associated Press story about comments from Killy. Sept. 26, 2:30 p.m.]
Additional reporting for this story was provided by Chris Geidner.
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Catcher Refuses To Let Smack-Talking Home Run Hitter Cross The Plate
Well, that escalated quickly.
In the top of the first inning of Wednesday night's Brewers-Braves game, Milwaukee center fielder Carlos Gomez and Braves catcher Brian McCann exchanged some possibly not-so-friendly words.
Then Gomez smacked a solo shot into the seats in left-center, taking some time to admire his home run.
As he started to round the bases, Gomez said something to pitcher Paul Maholm, and the combination of the smack talk and slow walk caused first baseman Freddie Freeman to yell at Gomez to hurry it up (or something like that).
But Gomez continued to talk shit throughout his home run trot, so McCann confronted him on the third base line in front of home plate.
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What It’s Like To Be An F1 Fan In North America
Get up insanely early on a weekend to watch hours and hours of a multi-day sporting event that no one you know cares about? You must be an F1 fan.
You get up at 6am on a Saturday just to watch qualifying
Because you know as soon as you go online, someone's going to ruin it for you.
And again on Sunday for the race
zoom zoom.
But no matter what time you wake, the coverage is still horrible
No pre-race coverage, no David Coulthard, no Eddie Jordan. NOTHING.
And your local news coverage is even worse
Apparently in Canada, Romain Grosjean is pronounced Romen Grossjane. The more you know.
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Is This The Greatest Retirement Gift Ever Given On A Wednesday In The Mountain Time Zone?
Yes… The answer is yes.
Last night, Todd Helton was honored by the Colorado Rockies after an insanely consistent 17 years manning the first-base bag. He leads the franchise in games, at bats, runs, hits, total bases, doubles, home runs, RBIs, walks, strikeouts, singles, runs created, extra-base hits, plate appearances, times on base, sacrifice flies, intentional walks, and most times grounded into a double play. Basically, Todd Helton is the Colorado Rockies. He is also the proud owner of an immaculate goatee.
Christian Petersen / Getty
In a touching pre-game ceremony, the Rockies honored Helton and his family for his years of service in Denver. His eldest daughter, Tierney Faith, threw out the first pitch — with a perfect strike.
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Why Is George Mitchell Making Decisions About Penn State Football Scholarships?
It remains unclear when or why the former senator suggested reducing the sanctions against Penn State’s program — and why the NCAA is employing a third party to perform the very act of supervision that’s supposed to be the entire reason for their existence.
Little more than a year ago, shortly after the announcement of heavy penalties against Penn State University for its role in the Jerry Sandusky child abuse case, the NCAA announced that former Maine Sen. George Mitchell and the law firm DLA Piper had been assigned to monitor Penn State's compliance with new academic and athletic integrity guidelines. Nowhere in the NCAA's description of Mitchell's role was it suggested he would have the authority to recommend reductions in the penalties levied against the school.
Apparently, that was either always an unspoken part of Mitchell's job, or his job description was modified over the past 13 months — that much became clear Tuesday, when the NCAA's executive committee said it would begin restoring football scholarships to Penn State's football team ahead of schedule because of "continued progress toward ensuring athletics integrity" and attributed the idea of the penalty reduction to a "recommendation" by Mitchell.
Neither the NCAA nor Mitchell would comment on the apparent evolution of his role.
"I'm not answering any more questions," Mitchell told BuzzFeed when reached on his cell phone Wednesday. "Otherwise I'd never get anything done. But thanks for your interest."
"Other than the materials posted to our website and the comments from the presser, we will not have any further comment on Penn State or Sen. Mitchell," an NCAA spokeswoman said.
They also wouldn't comment on whether Mitchell and his firm, DLA Piper, had been paid for their work. Mitchell and DLA Piper are scheduled to act as Penn State's Athletics Integrity Monitor for another four years.
On Sept. 6, Mitchell released his first annual report on Penn State's progress implementing reforms related to NCAA rule compliance, ethics, governance, and security. (The Sept. 6 report did not address whether the penalties should be reduced — a recommendation that was apparently made after the report was filed.) "We have noted the consistent good faith effort by Penn State's administration, staff, and student body to take the sanctions seriously," Mitchell said in the report. He praised the school's implementation of most of the 119 recommendations made in former FBI director Louis Freeh's own 2012 report on the Sandusky affair. The NCAA required Penn State to comply with the recommendations as part of a consent decree which authorized the sanctions against the university — sanctions that the NCAA and the university agreed to on an ad hoc basis that bypassed the organization's own process for investigating and punishing rules violations.
One unprecedented move apparently deserved another: The NCAA had never reduced its own penalties before Tuesday.
Observers characterized the unexpected show of clemency as tacit acknowledgement that the NCAA had overstepped its bounds in levying the sanctions of Penn State.
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Florida Men Charged With Fraud In Super Bowl Laser Scam
Frickin’ laser beams at the Big Game? Not so fast.
Jeff Zelevansky / Getty
The Securities and Exchange Commission charged two men from South Florida with defrauding senior citizens and other investors out of millions of dollars as part of a bizarre scam that involved the NFL, the Super Bowl, and some kind of green laser technology.
The SEC announced the charges in a press release this morning:
The SEC alleges that Peter Kirschner of Delray Beach, Fla. and his business partner Stuart Rubens of North Miami struck an agreement with Thought Development Inc. (TDI) to solicit investors and sell unregistered company stock to help the Miami Beach-based company raise capital. TDI states that its signature invention is a laser-line system that generates a green line on a football field that is visible as a first-down marker not only on television, but also within the stadium to players, fans, and officials. TDI claims its technology would decrease the time needed by officials to determine first downs and generate more time to be sold to television advertisers.
The SEC alleges that through sales agents paid by their company Premiere Consulting, Kirschner and Rubens schemed to misrepresent to investors that their money would be used to develop TDI's technology and fund a purported IPO of its stock. Instead, 75 percent of the offering proceeds were retained by Premiere Consulting or paid to sales agents through undisclosed commissions and fees. Investors also were falsely promised that TDI's laser-line technology would be used during NFL games, and one individual invested an additional $75,000 because a sales agent lied and said that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell purchased the technology for use in the 2013 Super Bowl. TDI did not have any agreements with the NFL or any team to feature its technology during football games, let alone at the Super Bowl.
"Kirschner and Rubens used boiler rooms and high-pressure sales tactics to swindle seniors into believing they could help revolutionize the way we watch football," said Eric I. Bustillo, Director of the SEC's Miami Regional Office. "But these fraudsters merely did an end run with investor money."
Get it? "End run"?
Alan Amron, the laser's inventor, was also charged by the SEC under a separate complaint:
The SEC separately filed a complaint in federal court against TDI and its chairman Alan Amron to charge them with securities registration violations. The federal securities laws require all issuances of common stock to be registered with the SEC or meet a legal exemption from registration, and the complaint alleges that they enabled the unregistered solicitation of investors in their original agreement with Kirschner and Rubens. TDI and Amron agreed to settle the charges without admitting or denying the allegations, and Amron agreed to pay a $10,000 penalty.
The "green laser" did make an appearance at the NCAA Championship Track and Field Championships in June. But as far as anyone can tell, its implementation with professional football beyond that only exists within the confines of this crude YouTube video (below) that TDI posted on their website in February as part of the sales pitch. (A similar, shorter video was just posted last week.)
The NFL has not yet responded to a request for comment.
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15 Reasons College Basketball Will Always Be Better Than The NBA
Always has been, always will be.
Streeter Lecka / Getty
Andy Lyons / Getty
The Rivalries.
Rivalries in the NBA are fleeting. They seem to change every couple years with fluctuation of the free agent market. In the NBA it doesn't matter what jersey you wear or city you play for because the rivalry is between the players (e.g. Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett's rivalry with the Miami Heat). College rivalries are fueled by history, hate, competition and proximity. Fans would sell the naming rights to their first-born child for tickets to see Duke versus North Carolina or Louisville versus Kentucky.
Streeter Lecka / Getty
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How To Handle Being Totally Humiliated On A Basketball Court
Having your ankles broken on TV can be embarrassing.
During the second quarter of last night's Clippers win over the Timberwolves, Chris Paul reminded everyone that he is a ball-handling wizard by making Corey Brewer's ankles disappear.
Brewer is considered one of the better on-ball defenders in the NBA, but an in-and-out dribble from Paul rendered him pretty useless. Upon closer inspection you can see Brewer got caught on Griffin's right foot, but either way, Brewer's body collapsed like a folding chair.
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16 Times Kevin Love Made Outlet Passes Look Sexy
Who knew chest passes could be so seductive?
Titillating.
Risqué.
Sensuous.
Arousing.
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If You Didn't See Shannon Sharpe's Seething Commentary On Richie Incognito Yet...
You should.
One strange aspect of the Richie Incognito story is the way his teammates have defended or brushed off his use of the most offensive word in American English. Shannon Sharpe finds this strange too, and on Sunday's NFL Today pregame show, the usually jocular ex-Bronco angrily — but fairly — captured exactly what's so upsetting about what seems to have happened inside the Dolphins franchise.
If you're interested and have the time, Sharpe spoke at greater length about his childhood in the classic speech he delivered when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2011. (Opening lines: "The people from the Hall of Fame tell me I only have eight to ten minutes to do this. No chance.")
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Rio 2016's Olympic And Paralympic Pictograms Have Been Revealed
And they’re gorgeous.
The Rio 2016 organising committee has launched its sports pictograms.
And, for the first time in history, all Olympic and Paralympic sports are individually represented.
Getty / Buda Mendes
Since Tokyo 1964, every host nation has depicted its own culture through pictograms for each sport.
The 2016 design committee framed its pictograms in pebble-shapes, which are inspired by Rio's curving landscapes.
The pictograms' figures are based on each sport's main moment of action.
Alex Ferro / Rio 2016
They were hand-drawn and then their strokes were digitally reconstructed.
“For the first time, all Olympic and Paralympic sports are individually represented," said Rio 2016 President Carlos Nuzman.
"This is one of our unique contributions to the history of the Games."
Alex Ferro / Rio 2016
There are 64 pictograms in total: 41 Olympic and 23 Paralympic.
Rio 2016.
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"Space Jam" Mockumentary Will Change The Way You Think About Cartoons, Sports, And Life Itself
The team at Yahoo’s SketchY weekly comedy web series just dropped an anvil on the sports world, and it’s amazing.
His Airness approves.
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Junior Hockey Player Slashes Opponent's Throat With Stick In Retaliation For Check
That escalated quickly.
A recent junior hockey tournament turned violent when what looked to be a slight cheap shot to the legs...
...turned into to a swift and frightening retaliation.
As you can see, the player quickly got up from the check and used his hockey stick to slash his opponent in the throat.
He threw repeated punches before the ref could pull him away.
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Everyone, Literally Everyone On Earth, Is Talking About Last Night's College Basketball Games
The madness started a little early this year.
Four of the top five teams in college basketball faced off last night in a new early-season tournament called the Champions Classic. It's a made-for-TV event aimed to build excitement for the season, and last night in the United Center in Chicago that's exactly what Kentucky, Michigan State, Kansas, and Duke did. Unlike most early-season events, which are marred by poor chemistry and sloppy play, all four of the participating teams appeared to be in near mid-season form — especially Michigan State.
While the other three teams at the event featured high-profile freshman recruits, the No. 2-ranked Spartans relied on cohesive team defense and a surprisingly explosive, un-Big Ten-like transition offense led by returning stars to earn a 78-74 victory over the very young No. 1 Kentucky Wildcats.
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Holy Cow, This 5-Year-Old Drum Major Is Easily The Cutest Thing You'll See Today
It’s too much. It’s too much to handle.
The Palm Beach Post has this great video about Taranza McKelvin.
Unfortunately the video doesn't work on mobile, but there are adorable screenshots below!
Taranza is a drum major for Belle Glade, Florida's Glades Central High School. Oh, he's also 5-years-old.
Taranza was interested in marching bands so they signed him up for band camp at the local high school.
What they didn't realize was that the school had big plans for Taranza.
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Arrested: Money Manager Scammed NHL Players Out Of Millions
In 1995, Bryan Berard was the 3rd ever American to become a first draft pick in the NHL, making him an instant millionaire at just 18. A large chunk of his millions ended up in the hands of Phil Kenner, a money manager who worked with a number of athletes. That money, purportedly for investments, never came back.
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The Sports Business Can't Take Any More Money From Its Fans
The industry’s growth now mostly involves extracting billions from television networks and advertising. Ticket sales and merchandising growth are slowing.
Kim Kyung Hoon / Reuters
The future of the sports business isn't getting fans into seats, but broadcasters to the table.
According to a report from PwC, revenue from media rights and sponsorships, which are currently $25 billion of the North American sports industry's $53.5 billion total revenue, will grow to just over half of the $67.7 billion total revenue pie by 2017.
Ticket sales and merchandising will make up the other half and will grow at a much slower rate, 3.9% and 1.6%, respectively. Media rights and sponsorships, on the other hand, will advance 7.7% and 6% a year, respectively.
PwC
Ticket sales simply can't go all that much higher, PwC said, even as the economy recovers from a recession that curbed most ticket price increases.
"Price increases beyond 2014 should largely remain nominal in established markets due to increased sensitivity to the value received by ticket buyers," PwC estimates, partially due to the increased quality of the at-home viewing experience. So NBC, CBS, and Fox, which pay a combined $3 billion a year just for NFL games, are actually getting the viewers to go along with it. Thanks, Cleatus.
The only hope teams have for getting more people to pay more will be "value-add amenities and benefits to create additional exclusivity and further differentiate the in-person fan experience." This means more areas of the stadium or arena that only some ticket buyers can go into, Texas-sized video screens, in-stadium Wi-Fi, and "party plazas/decks."
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Quiz: College Basketball Coach Or Guy On The Floor Of The New York Stock Exchange?
It’s harder than you think.
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