Wow. Prank or accident, this is tremendous.
Image by J. Meric / Getty Images
Image by Charlie Neibergall / AP
Image by Ron Jenkins/Fort Worth Star-Telegram/MCT
Like, I WOULD say that it has to be seen to be believed, but I've seen it, and I'm still not sure it happened.
Hilarious gag may have cost Arizona a game.
Public enemy number one.
Image by Stephen Dunn / Getty Images
The offer was made before the Pac-12's conference championship tournament in Las Vegas earlier this month. And what would you know, Miller was given a technical at a critical moment in a subsequent game that his team would lose by two points to UCLA.
CBS's source is an anonymous official, but get this: The Pac-12 conference acknowledges that Rush put the bounty on Miller's head...but they've already decided it's all good — and that Rush gets to keep his job — because he was just joking.
Put another way, Ed Rush made a "joke" that, even if it was a joke, undermined literally the only job goal that referees need to achieve: impartial judgment. This "joke," according to CBS's source, directly influenced the outcome of a basketball game. Not the biggest deal in the world, compared to, let's say, the North Korean nuclear threat, but consider that THE ONLY POINT OF ED RUSH IS TO ENSURE THE IMPARTIAL JUDGMENT OF BASKETBALL GAMES.
Master P's No Limit Sports Management did, in fact, have a limit.
Via: instagram.com
Fun fact: Jay-Z will not stop until he has a hand in every industry relevant to the 21st-century American rich people. His latest step in this respect is to start a sports representation agency that stems off his entertainment company, Roc Nation. ESPN's Buster Olney and Darren Rovell report that the agency will creatively be known as Roc Nation Sports and, in partnership with Creative Arts Agency, its first athlete will be Robinson Cano. Cano's former representation: super-duper-mega-agent-guy Scott Boras. In case you're wondering whether this could have an effect on Jay-Z's involvement with the Brooklyn Nets, it could: he says he's interested in expanding into other sports and, to do so, would give up his ownership share in the Nets.
The best part of this move has nothing to do with Hova, though. Instead, it's that it allows us to remember the last time a rapper started a sports agency: Master P's No Limits Sports, which helped negotiate Ricky Williams' rookie contract back in 1999. Check out this screengrab from their rad Angelfire website.
Via: angelfire.com
The hubbub surrounding Williams' contract at the time of its signing is best summarized by this paragraph from a Michael Silver Sports Illustrated story:
"Minutes later Williams signed with No Limit, forming a partnership that sent shock waves through the sports world. Depending on who's talking, the hookup of gangsta rapper and dreadlocked runner signaled either the spawning of an entertainment empire for the new millennium or the end of the world as we know it. The debate has intensified over the past four months as the plot thickened: Williams's draft stock slipped a bit, possibly because of NFL teams' concern over No Limit's inexperience and the potential for a protracted contract dispute; the New Orleans Saints traded an unprecedented eight draft choices to acquire the fifth pick, which they used to select Williams; and, on May 14, Williams signed an unorthodox, incentive-laden contract that will pay him far less than his market value if he doesn't put up huge numbers."
Williams didn't put up huge numbers. Instead, he was serviceable but unimpressive over the course of his first three years and, by the end of the contract, had only netted $3.8 million of a possible $68.4 million. Even at the time, this surprised no one — Williams getting his money was dependent on him performing at Terrell Davis levels for the first few years of his career, and Terrell Davis had arguably the greatest NFL start of any running back ever. After the contract solidified as a disaster, Williams fired Master P and No Limit Sports, causing an exodus of its other clients; NLS folded soon after.
Could Jay-Z suffer a similar fate? I mean, he could, but it's unlikely: the partnership with CAA will be a huge crutch/safety net, and Jay has already proven himself to be at least a competent businessman and business, man.
When Bubba Watson asks you to play in his foursome, you may get to drive a hovercraft.
Source: rmgolfcarts.com
Source: damdems.files.wordpress.com
Source: toxel.com
Called the BW1, this prototype (which looks really real) exists solely for Watson's own use. It was designed by Australian hovercraft expert Chris Fitzgerald, who explains above how he deconstructed the elements of a typical golf cart to make this course-friendly vehicle.
Source: youtube.com
The 11-time NBA-champion and former head coach seemed taken aback and upset.
The question, from Huffington Post editor Alana Horowitz: "I'm wondering if you think that organizations and players and athletes need to be more inclusive of gay athletes and more welcoming toward the gay community in general."
Jackson's response: "That's a ridiculous question. None of us have probably ever seen it in all our careers. There's no inclusiveness to be had. I've never run into it in all my career."
It's unclear if he finds the question ridiculous because he thinks that the NBA is already plenty inclusive, or that the NBA doesn't need to be more inclusive, or that the question is irrelevant because there's never been a gay player, but either way, his response is weirdly hostile and prickly for such a straightforward question. Fellow retired coach Kurt Rambis gave a much more party-line answer, pointing out that there's never been an openly gay player and then mentioning John Amaechi, the first NBA player to come out after his retirement. While Jackson may have been tripping over his words, he seems to be saying that there are no gay players in the NBA.
To the credit of host Marc Lamont Hill, he later observed that to imagine there had never been closeted NBA players was ridiculous, which seems about right.
It's a new year, anything could happen. Hypothetically.
Via: assets.sbnation.com
Image by Getty Images
For all this, he got suspended for three games.
ESPN just aired this shocking (and very disturbing) footage of Rutgers men's basketball coach Mike Rice throwing basketballs at his players, physically attacking them, and doing a lot of very angry cursing. What's seen here is what led to Rice's three-game suspension and $50,000 fine in December. The public didn't fully know the reason for the discipline back then, but we certainly do now.
It's also worth pointing out that not only is Rice still employed by Rutgers as its men's basketball coach, but that the university is standing by its actions from December, even in light of this more-public revelation. Back then, Rutgers only stated (in ESPN's verbiage) that "the suspension is related to inappropriate behavior and language, and does not involve any NCAA violations."
That they're not wrong about that wording is itself disturbing. A coach throwing basketballs at a kid's groin? Shouting "faggot"? Violently grabbing a kid by the jersey? These do not, in the NCAA's mind, constitute "violations."
Of course, people will want to point out that Bobby Knight was once caught on tape choking one of his players. This was in 1997, and Knight continued to be gainfully employed for another decade or so. But does the fact that Knight was a more successful coach make this kind of abhorrent bullying any more appropriate then or now?
Athletic director Tim Pernetti and the university still stand behind Rice, and there are no indications that he's likely to be fired anytime soon. That may be a moot point in the end, because what responsible parent would let their child play for Rice now?
Source: youtube.com
The Wolverines did beat Florida, so I guess it worked. But boy is this weird.
The NCAA abandoned its pay-once-and-watch-anywhere app for one that requires a cable-TV subscription — and it's been a huge success.
Image by Tim Sharp / Reuters
Last season, watching March Madness was a breeze: you could drop a few bucks and have streaming goodness across your computer and every mobile device. This year? No such luck. You get free streaming on your mobile device and computer... but the app you use to do so only works if you're a registered cable user and sign up for an arcane, cumbersome service called Watch TV Everywhere. The worst news: for CBS, Turner, and the NCAA, this plan has been a success. For the first four days of games, live streaming was actually up 200 percent over last year in terms of the number of hours streamed. What does that mean? Well, if you're part of the growing movement of cord-cutters — people eschewing paid cable-TV service for an aggregated collection of services like Netflix and Hulu Plus — and you also happen to be a sports fan, you're going to face some tough choices. And soon.
This strategy originated with NBC's summer-of-2012 Olympics coverage. NBC streamed the London games live online through its website, but only if you could authenticate with the aforementioned service. If you're a subscriber of one of the larger cable companies, it was a relatively easy process. Not so much if your cable provider is smaller and locally-owned. Regardless, the Watch TV Everywhere signup experience is so bare-bones and lacking — there's no support system, neither by email nor phone, should you run into technical issues — that its very existence is off-putting from the get-go.
Still, people want their sports. Actually, they need their sports, as these growth numbers indicate. And CBS and Turner (and the NCAA, by extension) are willing to tie their apps to cable TV because cable TV is their gravy train. Go to that link and look at how much you — and everyone else who subscribes to cable, even if they think sports are silly childish distractions for meatheads — are giving to sports leagues through cable. As pseudo-monopolies, cable providers make a lot of money from fans who have no other way to see games and leagues/networks who have no other way to reach an audience. That might change in the future if a la carte cable subscription plans enter the marketplace, but for now, sadly, the NCAA's decision not to circumvent Big Cable is a very defensible one.
Which is too bad, because the other major sporting event of the week — MLB Opening Day — reminds us what good can come of a league developing its own direct channel to fans. If the March Madness cable TV/authentication vortex-of-dumb is one end of the spectrum, the MLB At Bat app lies at the other far end. It's won all kinds of awards and is the top-selling sports app in mobile history. It's also easy to use, helpfully intuitive and customizable, and continually getting better. (Among this year's newest features? More than 60 classic games available for unlimited streaming.) And MLB has still managed to make money from it. All-platform access to the basic service costs $20. Pony up for the full $130 Premium package and you get near-complete video and audio across every device you own. It's an amazing offering and customers (including this writer) are more than happy to hand over their money every year. And while the auto-renew terms are obtuse and MLB's blackout rules continue to defy all kinds of logic — primarily that in-market fans can't watch their home teams on the app — it's the standard-bearer for what sports apps could (and should) be: everything you want for one upfront cost and no confusion.
CBS, Turner, and the NCAA decided not to play that way. And the year-on-year jump in viewership they earned for this decision, sadly, may usher in some kind of chilling effect on apps that veer toward the At Bat model. MLB could decide it's more valuable to protect TV ratings than to continue promoting At Bat, or sell only a bastardized version of the app tied to cable authentication. They might even only offer it to the 71 million cable subscribers that get MLB Network.
The March Madness situation isn't going to get any better. The Madness app — the one you need a cable-TV subscription to use — is released not through CBS or the NCAA itself, but through Turner Sports. And where will the tournament championship game most likely air next season? Not on CBS but either TBS or TNT, a.k.a. Turner Sports cable networks. The college basketball world is headed toward making cable an even more-critical component of their online strategy. We can only hope that other sports don't follow.
Well done, José. Well done.
Image by Mark Blinch / Reuters
In which retreads are re-treaded by the league's most pitiable franchises.
Image by Bob Leverone / AP
NFL teams without a franchise quarterback basically have two options: try and get one, or roll over and die. The teams that try and get one can go for a big-bucks free agent signing, or take a flier in the draft. Each approach has its ups and downs. But plenty of teams of teams choose simply roll over and die. And by that, I mean: they get rid of Kevin Kolb so they can trade for Carson Palmer.
Or they trade Carson Palmer so they can get Matt Flynn. Matt Cassel and Ryan Fitzpatrick are sometimes involved. They jettison one mediocre-to-bad quarterback in exchange for another mediocre-to-bad quarterback, thereby ensuring another season in the same genre of grim and demoralizing as the one that came before it. What we have is a sort of Carousel of Sadness: the shuttling of Grade-C signal-callers from one FUBAR case to another. And right now the NFL offseason is in mid-Carousel.
Image by Tom Gannam / AP
What was magnificent about Arizona's quarterbacking situation last year was not so much the failure of any one passer, but rather the collective ineptitude, a sort of sum-of-its-parts badness that saw four different guys start over the course of a 16 game season and only one of them, Kolb, win more than one game. (The others were a combined 2-9.)
The solution? Bring in Carson Palmer, who most recently led the Oakland Raiders to a 4-12 season, and Drew Stanton, an insurance policy for your insurance policy. HIDE THE FIREWORKS IN FLAGSTAFF, KIDS.
Wow. The game done changed.
This man is a hero.
I'm pretty sure he was kidding. He is Canadian.
Really?!
Image by Elaine Thompson / AP
Yu Darvish, superstar.
Image by Louis DeLuca/Dallas Morning News/MCT
Image by Richard Carson / Reuters
Image by Louis DeLuca/Dallas Morning News/MCT
Via: brooksbaseball.net
What not to do.
Image by Ralph D. Freso / Reuters
There really is barely any firing-worthy offense this guy didn't commit, and now he's finally out.
Less than 24 hours after this explosive series of video excerpts was released by ESPN, in which Rutgers men's basketball coach Mike Rice is seen hurling basketballs at players' heads and groins and screaming a variety of homophobic slurs during practice ("you fucking fairy...you're a fucking faggot"), the university has fired Rice effective immediately. It made the announcement via Twitter.
Based upon recently revealed information and a review of previously discovered issues, Rutgers has terminated the contract of Mike Rice.
— Jason Baum (@JasonBaumRU) April 3, 2013
Here's the statement released by athletic director Tim Pernetti (who defended Rice on ESPN yesterday after the video aired):
"I am responsible for the decision to attempt a rehabilitation of Coach Rice," he said. "Dismissal and corrective action were debated in December and I thought it was in the best interest of everyone to rehabilitate, but I was wrong. Moving forward, I will work to regain the trust of the Rutgers community."
Guy needs a new gig, and we have some ideas.
Mike Rice, the violent, angry, ball-throwing Rutgers coach, is as of this morning an ex-Rutgers coach.
He has some time on his hands, so we've put together a list of other potential careers for him to look at.
This is the only one we could think of.
