This is the world we live in now.
Source: (ASNY/SDFL/Splash News)
Source: (ASNY/SDFL/Splash News)
Source: (ASNY/SDFL/Splash News)
The NFL's best quarterback is an underdog in his own mind, if not reality. Green Bay's playoff game against San Francisco gives Rodgers a chance to pull some dirty tricks on his hippie nemeses.
Source: youtube.com
Back in 2005, when Aaron Rodgers "fell" to the 24th pick of the NFL Draft, he had this to say about how disappointed he was that the San Francisco 49ers passed him over for Alex Smith with the first pick overall: "Not as disappointed as the 49ers will be that they didn't draft me."
The wonderful/unnerving thing about Aaron Rodgers is that this slight — the reason for that chip on his shoulder — is so silly. Unlike Tom Brady, who dropped to the sixth round, Rodgers barely fell at all. He was a first-round pick, going to a team that believed in him enough that they wanted him to take over for one of the best quarterbacks ever (Brett Favre). Rodgers has never failed: he was great in high school, he was great in college, and, after sitting behind Favre, he's been great in the pros.
Rodgers is a guy who bristles about being considered short despite being 6'2", which no one really considers short — he has an almost Nixonian pathology, a universe of slights both imagined and not that fuel his tremendous play. Richard Nixon's extreme, infamous paranoia caused him to record his conversations and illegally cheat in an election he was bound to win; despite being equipped with massive power, he felt persecuted. Just like Rodgers. (Except Rodgers isn't evil and "playing hard at football" is a lot less destructive than "peeing on the Constitution.")
In the common telling, Nixon landslid his way to the presidency over Hubert Humphrey in 1968 by demonizing anti-war protesters and hippies in order to build support for his stern, conservative candidacy. And what was the world capital of hippie-ism? That's right, San Francisco. Where Rodgers is playing tomorrow. (A week after defeating the Vikings, who play home games in the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome.) Tune in at 8 pm to find out whether the Niners are Aaron Rodgers' George McGovern, or his Watergate.
This is a young Richard Nixon in his football uniform. Look what number he's wearing.
Perfect throw, perfect catch, perfect play all-around.
Manning drops a perfectly placed throw right into the arms of Brandon Stokley, who he also played with on the Indianapolis Colts. In football-cliche terms, this is called "putting the ball where only your receiver can get it."
With only thirty seconds left, the Baltimore Ravens sealed a trip to the AFC Championship game in the most improbable of ways.
Image by Rick Wilking / Reuters
This was Jacoby Jones' first catch of the game. Only a minute earlier, the Broncos had .99 win probability, according to Advanced NFL Stats — meaning the Ravens' chance of winning the game was at 1% or less.
After the Ravens tied it up, Denver elected to kneel, and the game went to overtime. Neither team scored in the first OT, but in the second, Baltimore's Justin Tucker kicked a 47-yard game-winning field goal to win.
Just a reminder that size doesn't matter (when you're impossibly fast).
You read that right; Holliday is FIVE FOOT FIVE.
Image by Bob Leverone / AP
In the first playoff start of his career, Kaepernick set the NFL on fire.
At the end of the first half, the refs ruled that Seattle did not get the snap off in time. But was that the right decision?
The Seahawks' failed in their rushed attempt to snap the ball before the clock ran out after the sack, according to the refs, and the teams left the field for halftime. But the gap between the clock and when Wilson snapped the ball was so small that it begged further investigation.
Because everyone thought that the game was over, Wilson had been able to throw to a wide-open receiver for a touchdown.
Fumble-touchdowns, weasel coaches, and Hail Marys — the end of this game was crazy.
With 30 seconds left, Russell Wilson — who set the record for most passing yards in a playoff game by a rookie, with 385, plus two touchdowns — had the Seahawks on the Falcons' goal line. A touchdown would give them the lead. And unsurprisingly, the ball went to powerful running back Marshawn Lynch. But Lynch is hit at the line, and the ball pops out, landing right in the arms of a Seattle lineman, who ran it in easily.
At first, it would seem like this fumble wouldn't matter — the lineman got in, after all. But a player can't advance the ball if his teammate fumbles, so the question at hand is whether Lynch broke the plane and scored.
Only one team has ever won when down by 20 at halftime since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970. No team has won when down by 20 after three quarters.
Poor Matt Schaub: it's tough having the ball all the time.
Matt Schaub, pictured above, is having a rough day. Besides the fact that Houston's being routed by New England, he's had a pair of very unintentionally hilarious plays.
Maryland and Miami played a truly terrible basketball game last night. It was not fun to watch. And then Miami's Trey McKinney Jones went and did this.
Last night, Maryland and Miami played in a basketball game. It was not a good basketball game.
How not good of a basketball game was it? At the half, Miami led 19-14. By game's end, the two teams had combined to go 40-120 from the field, and 13-31 from the free throw line.
So why discuss it here and now? Because with just seconds left in the second half, Miami's Trey McKinney Jones had a chance to put this terrible basketball game away with a big dunk. Instead, this happened:
Here's the dunk attempt, isolated.
The cyclist is expected to confess to doping in a Thursday interview with Oprah. As this video shows, it would be a serious change of course.
What a long, winding road it's been for Lance Armstrong, who has steadfastly and sometimes aggressively denied using performance-enhancing drugs during his cycling career. In an interview with Oprah to air on Thursday, the seven-time Tour De France winner is expected to make a "limited confession" to doping. Here are some of his other, earlier statements on the matter.
Stoke City's Jonathan Walters is ready for a new week.
Image by Darren Staples / Reuters
Via: youtube.com
Impressive finish, nonetheless.
Via: whoateallthepies.tv
Via: 101greatgoals.com
I'm sure this won't be used as motivation in New England this week.
Image by Jonathan Ernst / Reuters
The old bull and the young calf go head to head.
Image by Alexander F. Yuan / AP
Rory McIlroy was introduced today as a Nike athlete, joining megastars like Tiger Woods and LeBron James in a deal reportedly worth up to $125 million dollars. As a two-time major champion and reigning PGA Tour Player of the Year at the age of 23, McIlroy is the heir apparent to take over Tiger Woods' throne at the top of golf, and Nike commemorated the moment with this very well done commercial.
The commercial evokes memories of the Converse commercial Larry Bird and Magic Johnson appeared in, going one-on-one against each other, and later the McDonald's "horse" commercial with Michael Jordan and Bird trading shots for a Big Mac. Rory vs. Tiger has a different dynamic than those sets of players, largely because there is literally no rivalry between the world's top two golfers, save for any superfluous rivalry drummed up on sports talk shows. Rory has run away from the field in his two major wins, while Tiger hasn't won a major since 2008, before Rory splashed onto the PGA scene. The only person Tiger is measuring himself against is Jack Nicklaus, who is 73 years old. Rory, for his part, is not trying to beat modern-day Tiger, he's trying to beat the 2000 edition of Tiger, who dominated the game so relentlessly that it seemed he'd rack up 30 or 40 majors before he retired. Hopefully this year both players will regularly battle it out on Major Sundays, give golf a much needed rivalry rather than a buddy comedy, and invariably make Nike millions of dollars.
CJ Leslie is an American hero.
Source: youtube.com
We rushed the court. We went straight to the middle, which probably was better because if we'd have gone to the side we would have gotten hit worse. We got right in the center, and as you can see in the video, I got hit from one side. It was like a wave. It toppled me over. I fell out of my wheelchair. I was on the ground, and I had my phone in my hand -- I was trying to film the event -- and the phone flew out of my hands and my glasses flew off my face. I was on the ground. I was like, "OK, what am I going to do now?"
C.J. Leslie was in the middle (of the crowd) and he saw me. I knew him from being around campus. He pushed everyone back and told everyone, "Get back, get back." Once everyone moved and realized what was going on, he picked me up and I've described it as like how you'd hold a baby. Once I realized I wasn't in trouble any more, I started to scream, like "Wooooo! Let's go!" C.J. held me for a little bit because we lost my wheelchair in the sea of people. He held me for a couple of minutes. I was screaming and yelling.
I patted him on the head and said, "Thank you." Then he put me in my chair, and the PNC Arena staff escorted me off the court to safety. After the game, I waited around for C.J. to say, "Thank you, thank you for helping -- saving my life, really."
It was the dumbest thing I've done in college but it was awesome.
(Read more of USA Today's awesome interview with Privette here.)
A lot can change in a decade, but some dunkalicous jams stay the same.
Image by Rocky Widner / Getty Images
LeBron James scored 20 points and helped the Miami Heat to what might be their last win in Sacramento, but more important than the result was this amazing photograph. Rocky Widner, photographer for Getty Images, caught LeBron James slamming home a dunk that was nearly identical to the first of his NBA career, way back on October 29th, 2003. The photographer for that 2003 shot, also in Sacramento? Rocky Widner.
H/T @NBA
Twitter's premier comedian gives us an erotic dramatic reading with help from Harper's Magazine.
Source: youtube.com
Former Oakland A's player Brandon McCarthy picked the wrong guy to mess with.
Brandon McCarthy is a pro baseball player who is currently taking time off to recover from an injury. He's also really into Weird Twitter, the strange world of jokesters and stilly tweeters that you might recognize if you've noticed some tweets that include more than one of these topics: dogs, bugs, 420, Hitler, kickflips, hollerin, or *talking in asterisks*.
@Love_That_Goku is a brilliant account that takes on the persona of a teenage boy who is a diehard fan of the anime show Dragon Ball Z, lives with his grandmother, practices martial arts, and fights with his mailman.
Last night, Brandon and Love_That_Goku got into it pretty hard. Warning: brutal smacktalk below.
The craziest sports fan on earth is terrifying. I'm worried about his well-being and the well-beings of his children.
Sports fans are an insane bunch. Personally, I have a Boobie Gibson Cleveland Cavaliers jersey that I wear during any important Cavs game, because I got it on a night he scored 33 points in the playoffs. That's stupid. My jersey doesn't impact Kyrie Irving, but it makes my watching experience more fun. No harm, no foul. Not everyone is like me, though. Some people take their watching experience to a different, scarier place. This Ravens fan is one such guy. The following three short videos all take place immediately following GOOD plays for the Ravens. That's right, these are all (ostensibly) happy moments.
Source: youtube.com
Source: youtube.com
Source: youtube.com
