B.S. Report: Cousin Sal

Bill Simmons and Cousin Sal recap Week 1 of the NFL, guess the lines for Week 2, and discuss the latest episode of Breaking Bad. Listen to the podcast here. Subscribe to the B.S. Report on iTunes, and check out our podcasts page.

I Suck at Football 2.0: The Ghost of Jack-Daniel Duncanhines

So I get to Ye Rustic just before ten in the morning, and down at the end of the bar there’s this gray-haired guy drinking a whiskey and eating a piece of chocolate cake. You think you were ready for some football on Sunday? You were not as “ready for some football” as this cat. […]

As Coco Crisp's Homers Go, So Go the Oakland A's

In 2011 and 2012, Coco Crisp did something very odd: Despite turning 32 and 33 in those years (his birthday is in November), he stole more bases in those two seasons than during any other two-year stretch of his career. Crisp would be the first to tell you that he’s much slower in his 30s […]

#HotSportsTakes: It's Time for RG3 to Step Up and Sit Himself Down

Every now and then, we will attempt to write the worst sports column on earth. Today: Let’s talk about Robert Griffin and common sense. WASHINGTON, D.C. — Spend a day or two in our nation’s capital, and it won’t take long to find an argument. Everyone wants to play hardball, and you can’t help but […]

Thank You for Not Coaching: The Week in (Ahem) Curious Strategic Sideline Decisions

Welcome to your new Thank You for Not Coaching Day. After finishing off the Monday-morning columns each week with TYFNC, it became popular enough that I’m moving it to Tuesdays and giving it some space to stretch out. Hopefully, that will mean more opportunities for insight and some examination of coaching strategies that actually worked. […]

Chip Kelly and the Eagles Are Here to Make Football Fun Again

All day Monday, people were trying to prepare me for reality. “You know they’re going to lose right?” “You know they’re playing the Washington NFL team, not Washington State, right?” “The Eagles might score 50, but the Redskins will score 52.” “RG3 is back.” “Riley Cooper is going to run across the middle and four […]

About Last Night: You Stay Classy, San Diego

In case you were busy revamping your intimidation-based game plan, here’s what you missed in sports on Monday: The Houston Texans stormed back from 21 points down to beat the San Diego Chargers, 31-28. “I’m in Cleveland now,” yelled former San Diego head coach Norv Turner preemptively when picking up a phone call from a […]

Are You Ready for the NFL's Flopping Era?

Last week Brian Urlacher, while making an appearance on Fox Sports 1, said that his Bears teams would often fake injuries to slow down opposing offenses. “We had a guy who was the designated dive guy,” he said. “It wasn’t coached, but it was part of our game plan.” As the Chicago Sun-Times reports, “Urlacher […]

How Concern Over Pitcher Usage Can Actually Give College Coaches a Recruiting Edge

We haven’t completely solved baseball, but we’ve made great strides in the past 100 years. Standards for training, conditioning, and instruction are at an all-time high; the equipment is better and the medical treatment is more advanced; scouts scour a wider talent pool than ever, bringing in players from Brazil, Italy, and Germany in addition […]

Bring on the Bobbleheads: The Future of Variable Ticket Pricing in the NFL

The NFL has long been the bastion of price stability, keeping ticket prices firm while other leagues scramble to fill seats via discounts, bobbleheads, package deals, and most recently, variable or dynamic pricing. Variable pricing allows for a tiered structure in which games are slotted into demand buckets of low, high, medium, etc. Dynamic pricing […]

Grantland Fauxsclusive! Philip Rivers’s Amazon Page

Second Chances and Second Choices: How Charlie Strong Assembled the Nation’s Least-Likely BCS Contender

A few months after he was hired to repair the devastation caused by Hurricane Kragthorpe, University of Louisville football coach Charlie Strong delivered a recruiting update to a small flock of Cardinals faithful at a private tailgating bar near Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium. This kind of thing would be insignificant in most Southern football towns, […]

Questions and Answers Surrounding the USMNT's Loss in Costa Rica and Upcoming Clash With Mexico

So, the United States men’s national team went to another tiny Central American nation in World Cup qualifying and lost, falling 3-1 to Costa Rica on Friday night. I thought we were done with this type of ridiculousness. Short answer: no. Medium answer: Welcome to CONCACAF. Longer answer: It meant more to the Ticos, and […]

NFL Run & Shootaround: Begin the Begin

On any given Sunday (or Monday, or Thursday), your NFL Run & Shootaround crew will be gathered around multiple televisions, making inappropriate jokes and generally regressing to the mean. Catch up on all the NFL action right here. May This Be the Age of Positivity (and Beneficial Late-Game Penalties) Sean Fennessey: Geno. GENO. GENO. GE. […]

College Football, Week 2: Overcorrections, Ahoy

Last week: Nobody was anybody, not even Alabama. This week: Several anybodies emerged, and a stunning, sudden trio of nobodies made their own craters. Your Right Door Is Ajar Have you ever heard a discussion about the Best Jobs In College Football, as though that were a readily quantifiable thing, that didn’t include Florida, Texas, […]

About Last Weekend: Shrunk-Down Giants

In case you were busy building something with your hands, ensconced in the majesty of nature, allowing the last rays of summer sun to shine down upon your shirtless back, like a nerd, here’s what you missed in sports last weekend: In a Sunday night NFC East battle, the Dallas Cowboys forced six turnovers en […]