January 31, 2013
The Trenches NFL Podcast: Robert Mays and Ephraim Salaam
Robert Mays and Ephraim Salaam talk PEDs in football, the greatest wide receiver of all-time, and what Super Bowl week is really like for players.
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Dispatches From New Orleans, Vol. 3: A Literary Interlude Starring William Faulkner and Vince Carter
Serious life lessons were recently learned in New Orleans, and I need to talk about all of them right now. I woke up Wednesday morning, the no-man’s-land day of Super Bowl week, situated after Media Day but before the throngs arrive, without a single clue as to what to write about. An hour later, my […]
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How the Ravens Will Try to Contain Colin Kaepernick and the Diversity of the 49ers’ Offense
“The running game in pro football has gotten so boring,” former 49ers coach Bill Walsh remarked some years ago. “There’s just four or five plays they can run. I think the whole thing is headed in the wrong direction, and it’s really unfortunate.” Even after his passing in 2007, Walsh’s observation had held true for […]
Read moreRussell Westbrook Sings Along to Ke$ha, Maintains Dignity While Doing So
Credit to Juliet Litman for this one. She has great taste in YouTube videos.
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One More Reason Why the Rajon Rondo Injury Is the Worst
The Dunkin’ Donuts Turkey Sausage Wake-Up Wraps are tasting a little bitter in Boston this week. Rajon Rondo’s out for the season, and out with him, in no particular order: all gorgeous, mind-boggling passes whose lanes could have only been spotted by no. 9, having briefly entered the fourth dimension; all team outings to the […]
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NBA Shootaround: Brooklyn’s Finest
So much amazing is happening, and the Shootaround crew is here to help you keep track of it all. You’ll find takes on moments you might’ve missed from the previous night, along with ones you will remember forever. Savvy The Heat rolled in Brooklyn last night, thanks mostly to a 36-14 third quarter and another […]
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The Designated Player: Andrew Farrell the MLS No. 1 Pick, Made in Peru (and Yugoslavia, and Louisville)
“Welcome to the family. We’re happy to have you. Stay humble, but stay hungry.” Making his way off the stage he’s just shared with MLS Commissioner Don Garber, Andrew Farrell nods earnestly at the short greeting by his new head coach, Jay Heaps, and looks down at the New England Revolution scarf now draped round […]
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Did Anyone Win the Rudy Gay Trade?
What makes the Grizzlies-Raptors-Pistons blockbuster so exciting is the air of mystery about the long-term, on-court implications of the deal. And those issues almost all surround Rudy Gay: Just how good is he? Within what sort of roster might he jump up a level as a player and become something closer to the All-Star he […]
Read moreAbout Last Night: Silence of the Nets
In case you were busy celebrating National Croissant Day by gorging yourself on refrigerated crescent rolls to spite the French, here’s what you missed in sports on Wednesday. Brooklyn Nets forward Reggie Evans raised some eyebrows before his team’s game against the Miami Heat by saying he was “unimpressed” with Miami forward LeBron James. “He’s […]
Read moreJanuary 30, 2013
Who Won the Super Bowl Today?
Easy. Niners. Because Vernon Davis apparently has an interior design company. My favorite things about Vernon Davis’s design company’s website: Davis and partner Antone Barnes (Davis is CEO, Barnes is COO) push “ENTER” together during the Flash intro; the idea that they convinced Sean Smith to buy a piece of art is a selling point; […]
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The 10 Commandments of NHL Shootouts
Just when we thought we’d seen it all in NHL shootout action, Alex Burrows proved us wrong. Plenty of players have used the ol’ spinorama in a shootout. But none of them ever came up with that whole “ignore the puck entirely when you do it” angle that Burrows broke out Monday: Presumably, Burrows was […]
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Men in Blazers: Special Guest Tim Howard
American soccer fans battling the Black Dog after last night’s eye-acher against Canada can find solace in the one thing our nation does astonishingly — producing a pipeline of the world’s finest follicularly challenged goalkeepers. In this week’s pod, the Men in Blazers sit down with USMNT and Everton’s Tim Howard for an expansive interview. […]
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Trade Machine Madness: A Three-Team Al Jefferson Deal That Makes the Jazz a Force in the West
Much like their Northwest Division rival Denver Nuggets, the Utah Jazz are a collection of talented youngsters and productive veterans void of a superstar. Without a clear central figure, the pressure has been on head coach Ty Corbin to identify the best rotation of players that are, almost to a man, multi-talented but somewhat limited […]
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CourtVision: The Worst Shooters So Far
So far this season, the Nuggets’ Danilo Gallinari is shooting 42 37 percent from behind the 3-point line. This is kind of impressive, although unremarkable by itself, but when we account for shooting angles, something more noteworthy is revealed. First off, Gallinari shoots 3s from all over. He’s pretty active in the corners and at […]
Read moreBaseball’s PED Problem Won’t Go Away
A Miami New Times article reports that six MLB players purchased a variety of drugs from Miami-based antiaging clinic Biogenesis, marking the latest jolt for a sport that’s gone from willful compliance to zealotry when it comes to PED suspicions. The article lists Alex Rodriguez, Melky Cabrera, Bartolo Colon, and Yasmani Grandal among the players […]
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America the Ugly: The USMNT Draws With Canada, 0-0
The first United States men’s national team friendly of every new year is a predictably strange affair. It comes at the end of a long training camp and features roughly two dozen tired guys, the vast majority of whom are not first-choice players for the USMNT. Many of them are not even second or third […]
Read moreVideo: Jalen Says to Trade Dwight Howard to the Hawks
Jalen Rose lays out a trade for Dwight Howard that would send the Lakers’ center to the Atlanta Hawks for Al Horford and Kyle Korver.
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How Joe Flacco’s Big Arm Can Exploit the 49ers’ Secondary
After a decade of mostly familiar names, Super Bowl XLVII is set to provide some welcome new blood under center. Sunday will mark the first title game in five years to feature two quarterbacks who’ve never been here before, but that’s about where their similarities in experience end. For Colin Kaepernick, this start in New […]
Read moreAbout Last Night: The A-Rod Edition
[Editor’s note: An old friend called and asked if he could take over today’s column. He sounded really sad and desperate on the phone, so I agreed.] In case you were too busy NOT being the greatest shortstop AND third baseman of all time, here’s what you missed in sports on Tuesday. Hey guys, future […]
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