August 14, 2012
The Huddle: The Broncos O-Line, Sprinting Receivers, and Post-Bane Pittsburgh
1. The Broncos’ O-line shuffle Usually, when your football team has a Hall of Fame quarterback coming off multiple procedures to fuse parts of his neck together, it’s best to have everything sure’d up along that offensive line. More than anything, continuity is the key to offensive line play, and Denver had the benefit last […]
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Does Chris Paul Live at Downton Abbey?
This is a photo of a sign greeting Chris Paul, who has just returned to the United States of America one gold medal richer. Where Bates at? [via jada_ap/Instagram]
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The Biggest Winners and Losers of the Olympics, by Country
Here in the U.K., everybody’s going crazy over Britain’s Olympic Heroes, and with good reason. But Team GB’s performance wasn’t that surprising; they won slightly more golds than predicted, but a few fewer medals overall. A tremendous performance, but not an unexpected one. So, which nations did pull off a shock? Who exceeded their supposed […]
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The Rules of College Football Fandom
Part of my job here at Grantland is to solve moral dilemmas. For example: Are you a real college football fan? Or are you rooting for Alabama or Michigan in a manner that I might find offensive? The Sports Guy has already laid out a set of rules for pro-sports fandom. College football deserves the […]
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Jeremy Lin on the Rockets Part I: Running the Pick-and-Roll
After having Jeremy Lin pre-Linsanity, the Houston Rockets made up for cutting him before last season by agreeing to pay Lin around $25 million over the next three years. While that may seem like a lot for a player who had success for just 36 games as a New York Knick, Lin is coming in […]
Read moreVideo: NFL Free Agent Anthony Adams Already Knows It’s Swishers
Anthony “Spice” Adams has come out with the Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner of sports documentaries. There is no need for commentary. Please just watch. (h/t reddit)
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Who Dat in Court: The Jonathan Vilma Case Explained
With the NFL preseason in full swing, the Bountygate scandal is just beginning to wind its way through the courts. Last Friday, lawyers for the NFL, NFLPA, and Jonathan Vilma appeared for the second time in front of Judge Berrigan in federal court in the Eastern District of Louisiana. Each side was looking for a […]
Read moreAugust 13, 2012
The Huddle: Andrew Luck’s Debut and Other News From Around the NFL
The NFL’s real preseason started in earnest this past weekend (I refuse to recognize the legitimacy of the Hall of Fame Game), and with the first set of games in the books, we’re here to sling around the latest football news. 1. Andrew Luck’s debut Andrew Luck’s NFL career sort of began on Sunday, and […]
Read moreGrantland Network: The Jalen Rose Show
Grantland’s Robert Mays joins Jalen Rose as he discusses the Dwight Howard trade, NBA projections, American Olympians, the NFL, and why athletes shouldn’t date reality TV stars. Listen to Monday’s podcast here. Subscribe to the Grantland Network on iTunes, and check out our podcasts page.
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Calling in the Cavalry: The Curious Case of the Modern Pentathlon
Sunday 25 October 1914: Woken up during the night with orders — probable advance … They treat us as if we were Infantry always forgetting that we have not got the gun powder which Infantry have. — Diary of a World War I Cavalry Officer, by Brigadier General Sir Archibald Home As the Olympics drew […]
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Paris Is Rising: The Elephant and the 19 Mice of French Football
There is an elephant and 19 mice in French football. L’Equipe, France’s largest sports daily, was the one to coin that phrase but it seems players and managers agree. In a recent survey 85 percent of players picked the same team to win Ligue 1 this season. In another poll 100 percent of the managers […]
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Q&A: Hawks GM Danny Ferry on Dwight Howard, Josh Smith, Basketball Analytics, and Sam Presti’s Wikipedia Page
Last Thursday was a big one for new Hawks GM Danny Ferry: His five kids and wife finally arrived in Atlanta, from San Antonio. Then the Orlando Magic traded Dwight Howard. Not to the Hawks, Howard’s hometown team, but to the Lakers. Ferry had gotten 31-year-old Joe Johnson’s albatross of a contract off the Hawks’ […]
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How Will Tyrann Mathieu’s Dismissal Impact Actual Honey Badgers?
The formal dismissal of Tyrann Mathieu from LSU’s roster will forever damage the legacy of “The Honey Badger,” at least on the collegiate level. No one disputes this. However, another question remains less clear (and perhaps less self-examined): How will the dismissal of Tyrann Mathieu impact the reputation of actual honey badgers?
Read moreRory: The Best PGA Championship Ever?
Last June, Rory McIlroy’s stunning U.S. Open victory led us to create a new methodology for measuring performance in golf, applying the Z-Score (or Standard Score) from math to fields of players in a golf tournament. This new methodology produces a more accurate measure of performance by comparing a player’s four-round performance to that of […]
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What Drought? Rory McIlroy Wins the PGA Championship
Well, if Rory McIlroy was going to end up winning this PGA Championship by tying his eight-shot margin of victory from the 2010 U.S. Open and breaking the PGA Championship margin-of-victory record by one stroke, couldn’t he have said something earlier? Because all of the ink spilled over Tiger Woods’s likely return to major glory […]
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