Link of the Day: Stewart Mandel on Computers and the BCS

We’re a little light on the updates today, but we’ll have something special for you later this evening or tomorrow morning: an interview with Jimmy Traina of SI.com’s Hot Clicks.

As a preview, I want to highlight a great line a few minutes ago in a story that I found while making my way towards today’s Hot Clicks (starring the lovely Minka Kelly). The line is from SI.com college football Stewart Mandel and sounds like the kind of observation we’d hear in a Jerry Seinfeld stand-up routine.
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Monday WYNTR: Catching Up After a Great Weekend in Cleveland

I got in at 8:30 last night after a terrific weekend in Cleveland for Sports Media 360. I’ll be posting more about the conference over the course of the week (including a photo gallery from my first Browns tailgating experience) but I do want to quickly thank Glenn Moore for putting the conference on, and all of the attendees for really making it a worthwhile experience.

Just a head’s up: I’ll probably be a day or two behind on our normal posts this week, so I apologize in advance or that. But I’ll get the TV schedules and fantasy stuff up as soon as I’m able.

Also, my apologies to those of you who posted fantasy questions during the weekend that I wasn’t able to get to. I didn’t have quite as much time as I thought I would once I got to Cleveland. But hopefully you all still had good weeks anyway.

And with all that said, it’s time for me to tell you What You Need To Read. And since we featured Minka Kelly on Friday, we can’t leave out Kate Hudson, who will always hold a special place in my heart for her role in Almost Famous.
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Friday WYNTR: The Yankees Lose But My Horse is Amazing

If you are a Yankees fan, today is a bittersweet Friday for you as the ALCS will go back to the Bronx. And if you didn’t watch the game, this tweet from MSF’s second-favorite Yankee fan (Dad is #1) sums it up quite perfectly:

I’d like to see a “Yankees 3, Girard 2″ backpage tomrorow, with “Clueless Joe” as a runnerup. Don’t let me down, News & Post. Good night.

I personally couldn’t care less. I’m actually glad Joe Girardi keeps making baffling moves (and that the Yankees jinx themselves) because, in the absence of NLCS drama, the ALCS is at least giving us a 6th game.

So for all of you Yankees fans out there, don’t be too down in the dumps today. Your team is still up 3-2, you still have the best lineup, you still have Mariano Rivera, you still have C.C. Sabathia ready to dominate a Game 7, and…

…Derek Jeter is still daring Minka Kelly.

So continue reading as Minka and I show you What You Need To Read this Friday morning.

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Thursday WYNTR: The Baseball Playoffs Get Infinitely More Interesting After a Bad Day for ESPN

The biggest on-field news in the sports world yesterday obviously revolves around the Philadelphia Phillies beating the LA Dodgers to reach the World Series.

The biggest off-field news in the sports world yesterday involved ESPN, Deadspin, and some pretty lurid tales of sex, ego, and quid pro quo. We discussed this as it was happening, but there have also been new developments in the “ESPN Horndog Dossier” since we signed off yesterday.

But that was yesterday. It’s now Thursday, and we already have the most important news of today and it’s not even 6:30 CT yet: Ozzie Guillen will be working for Fox as a studio analyst during this year’s World Series. Yep, this is going to be great.

And now the rest of What You Need To Read for Thursday, October 22nd, brought to you by…Kate Beckinsale.

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Wednesday WYNTR: Steve Phillips’ Affair, Jay Calls Out Jay, and More Browns Misery

It is once again new feature time.

I realized this morning that every day there is one blog post I look forward to more than any other: The Big Lead’s morning link roundups…which, coincidentally, has not been posted yet this morning.

WTF?

This unexpected void in my morning gave me the opportunity to participate in an exciting new morning activity: thinking. And what I got to thinking and wondering about is why I’m not putting together a similar post on a daily basis for you, our trusty MSF reader.

So I decided to start doing it. And if the old adage “imitation is the most sincere form of flattery” is true, then consider yourself flattered TBL. We’ll obviously put our own spin on things, but we’re not trying to hide the source of our inspiration.

Look for this new feature every morning, probably around 7-7:15 Central Time. And if you’re a blogger or an interested reader who likes sharing good stuff you read, send me tips.

And now, without further ado, onto this morning’s WYNTR (that stands for What You Need To Read), sponsored by birthday girl Kim Kardashian (who probably has a better chance of completing that pass than Derek Anderson…)

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Monday Morning Links

Here are a few links to get you started on a Monday morning, including Stewart Mandel’s weekly college football wrap-up, the pretty bizarre story of Jim Nantz’s divorce, David Wells farting on air, and Terrelle freaking Pryor.

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Evening Link Dump

A quick roundup of links for you, prepared as I watch a pretty damn good Monday night game so far between the Dolphins and Jets.

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LOTD – Joe Posnanski: “Eric Mangini was the Worst NFL Head Coach Hire in 25 Years”

Today’s link of the day comes from one of our favorites here at Midwest Sports Fans: Joe Posnanski.

In his column at SI.com today, Posnanski makes the bold claim (reiterating something he had recently tweeted) that Eric Mangini is the worst NFL head coaching hire in the last 25 years.

Something tells me that our very own Midnight Writer just might agree.

That’s what I call a bold statement. And though it sounds like hyperbole on its face, it is harder and harder to disagree with as each lost Sunday passes by with the Browns seeming to regress under Mangini’s watch.

I am in no way ready to give up on the Mangini experiment yet. But, there is absolutely nothing empirical that anyone can point to that suggests a turnaround is nigh.

And that really sucks…because there are still 13 more Browns games that I will faithfully watch. If they’re anything like the first three, it is going to be a long, sad, miserable year.

With that said, here is your Link of the Day and excerpt, plus more great links from around the blogosphere on a relatively slow sports news day.

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Links, Including Crazy Story of Kansas BBall-Football Player Fight

Crazy story about the fight between the Kansas basketball team and Kansas football team:

• Fracas sends KU guard Tyshawn Taylor to hospital — (KUSports.com)
• Tyshawn Taylor admits throwing punch, other details on Facebook — (The Big Lead)
• Jayhawk-on-Jayhawk violence sends player to ER — (Sports By Brooks)
• And then another confrontation this morning — (Sports By Brooks)

Sports:

• NFL Owners, Players Lean Right With Political Contributions — (MoonDog)
• 50 pics of drunken NBA ball players with randoms — (Hail Mary Jane)
• Plaxico Burress You Say? Donald Driver I Say — (Josh Q. Public)
• Delonte West should be just fine — (Cleveland Frowns)
• Lane Kiffin Wants YOU Chicago — (Not Qualified to Comment)
• NFL should examine startling number of domestic violence arrests — (The Big Lead)
• Shocker: BCS teams face lighter NCAA sanctions — (Sports By Brooks)
• Yet ANOTHER Media Meltdown featuring Sean Salisbury — (Deadspin)
• Is Ted Ginn scared to take a hit? — (My Sports Rumors)
• Interesting NFL numbers through Week 2 – (Zoner Sports)
• Exciting news for Blogs With Balls 2.0 — (Hugging Harold Reynolds)
• California Hooters girls use boobs to support Tebow, charity — (Busted Coverage)
• Cowboys-Panthers MNF Preview — (Dallas Sports Fans)

Non-Sports:

• At U.N. Obama calls for new era in world relations — (CNN.com)
• Obama’s “Safe Schools Czar” coming under fire — (FoxNews)
• Obama considering strategy shift in Afghan War — (NY Times)

Link of the Day: Poor Sean Salisbury and his Cell Phone Fired Again

Not a whole lot of links to pass long today, but just stumbled upon a pretty interesting one over at Deadspin.

Sean Salisbury, famous for getting into trouble at ESPN after using his cell phone to show a picture of Little Salisbury to a female co-worker, has now apparently been fired from another gig.

And more cell phone debauchery is rumored to be at the root of his firing.

Via Daulerio at Deadspin:

Sean Salisbury Fired From Dallas Radio Station The Fan 105.3 — (Deadspin)

According to one source close to the station, Salisbury “freaked out a station promo girl after sexting her”. Program director Tom Bigby had no comment about the alleged incident but said that a formal press release about Salisbury’s dismissal is forthcoming. Damn.

Stay tuned to Deadspin for the latest. They’ll be all over this one.

And finally, some links to carry you on your way this weekend. Hopefully you’ve enjoyed the onslaught of football content over the past 72 hours. Expect it to continue moving forward.

Sports:

• Erin Andrews tells Oprah “It’s been a nightmare” — (FanHouse Back Porch)
• 5 coaches on the hot seat — (MoonDog)
• Gallery of Jesus Playing Sports — (All Left Turns)
• Justin Gage will not give you his touchdown football — (Busted Coverage)
• Predict Cutler’s Stats…Win Free Pizza! — (Jay Cutler Superstar)
• Murray Chass underestimates the power of Google — (The Big Lead)
• Former Michigan State football player kills neighbor by throwing him off three-story high balcony — (Sports By Brooks)
• 9/11 Tribute from the guys at Spewf.com — (Spewf.com)

Non-Sports:

• This is when Entourage was good — (Sharapova’s Thigh)
• Ten celebs caught peeing their pants — (Manofest)
• Who would win a fight: Paula Abdul or Ellen DeGeneres? — (Hail Mary Jane)

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* – Sean Salisbury photo credit: Signal To Noise

Links To Take With You to the John…Featuring Bill Simmons

Sports:

• 2009 NFL Predictions — (Bill Simmons)
• Iverson not the answers in Memphis — (Josh Q. Public)
• Chubby Cubbies – Rick Reuschel — (Zoner Sports)
• Week 1 Fantasy Football Roundup — (Sharapova’s Thigh)
• 2009 NFL Season Preview — (Dock Squad Sports)
• Perspective on Jeter — (It’s About The Money, Stupid)
• Michael Jordan Tribute — (Not Qualified to Comment)
• Interview Review: LeBron James with NPR’s Terry Gross — (Cleveland Frowns)
• Emmitt Smith rips the Cowboys — (Dallas Sports Fans)
• Accusations of bra ripping, dirty play taint Lingerie Football League opener — (Busted Coverage)
• Week 1 NFL Picks — (My Sports Rumors)
• Gender bias in sports — (Hugging Harold Reynolds)
• Browns officially name their six captains for 2009 — (Waiting For Next Year)

Non-Sports:

• Fans toss batteries and boo Santa, why can’t we boo Obama? — (MoonDog)
• Sad, strange disappearance of Yale student — (Fox News)
• Elephants…in Tennessee? — (CNN)

Dropping a Link Deuce On a Wednesday Afternoon

Sports:

• Heisman Watch Week 1 — (MoonDog)
• Orrin Hatch: “BCS literally violates antitrust laws” — (MoonDog)
• Raiders Trade Chart Cheat Sheet — (Ryan Wilson, FanHouse Back Porch)
• Giving the Lions a helping hand — (Josh Q. Public)
• Billy Gillispie enters rehab — (Busted Coverage)
• Who to bench/start in week 1 — (Not Qualified to Comment)
• How will Iverson affect the young Grizzlies? – (Barkley’s Mouth)
• Why fans love to hate the Irish — (Stewart Mandel, SI.com)
• Even if they want to push it, the Illini probably can’t find the panic button — (Not Qualified to Comment)
• Is Jim Tressel really Lloyd Carr? — (Waiting For Next Year)
• What a long strange trip it’s been (to Brady Quinn starting) — (Cleveland Frowns)

Non-Sports:

• Who is better: Bill Nye The Science Guy or Beakman? — (Straight Pinkie)
• Digg as a Pie Chart — (Gunaxin)
• Ten frontmen who died too soon — (Gunaxin)

LOTD: Why The Pittsburgh Steelers and Their Fans Suck

[Editor's note: This post is dedicated to Ryan Russell and Nick Gerlach.]

Hands down on the best running series in the sports blogosphere is Drew Magary’s incomparable Why Your Team sucks series at Deadspin. No, it is not the kind of material that I would ever forward to my mom or dad to read…but that is precisely what makes it so sublime.

Here is the description that opens up every one of these posts, to give you an idea of their purpose: “Some people are fans of the [insert team name]. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the [insert team name]. This 2009 Deadspin NFL team preview is for those in the latter group.”

Today, Drew finished off the series by regaling Deadspin readers with funny, sophomoric, and expletive-filled prose describing the many ways why the Pittsburgh Steelers, their fans, and their city unequivocally suck.

Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, and it is today’s link of the day.

Why Your Team Sucks: Pittsburgh Steelers — (Drew Magary via Deadspin)

6. The Steel Curtain is the worst metaphor ever. They’re curtains. They either open in the center, or they can be drawn upwards to allow you to pass through. That is the function of a curtain. It doesn’t matter what material it’s made from: steel, adamantium, chiffon. ALL CURTAINS ARE EASILY PENETRATED SPECIFICALLY BECAUSE THEY ARE DESIGNED THAT WAY. Call it the Steel Wall. Or the Steel Monolith. Call it something that connotes impenetrability. A curtain intimidates no one…

And then there is this, from the smorgasboard of write-in comments included at the end of each Why Your Team Sucks post. This guy is definitely a Browns fan:

Dave V.:

So many Pittsburgh fans are from Ohio, and they are the biggest bandwagon fans in the world. These troglodytes have never even been to Pennsylvania, and yet they adorn their overweight, uneducated bodies with gaudy yellow and black, and call themselves true Steeler fans.

Also published today where the Why Your Team Sucks posts for the Baltimore Ravens and Cleveland Browns. Both of these are equally, if not moreso, hilarious as well as surprisingly insightful.

And that we have that out of the way, onto the rest of today’s links.

Sports:

• Allen Iverson meets with Memphis Grizzlies — (MoonDog)
• Mark May wears ridiculous ties to honor the ridiculous things he says — (Sports Hernia)
• The best signs from the first college football Saturday of the year — (College Game Balls)
• Another vote for Chris Carpetner for NL Cy Young Award — (But The Game Is On)
• Apple gets free advertising at new Cowboys Stadium — (Sports By Brooks)
• Bears’ depth chart proves flowers more important than skill — (Not Qualified to Comment)
• David Thompson to present Michael Jordan and HOF induction — (Yahoo! Sports)
• Why your team sucks: Cleveland Browns — (Drew Magary at Deadspin)
• Early look at Bears-Packers — (i94 Sports)
• The Week That Was in College Football — (Sparty and Friends)
• Good, classy move by Daunte Culpepper — (Pro Football Talk)
• BYU students go crazy after OU win — (Busted Coverage)
• Random Retro Cubs: Scott Sanderson — (The Friendly Blogfines)

Non-Sports:

• 15 people who should never be allowed to dance — (Hail Mary Jane)
• Dad’s rants become a Twitter hit — (WSJ about @shitmydadsays)

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* – Hilariously-named “Randy Beefsmith” photo credit: The Sports Hernia

Saturday Afternoon Links, Including the Greatest Link of the Day EVER

There is absolutely nothing I can say that will do justice to the brilliance, the greatness, and the utter truth of today’s Link of the Day.

But in the immortal words of Kevin Spacey’s Lester Burnham in American Beauty after Wes Bentley’s Ricky Fittz quit his catering job, I say this to The Big Lead’s Saturday editor Cousins of Ron Mexico: I think you just became my new personal hero.

The perfect headline and then a sublime excerpt:

Please, Fire Jay Mariotti — (Cousins of Ron Mexico at The Big Lead)

Basically, his columns are AOL’s new version of the Free Trial discs. They paid to have so many made and they have to get rid of them so they keep sending them out. They just keep handing them out, day after day, to a public that has no use for them.

And some other links for anyone who is taking a quick college football break to browse the blogosphere.

Sports:

• Derek Jeter owes Roy Halladay a no-hitter — (Josh Q. Public)
• 23 hours of Michael Jordan — (Pippen Aint Easy)
• Pam Ward Chronicles: Week 1 — (Awful Announcing)
• Lou Holtz plagiarizes Animaniac Wakko — (Hugging Harold Reynolds)
• Ricky Williams got engaged — (Deadspin)
• The dominant Big Ten: Ohio State beats Navy 31-27 | Iowa Beats Northern Iowa 17-16
• Good start for Lane Kiffin at UT — (ESPN)

Non-Sports:

• Some parents not happy about President Obama’s planned speech for school kids — (CNN)
• President Obama’s “Green Czar” drawing criticism for radical past — (Fox News)

 

 

Links: Fines, Suspensions, and Layla Kiffin…What More Could You Want?

Okay, as we wrap up another week in the sports world, a few quick hitters and then onto your daily link dump.  

And, for the record, the pictures of Layla Kiffin (whose husband has a big debut coming up) are not gratuitous.  As you will see, while she has nothing to do with LeGarrette Blount or Brett Favre, there is an interesting story about her at the top of the sports links.

First, updating a story that we covered in the wee hours of this morning, Oregon running back LeGarrette Blount has been suspended for the year after punching a Boise State player last night and nearly going into the stands after fans who were taunting him. My gut reaction is that it’s too much.  My rational reaction is that the kid has been in trouble before and there is a good chance that this was a “last straw” type thing.  Either way, I think the University of Oregon needs to take it upon itself not to take an “out of sight, out of mind” approach and make sure the kid gets help.

In related news, Todd McShay has spent an entire column stating the obvious: that Blount’s actions from last night will hurt his draft stock. What would we do with Todd McShay? Although, I am linking to him, so perhaps the joke’s on me.

And finally, the last quick-hitter, ancient and indecisive Vikings QB Brett Favre has been fined 10K for his chop block on Eugene Robinson. Favre thought about retiring when he received word about the fine, then decided against it, then realized his arm hurt and he missed his tractor, and then looked at himself in the mirror and marveled at how good he looked in his new Wranglers. Then he retired again. And then unretired. Then, presumably, he paid the fine.

(And yes, for the record, that is Layla Kiffin staring thoughtfully at me while podcasting. The photo might be doctored, and might have originally had Lane in it, but I will neither confirm nor deny this. Kudos again to KVB for making me look an idiot with cartoon headphones on. In honor of his hard work I try to post this picture whenever I can.)

And now onto the links!

Sports:

• Lovely Layla Kiffin and her dad, former #1 NFL draft pick John Reaves, have issues — (FanHouse)
• Mike Ditka takes equity stake in lingerie football — (InGameNow)
• The case for Derek Jeter as AL MVP — (Wall Street Journal)
• Awesome picture of Manute Bol and Muggsy Bouges together — (NESW Sports)
• Impending death of salary cap won’t be doomsday for NFL — (Deadspin)
• You can start working on Steve Spurrier’s coaching obituary — (Mr. SEC)
• Jason Whitlock betrays the man we came to respect — (Sports By Brooks)
• Yes! A positive story about the White Sox! — (MLive)
• Okay, I’ll admit it: some Cubs fans don’t care about the Cubs — (Not Qualified to Comment)
• The girls of college football – UH YUMP — (Straight Pinkie)
• Stomp feet, clap hands, and BOO! — (i94 Sports)

Non-Sports:

• Charge for online content, readers return to print — (Newsweek)
• Take note: Important Mila Kunis-Natalie Portman News — (MoonDog)

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* – First Layla Kiffin photo credit: GratisBay.com

* – Second Layla Kiffin photo credit: 3rd Saturday in Blogtober