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Sports Blotter: Dead Duck

Oregon's Masoli finally stalls out; plus, a World Cup ambush, and Florida strikes back
The saga of the University of Oregon football team grows sadder and sadder.
By MATT TAIBBI | June 24, 2010

Drunken golf-cart fun at Stanford; plus, an aspiring NHL goon takes his show off the ice
Here's one you don't hear every day. J.J. Hones, a point guard on the Stanford Cardinal women's basketball team, has been dismissed from the squad for a DUI. No big deal, right? Happens all the time in college sports.
By MATT TAIBBI | June 16, 2010

Spring fever

LT’s self-abuse defense, a bag job at Notre Dame, and heading back to school in Texas
The Lawrence Taylor case is progressing, and as expected, each passing day upchucks new sordid details into the gossip-o-sphere.
By MATT TAIBBI | May 24, 2010

Road hogs

Fear and loathing in Myrtle Beach. Plus, media overkill and jockularity
Phillipe and Jorge have just returned from a research trip to Myrtle Beach, SC.
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | May 19, 2010

Facebook fracas

Clinton Hart has one too many friends; plus, a pack of ’Dawgs starts chasing the Ducks
Sooner or later, Facebook had to figure into the sports-crime scene. There are at least two cases now of pro football players getting arrested for assault in fights resulting from their wives looking at their Facebook friends lists.
By MATT TAIBBI | May 05, 2010

Mirror, mirror

Smashing up cars in South Alabama; Plus, it's that frisky NFL draft time of year
Virtually every year, like clockwork, a college-football player is arrested for getting blasted and then running around town vandalizing cars — a crime that almost always involves ripping multiple side mirrors off of multiple automobiles.
By MATT TAIBBI | April 28, 2010

QB freak

No charges for Roethlisberger, but Big Ben’s reputation might be sacked
Trying to parse the situation with Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and his sexual-assault allegations, one comes to some interesting conclusions. The strategy pursued by law enforcement in this case speaks volumes.
By MATT TAIBBI | April 22, 2010

Cookie monster

Senseless tragedy at FIU; plus, late-night fun at Marshall and some Oregon fallout
The Florida International University football program was rocked recently when running back Kendall Berry was stabbed to death in front of eight witnesses — allegedly by an ex–FIU teammate.
By MATT TAIBBI | April 14, 2010

Friartown, redux

PC players foul out. Plus, helping Johnny Mac, a Supreme shift, and ‘Monbo Time’
Phillipe and Jorge have always had a problem with Providence College basketball’s advertising campaign, which refers to the area as “Friartown” in a delusional suggestion that the squad has support throughout the local community.
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | April 14, 2010

The dumbass chronicles

Shaun Rogers flunks out; plus, fun at the clubs with the Pittsburgh Steelers
Right about now, every football fan in America is asking him- or herself the same question: if Shaun Rogers is dumb enough to bring a gun to an airport, what did the guy score on the Wonderlic?
By MATT TAIBBI | April 08, 2010

Number two blues

Ryan Leaf’s sad story continues; plus, Ronnie Brown driving wild in Atlanta
As we approach NFL draft season, it’s fun to look back at those great draft prospects of yore, the workout warriors and combine heroes who titillated coordinators, coaches, and fans leading up to the big selection day in New York.
By MATT TAIBBI | April 01, 2010

Pirates' ransom

The fun in Oregon is over, as east-coast athletes go on a kidnapping spree
Well, enough of the funny stuff with the Oregon Ducks’ recent crime wave. This week, we’re back into the world of straight-out, nasty, pointless, idiotic violence, committed by young athletes with everything to lose and only a few bucks to gain.
By MATT TAIBBI | March 24, 2010

Rebounding

More than two decades after Kevin Mackey pulled off the then-biggest upset in NCAA Tourney history, he made it to the NBA.
When March Madness tips off tonight, Kevin Mackey will be in the stands taking notes. As a professional-basketball scout, he's looking for tomorrow's NBA stars.
By JON HART | March 17, 2010

Kelly's zeroes

Oregon Football makes the leap and pays the price; plus, taser fun on the Bayou
Like Bob Beamon's long-jump record or Joe DiMaggio's hitting streak, it was once thought that no organized sports team would ever approach the string of arrests racked up by the infamous Portland Jail Blazers club of the early 2000s.
By MATT TAIBBI | March 17, 2010

What the Duck?

Oregon, again; plus, all the news that's fit to steal, and home invasions at the Citadel
The burgeoning crime wave wracking the University of Oregon Ducks football team — reporters out there are calling it the "bird flu" — has now spread in an unexpectedly hilarious direction.
By MATT TAIBBI | March 10, 2010

Lame Ducks

Oregon football closes in on infamy; plus, a Villanova Wildcat needs litter training
Wow, it sure has been a nasty couple of weeks for the University of Oregon and football coach Chip Kelly.
By MATT TAIBBI | March 03, 2010

Oregon fail

With no one to hit on the field, underclassmen take to the streets
This is the time of year when you start seeing a lot of arrests involving non-draft-eligible college-football players — underclassmen, mainly.
By MATT TAIBBI | February 24, 2010

Rocky pot

It's murder time in Tennessee; Plus, Warren Sapp gets flagged for hands to the face
Late last May, a goofy-looking guy named Charles Austin Corn — a student at the University of Tennessee — was shot in South Knoxville in what looked like an attempt to rob his stash. He was unable to communicate with police after the shooting and died five days later.
By MATT TAIBBI | February 17, 2010

Bengals and Bulldogs

Cincinnati's back on the sports-crime map. Plus, a Georgia alum fills in the blanks.
There hasn't been a whole lot to cheer about in New England Patriots country of late, and I'm not sure that this will fit the bill, but let's try it on for size.
By MATT TAIBBI | February 03, 2010

Bland theft auto

Ex-Patriot Terry Glenn's suburban sprawl. Plus, Charles Rogers needs a nap.
Man, talk about a meme that won't die!
By MATT TAIBBI | January 13, 2010

The China syndrome

Kirk Snyder's strange tale gets stranger. Plus, Texas Lutheran's divine intervention.
There was always a little something off about Kirk Snyder, the onetime University of Nevada Wolf Pack star and NBA washout.
By MATT TAIBBI | December 16, 2009

Crossing the line

Belo Sells out. Plus, talk like a Brit, Chicago Vin acts up, and faithless football.
The news from the Dallas-based A.H. Belo Corp., owners of the Dallas Morning News and our own Providence Urinal, hit home hard and quickly last week in Our Little Towne.
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | December 09, 2009

Rube awakening

A former Jail Blazer returns to action. Plus, hugging it out at Portland State.
It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Couldn’t you feel that void, that emptiness resulting from the failure of former LA Clipper and Portland Trail Blazer Ruben Patterson to get arrested for anything at all recently?
By MATT TAIBBI | December 02, 2009

Revisiting the greatest Harvard-Yale game

Crimson Bowl Over Dept.
It takes some doing to make Harvard look like an underdog in anything. But Harvard Beats Yale, 29-29 — Kevin Rafferty's 2008 movie (out now on DVD) and new book (released this past month) about the famous football rivalry — does just that.
By MIKE MILIARD | November 18, 2009

Hoop nightmare

Len Bias’s death was more than just a basketball tragedy.
It wasn’t quite the world-shattering, where-were-you-when moment as the space shuttle Challenger exploding into cottony plumes earlier that year. But I still remember my naive and dazed disbelief upon hearing that basketball star Len Bias had died of a cocaine overdose on June 19, 1986
By MIKE MILIARD | October 28, 2009

Crossword: ''Mixed reviews''

From your anagraming film critic
From your anagraming film critic
By MATT JONES | October 21, 2009

Wild, Wild West

Delonte West tries out for the Washington Bullets. Plus, SUNY-Binghamton is at it again.
Former Celtic Delonte West has long been known as a clutch shooter, but he's apparently taking that reputation a little too literally.
By MATT TAIBBI | September 30, 2009

Catch a falling star

Willie Williams and Charles Rogers prove that "can't miss" prospects sometimes do
There was a time, not long ago, when two things were true. The first was that the University of Miami was a perennial college-football powerhouse. The second was that Willie Williams was going to be the next big thing among college-football linebackers.
By MATT TAIBBI | September 23, 2009

America's scam

Eugene Lockhart funds his own buyout. Plus, why do pro athletes hate cabbies?
What a year for former New England Patriots and the criminal-justice system!
By MATT TAIBBI | September 09, 2009

United we stand

A 'vote' for George Nee. Plus, euphemisms, bad sports, and the bucket
With the local AFL-CIO elections coming up, Phillipe and Jorge would like to make a rare union endorsement by saying that nothing would please us more than to have George Nee, current secretary-treasurer of the organization, win his bid to take over departing Frank Montanaro's position as the organization's president.
By PHILLIPE & JORGE | August 26, 2009