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Survivors described it as a corridor of death: a narrow route of high, chain-link security fences and barbed wire that thousands of soccer fans were filing through before entering the stadium to watch their team play. Then, mayhem broke out. Those at the front of the line were turned back by police. Those in the back continued to press forward. Jittery police fired tear gas into the middle of the crowd, creating what survivors said was "like a whirlpool" — sucking people into a crush of bodies with no way out. The stampede killed 22 people Sunday night at the...

It was a year ago - the Sunday after Super Bowl XLVIII at 8pmET - that Michael Sam turned speculation into reality: One of college football's best players, and a top NFL prospect, was gay. In the coming months he was showered with praise. Eric Dickerson would offer him congratulations. Michael Irvin would call him his friend. Robert Quinn welcomed him to the Rams. Even the President of the United States, Barack Obama himself, would laud him.

New York Knicks owner and Madison Square Garden chairman James Dolan told a fan to "start rooting for the Nets because the Knicks don't want you" in a contentious email exchange. In the email, Irving Bierman criticized Dolan over decisions made during his tenure as owner of the Knicks. Dolan responded by telling Bierman to root for the Nets and attacked him personally. An MSG representative confirmed to ESPN.com that the emailed response was written by Dolan.

Dean Smith, who coached North Carolina to two men's basketball national titles, died Saturday night at the age of 83. North Carolina announced Smith's death Sunday morning. "Coach Dean Smith passed away peacefully the evening of February 7 at his home in Chapel Hill, and surrounded by his wife and five children," Smith's family said in a statement. "We are grateful for all the thoughts and prayers, and appreciate the continued respect for our privacy as arrangements are made available to the public. Thank you."

With a chance to clinch at least a share of the Big Ten regular-season championship on the line, the top-ranked Iowa wrestling team steps onto the big stage today. The Hawkeyes are expected to compete in front of the largest crowd to ever watch a collegiate dual meet in their noon matchup with defending NCAA champ Penn State. A sellout crowd of at least 16,000 is anticipated at the Bryce Jordan Center, where the Nittany Lions established the existing record of 15,996 a year ago for a dual against Pittsburgh. That doesn’t impress the Hawkeyes’ fifth-ranked 125-pounder Thomas Gilman, one...

SAN DIEGO -- Billy Casper, one of the most prolific winners on the PGA Tour who was overshadowed at the height of his career by the "Big Three," died Saturday at his home in Utah. He was 83. Bob Casper said his father died quickly and peacefully with wife Shirley at his bedside. They had been married 62 years. Casper passed out in the clubhouse at the Masters last year, had work on his heart and recovered from a bout of pneumonia over Thanksgiving. His son said Casper was going to cardio rehab for the past four months and was...

SAN DIEGO -- Billy Casper, one of the most prolific winners on the PGA Tour who was overshadowed at the height of his career by the "Big Three," died Saturday at his home in Utah. He was 83. Bob Casper said his father died quickly and peacefully with wife Shirley at his bedside. They had been married 62 years. Casper passed out in the clubhouse at the Masters last year, had work on his heart and recovered from a bout of pneumonia over Thanksgiving. His son said Casper was going to cardio rehab for the past four months and was...

Does the front office of the New England Patriots prefer to have white players on its roster? There is circumstantial evidence that may be the case. While the racial makeup of an NFL team in any given year has its share of random fluctuations, the New England Patriots have seemingly had a suspiciously large amount of white players on its teams during the Robert Kraft-Bill Belichick era. Wes Welker, Danny Amendola, Danny Woodhead, Julian Edelman, Rob Gronkowski, and Tom Brady — all have been some of the more prominent “faces” of the franchise in recent years, and they all happen...

Williams was actually trying to honor a vet in this "lie". But a group of other vets got butthurt that he didn't recognize them instead, and went viral. Most of the "heroes" in these wars since 9/11 are a bunch of self absorbed dysfunctional losers who joined because WalMart turned down their application. And now they're back home living with mom, going to the VA weekly for counseling, and sucking on the gov't tit.

Worst call ever? Check out the best of the worst insults. CNN's Jeanne Moos intercepts putdowns of Seattle's play-calling.

Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll isn't sleeping well these days. Carroll and his offensive coaching staff made the infamous decision to pass the ball from New England's 1-yard line in the final seconds of Super Bowl XLIX, resulting in Russell Wilson throwing a game-ending interception.

Savage Arms went big at the 2015 SHOT Show by going small. In the process, the monolithic rifle manufacturer may have solved one of the trickier problems plaguing firearms design. With the introduction of the A17 .17 HMR, the Massachusetts-based subsidiary of ATK looks to have produced a viable semiautomatic magnum rimfire. This is a feat other companies have attempted, but have fallen short.Of course, cracking what has proven to be a tricky nut required some out-of-the-box thinking on Savage’s part. Where the company particularly broke with tradition is jettisoning the straight blowback action so common in rimfires for a delayed blowback system.The company...

For the first time since 2010, Alabama does not lead Rivals.com's team recruiting rankings. USC, which also led Rivals.com's rankings in '10, jumped the Crimson Tide for the top spot in '15. Alabama will instead have to settle for the second-ranked class in the country. The Trojans closed out their recruiting this year with a flourish, landing four five-star recruits between Tuesday and Wednesday to finish with 26 total commitments, 21 of whom were rated four- or five-star talents. The last time USC topped the recruiting rankings was its final class before NCAA-imposed sanctions limited the number of scholarships available....

Hitting on every draft prediction made right now would be nice, but the main purposes of this and most subsequent mocks are two-fold. They are meant to A) offer some insight into a team's needs, with the picks hopefully highlighting a current hole; and B) reveal a little bit about how the prospects are stacking up against one another.

The thousands of revelers lining the parade route fought through the traffic and braved freezing conditions to cheer on the world champions, who defeated the Seattle Seahawks 28-24 in what many are calling the greatest Super Bowl of all time. "The team is amazing," said New Hampshire native Josh Bishop, 35, who boarded a train last night from Washington D.C., to stand along the route. "It's the culmination of a bunch of hard work, getting the job done. It's time to party."

The Patriots are turning their Super Bowl parade in Boston into an all-out Seahawks trollfest. First there was Julian Edelman waving a Richard Sherman meme, now running back LeGarrette Blount has some pretty bold things to say about Marshawn Lynch.

Dallas Cowboys running back Joseph Randle created one of the stranger stories of the 2014 season, when he was arrested for shoplifting underwear and cologne. Well, he didn't seem to learn much from that event. Randle was arrested again, early Tuesday in Wichita, Kan., for possession of marijuana according to multiple reports including the Dallas Morning News.

No one can recall these kinds of odds for Tiger Woods at any tournament, certainly not one at Torrey Pines. He is listed at 50-to-1, which prompted a question that was even more shocking than the odds. Was that to win? Or to make the cut?

FARGO – A 27-year-old man accused of driving a Zamboni while drunk at a high school hockey game had a blood-alcohol level of over three times the legal limit, police said. A preliminary breath test showed that Steven James Anderson had a blood-alcohol level of 0.30 percent on Friday night, said Lt. Joel Vettel, a Fargo police spokesman. The limit in North Dakota is 0.08 percent.

BOSTON (CBS) — Tom Brady won his fourth Lombardi Trophy and third Super Bowl MVP award Sunday night. But he wouldn’t have accomplished that without a clutch interception by undrafted rookie Malcolm Butler, who picked off Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson at the New England one-yard line with just seconds remaining in Super Bow XLIX to seal the victory for the Patriots. “I think there are a lot of people who are very deserving of this award,” Brady said Monday morning in Arizona as he collected his latest MVP trophy. As MVP, Brady also received a shiny new Chevy truck. While...