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looks like Sarah Palin has gone Linsane, too, the New York Daily News reports: Linsanity became a bipartisan syndrome Thursday, as the former Alaska governor held up a Jeremy Lin shirt a day after President Obama praised the Knicks phenom. Palin, who played basketball in high school, posed with the highly coveted Lin gear outside her Manhattan hotel. Holding up the blue jersey with the already iconic No. 17 stenciled in orange on the back, Palin smiled, waved and signed a few autographs for fans.

Ron Jaworski is out at "Monday Night Football." ESPN announced Wednesday that the analyst would be removed from the network's signature broadcast beginning in August. Mike Tirico and Jon Gruden will operate as a two-man booth. Jaworski will remain at the network and appear on various programs, including "Countdown" and "Matchup." < -- SNIP -- > This paragraph, from a December article in The New Yorker about Gruden, was a perfect microcosm of Jaws' time in the booth: When it was Jaworski's turn, he issued a stern proclamation. "Call me crazy, but I'm really excited for Tyler Palko tonight," he...

Texas Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton said Wednesday that he's committed to figuring out why he had another alcohol relapse and is undergoing what he called a "Josh Hamilton makeover." Hamilton appeared on "Glenn Beck" on GBTV.com with guest host Dr. James Robison, Hamilton's pastor with LIFE Outreach, a Christian ministry based in Euless, Texas. The slugger, who told Robison he's going to "one-on-one" counseling sessions, said when he had his last relapse, in January 2009 in Tempe, Ariz., that he thought things would be fine and that he'd get on with his life. *snip* On Wednesday, in his first one-on-one...

If the sport of football ever dies, it will die from the outside in. -- Jonah Lehrer If an increasing number of economists and trend analysts are to be believed, we may one day look back at something like Colt McCoy's concussion against the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2011 as one of many galvanic events that blew football apart, and reduced the country's most popular sport to a marginal pastime. It's unlikely that such a colossal financial concern as football could be killed off entirely, but as Malcolm Gladwell first wrote in the New Yorker in 2009, it's not crazy to...

Alex Wade had always wanted to surf off Hawaii's north shore. But then he saw the size of the breaks at the Banzai Pipeline.Dave Rastovich, 33, is a professional surfer for the Billabong team. As happens every December, "Rasta" is at Billabong's house on the north shore of the Hawaiian island of Oahu. He's there to bag some serious water time at the many breaks along what is known as "the seven-mile miracle", a series of world-class waves stretching from the hippie town of Haleiwa on the south-west of the north shore to Sunset Beach towards the north-eastern point. Rasta...

The Detroit Tigers were a few wins short of going to the World Series last year. Team ownership signed All Star first baseman Prince Fielder to a 9-year, $214 million deal in the hopes that he will help push the team over the top as well as continue strong attendance at Comerica Park. Since the club has all that extra revenue available and expect more from higher attendance, will they consider repaying Michigan taxpayers for the hundreds of millions of dollars that were used to subsidize the team's stadium? Comerica Park opened in 2000 after three years of construction and...

The Giants will celebrate their Super Bowl XLVI victory in New Jersey Tuesday. After a ticker-tape parade along the Canyon of Heroes in Lower Manhattan beginning Tuesday at 11 a.m., the Giants will return to the Meadowlands' MetLife Stadium for a rally beginning at 3 p.m. Gov. Chris Christie announced the rally at MetLife Stadium in a tweet today, saying "All Giants fans in NJ should be there of [sic] you can." Details still have not emerged, however, as to whether those hoping to attend the rally will need to acquire tickets.

New England Patriots wide receiver Wes Welker was so upset over dropping a crucial pass late in the fourth quarter of Sunday's 21-17 loss to the Giants in Super Bowl XLVI, he nearly started crying at the podium. Welker isn't going to get any pity from quarterback Tom Brady's wife, Gisele Bundchen, though. After her prayers for a Patriots' championship went unanswered, Bunchen lashed out at the team's receiving corps for failing to haul in her husband's passes. While waiting for an elevator at Lucas Oil Stadium, Bundchen was being heckled by Giants fans when she spoke to people in...

<p>After last night’s 21-17 loss in the Super Bowl, the wife of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady was making her way to the team’s locker room. Along the way, Gisele Bundchen (I continue to refuse to call her a “supermodel” until she displays at least one super power) vented regarding the inability of some of Tom’s teammates to secure balls that hit them in the hands.</p>

The 2012 Super Bowl ultimately went against the New England Patriots by 21-17, much like in 2008. Now that the New York Giants have beaten the Patriots in the final minutes for the second Super Bowl in a row, it has made everyone rethink the legacies of both teams. New England should have the greatest dynasty in NFL history and even in sports history by now. While Brady and Belichick still have their three titles, ... they should have six or even seven instead - and that has now started to overshadow the rings they do have. If New England...

Okay, comments and predictions here.

So close to the Super Bowl, yet so far. Wide receiver Tiquan Underwood was released by the New England Patriots on Saturday night, less than 24 hours before Super Bowl XLVI -- bad news for him, of course, but a move that increases the likelihood Chad Ochocinco will be active against the New York Giants in Indianapolis. The Patriots signed defensive end Alex Silvestro from their practice squad to take Underwood's roster spot. "Silvestro is a defensive end/tackle. They'll utilize him especially on rushing downs in a four-man front over the guard," NFL Network's Michael Lombardi said Saturday on "NFL...

INDIANAPOLIS -- On one last Hail Mary try, Tom Brady heaved it up for his two star tight ends in the end zone. Neither Rob Gronkowski or Aaron Hernandez, who both got a hand in the play, could come down with it. The New York Giants beat the New England Patriots 21-17 in Super Bowl XLVI, the second time the Giants beat the Patriots in the last four years in the NFL's title game. Giants RB Ahmad Bradshaw scored the go-ahead touchdown with 0:57 left in the game.

MYFOXNY.COM - New York City will throw a parade Tuesday morning for the New York Giants to celebrate their Super Bowl title. The victory parade will travel through the financial district's Canyon of Heroes. Read more: http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/new-york-giants-super-bowl-victory-parade-2012#ixzz1lZJBD5iA

GRAND RAPIDS – A Comstock Park man has been charged with criminal copyright infringement for allegedly streaming live sporting events and pay-per-view events on the Internet.

(CBS/AP) SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - Wide receiver Dorial Green-Beckham, one of the top prep recruits in the country, has signed a national letter of intent to play at Missouri. The Springfield (Hillcrest), Mo., player says he wanted to remain close to home and that the Tigers — who are entering the Southeastern Conference next season — are the perfect fit. Green-Beckham says he built a close relationship with the Missouri coaches during the recruiting process and that influenced his decision. The 6-foot-6, 225-pound Green-Beckham says he slept on his decision Monday night after weekend visit to Columbia, Mo., and he still...

The nerves in Manning’s arm are not healing as quickly as hoped and, worse, don’t appear to be progressing at enough of a rate to indicate that he will play again, according to two sources with knowledge of Manning’s rehabilitation from neck surgery. The vertebrae in his neck that were fused have healed as expected and Manning began throwing in December. But he hasn’t shown improvement in velocity on his passes, and the two sources fear he likely never will again. In addition, two league-affiliated doctors with experience in spinal fusion surgery said it could take up to a year...

OTTAWA — Prop comedy. Such a simple concept, so rarely incorporated in the NHL's Breakaway Challenge Skills Competition. Alex Ovechkin won the 2009 event in Montreal by donning sunglasses and a goofy hat. In 2012, two NHL superstars finally gave props to the skills competition again. [...] (vids at link)

On Sunday night, as some 49ers fans fired off death threats to Kyle Williams on Twitter, 7-year-old Owen Shure of Los Angeles began his own correspondence to San Francisco's wide receiver. Instead of anger, though, Owen's words were filled with empathy. "Dear Mr. Williams," the first-grader began writing through tear-filled eyes to the goat of the NFC Championship Game, "We just watched the Playoff game. I feel really bad for you but I wanted to tell you that you had a great season. you sould be very proud, so I wanted to say thank you." Those words were in stark...

Not long after North Carolina State lost to rival North Carolina for the 11th straight time on Thursday night, reporters asked junior forward Scott Wood how frustrating it was to have never beaten the Tar Heels. Wood's response was brilliant in its simplicity. "Has your wife ever cheated on you?" Wood deadpanned in response. Then after a few seconds of the most awkward silence imaginable, he responded, "that's probably how frustrating it is."

VERO BEACH, Fla. -- Dutch Rennert lives just a few miles from Vero Beach Sports Village, but he doesn't always stop in to watch the action. It's January, which means it's time for umpire school in these parts. And Rennert, who worked the bases and home plates of the National League from 1973-92, knows well that this is where it all begins. About 250 students have been donning chest protectors and masks to go with their dark shirts and gray pants on the fields of three umpire schools in Florida. At The Umpire School in Vero Beach, the Wendelstedt Umpire...

relatively new Georgia Board of Regents policy regulating the admission of undocumented students and illegal immigrants has prevented a football recruit from gaining admission to the University of Georgia. Chester Brown, a 6-foot-5, 340-pound offensive lineman from Hinesville, committed to the Bulldogs in July, but he confirmed to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and several other media outlets late Monday night that he was withdrawing his UGA commitment “for personal reasons,” declining to elaborate However, a variety of people with direct knowledge of the situation confirmed to the AJC on Tuesday that Brown’s change of heart was because his admissions application to...

Could the new Marlins ballpark or the Tampa Bay Rays' Tropicana Field serve as a homeless shelter for the 270 or so nights a year that they're not used for baseball? If two Florida lawmakers have their way, they might. As reported by the Miami Herald, state legislators have unearthed an obscure law that has not been enforced since it was adopted in 1988. It states that any ballpark or stadium that receives taxpayer money shall serve as a homeless shelter on the dates that it is not in use.

Here's an audit Florida's professional sports franchises may not have expected -- records of housing the homeless at their facilities over the years... and if the Florida Panthers haven't been housing the homeless, the team's on the hook for more than $30.8 million in tax breaks it's gotten since 1996. A recently released legislative analysis of State Sen. Mike Bennett's Senate Bill 816 notes that a law from the '80s requires sports franchises in Florida to house the homeless in its facility on off-nights, and in exchange, the teams get $166,667 from the state every month.

In the third period against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday night, Detroit Red Wings star Henrik Zetterberg put a glove on the back of defenseman Nikita Nikitin as they raced for the puck. That was enough to knock Nikitin off-balance, as he crashed awkwardly into the end boards and writhed in pain on the ice. As a result, Zetterberg was given a major penalty for boarding and a game misconduct. According to NHL.com's stats history, it's the first major and ejection for Zetterberg in his 634 career games: [...] (Video and comments at link.)

Eli and Brady rematch? Two brothers? Give your predictions and make comments here.

Posted by Mike Florio on January 22, 2012, 7:47 PM EST Reuters Shortly before Ravens kicker Billy Cundiff did his best Gary Anderson impersonation (to the chagrin of Matt Birk), Ravens receiver Lee Evans had the ball in his hands, in the end zone. But Patriots defensive back Sterling Moore knocked the ball out of Evans’ hands, and the ruling on the field was that the would-be touchdown pass was incomplete. Though it wasn’t a scoring play, fewer than two minutes remained in the game. Thus, the decision (or not) to review the play was to be initiated by the...

“State [of Minnesota] not rushing to act on Vikings stadium,” fretted the January 13 headline of a column in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. New Jersey billionaire Zygi Wilf, owner of the Minnesota Vikings, is seeking about $700 million in taxpayers’ money to build his team a new stadium in the state. The $700 million would be roughly split between state and local taxpayers. Members of one proposed site for the stadium have been especially disgruntled by Wilf’s request to take their money for his business. A group in Ramsey County, which includes the state capital of St. Paul, has collected...

An athletic club in southern Sweden has come under fire for a coach's use of sexually suggestive materials known as "Hot babes of the defence" to aid the training of a team of 14-year-old boys. The controversial materials employ defence strategies referred to as ”Petra”, ”Jennifer” and ”Sofia”, and were devised by the coach to show the players on a boy's floorball team within the Engelholms FBC athletic club how to play in various circumstances. The strategies go under the name ”Hot babes on defence” (Snygga brudar i försvaret), according to reporters at the publication Feministiskt Perspektiv (FP), who have...

FCC might end sports blackout ruleBy Brendan Sasso - 01/13/12 03:19 PM ET The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Thursday issued a formal request for public comment on a proposal to end its sports blackout rule. The rule, first adopted in 1975, prohibits cable and satellite providers from carrying a sports event if the game is blacked out on local broadcast television stations. Dropping the rule would have the most effect on the National Football League, which requires broadcasters to black out games if the local team does not sell out the stadium. The rule is meant to encourage fans...

Breaking News - Roger Goodell has just announced that the Denver Broncos will only have ten men in the lineup in tomorrow’s playoff game with the New England Patriots. Goodell says that 43% of the public believes that God is helping Tebow. That being the case, Goodell has declared God as Denver’s eleventh player on the field. Not only is this shattering news just breaking, but NFL headquarters has released a transcript of the top level meeting between Goodell, Robert Kraft of the New England Patriots, and John Elway of the Denver Broncos. Transcript follows: Kraft: Look Roger, there is...

News from the Pacific Justice Institute Less than a week after California’s gay history mandate went into effect, a new pro-LGBT bill introduced last week promises to stir even more controversy. AB 266, sponsored by Assemblyman and comedian Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), would require schools to allow students to participate on sports teams according to their “gender identity,” not their biological sex. This is no joke. That means that a boy who claims that he identifies as female would have the right to try out for the girls’ basketball team, potentially taking away an opportunity from a girl who might...

Link only as per posting guidelines: USA Today Gist of article: Ratings for title game down 8 percent from last year; barely (by 0.3 percent) above all time low; all BCS games down 12 percent from last year

THE NFL ON CBS” COVERAGE OF DENVER’S DRAMATIC OVERTIME WIN OVER PITTSBURGH IN AFC WILD CARD GAME SCORES HIGHEST RATING IN 24 YEARS. Game Rates 25.9/43 in Metered Markets. THE NFL ON CBS’s broadcast of the AFC Wild Card game featuring the Tim Tebow-led Denver Broncos’ 29-23 overtime victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, Jan. 8 was the highest-rated Wild Card game in 24 years earning an average overnight household rating/share of 25.9/43, up 38% from last year’s 18.8/37 for Baltimore at Kansas City.

<p>“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”</p> <p>Tim Tebow started sporting John 3:16 way back during his college career.</p> <p>Yesterday Tim Tebow Tebow passed for 316 yards against the Steelers, completing 10 of 21 pass attempts —meaning he passed for 31.6 yards per completion.</p>

*snip* Tebow has an escalator of $250,000 in his contract for each playoff victory assuming he participated in at least 70 percent of Denver's plays during the requisite season, according to an NFL source. Being that he played 73 percent of Denver's plays this season, Tebow cashed in on a quarter-million salary escalator after his latest shocker -- an 80-yard touchdown pass on the first play of overtime Sunday to beat Pittsburgh 29-23 in the wild-card playoffs. The play, according to Twitter, spawned a record 9,420 tweets per second. Tebow could earn another $250,000 with another victory Saturday night at...

Well, the statistics are in and NFL football star Tim Tebow has yet one more sterling accomplishment--but this one is not about football. It's about his book, "Through My Eyes," about his Christian life story. With staggeringly high sales, Tim Tebow has become the #1 best-selling religious author in America for 2011. Tim explains how his dad told him early in life that becoming a star gives a person a platform for good or evil. He also taught Tim that success opens the door to all sorts of temptations. So Tim purposed in his heart to become a good role...

DENVER, COLORADO, December 19, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - It looks like a cross between a genuflection and Rodin’s “The Thinker.� The characteristic kneel Tim Tebow makes to thank God after a big play has become a worldwide phenomenon, creating a new craze and stirring controversy over the role of religion in public life. The Global Language Monitor reports that the term “Tebowing� has become an officially recognized English word. “The rapid rise of the word has seldom been equaled,� it adds.  A website, Tebowing.com, quickly collected photos of people striking the reverent pose all over the world, from Stonehenge to...

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — ESPN college football analyst Craig James, who starred as a tailback at Southern Methodist University and with the New England Patriots in the 1980s, announced Monday he was running for the U.S. Senate as a Republican from Texas, a GOP fundraiser said. Republican fundraiser and close friend Roy Bailey told The Associated Press on Monday that James informed him he was running for the 2012 Senate seat and was in the process of dropping off his official candidate papers in Austin.

ARLINGTON — A runaway electric cart raced unmanned from an end zone to midfield at Cowboys Stadium and plowed into several people after a high school championship game Saturday night, bowling over the winning head coach and several others.

The National Football League’s owners voted unanimously to approve the transfer of ownership of the Jaguars from Wayne Weaver to Khan. It was the first item on their agenda Wednesday, and they clapped for him as he re-entered the room, finally part of their exclusive club.

Compare and contrast the performance of Tim Tebow of the Denver Broncos with that of Tony Romo of the Denver Broncos.

Last week, after the Broncos' victory against Minnesota, Mr. Tebow was asked by a reporter to name something memorable that had been said to him in the wake of the extraordinary win. "I'll tell you one thing that happened during the week that I remember," he said. Mr. Tebow proceeded to talk about spending time with a young leukemia patient from Florida who had just been transferred to hospice care and about how delighted Mr. Tebow was to say the kid's name on television and to let him know that someone cared. Mr. Tebow may or may not enjoy long-term...

Baseball's best player is getting paid like it. The Los Angeles Angels swooped in to win the Albert Pujols sweepstakes with a quarter-billion dollar offer the superstar slugger just could not refuse. With his old team the St. Louis Cardinals and the Florida Marlins engaged in a bidding war for the first baseman's services, the Angels appear to have blown everyone out of the water with a 10-year offer that may be as much as $260 million. Pujols led his team to a World Series title this past season, but his longtime manager, Tony LaRussa, announced his retirement and...

Atheists and radical church-state separatists have taken particular offense to the continued uttering of the Pledge of Allegiance. To these individuals, the words “under God” have no place in the public square, even when utterances are voluntary in nature. Now, there’s a new epicenter in the debate over the Pledge. Following the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, the University of Connecticut’s interim athletic director, Paul Pendergast, decided to add the recitation as a viable way for individuals to remember both the nation and U.S. troops. Following his decision, the Pledge was first uttered after a home football game...

SCOOBA – With the national championship of junior college football at stake, the second-ranked Lions of East Mississippi Community College travel to Yuma, Ariz., to meet the home-standing and top-ranked Matadors of Arizona Western College Saturday afternoon in the El Toro Bowl – presented by Time Warner Cable. Kickoff for the 2011 NJCAA Football Championship at AWC’s Veterans Memorial Stadium is slated for 2:30 p.m. MT (3:30 p.m. CT). With video and audio production services provided by Meridian-based Prep Sports Network Now (www.psnnow.com), in conjunction with the NJCAA and Arizona Western College, Saturday’s national championship contest is scheduled to be...

Sports fans who have a religious bent won’t be too happy with a new study by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EHT). According to the university, which is located in Zurich, Switzerland, atheist children are better at sports (i.e. more athletic) than kids who embrace a religion. To complete the study, 600 first-grade school children in Winterthur, Switzerland were examined. Over a four-year period, researchers looked at their coordination, strength and agility — all measurements that would help to determine their athleticism. In the end, the researchers at ETH’s Institute for Movement Sciences and Sport took the data they...

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) Mike Leach has reached an agreement to be the new football coach at Washington State. Cougars at a glance Looking for the latest news on the Cougars? Get the inside slant, stats, scores, schedules and more scoops right here An official within the athletic department told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Leach has reached a verbal agreement to replace Paul Wulff, but has not signed a contract.

Imagine what would happen if America barged its way into a developing country, buttered up its homicidal dictator and agreed a back-of-the-envelope deal in which he signed over his nation’s mineral wealth in return for roads, railways and sports stadiums. Everyone would benefit, no? No. The problem is that the infrastructure turns out to be worth a hell of a lot less than the minerals. Fortunately, Washington has had the foresight to top up the dictator’s Swiss bank account. Problem solved! As for the mining operation, the Americans really don’t want to be bothered by minimum wages or trade unions....