Sporting Madness

Continuing our quest to be your number-one source of sports song parodies , here's the most appropriate (far more than some , at least) way to summarize the saga of Manti Te'o and his fake girlfriend . Is that...Journey ? Why, yes, yes it is: Just an internet girl, livin' in a made-up world She took the midnight calls from anywhere Just a ND boy, living in South Bend, not Detroit He made the midnight calls goin' anywhere A hoaxster in a online room  A smell of pizza and pot fumes On the phone, they can share the night  It goes on and on and on and on Media, waiting, up and down the boulevard Writing profiles in the night Te'o, deceived? Or lying just to find emotion? Hiding, somewhere in the night. Working hard to get his fill, Looking for that online thrill  Payin' anything to talk to her,  Just one more time Some will win, some will lose Some were born to sing "I'm used!" Oh, this story never ends It goes on and o...

It's no secret that sports media as a whole are collectively losing their minds over Denver Broncos' quarterback Tim Tebow, who embraces all the clichés about "will to win" and somehow triumphs despite not usually being, you know, a good quarterback. It's even less surprising that the Worldwide Leader In Vaguely Sports-Related News is leading the charge. Still, as Adam Kramer remarked earlier, ESPN's piece asking LeBron James what he thinks of Tim Tebow is the most ESPN story of all time. Surely that means the ESPNocalypse is near, especially as certain newspapers have already ventured into hellfire and damnation (as you can see from the Boston Metro cover at right). In the spirit of that, we present two pieces. First, a dramatic reworking of the first three paragraphs of Grantland Rice's " Four Horsemen ", timely considering how ESPN has appropriated the man's name : Outlined against a blue screen in Bristol, Connecticut, the Four Horse...

ESPN's decision to suspend columnist Bill Simmons from Twitter for two weeks [ Mediaite ] is the wrong move. The suspension wasn't highly publicized, but came out as the result of an investigation by Jason McIntyre of The Big Lead , which prompted ESPN.com editor-in-chief Rob King to write a blog post explaining the decision. Here's King's statement : "We have internal guidelines designed to inform how we discuss the topic of sports media. These guidelines are important us, because they help maintain the credibility with which ESPN operates. No one knows the guidelines better than Bill Simmons, and he customarily works within these standards. He also understands, as does everyone else at ESPN, that we regard these guidelines as being equally important when participating in social media. While it's unfortunate -- and sometimes painful -- that not everyone outside of ESPN chooses to play by such rules, we choose to hold ourselves to higher standards. R...

When I first heard about the Deadspin-ESPN war , I wasn't particularly impressed. Deadspin editor A.J. Daulerio (who I previously interviewed here way back when ) is one of the top bloggers out there these days in terms of influence, and he's done a lot of great things with Deadspin, but I didn't think this would be one of them. From his initial post on Steve Phillips and subsequent ESPN horndoggery posts, it sounded like he was only slightly deceived by an ESPN PR guy and decided to go ballistic with unverified rumours as a result. I read the posts on the matter by Chris Littmann and Brian Cook and thought they made good points, particularly on how this might affect the credibility of the blogosphere. However, time does change some things. For one thing, there's been no all-out war against the blogosphere by the mainstream media. The organizations that have discussed the story ( ESPN itself , Time and The New York Times , to name a few) have mentioned Deadspi...

So, your team got hosed by the arcane process of the BCS? Fear not. Here are some links to make you feel better about it. First, we have Patrick Hruby and Mike Philbrick 's tournament to figure out what sci-fi computers would be better qualified to determine a national champion than the current system. My money's on Skynet. Next, Matthew J. Darnell of Shutdown Corner has a great piece on why the BCS is the ultimate solution and we should replace the NFL's silly "playoff system" with it. Enjoy.

"Signs, signs, everywhere a sign/Blocking out the scenery, breaking my mind/Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign?" - "Signs," The Five-Man Electrical Band [Andrew Bucholtz photo] Signs seen at the aforementioned Sonics' rally ... "The NBA: Where deception happens." "Hey Clay, I'm a fan possessed!" "Burn In Hell, Bennett!" "Hey Aubrey, white-out doesn't work on e-mails!" "Not aBout fAns." "Clay: Owners come and go, but e-mail is forever." "NOklahoma." "Hey David: Donaghy called: He can't fix this one!" "E-mail, lieS, decePtion, collusioN" "The NBA: Where team-stealing happens." "Hey Clay, I'm a man about to be repossessed." "soNics Belong in seAttle" "Don't steal our 41 years." "No Bennetts Allowed." "Stuck Fern" "The NBA: Where douchebags run the league." "We...

Photo: Jemele Hill [Photo from Michael David Smith's excellent interview with her at FanHouse ] Jemele Hill deserves a fair bit of credit for her lengthy public mea culpa [ Page 2 ] after comparing cheering for the Boston Celtics to "saying Hitler was a victim". It's always difficult to own up to mistakes, especially when you're someone who's in the public eye as frequently as she is. Unlike many other internet, print, radio or TV personalities who have erred (see Pratt , David ; Imus , Don [ Minneapolis Star-Tribune and Hartford Courant ], and many others), Hill offered a detailed and seemingly-sincere apology short on rationalizations and excuses and long on promises to improve. Here's an excerpt: "The beginning is easy: I'm sorry. I'm sorry for being thoughtless and insensitive. I'm sorry for making a casual reference to something that should never be construed as casual. Real apologies don't mix with rationalizations, so I won...

Photo: ESPN columnist Jemele Hill (Photo from Women's E-news ). Let me start by saying that I generally admire ESPN's Jemele Hill as a writer. I usually enjoy her style and her willingness to discuss tough issues and take controversial stands (these columns on LeBron James' Vogue cover and Karl Malone's lack of support for his kids are excellent examples). It's also nice to see a prominent national columnist talking about Detroit sports teams, which certainly don't get too much attention from many of those based in Boston, L.A. or New York. She has more than just strong opinions: she has the talent to effectively and convincly communicate those opinions, and to do so in a way to keep me interested and reading even when I absolutely disagree, which is a rare gift. She also had a great take on the Stern-Donaghy scandal this week. With all that said, she went too far this time. As Deadspin 's Matt Sussman reports , her recent column initially compared cheer...