Sporting Madness

Wright Thompson's ESPN The Magazine article on Michael Jordan at 50 is getting plenty of praise, and deservedly so. Thompson paints an excellent, nuanced portrait of Jordan, highlighting both how he's changed and how he hasn't since he quit playing. In order to do this, Thompson gains plenty of access to Jordan's life and his inner circle, and he uses it well: there's plenty of insight in his piece into what drives Jordan, and it's a worthy read. However, while reading it, I couldn't help but think back to an earlier magazine piece on Jordan, Brett Popplewell's December profile in Sportsnet Magazine . Both pieces are well worth your time, and they highlight different aspects of Jordan, so it's not like we have to unequivocally declare that one is better. However, if I had to choose just one piece I'd recommend to someone curious about Jordan's post-playing career, I'd go with Popplewell's. That might surprise many, as unlike Thomps...

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...

Unsurprisingly, this is one of the first pictures that pops up for "Clay Travis". The Deadspin story about Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o's oft-referenced girlfriend being illusory has spurred plenty of interesting reactions  on what this means for the media , story verification procedures , his draft stock and much more. Unfortunately, it's also stirred up some of the worst detritus of the Internet. A case in point comes from C'lay Travis , who's covered college football for Deadspin, AOL FanHouse (RIP), and his current Outkick The Coverage site, plus hosts a Nashville radio show. What's Travis' take on this complicated, layered story that's still coming together? The only plausible rationale here is that Te'o is gay : This is actually the only story that makes any sense at all. And even if it's true, Te'o will probably deny it because, unfortunately, football players aren't exactly the most welcoming of homosexual...

Tonight's BCS National Championship Game between Notre Dame and Alabama has college football fans everywhere picking sides, and for good reason. These programs both have incredible histories, and millions of fans have deep connections to them. For me, though, the first thing that comes to mind when I hear "Notre Dame football" isn't Rudy, or Joe Theismann, or Lou Holtz. It's what's probably my favourite piece of sportswriting ever, Grantland Rice's " The Four Horsemen ". A selection of what makes this stand out for me: Outlined against a blue-gray October sky, the Four Horsemen rode again. In dramatic lore they are known as Famine, Pestilence, Destruction and Death. These are only aliases. Their real names are Stuhldreher, Miller, Crowley and Layden. They formed the crest of the South Bend cyclone before which another fighting Army football team was swept over the precipice at the Polo Grounds yesterday afternoon as 55,000 spectators peered...

Continuing the quest to make this the top corner of the Internet for Tim Tebow song parodies , here's the latest one that popped into my mind: a rewrite of the first part of West Side Story's "Jet Song", set last week before Rex Ryan reportedly asked Tebow to play Wildcat QB and Tebow reportedly turned him down ... REX RYAN: Against the Chargers, we need every man we got. GREG MCELROY: Tim don't belong any more. REX: Cut it, Alabama boy! Even if I won't let Tim start for the Jets. MCELROY: Well, he acts like he don't wanna belong. JEREMY KERLEY: Who wouldn't wanna belong to the Jets?! MCELROY: Tim ain't been with us for over a season. DUSTIN KELLER: What about the day we clobbered the Colts? JOE MCKNIGHT: Which we couldn't have done without Tim. KERLEY: He saved my ever-lovin' quarterback rating! RYAN: Right! He's always come through for us and he will now.

In an effort to corner the market on Tim Tebow-themed musical compositions , here's another one! This isn't even written by me, but was brilliantly put together in a Christmas Eve series of tweets by Global's Justin McElroy (a former CIS Blog colleague). Here they are, preserved in a Storify for posterity and ease of reading:

I normally don't advocate reading comments, but the brilliance of a few of the best ones on my 55-Yard Line piece about Tim Tebow should be preserved for posterity: What the hell do you know about football to say that about T-Bow. He took Denver to the playoffs you idiot!! His record isnt' any good because he is NOT used!!! Remember .... Gators ..... DUH!!! Get a job Bucholtz.. you obviously know nothing about foot ball!!! tebow was what?7&1 with a playoff win last year?bucholtz your daddies little reporter not a sports analyst.Now 7&1 doesn t mean he is the greatest but the nfl is tough ask sanchez,or does he suck too?football is a team game not some #$%$ with a tache writing alone in his wackoff lair.would he be good in cfl??i think Jacksonville would give him a shot before that happened. I love when these little twerp sports reporters, who never played a single down of football, make fun of Tebow as if he is some sort of clown. The truth is, the typist who wr...