Yep, it's true. This isn't some bizarro TMZ-style situation but a new show from the Score called The Project. It's basically The Bucket List but instead of two terminally-ill old guys crossing off life dreams, it's two sports fans named Lawrence Payne and Ethan Cole tracking down old heroes and getting in Jackass-ian adventures. Not everyone can get a disgraced gold medal sprinter to call them "retarded."
As the promo says, "Why ask Otis Nixon about the 1992 World Series bunt when you could reenact it with him? Why talk to Buster Douglas about boxing when you could just pay him to fight you?"
Why indeed. Here's hoping they get Tie Domi to pummel them on TV.
Of course, we're all waiting with baited breath to see if the NBA season will actually happen or if there will be a Euro-bound exodus come the fall. But aside from all the on-court action, now we have another really big reason (see what I did there?) to hope for all this labour dispute foolishness to end. Recently retired Shaquille O'Neal has joined the already awesome TNT broadcast crew of Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Ernie Johnson.
Shaq made the announcement, like his retirement, on Twitter via web videosharing platform Tout. This may be the start of the greatest player-to-broadcaster transition ever made. A bold statement sure, but when you remember that includes Bill Walton, it's easy to see the bar isn't actually set that high. The last thing we need is a lock-out to get in the way. Shaq Fu!
WARNING: This video contains an insane amount of swearing. So don't listen to it out loud at work, in front of children or anyone who doesn't enjoy at least five F-bombs in every sentence.
You remember last year when K-Swiss hired Kenny Powers from HBO's Eastbound & Down to get all championy as its new spokesperson? Well, the company has taken the next step and made him CEO. Or, more accurately, Powers somehow acquired 51% of the company and staged a hostile takeover. Still, now that he's added chief executive to his already impressively graphic K-Swiss media onslaught, can anything stop him?
Broadcasters are always looking for ever-more innovative ways to shoot sports for an evolving TV audience. Between HD, 3D and everything else, it's easy to see why. But this weekend a French TV car got too close to the action and, not only impacted the outcome, but put the lives of athletes at serious risk. As you can see, the one little swerve made Spanish rider Juan Antonio Flecha hit the road and pitched Dutch rider Johnny Hoogerland up and into a barbed wire fence.
The two cyclists were part of a small group competing for the lead in the 208 km stage from Issoire to Saint-Flour in the Massif Central, but the crash put them more than 16 minutes off the pace. After the stage, the AFP reported that Hoogerland said "I think the people in the car will have a very big guilty feeling and they will surely apologize to me and Flecha... We can still be happy that we're alive. Nobody can be blamed for this. It's a horrible accident and I was in it. But I said to Flecha, 'We're still alive and Wouter Weylandt died in a crash'."
Weylandt was a 26-year-old Belgian cyclist who died after a crash during the Giro d'Italia race in May.
Though the TV station has apologised and the offending crew booted off the Tour, French police are looking into the incident.
This new ESPN commercial shines a light on the passion of Alabama college football fans, known as 'Bama Nation. (Isn't everybody a "nation" now? Red Sox Nation, Leafs Nation - fans need to come up with something a little more original... like a "Juggalos" for sports, without all the face paint and insanity. But I digress.)
Here we see everyday Alabama residents using the term "Roll Tide" -- after the University of Alabama Crimson Tide -- in a variety of ways. Graveside eulogy? "Roll Tide." Speeding ticket? "Roll Tide." Pass the kethcup? "Roll Tide."
Can't think of anything else to write due to Friday afternoon sloth-like laziness? "Roll Tide."
Every year around this time, people start compiling that all-important New Year's Resolution list. "Be nicer to people." "Work harder." "Stop smoking." "Call mom more." "Quit eating soup in bed." All the usual items are there. Then, of course, the list is promptly forgotten on January 2nd and one's life as a lazy donut-scarfing git continues as usual.
That said, no resolution is more common than that to exercise more. Many people even go so far as to be sucked into joining a gym, which inevitably leads to never actually going, which leads to feeling guilty, which leads to adding it to the list again the following December 31st.
American gym chain Crunch knows all this. And so in an effort to convince you to put down the cheeseburger and get your swaying man-boobs on the treadmill, the brand has brought on a new spokesperson -- Death.
It's not quite as strong as the Reaper's appearance in "Part VII" of The Meaning of Life, but still a solid addition to Death's film reel.
The Score has a good little piece on the increasing tensions between mainstream media types and the sports blogosphere, particularly when it comes to hockey. It's funny how some people just get it and others don't. And it's got nothing to do with age or if you happen to like newspapers. Case in point, the Star's Damien Cox coming off like the sportswriter equivalent of an old man shaking his fist at the teenagers walking on his lawn.
Cox says there's no cheering in the press box. Fair enough, but sports coverage has expanded beyond that realm. With options like NHL Centre Ice, everybody doesn't have to be at the game to offer up quality analysis and commentary. He also complains that bloggers aren't accountable to anyone. Well, yes they are. They're accountable to the same readers a newspaper columnist is. Anonymous blogger or syndicated writer, continually serving up stale goods or false rumours will hit you where it counts - readership. Globe writer James Mirtle makes a pretty clear and simple case for the balance between old school reportage and blogging that it's difficult to see any sense in Cox's argument. Plus, as Score commenter Joel MacDougall astutely pointed out, there's always that old stones/glass houses chestnut.
"Consider the responsibility [Cox] showed when tweeting about Pat Burns' death prematurely and 'asking the question' of Jose Bautista using steroids without any evidence aside from a career year and half," wrote MacDougall. "One could argue the Bautista story may have had some relevance considering the era baseball is trying to leave behind. But if he truly wants accountability in journalism, he could have asked that question of Bautista himself, so he could at least have the opportunity to defend himself. Yes some blogger throw stones from behind a shield of anonymity, but just because we know his name, doesn't mean its any better from Cox."
Zing.
Forget all this Us vs Them crap, though. It's 2010. Plenty of mainstream sportswriters and news outlets get the web and are finding new and better ways to use it, while even more independent bloggers are doing a great job on their own. It's not about one replacing the other, but rather the new reality of audiences simply taking advantage of a more diverse media line-up.
But SOMETIMES, it's just funny. The video above takes place during a second division soccer match in Germany and there's some inappropriate touching between a male player and female referee. A boob touch. Clearly the player meant to tap her shoulder, looked away for a minute and OOPSYBOOB. Hey, it happens. In North America, Germany, wherever. As the ref's reaction attests, it's all a simple misunderstanding.
The only creepy part about this whole thing is the cackling laughter of the giddy broadcaster. "Heeheehee, ze boobies!"
It's the moment of truth, the TSN turning point, the split second when it's all decided. The slam dunk. The knock-out punch. The crushing hit. Here we see entertainer Rick Ross pick up a modest, understated piece of jewelry. BOOM!
This Boom Theory can also apply to everyday life. Someone buys a box of donuts for the office and you're the last to get to it but there's a chocolate one left. BOOM. Running late to meet your ladyfriend and catching all green lights. BOOM. Find a $5 bill in the pocket of your jeans. BOOM. Your roommate cleaned the bathroom. BOOM. Didn't get charged for the extra bacon. BOOM. The party is open bar. BOOM.
Speaking of Ross, how about when you deny working as a corrections officer to play up a criminal persona but the facts comeback to bite you? BOOM.
Have you seen this latest Pro Line commercial? Here we see three friends enjoying what must be a football contest of some sort. Each of these young gentlemen has something in common. Yes, an unquenchable enthusiasm for sports action, but also a conjoined twin attached to their lower torso.
Apparently, this is a Sports Gut. A little friend that represents your love of sports. And here I thought it was that belly overhang that develops after a few too many Sundays of pouring pitchers of cheap beer and chicken wings down one's gullet. Nope, now we know it's a condition that is loosely related to that explored in the 1995 "Humbug" episode of The X-Files. You know what I'm talking about. The ol' conjoined-twin-detaches-to-go-murder-people chestnut.
Thankfully we're spared the bloodshed in this commercial, but still. A bit creepy.
