Month: March 2015

Shayanna Jenkins’ story about removing a mysterious box from her home doesn’t add up.

There had been a little debate going around league circles the past few months. Which was the worse crime: Cleveland Browns general manager Ray Farmer found guilty of texting down from the booth to the sideline or the Atlanta Falcons guilty of piping in crowd noise during games? It turns out that the Falcons got the worst of it, losing a draft pick while the Browns didn’t. The Falcons will lose a fifth-round pick in 2016 for the crowd noise controversy, ESPN.com’s Vaughn McClure said. Falcons president Rich McKay was suspended from the NFL’s competition committee, effective April 1. He… Read More

With the Warriors and Hawks having the No. 1 seeds locked up, they now have to balance rest with building momentum.

The centerpiece of the campus celebration after Michigan State secured an improbable Final Four bid was something you probably wouldn’t expect. Bagels. Yes, bagels. Hundreds of Michigan State students gathered at East Lansing’s Cedar Village and began throwing bagels into the air after the seventh-seeded Spartans defeated fourth-seeded Louisville in overtime on Sunday afternoon. Video of the airborne bagels spread quickly via social media, prompting a handful of bemused tweets from authority figures. Guys, what’s with the bagels? — MSU Police (@msupolice) March 29, 2015 What did the Bagels ever do to you? #CedarVillage #FinalFour — Lt Gov Brian Calley… Read More

The NFL’s television blackout rule was outdated, and now we’ll have a chance to see if it made any difference. The NFL teams approved a suspension of its blackout rule, which stated that a team must sell out its stadium 72 hours before kickoff or else the game could not be broadcast in the home market, for the 2015 preseason and regular season. The NFL has had its blackout rule since 1973. As NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said on Twitter, there were no blackouts in the 2014 regular season. Without the threat of a television blackout, the league will be… Read More

Three things bring Ben Howland the most joy in life: Family, fly fishing and coaching basketball.  His passion for the final item on that list is so great that he eagerly traded a relaxing lifestyle and daily walks on the beach in his hometown of Santa Barbara for a high-stress rebuilding job in Starkville, Miss. [DraftKings: Free $25,000 March Madness Fantasy Basketball Contest ] Howland has reached an agreement to become Mississippi State’s next coach, ESPN.com first reported on Monday . The hire comes only two days after Mississippi State abruptly fired coach Rick Ray after a third straight losing… Read More

The NFL’s experiment of having an early start for one of its London games worked out so well, now it’s doubling down with another experiment for one of those early London games this season. And this one could be pretty big. For the first time the NFL will have a regular-season game on a digital platform to be streamed worldwide, when the Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars face off in London on Oct. 25 at 9:30 a.m. ET. The game will still be available on television in the Buffalo and Jacksonville markets, the Florida Times-Union said. But most of the… Read More

Former NFL safety Darren Sharper pleaded guilty to sexual assault and attempted sexual assault in Arizona and was sentenced to nine years in federal prison and lifetime probation as part of a “global resolution” to his case that includes at least nine women in four states accusing him of sexual assault. The Los Angeles Times said he was also to enter a new plea in Los Angeles on Monday morning as part of his “global resolution” to his cases in which his sentences will run concurrently, the Times said. Sharper pleaded guilty in the Arizona case via video teleconference. Sharper… Read More