Friday, January 31, 2014

Friday 1/31 Super Bowl Quickie

Seahawks win by 5, with Percy Harvin as the game MVP...

*Two of my favorites at their best for the biggest game of the season: Bill Barnwell with an exhaustive game preview and Chris Brown with an exhaustive look at Peyton Manning's offense.

*Fun, clever Slate piece by Joshua Keating where he describes the Super Bowl as if US sportswriters were describing a big sports event elsewhere around the globe.

*The NYT Sunday Magazine leads with a big read on the world of NFL gambling in Las Vegas.

*Finally, in a brilliant piece of Super Bowl journalism/entertainment I guarantee you won't see anywhere else, this video from SB Nation's Jon Bois is phenomenally fun.

*If you love Super Bowl ads, be sure to register to be on USA TODAY's "Ad Meter" panel to rate each ad and be part of the group that picks the game's top ad. Sign up here today.

Enjoy the game and your weekend. Tomorrow is the season opener for the 2nd-grade boys' basketball juggernaut that I am coaching -- currently, I am thinking about which song is our layup-line music.

-- D.S.

Sunday, January 26, 2014

1/26 Super Bowl Week Eve Quickie

*Your beat-you-over-the-head Super Bowl storylines, in order of beat-ness: (1) Weather, (2) Peyton, (3) Richard Sherman, (4) Russell Wilson, (5) Pete Carroll.

*Pro Bowl haters have it wrong: It will get more viewers than the World Series or NBA Finals. At some point, critical bleating just doesn't match up with what fans clearly want to see.

*Regular-season wins don't mean much in college hoops (particularly between two teams guaranteed to make the Tournament), but Michigan's win at Michigan State was a solid one.

*Terrence Ross scores 51: Pretty amazing stat -- he is the first player in NBA history to average single-digit scoring then score more than 50 in a single game.

*Career-defining win for Stan Wawrinka in Australia in beating back/down Rafa Nadal.

-- D.S.