"You are negative bastards, the pair of you." That is about the most innocuous thing Joe Kinnear said in his first press conference as interim manager of Newcastle United.
posted on Oct 3, 2008 - View this thread

The A-11 Offense (All Eleven Players Potentially Eligible) is a new, scrimmage-kick formation based, offensive system in football... The Football Math.
posted on Sep 26, 2008 - View this thread

The game as it was played in 1958 “is still an entertaining sport to watch, but it’s just not near as complicated,” Reid said. Writer Mark Bowden watches the 1958 NFL Championship game between the Baltimore Colts and the New York Giants with Eagle's coach to find how he thinks the game has evolved. They find a game that is at times barely recognizable as being in the same sport. (Via)
posted on Sep 19, 2008 - View this thread

Fun lovin' prankster and b3ta user godspants edited the wikipedia page on Cypriot soccer team AC Omonia to include the "facts" that the fans are referred to as "the zany ones", wear hats made of shoes and sing a song about a little potato. Yesterday there was a match between Omonia and British club Manchester City. British Tabloid the Daily Mirror used the wikipedia "facts" in their build-up article. Daily Mirror obviously doesn't realise their journalist has been guilty of incredibly lazy research, despite the prankster emailing them, and the Mirror refers to the "Zany ones" in their post-match article the next day.
posted on Sep 19, 2008 - View this thread

The Journal of Footballing History is a scholarly journal about the history of football (soccer) all over the world. You need to register (or "subscribe" as JOFH calls it) but it's free. Gloriously, gloriously free. After you've subscribed you can enjoy articles on matters such as France's footballing culture, a back and forth about the state of African football, a pair of articles about Euro 2000 and what England's dismal failure at that European Championships tells us about the national side and on shooting from free kicks. There are also short histories of kits, boots, passing and squads and a book review section.
posted on Jun 30, 2008 - View this thread

Felicidades España!
posted on Jun 29, 2008 - View this thread

Rémi Gaillard leaves a trail of befuddled witnesses and victims in his wake.
posted on Jun 24, 2008 - View this thread

70 year old Pak Doo-Ik will lead North Korea's prestigious Olympic torch bearers to Beijing this summer. In the 1966 World Cup at Middlesborough, Pak scored the goal that lead his team to a stunning 1-0 upset win over Italy (video). Pak Doo-Ik and the team returned home as heroes, but ultimately fell under the suspicion of North Korean leadership. The team underwent "mental re-education" and were exiled, Pak Doo-Ik spending ten years as a forest laborer. Dear Leader Kim Jong-il later allowed Pak to coach North Korea's national soccer team, and a fascinating 2002 BBC documentary brought Pak Doo Ik back to the international stage.
posted on Mar 27, 2008 - View this thread

"I'm on Setanta Sports" with José Mourinho. Fantastic. The Special One returns to the world of football with his very own talk show. Very good. More clips inside. Be champions!
posted on Feb 8, 2008 - View this thread

As national signing day approached, a small town in Nevada got excited that one of its football stars would go to a big time college program. Finally on the fated day town notables and media gathered for a ceremony where, Kevin Hart, made his choice known. Then it all unraveled, he was never recruited at all.
posted on Feb 6, 2008 - View this thread

Now that Super Bowl XLII is over, all that remains is for NFL Flims to tell the tale. Documenting the greatest moments of the game since 1962, NFL Films is known for its distinctive style, its stirring music, and, until his death in 1983, the "Voice of God" narration of John Facenda.
posted on Feb 3, 2008 - View this thread

She works six days a week and has sold her husband - twice.
posted on Jan 27, 2008 - View this thread

The coldest game in football won't be at Lambeau Field (also known as the frozen tundra and the home of the Lambeau leap) tomorrow. It was 13° below zero in 1967 when the Green Bay Packers played the Dallas Cowboys. They called it the Ice Bowl and it had a dramatic finish.
posted on Jan 19, 2008 - View this thread

"Geordie messiah to return - Kevin Keegan is returning to Newcastle United as manager". Thus read the official statement issued by Newcastle United heralding the improbable return of Kevin Keegan to be manager of the club, the perennial under achievers in English football.
posted on Jan 17, 2008 - View this thread

The New England Patriots. Not The Patriot, or a Patriot, Rather the Patriots! Some folks *HATE* them. There's even a game. (About the game.)
posted on Dec 6, 2007 - View this thread

Through alcohol and vicodin addicition, trauma, grief, and loss, Brett Favre has thrown the ball for the largest muncipally-owned professional sports team in the United States. After reinventing himself several times over, and leading his team to an improbable string of wins and accomplishments a year after almost retiring, he is Sport's Illustrated's sportsman of the year.
posted on Dec 4, 2007 - View this thread

Hopeless, hapless, helpless.
posted on Nov 22, 2007 - View this thread

Serfs of the Turf. Michael Lewis on the racket that is college football and the myth of the "student-athlete" football player.
posted on Nov 13, 2007 - View this thread

Myfootballclub puts their money where their collective mouth is and buys Ebbsfleet United, who are currently in the Blue Square Premier.
posted on Nov 13, 2007 - View this thread

The Football Albums. Music and football. Surely there's something better than "Hail to the Redskins" and "The Superbowl Shuffle?" One man believed there could be. That man was Peter Hughes, Inland Empire indie rock mini-star, sometime member of Nothing Painted Blue and the Mountain Goats, baseball diarist, and leader of the now-defunct band Diskothi-Q. In 1999, Diskothi-Q released The Football Albums: a double CD of 32 songs, one for each team in the NFL. All are now freely downloadable as .mp3s: AFC and NFC. (.mp3 links follow) Get ready for the big game this weekend by pitting "Colts" against "Patriots." Revel in the untamed savagery of "Eagles" or sympathize with the touching lament, "(Nobody Cares about the St. Louis) Rams."
posted on Oct 29, 2007 - View this thread

Last weekend, The Oregonian's Sports columnist John Canzano wrote about the two DUIIs by the son of the Oregon Ducks' coach. On Saturday, the Ducks football team beat the USC Trojans. The next day, Canzano wrote a story about the win. Before he wrote that story however, he wrote a blog post on what happened during the fourth quarter. Columnists are often held to different standards than reporters; and bloggers are often held to even different standards. It seems journalists are still learning the ropes of what standards they are held to under these different media. As a commenter JPound added to the post, "Before blogs, this unfortunate interaction would only have seen the light of day in a memoir."
posted on Oct 29, 2007 - View this thread

Trinity University won their football game this Saturday on a crazy play, (somewhat reminiscent of "The Play" minus the mayhem of the fans and band rushing the field.) This one looks more like a grade school game of keep away. What happened to the defense??
posted on Oct 28, 2007 - View this thread

Max McGee was not expected to play in Superbowl I. He ended up catching 7 catches for 138 yard and two touchdowns including the first ever in Superbowl history. After retiring he became one of the most popular broadcasters the team ever had. He also was one of the founders of Chi-chi's restaurant. He died from a fall on Saturday. He was 75.
posted on Oct 21, 2007 - View this thread

Jose Mourinho, spectacular, talented, egotistical, handsome and immensely controversial manager of Chelsea FC has left "by mutual consent".
posted on Sep 19, 2007 - View this thread

On the same day that Sevilla's Antonio Puerta passed away in Spain, Clive Clarke, a defender on loan to Leicester City from Premiership side Sunderland, suffered a heart attack after collapsing in the dressing room during half-time of a League Cup match with Nottingham Forest, a series of events was set in motion that resulted in a truly great display of sportsmanship
posted on Sep 19, 2007 - View this thread

Paralysis likely for Bill Football player Kevin Everett. The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery Reviews Injuries to the Cervical Spine in American Football Players a detailed study of 1300 cervical spine injuries resulting from tackle football. In Kevin Everett's favor is the speed in which the fracture(s) were reduced
posted on Sep 10, 2007 - View this thread

The Final Cut. "I never thought the end would come like this -- with me holding the end of my life's passion in one hand and a foot-long Italian sub on wheat in the other." The side of the NFL you rarely see: former Redskins lineman Ross Tucker tells his story.
posted on Sep 9, 2007 - View this thread

Pre-1990s Sports Card Portraiture (Flickr slideshow) Images of pre-1990 sports cards which feature excellent photographic portraits, not action shots. I will delete stuff I don't think is good enough with abandon.
posted on Sep 8, 2007 - View this thread

Streaming NFL Games
posted on Sep 8, 2007 - View this thread

The Comeback: I apologise for the single YouTube link, but after watching it, I don't think anyone will care, because Samuel L. Jackson rules ... the football field.
posted on Sep 3, 2007 - View this thread

High School Coaches outearning High School Teachers Texas high school football coaches in Class 5A and 4A schools (that's 950 students or more) earn an average salary of $73,804, while the average salary for teachers in those same schools is about $42,400. But hey, those Texas football teams are pretty darn good!
posted on Aug 9, 2007 - View this thread

Post your grandson's mad football skills on YouTube, get him recruited by Manchester United.
posted on Aug 2, 2007 - View this thread

In Britain, just as the football season ended 5 months ago, a football fan and journalist launched an endeavour to buy a club. MyFootballClub asks for £35 from their members and in return, trustees are given the right to vote on transfer deals, squad choices and managerial appointments. But first they are to decide which football team to buy. From across the world people are invited to play the tycoons at their own game. With the target 50,000 members signed up already, and with the new season set to start in a few weeks it looks like this radical trust has a fighting chance.
posted on Aug 2, 2007 - View this thread

Bill Walsh, 11/30/1931-7/30/2007. Walsh, former coach of the San Francisco 49er's (cool tribute up on their site, currently), lost his fight with Leukemia yesterday. His career included an impressive 6 division titles and 3 super bowl wins, and his inventions included many tactics and devices still being used by many teams today, including the West Coast Offense and those laminated play cards you see many coaches using. He was also the creator of the Minority Coaching Fellowship program, helping minority coaches get a foothold in a previously white-dominated profession. RIP, Bill.
posted on Jul 31, 2007 - View this thread

Ready or Not. "South Africa is a great place to have a party, and people are incredibly generous of spirit. What we should be doing is trying to make the World Cup experience uniquely African: where the bus comes 10 minutes late but nobody gives a toss because they are having such a good time. Instead, the organisers seem to want to try to run the World Cup as efficiently as the Germans did. What a load of bull. The Germans could invade Poland in three days. We could not invade Swaziland in three months." Article in today's Observer about preparations in South Africa for the soccer World Cup in 2010.
posted on Jun 3, 2007 - View this thread

[Joe] Namath learned to drink as a youngster, back home in Beaver Falls. You could say he developed a taste for hooch as an infant— when he got fussy while teething his mother rubbed his gums with a rag soaked in grain alcohol. (via SpoFi, another story of a great athlete/drunkard)
posted on Apr 20, 2007 - View this thread

"I'm not from here, so when I was told that what these boys do in the fields makes 'em fast, I didn't believe it." Welcome to Muck City.
posted on Apr 16, 2007 - View this thread

"It is very rare I am lost for words but I saw the statue last week and it is awesome - a tremendous tribute to a great man. [Southampton] Fans have waited a long time for this and it is going to be fantastic. I really believe it will be the best football statue anywhere both in size and the amount of detail" -- Ted Bates Trust chairman Dave Ford

Then again, maybe not.
posted on Mar 27, 2007 - View this thread

Royal Shrovetide Football is a traditional ball game played each year in Ashbourne, Derbyshire on a 'pitch' three miles long, lasting the two days of Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday. It's been going since at least 1683 and likely much earlier.

After a ceremonial rendition of Auld Lang Syne and God Save The Queen, the cork-filled ball is thrown from the starting plinth into the crowd, and then it's the Up'ards versus the Down'ards, forming giant scrums (or 'hugs') of people moving up and down the River Henmore, with the aim of 'goaling the ball' at their respective goal post.
posted on Feb 20, 2007 - View this thread

After the death of the policeman Filippo Raciti during the fights happened during and after the soccer match between Catania and Palermo, Italy is trying to decide what to do against violent ultras.
The Heysel and Hillsborough tragedies had a big impact on the english soccer. Is Italy going to start an effective crackdown against football violence?
posted on Feb 4, 2007 - View this thread

Pro Football Salaries vs Surgeon Salaries Not to be a wet blanket during Super Bowl week, but it strikes me a little odd that surgeons make about 2 percent of what the top football players earn.
posted on Jan 31, 2007 - View this thread

With the Fantasy Football season now over, everyone's looking for other media to play on top of. Tabloids, for example, and Congress. And now even reruns of the Sopranos are fair game.
posted on Jan 5, 2007 - View this thread

European Fields: Landscape of Lower League Football Gorgeous shots of some football pitches throughout Europe. Taken by Dutch Photographer Hans van der Meer. From SpoFi
posted on Dec 2, 2006 - View this thread

Bo Knew Football. On the eve of one of the most anticipated college football matchups in decades, Bo Schembechler, the storied ex coach of the Michigan Wolverines passes away. The Michigan/OSU game is one of the longest and most storied rivalries in the history of sports. His battles with Woody Hayes are the stuff of Wolverine and Buckeye legend. Hail to the Victors, Bo.
posted on Nov 17, 2006 - View this thread

On Nov. 6, 1869, Rutgers beat Princeton in the first ever college football game. 137 years later, almost to the day, Rutgers has added another standout achievement to their football history by beating #3 Louisville 28-25. Now, perhaps, the comments about a weakened Big East will stop. Me, I'm just wondering how big the headline in the Daily Targum will be.
posted on Nov 9, 2006 - View this thread

Mark E Smith reads the football results.
posted on Oct 27, 2006 - View this thread

The Ballad of Big Mike. “Where are you going?” he asked. “To basketball practice,” Michael said. “Michael, you don’t have basketball practice,” Sean said. “I know,” the boy said. “But they got heat there.” Sean didn’t understand that one. “It’s nice and warm in that gym,” the boy said. As they drove off, Sean looked over and saw tears streaming down Leigh Anne’s face. And he thought, Uh-oh, my wife’s about to take over. ... “One night it wasn’t going so well, and I got frustrated,” Mitchell says, “and he said to me, ‘Miss Sue, you have to remember I’ve only been going to school for two years.”’
posted on Sep 24, 2006 - View this thread

One of the stars of the new NFL season will make its debut this Sunday. It's not a player - it's Arizona Cardinal's stadium. It's got a retractable roof, and a movable grass field that can roll out of the facility where it will reside most of the year and get its nourishment, maintenance and grooming. First of its kind in North America. NPR audio piece.
posted on Sep 8, 2006 - View this thread

Chris Creamer's sportslogos.net is a vast archive of current and historical sports logos from leagues large and small, brand new or defunct. Some of my favorite retro logos involve mascots (often anthropomorphized) performing sports-related activities. Of course, some were retired for good reasons.
posted on Aug 30, 2006 - View this thread

Bending a soccer ball - mathematically. Found via Ivars Peterson's short exposition on Braungardt and Kotschick's The Classification of Football Patterns [pdf, technical].
posted on Aug 17, 2006 - View this thread