It’s official: The Duluth City Council voted unanimously last night to ban the sale of K2 and other forms of synthetic marijuana marketed as incense.With the vote, Duluth becomes the first …
The Blotter
Not really. But we will choose one lucky, new Facebook follower at random to either guest post or make us write something (on the topic of their choosing), to be posted on SportsGrid. Let’s get weird.
To enter this poorly-conceived contest, simply follow us on Facebook by clicking here.
And even if you don’t win, you’ll still get witty, timely SportsGrid content that shows up among your status updates. So if you want to break up the frustrating monotony of reading vague, inside-jokey references to Stuff People Do with cool ish like this, join us. SportsGrid! Social Media! Sportsial Gridia!
Minnesota’s very own Kevin Sorbo once saved the world as “Hercules,” and vanquished space baddies on “Andromeda.” Now he wants to rescue you from Islam and science.
The Mound Westonka Hig…
The Blotter
Minnesota’s very own Kevin Sorbo once saved the world as “Hercules,” and vanquished space baddies on “Andromeda.” Now he wants to rescue you from Islam and science.
The Mound Westonka Hig…
The Blotter
The season 11 cast of ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” has been announced, and it includes former supermarket worker Kurt Warner, and current Eliza Dushku-dater Rick Fox. No word on whether Derek Fisher and Mark Brunell have signed on for season 12.
Here are my picks for the top 5 cast members, complete with the odds for each one winning the whole thing. And yes, a part of me died while writing this.
I’ve taken into account three key factors for any wannabe DWTS champion, based on my extremely basic knowledge of the show, and general habits of sociological compartmentalizing: overall athleticism, level of flamboyancy/charisma, and the underdog factor.
In order to win this tournament, you need to be well-balanced in all three. On to the odds:
1. David Hasselhoff (5 to 1) - The most well-balanced contestant. He seems to be decently-coordinated, and dancing contests are designed to favor dudes with chest hair. This is a scientifically proven fact.
2. Jennifer Gray (8 to 1) – She is an actress who looks to be reasonably athletic, and of whom I’ve never heard of. Translation: she will work her ass off to win this thing.
3. Brandy (9 to 1) – Slightly obscure singers traditionally do well in this event. See Nicole Shezerin…Sherzing… the one from the Pussycat Dolls.
4. Rick Fox (12 to 1) - The most athletic of the group, and he’s acted before (remember that time he basically played a prison inmate version of himself on “Oz?”). I feel like there will be some kind of athlete bias against him though, and he’ll make it to the final four before being ousted.
5. The Situation (15 to 1) – Flamboyancy/charisma levels are off the charts. But I can’t shake the feeling that he’s a terrible, terrible dancer. Don’t ask me why, I just think he’s going to totally bomb. However, the producers will keep him on because he’s a ratings draw, until about midway through the competition, when the dancing becomes unbearable.
Dark Horses: Kurt Warner and Florence Henderson (20 to 1 and 50 to 1, respectively) - One is too bland to win this thing, the other is 76. America’s love of cute old people will carry them through the first two rounds, however.
The season premiere is September 20th. You’re all welcome.
Talk about the kind of thing you dread seeing happen in a practice preparing for a cupcake:
Alabama’s Heisman Trophy-winning tailback Mark Ingram underwent arthroscopic surgery this morning on his left knee, according to a statement by Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban.
Ingram will be out for Saturday’s game against San Jose State and evaluated on a week-to-week basis after that. Alabama hosts Penn State on Sept. 11 and visits Duke on Sept. 18.
Apparently the injury happened late in practice yesterday, but there is no word just yet on the circumstances surrounding it.
The good news is that Saban made it very clear that this was a minor injury that would allow for a full recovery in a relatively short period of time. Clearly this was something that the coaching staff wanted to go ahead and get done now so Ingram would be 100% healthy once the season really got going. From that perspective, step back from the ledge here. It’s a short term loss but a long-term gain in a few weeks, and it’s better to see Ingram go ahead and get this taken care of now instead of fighting lingering knee issues all year long. I tend to think it is much preferable to miss some time early but get fully healthy in a few weeks than it is to have a situation like we did a year ago with Julio Jones, where he plays every week but really isn’t getting back near 100% until November rolls around.
With that said, however, the Penn State game is only about eleven days away, and while it wouldn’t be completely out of the question for him to return for that game, that would be an aggressive recovery schedule. The odds are probably that he misses the Penn State game altogether, or at least that Trent Richardson shoulders the bulk of the load. Until Ingram can get a bill of clean health and regains all strength in his knee, it’s going to be up to Richardson, Eddie Lacy, and Demetrius Goode to carry the load. For now, I imagine that Ingram will perhaps return for the Duke game, certainly for the Arkansas game, but that he will likely miss the Penn State game.
The Penn State game looks to be the only source of concern right now. We should be able to beat both San Jose State and Duke even without the services of Ingram, and we’re 26 days away from making the road trip to Fayetteville to take on Arkansas. If this injury is as minor as it has been described by Saban and various media outlets, Ingram ought to be fine and ready to go by the time we get the Hogs. Make no mistake about it, though, Richardson, Lacy, and Goode are probably going to have to get the job done against Penn State. For us to win there, they’ll need to play well and the rest of the offense will need to play accordingly as well.
The NFL’s new overtime format has been met with mostly positive feedback, and only minimal negative (see Payton, Sean). Jake Simpson of The Atlantic is so happy he boldly proclaimed that “football is fair again.”
For those not in the know of the new overtime rules, that’s what were are here for. First, let’s brush up on the old format that will still be used during the regular season: It’s simple a coin toss decides who gets the ball, and the first team to score wins. That format leaves the fate of the game in the hands of a coin, since every team who wins the toss will elect to receive, they only have to potentially go 35 yards to set up a game-winning field goal. (Okay well almost every team will elect to receive, I’m looking at you Marty Mornhinweg)
The new rules, which will be adopted for the playoffs only are a hybrid of the current format and the college setup. Basically, if the team who starts with the ball goes down and scores a touchdown the game is over, but if they only get a field goal the other team has one chance to answer back.
If the team with the ball first has to punt, or there is a turnover, it goes straight to sudden-death. The nice tweak they added gives teams more incentive of scoring a touchdown, and makes the chance higher that both teams will have the ball.
Take it away, Simpson:
“The problem with the old system is blindingly obvious to anyone with common sense or a high school understanding of math.”
Photo via Follow me on Twitter.
[NFL's New Overtime Rule: Making Football Fair Again] The Atlantic