Japan is on their way to completing the first upset at this year’s Confederations Cup. A dubious penalty call led to Japan’s opening goal. Then Shinji Kagawa did this.
When the Vikings spent a fifth-round pick on punter Jeff Locke two months ago, the end was near for Chris Kluwe in Minnesota, mostly because carrying two punters on your roster is sort of like having a surplus of JaMarcus Russell rookie cards. One feels like too many, though every team needs at least one professional surrenderer.
As Blair Walsh demonstrated during his filmmaker debut below, Locke is a man of many talents. As a punter, he’s often asked to also be a placeholder, a task he can execute anywhere.
He’s the dark ninja of placeholding.
Thanks, KSK
After 3 weeks of negative press, rumors are circulating that Microsoft will announce the removal of DRM restrictions as well as the Xbox One always having to be online.
The rumor is that Microsoft will announce the changes later today or early tomorrow, with game developers being informed first. Sad that it took this long for Microsoft to realize how bad of a shit show this whole “always online” concept has been. The PlayStation 4 has already blown Microsoft out of the water in pre-sale pre-orders, so maybe that was the sign that things needed to be changed.
So this is what this means:
Stay tuned for more details
Update: It’s official. Here’s the full presser:
Last week at E3, the excitement, creativity and future of our industry was on display for a global audience.
For us, the future comes in the form of Xbox One, a system designed to be the best place to play games this year and for many years to come. As is our heritage with Xbox, we designed a system that could take full advantage of advances in technology in order to deliver a breakthrough in game play and entertainment. We imagined a new set of benefits such as easier roaming, family sharing, and new ways to try and buy games. We believe in the benefits of a connected, digital future.
Since unveiling our plans for Xbox One, my team and I have heard directly from many of you, read your comments and listened to your feedback. I would like to take the opportunity today to thank you for your assistance in helping us to reshape the future of Xbox One.
You told us how much you loved the flexibility you have today with games delivered on disc. The ability to lend, share, and resell these games at your discretion is of incredible importance to you. Also important to you is the freedom to play offline, for any length of time, anywhere in the world.
So, today I am announcing the following changes to Xbox One and how you can play, share, lend, and resell your games exactly as you do today on Xbox 360. Here is what that means:
An internet connection will not be required to play offline Xbox One games – After a one-time system set-up with a new Xbox One, you can play any disc based game without ever connecting online again. There is no 24 hour connection requirement and you can take your Xbox One anywhere you want and play your games, just like on Xbox 360.
Trade-in, lend, resell, gift, and rent disc based games just like you do today – There will be no limitations to using and sharing games, it will work just as it does today on Xbox 360.
In addition to buying a disc from a retailer, you can also download games from Xbox Live on day of release. If you choose to download your games, you will be able to play them offline just like you do today. Xbox One games will be playable on any Xbox One console — there will be no regional restrictions.
These changes will impact some of the scenarios we previously announced for Xbox One. The sharing of games will work as it does today, you will simply share the disc. Downloaded titles cannot be shared or resold. Also, similar to today, playing disc based games will require that the disc be in the tray.
We appreciate your passion, support and willingness to challenge the assumptions of digital licensing and connectivity. While we believe that the majority of people will play games online and access the cloud for both games and entertainment, we will give consumers the choice of both physical and digital content. We have listened and we have heard loud and clear from your feedback that you want the best of both worlds.
Thank you again for your candid feedback. Our team remains committed to listening, taking feedback and delivering a great product for you later this year.
“The juice is great.” What does that even mean? Probably that Gregg Popovich likes the Spurs’ energy or pace or something like that. But really, what does it mean?
What. Does. It. Mean?
WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
Rosebud.
(via Oskar Jamtander)
Earlier today we quickly discussed how Masai Ujiri’s front office staff is beginning to take shape, and now it looks like his coaching staff will soon follow suit, as Ujiri officially announced on Wednesday that Dwane Casey will be back as head coach next season.
“I’m excited about moving forward and growing this team with Coach Casey,” Ujiri said via press release.
The release also states that “an announcement will be made in the future regarding the club’s assistant coaching staff.”
Well that didn’t take too long. The Houston Astros officially confirm the signing first overall draft pick Mark Appel. The Astros did not publicize the terms of the but Jim Callis of Baseball America believes the terms are in place and — dundundunnnnnn — below slot.
#Astros & No. 1 overall pick Mark Appel still finalizing details, but bonus will be $6.35 million. More at http://t.co/hZqVHVwPw8 shortly.
— Jim Callis (@jimcallisBA) June 16, 2013
Mention that Jonathan Toews is playing poorly in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and an angry mob of advanced statistics people will march on your home carrying charts and graphs. Mention that Jonathan Toews is playing well in the postseason by pointing toward his Corsi and Fenwick numbers, and old sportswriters will roll their eyes and ask if you pay rent while living in your mom’s basement.
Trying to determine why in the heck a player as good as Toews has one goal in 20 playoff games is about as difficult juggling chainsaws with your feet, only instead of feet, you have stumps smothered in baby oil.
During the regular season, Toews was so good at the sport of hockey that he finished fourth in voting for the Hart Trophy. On the strength of a career-best (pro-rated) 23 goals and 48 points in 47 contests and excellent defensive game that won him the Selke Trophy, the captain of the Chicago Blackhawks also received the third-most first-place votes for the Hart.
The Blackhawks won the Presidents’ Trophy with 131.5 (again, pro-rated, obviously) points, which if you round up ties the 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens for the most in a season. Sure, it happened over the course of 48 games so it doesn’t mean as much, but the Blackhawks put forth the NHL’s most dominant season in nearly four decades, and Toews was a major reason the Blackhawks brought hockey back the way Justin Timberlake brought sexy back in that neither brought anything back because it was already there. Read the rest of this entry »
In the future we won’t watch live sports on television, we’ll watch real-time GIFs paired with a live audio feed. In the future we won’t watch shows on television or Netflix, we’ll watch episode length GIFs synced with a soundtrack. In the future kids won’t trade sports or magic cards, they will trade GIF cards. In the future SBNation will publish a “longform” piece on the history of action cards from the 1980s and how they influenced GIF creation. It will be fantastic and exhausting.
In the future we won’t debate the pronunciation of the ‘g’ in gif, but we’ll debate whether the ‘I’ is pronounced /ai/ or /I/.
GIFs, man. They’ve taken over and these are the people making them…
