Morning Link Dump - 10/08/10
Obligatory Sports Babe
Yesterday's big sports gossip revolved, of course, around Brett Favre's dong. Specifically, Deadspin's acquistion of the messages and pictures that made waves back in February, when... um... sports personality Jenn Sterger claimed Favre had sent her pictures of lil' Brett. However, given that this here is what Ms. Sterger looks like, can we really blame him? (Answer: yes. But, for our sake, let's just... yeah, never mind.)
Quote of the Day
"John Madden must be rolling over in his gravy." - The best comment on the Deadspin Favre story, according to some genius on Reddit who just nailed it.
Reputation-Ruinin' Is Big Business, Right?
"Gawker Media’s Deadspin sports site says it will publish nude photos of Brett Favre today, along with some voicemails it says the quarterback left for a woman who is not his wife," begins a piece on the fiasco from All Things Digital. "Which means that corner of Deadspin is going to be very, very popular today. As well as unprofitable, says Gawker Media owner Nick Denton."
Wait, what?
"It’s the classic airplane ad next to an airliner crash scenario for which publishers need to develop contingencies. For this particular scoop, the decision was indeed to clean the Favre post pages of ads," explained a Deadspin spokesperson in the same post.
The Cult of Zoo With Roy Grows (Note: Awesome!)
Soon after the Phillies traded for Roy Halladay in December 2009, a 33 year old accountant from South Philadelphia had a dream about spending an entire day at the zoo with the former Blue Jays ace. The accountant used the dream as inspiration to begin a blog on the 2010 Phillies called "I Want to Go to the Zoo with Roy Halladay," says a piece from the New York Times. "It began as a joke for his friends and is now up to 400,000 page views and 2,275 Twitter followers. The Zoo With Roy phenomenon has become, if not a highlight, then a subset of Phillies fan blogs. It’s not a stat site or serious baseball analysis. It’s just weird. On it, blogs are 'bolgs,' and anything amazing is considered 'so cuttered' in honor of Halladays’ vicious cutter pitch."
Don't Worry, Gary. Hockey's Fine
"The [New York] Islanders are hoping to finalize a unique radio arrangement with Hofstra University prior to Saturday night’s opening of the NHL regular season," says a report from blog Islanders Point Blank. "The marriage is a potentially fascinating one. Radio Hofstra University on 88.7 FM would actually provide Islanders radio broadcasts with a stronger signal than the franchise has had in five years. WRHU covers most of Long Island and carries into Queens and Brooklyn. The Islanders broadcasts would also be available on the Internet."
"What would Hofstra get out of the arrangement? For starters, the University’s Communications program would be able to sell to prospective students that their school provides opportunities for youngsters to work on NHL games," the piece explains.
"The agreement with WRHU would give the Islanders a chance to save money because Hofstra students would serve as intermission hosts, sideline reporters and perhaps color commentators. They would also handle some of the engineering and production," explains the New York Times.
Killed By An Ankle Injury?
"During the Penrith ladies soccer match against Morecambe on September 26, 20-year-old defender Sharmaine Thornthwaite -- the British have the best last names -- injured her ankle," begins a rather horrifying post from the Slanch Report. "She was taken to the nearby hospital for X-rays which ruled out a broken bone. On Thursday, September 30th at her family home Thornthwaite suddenly died."
"While the results of an autopsy are not in yet, initial thoughts are that a blood clot formed after her injury and caused her unfortunate death. As you can imagine, her teammates, friends and family were shocked by the news." Um... wow, yeah.
Quote of the Day II
"It’s definitely, without question — without question — what we saw last night is the greatest moment in Philadelphia sports history." - High praise for Roy Halladay's playoff no-hitter from Phillies Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt, according to (yes, once again) the New York Times.
Quickly
For some reason Total Pro Sports have compiled the ten most ridiculous racist remarks from sports personalities. Um... fun?
Sticking with lists, Business Insider looks at the nine NHL teams who have lost the most fans since the lockout.
Here's a Twitpic of the tender moment between Roy Halladay and Carlos Ruiz after Wednesday night's no-hitter. Awww!
Must read: in honour of the NHL season kicking off, the Sports Pickle has a great collection of NHL player pick-up lines.
Prepare For Your Mind To Be Blown...
By way of Dirty Tackle, via Footy For The Soul, here's a minor incident from a 2006 UEFA Cup match between Hamburg and Rapid Bucharesti. In it Nigel de Jong, notorious Dutch master killer, ankle and rib breaker, recieves a red card. It's the only red card he's received in his professional career.
Shit! It's like the football gods are daring me not to love this guy.
