Posts from the Espn Category at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

The 41-year-old American swimmer Dara Torres won the 100-meter freestyle at the U.S. Olympic trials, and she credited her training regimen for her success at such an advanced age.

But ESPN.com's Pat Forde is not convinced. Forde thinks that the simplest explanation for a super-human athletic performance is that the athlete is using performance-enhancing drugs. He quotes Torres saying, "Anyone who makes any accusations, I see it as a compliment," and writes that she should "take this column as one long compliment."

The meat of Forde's argument is this:

It shouldn't even be possible for a woman in her 40s.

Which is the sticking point. This is all unprecedented -- and after years of being conned, we've become conditioned to question the unprecedented.

Who swims this well at that age? After having a child? Nobody. Ever.

Who takes six years off and comes back better than ever, lowering her best time in the 100 meters from 54.43 seconds in 2000 to 53.78 Friday night? Nobody. Ever.

Who has shoulder and knee surgery and comes back to whip women half her age less than a year later? Nobody. Ever.

Of course, for as long as sports have existed, we've been marveling at achievements that nobody ever accomplished before. Now we seem to have reached the point where instead of marveling, we scoff.

It's the Fourth of July, which for many Americans, is a wonderful excuse to get drunk and stuff your face, all under the guise of celebrating freedom.

And if you're a competitive eater, you can actually make a few bucks in the process. It's not exactly glamorous, but, hey, everybody's good at something, and for Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi, it's all about chugging hot dogs (video proof here).

Ah, yes, the ol' "cannonball technique." (Actually, what I know about competitive eating consists of the few seconds each year I tune into the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest, before puking and changing the channel. Maybe the cannonball technique is banned in many states.)

By the way, I love how ESPN has an on-scene reporter quizzing the contestants after the Chestnut pulls out the overtime victory (this seems like an event tailor-made for Heidi Watney; I'm guessing Jerry Remy agrees), and even better, Kobayashi has his own interpreter.

In case you're wondering, Kobayashi says he wasn't quick enough in the five-dog overtime eat-off, but he plans on being back in '09. Oh, and with the victory, Chestnut is still the No. 1 ranked eater. Don King would be proud.

Previously on FanHouse
Joey Chestnut Beats Takeru Kobayashi at Coney Island Hot Dog Eating Contest
Kobayashi vs. Chestnut Hot Dog Live Blog

Longtime ESPN SportsCenter anchor Linda Cohn has come out with an autobiography, Cohn-Head: A No-Holds- Barred Account of Breaking Into the Boys Club. Michael Hiestand of USA Today has an interesting account:

She mentions males giving her breaks - and others behaving boorishly - and career tips such as "one of the things they tell you when you start at ESPN is to think of it as 'infotainment.' " She was "almost" fired after two years - after getting no "feedback" until a boss said he assumed she'd have made "more progress" - and desperate for a catchphrase adopted "master batters" - until ordered to stop. Give her props for writing that "why do I always have the feeling that when my looks finally go, then so will my career? Why did I feel it necessary to mention at the beginning of this chapter that I'm a size 4?"

I'm glad Cohn was ordered to stop, as the viewers can always tell which SportsCenter catchphrases feel forced. But overall I like Cohn, and I'm interested in this book -- especially if she names the males who behaved boorishly.

The fourth of July is all about freedom, democracy, almost blowing your hand off while illegally setting off fireworks, Nathan's, and, this year, whether Brett Favre will un-retire after three months. Good times. Yesterday, ESPN's Chris Mortensen "reported" that Favre is mulling a return. Favre later responded by saying, "it's all rumor," and now the conversation has turned to what happens should he come back for one more season.

One scenario, courtesy of PFT, has Favre wanting to play for the Panthers. As Mike Florio writes, there isn't any clear ties between Carolina and the Hall of Fame quarterback, other than the relative proximity of Charlotte to Mississippi.

Well, apparently, there's a better chance Mittens wins the NFL MVP award than Favre taking one snap for the Panthers, at least according to Darin Gantt of the Rock Hill Herald:

That's not happening, and it's not because Favre doesn't want to come here. For starters, the Panthers have a starter they like just fine in Jake Delhomme. And while the world seems to think his arm's going to fly off like a scene from Monty Python, he's actually ahead of schedule coming back from last year's elbow surgery.

Also, the Panthers think far more highly of Matt Moore than most, which should have been obvious when they didn't sign a veteran free agent or draft one.

Gantt adds that the Panthers aren't going to comment on the rumor because there's absolutely nothing to it. Plus, if Delhomme's arm does fly off, Vinny Testaverde has been promised first dibs on the job.

Earlier MDS noted that the Sports Bog's Dan Steinberg caught up with Stuart Scott at the Earl Woods Memorial Pro-Am yesterday, and like most people at pro-am events, they talked about sports blogs.

Near the end of Steinberg's post on the festivities, he notes that Scott's answer of the day came in an interview with Sports Groove's Mark Gray, "who asked about the criticism Tiger receives for not being outspoken enough." Scott's response:

"All the people who say Tiger doesn't do enough, stop," Scott said. "Shut up. Shut up....He's got about as much money as Oprah, but it's important for him to do something tangible for kids. Tangible."

As much as it pains me, I agree with Scott on this one. For some reason, certain segments of the population think high-profile athletes should have an opinion on every social issue under the sun.

During the "hey, I got an idea: let's lynch Tiger!" fiasco, Jim Brown said Woods "waited until it was politically correct to come out and he should have come out right away." Maybe. Or perhaps Tiger just wanted the whole thing to blow over. Frankly, I have no idea why he didn't hold a press conference denouncing Kelly Tilghman as the next coming of Hitler (or worse, the Celtics), but I can't begrudge the guy for how he ultimately chose to deal with it the matter.

Mike Sando of ESPN recently wrote about a survey of the league's dirtiest players and analyzed which teams received the most personal fouls. The Patriots' Rodney Harrison got the most votes for dirty play, and the Raiders received the most personal fouls.

The Houston Texans received the least personal fouls, but Sando got it completely wrong as it related to Texans defensive tackle Travis Johnson:

Former Patriots receiver Deion Branch drew a line between Harrison's hard-nosed play and the approach Houston Texans defensive lineman Travis Johnson took after knocking out then-Miami Dolphins quarterback Trent Green with a legal hit last season. Johnson stood over the fallen Green and taunted him.

"[Harrison] is not that type of dude, I promise you," Branch said. "He's not going to go into a game and try to hurt someone.

Uh, I'm guessing that Sando didn't actually see that play or maybe he just got his actives and passive mixed up writing about it. It was Trent Green who knocked himself out after Green intentionally blocked Johnson with a low but legal hit. If anyone was dirty in that play, it was Green who admitted he dove low, smashing Johnson's knee with his helmet, causing Johnson to somersault into the air and land on his head.

I'd put up some real speed video of this, but it no longer exists because the NFL pulled it. This slo-mo YouTube version above is all that exists.

On the day A.J. Daulerio was named Deadspin editor last week, I asked him about a post he wrote at the Super Bowl a year and a half ago in which he described what he read while looking over Stuart Scott's shoulder as Scott sent a text message.

Daulerio said that while he's never heard from Scott about that post, "I heard he was upset, and rightfully so."

However, Scott talked to Dan Steinberg of the D.C. Sports Bog yesterday, and while Scott said he never reads blogs, he also didn't have anything negative to say about them. Steinberg writes:

I told Scott that A.J. Daulerio, his foil from Super Bowls past, had been named Deadspin editor. Scott wasn't immediately familiar with the name. "Whatever," he said, when I explained who he was. "If that's what he wants to do with his life...."

I can't say I'm a big Scott fan, but he comes across in Steinberg's interview as though he's a reasonable guy in his approach to blogs, not a ranting lunatic. Scott's no Buzz Bissinger.

So it looks like Brett Favre isn't planning a 2008 comeback despite ESPN's Chris Mortensen declaring otherwise. According to the Sun Herald's Larry Holder, Favre responded to the ESPN report by saying, "it's all rumor," and suggesting there was "no reason for" the media firestorm that followed.

Now we can all get on with our lives, Aaron Rodgers can prepare for the NFL season by acting crazy, and Mortensen can get to work on his next unsubstantiated rumor.

Not sure where "Favre's coming back!" ranks, but it only seems fitting for the same guy who told us:

• Michael Vick was unlikely to get indicted
• Eli Manning would be out 4-6 weeks
• Matt Leinart would be the Cardinals' starting quarterback

And then there's this hilarious paragraph from Gregg Easterbrook's February 15, 2008 column (yes, evidently, Easterbrook can still be funny):

I Knew All Along -- I Just Forgot to Say So: "While Norv Turner remains the leading candidate to be the next head coach of the Dallas Cowboys, ESPN's Chris Mortensen reported Wednesday that another candidate has emerged: Bears defensive coordinator Ron Rivera." So read ESPN.com on Feb. 1, 2007. A few days later, after Wade Phillips got the Boys post, Mort said on the air that he had always known the job would go to Phillips.

Knowing ESPN, I fully expect Mortensen to make an on-air apology for being wrong (again) and then he'll be promptly suspended for his incompetence. Or, the World Wide Leader will just pretend like nothing happened, Mortensen will get a raise, and everybody will have a good laugh about it at the company 4th of July bash.

ESPN's Bonnie Bernstein was a guest on Mike and Mike in the Morning Wednesday, and when the subject turned to a high school basketball player who is considering playing professionally in Europe instead of going to college, Bernstein made an extremely odd comparison between American high school basketball players and Palestinian suicide bombers.

I've just reviewed the show in question and transcribed the full text of Bernstein's comments below.

It's sort of like, you know, and this isn't -- I'm prefacing this by saying this is in no way an analogy to sports because I know we live in a hypersensitive society -- but I remember a while ago I was reading an article in the New York Times about Palestinian suicide bombers and I just remember being struck by the notion that from the point of birth, people in Palestine are taught to think that dying in the name of God is a good thing.

They grow up wanting to be suicide bombers. So bringing it back to sports -- and again, I'm not making the comparison or the analogy -- if a young talented basketball player is being told at an early age that they are destined, it is a good thing to focus on basketball and not worry about what's going on in the classroom, why are any kids going to be worried about what's going on in the classroom?

Bernstein seemed to know that what she was saying would offend people, and sure enough, it did.

And now for the geekiest thing you'll read on FanHouse all day.

The NFL and ESPN have told FCC that they would like to test "white space" devices during live NFL games. The goal is to see if and how the wireless internet devices might interfere with wireless microphones and local TV signals in a real-world environment.

If you're not familiar with white space devices, here's some background for you. When the FCC handed broadcasters free analog TV spectrum back in the day, they required that there be "buffers," or white spaces, in between spectrum allocations, so as to avoid interference between channels. Now that analog TV signals are set to be switched off and replaced with all-digital TV signals next February, a few tech companies see an opportunity to use those white spaces to deliver wireless internet on the cheap -- the theory being that digital signal is much less susceptible to interference.

The hitch is that broadcasters are terrified that white space internet signals will interfere with TV signals. The National Association of Broadcasters wants to ban the devices, while White Spaces Coalition members are accusing the NAB of engaging in empty rhetoric. Unfortunately, NAB has the upper hand right now, as several white space devices tested by the FCC haven't worked very well.