ESPN has a great interview with NBA Jam designer Mark Turmell that discusses some of the venerable game's lesser-known details. No, we're not talking about unlocking Bill Clinton - everyone knows about that. We're talking about the special edition with Michael Jordan and Gary Payton on the same team, the rumors of the game being haunted, and special code to handle Detroit playing Chicago.
Pat's Papers is carrying an interesting story about water demand in Edmonton during the Olympic hockey gold medal game between Canada and the United States. An estimated 80% of Canadian residents watched the game... and the graphs make for some hilarious but scary visuals.
Going against many experts I've heard over the last week or so, EA's Madden 10 simulator predicts that the New Orleans Saints will win Super Bowl XLIV over the Indianapolis Colts, 35-31.
Madden 10 has been surprisingly accurate in the past, getting 5 of the last 6 predictions correct, including getting within one point of the correct total score.
Comedian Stephen Colbert appears on the cover of Sports Illustrated this month. He is singled out for his efforts on The Colbert Report, which saved the US Speedskating team's future in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics by raising $250,000 to sponsor it when the previous sponsor backed out.
This is an idea that is so simple, it's shocking that no one has done it yet. People spend tons of money each year on their fantasy sports leagues... and every year, key players incur injuries that leave the fantasy users with no chance of recouping their costs. Fantasy Sports Insurance insures the top athletes for a certain premium and if they get injured, you get the entire entrance and transaction fees back.
Unfortunately, it seems to me that their insurance policies aren't really helpful. First of all, the cost for every NFL player on their list is the same... whether it be Steven Jackson or Peyton Manning. So collectively, they are trying to group-insure the top 50 players instead of offering a more expensive premium for players that are more suspectible to injury. This is interesting because it definitely makes those players easier to insure... but why would anyone want to insure a player who has no real history of injury?
While the costs aren't too bad (a little over $12 for a fantasy league where you spent $100), that's only if you look at the dollar amount and not the percentage. 12% of your entrance fee IS a lot of money, in my opinion.
All-NBA crazy person Ron Artest, created a song tribute for Micheal Jackson. The song is oddly catchy, but - more importantly - this establishes Artest as the premiere crazy person in the NBA.
The New Yorker is carrying a (very long but) interesting piece about Vivek Ranadivé, a software engineer who coached his daughter's school basketball team in a fashion that appears to test the limits of the game's etiquette by many other coaches, even though it is completely within the rules. A very insightful look into how to maximize your team's potential and overcome lack of skill, though it gets somewhat repetitive with its Lawrence of Arabia analogies.
I remember when I used to play back home in the neighborhood, there was always games like that. One of my friends was playing... and it was so competitive they broke a piece of leg from a table and they threw it and it went right through his heart and he died, right on the court.
