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Joe Flacco

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ABOUT LAST NIGHT

About Last Night: Da Bears Stay Perfect

By Shane Ryan at

In case you were out living a life of leisure, here's what you missed in sports on Tuesday.

  • The Baylor Bears became the first college basketball team to ever compile a 40-0 record and win the national championship. Brittney Griner's 26 points and 13 boards helped her team to an 80-61 victory over Stanford Notre Dame, and earned the undefeated Bears a permanent place in the history books. "Alright, just say it," said the Washington Wizards. "You think they could beat us too, right? Just say it, damn you!"
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HEARTBREAK

AFC Championship: Don't Worry, Baltimore Ravens Fans! Papa John Is Here for You

By Rembert Browne at

This is a rough time to have ties to the Baltimore Ravens. I mean, Tom Brady was doing everything in his power to give the Ravens a spot in the Super Bowl, but they strangely refused to take it. And now that they're out, Baltimore fans (and, I suspect, many of the players) are upset and left with two guys to blame — Billy Cundiff with the missed kick and, more important, Lee Evans with the go-ahead touchdown drop.

The next few days will naturally be filled with hate speech toward these two. (I'd recommend Billy and Lee not return to Baltimore, and instead catch the rest of the Sundance Film Festival, sans Internet, television, or humans who have Internet/televisions.) But the attention of Ravens fans needs to be focused on the good that came out of Sunday's 23-20 loss. Believe it or not, there are a few reasons for Baltimore fans to forcibly turn that frown upside down.

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ELI MANNING BASICALLY THREW TO THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS YOU GUYS

Let's All Geek Out Over This NFL Playoff Graphic

By Grantland Staff at
Rob Carr/Getty Images

Hey, remember that time Craig Robinson, of Flip Flop Fly Ball fame, made that graphic for the baseball playoffs? That was cool, right? Good news: We asked him to do it again for the NFL playoffs. And this one even has an awesome bit involving the National Mall.

You can follow Craig on Twitter at @flipflopflying and buy his book, Flip Flop Fly Ball: An Infographic Baseball Adventure, which is available now.

(Eds. note: Oops, sorry guys. We know about the 49ers takeaways/giveaways thing. Our bad. Working on it, stand by!)

(Click on the image to enlarge.)

[+] Enlarge
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ABOUT LAST NIGHT

About Last Night: And on the Third Day, Tim Tebow ...

By Shane Ryan at
Stephen Dunn/Getty Images

In case you were out living a life of leisure, here's what you missed in sports on Wednesday.

  • The Texas Rangers reached a deal with Japanese pitching sensation Yu Darvish worth approximately $60 million. When he heard the news that he'd be going to Arlington, Darvish immediately learned the English translation for "T-Bone steak," "dude ranch," and, "I'm Japanese, so please stop calling me 'Jorge' in a vaguely menacing way."
  • According to a source, Tim Tebow sustained serious injuries in the third quarter of the Broncos' loss to the Patriots. He soldiered on despite torn rib cartilage, a bruised lung, and fluid buildup. He laid pretty low on Monday, but gave hope and solace to his followers when he was back up and about on the third day.
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B.S. REPORT

B.S. Report: Cousin Sal

Joe Flacco
Jared Wickerham/Getty Images

Bill Simmons and Cousin Sal lament their lack gambling prowess, pull a 180 on what they think about Baltimore QB Joe Flacco after Sunday night's Ravens-Steelers game, and breakdown the rest of Week 9 fun in the NFL.

Plus, as always, guessing the Week 10 lines.

Later on Monday: Bill Simmons and Chris Connelly discuss Magic Johnson

Find Monday's podcast here:

ESPN.com Podcenter

On iTunes

The BS Report page

Previously on the B.S. Report:
Adam Carolla
Chris Herren
Cousin Sal
Jane Leavy
Bill Simmons and John A. Walsh on Hunter S. Thompson

Subscribe to the BS Report and the Grantland Network on iTunes.

Bill Simmons is the editor-in-chief of Grantland, the host of the BS Report and the author of the recent New York Times no. 1 best-seller The Book of Basketball. Follow him on Twitter and check out his new home on Facebook.


Follow Grantland on Twitter or check out Grantland's Facebook page.

Read more of The Triangle, Grantland's sports blog.

Contact us at triangle@grantland.com

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BQBL

The Bad Quarterback League's Historic Day

By David Jacoby at
Carson Palmer
AP Photo/Paul Sakuma

Every movement has a defining moment. The American Revolution had the Boston Tea Party. The hippies had Woodstock. Occupy Wall Street has … well, regardless, the BQBL’s defining moment occurred on October 23, 2011, in Week 7 of the NFL schedule. For generations to come, on the morning of October 23, families clad in Carson Palmer, Curtis Painter, and A.J. Feeley jerseys will grab a football, head to the backyard, and throw errant passes to each other in recognition of this glorious day.

Keeping with BQBL Day tradition, the elder generations will describe the events of Week 7 in 2011 to the young'uns while aimlessly scrambling around the yard and throwing passes 30 feet over their heads. They will tell of the mythical Matt Hasselbeck and his 104 passing yards against the Texans. They will repeat the story of Palmer, who helped solidify a scoreless afternoon for his Raiders and — keeping with BQBL Day tradition — they will don a long blond wig and detail exactly how Painter, on national television, willed his team to lose by 55 points. Then, BQBL Day will culminate with the whole family around the dinner table, poised to dive into their traditional BQBL Day feast of nachos, buffalo wings, and HGH flakes, and they will first all take turns telling the tale of the Miami Miracle. The day that it was revealed to the world that Timothy Richard Tebow was not only the greatest quarterback to ever play the game of football, but the greatest man to ever walk the earth. I can’t wait until next year. I think I am going to adopt a son right now.

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BQBL

The Bad Quarterback League: Sanchez Steps Up (For Jets BQBL Owners)

By David Jacoby at

Patrick Smith/Getty Images

As Sunday’s afternoon games were winding down, it looked as if we were headed toward a relatively quiet week in the BQBL. Aside from Tony Romo Romoing his Cowboys into another fourth-quarter collapse, there just wasn’t any one QB who stood out below the rest — until Mark Sanchez took the field against the Baltimore Ravens. Sanchez was so good at being bad Sunday night that after his second fumble was returned for a touchdown, any BQBLer with a heart stopped rooting for his failure and simply started rooting for his survival. The Ravens defense threw a party Sunday night, invited Mark Sanchez, and then treated him like a tackle dummy. They just kept viciously hitting him and hitting him until footballs were flying everywhere and his BQBL score was in triple digits.

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NFL

The Huddle: Baltimore is Too Ratchet!!!

Tandon Doss
AP Photo/Patrick Semansky

Here's your Friday whip-around on the stories dominating the headlines and lingering in the margins of the NFL. No pads needed.

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