Fans attending the Baltimore Ravens’ home opener on Sunday will be leaving more than empty cups, nacho tins, and possibly their team spirit when they exit M&T Bank Stadium: Guests can leave their DNA to be tested if they take part in the team’s latest promotion. [More]
football
Verizon Reportedly Paying $21M To Stream One NFL Game
By 5.3.17
A ticket to watch an NFL game in person can be expensive, but the price tag to air a game is even more outrageous: Verizon will reportedly pay $21 million to stream just one NFL game this fall. [More]
Thursday Night Football Will Be On Amazon Prime For 2017 Season
By 4.5.17
There’s no knowing who will win the Thursday Night Football matchups yet to come in the 2017 NFL season, but we do now know who’s won the right to stream them this year, and it’s Amazon. [More]
Report: Facebook, Amazon Among Tech Giants Interested In Streaming Thursday NFL Games
By 3.24.17
If the news that Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, and YouTube are all reportedly interested in streaming Thursday night NFL games sounds familiar, that’s because these same rumors swirled last year. [More]
Raiders Of The Lost Kmart Unearth Sports Memorabilia No One Wanted 5-10 Years Ago
By 2.27.17 — Updated: 5.10.17
The brave retail archaeologists we call the Raiders of the Lost Walmart recently made a side expedition to Kmart, where they dug up a cache of sports-related gear that has apparently been sitting around, unpurchased for years — more than a decade in one instance. [More]
Odds Against Tom Brady’s Stolen Super Bowl Jersey Ending Up On eBay
By 2.7.17
There are a few things that shouldn’t need to be said, and yet, someone ends up saying it anyway. Like, “Resistance is futile,” “One does not simply walk into Mordor,” or, “You won’t get away with selling Tom Brady’s missing Super Bowl jersey on eBay.” [More]
Pizza Hut Worker & Company Head Trade Places: She Gets Super Bowl Tickets, He Does Her Job
By 2.3.17
In a classic job switcheroo, this year a Pizza Hut employee will enjoy the boss’s Super Bowl seats, while the company president covers her usual restaurant duties. [More]
Cleveland Browns Owners To Season-Ticket Holders: “You Deserve Better”
By 1.3.17
In the wide world of sports, there are slumps and losing streaks, and then there are entire seasons that fans may wish never happened in the first place. Like the Cleveland Browns, who put up a dismal 1-15 showing in the National Football League’s 2016 season, prompting the team’s owners to send season ticket-holders an apology letter. [More]
Is TV Sports Getting So Expensive That Customers Are Finally Cutting The Cord?
By 12.5.16
At this point, it’s a hoary old saw that sports networks and broadcasts of live sporting events are one of the main reasons your pay-TV bills continue to rise. We all kind of “know” that sports are expensive, and that the costs come through to everyone else… but as millions of dollars in charges and fees become billions, are consumers and viewers going to stick around? [More]
NFL Denies It Is Looking To Get Rid Of Thursday Night Football
By 11.29.16
It hasn’t been a banner year for the NFL, with ratings now sagging for what had seemed to be an unstoppable TV sports juggernaut. Now the league is fending off rumors that it has plans to get rid of meh-rated Thursday Night Football when its current TV deals are expired. [More]
NJ Woman Suing NY Giants, Stadium Claims She Was Injured By Falling Photo In Gift Shop
By 10.18.16 — Updated: 11.1.16
Every sports fan knows that loving your team can hurt, but this is a bit literal: a New Jersey woman is suing the New York Giants and their home venue, MetLife Stadium, claiming that she was injured by a large, framed photo of the team that fell on her in a stadium gift shop. [More]
Why Are Fewer People Watching The NFL So Far This Season?
By 10.6.16
Maybe it’s the lack of Tom Brady. Maybe it’s the election season. Maybe everyone’s out apple-picking instead of at home watching football. Maybe it’s because you’ve already cratered in your office fantasy football league because you invested too heavily in the Carolina Panthers? (Why are you looking at me like that?) Whatever the cause, fewer people seem to be watching pro football in 2016. [More]
Supreme Court Won’t Hear Arguments On Possible Pay For NCAA Athletes
By 10.3.16
Nearly exactly a year after a federal appeals court ruled that the NCAA’s amateurs-only requirement violates federal antitrust laws — while simultaneously shutting down a plan to pay certain college athletes for their work — the U.S. Supreme Court has decided to not hear any further appeals in this dispute. [More]
Football Fans Have Direct Access To Super Bowl Tickets For The First Time; Prices Start At $5,500
By 9.21.16
We’re still months away from finding out which two teams will battle it out for the national championship in January, but dedicated football fans can already purchase tickets to the Super Bowl — straight from the National Football League for the first time. [More]
Denver Broncos Take Back Naming Rights Contract For Their Stadium
By 8.3.16
Sports Authority is dead. The store merchandise is mostly gone, and the iMacs and foosball tables have been cleared out of the former headquarters building. There’s one important thing left, though: the naming rights to the arena where the Denver Broncos play. The remaining years on the retailer’s contract were for sale as part of the intellectual property auction, and there were no takers. Even after two deadline extensions, no one was interested, so the stadium authority and the team have taken the rights back. [More]
NFL Literally Studying Whether It Should Move The Goalposts
By 7.19.16
Should it be harder to score an extra point or field goal in NFL games? If so, what’s the best way to go about changing the process — should the space between the goal posts be narrower? To tackle that questions, the NFL is using special new footballs equipped with computer chips to collect data about each kick. [More]
Congressional Report: NFL Tried To Influence Government Research On Head Injuries
By 5.23.16
Even though the National Football League currently paints itself as a player-friendly organization that puts safety above the base thrill of seeing a dude repeatedly getting his bell rung, the league has a long history of not only ignoring the issue but actively seeking to smother scientific research linking the sport to devastating longterm brain damage. A newly released Congressional investigation appears to confirm earlier news reports claiming that the NFL isn’t done trying to insert itself into research that could have an impact on the country’s most popular team sport. [More]
Chocolate Milk Maker Behind Sketchy “Cognitive Skills” Study Hoped To Cash In On Concussion Movie
By 4.20.16
Last December, researchers from the University of Maryland put out a press release claiming — without showing any of the science to back up the assertions — that a certain brand of chocolate milk could improve cognitive skills of concussed athletes. The study — paid for by the chocolate milk company — was widely derided and the school has since admitted that the press release was rushed and botched. So what was the hurry in getting this incomplete science news out there? Apparently, in the hopes of riding the coattails of a new Will Smith movie. [More]
