Wednesday Link-Off: Roll Up Your Windows

If you hate my political coverage, you’ll hate my Friday column in which I explain why supply-side economics doesn’t actually work and give you the evidence to back that claim up. Anyway, on with the show. Let’s start with the newly single Amy Poehler who’s making Will Arnett look like a fool for divorcing her.

Mitt Romney has the perfect replacement for Obamacare. Since emergency rooms have to provide care people who come in, they can just go to an emergency room if they need it. The irony is that was the same logic that led him to create Romneycare. (Gawker)

Romney is all about cutting back government subsidies but did you know that government subsidies were the only thing that gave him enough money to get the Salt Lake City Olympics to actually happen. (Deadspin)

One of the arguments for the high pay of corporate executives is that they have special skills and experience that entitles them to that pay. However, a new study shows that these skills are specialized to one company and circumstance so there really isn’t any demand for their services. (New York Times)

After the jump, Romney’s epic airplane window fail, a tutorial with Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt Al Bundy and the original worst referee call ever. Continue reading

Join The Lowdown Blog Football Pick’em Pool

After our fantasy pool filled up, we meant to open another one but slightly forgot. To make up for it, we’re opening up a more casual and less time-consuming football pick’em pool. All you have to do is join our pool on ESPN.com (link below) and pick the winner of each game. To make the barriers to entry even less, it’s a straight pick’em so you don’t have to worry about the spread.

Click here to join The Lowdown Blog NFL Pigskin Pick’em Pool.

Join The Lowdown Blog Fantasy Football Pool

Are you ready for some football? The 2012 NFL season starts soon so we’re launching our second annual Lowdown Blog Fantasy Football Pool. The pool is hosted on ESPN.com and uses their scoring system. There are 16 spots in the league and it’s a public pool so anyone can join which means spaces will go quickly. Each team can start the ESPN default 1 QB, 2 RB, 2 WR, 1 TE, 1 Flex (RB/WR/TE), 1 Defence and 1 K.

Click here to join The Lowdown Blog Fantasy Football Pool.

Brain Damage in the NFL (Infographic)

The one word that is becoming increasingly synonymous with the NFL is “concussion.” In June, more than 2,000 former players filed a lawsuit against the NFL claiming the league ignored the risks of head injuries as a result of playing in the NFL. In fact, a survey completed in 2000 showed that approximately 60% of NFL players have received at least one concussion. This probably isn’t the sort of thing that the NFL wants getting out there at the start of training camps. For this and more facts about head injuries in the NFL, we have a handy infographic for your perusal. Continue reading

Sunday Link-Off: Media Massacre

We’ve got a pretty packed linkdump for you today. And I thought I’d be too busy with the 2012 Hottest Canadian bracket to put this post together. Okay, not really. I just wanted an excuse to plug it. In the meantime, here’s Sofia Vergara who is ineligible for our bracket because she’s Columbian.

Has Google gone completely evil? With all the changes they’re shoving down our throats, there’s a case for that claim. (Gizmodo)

The Onion is making the move from New York to Chicago but it hasn’t exactly gone over well or even very smoothly. (The Atlantic Wire)

Under the leadership of AJ Daulerio, Gawker has not only grown but become a more fun place for writers to work. (Nieman Journalism Lab)

After the jump, Tim Tebow got traded, a first look at CBS’ upcoming Sherlock Holmes disaster and Samuel L. Jackson does NBA intros. Continue reading

Wallpapers of the Week: February 5, 2012

I like changing up my desktop wallpaper on a regular basis. My wallpaper at work is even a slideshow so I have a new wallpaper every thirty minutes to change things up ever so slightly. So to help you change things up for your work week, I’ve scoured Flickr for five Super Bowl wallpapers that are worth adding to your collection for this week. Continue reading

Sunday Link-Off: Super Sunday

It’s not just any Sunday today. It’s Super Bowl Sunday. That means we’re going to waste over ten hours watching pre-game, actual game, halftime and post-game coverage of a football game. It all seems to be a bit of a waste, doesn’t it? Anyway, let’s kick off the links with alleged former NFL WAG Kate Upton. She almost admitted to having that fling with Sanchez. We’ll all have the last laugh because he’ll be out of the league when his contract with the Jets expires.

Since it’s Super Bowl Sunday, why not feature a breakdown of which championship trophies are the best. (GQ)

Daulerio may have left Deadspin but that doesn’t mean his contributing his classic Daulerio-esque stories after the fact. This week, he brought us the tale of one of Yankees GM Brian Cashman’s mistresses. (Deadspin)

The US would like to remind you that they’ve declared themselves supreme rulers of the internet. They’ve spent the last week shutting down sports streaming websites. (Sports Grid)

After the jump, more on the Super Bowl, a look at horrible reality TV and Bill Murray does Letterman while wearing a Giants jersey. Continue reading

The Super Bowl and Beer (Infographic)

There aren’t many party days bigger than Super Bowl Sunday. There are big parties, vast quantities of food eaten and, of course, even more vast quantities of alcohol drunk. For the football fan, beer is the beverage of choice. Approximately 50 million cases of beer (for about 1,200,000,000 bottles/cans of beer) will be consumed on Sunday.

For a breakdown of what will be drunk and how much will be spent (among other interesting tidbits), we have an infographic about beer and the Super Bowl after the jump. Continue reading

46 Musical Acts Rejected Before Madonna For Super Bowl XLVI

It wasn’t without controversy that the latest act in the post-Wardrobe Malfunction era of Super Bowl halftime shows was Madonna. She’s never been the most wholesome person in the world but now that she’s well past 50, she’s not only relatively harmless compared to the past, she’s relative irrelevant. However, the NFL went through a long list of performers before finally settling on Madonna as the best option for the Super Bowl.

After the jump, we have all 46 proposed act for the Super Bowl XLVI half-time show and why they were dropped. Continue reading

Jerome Simpson Wins Week 16

Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Jerome Simpson makes the highlight of all highlight reel plays that you’ll see this week in the NFL. He finishes this 19-yard touchdown pass from Andy Dalton with a front flip over Arizona Cardinals linebacker Daryl Washington for the major.