This week, Randy Moss -- one of my all-time favorite football players -- retired.
*moment of silence*
He had an awful season last year, where he underproduced for the Patriots, got traded to the Vikings, released, signed by Tennessee, and barely played. He’s one of the all-time most athletic people to play the game of football, and while sure he was a “diva” and “problematic”, he came up with this pass, helped the 2002 MVP and the 2007 MVP pick up their titles, and went 15-1 in one season and 16-0 in another (without winning a ring - Lombardi Tweet), and was the top receiver on the two best offenses ever. The Sports Illustrated Vault put together an awesome gallery of rare photos of the often-maligned wide receiver.
So, on the note that it sucks when your favorite players retire before they should, here are your Links of the Week:
100 sake bombs as dominos? Sure, why not. [SonicBloom via @drewmagary]
Here is everything you could possible want to know about the NBA lockout. It’s a wonderfully exciting read, especially if you love phrases like “labor impasse”, “antitrust grounds”, and “reasonable requests and threats to decertify”. [Grantland]
A mini-basketball league? What a bunch of geniuses. [The Basketball Jones]
I was born in 1986, so I spent the formative years of my life in the 1990’s, which are having a renaissance of sorts, with The 90s Are All That, Beavis and Butthead retunring, and many of the other signs that everything from music to fashion are retreading on the 90’s turf. GQ calls it, The Decade That Won’t Die. [GQ]
There are hundreds, if not thousands, of dunk compliation videos online. As someone going through basketball withdrawal, I eat them up. Here’s one that Quickish found of a 5’11” Division-III basketball player with a 50-inch vertical leap, which may be the best of the bunch. [Quickish]
Speaking of Quickish, The Business Insider has a nice write-up on the site, whose editor sifts through the top news of the hour and puts it together nice and clean, making it easier to sift through nearly-up-to-the-minute news without all of the noise of Twitter. Great site. [The Business Insider]
I’m not saying that if you use Internet Explorer, you’re less intelligent than someone who uses another broswer. I’d never do that. Mashable would, though. [Mashable]
Earlier this year, Major League Baseball came out and said they were working with their players association to go over some ideas to re-align the teams, adding one team from the 16-team National League to the 14-team American League, and possibly eliminating divisions and shortening the seasons. I’m on board! Freakonomics went out and asked several sports economists and experts on what the best endgame is, good read if you have some time. [Freakonomics]
Fact: Everyone between the ages of 16-40 has said, at least once in their life, “I should try out for the Real World.” Think again. [AVClub, via @bsanders37]
Writer Jonah Keri put it best when he tweeted “I want to make 30 babies with this video.” [Deadspin]