Maria said ... she’s ready to take responsibility. And that takes courage and heart. |
| | | | | Maria Sharapova in Doha, 2013. (Doha Stadium Plus) | | | | | |  | “Maria said ... she’s ready to take responsibility. And that takes courage and heart.”
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| rantnrave:// There have been two basic reactions to the MARIA SHARAPOVA affair: She's clearly guilty because a) she was taking a drug that isn't FDA-approved and b) there's no way her team of professional handlers could possibly have missed the WORLD ANTI-DOPING AGENCY's notice that it had recently been added to the banned-drug list. She's clearly not guilty of anything more than an honest mistake because a) she's MARIA SHARAPOVA and b) she had the "courage" to come out and admit her mistake and her failed drug test on her own. The first reaction is flawed because a) have you paid attention to the U.S. health care system lately?, and b) you're giving professional handlers way too much credit. The second reaction is equally flawed because a) you who are writing this do not know MARIA SHARAPOVA at all, and b) organizing a media availability to announce what's going to be eventually announced anyway isn't "courage," it's news management. Are you inclined to believe her because she's successful and articulate and pretty? Are you inclined to disbelieve her because she's successful and articulate and pretty? Either reaction says more about you than it does about MARIA SHARAPOVA or MELDONIUM. I like MARTINA NAVRATILOVA's two cents, at least for now: "Hold your horses, everyone... I don't have all the facts." Here's our REDEF SportsSET, in progress, on the unfolding scandal: "MARIA SHARAPOVA FLUNKS A TEST"... There is also the question, of course, of whether performance-enhancing drugs should be banned in the first place. TYLER BOEHM notes the coincidence (or maybe not) of the SHARAPOVA news coming the same day as PED suspect PEYTON MANNING's retirement, and suggests that embracing PEDs might be "better than pretending we don’t know athletes are taking them, and then pretending to be upset when they get caught"... As to the idea of knowing or not knowing our celebrities, look no further than HULK HOGAN's fascinating, titillating and maybe legally groundbreaking defamation case against GAWKER. | | | - Matty Karas, curator |
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 | Bleacher Report |
| Keep faith, skip showers...and find a way out. | | |
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 | REDEF |
| Innocent mistake or deliberate cheating? The world's highest-paid female athlete took the high ground by announcing a failed drug test herself, but advertisers are cutting ties and suspicions remain. | | |
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 | Vice Sports |
| Next week, the NCAA Tournament selection committee will pick teams based on a combination of factors that seems to change every year. Among those factors, however, is a tried-and-true measure that seems to carry significant weight, season after season: the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI), a statistical tool used to help determine the best teams in college basketball. | | |
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 | The Guardian |
| Male boxers in Rio will fight without headgear. And while that could reduce concussion the increase in cuts may cause problems. | | |
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 | Los Angeles Times |
| Visitors who enter the 194,000-square-foot digital studio facility on the campus of ESPN are greeted by touch screens that can access every commercial in the long-running "This Is SportsCenter" campaign. The display honors the flagship sports highlights program that has been a vital part of the Walt Disney-owned media company since it launched in 1979. | | |
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 | UPROXX |
| Suzy Kolber is always prepared. She looks over her notes, scanning the thick stack of papers in front of her. At times she pauses to write down something that comes to her in a mini yellow legal pad. A few moments later, Adam Schefter takes his seat next to her, and Bill Polian and Louis Riddick sit down, as well. | | |
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 | The New York Times |
| In a split second, a father’s instinct takes over, and a risky moment becomes a picture that dazzles the Internet. | | |
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 | Huck Magazine |
| Claressa 'T.Rex' Shields is fighting, against the odds, to be the best female boxer in the world. | | |
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 | Yahoo Sports |
| >From Yahoo Sports: The All-Star breaks down what it's like to be a part of the Warriors' rock-star environment. | | |
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| Bleacher Report |
| Peyton Manning invented the sports Internet. | | |
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 | VentureBeat |
| While Twitch and YouTube gobble up live and recorded video for traditional gaming platforms, a battle is heating up on smartphones. | | |
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| The New York Times |
| For 90 seconds, Michael Phelps 's training regimen is on display: He swims, lifts weights, eats. At one point, he undergoes cupping therapy (seriously, just Google it). The Under Armour ad featuring the Olympic swimmer is an extension of the company's "Rule Yourself" campaign, which was introduced last year and seeks to shed light on how world-class athletes train. | | |
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 | Deadspin |
| The NHL was no doubt disappointed when only two potential ownership groups were able to submit realistic bids for expansion teams, because it meant there would be that much less margin for error: if Las Vegas or Quebec City couldn't follow through or properly impress some skeptical owners, there would be no other alternatives. | | |
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 | SB*Nation |
| Very few players, especially cornerbacks, are scheme transcendent. However, that's unlikely to stop some teams from repeating the mistakes of the past by spending big to fit square pegs into round holes. | | |
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 | The Red Bulletin |
| He used to spend his days selling toasters--.then a desire to swim the world’s most grueling open waters changed everything | | |
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 | CNET |
| Law regulates how sites like DraftKings and FanDuel can operate legally in the state, distinguishing them from gambling sites. | | |
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 | The Cauldron |
| The 2016 versions of the largest sports conferences are occurring on the same weekend. Which will be better? | | |
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 | Vocativ |
| Betting big on stars like Conor McGregor always ends with the UFC desperate for new stars. | | |
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 | The Verge |
| Has AlphaGo solved one of the oldest problems in computer science? | | |
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 | WSJ |
| The number of people trying golf for the first time has gone up, but overall participation continues to drop. What is the sport doing wrong? | | |
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 | via YouTube |
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