Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Sources: Dallas Cowboys tender P Chris Jones, RB Lance Dunbar, but not CB ...


1992 Dallas Cowboys

Dallas Cowboys running back Lance Dunbar (25) rushes the ball during the National Football League regular season finale game between the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins at FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland Sunday December 28, 2014. The Dallas Cowboys beat the Washington Redskins 44-17. (Andy Jacobsohn/The Dallas Morning News)

The Dallas Cowboys have placedone-year tenders of $1.542 million each on restricted free agent punter Chris Jones and restricted free agent running back Lance Dunbar, according to sources.

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As I reported Saturday, the Cowboys non-tendered restricted free agent cornerback Sterling Moore, according to sources.

Its somewhat surprising that the Cowboys decided not to tender Moore, who now will become an unrestricted free agent Tuesday. Moore was solid as the Cowboys nickel cornerback last season and stepped up when Morris Claiborne was lost for the season with an injury.

Moore, the former SMU player, gave the Cowboys much-needed depth at cornerback after Claiborne went down. Considering the Cowboys lack of depth at cornerback and starter Brandon Carr facing a pay cut or post-June 1 cut designation, not tendering Moore will force Dallas to emphasize the cornerback position in free agency and/or the draft. Also, Claiborne isnt likely to be ready to practice at the start of training camp.

The Cowboys must believe they can find a cheaper upgrade at cornerback than paying Moore the $1.5 million.

I want some Ruths Chris but Im jobless, so Ill have to settle for Cheesecake Factory, Moore tweeted Monday night.

The one-year tenders for Jones and Dunbar arent guaranteed. Dunbar is the Cowboys third running back and tendering him gives Dallas some insurance if DeMarco Murray signs with another team in free agency and they have to cut ties with Joseph Randle, who is still the suspect in a domestic violence investigation in his hometown of Wichita, Kansas.

If Dunbar or Jones were to accept an offer sheet from another team, the Cowboys would have right of first refusal, a five-day period in which they can match the offer and retain him or move on from the player. The Cowboys wouldnt receive any compensation in return from a team that would sign Dunbar or Jones because both players were undrafted.

Follow Brandon George on Twitter at @DMN_George.

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Source: http://cowboysblog.dallasnews.com/2015/03/sources-dallas-cowboys-tender-p-chris-jones-rb-lance-dunbar-but-not-cb-sterling-moore.html/

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MMBM: Patrick Willis is a quitter not a hitter, good riddance


E60: Patrick Willis -- The Good Life

The weeks most important NFL column is back, folks.

We"re required to remind you that these strong takes are SATIRE. Sorry, not sorry. All spelling errors are intentional, we think. -Ed.

Wellcome to the Monday Morning BM,, just a word of warning your probably not prepared to handle the strong football takes and barrelfire NFL truths that you never knew your Mondays were missing. This column is written for and by a REAL fan of the NFL. Its designed to be read on your Monday Morning commode break after a long Sunday eating bad-for-you food and drinking beers. If you care more about SPELLING then you do about TELLING theres the door because this columns not for you.

Well I guess this is where the rubber meets the road. Patrick Willis is "retiring" which is ironic because instead of jacking people up hes been looking flat and hasnt had a Good Year in a while. Im frankly disgusted by him walking away from the game so early- I"ll call it what it is- he"s a coward. If your a Elite NFL player you shouldnt be aloud to decide when to retire. At some point your career becomes more about other people then about yourself and the fact that he cant understand that I want him to play football is selfish. What if every player retired at once, then what? Hes being a hypocrite.

Willis is essentially bullying himself out of the NFL and the league needs to come hard on him. You cant supsend Richie Incognito for making Jonathin Martin want to quit, and then turn around and just let Patrick Willis force himself into retirement- its the exact same thing. Do we need Ted Wells report into this process because if we dont then whose to stop other players from retiring before the fans want them to? Who knows why exactly hes retiring but I cant help anticipate maybe hes gonna start his own rap label in which case good riddants- I want a Mike Linebacker not a Mic Linebacker. Heres a rhyme for you- Roses are red/Violets are blue/ your a leader who quit/ just like you know who.

So hes been a rookie of the year, a all-pro, and he played in a superbowl,, folks this guy reached his 3 goals and called it a day I call him Hattrick Willis. Maybe the thing I will remember the most about Willis is when he played for a whole season with a broken hand. He had one arm wrapped up in such a big ugly cast Im suprised Rob Schneider didnt weasel his way into it.

Via the Bay Area Sports Guy, there are rumors swirling that Willis is retiring because he had "a religous awakening" which I can only assume means that he thinks hes Jesus Christ, but maybe someone should remind Patrick that even Christ himself wated until he was 33 years old to quit on his teammates. Think about it.

You think Ronny Lott would of retired because of a religious awakening? h**l no, if Ronny woke up one day thinking he was Jesus hed cut his own foreskin off and get back out there. Now Im not saying that Willis isnt Jesus because frankly it woudnt suprise me if the second coming was in the form of a NFL football player just so G*d could rack up a couple superbowl banners before armageddon, but I do know that he"ll be a coaches son and he will be adamentley against cross-fit. Willis just dosent fit that profile at all, and I really think hes going to regret being so hasty with his decision making.

Lets play devils advocate here and say that Patrick Willis is actually G*d. Fair enough, I"ll let you have that point. But woudnt G*d want to stick around and be a locker-room guy instead of a quitter like Judas? Its called being ReligioUS, not relig-ME.

The real problem here is that if we let athletes just start deciding when there ready to retire then whats next- having independent physicans determine if a players injured? Its a slipper slope. The NFL has done a wonderful job in making sure that NFL players can pretty much be cut at any time for any reason, but the CBA falls wofully short when it comes to making sure players cant quit just because they feel like it. Im not advocating slavery but I think we can come to a understanding where players should be forced to work untill there bodies break down or like a Fireman-Ed type fan in the stands gives a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to determine whether a longtime veteran should be aloud to live after a injury or a boneheaded play.

Now all this said I actually am a great admirer of Patrick Willis I just dont think he should be able to do things that I dont want him to do. Theres no denying that he was the best thing to ever come out of the state of Mississippi which is like choosing the best Woody Allen film, but nonetheless Willis is ranked number 2 on the states most valuable exports just behind the total retail value of all Brett Farves p***s-pump mail-in rebate certificates.

If theres one thing we can all acknowledge its that the 49ers went from perrenal contender to just a absolute clowncar of a football team in literally under 3 months. Thats Cleveland level effecency folks. Heres what San Francisco has done since January if your keeping score:

Losses: Mike Iupati, Patrick Willis, Justin Smith, Frank Gore, Jim Harbaugh, Michael Crabtree,

Gains: Jay Mariotti

Your move Fukushima.

SB Nation presents: An interview with the saddest 49ers fan

Now on to the weekly awards:

Road Grader of the Week: Chip Kelly

Chip Kellys knows the old secret of the NFL: Get rid of all of your best players so you can have the highest addition by subtraction value. After two years hes gotten rid of Desean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin, Trent Cole, LeSean McCoy, Mike Vick, and Cary Williams. His playbook has literally turned into a instructonal guide for Nick Foles and Riley Cooper to have a do-si-do which also gives me a good opportunity to post this picture of Riley Cyrus and Lobbin" Nick performing at last years MTV awards:

Also earlier today Steven A Smh alluded to the fact that Chip Kelly has made some decisions that "leave a few brothers feeling uncomfortable." Namley by resigning Riley Cooper while getting rid of Jackson and McCoy. Oh boy, now Ive heard it all. This isnt about race folks its about how to win football games and it just so happens that Chip Kelly thinks slower white players are better suited for his high speed offense. Plus, if Kelly was really racist wouldnt he ONLY have black players on his team? Kind of a keep your friends close enemys closer type deal?

So hypocritical how players are allways talking about how the NFL is a tightly knit fraternity but they get there panties in a bunch when Coach Kelly decides to start a new chapter of the Philadelphia SAEagles.

Fan of the Week:Bar Rescue"s Jon Taffer

Bar Rescue has allways been my favorite Sunday program during non-NFL season, and the main reason why is Jon Taffer. Watching Taffer walk into a bar like he owns the place and start dismantling some guys life work and humilating him in front of all his peers is as close as you can get to replicating when Jerry Jones bought the Cowboys. Hes a fullback dive of a human being who knows so much about draft systems Im shocked the Patriots havent brought him in as a consultant folks. He is a agressive male who gets in your face if your not providing your customers with good beer to drink in a fun enviroment.

But what most folks dont know is that Jon Taffer is the most importent person in the history of the NFL. Jon Taffer literally invented the NFL Sunday Ticket folks.

I got this informaton from a SEC filing from Taffers old company "Midwest Venture Holdings":

In addition to his hospitality career, Mr. Taffer has participated in the successful development of numerous other businesses including the launch of a satellite pay-per-view movie service, a publishing company and resort development. Mr. Taffer is known as the inventor of the NFL"s Sunday Ticket pay programming package. Because of his important work in Sunday Ticket"s design, marketing, distribution and sales programs, he was nominated to the Board of NFL Enterprises where he served for three years.

Thats right, Jon Taffer literaly changed the future of sports in america. Your welcome. Without this man, sports bars would be limited to showing bowling and the Raiders/Cheifs games twice a year. And therefore if sportsbars did not exist, many of my children would not exist. So while its amazing that Taffer was able to come up with the best idea in all of world history- he is also technically liable for the child support many of the dumbest babys in America whose parents had one night stands because they bonded over watching Donovan McNabb fake a sports hernia.

Thanks to hero@SonarJose for alerting me to Taffers wikipedia page.

Joe Flacco Elite-O-Meter:

It has been my contenton that Joe Flacco is whats known as Baldingers Cat- both Elite and Not Elite at the same time. Each week MMBM will track Joe Flaccos performence in order to determine once and for all the answer to the unanserable NFL debate: Is Joe Flacco a Elite NFL quarterback?

One thing to keep a eye on in Baltimore this offseason is the Ravens new Offensive Coordinator Marc Trestman. The Former Bears coach did what anyone does when they cant get a job in Chicago and moved to Baltimore to replace Gary Kubiak. This week he was asked about his impressons of Joe Flacco:

"I think what you see is a guy that can play very quietly what I call a quiet mind. He really has a great understanding of the game," Trestman said.

Two things here.

1. "A Quiet Mind" tells you all you need to know about Flacco. He dosent have alot of this brain-noise that can get in the way of thinking. Overthinking= overthrows. Ryan Fitzpatrick went to Harvard and he hasnt won anything besdies of course the undying respect of every TV analyst who mentions his name. If your starting a NFL team you want a idiot QB and a dumbass kicker so they dont spend all there time in the head-zone instead of the red-zone.

2. "Play very quietly" tells me that he has the it factor. I beleve it was Mitt Romney who said "Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing", and Id much rather have a leader who is a Quiet Riot type guy who feels the noise rather then makes it.

This weeks rating is: Elite

10 Things I Know I Know:

1. You cant keep a good man down folks. Guess whose back.

As I mentioned before, Jay Mariotti was just named the sports director for the San Francisco Examner. So we can all look forward to more columns like this to be delivered to a large audeince:

The world was a much different place without Jay Mariotti around to make us hate it. Welcome back Jay I truly missed you if anyone out there works for the SF Examiner please fill up the PFTCommenter inbox with tips and storys about how Jay is acting around the office thanks and G*d bless.

2. Best wishes to Chris Johnson who was tragicaly shot in the shoulder in Orlando over the weekend. Good news is it looks like hes going to be ok in the long term. Doctors expect his recovery to be "quite speedy" as long as Vince Young gets to stand next to him the entire time.

3. Looks like NDomino Suh is the first piece to fall of the major free agents. Hes bringing his Alpha Phi Alpha step team act down to south beach were he will be able to stomp the yard on Tom Brady twice a year. Miamis looking like there going to be the Dolfines with bad boy Suh telling the Bills, Pats, and Jets to bite the curb. Some are speculating that this is to much money to give to someone with Suhs history, but lets get real- when was the last time a free agent all-pro 4-3 DT with multiple incidents of stepping on opponets commanded a $100 million open market contract and turned out to be a bust?

4. Mike Florio dropped a nugget for us this morning before the Patrick Willis news broke. He made us all salvate for hours over the fact that the 49ers were about to lose a mystery player, but he woudnt tell us who so in the meantime I came up with these Power Rankings of who and what the suspensions would be:

1. Call-in Kaper-Sick

2. All done Smith

3. The Rugby guy they just signed did his Zulu run down Castro street , ended up popping molly til 4 AM then got confused and tried to 69 with Kapernicks snapping turtle.

4. Blaine Gabbert for apparently taking the worst steroids of all time

5. Reason magazine ran a intresting column called"In Defense of Drunk s*x" which featured this little bit:

But the fact isand please don"t hate mesex isn"t always 100 percent consensual. Especially after booze. Sometimes it"s instinctual, thoughtless, animalistic. Sometimes it just happens.

Im not a math wizzer but Im pretty sure that consent is like being pregnant- either you"re or you"re"nt. Theres no such thing as NoMeansNo-dingers Cat s*x cant be both consensual and nonconsensual at the same time thats a fact.

"Sometimes it just happens" is a great defense except if your trying to win any type of logical, or criminal argurment in which case it will fail immedately and you will get laughed at at thrown in the worst prison. Can you imagine if Pete Carrol accepted the "sometimes it just happens" excuse from the 9/11 commission? A good rule of thumb is that if two people are going to bang, they should both want to bang each other. Just my take.

7. The McCourty twins share a twitter account which is wierd as h**l. It makes it impossible for journlists to do our jobs and see who there new follows are in a attempt to predict where their going to sign. Im calling on twitter support to put a stop to this Terms Of Service Violation- there both impersonating each other. You should be more focused on sharing tips on how to cover WRs then sharing your twitter password and treating it like its a bangbros account SMH.

8. Reader Ben points us toFox Conneticut whose reporting that Indonesian Sportswear company SALVO is under fire. Apparetly they just made a innocent joke and there sorry if anyone is offended by the washing instructions on their jerseys:

How is this offensive at all? I guess womens right "advocates" will complain til the cows come home about the pay gap, but then when a company about giving jobs like laundry exclusivley to women they lose there minds? Goes both ways. By the way if women are so good at laundry how come its allways guys that I see washing hundreds of pounds of dirty clothes at a time at the laundromat? Seems to me that the Tide has turned.

8. Its the Brownsiest time of the year when there signing McCowns and benching Manziels and are looking like a lost childin a supermarket in general. I predict that 2015 will be the Brownsiest year of all time. How is that possible? Well I"ll tell you:

March: Johnny Manzell debuts his new app at SXSW which is basicaly Tinder, but for guys who want to use cocane and women who have cocane and want to have s*x with men who want cocane.

April: Browns get there pick in late so instead of selecting Marcus Mariota they end up drafting Dorial Green Beckham and assigning him to be bunkmates during OTAs with Johnny Manziel, Josh Gordon, and i dont know lets just say they bring back Braylon Edwards too.

May: They volunteer to be on "Hard Knocks" but HBO declines because there cameramen dont want to have to deal with the distracton and circus of working in the Browns lockeroom. Producers are afraid there will be to much drama turning the show into basicaly a football version of "Lost" where instead of having to push a button every 108 minutes theres someone who has to draft another QB.

June: Johnny Manzell takes a picture of himself on a beach smh will this guy ever Get It?

July: After flirting with Charlie Weiss they decide to mend fences with Kyle Shanahan and team him up with Brian Schottenheimer to form a two-headed monster of nepotism calling plays that were designed for a Simms brother.

August: They go 4-0 in the preseason

September: Bryan Hoyer leads the Texans into Cleveland and throws for 478 yds, 5 TDs and no INTs

October: Jimmy Haslam slams his players in the media "for not providing fair value to workingclass clients who expect a certan standard to be met when there paying money for a product." Fires Pettine and rehires Chud for like a day but fires him again.

November: Johnny Manzell is finally benched after going 1-7. McCown is out with a broken hip and the shingles so they turn to Connor Shaw.

December: Donald Trump pretends that hes interested in buying the Browns and moving them to Scotland but backs out at the last second because frankly he doesnt have any money. Connor Shaw wins 4 games in a row to end the season but tears his Achilles in the 4th quater of week 17 and Manziel is romanticaly linked to Lindsay Lohan.

January: Per tradition, the Browns dont really have any plans.

9. Pete Prisco has a very specific taste in sandwiches on twitter. This is his @kins diet IMO

(via@OhHolyButt)

10. Bryan Hoyer is signing with the Texans in order to continue there unbreakable streak of coming in a distant second in the AFC South. Competing for the starting job will be Hoyer, Savage, and Mallet which sounds like a lawfirm specalizing in having attorneys whose names could also be names of 80s hair metal bands.

This Week In Darren Rovell: Another "well actually" disaster

Btw, can someone please invent a Rovell twitter bot that just adds "I know no body cares but" to the start of every tweet?

Reader MailPail:

Source: http://www.sbnation.com/nfl/2015/3/9/8174613/mmbm-patrick-willis-is-a-quitter-not-a-hitter-good-riddance

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Monday, March 9, 2015

Apple Event Round-Up: Watch Pricing, New MacBook, HBO Now And More


HBO Now coming to Apple TV in 5 years cable will be irrelevant - Apple Keynote

Todays Apple event offered up a lot of information. Heres how things unfolded on stage.

Surprising everyone, Tim Cook dove straight into the Apple TV, and teased a partnership with HBO before welcoming HBO CEO Richard Plepler on to the stage. He announced HBO Now for the first time, bringing HBO Now to Apple TV exclusively and allowing users to pay for standalone service (finally out of the hands of the cable providers) for $14.99 a month. The service premieres in April and users who sign up before then get the first month for free.

Tim Cook then went back into the Apple TV, announcing 25 million sold, and announcement a price adjustment that brings the Apple TV down to $69. That price point and exclusive access to HBO Now could be a lethal combination.

From there, Cook delved into the wonderful world of iPhones, announcing that Apple has sold over 700 million since launch. Think about the size of that number for a second.

He then went on to discuss the growth of Apple Pay since launch, mentioning that the contact-less mobile payments service is now available at 700,000 locations, including 40,000 vending machines.

The Apple CEO then shifted to another part of what makes the iPhone important: health data.

Research Kit is a newly announced product that allows users to take various tests, which will help medical researchers in their efforts to cure the worlds worst diseases. For example, an app in Research Kit will test users on their dexterity and gait, using things like the touchscreen and the accelerometer and gyrometer, which will then aid researchers in their work. There are five apps, testing things from Diabetes to Cardiovascular disease, that will launch today, with more coming later on.

Shifting from the iPhone to the Mac, Tim Cook announced that Apple is reinventing the MacBook, and introduced the brand new MacBook. In gold.

The new MacBook is 13.1 millimeters thick, 24 percent thinner than the previous thinnest MacBook model, and weighs just two pounds. It has a 12-inch 23041440 Retina display, with 3.3 million pixels total. The company also redesigned the trackpad and the keyboard to fit this ultrathin notebook, which comes in gold, grey and silver. But there are a number of other updates coming to the MacBook line as a whole, which you can find here.

The new MacBook is only $1,299 to start and ships April 10.

And finally, Apple got to the important stuff: Apple Watch.

We got to take a look at how some of our favorite apps look on the device, including Uber.

Cook revealed pricing and availability for the new product line, which starts at $349 and can climb all the way up to $17,000 depending on which model, size, and band you choose.

You can check out our full coverage right here.

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/09/apple-event-round-up-watch-pricing-new-macbook-hbo-now-and-more/

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For Syracuse basketball fans, the wait until next season is longer than ever


Syracuse vs NC State | 2014-15 ACC Men"s Basketball Highlights

The final horn sounded on the 2014-15 Syracuse University basketball season at 1:59 p.m. in Raleigh, N.C., when N.C. State completed a 71-57 win over the Orange on Saturday.

Hence began the longest "wait till next year" ever for SU basketball fans.

The time and final score were the only formalities left to fill on Saturday as Syracuse University basketball fans settled in to watch what they knew would be the last game of the season.

Man, that still feels weird to say, doesn"t it?

What they knew would be the last game of the season.

It"s just not supposed to work like that in college basketball.

Sure, there is always the possibility that each game can be your last in the postseason.

We all know Syracuse got sent home much earlier than expected last year thanks to the Dayton Flyers.

The year before, Syracuse was one of the last ones standing at the 2013 Final Four.

So it goes for SU basketball fans. From Final Four to early exit to no postseason at all.

The question is if the recent NCAA developments surrounding Syracuse athletics will shake the deep-seated loyalty of Orange basketball fans?

Let me answer that for you:

Heck no.

It will be a tough pill to swallow to watch every other team in the ACC head for the conference tournament this week (and you said you didn"t want to go to Greensboro).

I think the ratings for "Selection Sunday" on CBS will be at an all-time low in the Syracuse market as well.

Cruelly, the NCAA Tournament East Regional will plant itself in town later this month and offer an in-your-face reminder of what we missed.

But eventually the snow will melt (I promise it will. Really. Like in July.) and we"ll occupy our sports minds with baseball, Syracuse lacrosse, Crunch hockey, the NBA and NHL playoffs or whatever keeps your interest with SU hoops on hiatus.

You"ll still check in on your beloved Orange, eagerly anticipating who Thomas Bryant will commit to and following the latest developments on the NCAA case, especially if SU appeals, as anticipated.

Eventually spring will become summer, and trudging up the hill in 10-degree weather will be the furthest thing from your mind while you put for par on the eighth hole at Green Lakes or fall asleep while drifting Oneida Lake looking for the big one.

Before you know it, The Fair will be here and you"ll notice a little bit of a chill in the air.

Football season will arrive and the Orange will keep you interested until LSU comes to the Carrier Dome on Sept. 26 and wins big, prompting the first cries of "when is basketball season?"

That"s when you will really start to wonder if Kaleb Joseph"s new-and-improved physique will help him play better defense, if Michael Gbinije will play the point and if Trevor Cooney can have a redemptive senior year like Rakeem Christmas.

You"ll debate if the front court of McCullough, Coleman and Roberson can be matched in the ACC and who among the new crop of talented freshman will get serious playing time.

Then, albeit for a brief moment, you may remember the dread of awaiting noon on March 6 when the NCAA report came out.

You"ll probably forget that you felt relief upon learning that Syracuse didn"t get a postseason ban and your shock when seeing they did get hammered with 12 scholarship losses (which cost them a shot at Thomas Bryant), a nine-game suspension for Jim Boeheim in ACC play and more penalties than you anticipated.

But will it stop you dead in your tracks and squash the usual swell of excitement Halloween brings, knowing how close the new Orange basketball season is?

No. No, it won"t.

You"ll be back.

You"ll be back and ready to settle in for the thing that brings you through the first reports of black ice in early-November to the "will-you-just-stop-snowing-for-the-love-of-G*d!" days of late-March: Syracuse basketball.

A little ruling from the NCAA won"t stop you from coming back. Ancient history by then, right?

Besides, you have to see how Mike Hopkins does in his first year as head coach.

I kid, I kid! Just making sure you made it this far into the column.

Of course you"ll want to see how Boeheim makes it happen in his 40th season at the controls, even with 1,000 wins a goal no longer attainable thanks to the NCAA taking away 108 wins, because that"s such an effective punishment for his crimes at Syracuse (commence eye roll).

The fact is, by the time November rolls around, all the nonsense we have discussed in the last two days will be long forgotten and the dawn of a new basketball will wash out any disappointment about the longest wait ever between seasons.

It may feel as long as, say, how long it took the NCAA to investigate Syracuse, but we"ll get there.

Now if you"ll excuse me, I have to go cancel my reservation for the Denny"s in Greensboro.

Contact Brent Axe: Email | Twitter

Listen to "On the Block" with Brent Axe weekdays from 5-6 p.m. on ESPN Radio Syracuse

Source: http://www.syracuse.com/axeman/index.ssf/2015/03/for_syracuse_basketball_fans_the_wait_until_next_season_is_longer_than_ever.html

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Chris Hemsworth plays Thor in "Avengers" sketch on "SNL"


iggy azalea chris hemsworth snl Saturday night live 3/7/2015
Chris Hemsworth plays Thor in a sketch on "Saturday Night Live."

Image: NBC/SNL

It was inevitable that Chris Hemsworth, who is best known for playing Thor in Marvel"s The Avengers series, would bring that character to Studio 8H in Rockefeller Center when hosting Saturday Night Live.

In the sketch, Thor, along with his fellow superheroes, break down their hard-won battle against evil super-villain Ultron by participating in postgame-style interviews familiar to pro sports.

It features appearances by other Avengers characters, including the Hulk (played by cast member Pete Davidson), who has a sneaking suspicion that he went too far when fighting Ultron. Davidson, who at 21 years old is SNL"s youngest cast member, may have stolen the scene from Hemsworth with his well-executed, albeit brief, appearance.

Check out his performance, above although the whole thing is worth watching for Avengers fans, in particular.

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.

Topics:avengers, Chris Hemsworth, Entertainment, Saturday Night Live, thor, Television, Ultron

Source: http://mashable.com/2015/03/08/chris-hemsworth-avengers-snl/

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Sunday, March 8, 2015

Syracuse basketball recruiting target Tyus Battle is still considering Orange ...


CBB 13/14 North Carolina Tar Heels vs #2 Syracuse Orange 01/11/14 (Full Game)

Syracuse, N.Y. Tyus Battle, a point guard in the Class of 2016 long coveted by the Syracuse basketball program, has not eliminated the Orange from his recruiting list, his father said today.

NCAA sanctions, announced last Friday, trimmed a total of 12 men"s basketball scholarships over four seasons starting in 2016-17, suspended head coach Jim Boeheim through nine ACC games next year and put the men"s basketball and football programs on probation for five years.

"At this point, now that I understand it better, as long as they have a scholarship for Tyus, as long as they can field a strong team that can compete for a national championship, I"m OK with it," Gary Battle said in a telephone conversation.

Battle said he has not spoken with Orange coaches who are recruiting his son since news of the NCAA sanctions broke. He has had previous conversations with SU coaches about potential punishments.

Whether or not Syracuse will have a scholarship to offer Battle, one of the nation"s most sought-after players in the Class of 2016, remains a mystery at this point. SU coaches have told Matthew Moyer, a 2016 forward who has verbally committed to the Orange, that a scholarship will be available for him. How the math of it all shakes out in the future depends on movement on SU"s current roster. Will players leave either this season or next season? Right now, that"s impossible to predict.

Battle, a 6-foot-5 guard who can play point guard or shooting guard, is currently recovering from a foot injury that has nagged him in his junior season at Gill St. Bernard"s School in Gladstone, N.J. He first injured the foot playing with USA Basketball last summer. His dad said Tyus aggravated the injury over the course of his high school season and is now wearing a protective boot to allow it to fully heal. The boot is scheduled to come off later this month.

Tyus Battle recently narrowed his list of potential college destinations to Connecticut, Duke, Louisville, Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio State and Syracuse.

Gary Battle said the family likes Syracuse University, its communications program, its proximity to their New Jersey home and Orange coaches" willingness to develop bigger point guards like Tyus.

"I told Tyus what was going on, he read a few articles," Gary Battle said. "He said, "If there"s just 10 guys on scholarship, there"s more playing time for me.""

Source: http://www.syracuse.com/orangebasketball/index.ssf/2015/03/syracuse_basketball_recruiting_target_tyus_battle_is_still_considering_orange_de.html

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Airliner Skids Off Snowy Runway At LaGuardia Airport


Delta passenger plane skids off runway at New York"s LaGuardia Airport

A few passengers were injured when an airliner skidded off the runway at LaGuardia Airport in New York on Thursday. A snow storm is disrupting air travel in the region.

Copyright 2015 NPR. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

A Delta passenger jet from Atlanta to New York skidded off the runway at LaGuardia Airport this morning in heavy snow. The plane crashed through a chain-link fence and came to rest just feet from Flushing Bay.

(SOUNDBITE OF TOWER CONTROL CALLS)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: We need a team to go onto 1-3.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: Tower, you copy? Call 100. Runway 1-3 is closed.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #3: Call 100, you said runway 1-3 is closed?

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: Affirmative, 1-3 is closed.

BLOCK: Rescue crews on the radio with tower control, the audio posted on liveatc.net. Immediately all of LaGuardia was shut down.

(SOUNDBITE OF TOWER CONTROL CALLS)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #4: The airport is closed. We got a 3-4.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #5: Call 100. Say again?

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #6: Tower, you have an aircraft on 3-1 on the north vehicle service road. Please advise crash rescue. LaGuardia Airport is closed at this time.

BLOCK: All 132 people aboard the plane were evacuated safely, some taken to the hospital with minor injuries. Fred Mogul of member station WNYC joins us from LaGuardia Airport, where officials are investigating the incident. And Fred, the images from this incident are dramatic. This plane swerved when it touched down, went through a fence, came really close to sliding into the icy water. This could"ve been much, much worse.

FRED MOGUL: It could"ve. You know, officials actually sort of downplayed how much danger the plane ever was, even though those images show how close it was to the water. They said, you know, actually that the passengers really weren"t at any great risk at any point. There were about 50 responders who obviously pounced on the scene. Some of them helped get the passengers to the terminal using buses, others helped stopped a fuel leak. But even that they said wasn"t that bad, it was about a gallon a minute pouring out, which was not that large a volume. They got foam on it quickly and environmental investigators are there, but they say over all, things are in pretty good shape.

BLOCK: And Fred, we mentioned this accident came in the midst of heavy snow. Are investigators blaming this on the weather?

MOGUL: Well, the officials from the Port Authority, which run all the airports in New York and New Jersey and this area, declined to speculate about what had caused the accident. Clearly the weather played some role, but they said that other pilots had landed planes just recently and had said the braking action on the tarmac was just fine. They had plowed runway. So they hadn"t been anticipating anything and they hadn"t shut the airport, clearly, though some individual flights had been canceled by that point. So they"re saying that, you know, they need to investigate further to find out what actually caused the plane to veer off the runway.

BLOCK: When are things likely to get back to normal? The airport was shut down completely for a time.

MOGUL: It was, for the better part of three hours. Now one of the two runways is still shut, the other is open. So, that obviously generates a lot of cancellations, but they expect the second runway will be open as well within a few more hours once the investigators have come from the NPSB to check the situation out.

BLOCK: OK. Fred Mogul of member station WNYC, speaking with us from LaGuardia Airport. Fred, thanks very much.

MOGUL: Thank you.

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Source: http://www.npr.org/2015/03/05/391041900/airliner-skids-off-snowy-runway-at-laguardia-airport

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