Your morning roundup for Jan. 27, the day V For Vendetta got all political. Video via The Basketball Jones. Got any stories or photos for us? Tip your editors.
What we watched: Memphis at the Clippers. Blake Griffin did this, and this, and this. The Clippers won. Blake Griffin is really good.
What we're watching (all times EST, unless noted): Yale at Harvard in college men's hockey at 7:30 (NBCSN). New York at Miami in NBA basketball at 8 (ESPN). Winter X Games at 10:30 (ESPN). Oklahoma City at Golden State in NBA basketball at 10:30 (NBATV). Australian Open, women's championship match at 3 a.m. (ESPN2).
Read Me
Soccer and sponsorships: "But jersey sponsorship is also a symptom of the central paradox of MLS fanship: the drive to create a unique league identity clashing with the desire to be taken as seriously as the major European leagues. MLS fans endlessly bellyache about the concessions MLS makes to casual American sports fans: the extended playoff, amateur draft, lack of promotion/relegation. Jersey sponsorships, as gross as they can sometimes be, are a profitable method to align MLS visually with the European leagues that fans, clubs, and the league can all agree on." [The Classical]
This Date In Deadspin History
Jan 27, 2007: ACC Admits Clock Error; Does Absolutely Nothing Else
Elsewhere
Your hispanic Rob Gronkowski update: "Hola!!! Me llamo Roberto! Yo soy muy inteligente! buena noche!" [@RobGronkowski]
Alcohol cures everything: "For much of the season, Tony Parker has been waiting for coach Gregg Popovich to lose it. Game in and game out, win or lose, good play or poor, Mount Popovich would not erupt. Not like it used to in its magma-spewing heyday. ‘As he gets older and drinks more wine, he gets more patient,' Parker said." [Spurs Nation, via Pro Basketball Talk]
Your PowderPuff Football Hit Interlude:
When you gotta go, you gotta go: "‘As soon as there was a TV timeout, it was just like during a game: You had about 2 and a half minutes to get the job done and get back to your seats and pretend like nothing happened. It was pretty funny,' said Hartnell. The word after the Draft, however, was that Team Chara's Joffrey Lupul used his assistant captaincy to cut the line for the bathroom, specifically in front of his old Flyers teammate Hartnell. Hartnell denied Lupul pulled rank to get into the men's room. Because … well …'Let's just say we shared the same bathroom at one time. He had to get out there quick. Everyone likes to play swords I guess,' he said, with a laugh. ‘I don't know if I can say that or not. I don't know if he'll be embarrassed or not.' OK, so did the co-mingling in the facilities take place? ‘That may be true,' said Lupul, a forward for the Toronto Maple Leafs. ‘It was a mad scramble, and I'm not exactly sure what happened. Uh … uh … it's probably something I didn't want people to find out. Desperate times call for desperate measures. I've showered with him before in Philadelphia. So it wasn't too weird.'" [Puck Daddy]
This is what happens when there's no football for two weeks: "A poll of married women with cheating hearts said they'd prefer to have an affair with Eli Manning, the NY Giant quarterback, than with Tom Brady of the New England Patriots, according to AshleyMadison.com. In fact, 54% of married women polled said that they'd rather have a dalliance with Manning because of his to his 'boy next door' good looks, according to the adultery-promoting company. Philandering females said they thought Manning would be ‘less of a hothead' than Brady and easier to relate to." [NY Daily News]
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