Andrew Sullivan points us to a Brazilian soccer team’s “ingenious” way to promote blood donations.

Nicknamed the ‘Red and Blacks’, there’s no prizes for guessing what colours Vitoria usually play in. However, ahead of the new season, the club have ‘drained’ the red hoops from their home strip in a bid to raise awareness and get their fans to donate blood for transfusions and the like. The red hoops on the home shirt will then be replaced one-by-one as the level of blood donated rises, until the shirt is eventually restored to it’s former glory when the target is met.

To say that you love football because it is primal and vicious and visceral is to say that you are in favor of early Alzheimer’s, or constant and debilitating headaches, or severe depression, or even suicide.

Buzz Bissinger writes on Junior Seau’s death, the media scrum outside his house, and that regardless of how little we know for what led to his suicide by gunshot to the chest, the man was a ferocious warrior in a vicious game.

Tebowing = over. All the cool kids are Bradying.

As you prepare for the big game, take a look out our super scientific breakdown of Brady and Manning, off the field. 

ocandrew1 asked: Will you be doing a story about Al Davis' passing and his imprint on football?

We ran a short item on The Daily Beast’s Cheat Sheet when he died, but I’m unsure of any edit plans for a larger tribute or story. If it happens, we’ll be sure to post on the tumblr. In the meantime, here’s a fantastic Sports Illustrated profile on the genius of Al Davis from 1974.

There is a psychic connection between residents who chose to return and rebuild (when they could have settled down elsewhere), and the journeyman players who signed on as free agents when Sean Payton took over as coach, trying to restart their careers. This year’s championship team was built on these mid-career castaways, and Brees, discarded by the San Diego Chargers, is their most obvious symbol. “With the Saints, a lot of them had to make decisions to come here,” says Brian Bordainick, a 24-year-old Ninth Ward teacher who has drafted the Saints’ help and money to revive his school’s athletic program. “They set out to rebuild the team alongside people who set out to rebuild a city.

Kushner, returning home to New Orleans and the Saints

brooklynmutt:

“Crown them now:  Patriots can’t lose.”
— Jay Mariotti (Chicago Sun-Times)

Worst Predictions #8

Patriots Will Win Super Bowl XLII - Newsweek 2010

Ha!