2012 May at Linesmaker

PSU’s Paterno, Spanier Each Made Over $1M in 2011

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (CFB/Newsfeed) — Penn State Uni­ver­sity has made pub­lic a report that shows fired foot­ball coach Joe Paterno and for­mer pres­i­dent Gra­ham Spanier each earned more than $ 1 mil­lion in com­pen­sa­tion last year. A form posted on the school’s web­site lists Paterno’s 2011 salary at $ 1,002,464. He earned another $ 35,546 in ben­e­fits. Spanier’s salary is listed as $ 937,955, with another $ 168,630 in benefits. The Cen­tre Daily Times first reported the dis­clo­sure Saturday. Both men were let go from their posi­tions in early Novem­ber... 

Heat and Celtics Prepare to Meet Again in Postseason

MIAMI (NBA/Newsfeed) — It’s a rematch: Miami and Boston will meet in the play­offs again, this time with a spot in the NBA finals at stake. Boston’s 85–75 win in Game 7 over Philadel­phia on Sat­ur­day night earned the Celtics a trip to Miami, where the reign­ing East cham­pion Heat will host Game 1 of this year’s con­fer­ence title series Mon­day night. Boston took the regular-season series from Miami 3–1, though the last of those meet­ings was in the final game of the sea­son and came on a night where LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh all sat out for Miami, while... 

Johnson-Earnhardt Jr. Collaboration Paying Off

CONCORD, N.C. (NASCAR/Newsfeed) — Two cars, one roof. That’s been stan­dard oper­at­ing pro­ce­dure for Rick Hen­drick since 2002, when the cham­pi­onship car owner expanded to accom­mo­date a fourth Sprint Cup pro­gram head­lined by a then-unknown dri­ver named Jim­mie John­son. Hen­drick paired the new out­fit in a build­ing with the more expe­ri­enced team of Jeff Gor­don, and the result was an explo­sive pro­gres­sion that net­ted 71 com­bined vic­to­ries for the sta­ble­mates dur­ing the ensu­ing eight years. So three sea­sons ago when Hen­drick faced... 

Ex-QB Brian Johnson Still Directing Utes Offense

SALT LAKE CITY (CFB/Newsfeed) — As a kid, Brian John­son was so inquis­i­tive he read the warn­ing label inside his foot­ball hel­met and nearly quit the game. Nearly 20 years later that thirst for knowl­edge is serv­ing him well instead as he embarks on his first sea­son as Utah’s offen­sive coor­di­na­tor — accord­ing to the Utes, the youngest at the FBS level. John­son is best known for engi­neer­ing Utah’s 31–17 upset over heav­ily favored Alabama in the 2009 Sugar Bowl, call­ing plays in a no-huddle offense that helped Utah dart out to a 21–0 lead. Now at... 

James, Heat Turn Attention Toward East Finals

MIAMI (NBA/Newsfeed) — LeBron James shook a few hands, slapped a few fives, gave a few hugs. That was the extent of his cel­e­brat­ing after the Miami Heat ousted the Indi­ana Pacers. A return to the East­ern Con­fer­ence finals — no small achieve­ment by any mea­sure — is nice, though it’s far from the oft-stated goal for the reign­ing NBA MVP and the Heat. They’ll host Game 1 of the East title series on Mon­day night against either Philadel­phia or Boston, both of those teams hav­ing been ousted from last year’s play­offs by Miami in five games. “You can’t just... 

Matt Forte Responds to Report About Knee Concerns

CHICAGO (NFL/Newsfeed) — Matt Forte would like you to know his knee is feel­ing just fine, thank you very much. After we reported ear­lier Sat­ur­day the Chicago Bears are con­cerned about the long-term health of the run­ning back’s knees, Forte took to Twit­ter to show there was no cause for con­cern on his end. Sure enough, the video shows Forte sprint­ing up a hill with a rope and weight attached to his waist. He moves quickly up the grassy incline as minia­ture dogs bark just off-screen. All in all, it seems like a pretty decent place to spend a Memo­r­ial Day weekend. The... 

Ellis’ Three-Run Walk-Off Blast Boosts Dodgers

LOS ANGELES (MLB/Gurnick) — In nine pro­fes­sional sea­sons, A.J. Ellis never hit more than eight home runs at any level, but he already has five this year in the Major Leagues, includ­ing Sat­ur­day night’s dra­matic three-run walk-off blast in the bot­tom of the ninth inning that gave the Dodgers a 6–3 win over the Astros. “It was prob­a­bly the best feel­ing of my base­ball life,” said the 31-year-old Ellis. “It was pretty awe­some and pretty cool to run around the bases and hear the crowd and cheer­ing. I’ve got­ten to see Andre [Ethier] and Matt [Kemp] do that... 

Sixers’ Young Core Gives Franchise Bright Future

PHILADELPHIA (NBA/Newsfeed) — Under new man­age­ment, the 76ers had Philadel­phia car­ing about bas­ket­ball again. They had co-owner Will Smith sit­ting court­side and play­ing along to the cameras. They brought Julius Erv­ing back in the fold. Allen Iver­son made a stir­ring return, too. But the biggest buzz at last came from the Six­ers them­selves. No longer mired in medi­oc­rity, Jrue Hol­i­day, Evan Turner, Andre Iguo­dala, Lou Williams, Elton Brand and Co., car­ried the team from a 20–9 start into plucky post­sea­son over­achiev­ers. Led by coach Doug Collins,... 

Harper Wants Saints, Spagnuolo to Maintain Williams’ Intensity

New Orleans (NFL/Newsfeed) — The 2012 sea­son shapes up as a cru­cible for the New Orleans Saints defense. Between the stigma of the league’s “bounty” find­ings and the loss of line­backer Jonathan Vilma (sus­pened for the entire sea­son) and defen­sive end Will Smith (sus­pended for the first four ganes), per­haps no NFL defense has ever gone into a sea­son with more of a chip on its col­lec­tive shoulder. The man charged with ral­ly­ing the troops is Steve Spag­n­uolo, the for­mer St. Louis Rams coach and New York Giants coor­di­na­tor who led Big Blue’s defense... 

Offense & Depth Big Reasons for Rangers’ Downfall

NEW YORK (NHL/Lozo) — The expec­ta­tions at the start of the 2011-12 reg­u­lar sea­son for the New York Rangers were tepid at best. They were com­ing off a first-round exit and a com­plete whiff of the Stan­ley Cup Play­offs the pre­vi­ous two sea­sons, and top defense­man Marc Staal was out indef­i­nitely with a concussion. Seven months later, the youth­ful Rangers were East­ern Con­fer­ence cham­pi­ons and appeared at times to be a team of des­tiny dur­ing the play­offs. They ral­lied from a 3–2 series deficit in the first round, came back to win Game 5 in the sec­ond...