Super Bowl Records

Three Super Bowl records set: Most Tweets Per Second (12,233), Most-Watched Show in TV History (111.3 million), and Most-Watched Online Single-Game Sports Event (2.1 million).

SportsGrid

We launched a new site today: SportsGrid. There's lots of data porn to ingest there, but imagine if you triangulated a player's performance metrics with their internet buzz with their salary. You could develop a new statistic -- their hype.

11 Minutes of Action

According to a Wall Street Journal study of four recent broadcasts, and similar estimates by researchers, the average amount of time the ball is in play on the field during an NFL game is about 11 minutes.

--11 Minutes of Action, WSJ. Also, a Vikings fans' fandom is worth $530.65.

Brett Favre Is Spencer Pratt

This video of Brett Favre mic'd up during last week's Vikings game is pretty amazing:

I realize no one will interpret this the right way, but this reminds me of The Hills more than anything I've ever seen.

5 Quick Questions with Bill Simmons

For the handful of Minneapolites who remember 7QQ (which have all sadly been deleted from the internet), it's been resurrected as 5QQ: Bill Simmons.

Twitter Tells All

Did Shaq really find out he was traded to the Cavs on Twitter?

Moneyball

Some details about Soderbergh's adaptation of Moneyball. Brad Pitt and Demetri Martin star. Real players (David Justice, Scott Hatteberg, Daryl Strawberry, Lenny Dykstra) play themselves.

Buzz, Bob, Projectile Spittle and Me

Leitch recounts his interactions with Costas and Bissinger. Juicy!

We Like Sports

Awesome new song from the upcoming Lonely Island album: We Like Sports, starring Kiva and Jorm.

Randomness of Life

ONN: Pre-Game Coin Toss Makes Jacksonville Jaguars Realize Randomness Of Life.

Morrissey NFL

Which is more strange: that Morrissey let his song be used in an NFL commercial or that the NFL wanted to use it? [via]

The Women of Parkour

NYT video: The Women of Parkour. Traceuse!

001ofasecond

Michael Phelps conspiracy site: www.001ofasecond.com.

Opening Ceremonies

It looks more like an extra-terrestrial battle for dominance of the galaxy: photos from the Olympics Opening Ceremonies. Welcome your new overlords with kindness, America.

I'm So Glad To Not Be In Beijing

What the Olympics website looked like in 1996. [via]

Olympics

A couple good NYTimes.com Olympics interactive graphics: Medals by Year | Torches by Year.

Shaq and Kobe

ESPN Mag: Klosterman on Kobe & Shaq, feuds, and hatred.

Laker Girls

What's better than 20 Laker Girls? 500 prospective Laker Girls. I bet every single one of these darlings has a story to tell.

An Even Better Beef

Shaq dissing Kobe in a freestyle rap. The remix is better.

WNBA Dunks

Candace Parker, the second player in WNBA history to dunk in a game. [via]

Unassisted Triple Play

A rare sports link: Unassisted Triple Play.

Old People Hate The Internet

A few months ago, a NYT Mag columnist speculated that maybe the reason Friday Night Lights was a ratings failure had to do with its lack of internet presence. Yesterday, in one of the most buzzed clips in months, the guy who wrote the book that inspired the series (and is a Vanity Fair editor, natch) showed up on Costas Now to go totally freakazoid about blogs. Is there a looming blogphobia sweeping the country? I dunno, but Leitch thinks so. UPDATE: NYT weighs in.

Weather Modification

China is literally trying to modify the weather for the upcoming Beijing Olympics. (Btw, a few people have asked if Fimoc is shutting down for the Olympics again. [I produced NBC's site for the last two Olympics.] I'm happy to say that I have absolutely nothing to do with it this time around -- no more memorizing the nuances of Modern Pentathlon for me!)

Kareem Blog

Tony somehow talked Kareem Abdul-Jabbar into doing a blog for the LA Times.

Born Ready

BornReady.tv is a real-time documentary about Lance Stephenson, a New York high school junior who is also a basketball superstar and a potential NBA lottery pick. Interestingly produced by Fader, which has more details.

The Untold Story of the iPhone

Wired has a detailed feature on The Untold Story of the iPhone, which Valleywag conveniently cuts into bulletpoints for you.

Trinity Wins

I'm not one to hook you up with sports video links, but this 15 lateral play from Div III football is pretty great.

Spinning

Apparently we're breaking all sorts of records in athletic spinning madness. Let's go to the tape: the first ever 720 dunk and the first ever BMX triple spin.

Chuck on Ali

Chuck wrote about that Ali Rap thing in ESPN that I mentioned a couple days ago. "While it's difficult to prove Ali invented rap music, it's almost indisputable that he spawned what is now referred to as 'the modern athlete,' a term that's generally used as coded, pejorative language."