Thank you for your continued support of Deadspin. We hope you had yourself a fantastic Tuesday. We just bid adieu to Tom Scocca, who will be occupying a seat on the other side of the office come tomorrow. But we get Emma back! Onward.

On Thursday, the first half of Dr. Phil's exclusive interview with Ronaiah Tuiasosopo will air in its entirety. Today, Dr. Phil McGraw went on the Today Show to talk about the interview and share some of the things that Ronaiah told him about the hoax he carried out against Manti Te'o. Here's what McGraw told Today's Mike Taibbi about Roanaiah's feelings for Te'o:

Here we have a young man that fell deeply, romantically in love. I asked him straight up, "Was this a romantic relationship with you?" And he says yes. I said, "Are you then therefore gay?" And he said, "When you put it that way, yes." And then he caught himself and said, "I am confused."

The Today segment also asserted that it was in fact Ronaiah and not a female accomplice that Te'o was speaking with on the phone with when he thought he was talking to "Lennay." Ronaiah also told McGraw that Te'o was "absolutely, unequivocally" not involved in carrying out the hoax.

You can watch the full Today video segment here:

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Game 1 of the Women's Chinese Basketball Association championship was yesterday, an event not worth taking note of but for the fact that a bunch of angry fans stormed the court and tried to beat the shit out of the referees at the end of the game. At the 35-second mark of the video above, you can see an angry mob of Zhejiang fans, who had just watched their team lose at home for the first time all season, descend onto the court as security guards try desperately to get the referees to safety.

On the bright side, former UConn and current WNBA star Maya Moore scored 53 points and grabbed 13 rebounds while leading her Shanxi squad to victory. USA! USA!

[beijingcream]

Ray Lewis's crazypants Super Bowl media tour continues apace. Yesterday, he was saying nonsense about it being "God's time" when asked to speak about his 2000 murder charge. Today, he called recent PED allegations levied against him by Sports Illustrated a "trick of the devil." Here's Lewis, via Pro Football Talk, after having been asked about the SI story:

That's the trick of the devil. The trick of the devil is to kill, steal and destroy. That's what he comes to do. He comes to distract you from everything you're trying to do.

Lewis is teaching us all a valuable lesson. If somebody asks you a question that makes you uncomfortable, just start spouting stuff about god and the devil like a shouty, the-end-times-are-upon-us vagrant, and everyone will leave you alone.

[PFT]

Superstar freshman Nerlens Noel swatted away 12 shots during last night's Kentucky-Ole Miss game while scoring just two points on 0-2 shooting from the field and 2-8 from the free-throw line. Noel's stat line suggests he had a classic impacted-the-game-with-his-defense performance, which he did, but it also fails to tell the whole story. Noel didn't just spend the evening casually swatting away floaters and layups hoisted up by his athletically overmatched opponents. I mean, he did plenty of that, but he also made a two surprising and difficult blocks at the game's crisis point that sealed his team's victory.

The video above is a supercut of Noel's blocks from last night. Each is impressive, but I'd like to draw your attention to two blocks in particular, which occurred late in the second half as Ole Miss was creeping back into the game. With 4:29 left in the game, Ole Miss's Ladarius White hit a three-point jumper to cut Kentucky's lead to one. Kentucky's Ryan Harrow answered with a three of his own to push Kentucky's lead back to four, but Ole Miss, playing in front of a raucous crowd and with the momentum on their side, were still well within striking distance. That's when Nerlens Noel, who was playing with four fouls at the time, did this:

That's Noel denying Ole Miss's Murphy Holloway a monstrous dunk that would have made the game 76-74 and assuredly brought the house down. Instead, Kentucky sunk two free throws at the other end to push its lead to six.

And then, on the very next possession, Noel did this to Reginald Buckner:

Game over. Ole Miss never got any closer than six points from the lead.

Neither of those blocks are the kind of plays that a big man who is one foul away from being knocked out of the game has any business making. It takes precision timing, coordination, and body control to block any shot; it takes a hell of a lot more to block a pair of dunks at the rim without committing a foul. Those plays should have ended with Holloway and Buckner popping their jerseys and getting ready to complete a pair of tide-turning, three-point plays.

Noel's performance last night was the perfect representation of a good shot blocker's highest praise: he helped win a game without ever making a field goal. Ole Miss's run hit its stride when Noel went to the bench with his fourth foul; that run stopped short when he checked back into the game. A shooter with a hot hand can lift a team onto his shoulders. A fearless big man can stop one dead in its tracks.

Yesterday, Chris Culliver sat down for a radio interview with shock jock Artie Lange. There was no mention of suckingcock.com, but the conversation did turn toward gays in the NFL. Here's how Culliver responded when Lange asked him if any players on the 49ers were gay:

I don't do the gay guys man. I don't do that. No, we don't got no gay people on the team, they gotta get up out of here if they do. Can't be with that sweet stuff. Nah…can't be…in the locker room man. Nah.

How progressive! The interview came to a hurried conclusion at that point, with Culliver saying something about gay players needing to wait ten years after retirement to come out. You can listen to an audio clip of the exchange below, courtesy of Yahoo Sports:

[Artie Lange Show via Yahoo]

Today's New York Post features a story about former NFL quarterback and current CBS football analyst Dan Marino impregnating a former CBS Sports production assistant. Marino, who has been a CBS pregame analyst since 2003, had an affair with Donna Savattere at some point in 2004, which led to Savattere giving birth to a daughter in June of 2005. In a written statement to the Post, Marino admitted to his dalliance:

This is a personal and private matter. I take full responsibility both personally and financially for my actions now as I did then. We mutually agreed to keep our arrangement private to protect all parties involved.

According to the Post, that "mutual agreement" involved Marino paying Savattere millions of dollars in hush money and Savattere moving to Texas.

Marino agreed to pay Savattere millions to care for Chloe, sources say, and she moved to Texas as part of the deal.

It's not clear exactly how much Marino paid. But after getting the dough, Savattere apparently started living large.

She soon returned to New York from the Lone Star State, splitting her time between the Upper West Side and the Hamptons, where she became a fixture on the social scene.

Marino has four sons and two adopted daughters with his current wife, to whom he has been married for 28 years.

This moment, from last night's Oklahoma-Baylor game, isn't quite as adorable as two dogs invading a soccer pitch, but it's still pretty goddamn cute. With about nine minutes left in the second half, one pint-sized Baylor fan decided that it would be a good idea to rush the court. We're not sure what the kid was hoping to accomplish, but it doesn't really matter. Just enjoy the moment.

The crux of Rick Reilly's latest column for ESPN.com is this: San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick should take steps to foster a relationship with his birth mother because Reilly's own adopted daughter has a healthy relationship with her birth mother. No, seriously, that's Reilly's argument, because Rick Reilly wouldn't be Rick Reilly if he weren't a presumptuous, morally officious boob:

The Kaepernicks have told Colin they'd have no problem with him speaking to Russo. They even met with her recently without Colin. But Colin hasn't budged on the issue. One of his friends told Yahoo! Sports that Colin would think it's "treasonous" to meet with Russo.

But it's not. It's healthy. It's healing. It's natural.

More than that, it's important. When that 11-year-old version of Rae finally got to meet her birth mother, even though it was only for 20 minutes, she glowed. Her roots were no longer a mystery. She finally knew where she came from.

Your parents are your parents forever. Nothing can ever change that.

Good for Rick and his daughter and her birth mom that things worked out, that the process was healthy and healing and natural for them. What makes Reilly a dick is the blithe assumption that it'd be the same for everyone else. I mean, I don't pretend to know what's best for Reilly and his kids and either of his wives. Who's he to say what's best for Colin Kaepernick?

It's the week before the Super Bowl, which means that our inbox is getting flooded with stupid press releases. One in particular, from someone affiliated with AshleyMadison.com (a website where married people can find other married people to bone), is very stupid but also attention-grabbing. The website polled 22,560 of it's female users, asking them which Harbaugh brother they'd rather have an extramarital humping session with. Jim Harbaugh, the frighteningly intense head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, or the older and mellower John, who coaches the Baltimore Ravens. The results are rather surprising:

While Jim claims to be ‘half the coach' his brother is, 66% of the 22,560 women polled said they'd prefer to get in the ‘sack' with the younger Harbaugh. The 49er's coach was a cinch to win in San Francisco with 96% of the vote, but also received some East Coast votes with the women of NY (73%), Chicago (64%), and Dallas (71%).

[...]

When asked why they chose Jim over John, responses included his "intensity," "passion," and "balls."

Gross. Anyway, this gave us a fun yet simple idea: let's come up with as many made-up sexual positions involving Harbaugh puns as possible. Like this:

The discussion section is your canvas. Get to it.

Former MLB first baseman and Diamondbacks color commentator Mark Grace is going to jail because he can't stop driving around Arizona while drunk. Earlier today, Grace pleaded guilty to endangerment and DUI, and was sentenced to four months of work-release jail time and three years of supervised probation. Before reaching a plea agreement, Grace was facing a potentially lengthy prison sentence. From USA Today:

Grace pleaded not guilty in October to four aggravated DUI charges. His August DUI arrest was his second in Scottsdale in 15 months.

Grace faced from one to 3.75 years in prison on each count, Jerry Cobb, spokesman for Arizona's Maricopa County Attorney's Office, said recently.

Grace, a Scottsdale resident, was arrested about 9 p.m. Aug. 23 after he was pulled over while driving near 7200 E. McCormick Parkway in Scottsdale.

Blood tests showed he had a blood-alcohol content of .095, which is above the legal limit of .08, Scottsdale police said.

Grace also was arrested May 30, 2011, and subsequently his license was suspended and he was required to have an interlock device in his vehicle, police said. Charges against him include operating a vehicle with a suspended license and driving without a court-ordered interlock device.

That's a whole lot of drunk driving you've been doing there, Mark! But don't fret, Mark Grace fans. The man can remain your hero, because he never took steroids.

[USA Today]

Adrian Wojnarowski's latest Yahoo column is a thorough think piece about what the Memphis Grizzlies' decision to trade Rudy Gay to the Toronto Raptors means for the future of NBA free agency. It's a perfectly fine read, but what caught our attention was this paragraph, tucked away near the end of the column:

[Grizzles CEO Jason] Levien is making these deals based largely on the recommendations of John Hollinger, a statistician who worked for a cable sports company. The San Antonio Spurs once used him as a consultant and regretfully took his advice to sign a free agent named Jackie Butler. It was such a disaster, the Spurs had to attach Luis Scola to a trade to get Butler out of town.

Burn! In case you aren't familiar, John Hollinger recently became the Grizzlies' VP of basketball operations after having spent eight years as ESPN's resident stats guru. He's also the guy who invented PER.

We're not sure what could have prompted Woj to take a shot at Hollinger, but we appreciate the deliciously withering quality of "a statistician who worked for a cable sports company."

Thank you for your continued support of Deadspin. Today seems like a good day for another dose of BeDUANcé. Come back tomorrow for more fun and games.

The Oklahoma City Thunder blew out the Memphis Grizzlies last night, but an easy victory didn't stop Russell Westbrook from going a little crazy in the third quarter. After being called for a five-second violation, Westbrook returned to the bench and threw a tantrum. Luckily, assistant coach Mo Cheeks was there to keep Westbrook, who eventually had to retreat the locker room to cool off, from completely hulking out.

Westbrook's fiery attitude is part of what makes him so appealing, but getting so angry that he looks like he's about to dry heave is probably a thing he should try to avoid doing. And if the Thunder are looking for ways to keep Westbrook calm, we have a suggestion: a healthy dose of Ke$ha.

You know what's not easy? Taking care of 27 orphaned bear cubs. Sure, bear cubs are cute and furry, and helping to keep them alive probably fills one with a warming sense of accomplishment, but all that good stuff fades away when the bears won't stop fidgeting and just fucking go to sleep already.

Ben Kilham of New Hampshire usually spends his winter watching over a handful of orphaned bear cubs, who are able to hibernate peacefully in an enclosure near Kilham's home. This year, however, Kilham has found himself saddled with 27 cubs, many of which refuse to hibernate. This, as Kilham told WCVB in Boston, is a big problem:

They are waking each other up, playing in the trees within the 8-acre fence, burning up the calories and running up a huge bill on Kibbles 'n Bits.

While Kilham received donations from residents in places like Shelburne, Tamworth and Moultonborough where the cubs were orphaned, and did receive one $2,500 grant from the New Hampshire Wildlife Heritage Foundation, it's been spent already on steam-flaked corn and dog food.

He estimates this year it will cost $1,000 per cub to get them through to June.

Goddamn bears! Always runnin' around the woods and lookin' adorable and trying to play themselves to death. This is exactly why I am a dog person.

Anyway, here's a picture of a bear cub eating some Kibbles 'n Bits, because it's Friday:

Images via WCVB

[WCVB]

Giant man-puppy Rob Gronkowski has been in New Orleans all week, enjoying the Super Bowl festivities. Yesterday, he swung by the SportsCenter set to tell us that he hates being injured "to the max," and then he made one little kid's year by dropping $100 on a glass of lemonade. Once Gronk was finished being hilarious and melting hearts, though, he returned to his comfort zone: being shirtless and drinking beer.

The picture above comes from a Reddit user, who claims that it was snapped last night at a bar called Bogie's in Baton Rouge. It should be noted that Baton Rouge is about 80 miles away from New Orleans, which would mean that Gronk went well out of his way for this particular night of college-town partying. While nursing a broken arm, no less. We can't help but admire his determination.

h/t Mejdy

[Reddit]

Mitch Ross (he's the one in the middle up there), owner of the supplement company S.W.A.T.S. and the guy who squealed to Sports Illustrated about giving Ray Lewis deer antler spray, showed up in New Orleans to have an impromptu press conference with a collection of football writers. Among other things, he wanted everyone to know that Sports Illustrated "catfished" him.

Yeah, so, holograms. Those are apparently stickers that athletes can put on their skin and draw endless amounts of energy from. Sounds like a pretty sweet product that is not at all completely useless. Just like that deer antler spray.

Good press conference.

This video comes to us from reader Andrew, who attended a Super Bowl party at which professional eater Takeru Kobayashi was the hired entertainment. Here, Kobayashi accepts the challenge of eating an entire Domino's pizza in one minute, a feat he just barely manages to pull off. Kobayashi may be out of the professional eating spotlight these days, but he still has skills. Just watch him kick it into high gear when he hears that he's only got ten seconds left.

According to Andrew, Kobayashi was paid $1,500 for his appearance, and also hung around after eating the pizza to drink beers and participate in a semi-hostile chugging contest.

Update: Kobayashi was booked through Thuzio, and we're told that his price was actually $3,250.

Hate Ray Lewis? Then the above video might make you feel a bit better about having to watch him end his career as a Super Bowl champion last night. In 1992, Lewis competed in the Florida 4A high school wrestling state championship, and he lost.

The video begins in the third period of Lewis's match against John Acona, with Lewis down 5-3 and looking rather winded before bouncing back with a solid takedown to even the score at 5-5. Then a bunch of other wrestling stuff happens (sorry, I don't really know anything about how wrestling is scored), and Lewis ends up losing a heartbreaker, 6-5. Skip ahead to the 3:45 mark to catch a glimpse of Lewis prostrated in defeat. I guess god wasn't with him that day.

Fuck me.

Rick Reilly is the fucking worst. Rick Reilly is the fucking worst. Rick Reilly is the fucking worst. Rick Reilly is the fucking worst. Rick Reilly is the fucking worst.