It’s a scary thing right now for winter sports. There’s fewer and fewer places and all the glaciers are melting. It’s definitely getting harder and harder to get on snow early, for sure. We are having to travel further and further. | | | | Christian Benteke gets bigger air but can't get it past goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel.
(Jan Kruger/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “It’s a scary thing right now for winter sports. There’s fewer and fewer places and all the glaciers are melting. It’s definitely getting harder and harder to get on snow early, for sure. We are having to travel further and further.”
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| | rantnrave:// While we wait for the next sexual harassment allegations and wonder who else has been scummy behind closed doors, what do we do with the stars we already know about? KOBE BRYANT had both of his numbers retired Monday night by the LAKERS, and has basically been sainted by the NBA. This is the same Bryant who was accused of rape in 2003. He made a public apology in order for criminal charges to be dropped. He settled with the woman who said he sexually assaulted her in a COLORADO hotel room. Bryant avoided legal ramifications and his reputation recovered. He's an NBA legend now. YAHOO SPORTS' ERIC ADELSON asks what would have happened to Bryant if that all happened today? He was the beneficiary of less enlightened times, but society is finally catching up and Bryant hasn't seen any consequence. What about PEYTON MANNING? He was accused of sexually assaulting a trainer while at TENNESSEE. Even when the events were re-raised in 2016 Manning wasn't stung by it much. ISIAH THOMAS can still get a job on NBA TV and as president of the WNBA's LIBERTY despite accusations of unwanted advances that caused the KNICKS to pay out $11.6 million in 2007. There are others. This isn't to rehash old cases but to ask what should we do now? Media execs and movie stars are losing jobs left and right. Will sports ever adopt a one-strike policy? Will it look into its past and punish those who evaded more scrutiny because of the timing of the allegations against them, not the substance? This isn't even about outing those whose problems are in the shadows. It's about the athletes and execs we know about... Takes courage to admit substance addiction, especially if you've got a large public profile like JOHN SKIPPER does. Skipper was beloved by many at ESPN, and everyone was shocked when he resigned as the company's president Monday morning. ESPN personnel and ex-ESPN personnel all sent out their best wishes. My TWITTER timeline was filled with heartfelt hosannas to Skipper. The adulation for the person came first, before questions about ESPN's future. He leaves at a tricky time. Former ESPN president GEORGE BODENHEIMER gets the interim job for the next 90 days before a new president is hired. Speculation has begun. Skipper's legacy is hard to place. That'll settle itself out. Hopefully, Skipper gets well and finds the peace he wants... Would this help or hurt his lawsuit?... The pro hockey team furiously checking COINBASE every 10 minutes... CAM NEWTON's fez game is strong. | | | - Mike Vorkunov, curator |
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 | Origins with James Andrew Miller |
| “ESPN & Social Media: A Troubled Marriage” examines key events, and reveals candid, personal reflections on the past decade of social media life at ESPN. More than 20 current and former ESPNers tackle topics including President Trump, Barstool, suspensions, and numerous other topics. It’s raw, surprising, and sure to be controversial. | | |
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 | The Ringer |
| In another era, Kevin Brown might have become the kind of catchphrase-minting wiseass who was leading into the future. Brown, a 28-year-old play-by-play man, was certainly raised to be that guy. Growing up on Long Island, he staged mock SportsCenter episodes at the kitchen counter and forced his parents to watch. | | |
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 | Deadspin |
| "On a historical basis, a decade from now, we'll be looking back saying, 'That was the highest route efficiency that's ever been captured in baseball.'" That's what Joe Inzerillo-the executive vice president and chief technology officer of MLB Advanced Media-said in a league press release announcing baseball's revolutionary new player-tracking system, Statcast. | | |
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 | The New York Times |
| Two mountain climbers died near the top of Mount Everest in 2016. Their bodies lay frozen there for a year. Then a journey began to bring them home. | | |
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 | The Undefeated |
| As his iconic jerseys are retired, a story of Bryant’s career, by his numbers. | | |
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 | Yahoo Sports |
| Just about every day, we are greeted by news of another woman bravely saying, “Me too.” Victims and survivors of sexual harassment and assault have found a voice, and 2017 will be remembered for their testimony. It will also be remembered for celebrities who have lost their careers because of alleged misconduct. | | |
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| Yahoo Sports |
| Kobe Bryant would've never thought that he'd be here, dispensing wisdom like an old sage to anyone bold enough to approach him. Bryant built up an almost mythological reputation as a cold-blooded assassin. The self-proclaimed "Black Mamba" was so blinded by the championship chase and establishing a forever legacy that trampling everything in his path, scorched-earth style, was more the objective than leaving behind a blueprint. | | |
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 | FiveThirtyEight |
| In 2011, Drew Brees and the New Orleans Saints spearheaded an aerial assault on the NFL's record books. Brees not only broke Dan Marino's single-season passing record by 392 yards, he also led a small army of quarterbacks who either approached (Matthew Stafford, Eli Manning) or also surpassed (Tom Brady) the 27-year-old mark. | | |
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 | Racked |
| Karen Leonas is a professor at North Carolina State University's College of Textiles, but she wants to know my uninformed opinion of clothing made from recycled plastic. "What's the first thing you think of when you hear about clothing made out of plastic bottles?" she asks me. | | |
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 | Vogue |
| Ivy Pochoda meets Chloe Kim, the Californian snowboarding sensation who defies much more than gravity. | | |
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 | The National Pastime Museum |
| In part 3 of his series on Winter Meetings, Rob Neyer discusses trades and free agent signings. As Neyer describes, teams occasionally made a splash with big trades at the meetings, usually with mixed results. | | |
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 | Texas Monthly |
| The senior quarterback for Texas A&M at Commerce, the winner of Division II's version of the Heisman, has one of the strangest stories in all of football. | | |
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 | ESPN |
| OK, fine, the catch rule was interpreted correctly in the final minute of the Patriots' win over the Steelers. But the rule is still bad. Here's how the league can make it better. | | |
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 | The Players' Tribune |
| I’ve known a couple geniuses in my life. One of them is Dr. Dre. Another is Kobe Bryant. | | |
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 | Sports on Earth |
| A trade between the Dodgers and Braves highlighted something that's been true for some time now: Baseball fans are smarter than they ever were before. They are more willing to believe in the front office as a rebuild gets underway. | | |
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 | The Associated Press |
| The athletes' half-hour commute in the Swiss Alps - up two gondolas, then through a tunnel in the world's highest underground train to a glacier at 11,000 feet - served up daily grim reminders that global warming is threatening their line of work. | | |
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 | Science |
| Despite AI successes in perfect-information games, the private information and massive game tree have made no-limit poker difficult to tackle. We present Libratus, an AI that, in a 120,000-hand competition, defeated four top human specialist professionals in heads-up no-limit Texas hold’em, the leading benchmark and long-standing challenge problem in imperfect-information game solving. | | |
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 | Saturday Night Live |
| Shaquille O'Neal (Kevin Hart), Charles Barkley (Kenan Thompson), Ernie Johnson (Alex Moffat) and Kenny Smith (Chris Redd) discuss Doug Jones' victory in Alabama. | | |
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| Deadspin |
| You probably remember the rules of chess, but what's actually happening there on the board? How many moves are Grandmasters really thinking ahead? Why do they never actually checkmate the opponent? Is my life just like a game of chess? | | |
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 | Atlanta Journal-Constitution |
| Had Nobis played for more a more prominent team than the Falcons, with whom he spent his entire NFL career (1966-’76), he’d be in the Pro Football Hall of Fame right now. He was every bit the equal of Dick Butkus and Ray Nitschke, but they played for banner franchises and Nobis certainly did not. | | |
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