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Russell Wilson's new contract is huge compared to other top quarterbacks

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Russell Wilson has agreed to a new four-year, $87.6 million contract with the Seattle Seahawks. It is no doubt a monster, but we really see how big it is when we compare it to other top quarterbacks.

Because of the way NFL contracts constructed, there are a number of different ways they can be viewed and ranked, especially among quarterbacks who have signed a new contract in recent years. Highest total value? Jay Cutler, $126.7 million. Top average value? Aaron Rodgers, $22 million per year. Highest guaranteed value? Colin Kaepernick, $61 million. But these deals can look a lot different if we dig deeper.

So, let's compare the contracts signed by quarterbacks in the last year or so by how much they will make in the first two years of the new deal since we can safely assume none of these players will be cut before year-two. This is where we see just how awesome Wilson's deal is. 

Russell Wilson Quarterbacks Contracts

Using Wilson's $31 million signing bonus and 2016 and 2017 salaries, Wilson will make about $44.0 million in the first two years, or about 49% of the total value of the contract. Only Ben Roethlisberger can top those numbers.

Wilson didn't get the $125 million contract some were expecting. Instead, what he got was a shorter deal and a lot more money that is truly guaranteed, making his deal more valuable than most.

It will be interesting to see moving forward if more quarterbacks eschew the headline-grabbing $100 million contracts in favor of deals that will actually put more money in their bank accounts.

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Giants player seen wearing a massive bandage in first photos since losing his finger in a fireworks accident

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jason pierre paul

After losing his right index finger in a July 4 fireworks accident, Jason Pierre-Paul has given the world its first look at the massive bandage on his right hand.

The New York Daily News obtained exclusive photos of Pierre-Paul in Florida.

His hand is bandaged to the point that it looks like a club:

The massive bandage actually shrouds the situation in further mystery, raising questions about the severity of the injury.

On Thursday, Giants owner John Mara said he didn't know how many fingers Pierre-Paul has because he hasn't seen or heard from him. Giants coach Tom Coughlin similarly said he reached out to Pierre-Paul but hasn't heard back. Mara told reporters his message for Pierre-Paul would be, "Come home. We miss you." Coughlin told reporters about his text to Pierre-Paul, "I want to be there for him. But he’s decided that he doesn’t want our help."

When Pierre-Paul was in the hospital, he denied Giants officials from seeing him, leading some to wonder if the injury is worse than let on. This happened prior to finding out that he had a finger amputated. 

Prior to the accident, the Giants had given Pierre-Paul a $60 million offer, but took it off the table when the injury happened. Pierre-Paul intended to sign the one-year, $14.8 million franchise tender, but reportedly now won't do so until he's healthy enough to pass the team physical. In the meantime, he is under no obligation to speak to the Giants.

If and when he does sign the tender, the Giants can put him on the nonfootball injury list, which would keep them from having to play (or pay) Pierre-Paul until he's completely healthy. Judging from these photos, it's unclear how close Pierre-Paul is to being ready to play football.

See more photos here. >

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Mets land Yoenis Cespedes minutes before trade deadline, adding key piece for playoff push

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Yoenis Cespedes

The New York Mets traded two minor league players for Detroit Tigers' slugger Yoenis Cespedes in the final minutes before the MLB's 4:o0 pm EST trade deadline Friday. Bruce Levine first reported the deal.

Cespedes has now been traded three times in the past year. After a three-year stint with the Oakland A's — during which he won back-to-back home run derbies — Cespedes was traded to the Boston Red Sox at least year's trade deadline. Then, he moved to the Detroit Tigers in the off-season.

He'll be a free agent at the end of this season, and with the Tigers struggling to compete, trading Cespedes for next to nothing shows they've basically thrown in the towel. 

The Mets, on the other hand, land a veritable offensive machine to bolster their race to the playoffs. Many had wondered if the Mets would make any other moves after their attempted deal with the Brewers fell through — landing Cespedes will help the Mets both offensively and defensively. Through 102 games with the Tigers this season, he notched 18 home runs (four in the last six games) and 62 RBIs. Since entering the league in 2012, he's averaged 28 HR and 102 RBI per 162 games, according to baseball-reference.com. In the outfield,  he has arguably the best arm in baseball. 

At the moment, the Mets are in the middle of a tightly contested Wild Card and divisional races. They're 2.0 games behind the S.F. Giants for the second National League Wild Card spot, and 3.0 games behind the Washington Nationals for first place in the NL East. Tonight, they begin an all-important 3-game series with the Nats in D.C. They'll be hoping Cespedes can catch a flight to D.C. as soon as he possibly can.

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The biggest winners and losers in the NBA offseason

The report that helped ignite Deflategate was wrong — and the Patriots want to know why the NFL let it happen

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referee ball patriots

In the wake of the NFL's decision to uphold Tom Brady's four-game suspension for his involvement in Deflategate, the New England Patriots are blasting the NFL for its handling of the entire saga.

Specifically, the Pats want to know why the first report about the PSI levels of New England's footballs from their win over the Indianapolis Colts in AFC Championship game — which the Wells Report later disproved — was never corrected by the league.

"I will never understand why an initial erroneous report regarding the PSI level of footballs was leaked by a source from the NFL a few days after the AFC Championship game was never corrected by those who had the correct information," Patriots owner Robert Kraft said in a statement to the media on Wednesday.

Kraft is referring specifically to a report from ESPN's Chris Mortensen that helped launch the Deflategate scandal. After the AFC Championship game, Mortensen tweeted:

Because Mortensen is so well-connected and the NFL never came out to refute these numbers, this report was more or less taken as fact. Over the next few weeks and months, everyone operated under the assumption that the balls were significantly underinflated by at least 2 PSI — which would rule out the possibility that atmospheric conditions caused the deflation, and strongly suggest they were tampered with.

But when the Wells Report came out four months later and the PSI official measurements were made public, it showed that only one of the Patriots balls was 2.0 PSI under the legal minimum of 12.5 PSI. All the balls were illegally underinflated, but not by as much as Mortensen's report said.

Here are the official PSI levels at halftime from the investigation (the balls were inflated to at least 12.5 PSI before the game):

 Wells Report PSI levels

The 20,000-word Wells Report rebuttal website that the Patriots published in May argues that the balls could have deflated to those levels naturally, though that's not what the Wells Report concluded using the same data. The consensus in the scientific community is that atmospheric conditions probably still couldn't have deflated the Patriots balls to the levels they were measured at at halftime. In addition, the Colts balls were found to be inflated to between 12.15 and 12.70 PSI at halftime — well above the Patriots balls that were subject to the same environmental conditions.

colts ball deflategate

But since everyone assumed the balls were 2 PSI below the minimum for months, the majority of people concluded that they must have been tampered with. The Patriots would argue that this created the presumption of guilt, and that by either leaking the "11 out of 12 balls" report or refusing to correct it, the NFL let the team be vilified and let the scandal snowball before all the facts were straight. 

On Friday, the Patriots published a series of emails between both side's lawyers from days after the AFC Championship. In the emails, the Patriots repeatedly ask for the NFL to come out and refute ESPN's original report, but the NFL repeatedly denies leaking any misinformation and doesn't agree to issue a statement saying ESPN's report was wrong.

Roger Goodell and Robert Kraft

It's important to note that the Wells Report's evidence that there was a plot to deflate footballs before the game goes behind the simple ball inflation data. The Patriots themselves indefinitely suspended the two employees identified in the Wells Report as the deflators, and Kraft himself declined to fight the NFL's punishment.

It's also worth noting that in February, Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network reported that the original report regarding the footballs was likely incorrect. But by that point, the Patriots would presumably argue, Deflategate had already built up too much momentum and it didn't matter.

Mortensen, meanwhile, was expected to address his initial report Friday morning on WEEI, a popular Boston radio station, but canceled his appearance.

We've reached out to the NFL for comment.

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Students faced off in a soccer match featuring robot players

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At the 19th Annual RoboCup World Championship in Anhui Province, China — robots compete in full fledged soccer matches. This year's winner of the miniature robot match was Australia's University of New South Wales team. The winner of the Humanoid soccer obstacle course was team ThorwIn of University of Pennsylvania. 

Produced by Emma Fierberg. Video courtesy of Associated Press. 

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An ex-NFL player caught his college teammate burglarizing his house on camera

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Bernard Berrian

Former wide receiver Bernard Berrian made a shocking discovery when he turned on a feed of his in-home security camera and saw his friend, and college teammate, Therrian Fontenot attempting to burglarize his house.

After a judge ordered Fontenot to serve the reminder of six-month jail sentence following a no contest plea, Berrian told ABC 30's Sontaya Rose that the two were actually attending a barbecue together on April 28, hours before the attempted burglary took place.

"It was crazy because we were all sitting around and he actually left from where we were at to go do it," Berrian said. "Boom, motion sensor went off, I get an email, so I click on the live cam."

Viewing the live feed of one of his cameras, Berrian was able to see the burglar going through his belongings — and was left speechless when he realized the perpetrator was his own friend, Fontenot.

"I actually watched him doing it while he was doing it," Berrian said. "I could have actually spoke to him, I got a microphone on there. I could have told him, 'I got you,' while he was doing it."

Bernard Berrian robberyRather than confront him, Berrian watched quietly as his friend burglarized his home, even bringing cleaning supplies in order to wipe off his fingerprints.

"I was like, wow, he is a real professional," Berrian said. "He takes a spray bottle with him to wipe off fingerprints and a towel."

Berrian said he originally installed the extra security and surveillance equipment after his home was broken into twice, a few weeks prior, with approximately $30,000 in cash taken. Rose reports that no arrests were made for the initial robberies due to a lack of evidence — including no fingerprints being found at the scene.

Berrian said he doesn't believe Fontenot's actions were with malice. Rather, he believes his former Fresno State teammate was attempting to live a lavish lifestyle.

"He tried to keep up with this status that he was this big baller, playing, having a bunch of girls and had money and was traveling everywhere," Berrian said. "But he wasn't doing that on his own, it was other people that were putting him up."

Berrian has since come to grips with the situation, and even made light of it in a recent Instagram post:

The caption reads:

"Say what ya want, but it happened to me. Many others too, they just deny or havevent realized it. Anyway, its funny okay!! Its news to y'all not me. Sooooo, the anger stage has come n gone, long long time ago. & now we're in the comedic stage, & THIS S*** IS FUNNY!! For some money. Dumb a**!! You dont steal from or do people dirty that have nothing but time to figure things out. Stop stealin period. What are you 6??!?!! #NoIDidNotMakeThisMeme #Comedy #Hilarious #ReadMyFace #WhatsItSay #LiterallyInTearsWhenItGotPassedToMe #Abc30 #BreakInNews #Literally #PunIntended #BigPun #LockedUp #YaDidItToYaSELF #GotEeeeeem"

Berrian made nearly $23 million in NFL salary in his career with the Bears and Vikings.

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NBA player Deron Williams is selling his NYC penthouse for $18 million more than he paid for it

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deron williams tribeca penthouse

After joining the Dallas Mavericks this summer, ex-Brooklyn Nets guard Deron Williams is looking to offload his TriBeCa penthouse at an astounding profit.

He bought the property in 2013 for $15.8 million. He's now asking $33.5 million for it, according to the New York Post.

The penthouse is 6,800 square feet, has six bedrooms, four bathrooms, a wine cellar, a restaurant-grade kitchen, and, best of all, 3,000 square feet of outdoor space.

The Post reports that he customized the place "from floor to ceiling."

Williams has made $115 million in his NBA career, and appears to be doing well off the court as well. Here's what the property looked like when he bought it.

Tons of natural light with the floor-to-ceiling windows.



Another view of the bright living room.



Floating stairs.



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Watch a swimming pool turn into a skate park in this two minute time-lapse

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"In 2011 we set out as one Youth Worker and once Social Worker to use the positive energy and influence of skateboarding to engage with children and young people.
 
The transition from swimming pool to skate park has been seamless, it is like the building was always meant to be a skate park. Phase two will introduce a cafe that will really create an impact with the local community, providing them with a space where they can enjoy the building without having to ride a skateboard or scooter." — Andre Seidel, Campus Skate park
 
Video courtesy of Michael McKelvaney. Music by Pretty Lights - Done Wrong (Opiuo Remix).
 
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Athletes shrug off severe pollution issues at Rio Olympic test

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A man paddles on a stand up board on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, July 30, 2015. REUTERS/Sergio Moraes

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Athletes, coaches and organizers at a major test event for next year's Olympic Games shrugged off a simmering dispute over safety at watersports venues by diving into the controversial waters off Copacabana Beach on Saturday.

The first day of the triathlon world championship event saw para-athletes swim in the Atlantic waters and bike and run in the streets nearby.

"I'm not concerned about the water," said Alison Patrick, a blind British athlete who won the P-5 women's' triathlon in partnership with her sighted guide Grace France.

"The thing I noticed most was that the water was warm. I'm from Scotland and I'm used to much colder water."

The waters will be used for triathlon, ocean swimming and sailing events during next year's Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, the first to be held in South America.

Elite men's and women's triathlon events, scheduled for Sunday, offer qualifying spots for next year's Games.

Concern over the athletes' health in the waters arose last week after an Associated Press report showed viral and bacterial levels in the water are equivalent to those in raw sewage.

Rio de Janeiro's state environmental agency declared some waters near the swimming site unsuitable for bathing on Friday but the worries did not seem to bother most competitors.

Rodrigo Garcia, director of sports for the Rio Olympic Organizing Committee said bacteria levels in the water is within Brazilian and international standards.

Rio de Janeiro beach sunbathersGarcia said the committee has backup plans if heavy rains wash sewage into the venues.

Doug Hiller, medical officer for the International Triathlon Union said he was giving no special recommendations to athletes about Rio water quality.

"If I didn't have to work so hard today, I'd be in the water myself," he said.

Patrick and France said they took antibiotics and vitamins before the event and gargled with mouthwash afterward.

Some athletes, though, just ignored their concerns and fought through to the finish.

Blind U.S. triathlete Patricia Walsh of Austin, Texas who came in third in the P-5 event, was most concerned about the waves.

"The chop worried me most," she said. "It was hard to hear my partner, we usually only get to train in calmer waters," she said.

Her sighted guide Missy Kuck was less sanguine.

"I wasn't really concerned," Kuck said. "But let's be honest, the water was nasty."

(Editing by Gene Cherry)

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The Chicago Bulls are keeping their team exactly the same and betting on their rookie coach

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fred hoiberg

The Chicago Bulls have had one of the quietest offseasons in the NBA this summer.

After a season in which they struggled with injuries and in-house fighting with head coach Tom Thibodeau, the Bulls only made one key change this offseason — they fired Thibodeau and hired Iowa State head coach Fred Hoiberg.

Otherwise, the Bulls handled their biggest priority, re-signing Jimmy Butler to a five-year, $90 million deal and bringing back their other free agents like Mike Dunleavy and Aaron Brooks. 

In doing so, the Bulls are making a simple bet — they have a championship team that was set back by injuries and a coach, Thibodeau, who had a bumpy relationship with some players.

Thibodeau's grinding, intense style reportedly wore on players to the point that they worked out at other gyms during the off-season, and the front office reportedly had a major dispute with the high minutes Thibodeau played starters. The Bulls under Thibodeau were always an elite defensive team, and when healthy, a decent offensive one. Under Hoiberg, the Bulls believe they can retain their defensive nature while making strides on offense.

However, there's also reason to believe this is an overly confident approach by the Bulls front office.

First, Hoiberg is inheriting a team that is both naturally and unfortunately injury-prone. 

  • Derrick Rose played 51 games in 2014-15, his most games in four years, yet he still had to undergo knee surgery in the middle of the season.
  • Joakim Noah's play suffered after having knee surgery last summer. He played 67 games, but at 30 years old, has only played more than 70 games once in the last six years.
  • Pau Gasol, at 35 years old, just had a wonderful season, but averaged over 34 minutes per game, his most in three seasons. It's questionable whether he can replicate his All-Star year after logging so many minutes at his age.
  • Jimmy Butler, for as good of a season as he just had, also missed 15 games for the second year in a row and has averaged nearly 39 minutes per game the last two seasons. It's fair to wonder if he, too, can replicate an All-Star year, which was the standout of his career.

Thibodeau, though he had his faults, also continually got the most out of an oft-injured team. Though their playoff record doesn't back their regular season success, they've rarely, if ever, had a fully healthy team going into the playoffs. Regardless, they've consistently been one of the top teams in the East.

Players and the front office may have a better relationship with Hoiberg, but it's fair to wonder if any coach could squeeze that much more out of the Bulls unless they're fully healthy. Hoiberg can manage the minutes better than Thibodeau, but even with the constant injuries, the Bulls were still 10th in offensive rating and 11th in defensive rating last season. Unless the Bulls top players repeat their All-Star seasons and suddenly can stay healthy, is there that much room for improvement?

Working in the Bulls' favor is a weak Eastern Conference. The Cavaliers once again look like the best team, but the Atlanta Hawks may have taken a step backward, and nobody else quite seems ready to enter the contender conversation.

There's room for the Bulls to improve, but they've kept together a team that lost fairly convincingly to the Cavaliers in six games last season. In a weak East, a coaching change may be all the Bulls need to get to the Conference Finals, but it nonetheless seems like a bold bet.

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Here's how Derek Jeter tries to keep his private life out of the media

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derek jeter hannah davis

Off the baseball field, Derek Jeter is known for dating beautiful women like Minka Kelly, Vanessa Minnillo, and his current girlfriend, Sports Illustrated cover model, Hannah Davis. But the former Yankee says he makes a strong effort to keep his private life out of the media because he isn't immune to the scrutiny.

"I was always scared that I’d see my name and then scroll to see what they’re saying," Jeter recalls in a new cover interview with The Hollywood Reporter. "And I didn’t want to deal with that when I was playing. I’d tell my family and friends, 'If you read something or hear something, don’t tell me about it.' I didn’t want to read negativity."  

Throughout his career, Jeter has always tried to maintain a strong sense of privacy.  

"I always knew that my job was to limit distractions for my team and not cause headlines," he added. "So I kept a lot of things to myself."  

Once shunning the media, Jeter is now embracing it with his new website, The Players' Tribune (TPT).

When the site launched in October, The New York Times speculated that this was Jeter's chance to become more "chatty," to which he strongly denies.  

"Yeah, I'm so chatty," laughed Jeter, who has only posted a few publisher's letters. "Their reaction was, I never said anything for 20 years and now all of a sudden I was going to be telling my whole life story. But this was not built for me. It was built for the athletes."  

But, Jeter adds, "I've never said that we're trying to eliminate the media. We're not covering day-to-day sports scores. We don't have sports highlights. This is completely different. We're starting the conversation. I think we can coexist."

Read Jeter's full interview with THR here.

SEE ALSO: John Cena gruesomely broke his nose during 'Monday Night Raw' but that didn't stop him from dominating the match

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WHERE ARE THEY NOW? The players from Peyton Manning's legendary 1998 NFL Draft

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nfl draft 1998

The 1998 NFL Draft was one of the biggest "hit-or-miss" drafts in recent memory.

While many of the players taken in the first round made at least one Pro Bowl during their careers, several others quickly washed out of the league.

Today, some of these players are still involved in football in some capacity, while others have gone on to do other things.

One player founded a church, another started a country music band, and one has even gone into comedy.

Peyton Manning was picked No. 1 overall by the Indianapolis Colts.



At age 39, he's currently the starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos.



Ryan Leaf was picked No. 2 overall by the San Diego Chargers.



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League of Millions: Inside the video game phenomenon that's selling out global arenas and earning stars up to $1 million

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Far more than an internet video game, "League of Legends" is a cultural phenomenon, a pastime that is deeply ingrained in the lives and lifestyle of millions of fans worldwide. It appeals across cultures and demographics, inspiring a passion and sense of community rarely matched in modern culture.

Twenty-seven million people play it every day. At peak hours, more than 7 million people are playing concurrently.

Not only do people play it themselves, they love to watch others play — including the top pro "League of Legends" (LoL) teams, which span 4 continents and fill coliseums with fans.

BI Films presents Part 1 of its documentary series, "League of Millions," in which we meet the five young pros who make up Team Liquid, one of the leading North American LoL teams, in their quest to win the 2015 championship.

Director and Producer: Sam Rega

Editor: Josh Wolff

Production and Research: David Fang and Lauren Browning

Executive Producer: Diane Galligan

Follow TI: On YouTube

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A 2016 Rio Olympics venue is full of human waste and teeming with viruses — here's what it looks like

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rio 2016 olympics water pollution bay 3

Days after the head of the International Olympic Committee identified Rio de Janeiro's polluted waterways as the No. 1 challenge facing the 2016 Olympics, an Associated Press investigation revealed just how dangerously filthy these waters really are.

The AP tested the water and found that Guanabara Bay, Copacabana beach, and Rodrigo de Freitas Lake — all of which will host watersports events next summer — aren't safe for swimming or boating, and contain concentrations of viruses that are "roughly equivalent to raw sewage."

"As a result, Olympic athletes are almost certain to come into contact with disease-causing viruses that in some tests measured up to 1.7 million times the level of what would be considered hazardous on a Southern California beach," the AP reports.

The pollution is the result of untreated human waste pouring into the waterways. It has been a public health issue in Rio for decades, but with the world's biggest sporting event 12 months away, Rio's waters are literally being put under the microscope.

Looking at recent photos from these polluted venues, it's alarming that they'll be hosting the Olympics in 12 months.

Guanabara Bay will host the sailing events.



It looks idyllic from above.



But the waterway was one of the locations where the AP found dangerous levels of virus concentration.

Source: AP



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18-year-old American swimming prodigy accidentally breaks world record while taking it easy in a qualifying race

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Katie Ledecky

Eighteen-year-old American Katie Ledecky broke her own world record in the 1,500 meter freestyle during a Monday morning preliminary round at the FINA World Swimming Championship in Kazan, Russia — a swim in which she didn't even race as hard as she could.

"My coach told me to swim the first 900m easy, build over the next 300, then the final 300 was my choice and to be honest, it felt pretty easy," she said after the race. "I wasn't kicking much and I think breaking the world record is testament to the hard work I have put in and the shape I am in right now. I am pretty shocked that I was able to do that."

"I was barely even focusing on this morning’s swim. I was just so relaxed," she added.

The Bethesda, Maryland native burst onto the scene as a 15-year-old prodigy at the 2012 London Olympics, winning gold in the 800m freestyle. Since, she has set eight individual world records across three events, becoming one of the most dominant athletes in the sport at age 18.

Ledecky's time of 15:27.71 this morning bested her former world-record time of 15:28.26 that she set at the 2014 Pan Pacific Championship. She finished 26.5 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher in the preliminary heat — about one Olympic pool's length. In 2015, no other swimmer has come within 10 seconds of her time, and at the World Championships, she has also already won gold in the 400m freestyle.

Right after Ledecky finished, she gave a little Michael Jordan shrug like she doesn't even realize what she's just accomplished.

Ledeky Celebration

A few seconds later, she gave a fist-pump to the crowd.

Ledeky Celebration 2

No one was even in the picture when she touched the wall:

katie ledecky

Not bad for an 18-year-old.

Watch the full video below:

 

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A bombshell report on a secret track and field blood testing database claims a shocking number of distance runners are doping

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London 2012 Olympics

Athletics has been rocked by another drugs scandal following claims that one in three medalists in distance events at the sport’s most prestigious competitions returned suspicious tests.

In an explosive documentary by German broadcaster ARD, it was also alleged that at least one in six of the distance runners to have medalled at World Championships and Olympic Games are drugs cheats.

The network, which last year sent shock waves through athletics following an investigation into an alleged doping epidemic in the sport, obtained what it claimed to be a secret database created by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).

The documentary, Doping – Top Secret: The Shadowy World of Athletics, focused on a list of more than 12,000 blood tests from around 5,000 athletes. According to the programme, they found 800 athletes competing over distances between 800 metres and the marathon registered blood values deemed suspicious or even highly suspicious.

Ten of the medals at London 2012 were said to have been won by athletes who returned dubious test results.

The documentary alleged that seven British athletes have suspicious blood passports. British athletes were also said to have lost out in major events to competitors who were under suspicion.

However, Mo Farah recorded no abnormal tests. The British double Olympic champion has been forced to insist on his innocence after his coach Alberto Salazar was recently the subject of doping allegations in a Panorama documentary. The American has strenuously denied all of the allegations against him.

The findings in this latest programme were analysed by two of the world’s leading experts in blood doping, Michael Ashenden and Robin Parisotto.

Parisotto said: “Never have I seen such an alarmingly abnormal set of blood values.”

Ashenden told the programme: “Often, two out of the three medallists had probably engaged in blood doping ­during their career.” Criticising the IAAF for catching and punishing only a tiny fraction of these athletes despite being aware of the scale of the problem, ­Ashenden accused it of “a shameful ­betrayal of their primary duty to police their sport”.

He added: “It suggests to me athletics is in the same diabolical position ­today that professional cycling was in 20 years ago.” The IAAF told the programme it strongly disputed that the blood values involved proved doping.

The sport’s superstar, Usain Bolt, recorded no abnormal tests. Only last week, while competing in London, the 100 metres world-record holder declared his intention to repair athletics’ reputation as a result of successive doping scandals.

The documentary claimed that athletes are increasingly undergoing blood transfusions and EPO micro-dosing programmes to boost the red cell count and increase their stamina.

Ashenden said the files demonstrate athletics now faces a “diabolical” scandal akin to the one that ruined cycling’s reputation following the revelations of Lance Armstrong’s doping regime.

The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) said it was "very alarmed" by the latest claims which would "shake the foundation" of clean athletes across the globe.

Wada president Sir Craig Reedie said: "Wada is very disturbed by these new allegations that have been raised by ARD; which will, once again, shake the foundation of clean athletes worldwide."

The revelations follow the historical claims made in the BBC’s Panorama against Salazar’s Nike’s Oregon Project in the United States.

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Russell Wilson's monster deal is the latest evidence that NFL contracts are a joke

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russell wilson

After months of speculation about a new contract, Russell Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks reached an agreement just before Friday's training-camp deadline on a new four-year, $87.6 million contract extension.

When we compare the contract with those signed by other quarterbacks in recent years, Wilson's new deal compares quite favorably. The $61.5 million guaranteed against injury is the most ever, the $21.9 million average salary during the extension is second only to Aaron Rodgers, and the $31 million signing bonus tied with Ben Roethlisberger's for the most among all players in the past two years.

It sounds great, right? Those are big numbers. When we look a little closer, however, it is clear that Wilson's new contract is not the game changer many were expecting.

Here is how Wilson's deal breaks down year-by-year, with the signing bonus paid now and the extension technically starting in 2016 (via Ian Rapoport and Spotrac):

  • 2015 — $31.7 million ($31 million signing bonus, $700,000 salary) fully guaranteed at signing.
  • 2016 — $12.3 million, becomes guaranteed if still on the team February 26.
  • 2017 — $12.6 million, becomes guaranteed if still on the team on the fifth day of the 2017 waiver period.
  • 2018 — $15.5 million, $4.9 million becomes guaranteed if still on the team on the fifth day of the 2017 waiver period.
  • 2019 — $17 million, not guaranteed.

To put it another way. While most in the media reported this as a four-year, $87.6 million contract, here is how we would report it in just about any other sport:

Russell Wilson's new deal is really a ONE-YEAR, $31.7 MILLION CONTRACT WITH FOUR YEARS OF TEAM OPTIONS.

This contract is at the good end of NFL deals, but it didn't really change much. That is, the Seahawks gave Wilson a lot of money (by NFL standards), but they still have all the control.

Compare Wilson's deal with that signed by Rick Porcello of the Boston Red Sox before the 2015 season. Like Wilson, Porcello was still under team control for the 2015 season, with his only leverage being that his salary could be determined by an arbitrator.

Porcello avoided arbitration and signed a one-year contract for 2015 worth $12.5 million. Just as the season started, he signed an extension that was similar to Wilson's, a four-year, $82.5 million contract to begin in 2016. The big difference being that Porcello's deal was fully guaranteed the moment he signed it.

The other big difference is that Porcello is not nearly as valuable as Wilson. We can argue about where Wilson ranks among today's quarterbacks — Is he elite? Is he in the top five? — but what cannot be dismissed is that he is one of the 10 or 15 most important players in the NFL. He plays the single most important position, he plays it better than most, and he has played that position for one of the most successful teams of the past five years. Porcello is a fine player, but he is not even one of the 10 or 15 most important players in his division.

And yet, despite that value, the Seahawks still wouldn't fully guarantee Wilson's salary beyond the first year. That's a joke.

Sure, one can make a case that the Seahawks will not cut Wilson and the worst that will happen is he renegotiates the deal in a couple of years. But at the same time, how secure does Colin Kaepernick feel with the huge, nonguaranteed contract he signed?

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Watch this guy surf ocean waves while riding a dirt bike

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DC Shoes has sponsored a beautiful Frankenstein of extreme sports: a dirt bike that can surf ocean waves.

The project took two and a half years of testing and building to get to the point where Australian stuntman Robbie Maddison could ride the waves, according to a behind-the-scenes video first discovered by The Verge. But the end product is quite astounding.

In the four-minute video above, Maddison tears up the water of Tahiti, looking impossibly "in control."

See jaw-dropping pictures the bike below.

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See the rest of the story at Business Insider

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Tiger Woods says he has turned a corner with his new swing after his best tournament in months

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tiger woods

Tiger Woods finished tied for 18th place at the Quicken Loans National last weekend.

For Woods, this was his best finish since the Masters in April, when he tied for 17th. His performance at the Quicken Loans also followed a disastrous showing at the British Open where he didn't make the cut and finished seven-over after two rounds. 

At the Quicken Loans, Tiger's improving swing was the biggest difference in his performance. According to stats from the PGA Tour, Woods' averaged 315.9 yards off the tee, his highest of the year and his driving accuracy was 64% — despite a dismal third round where he couldn't find a fairway — tied for his best of the year.

Woods has been heavily criticized for changing his swing, with some people believing it has completely derailed his career.

However, at the Quicken Loans, Woods said his swing was feeling better, even though he still had a terrible third round in which he shot a 74 and effectively ended his chances of winning the tournament.

Woods told reporters afterward that he has turned a corner with his swing change:

"I'm getting some speed back, which is nice. I'm starting to pump the ball out there again and I know my loft of my irons are very weak compared to today's standards. I'm hitting the ball up there with some of the bigger guys again. I got my speed nice on top of that and the fact I was able to make some putts and the short game becoming good again like it used to be."

Tiger also expressed optimism, suggesting he's only going to get better:

"I've got years ahead of me, that's how I look at it, not just this season. I've got years and if you would have asked me that back when I had my back surgery I would have probably — I didn't really know. That was a rough period in my career and my life. But now I'm on the good side of it."

Throughout this year, Woods has stressed patience as he re-worked his swing and recovered from back surgery. However, the golf world has, at times, grown impatient with the inconsistency of his game. At times, his putting and chipping game looks good, other times, it's looked like he's had the yips.

Despite the feel-good nature of Tiger's three strong rounds at Quicken Loans — had he shot a 67 in the third round, the median of his 66 and 68 scores in the other three rounds, he would have finished tied for second — there's still one big problem — his mentality.

As noted by Golf World's Jaime Diaz, Woods' inconsistency has become the biggest flaw in his game. After shooting a 66 in the second round of the Quicken Loans, putting him two behind the leaders, Woods lost control and shot that aforementioned 74. In the fourth round, he caught back up and was five-under before bogeying three of four holes. Diaz also mentions that at the British Open at the Old Course, which Woods had previously dominated, Woods quickly unraveled under pressure.

Back surgery and a swing change, at Woods' age, figure to take a while to recover from. Thus far, it's been almost maddeningly slow, with glimmers of hope followed by career-worst rounds. 

This past weekend was the best Tiger has looked, perhaps all year, and if he can slowly piece all of these elements back together, he may truly have turned a corner back into contention.

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