Libel is a very difficult lawsuit in the United States, where the First Amendment is a trump card; only false and defamatory statements, knowingly or recklessly made, will sustain the tort, with the added burden of showing maliciousness in the case of a public-figure plaintiff. In other jurisdictions, like the UK,…

Last I checked, the overarching tort is defamation, with subsets of slander (for defamation directly before third parties, but without a permanent record) and libel (any defamation in a durable medium). So the billboard would be libel.

To hazard a guess, I’d say he’d just fired a long clearance and it came back to him much sooner than expected.

Commas look fine to me. I was gonna point out the reporting error, too, but then noticed it would put me in rather dickish company to do so.

What did Herb Alpert do to deserve this?

I support “Baderites.” Some of us are dudes, after all.

Synopsis—

Deadspin, for years: Duke sucks!

Congress can basically do as it pleases with regard to sports leagues, though, as they all exist under antitrust exemptions.

Related, btw: STL city and county DO invest considerable tax dollars in providing cultural and artistic amenities—zoo, art museum, botanical garden—to the public for no or extremely low admission fees, and have done so for a century. So, your case in point, I guess.

Say what you will about Cards fans, but they've consistently put 3 million butts in seats for the last decade and change. There are only about 2.8 million people in the St. Louis metro. STL doesn't have to prove jack as far as its ability to support sports franchises. We like having an NFL team, but it's rather…

I would like that sandwich. Are you going to finish that sandwich? GIVE ME THE SANDWICH, PINKHAM.

[taps mic] Is Kinja on?

So, between this and the UCLA basket interference call, the Deadspin theme of the week seems to be "we, Deadspin, have no goddamn clue what the rules or approved officiating mechanics are, and we do not care."

D.A.R.E. to say "bu" to yao!

Remember: voters from this state elected these clowns AND are about fifty times more powerful than the rest of us in deciding who becomes president of the whole country.

Ley, you're way out of your element on this one, especially with the whole "look how far away the official is!" bit. That's the trail official, and goaltending/basket interference is his call. The baseline (lead) official is watching for contact near the basket and can't see through the backboard padding (leads…

Yep, but I'll turn purple if I hold my breath waiting for that to happen.

Basket interference, not goaltending. Ball was above the basket when touched. It's a strict liability call; unlike goaltending, it doesn't require that the ball have a hope in hell of actually going in. Bullshit way to lose a game, but blame the rules, not the ref.

The provincialism on display in both the quoted piece and the commentary is breathtaking.

Or, conceivably, your own tastes are not binding on the entire planet and people in St. Louis actually like their surroundings. Just hypothesizing wildly over here.