Happy Monday! In all things impressive, start your morning with this 50 yard goal (we repeat, 50 yard goal) that Roma midfielder Miralem Pjanic delivered Saturday night against Manchester United in Washington D.C.

 

QUIPS FOR THIS WEEK

Football

The NFL suspended Ray Rice of the Baltimore Ravens for 2 games for being in violation of the league’s personal conduct policy. Rice was arrested for a domestic violence dispute with his then fiance (and now wife) last February. There has been quite a media firestorm surrounding the NFL decision and there is no doubt that the talk will continue.

Speaking of training camp, football season is right around the corner. Teams kicked off training camp this past week and will continue with pre-season football games through August. Next Sunday marks the first Sunday pre-season game as the New York Giants take on the Buffalo Bills in honor of Hall of Fame weekend on August 3rd.

Other interesting summer football news includes that Jordy Nelson signed a $39 million extension with the Green Bay Packers over the weekend. Expect more of this type of news to come up as we progress into August — many players want — and are likely to get — extensions or new contracts.

Basketball

USA basketball kicked off their training camp in Las Vegas on Sunday. The camp is in preparation for the upcoming FIBA World Cup tournament in late August. Earlier last week, Kevin Love and Blake Griffin both chose to withdraw from the camp, which leaves room for other big men to have a chance to make the squad. Both Love and Griffin were expected to make the final roster which means Team USA will have to get a little creative with post play going forward.

And the new coach of the LA Lakers is… Byron Scott! After 3 interviews, the Lakers finally announced that they’ve found their new guy. Scott, who signed a 4 year deal, is a great coach by all accounts and has been a head coach in the league before. Unfortunately, the Lakers will need more than a good coach to fix all their problems. Look for the squad to focus on rebuilding this upcoming season.

It wouldn’t be the quips if we didn’t talk LeBron James. After polling fans on social media, LeBron has decided to switch his number back to 23. It’s the same number he wore the first time he was on the Cleveland Cavaliers before switching to number 6 with the Miami Heat. Lebron announced his decision to go back to the original number Sunday on both Twitter and Instagram.

Other

Sandy Barbour is officially the first female athletic director at Penn State. The university hired the former Cal Berkeley AD this week to fill the position previously occupied by Dave Joyner.

Jeff Gordon got a big win on Sunday, on the verge of the 20th anniversary of when he won his first race on this course. The driver picked up his 5th career victory at Brickyard 500, and set a NASCAR record.

Emmanuel Mudiay is officially headed to China. The star high school point guard will forgo college basketball and will play professional basketball on a 1 year deal worth roughly $1.2 million. Mudiay had initially signed to play for Larry Brown at SMU and is widely expected to be one of the top picks in next year’s NBA Draft.

JUST FOR FUN

How do you know if your favorite movie counts as a rom com or a sports movie?
Take a look at how similar the two can be…

STORIES FOR INSIGHTS, COOL FACTOR + DEBATE

Falling Harder
As bicycle technology changes, the danger of falling has increased
The bikes might be lighter and faster, but they fall apart in crashes

Team Excel
Helping high school athletes to place a higher value on their academics
Ex-Seattle Seahawk Michael Robinson understands that most athletes don’t end up in the NFL — they need to prepare for alternate futures

USA Special Olympics 2014
Motivation to succeed
Check out these photos of the outstanding athletes that competed in this year’s USA Special Olympics

Autograph Chasing
A different kind of sports engagement
Is it sad that kids are now collecting signatures to sell them?

The most powerful man in sports (who knows nothing about sports)
Attorney Michael Hausfeld of the O’Bannon case has become quite a big deal
In the coming weeks we’ll hear the ruling on the O’Bannon case — take a look at the lawyer who took on the case even though he knew nothing about the sports or the players