Super Bowl Ad Roundup!

So in case you didn’t hear, the Baltimore Ravens took the Super Bowl XLVII title, besting the San Francisco 49ers 34-31. Ray Lewis was emotional, Beyonce diva-ed it up, and there was a delightfully surprising break in play when the Super Dome lost power and everyone who cares about seeing the ads AND the game could take a nice breather and have a bathroom run. Since I didn’t have any emotional investment in the game either way (minus my being at a very close friend’s all Niners house), I’ll leave bragging rights to our own Raven.  I, however, have been very invested and particular about my Super Bowl advertisements over the years, especially after working at a job that entailed pitching songs to be considered for use in these hilarities.  This fine Monday morning, I bring you a round up of what I thought deserved notice in a slew of what was otherwise overwhelmingly dull.

Advent Calendar of Hotness Day 22: Daniel Conn

 

Yeah yeah, so I might be a little stuck on Australian rugby players. But can you blame me? After being introduced to Kayne Lawton, I ended up on a two hour long tangent that led me to several other um, delightful looking young fellows, and given that it’s almost Christmas, I can’t not share this. Meet Daniel Conn – model and second row forward for the Sydney Roosters. NSFW warning, though I’m hoping you’re all on holiday break by now…

Celebrate and remember Pat Burrell, a pillar of this site

Pat Burrell is retiring, which means this site now has to exist in a world without him. Ladies… without Burrell is like Seinfeld without Jerry, like a flower without petals, like Grady Sizemore without that one coffee cup. Just…totally naked, but in like a really sad way.

According to Google, the Ladies… have written about Pat Burrell 118 times. By no means is that the most we’ve ever covered a hottie of sport (paging Tom Brady, Ryan Lochte, etc.), but he is a part of the very fiber of our collective heart nonetheless.

In most of the rest of this post, we'll forget he has a face, too.

It’s almost here!

The rosters have been set. The teams have played their friendlies before making the trek to South Africa. Heck, we’ve even made it through Eurovision. (Congratulations, Germany.)

A week from now? It’s finally time. The group stage of the World Cup kicks off, and even America cares about soccer for at least five minutes. Me? I’ll be eating, sleeping and breathing international soccer until the very last second runs down.

Yes, I love soccer, but there’s just something about International play (and the World Cup in particular) that elevates the game. It turns the already rabid soccer fanbase into a bunch of flag-and-bunting-bedecked lunatics. I challenge anyone who doesn’t like or understand soccer to start watching the World Cup from the beginning. Trust me, you’ll come out at the other end swearing at the Abruzzi for being a bunch of diving whiners or being amazed at just how fast Portugal can move (Damn you, Ronaldo. Damn you to hell.) or harboring a secret love for the Orange.

And you know what else is great about the World Cup? International Eye candy. Above? Spain’s Fernando Torres.

More hotness after the jump.

Payoff of paying attention to Florida State

So this crazy football game happened. If you missed it, basically Miami and Florida State went back and forth and Miami came back in the final moments and took the lead. Da U won 38-34.

I hate both teams. Despise them. Like really, the only way for me to win this game as a fan was if both teams lost. But hey, watching FSU isn’t the worst thing in the world with the guy they have under center. Christian Ponder is totally cute, right? It’s not just me? Help me decide.

Hike! Hellooooo Chris Ponder!

Are you ready for some football?

Earlier this week, The Ladies…held their fantasy football league draft. I couldn’t make it, as I was busy shoveling fondue into my face at dinner with my lovely husband. I let the drafting system autodraft my team, and…let’s just say that I don’t suggest doing that. Somehow I have six quarterbacks (if you can call Kyle Orton a quarterback at this point, which I don’t) and one defense. The fact that said defense is Miami is making me consider spending the entirety of the season drinking heavily, because I am so screwed.

Lesson learned: Draft your fantasy football team first. Then celebrate your wedding anniversary.

Anyway, we here at The Ladies… wouldn’t be The Ladies… if we didn’t bring you a little objectfication along with your football. We decided to pick the hottest members of our own teams, and to bring some lovely photographic evidence to you. You know, because we care. Abs, sweat, and football hotness after the jump.

Hump Day Hotties: Sports Movie Crushes

Today has officially been dubbed “Dead Day” at my work since we’re hurting for any type of live sporting event.  Some of my coworkers have suggested having a sports-themed movie day, and that got me thinking about some of my favorite sports-centric movie characters.  I polled the Ladies to see what movie characters they crushed on as teenyboppers (or as grown women – we don’t judge!).

Follow us after the jump to see our crush-worthy choices!

Confederation’s Cup Cuties

Considering there was quite a bit of baseball, golf and various forms of racing happening this weekend, I was super excited every time I sat in front of the TV and there was international soccer on both ESPN and ESPN2.

The Confederations Cup is going on in South Africa. This is a tournament that happens every four years, the year before the World Cup. It pits the previous WC Champion against the winners of the various FIFA Confederations. Wikidpedia gives us this handy chart:

Team	Confederation	Qualification	Participation
South Africa	CAF	2010 FIFA World Cup host	2nd
Italy	UEFA	2006 FIFA World Cup winners	1st
United States	CONCACAF	2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup winners	4th
Brazil	CONMEBOL	Copa América 2007 winners	6th
Iraq	AFC	2007 AFC Asian Cup winners	1st
Egypt	CAF	2008 African Cup of Nations winners	2nd
Spain	UEFA	UEFA Euro 2008 winners	1st
New Zealand	OFC	2008 OFC Nations Cup winners	3rd

So to celebrate , let’s check out some of the beautiful men who played the beautiful game this weekend.

Beach Blanket Bada-BINGO!

Baywatch: Jersey Shore...Now auditioning the NY Jets

 

So this space was supposed to be a mini-French Open preview, but after taking in some NFL Live yesterday and seeing these shots of Mark Sanchez, I felt that they totally warranted a post.

Without ever breaking a sweat in the NFL, Mark Sanchez has already been labeled the new “It” boy by GQ.  Move over Tom Brady! GQ even managed to find Sanchez a hot supermodel to help him out with the shoot.  Forget about Gisele, Hilary Rhoda was Sanchez’s arm candy. I guess GQ wanted to get Mr. Sanchez ready for the Jersey Shore this summer…either that or he’s filming a new Baywatch movie. I can’t decide.  More 70’s swimwear modeled by the Jets QB after the jump.

A Note On Our New Banner

The Ladies… are excited about the Olympics, and judging by your response to the Ryan Lochte Hump Day Hottie, you are excited, too. With that in mind, we didn’t want to wait until August to unveil our Olympic banner. Explanation of who these hotties are and their chances in Beijing are after the jump.

Hump Day Hottie: Urijah Faber

Last weekend saw two different televised MMA events: EliteXC on CBS, and World Extreme Cagefighting on Versus. The latter was a much, much, much better display of mixed martial arts than the former. One of the reasons for the excellent showing by the WEC was the California Kid, Urijah Faber, the featherweight WEC champion. Faber defeated MMA legened Jens Pulver in a unanimous decision. His win is not the reason he was chosen for HDH. His abs are.

Do you have match your shoes to those belts?

We’re This Many! The Ladies… Turn One.

One year ago, a group of female Deadspinners got together and built a website that would forever alter the sportswriting landscape. Some delusions of grandeur, but whatevs.

Artwork, as always, by the one, the only, the incomparable Lady J-Money, who credits our success to the quality of our ingredients.

When we last saw our heroines, we were raising glasses to six months of this contraption. Since then….where to start? We got out of the house a little, and brought a few friends along for the ride. We stirred up a couple hornets’ nests and got our knees dirty. We launched a blatant homerism lovefest and let lust rule our fantasy drafts. We went undercover with the Mets and the Mitchell Report and got inside with the Tigers. We turned back time and had ourselves a total eclipse of the heart. We pledged our hearts to the World Series, and just about killed ourselves trying to get there, and just about GOT ourselves killed once we were…but that all worked out just fine, didn’t it? We got down and dirty with the history of Rock and championed the little guys. We came heroically close to covering every single bowl game. We said fond farewells to a fine crop of college boys, and found new targets for next year.

And the snacks. Oh, TSW’s snacky goodness. The legendary Buffalo Chicken Dip. The homemade corn dogs. The 9-Layer Ranchero Dip, K2 of snack foods. Pork with more pork. The genesis of our quiche obsession. The other Ladies got into the act, to the tune of Pudding Shots, Beer Bread, Cheese Straws, and a variety of meats and cheeses.

We celebrated (properly) the apex of football season (and then some), and marked the turning of the sports season. We got our gamble on. We gave thanks, wished on our stockings, spread holiday cheer and strove to be better fans. We found humor in the worst of times and stood up for boobs everywhere. We rassled and clawed and even screwed each other.

After the jump, some poetic and prosaic reflections on our year together.

Old-School WWF

For a chance to win a prizes (or just to show off), we’ve set up some rasslin’ trivia. Yesterday, your intellects were tickled by Clare’s trivia. Today, we’re hopping in our Delorean and going back to old-school wrestling. I grew up watching these guys (Royal Rumbles were my FAVORITE. They were SO exciting.) Since these wrestlers were popular 15-20 years ago, we’re simply going to test your memories in a Name That Wrestler contest.

Email andrealeigh203@gmail.com with your answers. Do not put your answers in the comments. (Because then other people can see them). You have until Thursday at 2 pm EST. Some of these are gimmes, but some are damn obscure. We gotta separate the boys from the men. Or the girls from the women. Or the jezebels from the ladies. You get the idea.

We’ll start off with an easy one…but do you know who the lady is?

Rocking it out with Dwayne Johnson

A few weeks ago, the good people at Disney contacted us to tell us Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s movie The Game Plan was coming out on DVD today and did we want to do a little something about it?

In about five minutes, our afternoon email round robin took a decidedly “OMG THE ROCK!! SQUEEEEEEE!!” tone. So today and tomorrow, we’re grooming our eyebrows and sharpening our People’s elbows to bring you Rocky goodness in review, flashback and quiz form.

And you can win stuff! That’s right! We have real, honest to blog prizes to give away.

Smell what the Ladies… are cooking after the jump.