c/o Sky SPorts

In the 2014 Formula One season, Ferrari finished a distant fourth place in the Constructor’s Championship, scoring 216 points and finishing well behind Mercedes, Red Bull, and Williams.  Furthermore, 2014 marked the first time in more than 20 years that Ferrari failed to score a single win in Formula One.  And with the very capable Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen confirmed for the Prancing Horse for 2015, Ferrari has unveiled the new SF15-T, a car it hopes would bring the carmaker back to its glory days.

In a statement, Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene underscored the SF15-T’s sleek design, notably calling it a “sexy” vehicle and a contrast to last year’s “ugly” car.  “The best car is the winning car,” he said. “Last year, we had an ugly car, and it was a non-winning car on top of this. I like the car this year, in terms of aesthetics. I don’t know about the performance but it’s really sexy.”  Key design features include an elongated nose and sleeker-looking sidepods.

The Ferrari SF15-T will still come with the same pull-rod front suspension as 2014’s SF14-T entry, which contrasts with the push-rod system used by Mercedes and Red Bull.  However, the front end has been described as sloppy, if better in terms of aerodynamics, and this may not sit too well with Vettel and Raikkonen, according to a report from Sky Sports.

Ferrari, in any case, remains quite upbeat with regards to the SF15-T and its chances in the 2015 F1 season.  “It is the second car made by Ferrari since the reintroduction of turbo engines in 2014,” read the automaker’s statement. “The first year of these new regulations was extremely challenging for the Scuderia and the lessons learned have been applied vigorously to the SF15-T to create a car that is in every respect a large step forwards with respect to the F14-T.”

Comebacking Chicago Bulls point guard Derrick Rose suffered a left hamstring injury during last night’s 100-93 road win over the Toronto Raptors, and if you’re worried this could be another season-ending injury for the 2010 NBA MVP, he and one of his star teammates have something to say about that.

“I guess it’s just cramps in my hamstrings,” said Rose after the game, appearing not to be too worried about his injury.  “I think it’s minor, and they decided to pull me out.”  Rose will be re-evaluated later on today, and while Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau believes there’s a good chance he will require an MRI, Rose remained quite optimistic, adding that ice and muscle stimulation may do the trick for him as he hopes to return to practice today.

The injury happened during a turnover with less than two minutes remaining in the game, as Rose lost control of the ball and dropped to the floor.  He got up, and made his way back slowly to the bench, unsure of how he had tweaked his hamstring.  “I don’t know, man,” said the star point guard. “Just missing two years, now you’re just going to fall for no reason I guess, man. Just trying to work every day, put in consistent work every day. And don’t lose any confidence with these setbacks.”

Meanwhile, Bulls center Joakim Noah was far more passionate as he expressed his disappointment in how the media is seemingly taking Rose’s recent statements out of context, and seemingly waiting for his next major injury after missing most of the past two seasons.

“Everytime something happens to him, people act like it’s the end of the world, and that’s [expletive] so lame to me,” said Noah in a separate postgame interview. “Relax. He’s coming back from two crazy surgeries, obviously we’re being conservative with him, and when things aren’t going right, he’s got to listen to his body more than anybody. So everybody needs to chill the [expletive] out.”

c/o Associated Press

The Arizona Cardinals lost their starting quarterback Sunday, as veteran Carson Palmer went down with a torn ACL early in the fourth quarter of yesterday’s game.

Though the Cardinals ended up defeating the St. Louis Rams, 31-14, it was a bittersweet win for Arizona, as Palmer tore his ACL in his left knee following a sack from Rams safety Mark Barron with 11:21 to go in the fourth quarter.  He finished the game with 241 passing yards, one interception, and a decent 25-for-36 passing clip.  But for Palmer, who had just recently signed a three-year extension supposedly worth $50 million, it was a crushing moment for the man who has led the Cardinals to an 8-1 record so far.

According to Cardinals head coach Bruce Arians, Palmer will go under the knife for surgery in about two weeks, once the swelling in his knee has subsided; his estimated time table for recovery has him coming back in June or July, during the NFL off-season.   Palmer was replaced by backup Drew Stanton, who did “a heck of a job” filling in, just like he did for three games when Palmer was down with a shoulder injury.

Palmer is no stranger to ACL injuries, having torn the ACL and MCL in the same knee during the 2005-06 NFL playoffs.  And in an added twist of irony, that injury also came mere days after he signed a huge contract; ten days prior to the ACL/MCL tear, on December 29, 2005, Palmer signed a six-year, $118 million contract with the Cincinnati Bengals.  He had, however, returned just in time to start the 2006 season, making the Pro Bowl for a second straight year and missing just one snap.

It would appear that UFC legend and former middleweight champion Anderson Silva has agreed to sign a longer contract with the promotion.  And considering his age and injury history, it’s a lot more fights than what one would deem sensible for the man they call “Spider.”

“I had seven fights on my contract (after UFC 183),” said Silva in an interview with Combate.com.  “I met (Zuffa Chairman) Lorenzo (Fertitta) and (UFC President) Dana (White) on Thursday and that contract was canceled. We signed for another 15 fights… …to make Dana crazy, I signed for 15 more fights. And to make my family crazy, too.”  Silva’s next scheduled fight is against Nick Diaz, at UFC 183 on January 31.

That’s a lot of fights for the 39-year-old Silva, who had lost two straight matches to current middleweight champ Chris Weidman, after winning 17 in a row.  Silva had broken his leg in that second fight against Weidman, requiring a long hiatus and igniting speculation of imminent retirement.  But Silva is confirmed to be back in action just three months from now, and if he limits himself to about three to four fights per year at the most, he may be 44 or 45 by the time the new deal is completed.

In addition to confirming the new UFC deal, Silva also hinted that he is in talks with Adidas, now that he’s no longer being backed by Nike.

Ever since the birth of the NBA, the league has made use of 12-minute quarters, making the world’s most popular professional basketball league an anomaly of sorts – very few other leagues have quarters that last that long, as FIBA rules only mandate 10-minute quarters in a basketball game. But it looks like the league may be considering shortening the game by four minutes overall, as the Boston Celtics and Brooklyn Nets will be playing a 44-minute preseason game with 11-minute quarters Sunday.

For the meantime, this will be done on a purely experimental basis – it’s going to be a one-time deal for the NBA, at least for now. But a recent NBA coaches meeting included game length as one of the main talking points, and some present did suggest that the league shorten games a bit.

“We have looked at everything that we do and are taking a fresh look at all the different things we do,” said Rod Thorn, NBA president of basketball operations. “One of the things that keeps coming up is our schedule and the length of our games. … Our coaches talked about it, and a lot of them seemed to be in favor of at least taking a look at it. We talked with our competition committee, and they were in favor of taking a look at it.”

In all, NBA games average about two hours and 15 minutes, timeouts included, and if the NBA would switch to 44-minute games over all 82 games in a season, this would result in about seven games less worth of minutes.  But what would this mean for the game’s marquee players, meaning the likes of LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and the injury-prone Derrick Rose, for instance?  Does this mean less minutes proportionate to the shortening of the game?  According to Thorn, that’s something the NBA doesn’t know yet.  “But the probably is that they’re going to play a bit less,” he hinted in conclusion.

San Francisco Giants pitcher Madison Bumgarner was on fire Wednesday, as he played in his first postseason complete game, and did so with a flourish, striking out 10 batters and leading the Giants to an 8-0 shutout of the Pittsburgh Pirates in the National League wild card game.

Also playing well for the Giants in yesterday’s road win was Brandon Crawford, who hit his third career grand slam in the fourth inning, and also became the first shortstop to pull off such a feat in postseason action. “That’s crazy,” said Crawford, feeling overwhelmed that he had actually made history with his performance. “With all the great shortstops that have played before, that’s pretty special. I’m happy to be able to do it.”

Overall, Bumgarner had a jaw-dropping performance against the Pirates, only allowing an opposing runner past second base in the eighth inning. While the Pirates threatened to score off errors from Giants infielders Crawford and Joaquin Arias, Bumgarner ensured that his complete game would be a shutout as well, as he struck out Jordy Mercer and forced a ground-out off Andrew McCutchen in the ninth.

“It’s fun,” said Bumgarner following his team’s big win. “If you’re not playing, you can be excited and nervous and all that. But if you’re pitching in the game you’ve got to try to push that all aside and try to make pitches like we did tonight.”  Bumgarner went 18-10 in the regular season, fanning 219 batters and walking only 43, with an impressive ERA of 2.98.

The Giants will be facing the Washington Nationals Friday, playing the first game of a five-game National League Division Series.

In case you haven’t noticed, backup quarterbacks seem to be playing a larger role than usual at this point in the NFL season.  Though none of these QBs are named Johnny Manziel – Brian Hoyer is, after all, healthy and showing he belongs in the NFL with his performance for the Cleveland Browns – we’ve seen veterans like Drew Stanton (Arizona) and rookies like Teddy Bridgewater (Minnesota) take snaps as unexpected starters in the stead of injured No. 1 guys.

As of this writing, Stanton has been a pleasant surprise for the Cardinals, as the team is now 3-0 despite the fact that Carson Palmer remains sidelined with a shoulder injury; the veteran Palmer, however, may be back in the lineup next Sunday against the Broncos.  But we may be seeing the Minnesota Vikings get a lot of mileage out of first-round pick Bridgewater, with Matt Cassel out with a broken foot, while Kirk Cousins of the Washington Redskins is expected to start for the rest of the 2014 NFL season, due to Robert Griffin III’s potentially season-ending ankle injury.  The pressure is especially significant on Cousins, whom many believe should have been made starter under head coach Jay Gruden, RG3 or no RG3.

It isn’t only injuries that have resulted in Bridgewater and Cousins getting promoted from backup to starter.  In Jacksonville, Chad Henne’s uninspiring start has resulted in rookie Blake Bortles, the first QB picked in the first round of the 2014 NFL Draft, getting the nod as the first-stringer.  Also, Josh McCown hasn’t been setting the world on fire in Tampa Bay – with McCown out with a sprained thumb last week, Mike Glennon took over and had a creditable game, passing for 121 yards and one touchdown, with a 70.8 percent completion rate.  Comments from Buccaneers coach Lovie Smith suggest Glennon may be starting going forward, as the coach said that bad losses, such as a recent 54-16 trouncing by the Atlanta Falcons, require some changes to be made. “Maybe that’s personnel, maybe it’s not,” he added. “You’re looking at all areas when you feel like you need to go another direction.”

With poor play and injuries posing problems for several other quarterbacks, who knows?  Maybe we’ll be seeing more backup quarterbacks get inserted in the starting lineup as the NFL season progresses.

Facing a grand jury yesterday, NASCAR veteran Tony Stewart was found innocent of charges that he had deliberately, and fatally run down co-competitor Kevin Ward Jr. on a New York race track last month.

According to Orange County District Attorney Michael Tantillo, Ward, who was 20 at the time of his death, was under the influence of prohibited substances, having smoked enough marijuana to impair his judgment.  “I am sure from their deliberations and discussions that the fact that Kevin Ward was observed running basically two-thirds of the track, down a hot track in the middle of other cars still racing played a big, big factor in their decision,” he said.

After reviewing footage of the incident, Tantillo asked the grand jury to consider charging Stewart, 43, with second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.  The jury, however, decided that evidence was lacking to prove Stewart had deliberately planned to run Ward down at the August 9 sprint car race at New York’s Canandaigua Motorsports Park.

“After listening to and questioning all of the witnesses, and reviewing all of the evidence, the grand jury has determined that there is no basis to charge Tony Stewart with any crimes,” read Tantillo’s statement on the case.  He added that Stewart was not tested for alcohol or drugs following the incident, as a “certified drug recognition expert” found no signs of impairment when he was interviewed on the night of the collision.

“This has been the toughest and most emotional experience of my life, and it will stay with me forever,” said Stewart, who gave this prepared statement following yesterday’s hearing. “While much of the attention has been on me, it’s important to remember a young man lost his life. Kevin Ward Jr.’s family and friends will always be in my thoughts and prayers.”

New reports are now claiming that former Tennessee Titans kicker Rob Bironas had verbally threatened four Belmont University (Tenn.) students in a white pickup truck not long before his fatal car accident Saturday night.

According to a 20-year-old Belmont student, Bironas yelled threats and profanities at him and his companions around 10:30 p.m. Saturday night; this happened soon after Bironas’ wife had reported him missing.  “His window was down, and we pulled up and I said, ‘Hey man, just a heads up, something’s burning from your exhaust. Your exhaust smells horrible, just wanted to let you know,’’ said Connor Fraley in an interview with The Tennessean. “He looked over at me and said ‘I’m going to kill everybody in your [expletive] vehicle.’”

Bironas reportedly repeated the threats after getting dumbfounded responses from Fraley and the truck’s other occupants.  The student added that Bironas “tried to sideswipe the vehicle and missed us by a foot,” requiring Fraley’s group to get away at speeds of up to 110 mph.

A separate account from an unidentified woman also pinpointed Bironas as acting erratically on the night of his death, just 30 minutes following the earlier incident.  Like Fraley, she reported that the driver of a white SUV attempted to run her vehicle off the road.  “He is dangerous, he is drunk or something. He tried to start a fight with us,” read the transcript of the woman’s 911 call. “I just want to tell the police there is something wrong with him. He is dangerous, he is drunk or he is on drugs. There is something wrong with him. He gave us a mean look. We don’t even know him, and he tried to run us off the road.”