to move up and down
David Beckham is retiring: The end of an era
The 38-year-old Beckham, who recently won a league title in a fourth country with Paris Saint-Germain, has become a global superstar since starting his career at Manchester United.
“I’m thankful to PSG for giving me the opportunity to continue but I feel now is the right time to finish my career, playing at the highest level,” Beckham said in a statement Thursday. (Photo: Getty Images/AFP/Files)
HOPE YOU HAD LUNCH ALREADY: Subway made a statue out of sandwich materials of Georgia linebacker (and potential top NFL draft pick) Jarvis Jones. It is mildly terrifying. Maybe because we aren’t raisin people — his dreadlocks are made of 1,000 of them. (Photos: Diane Bondareff/Invision for SUBWAY/AP Images; Bebeto Matthews/The Associated Press)
Suit & Tie: David Beckham showed off some of his skills on Wednesday during his trip to China, playing with students at a middle school in Beijing.
Beckham is on a five-day visit to China at the invitation of the China Football Association as China’s first international ambassador. (Photos: Alexander F. Yuan/The Associated Press; Lintao Zhang/Getty Images)
WE’RE DONE. PACK IT UP. The Internet cannot get better than this.
This is Desmond Bryant. He is a defensive tackle for the Oakland Raiders (for now, anyway). This is his mug shot. We can’t stop staring. (Handout)
Rival teams the ‘Up’ards and Down’ards’ battle for the ball in the river during the annual Ash Wednesday ‘no rules’ football match on February 13, 2013, in Ashbourne, England.
First played in the 17th Century between teams from opposite ends of the Derbyshire town, hundreds of participants aim to get a ball into one of two goals that are positioned three miles apart at either end of Ashboune.
The match starts on Shrove Tuesday and can last until 10 PM. If a goal is scored before 6 PM, then a new ball is ‘turned up’ again and a new game started. If the goal is after 6 PM then the game ends for that day and continues into the next day - known as Ash Wednesday. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)
A Burkina Faso supporter cheers ahead of the kickoff of the 2013 African Cup of Nations final match between Burkina Faso and Nigeria on February 10, 2013 at Soccer City stadium in Johannesburg. Burkina Faso was trying to win its first African trophy but fell short in a 1-0 loss. (Photo: Francisco Leong/AFP/Getty Images)
The offices of the Beitar Jerusalem soccer team were set on fire early Friday in an apparent arson attack, police said, a day after four of the club’s fans were charged with anti-Muslim chanting at a recent game. Tensions have been bubbling ever since the team announced last month it would sign on two Muslim Chechen players — Zaur Sadayev and Gabriel Kadiev — in a break from the team’s unofficial tradition of not signing Arabs or Muslims. (Bernat Armangue/The Associated Press)
You hold your head high, Jim Harbaugh: “They asked me to come on and deliver a positive message to the youth. And for that I’ve been scorned and humiliated.” — Jim Harbaugh, recalling his appearance on the NBC sitcom Saved by the Bell when he was the Colts quarterback. (And deliver a positive message he did.)
Click through for more of this week’s best Super Bowl quotes. (Photos: Mark Humphrey/The Associated Press, Handout/NBC)
Families from Sandy Hook Elementary School were on the field before the New York Giants’ game against the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday. The Giants won 42-7 but were eliminated from playoff contention when the Chicago Bears beat the Detroit Lions. (Photos: Elsa/Getty Images, Al Bello/Getty Images)
New York Giants receiver Victor Cruz, after learning that he was the favourite player of one 6-year-old victim in the Sandy Hook shooting, wrote “R.I.P. Jack Pinto,” ”Jack Pinto, my hero“ and ”This one is for you“ on his shoes for the Giants game against the Falcons in Atlanta. Cruz said he called the boy’s family after hearing he was a Giants fan and was told they planned to bury him in one of Cruz’s No. 80 jerseys.
“It felt good to honour a family that was going through so much,” Cruz told ESPN. “Messages can go out to these athletes, and some athletes just brush them off. So it felt good to be one of these athletes that really listened to that family, and really did something to pay tribute to them.”Cruz hopes to visit the family later this week, “even if it’s just for an hour” and spoke to the boy’s 11-year-old brother on the phone before the game.
Toronto mayor Rob Ford is kissed by Toronto Argonauts’ Adriano Belli (a.k.a. The Kissing Bandit - he kisses everybody) during the Argos’ Grey Cup victory parade festivities at Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto. It was quite the event. Click through for more photos. (Photo: Darren Calabrese/National Post)
Canada probably doesn’t feel happy for Toronto today, if only because that’s not how this country works. Generally, the country resents its biggest city for its arrogance, its narcissism, the way it sucks away their family and friends into the great economic vortex. And that’s fine. It’s a part of our heritage.
That being said, there was a fine symmetry on Sunday, as the Toronto Argonauts won the 100th Grey Cup at home with a 35-22 victory over the imploding Calgary Stampeders. The game capped a smashing Grey Cup week, during which Toronto felt more like the rest of Canada than it has in a long time, and its team was a champion for the first time since 2004. Toronto sports have become a black hole of despair, but this is how the script would read, were it written by those fat cats in the big city.
It’s been Toronto’s week, and Toronto’s year. From the moment they traded for quarterback Ricky Ray the conspiracy theories bloomed, as if the Canadian Football League had somehow convinced the Edmonton Eskimos to torch their franchise for the good of the big picture.
(Photo: Darren Calabrese/National Post)
Horsin’ around, Part VI: This is Marty the Horse. The Royal York in Toronto said they wouldn’t let him in. It is part of CFL tradition for Stampeders fans to bring a horse in the lobby, but the hotel said it had “health concerns.” After fan outcry, the hotel staff relented and now Marty will be free to roam the lobby to his heart’s content at 2PM ET. (Photos: Matthew Sherwood for National Post)
Toronto mayor Rob Ford, right, with his press secretary George Christopulous, play football at the temporary pitch built in the fountain at Nathan Phillip Square in front of the City Hall on Tuesday. (Photo by Natalie Alcoba/National Post)
To celebrate the 100th Grey Cup on Nov. 25, we are hosting 16 Shades of Grey, a bracket-style tournament to decide the most memorable Grey Cup game of all time. Our team of National Post sports writers and editors have narrowed the first 99 Grey Cups down to a sweet 16, and will debate their favourites. Then it is up to you to choose the winners.
Vote for your favourite Grey Cup game and check out our bracket to see what other games are included in the tournament. The polls for Monday’s vote close at 4 p.m. ET, so visit us here to find out who moves onto the next round or follow us on Twitter @npsport.
