Since we’re living in the era of Instapaper, I thought it best to wait a few days to post about the longform profile that came out earlier this week about probably the sports blogosphere’s most prominent blogger of late, A.J. “Tethered to the Machine” Daulerio. He got a bunch of quotes in the article, and one of literally said You’re just kind of tethered to the machine.

In reality, I’m not going to quit sports blogging, because as Daulerio’s friend and the founder of his site Deadspin, Will Leitch, said recently: writing about sports is infinitely fun. However, this profile about how the rigors of the job contributed to Daulerio seeking counseling earlier this year definitely put me at my most solemn this week (and I saw Blue Valentine this week).

I guess call me naive for not assuming that dads were calling up Daulerio – weeping – about watching their daughters have sex in urine on a stadium floor bathroom.

Check out the story at GQ.com. Leave your own thoughts on A.J.’s profile in the comments or @mikehayes19

(Photo from GQ.com)

Check out my thoughts on the first week of the 8KMA: World Cup 2010 /// NYC /// In Photos project

My mission…

I agree with First Cuts, I like the shirt.

Smooth moves by Common on there too, but who’s cooler than Boom Dizzle? (Certainly not Diz Gibran, the M.C.)

For the love of pete, vote for Baron to be in NBA JAM.

Much like Ron Burgundy thought diversity was an old wooden ship, the soccer populus seems to believe that Group of Death represents the least desirable World Cup group to be placed in for middling soccer countries. False. The Group of Death is a metal band.* Just look at this poster from their Facebook page; the theory checks out…

The Group of Death is actually a soccer inspired rock group. ESPN’s Rob Stone gave them a nice plug, reporting live from NYC soccer bar Nevada Smith’s today during the World Cup draw.. Here’s the description of G.O.D. on Facebook:

The Group of Death is the world’s foremost football (soccer)-inspired heavy metal band. “The Group of Death” is also the nickname given to the toughest group the FIFA World Cup.

All this needs to seem fully legit is some actual tunes, and here it is – check out The Group of Death’s hit single “We Call It Awesome.”

The Group of Death perform a special show tonight at 8 at Nevada Smiths in lower Manhattan.

*The former in the above statement is 100% true, and even casual U.S. soccer fans have to be extremely happy that we didn’t find ourselves in, say, the Ivory Coast or Portugal’s current situation. Happy World Cup Draw Day!

Become a fan of The Group Of Death on Facebook

I know it ended two days ago – possibly, when this guy finally crossed the finish line – but I had to follow up on Edward Norton’s running of the New York City Marathon – for I haven’t been this enthused about Norton since the first time I saw the final scene in Primal Fear.

I posted on Friday that Norton was running in his first ever marathon to raise money for Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust in East Africa. According to Ecorazzi, that little initiative raised $763,000 – with Norton pulling in over 300 K himself! He even brought these dudes – actual Maasai he met while on an excursion to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro – over from Africa to run the race with him.

That picture and the boku charity dollars don’t fully encapsulate Norton’s marathon badass however; he also murdered the course. 40-year-old Norton finished the 26.2 mile race in 3 hours 48 minutes and 1 second. That’s a sub 9 minute (about 8:42 by my estimation) pace. According to Eonline, that made him the top celebrity finisher this year.

Finally, not to be overlooked, he also realized one other marathon goal…

Note: Palin came in at 3:59:36 when she ran the 2005 Humpy’s Marathon in Anchorage, AK

According to the website Famespy, Edward Norton will be running his first New York City Marathon this Sunday to raise awareness and funds for Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust, which works to preserve healthy ecosystems in East Africa.

Standard, right? Celebrity, seemingly insurmountable cause, arduous charitable task such as running. It’s all very nice in a sort of conventional way.

Norton refuses to be conventional…

He’s bringing along these dudes. Genuine Maasai warriors to run the race with him on Sunday – that’s two of them with Norton running last week in Central Park. Those sneakers bare a stark contrast to their usual running footwear…

David Blaine and Alanis Morrisette are also part of the team. I guess that’s cool.

Get more info, and check out the organization’s web-based fundraising effort at their website Maasaimarathon.com

I actually saw this first on Pitchfork, and it happened to catch my eye because I happen to be reading the book Our Band Could Be Your Life at this time.

Thoughts and condolences go out to Gerard Cosloy, whose Austin, TX house burned down early this morning.

Gerard is indeed a sports blogger who runs Can’t Stop The Bleeding. He posted a photo of the rubble of his former home on his site today, along with the quote: “This was a hell of a way to get out of hoovering the living room.”

Gerard told the Austin American-Statesmen, “There are a lot of people who have a lot less than I do who deal with a lot worse, but this is pretty bad.”

More so than an establish sports blogger, Cosloy is an indie rock legend. He’s worked with such influential bands as Sonic Youth, Big Black, Dinosaur Jr, Pavement, and Yo La Tengo. He started the rock label Homestead Records, putting out early work by Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr, and is the co-owner of Matador Records.

I just got done reading about how he got F’d over by Dinosaur Jr in the mid-80s in Our Band Could Be Your Life. Plus, I think he’s a Mets fan. Wow, I feel bad for this dude.

Shoot Gerard some encouragement (he’s @cstbtweet or @gerardcosloy on twitter) if you have a minute.

Some Staten Island kid tried to James Brown Super Bad-it into second and his mom is $125,000 fatter in the wallet because of it.

In 2004, Martin Gonzalez, 12 at the time, sustained torn ligaments in the knee sliding into second base in a Little League game. Martin needed two surgeries to repair the injury. His mom filed a lawsuit against the league and Little League Baseball Inc., alleging that her son was not taught the proper technique.

Now, five years later – family waited three to file the lawsuit – Little League Baseball has to fork over $125K to his kook of a mom.

Makes me yearn for simpler time of youth sports. I’m pretty sure you could run through the catcher in my Little League day. Everyone got hurt, no one sued, big league chew was legal.

H/T to Gothamist for this.

Staten Island mom settles suit with Little League and coaches over knee injury (Staten Island Advance)