An Arizona high school football coach lost his job yesterday, after winning his second straight championship and leading the squad to a 12-2 record. The reason? He rested starters in a non-division rivalry game to end the regular season.

Two college football players in the last week applied some of their high school health lessons by helping choking restaurant patrons via the Heimlich. No word if Rivals or Scout intend to include knowledge of basic first aid in the 2012 recruit rankings.

As the old saying goes, “You can’t drink all day if you don’t start in the morning,” so let’s let Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke show us a thing or two about how to properly finish a beer.

Ilya Bryzgalov and the Philadelphia Flyers may have lost the Winter Classic, but when it comes to fashion statements, the Broad Street goalie may have completely won with this mask. The keeper’s helm was donned with images and other tributes to Philly’s sports greats like Mike Shmidt, Dr. J and Harry Kalas, as well as a really cool tribute to Flyers broadcaster, Gene Hart.

Michigan State QB Kirk Cousins (and his leadership) kind of became a folk hero – mainly thanks to a generous tongue bath from Mike Tirico and Jon Gruden. CJ Fogler gives us the video, but do stay around for the snarky tweets that followed.

College football, offensive linemen and…Vanessa Carlton?! Have to see it to believe it.

Ranger faithful often refer to their hockey team as “The Blueshirts.” NBC Sports’ Mike Milbury tried to call them this. He failed – and the video proof is right here for you.

Even though we’ve already directed you towards Nike’s special edition threads that the Ducks will wear for tonight’s Rose Bowl, there is a new development at which we think you should take a gander. Be careful not to stare too long at these helmets: it may blind you.

Week 17 didn’t even bring out the starters for the Green Bay Packers as they hosted divisional rival Detroit Lions, but that didn’t stop one kid from doing the reverse Lambeau Leap out of the bleachers and sprinting along the frozen tundra: where he “met” Packers linebacker Brad Jones.

SportsGrid is not an academic journal and we certainly aren’t peer reviewers in the field of journalism, but a few of us from time to time enjoy reading this stuff. Every now and then, we come across or are sent studies like one we saw recently from Penn State on the forever circular debate on sports bloggers versus journalists.

The full conclusion – based on research around the coverage of a small detail regarding the 2009 group that invested in the St. Louis Rams – was that “the depth of coverage reflects the advantages professional journalists have over bloggers, including better training and more resources.” Ahead, we question the research and potentially pre-conceived notions that led to the conclusion.