Vick Will Work With Humane Society

Patriots top Bills, Saints crush Panthers, 49ers thump Rams

(NEWSER) - The New England Patriots overcame a 21-point deficit today with 49 unanswered points to rock the Buffalo Bills 49-21, the AP reports. The win earned the Pats home-field advantage and the AFC's top seed. Tom Brady threw for 338 yards and finished with the second-most passing yards in NFL history, 5,235—behind only Drew Brees, who threw for 5,486 this year with the New Orleans Saints. More»

By 3 yards on his final throw of game

(NEWSER) - Drew Brees tossed for 307 yards and four touchdowns last night, securing his New Orleans Saints' place in the playoffs and his own in NFL history by shattering a 27-year-old season passing record held by Dan Marino. On his final pass of the game, Brees threw a nine-yard TD pass to put him over the top with 5,087 yards for the season—just three yards more than Marino's 5,084 in 1984, notes the AP . Marino himself was gracious, minutes later tweeting, "Great job by such a special player." More»

Sports analysts agog after Denver Broncos' latest victory

(NEWSER) - After a stunning performance in yesterday's last-minute 13-10 victory against the Chicago Bears, sports commentators are wondering if Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow really is capable of miracles.

• Declaring Tebow his "personal quarterback and savior," Jeff Neuman at RealClearSports catalogs five miracles made in last night's game. "Zero points on his team's first 11 possessions—and then three scores on their last three, aided by a coach's weird strategy, thin air, a fumble, and a total brain cramp by a veteran running back. Truly, Tim Tebow works in mysterious ways."
• Writing for the Montreal Gazette , Ed Willes also drops the M-word, wondering if "we've ever seen a run like this in the last 50 years of sports: an athlete who's at once both divisive and irresistibly charismatic; an athlete who's in the miracle business every week; an athlete who transcends everything around him."

Congress reviewing bill to ban all ape testing

(NEWSER) - Chimpanzees: valuable test subjects, or caged relatives who deserve better treatment? With a ban on all ape-testing now in Congress, the controversial practice dating back to the 1920s may soon be over, the New York Times reports. “Now is the time to get these chimps out of invasive research and out of the labs," says the US Humane Society president. A Maryland Republican who sponsored the bill says it would save taxpayers $30 million per year and save apes a lot of agony. More»

Supplier misleading about animals' condition, group says

(NEWSER) - Your much-hyped McRib sandwich may have a dark past. The Humane Society has filed a complaint with the feds that McDonald’s pork supplier, Smithfield Foods, has misled consumers regarding how it treats its animals. Smithfield, which has won a “supplier sustainability” award from the restaurant chain, calls its pigs’ living conditions “ideal” and says it is “100% committed” to their care. But an undercover investigation by the Humane Society last year concluded just the opposite, writes James McWilliams at the Atlantic . More»