jonmhoefling Page 6 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Lions, and Jaguars, and bets, oh my!
As the NFL season marches toward its conclusion, bettors understand which teams are good, which teams are bad, and which teams have no shot of reaching the postseason. All of that will play a role in how betting lines are made, change over the course of the week, and how they are bet on. Oftentimes,...

Does Jacob deGrom give the Texas Rangers one of the best rotations in the AL?
Congratulations, Texas Rangers fans! You’ve just secured one of the greatest pitchers of our generation for the next five years....

Kirk Cousins is the ultimate measuring stick for Super Bowl viability
The term “measuring stick” game is seldom used in professional football. The term indicates a game that will determine whether or not a team is the real deal or not and is used more in a college football setting since those teams can change drastically from year to year. ...

The Pats need to dump Matt Patricia if Tom Brady returns
I like the New England Patriots a lot more than most this year. They don’t have any great wins, but their defense is stout, Rhamondre Stevenson is a delight to watch, and despite operating with only one seriously capable receiver — Jakobi Meyers — they’re still middle of the pack in terms of yards p...

The Cheez-It hotel room is an unforgivable sin
Imagine you’re a college football player. You’ve led your team to a solid season this year, and are rewarded with a bowl game. In the week leading up to the contest, you’re studying film, and working hard in practice because you know NFL scouts will probably be there watching. Your future could depe...

The 5 best landing spots for Jacob deGrom
Oft-injured, but damn near unhittable when healthy, former New York Mets ace Jacob deGrom was bound to draw numerous suitors once free agency started, and while the rumors haven’t been circulating at quite the speed we expected, deGrom’s market has heated up recently, but the heat hasn’t come from t...

The way the Washington Commanders honored Sean Taylor was an 'epic fail'
Over the weekend, the Washington Commanders revealed a new “statue” memorializing Sean Taylor, a former safety who played for the organization from 2004-07, earning two Pro Bowl nods before his death at 24 years old. Taylor was a phenomenal young talent, family-oriented, and a hell of a workhorse on...

A look ahead to the potential 2023 QB carousel
Take a look at the current NFL standings, would you? How many teams are above .500 with less-than-optimal situations under center? The New York Jets, New England Patriots, and Tennessee Titans are all on the playoff bubble and have all either endured mediocre-to-poor quarterback play, and the Titans...

Even Ryan Leaf has Jets jokes for ‘Mormon Ryan Leaf’
Jets fans have not had a good week. As Al Michaels once so elegantly put it, “They’ve had a worse week than Harvey Weinstein.” ...

Can’t get no respect
If the playoffs were starting right now, the New England Patriots would be the AFC’s sixth seed. They’d get an opening-round matchup with the Tennessee Titans, followed by a likely road gig against the Kansas City Chiefs. It’s a tough path in the already daunting American Football Conference. That s...

Hell no, keep Carlos Beltran out of Cooperstown
The 2023 MLB Hall of Fame ballots were sent out yesterday....

Yes, Bills Mafia is the best fanbase and it’s not even close
I love the San Francisco 49ers. I grew up in the Bay Area, and instead of cheering for my father’s favorite team — the then-Oakland Raiders — in Super Bowl XXXVII. I cheered for the Bucs, a team I had zero affiliation with just because I didn’t want to see San Francisco’s cross-town rival win a chip...

For your own health, never play against the Carolina Panthers
The Carolina Panthers are not a good team. They’re one of the worst teams in the NFL in fact. They’re trotting out a former XFL quarterback as their starter. They lost Christian McCaffrey and Robbie Anderson. They don’t utilize DJ Moore. They’re one of only two teams to have undergone a head coachin...

Bellinger's days in Dodger blue aren't necessarily behind him despite being non-tendered
Prior to the start of the 2021 season, Dodgers’ outfielder/first baseman Cody Bellinger was considered one of the best baseball players on planet Earth. In his three full seasons with LA prior to 2021, he’d won NL Rookie of the Year, an NL MVP, and had smashed 111 home runs. 2020 wasn’t the kindest ...

Mike Trout finishing outside the top 5 in AL MVP voting is a travesty
Mike Trout missed 43 games this season, most of which were due to injury. Whether it was a rare back condition or rib cage inflammation, the three-time MVP was forced to miss a considerable amount of time in 2022. Still, despite missing all that time, Trout was undoubtedly a top-five player in the A...

Here are some alternative MLB awards to highlight underappreciated athletes
Last night, the American League and National League MVP Awards were handed out (Aaron Judge and Paul Goldschmidt, respectively), ending MLB’s week-long parade following the World Series celebrating the 2022 season. While the MVP and Cy Young Awards are great, they don’t pay any homage to the hard wo...

The Astros did GM James Click so, so dirty
The Astros are World Series champions once again! [Editor’s note: Don’t remind me.] After doing a lot of damage control since the legitimacy of their 2017 title was put in question following the 2019 season, the Astros built almost an entirely new squad over the last three years. The 2022 Astros’ ro...

Does anyone know who the frontrunner for NFL Comeback Player of the Year is?
The NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year Award is one of the most head-scratching awards in all of professional sports. Nobody really knows what it entails. Just look at the most recent award winners. All of them had wildly different paths to the honor. ...

By all means, the 49ers should have no trouble with the Chargers
The Los Angeles Chargers are a very good football team. Even in the absence of Keenan Allen and Mike Williams for parts of the season, the downfall of JC Jackson, and the abysmal play of Jerry Tiller on the D-line — thankfully he just got waived — the Chargers have played their way to a 5-3 record a...

Can someone please explain how Josh Bell won a Silver Slugger award?
At the end of October, MLB announced their finalists for the Gold Glove awards. Every MLB fan collectively put palm to face at the sight of Juan Soto being named a finalist for the NL right field Gold Glove. Thankfully, he didn’t win the award. MLB coaches and managers dodged a huge bullet with that...