Locker Page 31 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
The worst kind of punditry
Obviously, I’m biased. I don’t much care for Alexi Lalas, which I’ve made clear. But this isn’t about him exactly. It’s just that he’s the type of media analyst that dabbles in this kind of horseshit all too often to justify his existence. We can thank First Take for this, the idea that debating abo...
It shouldn’t take hypnotoad sorcery to get you to respect TCU
If the College Football Playoff committee does its job correctly, the TCU Horned Frogs will be the first school from Texas to make the cut for the CFP. While it’s not a shock considering the Toads and Baylor Bears have been the two best programs in the Lone Star State for the past decade, they were ...
USC craps out in Vegas, but Trojans were playing entirely with house money
If you told USC fans before the season that the eulogy for the Trojans’ College Football Playoff hopes wouldn’t be penned until after the conference title game, their reaction would’ve been euphoric. Though the first year under Lincoln Riley ended in disappointment — you don’t come a win away from t...
What does Jack Edwards have to be so smug about anyway?
The idea of a particular villain, a true public enemy, still exists for most hockey fanbases. More than any other sport, one player can send an opposing arena into hysterics by merely hopping over the boards. Rivalry as an idea in sports has calmed down over the years, given player movement and othe...
I’m tired of tanking being the only answer
It’s a tired discussion, I’ll admit at the top. And maybe it’s my official entrance into the “Old Man Yelling At Cloud” club. Do I get a robe? A pipe? Some sort of plaque? Perhaps younger generations of sports fans just accept that once a team is declared a non-contender, it’s time for them to strip...
Jeff Bagwell, you won the World Series, clown!
I didn’t realize that Jeff Bagwell had become that guy at the end of the bar who tells you about the time he saw the original The Wall Tour every single time you enter the place. Not what I would have picked for him during his playing days, but here we are. ...
Everything is cyclical for the USMNT
It would be hard to convince everyone that USMNT manager Gregg Berhalter was preparing for exactly this, last spring. I would like to believe he was, just because I would like to believe fully in Berhalter. Maybe he sensed it was a possibility. Maybe it’s just a coincidence. ...
Teams should be outlawed from wearing black
The Philadelphia Eagles’ black alternates are stupid. There’s a lot that’s stupid about the Eagles, and I recognize the risk of making that statement when they’re 10-1 and their faithful lurk around every corner with a thought to share, but one cannot ignore the truth....
Ohio State had everything to lose, and that’s exactly what happened
The annual pissing contest of the Big Ten’s only two good teams took place Saturday, and like last year, it was Michigan emphatically stomping Ohio State. Unlike a season ago, this was in Columbus, and despite what B1G commissioner Kevin Warren will tell you, this game was not an instant classic for...
Sports franchises approach every contract negotiation like its Black Friday
You may be looking for a new television or Macbook today and on Cyber Monday, but general managers in professional sports are looking for those types of deals 365 1/4 days a year. Money ain’t a thing for the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees, but the other pro sports franchises in America hav...
Hockey still needs to be shamed into doing the right thing
It would appear that hockey has at least slithered to the level that public attention can get it to do the right thing a couple of days late. It’s just above barely nothing, but moving from nothing to a couple of inches above barely nothing is the lowest form of progress. But progress. ...
The best from the start
There’s an old hockey axiom that any young defenseman needs 200 games in the NHL to come into his own. Unlike most of the sport’s theories, which are usually grizzled old horseshit that everyone has just gone along with out of terror for ever rocking the boat in any way, it holds some water. It’s a ...
A few thoughts on the start of 2022 World Cup
While the World Cup started yesterday, it doesn’t really kick off until today. The World Cup, for fans, is about the NCAA tournament-type feel of multiple games every day, and there are three today and four per for the next couple of weeks. That’s the real tournament. If we didn’t all feel weird eno...
World sporting events are becoming a different kind of guilty pleasure
While this World Cup is unlike any other due to the start time and Middle East location, there is a recent world competition that comes to mind. Think about it. Climate unfit to host the event, haphazard accommodations, stories of government overreach, and sportswashing. That sounds like the Beijing...