9 Page 32 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Are these second-year NFL QBs suffering a sophomore slump?
During the 2021 season, we tracked rookie QBs who were either drafted in the first round or started most of their team’s games. Mac Jones was the lone standout as his team qualified for the postseason. We’re about halfway through year two for these players, and it’s time to check in and see how life...

The Second Coming of Dennis Smith Jr.
Maybe all he needed was to come home. Smith is from Fayetteville, North Carolina, and is now playing with the Charlotte Hornets, just a mere three hours from his hometown. The Hornets are Smith’s fifth team in six seasons. Last year, he split time between three teams, including the Hornets. So why h...

NFL Week 8 Takeaways: Beware, you’re in for a scare, running backs are running amok
For those of us who remember physically putting a finger into a hole and waiting for the plastic wheel to spin back around to make a phone call, we know that the running back used to be one of the most important positions in football. Many of you out there whose football talent would never be apt fo...

Washington Wizards trying to relive glory days of mid-2000s mediocrity
The Washington Wizards of the mid-aughts will always be remembered more for how their time together ended than the actual run itself — and for good reason. The team only won one playoff series, and that was the year before it traded Kwame Brown for Caron Butler, who would make his only two all-star ...

Wouldn’t you love to hear what executives for the Panthers and Jazz are honestly thinking right now?
Professional sports are like many other industries. The goals of management and the employees are not always aligned....

Despite getting handled by the Chiefs, the 49ers have the formula to be the most dangerous team in the NFC
Don’t be fooled by the 49ers’ Week 7, 44-23 loss to the Chiefs. San Francisco is good, and they’re only going to get better as the season moves along. Kansas City has rolled over many teams similarly during Patrick Mahomes’ tenure. Remember, there isn’t a Chiefs equivalent in the NFC. The Niners pos...

Deadspin's NBA awards predictions
Perhaps it’s the COVID fatigue, partisan politics, or the malaise of a slumping economy, but this off-season has felt like forever. With elections ramping up in November, we need the NBA back to distract us from our country headed toward political chaos. Both sides of the aisle have become insuffera...

Attention NBA teams with no desire to win: Call the Lakers because Russell Westbrook already looks checked out
Calling all tankers. Calling all tankers. If you are desperate to improve your chances at drafting Victor Wembanyama, there is a disgruntled guard on the Los Angeles Lakers who is on an expiring contract, and not as athletic as he used to be....

How should he be remembered?
On July 26 of this year, the Jackie Robinson Museum had its soft opening. The SoHo ribbon-cutting occurred 14 years after plans for the cathedral to honor the man who broke baseball’s color barrier and ended racial segregation of Black players relegated to the Negro Leagues were first announced. The...

Arsenal, Liverpool, and cycles
There’s always an urge, and sometimes a directive from websites and Twitter and whatever else, to attach meaning or statements to any match or result. Sometimes, two teams just play each other and the score is the score and that’s your story. It’s not an overarching comment on systems, managers, or ...

The Pelicans have finally taken flight
Bourbon Street in New Orleans exists in a loop. Every night the street clicks back into a state of debauchery, repeated with perverse precision. Lonely men drift in and out of red neon strip clubs holding cans of Natty Light. Police on horses stroll between sleeping bums, screaming preachers, pools ...

USWNT-England exhibition set as specter of NWSL abuse scandal looms
There’s no doubt about it. Friday’s far-from-friendly, friendly between the United States women’s national soccer team and the Lionesses from England is the biggest glorified exhibition in American soccer history, regardless of gender. It’s the first women’s soccer match — non-World Cup edition — to...

The 10 most proficient cheaters in the history of sports
There are many forms of cheaters in sports, and often the dumbest of them get the press because they’re as close to dumb criminals as one gets — and everybody loves a dumb criminal. The 2000 Spanish Paralympic basketball team that won gold despite only two of the 12 players actually having a mental ...

Bobby Wagner joined an elite group on Monday: The ‘athletes who have pounced on fans for invading the field’ club
Several memorable plays were made during the San Francisco 49ers’ 24-9 victory against the Los Angeles Rams on Monday. There was Deebo Samuel’s back shoulder catch that he turned into a 50-plus yard touchdown, as well as Jeff Wilson Jr.’s touchdown run that first gave the 49ers the lead....

Set your DVR when Deebo Samuel and Talanoa Hufanga are playing
In the fall of 1994, Michael Jordan was still away from the NBA and the World Series was canceled. For a young Chicago Bulls and White Sox fan, there wasn’t much to look forward to in sports, especially with Horace Grant having just signed with the Orlando Magic in free agency....

The Rams should take down the banged up 49ers on Monday Night Football, but only if they shore up a key weakness
Opening night was a grand affair for the Los Angeles Rams. In their shiny facility in Inglewood, Calf., they were able to relive the night that they became the second consecutive team to win a Super Bowl in their home stadium. They got the rings, unveiled the banner, and three hours later they were ...

Top 5 potential landing spots for Saquon Barkley
New York Giants halfback Saquon Barkley is in the final year of his rookie contract. In that time, he’s won a Rookie of the Year Award, had two 1,000-yard rushing seasons, and...scored just four times in the last two-plus years due to injuries....

Rihanna said yes to the Super Bowl — the NFL is worse than it was when she originally said no
Let’s just get right to it. This Rihanna situation feels…uncomfortable....

Offense was nonexistent for the 49ers and Broncos on Sunday Night Football
The San Francisco 49ers and Denver Broncos totally mailed in the offense on Sunday Night Football. Even for the few fans (like myself) that still enjoy a defensive battle at times, it was hard to focus on this game. The passing games were despicable for both teams, and Jimmy Garoppolo made his best ...

Week 3 NFL Takeaways: Rihanna is performing at the Super Bowl, also the two best teams in the league lost
Let’s be clear, the biggest moment during Week 3 of the 2022 NFL season was when news broke that Rihanna is going to perform at halftime of the Super Bowl this season. If you don’t believe me, believe the official NFL Twitter handle. This is what it looked like this afternoon, and it didn’t change a...