9 Page 47 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Without Paul George, a Kawhi Leonard return means nothing this year
After advancing to the Western Conference Finals for the first time last season, this year has been an up and down struggle for the Clippers with key players in and out of the lineup. Kawhi Leonard hasn’t played a game yet this season after tearing his ACL in the second round of the playoffs against...

The most dangerous weapon in these NFL playoffs might be Deebo Samuel
There are non-quarterbacks who have had tremendous impacts on their teams in the NFL this season....

A Cowboys-49ers playoff game means so much more than just another wild-card game
January 10, 1982, is the day it all started. Most longtime Niners and Cowboys fans will point to this day as the start of a rivalry that lasted the better part of two decades. The 1981 NFC championship game at Candlestick Park between the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys was the beginning of a...

Damian Lillard’s injury, sadly, is exactly what the Trail Blazers needed
If the Portland Trail Blazers ever wondered what an unfortunate but well-timed injury looks like, Damian Lillard’s abdominal issue is it. The team announced Thursday that the All-NBA guard underwent surgery to repair it, and he will be reevaluated in six weeks, with a six-to-eight week timetable to ...

Lonzo’s Ball-in
Lonzo Ball finally seems to have found the right landing spot in Chicago after playing for two organizations in his first four years as a pro. Zo is living up to all four letters of his last name and balling out for a Bulls squad with the best record in the East. LeBron probably wishes he could get ...

At this point, Anthony Davis is what he is
The 2021-22 season has been less than stellar thus far for Anthony Davis and the Los Angeles Lakers, and much of that falls on the shoulders of the former No. 1 pick. This was supposed to be the year Davis took over as the Lakers’ best player, but that blueprint hasn’t worked out the way it was draw...

Don Maynard, Hall-of-Fame Jet, dead at 86
Don Maynard, a wide receiver who played in two of professional football’s landmark games during his Hall of Fame career and son of Texas, died on January 10 at the age of 86....

The world felt a just a bit less chaotic with Klay Thompson back on an NBA floor last night
Those lovable, plucky underdogs, the Golden State Warriors. A couple of tough seasons — really one terrible season and another season that ended in disappointment, proved to be a mere traffic jam on the Warriors’ freeway of dominance....

It’s been the best and worst of AEW this week
If a newcomer to the wrestling world wanted an exhibition on why AEW makes so much noise for such a new company in the industry, this past week would be it. It has showcased everything the company does well, as well as exemplified the problems it has, and more importantly how it addresses those prob...

Jim Harbaugh should get out while the gettin’s good
Jim Harbaugh’s tenure at Michigan is done....

Give DeMar DeRozan his flowers for putting the Bulls in first place
What a three-game stretch for the fifth-leading scorer in the NBA, DeMar DeRozan. Mr. Anti-analytics has been letting his mid-range shot fly all season, propelling him to a scoring average of 26.9 points per game. With 28 points and six assists on Monday DeRozan was the Chicago Bulls’ leader in poin...

Darkness has fallen upon the Edmonton Oilers once again
The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars. Though apparently if you’re covering the Edmonton Oilers or a fan of them, that’s the going theme. Perhaps after years and years of the same problem, Oilers observers are just tired of complaining about the same things, so they’re looking for things tha...

Kyle Shanahan tried to defend John Lynch, but we saw what he did to poor Jimmy G
John Lynch really tried to explain away his Twitter gaffe by claiming that he was in church. On Christmas Eve, the day following Jimmy Garoppolo’s two interception performance in the San Francisco 49ers Week 16 loss to the Tennessee Titans, Lynch liked a tweet that had tagged him. It was from @40tee...

John Madden’s legacy is something different to multiple generations of fans
The phrase “once in a generation” seems to be tossed too often, far more often than it should be in sports, but when it came to John Madden, this couldn’t even begin to sum up what he represented. Madden passed away unexpectedly on Tuesday but left a lasting legacy unlike any we’ve ever seen....

IDIOT OF THE YEAR #6: Sage Steele, the Candace Owens of ESPN
Welcome to Deadspin’s IDIOT OF THE YEAR festivities! Nos. 50 through 11 are available for your enjoyment here. And our top 10 thus far:...

NFL shortens COVID quarantine period, confusion ensues
Under new guidelines, symptomatic players and staff will only sit out five days ...

Some great wrestling matches from the year that was
That time again. This year’s list feels a little more genuine, as wrestling (outside of Japan at least) was able to get out of the TV-studio era and back in front of the crowds it so desperately needs. Whether that was or is a really good idea at the moment, we’ll save for another time. Trying to ju...

Daniel Jones is done for the season and now he’s the next GM’s problem
In a do-or-die season for many in the New York Giants organization, the condemned are trying to delay the guillotine. Quarterback Daniel Jones, by no fault of his own, seems to be the barometer by which General Manager Dave Gettleman will be evaluated. He knows this as much as anyone, and spent heav...

The NFL adopts the Donald Trump method of COVID testing
You would think we’ve moved past the “ignorance is bliss” line of thinking with COVID now that we’re over a year and a half in, right? Simply not getting tested is the easy way out, sure. Is it the safe, or smart, or logical way out? No, none of the above. But apparently the NFL and NFLPA aren’t rea...

Avalanche, Panthers and Flames done until Christmas
The NHL has multiple rosters’ worth of players in COVID protocols, with the number growing seemingly by the hour. The obvious thing to do, the thing that we would have expected in the era of “an abundance of caution” (remember that?) would be for the league to shut things down for a couple of weeks,...