aba Page 56 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

LaVar Ball predicted the future, says he knew Golden State wouldn’t draft son LaMelo
It’s been a while since we’ve heard much of anything from LaVar Ball....

Cincinnati snubbed, CFP Committee says that previous seasons don’t matter, ranks 'Bama ahead of undefeated teams
While it’s safe to say that no one really knew what was coming with the first set of College Football Playoff rankings, which aired last night on ESPN, I don’t know that anyone saw Alabama ranked at No. 2. At 3 — Sure! At 4 — why not? But to put a one-loss Alabama team ahead of every undefeated and ...

CFP Rankings: Could Michigan State come in as the 2-seed?
Tonight at 7 p.m. ET, the first official rankings for the College Football Playoff will be announced. We can all safely assume that Georgia will hold the top spot, but the second spot is where things start to get interesting. There are several teams who could make an argument for the two-seed. ...

Friends don't let friends go on the ManningCast
Everyone knows about the Madden curse. Whomstever graces the cover of the latest installment of the Madden franchise is doomed to suffer a terrible season. It doesn’t happen every year, but more often than not, having your face on EA’s broken football simulation video game is a horrible omen....

Boy… Charlotte Flair sounds like a barrel of kittens
Backstage drama in professional wrestling is part of the charm, given that it usually finds its way into their on-screen storytelling. Reading about rumors and whispers in the business becomes a major staple for a lot of fans. But still, like sports, when things from backstage and in the locker room...

LSU, USC head coach candidate deniers auditioning for vacancies this weekend
I’m about as sick of the college football coaching carousel chatter as Mike Tomlin. I know reporters are obligated to ask these questions, but it’s like asking a child standing in front of a puddle of spilt milk, “Did you do this?” There needs to be a word for asking a question you know you’re not g...

Somehow the 'BuT-tHe-AmATeUR-MoDeL!' NCAA survived the beginning of NIL
We’re approaching the four-month mark since the NCAA officially approved name, image, and likeness rights for student-athletes and, somehow, the apocalypse has not come, the collegiate model has not collapsed, and Dabo Swinney is still coaching (to some extent, at least). As athletes, schools, spons...

The Mannings are back to try to save a far-from-marquee <em>Monday Night Football</em> matchup
The Manning brothers took a one-fifth season hiatus, but they were back yesterday for the fourth Manningcast of the 2021 NFL Season. Eli and Peyton returned to their respective dens, or basements, or whatever on ESPN2 providing their commentary on a low-scoring Saints-Seahawks Monday Night Football ...

QTNA: Would you have given Tom Brady his 600th touchdown ball back?
As human beings trying to do good on Earth, life should not always be about money. We should be more concerned with how we treat others, and once we leave this place, when others are asked about us, they should be able to genuinely say that we were good instead of simply offering platitudes. However...

Well, at least Americans are in position to blow El Clásico?
It’s always a touch reductive and harsh to boil down a game to a single chance or moment. There are 90 minutes, after all, and you’d like to believe that each team will create more chances and those are allowed to go in as well. But soccer being what it is, there’s only one or two or three goals per...

You need to win more than just games at the U, Manny
The Miami Hurricanes are 2-4 and their athletic director is saying things like, “Everyone’s constantly being evaluated,” which is AD speak for “Manny Diaz needs to start winning or I’m gonna lose my job, too.”...

Pitt is a three-point favorite against Clemson this weekend… how did it come to this?
Yep, you read that right. The University of Pittsburgh is favored Saturday against the formerly formidable Clemson Tigers — the same team that made appearances in six College Football Playoffs in a span of six years, winning two championships along the way. With the way Dabo Swinney’s team is playin...

Sometimes you have to just sit back and appreciate what’s on offer
Perhaps I’m feeling wistful because last October, we didn’t have our normal schedule. There’s a clock to this, a rhythm, that we have spent our entire lives attuned to. Hockey and basketball start during the MLB playoffs. Go a year without it, and suddenly the axis is off, red lights are blinking, t...

Like a comet streaking across the sky, a rare look into the personable side of Nick Saban
For the second time this season, we’ve been privileged to get a glimpse into the part of Alabama coach Nick Saban that’s not a myopic, grumpy, brooding football coach. In September, Alabama safety Jordan Battle told the media that Saban loves a good “deez nuts” joke, much to the chagrin of what soun...

Warriors fire warning shot to NBA by laying smack down on Lakers
The NBA season officially began Tuesday night with a doubleheader, and in the main event, the hoops world was treated to a showdown between the Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Lakers. One thing I took away from the season opener is what I’ve been saying all along. The Warriors will contend...

Did we learn anything from Friday night’s TV wrestling war?
While it’s been fun to project the battle between AEW and WWE as a TV war, the reality has been that they’ve really been separate. Sure, AEW has vacuumed up a lot of talent that WWE left out in the alley when it was perfectly serviceable or better (is this just a Chicago thing? Every one of us had a...

Can the Mavs count on Kristaps Porziņģis?
This is going to be a huge year for the Dallas Mavericks, for a couple of big reasons. According to many experts, this is the year Luka Dončić completely breaks through and wins his first of many MVP awards. But more importantly, it’s finally time for the Mavs to find out if they can count on Krista...

Bucs remove Gruden from Ring of Honor, yet leave Antonio Brown in Ring of Huddle
If you’re looking for hypocrites of the week, may I present the Tampa Bay Buccaneers....

No one cares if they can coexist
To claim that there is one tired storyline trope that WWE has to do away with is to bring a squirt gun to a massive inferno. It doesn’t cover the breadth of the company’s problems, and you probably don’t have enough ammo to even take care of the specific portion you want. And it might come down to p...

2021 NHL Previews: Flyers haven’t made a good move since acquiring Gritty
The Metro Division is jam-packed with teams who could disappoint. Sid and Geno are back for their 16th season in Pittsburgh, and the bottom has to fall out eventually. Similarly, Alex Ovechkin is 36 and coming off a career-worst 24-goal season. Carolina was one of the darlings of hockey last year, b...