ac Page 329 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Who’s more exciting: Shohei Ohtani or Elly De La Cruz?
This is not an argument about who’s the better player: Shohei Ohtani, or Elly De La Cruz. Ohtani is probably the best two-way player in baseball history, and De La Cruz has 55 games to his name. The discussion is about excitement, about who’s highlight you’re watching first, about throwing a complet...
World Cup Day 21: This tournament will be remembered for how far the women’s game has come
We have our final four. When you get this deep into a tournament, anyone who’s not seen as chalk has done something grand, like Morocco’s men’s team last year and Colombia’s women’s team would’ve been this year. The South Americans entered as the lone surprise to make the quarterfinals. They benefit...
The power brokers of the ACC (and NC State) are against their own self-interest?
At first glance, the ACC leaning against adding Cal and Stanford is one of logic and tradition. Four brave institutions are standing tall, spitting in the face of realignment, and shouting “We’re not for sale!” Then you look at who those four schools are — Florida State, Clemson, North Carolina, and...
The latest league to try to compete with the NFL is already doomed
There’s no doubt the NFL is the most popular sports league in America, if not the world. Domestically, the second-place NBA isn’t even close to it. Trying to replicate the NFL’s mainstream success has been a bunch of offshoot professional leagues, giving opportunities to players several steps down f...
Saudi League soccer and Fox Sports: A match made in apathy
There are several analogies that could be used to illustrate the hubris of Fox Sports partnering with the Saudi Pro League, and as easy as it would be to use the retirement tours of big name soccer stars, and the marginal effect they’ve had on MLS here in the states, Lionel Messi is on a barnstormin...
World Cup Day 20: The yappy Dutch are finally silenced
The last eight, usually the best part of any tournament if only because it’s the last time you get multiple matches in one day (or night as the case may be this time), didn’t disappoint at World Cup 2023. The darlings of everyone are out, and Spain are learning quickly. Let’s spin this right round b...
Big Ten athletes should be on the hunt for NIL deals with airlines
Soon, Big Ten teams from the Midwest and East Coast will have a “West Coast road trip,” like they do in the pros, and vice versa. But unlike professional athletes, these players won’t be getting compensated for their “jobs,” and some of them will be on commercial airplanes as they fly across the cou...
It shouldn’t be horrible for the next American to suit up with Chelsea
How American soccer players are treated in the Premier League has always been an interesting conundrum. Unless you’re a goalkeeper or somehow wind up at Fulham, heightened levels of scrutiny are at your doorstep that don’t appear in other top leagues around the world. There have been a few other saf...
USWNT’s treatment is the latest example of right-wing hatred for ‘nasty women’
Indigenous Americans were almost eradicated. Black people were enslaved. Asians are mistreated. Millions still want to “build a wall.” People of color have been oppressed for centuries, and each group has its own plight. But misogyny has stood the test of time. The overturning of Roe v. Wade, the re...
The Bengals had better hope Joe Burrow doesn’t have one of those NBA strains
Super Bowl Championship expectations are rare for the Cincinnati Bengals. Before Ja’Marr Chase was drafted they hadn’t won a playoff game since Bo Jackson played football. In 2023, the sports books have the Bengals as one of the top-five favorites to win the Super Bowl. However, they are currently d...
Nikola Jokić might be the most boring top-rated player ever in <em>NBA 2K24</em>
The player most deserving of the highest rating in NBA 2K24 is Nikola Jokić. Whether he is actually the best player in the NBA is irrelevant to him earning that distinction. The way that he bulldozed his opposition while leading the Denver Nuggets to their first NBA Championship, no other player sho...
Stanford is the most vulnerable school in college athletics because of conference realignment
The domino effect of Oklahoma and Texas leaving the Big 12 for the SEC (leading to the dismantling of the Pac-12 two years later) is a turn of events that would’ve been nearly impossible to predict. The catalyst for the Power Five’s west coast entry point being almost no more wasn’t UCLA and USC tra...
The Tampa Bay Rays are running out of dudes, and ESPN somehow becomes more of a farce
The Rays might be the best developmental organization in baseball, staying on top of an AL East where they’re constantly outspent by factors of three by their competitors by consistently bringing dudes through their system and onto the MLB roster. Or they toast other organizations in trades and turn...
Trask and Mayfield for the Bucs could be this generation’s Jackson and Germaine for Ohio State
The names Stanley Jackson and Joe Germaine mean nothing to many of you football fans out there. For those who fall into that category, you all missed out on a glorious time in the sport when Ohio State was a national championship contender and started two quarterbacks. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers may n...
No, ESPN, Trent Dilfer isn't, and won't be, a coaching genius
Do you enjoy football? Are you looking to play it in college? How do you feel about buzz phrases like “Take the cheese”? Well, the University of Alabama Birmingham is looking for highly motivated high school football players willing to work for free, and learn the intricacies of the modern game unde...
Mike Vrabel has something better than the Rooney Rule: allowing Black assistants to coach preseason games
The 2023 NFL season is around the corner. That means that the never-ending and exhausting conversation around the lack of Black head coaches in the league will soon be a hot topic — again. And since idiotic owners would rather keep choosing the Nathaniel Hacketts of the world instead of guys like Er...
Everyone agrees Patrick Mahomes figured out that two-high safety look
Unfortunately, most of us didn’t get to watch the NFL top 100 program this year. The NFL’s two minute warning that the season is about to begin was shown only on NFL+, which is still not a strong enough reason to add $79.99 to my yearly expenses. The result of the paywall restricted program this yea...
Zay Flowers might already be the best wide receiver in Ravens history
The Baltimore Ravens have been one of the NFL’s most consistent franchises since their relocation to the mid-Atlantic in 1996. They have made the playoffs 14 times, secured six division championships, and won two Super Bowls. A superb 27-season run by any metric, and they have been able to maintain ...