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The Phillies don’t know when to settle
Dave Dombrowski and the Philadelphia Phillies apparently don’t understand the new atmosphere of baseball. The expanded playoffs mean, or were supposed to mean, that teams don’t have to go all out for 95-to-100 wins anymore. The Phightins are proof! 87 wins and a trip to the World Series!! You just h...

Get the NFC South out of here
Nearly every NFL season there is at least one division that if ripped from the league and cast into the sea, the product would be much better. This season, that division is the NFC South. ...

Herschel Walker is a threat to society — it’s time to get him out of the paint
Somewhere between the evening of Tuesday, Dec. 6, and the early hours of Wednesday, Dec. 7, we will know the results of another crucial election in Georgia that has national implications. But, more than that, we will know if the Republican Party was successful in electing a Senator strictly because ...

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...

Gregg Berhalter deserves a lot of credit… and the exit door
At the top, we should refresh the list of things Gregg Berhalter can’t help. Everyone knows this list by now, but it deserves reinforcing. He can’t help that the US doesn’t have a genuine striker. He’s hardly the only international manager affected by such a thing. They’re just not that common. Spai...

Bryan Reynolds requests a trade — what is he worth?
Remember a few years ago when a power-hitting shortstop was all the rage? They were a dime a dozen, and securing a shortstop that could be a serious threat in your lineup was an enormous deal. Nowadays, every team has one of those. The Boston Red Sox had two in Xander Bogaerts and Trevor Story last ...

Lions, and Jaguars, and bets, oh my!
As the NFL season marches toward its conclusion, bettors understand which teams are good, which teams are bad, and which teams have no shot of reaching the postseason. All of that will play a role in how betting lines are made, change over the course of the week, and how they are bet on. Oftentimes,...

Red, white, and the blues
How far do moral victories and actual losses go for the United States men’s national team? After failing to defeat The Netherlands at the World Cup, U.S. Soccer needs to take a hard look in the mirror....

It’s never been easier to rebuild or bottom out in college football
The transfer window for college football players doesn’t officially open until Dec. 5., but that hasn’t stopped disgruntled wide receivers, linemen, linebackers, QBs, running backs, and every other position from making their intentions known. Per ESPN, there were 3,085 transfers in 2021-22, almost d...

Kanye West and Antonio Brown’s antics should be the end of Donda Sports
If you stand with clowns don’t get mad when you wind up in a circus....

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...

Balls of steel
Christian Pulisic put it all on the line to score his first World Cup goal. His body did the work with his legacy hanging in the balance. If the current face of American soccer couldn’t score the goal that separated the United States men’s national team from advancing to the knockout stage in Qatar ...

Kobe Bryant’s daughter having a stalker should be a bigger story in the NBA
Love and adoration are actions, not just soundbites, and social media posts. It’s showing up for your hero’s family when he can’t....

Don’t expect this UNC team to make a run to the finals
After losing in the national championship game in April, the AP preseason No. 1, UNC, has lost three in a row early in the season....

IDIOT OF THE MONTH: 'Tis the season to be stupid
Welcome to IDIOT OF THE MONTH, the beloved series in which we take mean-spirited potshots at sports figures who have gone off the deep end. Many of November’s cadre of idiots are veterans, joined this month by some fresh meat — including, notably, budding moron Zach Wilson of the New York Jets. Mode...

The 5 best landing spots for Jacob deGrom
Oft-injured, but damn near unhittable when healthy, former New York Mets ace Jacob deGrom was bound to draw numerous suitors once free agency started, and while the rumors haven’t been circulating at quite the speed we expected, deGrom’s market has heated up recently, but the heat hasn’t come from t...

The way the Washington Commanders honored Sean Taylor was an 'epic fail'
Over the weekend, the Washington Commanders revealed a new “statue” memorializing Sean Taylor, a former safety who played for the organization from 2004-07, earning two Pro Bowl nods before his death at 24 years old. Taylor was a phenomenal young talent, family-oriented, and a hell of a workhorse on...

