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It’s no less a referendum on Neymar — World Cup 2022 Group G preview
This World Cup is setting up as either a treatise or a coronation for Lionel Messi. He recently collected his first major trophy with Argentina — 2021’s Copa America — but still needs the World Cup to stand on the same pedestal as Diego Maradona in most’s eyes. He’s coming to Qatar with unquestionab...

Five vacancies, five white coaching hires — the WNBA needs a Rooney Rule
Life comes at you fast. Regression comes at you faster....

The NBA's worst owners
When Robert Sarver announced he was selling the Phoenix Suns, the NBA team he had owned since 2006, after a lengthy investigation by the NBA for workplace malfeasance and offenses, I barely shrugged. How awful could it have been, I thought to myself. My concept of the workplace was poisoned by an ei...

'Brick for Vic' Stock Report
Victor Wembanyama is out of sight, but never out of mind. He’s still crushing it across the Atlantic, but one month into the NBA season, it’s time to take stock of which “Brick for Vic” NBA candidates are closest to completing their Wembanyama-sized mansion. For the franchise that wins the lottery, ...

James Dolan continues to run his business more like a despot than a businessperson
America may have largely voted against authoritarianism last week, but the New York Knicks continue to lean into it. ...

Does anyone know who the frontrunner for NFL Comeback Player of the Year is?
The NFL’s Comeback Player of the Year Award is one of the most head-scratching awards in all of professional sports. Nobody really knows what it entails. Just look at the most recent award winners. All of them had wildly different paths to the honor. ...

Give Brian Robinson Jr. his props for the Washington Commanders’ upset victory
Yes, the officiating was questionable. Both teams have cause to complain, and also, the Philadelphia Eagles caught the shorter end of the stick. That being said, they still had every opportunity to extend their record to 9-0 against a below .500 division rival that they demolished on the road seven ...

The warm glow of MLB Hot Stove’s warming glow — the NL East
We’ve come to the last of our offseason previews, where all eyes are basically on one team and everyone might react off of that. It’s time for the NL East, or as it may be known from now on, Days of Our Steven Cohen....

Why the 76ers’ Joel Embiid scored 101 points in 24 hours
In professional sports, team executives and coaches can over-complicate a situation by attempting to outthink the room. This frequently happens in the NBA when general managers are building teams. Or they just become so blinded by certain players that they fail to see their inadequacies clearly....

The Atlanta Falcons must be kicking themselves watching Justin Fields
Justin Fields may be evolving into the franchise quarterback Chicago Bears fans have been waiting for since Al Capone was alive. Jim McMahon was a capable Super Bowl-winning game manager, but Fields is demonstrating his potential to introduce Chicagoans to a higher caliber of individual quarterback ...

A healthier Commanders defense might just upend Eagles’ perfect season
The Washington Commanders’ strongest unit is their defensive line. Even without Chase Young, the group is big, athletic, and dependable. On Monday Night Football tonight they will be going up against a team with one of the strongest offenses in the NFL — the undefeated Philadelphia Eagles....

World Cup 2022 Preview - Group E: They got the bread but not the butter, let’s be big on Japan
Let’s be brave. For most, it’s a foregone conclusion that Germany and Spain are going to come out of this group. Except neither’s recent World Cup history is all that glossy. Yeah, Germany won the tournament just two editions ago. They were also rightly kicked into the trash in the group stage last ...

FTX’s collapse cost a who’s who of pro athletes and sports brands millions
The Crypto craze has infiltrated the sports realm for years, however, no crypto firm has been more ubiquitous of late than FTX. Franchises, athletes, and venture capitalists who advise these figures all rose for the bullish crypto market. FTX sniveled its way into mainstream culture through brand sp...

Josh McDaniels needs to be fired immediately
Josh McDonald’s, er, McDaniels should be fired....

The warm glow of MLB Hot Stove’s warming glow — AL East
The GM Meetings are in the books, the Winter Meetings aren’t in the distant future, and the rumors are beginning to fly. You can be sure your favorite team is talking to agents for players! Does that mean anything? Nope, sure doesn’t! But you’ll take anything at this point, and they know that. So we...

The casual American soccer fan's guide to the best international players ahead of the World Cup
For the fair-weather soccer fan, and let’s be real, that’s 99 percent or more of American sports fans, the World Cup is the one event taking place over multiple weeks where general interest is at a high. The United States men’s national team didn’t make the world’s best 32 in 2018, and a huge chunk ...

Can Christian Watson get Aaron Rodgers and the Packers through the QB’s contract extension?
For all of the press that Romeo Doubs received during the summer, the wide receiver from the Green Bay Packers 2022 draft class who they had their hopes set on the most was Christian Watson. This FCS star put an exclamation point on his evaluation at the draft combine. ...

Drake may have lost a couple of big bets on Saturday
At the start of the fifth round UFC 281’s main event, the rapper with the Instagram handle @champagnepapi might have been ready to go get a ridiculously overpriced bottle. His $2 million bet on Israel Adesanya looked certain to be a winner....

World Cup 2022 Preview: Group D — Can Denmark be the midnight bomber what bombs at midnight?
If you ascribe to the theory that this will be a truly goofy World Cup — that the short run-up, the injuries everywhere (not clear the amount of injured is all that abnormal but let’s go with it), the odd setting — and that some team from out of nowhere could make a run, you’re probably sizing up yo...

Tom Brady finally fell off that cliff in Germany, but not the one you’re thinking
In the latest edition of “when trick plays go wrong,” we get Tom Brady falling flat on his ass while running a simple go route. Halfway through the third quarter of Tampa Bay’s game against Seattle in Munich, Germany, Buccaneers offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich decided to run a wildcat-looking p...