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So about those expanded playoffs…
The NFL got its first Monday night playoff game. It’s got its first expanded playoffs in a non…well, less COVID season (barely). And it was all something of a bust. One good game, five ass-kickings, some wondering what all the fuss was about....

Novak Djokovic threw a temper tantrum for the ages
Novak Djokovic has effectively chosen to remain unvaccinated over his bid to break the men’s Grand Slam singles record. That may not have been his aim, but his choice nonetheless has consequences....

Mike Zimmer may have left the Vikings quietly, but he let them know how he felt while he was there
Black Monday was last week in the NFL and with a slew of coaches receiving their pink slips, it was time for another tradition in pro sports: Teams anonymously skewering their recently-axed coach, especially if the firing came as any sort of surprise....

Shannon Sharpe’s undying and sometimes misguided admiration for LeBron James got him roasted on Twitter
This is a bit of advice to all the high-profile public figures out there in the social media world. Double-check your tweets before sending them out into the Twitterverse. When you make a mistake, there’s always someone waiting to call you out on it, whether they consider themselves a fan, follower,...

Leave Bruce Brown alone — it was a foul, not a flop, that injured Kevin Durant’s knee
It has been an up-and-down, one-step-forward one-step-back kind of a season for the Brooklyn Nets. Their next 4-6 weeks might go down, back, and off to the side as resident MVP candidate Kevin Durant will be sidelined for that span. The Nets today announced the results of an MRI, which showed that D...

Novak Djokovic finally loses in Australia
It’s finally over. Novak Djokovic’s appeal of the revocation of his visa by Australia’s Immigration Minister was rejected, and the country finally got to punt his water-mutating brain elsewhere. Which means Djokovic will not be breaking the record for most Grand Slam titles in Melbourne, though that...

Kaylee Bryson makes Chili Bowl history as first woman in main event
And here I thought bowl season was over....

Which team could use Calvin Ridley most?
Atlanta Falcons’ wide receiver Calvin Ridley has been the subject of much criticism this year. His decision to step away from his team in the middle of the season was admirable, but not exempt from the criticism of NFL “fans.” Even when he was playing, Ridley underwhelmed. After finishing tied for f...

Wild Card NFL Betting Primer: Best Over/Under, Spread, Teaser and Prop Bets
The playoffs are upon us, including the first-ever Monday Night Football postseason affair. Of course, it was all fun for those who were tailing the column throughout the campaign, but getting content would be just silly. We want more, like extending this 10-game over/under winning streak that we cl...

Man City is running away with the Premier League title, so what can the rest of the EPL teams still win?
Slow starts, midseason swoons, and collapses are ways soccer clubs can blow a title race, but if you’re Man City, those don’t happen. Pep Guardiola’s team beat Chelsea for the second time Saturday, 1-0, and are now 13 points clear of the second place Blues and 14 points clear of third place Liverpoo...

The Rangers are a mystery that analytics can't figure out
The best way to determine the best teams in any sport is to look at the standings, right? If they’ve been playing well, they’ll be near the top of the league. As Bill Parcells said, “You are what your record says you are.”...

Sorry Nate MacKinnon, but the NHL All-Star Game should be a Participation Game
What should an All-Star Game be: an opportunity to see the best players all playing in the same game, or a celebration of the sport and league that brings fans together?...

Bo Jackson Curse? The Bengals aren’t cursed, they’re just inept
In my perusal of Wild-Card Weekend storylines to write about, I found the curse of Bo Jackson particularly interesting. If you’ve never heard of Bo Jackson then my god are you young, but if you’ve never heard of the Bo Jackson Curse then, like me, you’re new to this borderline contrived curse....

Hit the road, Novak
No-vax Djokovic is having a hell of a time trying to play in the Australian Open, a Grand Slam he has won a record nine times, because it turns out this pandemic is serious business. He had his visa revoked for a second time and faces deportation because he’s not vaccinated, according to ESPN. He’s ...

Blame Dr. LeBronenstein for creating this monster
It’s easy to just want to blame Russell Westbrook....

The women are coming for baseball
It’s probably too early to call it a new era, but with names like Rachel Balkovec and Genevieve Beacom making the headlines, America’s pastime is definitely due for a change-up. Earlier this week, Balkovec was hired as the new manager of the Yankees’ minor league affiliate the Tampa Tarpons. This hi...

There IS a way for Kyrie Irving to play home games, and the Nets would be wise to take advantage of it
What the Brooklyn Nets are doing is ridiculous. ...

Can Russell Westbrook even fix this?
It’s not breaking news that things are not going well for Russell Westbrook with the Lakers, but things reached a particularly embarrassing point on Wednesday night as the Sacramento Kings’ game ops trolled the former MVP with an “Ice Cold Player Of The Game” scoreboard graphic, on a night when the ...

Why, God?! WHYYYYY?!?!
I fear to guess the main question on the minds of Bills’ fans heading into Saturday night’s playoff game against the Patriots, but one of the recurring queries has to be, “Are you kidding me?” Not only do they have to face New England, the longtime rival who has owned them for the past couple of dec...

Remember when Novak Djokovic called out Naomi Osaka for not following the rules?
I’m as sick of Novak Djokovic as you are, and as my colleague Grace McDermott wrote yesterday, we’d stop writing about him if he’d stop making us. ...