aka Page 20 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Euro 2021: Can Italy score enough to make some serious noise?
While the teeth-gnashing on these shores during the last World Cup were enough to drown out the laments of everyone else in the world, you may have forgotten that a true giant of the international game wasn’t in Russia either. That would be Italy, the first time they didn’t partake in the tournament...
MLB doesn’t need a 'face of baseball,' and the proof is in the playoffs
Mike Trout has as many MVP awards as career playoff games played, with three, and for as much talk as there might be in baseball — even from the commissioner — about MLB’s need for the best player of his generation to take on the mantle of the face of the game, no amount of marketing can make up for...
We can applaud Naomi Osaka without disparaging the media
Naomi Osaka’s decision to withdraw from the French Open has sparked necessary conversation about athletes and mental health. It was so important to her that she was willing to sacrifice a potential $1.8 million in prize money to put her own peace first. That’s not the act of a so-called diva, or of ...
Hey, Knicks fans: At least you’re not the Maple Leafs
How bad was the Toronto Maple Leafs’ collapse? It’s better to be a Knicks fan right now....
Naomi Osaka was bullied out of the French Open
In 2006, Zach Greinke almost quit baseball. Racked with social anxiety, Greinke told the media he thought, “Why am I putting myself through torture when I didn’t really want to do it? I mean, I enjoyed playing, but everything else that went with it I didn’t.”...
Sports media has to change, it just hasn’t figured that out yet
You can’t ask the media to talk about a story involving the media....
This Memorial Day, let’s honor the real Pat Tillman
It’s Memorial Day, which means it’s time for the NFL and the right to start co-opting the life and death of Pat Tillman, a former safety for the Arizona Cardinals who passed on a $3.6 million deal to enlist in the Army after 9/11. Rarely mentioned is Tillman’s brother, Kevin, who left the Cleveland ...
Women investing in women's sports is a game changer
There is a new financial model emerging in women’s sports, one that doesn’t depend on the traditional gatekeepers to coverage. ...
IOC president cancels Japan trip as COVID cases spike — remind me again how safe the games will be
Well this isn’t the best look....
J. Cole follows basketball pipe dreams to Rwanda for African pro league
They say all rappers want to be hoopers, and all hoopers want to be rappers....
So who are these Olympics for?
Not that the question needs answering. We all know. They haven’t been about the athletes for long before we were born. And now it couldn’t be clearer that they’re not for fans either....
SEE IT: Francis Ngannou brings UFC Heavyweight Championship home to Cameroon
Thirty-two days after knocking out Stipe Miocic and winning the UFC World Heavyweight Title in Las Vegas, Nevada, Francis Ngannou brought this gold back to the crib....
The Knicks are the most entertaining team in the NBA right now
Julius Randle has an MVP ballot case; Derrick Rose is turning back the clock, Obi Toppin is hitting transition threes, and R.J. Barrett is still showing immense growth. ...
Dream matches for Daniel Bryan if he were to leave WWE
WrestleMania 37 WWE Title contender Daniel Bryan said he’s open to change, which is music to the bipolar hearts and always open ears of wrestling die-hards....
We should have had an Eastern conference battle last night with Nets-Sixers, but got ripped off instead
If ESPN were smart, it would demand a refund....
Cleveland fans react to Yu Chang’s game-ending error with racist messages
There was only one error in last night’s Cleveland-White Sox tilt. But it happened to be the defining play of the ball game. The final throw also inspired trolls on the internet to hurl racist slurs at Cleveland infielder Yu Chang....
With anti-Asian violence on the rise in America, Hideki Matsuyama displayed class and dignity while making golf history
Looking through the list of Masters winners, there are a lot of American Flags. It wasn’t until 1961, 27 years after the inaugural Masters (then referred to as the Augusta National Invitation Tournament) that a non-American won the tournament for the first time — Gary Player, of South Africa. Player...
Rebecca Welch becomes first woman to ref English Football League match
When Rebecca Welch sounded the opening whistle during today’s Harrogate Town and Port Vale tilt, she became the first woman to referee an English Football League game....
MLB umps play Keystone Kops in punishing wrong guy in bench-clearing non-brawl
Nicholas Castellanos was angry about being hit by a pitch from Cardinals right-hander Jake Woodford, so when the Reds’ right fielder came in to score on a Woodford wild pitch, sliding into Woodford in the process, he made his feelings known....