ale Page 87 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Chris Ballard ruined the Colts, not Alec Pierce
During the Colts’ Monday press conference announcing former All-Pro center Jeff Saturday as their interim head coach, GM Chris Ballard expressed dissatisfaction with several parts of the team, particularly the offensive line....

Anyone can play Qatar — World Cup 2022 Group A Preview: Netherlands, Senegal, Ecuador, Qatar
It’s still hard to believe that for a team with the history of The Netherlands — three-time World Cup finalist, Euro ‘88 champion — that their recent history doesn’t even include qualification as an automatic. They missed the last World Cup, and 2016’s Euros. The latter was the first European Champi...

The warm glow of MLB’s Hot Stove warming glow — NL West
Everywhere except Houston, it’s time for teams and fans to try and get to where Houston is. Or it will be in January or February instead of November and December, like it used to be. Anyway, we run through what teams might need and what they might do, for most of them these things don’t line up, and...

Jeff Saturday is unqualified, plain and simple
Jeff Saturday’s hire is Exhibit A about what’s wrong with the NFL. It’s not consistent. It’s not fair, especially when it comes to its Black coaches....

Jim Irsay is some kinda vibes
I guess if you were sentenced to hang out with one NFL owner, Jim Irsay might be atop the list. He at least has an identifiable love of music, which gives him something in common with most other people. We have no idea what most owners do for fun, aside from probably making their gardeners fight to ...

The Utah Jazz are George Costanza-ing their way to the top of the West
“What is going on in Utah?” was the Brian Windhorst query that ruled the summer as the Jazz’s CEO of basketball operations Danny Ainge jettisoned Rudy Gobert to the Minnesota Timberwolves for a boatload of first-round picks through 2029. The answer was Utah gutting their roster and Quin Snyder walki...

The warm glow of the MLB Hot Stove is upon us — AL West
Sure, the fans in Houston are still on their celebrations, and maybe Phillies fans are still working their way through the Death Cab catalog. But for the rest of us, the real season begins. Or it would be the real season if MLB owners hadn’t killed the baseball offseason, which should really be like...

Week 9 NFL Takeaways: BYE-mageddon was far from doomsday for the audience
Whenever NFL RedZone host Scott Hanson says “BYE-magddon” there’s reason to be concerned about the quality of NFL football on television that particular Sunday. For the first of two weeks this season, six teams were on a bye. Four teams were on a bye Week 7, and that was the most unentertaining week...

The beginning and the end
If the charm, and sometimes the frustration, of baseball is that everyone gets an AB, the big moments can land on anyone, and any player on the roster could etch his name in history, then it feels as if there is a higher power when the best in the game get to write their signature on something that ...

Mikey Williams reaffirms Memphis’ status as college basketball’s Airbnb
San Ysidro teammates Mikey Williams and JJ Taylor’s committing to play for Memphis next season would have been the biggest recruiting heist in college basketball two years ago. But for a variety of reasons, Penny Hardaway’s track record with one-and-done phenoms at Memphis has been worse than the no...

If you’re gonna have playoffs, make them as drunk as possible
Soccer doesn’t really lend itself to playoffs. It’s why league seasons and cup competitions are generally separate, and the latter are understood to just be goofy, random collections of games where just about anything can happen. As soccer games are still decided on maybe one or two moments, one or ...

History is not on the Philadelphia Eagles' side despite an 8-0 start
Thursday Night Football saw the Philadelphia Eagles win their eighth game in a row, a 29-17 victory over the woeful Houston Texans. While many people have claimed the Eagles are frauds due to their lackluster schedule, it’s hard to deny just how electric their offense has looked and how stout their ...

Thursday Night Football Preview: Can the Philadelphia Eagles run the table?
The Eagles are the only remaining undefeated team in the NFL. With 10 weeks left, though, it seems impossible that the Eagles could remain undefeated through the rest of the year. Then you look at their upcoming schedule....

Luka Dončić is just a more clutch James Harden
By the way Luka Dončić has been talked about this year, you’d think the Dallas Mavericks would be undefeated — or at least near the top of the Western Conference standings. The Slovenian superstar is the first player since Wilt Chamberlain to start a season with seven straight 30-point games — which...

These 5 players are the top Heisman Trophy candidates
We are into November, and that means the college football season is really heating up. The first edition of the College Football Playoff rankings dropped, so it’s time for the serious contenders to lock in if they want a shot at qualifying. With Bowl season also comes award season, as the top player...

They say a good fastball is still the best pitch
It still amazes me how quickly a baseball playoff series, especially one of the seven-game variety, can pivot. ...

The NBA decided to pick the 76ers this time when selectively enforcing tampering penalties
While the Philadelphia Phillies and Eagles continue along championship tracks in their respective seasons, the 76ers, on the other hand, seem destined to waste another precious year of Joel Embiid’s prime. After a slow start to this NBA season, the Sixers have finally crawled back to .500. Now the l...

You have a better shot of seeing Odell Beckham in the Caribbean than on a football field this season
Let’s be honest, the only reason any reporters are writing about Odell Beckham Jr. is because of name recognition. If another receiver in his ninth season had a similar resume and was languishing unsigned while recovering from a torn ACL, nobody would care. Houston Texans’ wide receiver Brandin Cook...

Are these second-year NFL QBs suffering a sophomore slump?
During the 2021 season, we tracked rookie QBs who were either drafted in the first round or started most of their team’s games. Mac Jones was the lone standout as his team qualified for the postseason. We’re about halfway through year two for these players, and it’s time to check in and see how life...
