and Page 444 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Jonnu Smith is a solid, Gronk-esque addition for the Patriots
The Patriots were lost in the dark in the first year of their post-Brady era. The Cam Newton experiment didn’t work, in part because of his battle with COVID, and the roster proved to have incredibly uninspiring weapons to work with. In atypical fashion, Bill Belichick has stormed into the free agen...

Which football powerhouse could cut down nets at the Final Four?
The Madness is finally back, and the matchups are finally set for what will be one of the strangest NCAA tournaments in recent history. Not only will COVID-19 likely have an impact on the games within the Indiana “bubble,” but this year we are missing some of the most storied programs in all of coll...

Rick Pitino and Will Wade in the NCAA Tournament proves the FBI’s college basketball probe was a joke
Almost four years ago, the FBI dropped a bomb on college basketball. It turned out to be more like a janky firecracker....

The 10 best men’s college basketball national champions from 1990-1999
If you lived through the ‘90s then you understand just how important and historic that decade was. And if you didn’t, someone who did has probably tried to explain it to you over, and over, and over again....

Drew Brees’ legacy is secure, but what is it exactly?
Tampa Bay announced Brees’s retirement before he ever did. While someone with the career of Brees wouldn’t want to go out on his back like he did in the Divisional Round this past January, it was clear that he was past it that afternoon. Brees hadn’t been particularly good, or up to his usual standa...

Trevor Stewart walks down Power Five in 4x400 relay, shows why NCAT Track is above the rest
Arguably the best HBCU track program of the past decade just made history again....

It’s finally here, folks, welcome to Selection Sunday!
It’s been two years since we got to have an NCAA Tournament, and this one is going to be different, staged entirely in Indianapolis and entirely without Duke and Kentucky. Oh, and even though it’s in one city, that doesn’t mean a pandemic isn’t still happening, so who the hell knows what will happen...

A small school in Georgia is channeling the 1986 Mets in all the best ways
There’s a moment in 1986 Mets: A Year To Remember, the greatest sports year-in-review video ever made, when, as Ray Knight hits a walkoff homer to beat the Astros on July 3, Tim McCarver crows, “They’re spreading the news that they are right now the dominant team in this game — in either league!”...

$240K for a dunk highlight? Breaking down the NBA Top Shot craze
One of the most asked questions of the last few weeks have probably been: What the hell is an NBA Top Shot? ...

Tom Brady takes less money again? How is that possible? Oh now I remember
I feel like Bill Murray in Groundhog’s day....

The Warriors prioritizing Steph Curry’s ‘window’ is what’s wrong with sports today
It’s one of the oldest clichés in sports: There’s no “I” in team....

Sleep on Cam Newton at your own peril — Belichick is no dope, and Pats are far from irrelevant
Small sample sizes are perilous for any kind of analysis, but sometimes, it’s all you have to go on....

Let's see if we can make baseball better by exploiting loopholes in MLB’s rulebook
Major League Baseball’s takeover of the minor leagues has paved the way for the 2021 season to be one of experimentation on the farm, with different rules being tested at different levels in the developmental circuits....

Tom Izzo, Michigan State cross advertising rubicon in a banner week for the NCAA
In the same week that the NCAA disclosed that they don’t really have a plan if anything goes sideways at their Indiana NCAA Tournament, and Les Miles and Jeff Long showed what kind of people are really in charge, Michigan State may have taken the cake. That is, if the cake were sponsored by Betty Cr...

Let these athletes tell you all about how much it sucked to have COVID
Remember when you heard that young, healthy people would have an easy time with the coronavirus? Looking back, it’s as ridiculous as comparing COVID to the flu or saying the country would open by Easter. But that’s what some thought around this time last year....

Lonzo Ball might be a better three-point shooter than your favorite NBA player
Remember when we all made fun of Lonzo Ball’s shot?...

Basketball should be ashamed by Meyers Leonard’s slap on the wrist
The NBA has decided that using an antisemitic slur is worth the same fine as violating COVID protocols or violating anti-tampering rules....

The day it all fell apart: Deadspin talks to journalists all over the sports world about what they remember when everything shut down
A year ago today was our last “normal” day. At least in the beginning. Only we didn’t know it....

Justin Bieber releases Maple Leafs song, merging two great plagues into one
Look, I know you’re expecting a rant and a rave and perhaps for your laptop to start emitting smoke from this, but that would just be wasted emotion. Justin Bieber wrote a song about the Leafs, because of course he did....

Kansas rids itself of another boil on its ass, this time in the shape of Jeff Long
It was the only logical conclusion, probably should have happened weeks ago, but there’s still some spiritual affirmation with the news that Jeff Long was shitcanned as Kansas’ AD....