ap Page 1158 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Here's what you need to know as the Champions League returns
It only feels like the Champions League is late in returning for its knockout stage, but this is the normal time of year. What isn’t normal is cramming a World Cup in between the group stages and the knockouts, which makes it seem like this season has already gone on forever even when most leagues a...

Jim Caldwell having to work under Frank Reich is a slap in the face
The Carolina Panthers — who are owned by a man who claims to be trying to end the “old boys network” within the NFL despite hiring a white head coach over a qualified Black one — have a new coaching staff that’s led by the trio of Frank Reich, Dom Capers, and Jim Caldwell. The hierarchy in Carolina ...

Shane Steichen is the latest white coordinator to get hired before Eric Bienemy
Alright, this is beyond ridiculous. How many brilliant offensive minds will be hired as head coaches before Eric Bieniemy? The Kansas City Chiefs offensive guru helped orchestrate the team’s second Super Bowl in four years, both of which featured double-digit comebacks. Yet, the Indianapolis Colts o...

The Dead Zone: Is Jalen Hurts the key to an NFC dynasty or is there a surprise lurking around the corner?
Losing the Super Bowl is the loneliest destiny. After two weeks of buildup, there is no parade waiting for losing teams upon their arrival, their championship shirts are dispersed in remote locations around the world and the feeling that a ring slipped away can endure throughout the offseason. Even ...

Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen weren’t the story and that’s all we asked
A lot was made of Fox’s booth before the Super Bowl, as broadcasters Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen made their debut calling American sports’ biggest event. With the specter of Tom Brady looming over Olsen’s future as Fox’s No. 1 analyst, the duo was spot-on all night....

The best (and worst) moments of the Super Bowl's first half
The pre-game on FOX ridiculously started at noon. And we’ve been here the entire time. You didn’t miss anything until approximately 5:30 pm ET, when FOX aired the first Snackin’ with the Stars ad....

Players are slipping all over the place in Super Bowl LVII
The Super Bowl is only the most important game of the year. And making sure the grass turf inside State Farm Stadium was in immaculate condition at kickoff was paramount. And the league failed. A few players for both the Chiefs and Eagles have slipped on the playing surface, more than what happens i...

Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving run two-man weave in first game as teammates
Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving made their on-court debut as a duo Saturday night in Sacramento. The two combined for 55 points on 22 of 41 from the field, and an overtime loss, 133-128. De’Aaron Fox entered the fourth quarter with 10 points and finished with 36, getting wherever he wanted on the court...

Brooklyn Nets, we hardly knew ye
A pouting James Harden was traded to the Brooklyn Nets nearly two years ago to the day. Way back in January 2021, before the COVID vaccine card went mainstream, the newest super team was Harden, Kevin Durant, and Kyrie Irving. It is now Super Bowl week 2023. Some of you all have vaccine cards stampe...

These are the best — and worst — Super Bowl National Anthems
Assuming you’ve got all your Super Bowl snacks and fixings in time, the Super Bowl National Anthem is the first real indication that the game is about to start. At least, that’s usually when everyone at the Super Bowl party starts shhhing everyone else. Not necessarily because everyone gets misty-ey...

57 facts you need to know about Super Bowl LVII
Super Bowl 57 is a smorgasbord of storylines and matchups. If you’re not careful you’ll miss one, two, or a dozen of them. With everything else on your plate, we’ve accumulated every vital piece of information that’s trailed the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs to Glendale, Ariz. If Arian ...

The best foods to bring to your Super Bowl party
There is nothing more stressful than knowing you have a group of people coming over in 20 minutes, but your dip in the oven takes 40 minutes. Or that you might be showing up empty-handed to the pot-luck style watch party, and you are hoping no one notices. In any case, here is a guide to bringing an...

Don’t worry, the Pro Bowl won’t be the future of football
The NFL ran its Pro Bowl weekend, sinking into the party theme that it’s always been for everyone in any sport really. It used to be that players didn’t mind the free trip to Hawaii, though when it got to be they could all easily afford a trip to Hawaii that sort of lost its charm. So the NFL made t...

If David Tepper wanted to end the ‘old boys network’ he would have hired Steve Wilks
David Tepper is saying all the right things — he just isn’t doing them. The Carolina Panthers owner made waves this week when he insisted that he was doing his part in breaking up the NFL’s “old boys’ network” of wealthy white owners that seldomly hire Black people and minorities to positions of pow...

What's going to be different this time with the Houston Texans after DeMeco Ryans hire?
Despite being an annual news story around this time of the year — due to the circus that’s caused by the way that coaches are fired and hired in the Lone Star State — DeMeco Ryans is returning home to be the newest head coach of the Houston Texans. They say “home is where the heart is,” but the Texa...

These NFL teams have the most to gain from competent quarterback play
This is pretty self-explanatory, so I’ll make it quick because you have slides to scroll through, and I have better things to write than clickbait. It feels like a lot of NFL teams with a franchise guy under center have fewer blue chips players than most of the squads in search of a QB, which leads ...

<i>Power Slap </i>sucks so<i> </i>we've conceived 10 'combat sports' shows we'd rather watch
Have you watched Power Slap: Road to the Title on TBS? Highly recommended for torturing prisoners of war. It’s awful and I wrote about just how infuriating the show is at length. Something about the mind-numbing act of unprotected slaps to the face did get me thinking of combat sports that would do ...
