art Page 90 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

UNSUNG GENIUS: Dissecting Dusty Baker's bullpen brilliance for his sabermetric critics
Dusty Baker “ought to be part of the conversation around MLB’s best-ever managers,” concluded Neil Paine from FiveThirtyEight after studying the most overachieving managers, and “shouldn’t need a ring to validate his career.” Agreed. Let’s go further....

Tua Tagovailoa is the real deal
Prior to the season, the NFL world was conflicted on Miami Dolphins starting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa’s viability as a franchise quarterback. Even after his six-touchdown performance in Week 2, the world was still divided. Maybe it was just a fluke game. Hell, even I pointed out that bad quarterba...

Gregg Berhalter is getting loose
Any coach hired by U.S. Soccer, at least for the men’s side (though Vlatko Andonovski isn’t winning many fans these days either), is never going to have 100 percent buy-in. They just haven’t gotten it totally right in… well, ever? Berhalter being related to an exec at the time of his hiring didn’t h...

Here's the USMNT's roster for the 2022 World Cup
Well, it’s official. Here’s the merry band of men that will head to the deserts of Qatar…unless they get hurt this weekend and have to be replaced. But let’s be positive. After eight years, we now have an actual World Cup squad to debate! Get to know them and love them before you curse their name wh...

The US Midterm elections explained to NFL fans
U.S. midterm elections are similar to the midpoint of the NFL season in that everyone is under the impression that it’s all rigged when, in fact, it’s merely a complex, shambolic set of systems from state to state that are sometimes overburdened and can fall victim to the occasional human error. The...

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...

Like LeBron and Migos, NBA hipsters were on the Nuggets before you
Fun fact about the Denver Nuggets: They might have more trendy NBA Twitter fans than actual hometown supporters. While the hipster hoops head’s response to “You know who I low-key really love to watch?” is always Nikola Jokić’s squad, they’re behind the Broncos, Avalanche, and the Rockies when it co...

Week 9 NFL Powerless Ranking: The votes are in and these teams are trash
It’s time to check in on the teams that can’t get out of their own way. We’re officially halfway through the 2022 NFL season, and it’s been unpredictable at times, but there are always a few teams we expect to disappoint their fan bases. Now let’s get into the powerless ranking for Week 9....

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...

LSU put up quite the deterrent to make sure the Tennessee goal post saga wouldn’t happen in Baton Rouge
Since Nick Saban turned Alabama into an assembly line of NFL talent, defeating his program has become a championship in and of itself. A victory that results in SEC programs forking over large sums of money for being in violation of the conference rule that prohibits student sections from rushing th...

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 ...

This is not the year to rely on SEC bias for a trip to the College Football Playoff
College football fans would presume that a one-loss SEC team who doesn’t have to play in the conference title game would’ve lucked out as far as the College Football Playoff is concerned. Georgia made it last year with one loss, as did Alabama in 2017-18. The only one-loss SEC program not to get an ...

Can you Phil the love tonight?
Love is certainly not the first thing that comes to my mind when I think about Philadelphia — despite it being called the City of Brotherly Love or having a statue of the word. I don’t care how high of a note Musiq Soulchild hit in his 2000 Billboard Top 100 single....

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...

Najee Harris' career arc is starting to look a lot like Trent Richardson's
Most people could’ve predicted Najee Harris’ sophomore slump. One look at the Steelers’ payroll, offensive line depth, or quarterback situation should’ve been enough for anyone to foresee backfield struggles for the 2021 first-round pick out of Alabama. Still, several believed his feature role and p...

No help is coming for the Packers, and they need to accept that real soon
The Green Bay Packers tried. They really did try to make a move before Tuesday’s trade deadline, but they came up with, as so eloquently put by NFL Network’s Kyle Brandt, Bupkus. ...

Kevin Durant was right all along
As hard as it might be for the masses to admit, Kevin Durant was right....

There's no universe where Zeke should be the Cowboys' RB1 next season
Anybody who watches the Cowboys — HELL, anyone who watches football! — knows who the best running back in Dallas is. It’s not the former No. 4 overall pick getting paid $15 million a year. It’s 2019 fourth-round selection, Tony Pollard. Even prior to last Sunday’s game, there’d been shouting from Co...

IDIOT OF THE MONTH: Morons, morons everywhere
Welcome to Deadspin’s IDIOT OF THE MONTH bonanza! Everything is terrible!...

The Second Coming of Dennis Smith Jr.
Maybe all he needed was to come home. Smith is from Fayetteville, North Carolina, and is now playing with the Charlotte Hornets, just a mere three hours from his hometown. The Hornets are Smith’s fifth team in six seasons. Last year, he split time between three teams, including the Hornets. So why h...