as Page 437 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Texas A&M needs to adjust expectations after handing Jimbo Fisher a golden parachute
Jimbo Fisher finally got the hook after six underwhelming seasons at Texas A&M. It’s not all bad. Fisher may never wind up in the College Football Hall of Fame, but his contract earned him a spot in the Gettin’ Paid Hall of Fame. He can probably start his own university and athletic program with wha...

Big Ten declares martial law, rest of college football wonders if they can do that
The handling of the Michigan sign-stealing scandal has been a debacle from the start, and it culminated Friday with the Big Ten suspending coach Jim Harbaugh for the final three games. U-M filed a temporary restraining order against its own conference that it hopes can be expedited before kickoff at...

Wake me up when the NBA adds a Champions League or an FA cup
The first NBA in-season tournament kicked off Friday evening. If you were unaware, you’re less informed than most because the gimmick has only been beaten into our brains every day since the season tipped. It’s really a brilliant way to dress up a regular season game, and the courts are so obnoxious...

These are the worst NBA player custom sneakers
An NBA player’s signature shoe is the ultimate signifier of their brand. These kicks reflect and refract the personality and power of those who wear them. Since Michael Jordan signed with Nike in 1984, the shoe skyrocketed from casual mediocrity into a phenomenon all its own. Almost every major bask...

Reebok is looking to pump some life into its brand with Shaq and Allen Iverson
Air Jordans have dominated the sneaker industry since before my birth, but those were not the first shoes that fascinated me. I thought the Reebok Pump was the coolest shoe in the world. I saw it on TV, then at Foot Locker, and one day one of my cousins walked into my grandparents wearing a pair. Th...

Zion Williamson is the NBA’s most polarizing talent
Zion Williamson is a series of contradictions. He’s a near-300-pound space mover who elevates like he’s in zero gravity. He’s both the mythic John Henry racing a machine and the steam-powered drill he beat in a race because it continuously broke down. Williamson has the build of a defensive end, but...

Will the Texas Rangers please <i>PLEASE</i> knock off the Astros?
Was it inevitable? One won the American League West, while the other led it for most of the season and was forced to go the wild-card route to make it to this stage. The Texas Rangers and Houston Astros share a state and are bitter rivals and will face each other in the postseason for the first time...

USMNT gets to tussle with some real teams…kinda
Ah, the fresh hell of yet another international break. Club seasons are put on pause for a raft of qualifiers, be they Euro, or World Cup, that are pretty much foregone conclusions robbed of any real urgency, especially thanks to the expanded field for 2026. If not those, we get a helping of interna...

Emphasis on 82-game schedule won’t solve NBA’s biggest problem
In case the NBA has not made itself clear over the last few months, the league office is fed up with load management. There are 82 games on the schedule, and players are expected to play in every single game unless they are actually injured. The NBA is going so far now as to claim it has data that t...

Stephen A. Smith is beefing with another former ESPN colleague
Stephen A. Smith is fanning the flames again in his ongoing beef with former ESPN colleagues. ...

What’s to be done with these Los Angeles Dodgers?
You kind of knew it was over for the Dodgers the minute they acquired Lance Lynn. Lance Lynn? This is the Dodgers, for Christ’s sake! When they need help in the rotation, they go get Zack Greinke, or Yu Darvish, or Max Scherzer. They shop at the supermarket that plebs like you and I aren’t even allo...

The NBA is right about load management for the wrong reasons
OK, it’s time for Devil’s Advocate corner: The NBA’s stance on load management is a good thing, but not for the dumbass reasons Joe Dumars presented Wednesday. If you missed it, the executive vice president of basketball operations said there’s no proof that load management prevents injuries. Maybe,...

Troubling texts between former, current MSU trustees shed new light on Mel Tucker sexual harassment allegations
A string of text messages between current and former Michigan State University trustees show musings on how to smear the victim, lingering questions about how the school handled the sexual harassment allegations against Mel Tucker, speculation about revenge, and a suggestion that the MSU Board of Tr...

Brian Snitker was asleep at the wheel again
The symmetry is almost startling. It was three days short of being the exact date, one year later. Brian Snitker didn’t have an itchy enough trigger finger, or just fell asleep, and the Phillies teed off on a starter that shouldn’t have been on the mound. Which pivoted the division series to a 2-1 P...

In a move that shocks no one, Kansas barely gets a slap on the wrist from the NCAA
Did anyone expect a different result? ...

Jared Goff is playing like the best quarterback in the NFL
Jared Goff’s time with the Detroit Lions began the same way that it ended with the Los Angeles Rams, disappointing. By Week 7 of his first season with the Lions, Dan Campbell looked at the media, took a deep breath, and criticized Goff during a postgame press conference. At that point in the season,...

AEW <i>and </i>WWE fans were winners this time around
For all the noise about “WWE vs. AEW” and whatever that means to everybody, they don’t really go head to head on our screens very much. WWE pulled NXT off of Wednesdays when it mostly got its brains beaten in by the burgeoning AEW Dynamite. AEW has struggled on the Saturday nights that WWE runs a Pr...

Luka Dončić let the NBA down this week
The first-ever international exhibition on Sept. 8, 1978, is immortalized for the defending NBA champion Washington Bullets’ loss to Maccabi Tel Aviv by the score of 97-98. Since 2000, when the EuroLeague was founded, NBA teams are 75-17 against Europe’s top teams in exhibitions. Or 17-75 if you wan...

Tuesday night should’ve been only celebratory for this Texas Rangers fan. It wasn’t
Last night should’ve been pure, unadulterated joy. I haven’t been shy when it comes to the Texas Rangers and writing about my favorite baseball team. It swept the 101-win Orioles and advanced to the American League Championship Series for the first time in a dozen years. I was a sophomore in college...

Fine, you want a prediction? The New Jersey Devils will win the Stanley Cup
Stanley Cup picks in October are dumb. We have no idea who will be hurt, what the trade deadline will do, what goalie will have an existential crisis (Jakob Markstrom), or what goalie will channel the Arc Of The Covenant and turn their also-ran into a threat (Igor Shesterkin). It’s a long goddamn se...