aw Page 124 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Maybe Byron Leftwich should have taken that Jacksonville Jaguars' job
Not long ago, former NFL QB Byron Leftwich was a hot-shot coaching candidate du jour. Last offseason, the moribund Jacksonville Jaguars — the team that drafted him — in particular, were ready to go all in on Leftwich as their next head coach....

What does You Can Play actually do?
The thing that organizations like the Philadelphia Flyers, or the NHL, or the You Can Play Project, is that the stories they hope will just go away never do in the timeframe they’re counting on. They continue to fester, and everyone’s inaction on it only prolongs this. The Flyers and their coach, Jo...

The Sports Nihilist: Anything but a Dallas-Philadelphia NFC title game
It’s odd how many NFL teams I hate despite not technically having an NFL team I root for. And I don’t feel like I’m in the minority on that either. Not the teamless fan part. The “I hate all of these teams” part. I refused to watch Patriots-Philadelphia Eagles and Patriots-Rams Round Two Super Bowls...

Raise your hand if you want a Denver Nuggets-Memphis Grizzlies Western Conference Finals
If you directly asked the NBA powers how they would feel about a Memphis Grizzlies-Denver Nuggets matchup in the Western Conference Finals, I think they’d offer a “We’d love that.” However, if you asked the same people the same question in an anonymous poll, I’m pretty sure the responses would be so...

How enticing are each of the offensive coordinator openings?
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers fired offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich. Leftwich just finished up his fourth season as Tampa’s OC, having reached the playoffs each of the last three seasons — or every season with Tom Brady at quarterback. However, despite the playoff berth, 2022 was hard to watch. The ...

John Wall hasn’t forgotten about (allegedly) being dissed by Tyler Hansbrough
There were few more highly touted prospects in the one-and-done era of men’s College Basketball than John Wall. Born and raised in Raleigh, N.C., it would make sense that he would want to attend the University of North Carolina. However, Wall alleges that a meeting with 2008-09 National Player of th...

It's time for Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers to get lost
The NFL is going through one of its greatest quarterback renaissances in league history. It’s never been clearer, you can’t win a Super Bowl without an elite quarterback. Of the eight teams remaining in the postseason, only one team — the New York Giants — has a proven non-elite signal caller at the...

The case for trading LeBron James for Evan Mobley
I’ve seen kiddie pools deeper than the unseasoned jambalaya VP Rob Pelinka has assembled for the Lakers around LeBron James. As a consequence, James’ enduring existence on a sub-.500 borderline playoff squad has created a rift where trade speculation festers and boils. During a recent appearance on ...

PFF's highest-graded Pittsburgh Steeler on offense was Mitch Trubisky — but they won't tell you that
As a former employee of Pro Football Focus, I can confidently tell you that the rating system the company built its reputation on is utter hogwash. I want to be clear, PFF is an incredible company that provides great analysis through articles, and advanced stats that only they keep track of, but the...

There is no circumstance where Brian Daboll wins Coach of the Year
The biggest lies in human history are as follows: ...

NFL touchdown celebrations are sad and empty now
The NFL used to be a league full of expression and originality, and much of that was on display in the endzone during touchdown celebrations. We used to look forward to certain players scoring in anticipation of their signature dance or seeing what new move they’d come up with that week. All the ori...

Who gets 'the yips' and why?
Monday night, Dallas Cowboys’ kicker Brett Maher, a man who has made more 60-yard field goals than anyone in NFL history, went one for five on extra points. Because Tampa Bay basically had their asses handed to them by Dallas, (despite the ESPN crew’s insistence that “you can never count Tom Brady o...

Soon you'll be able to watch your favorite out-of-town team in your own market
For a sport that has been struggling to retain youthful viewers, blackouts are an incredibly dumb aspect of streaming games. You can watch any team you want to...except the teams near where you live. Throughout most of Nevada, the San Diego Padres, Arizona Diamondbacks, Los Angeles Dodgers, L.A. Ang...

UFC's Dana White is already back to his usual antics
It didn’t take long for Dana White to get back to business as usual....

The 49ers' defense is dominating when it matters most — the 2nd half of games
The San Francisco 49ers are hot. Winners of 11 in a row and doing most of it with a rookie seventh-round pick at quarterback, this Niners squad is the most dangerous team in the postseason. Despite the outstanding play of Brock Purdy, San Francisco’s success has been possible due to their stifling d...

The Chargers blowing a 27-0 lead to the Jaguars was something, but it wasn’t art
There are levels to collapses. There’s the March Madness telegraphed loss, where one group of 18-, 19-, and 20-year-olds gets tight, and the other group gets hot. Obviously, we’ve seen golfers do it, and there’s not a lot funnier than a guy going from the 17th tee box to the beer tent. And then ther...

It's not just football fans who are tired of bad officiating
Poor officiating during a Week 18 game between the Los Angeles Rams and Seattle Seahawks has NFL referees under scrutiny....

Could the Minnesota Vikings be in for a Giant upset?
I’ll be upset if there are no upsets during Wild Card Weekend, which kicks off today. That upset may not happen in the Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers game, and perhaps not with the Los Angeles Chargers-Jacksonville Jaguars. But bettors seem convinced that the biggest upset of the week will...

Bettors are hoping to ride the hot hand
The San Francisco 49ers have a long road ahead of them if they want to win their first Super Bowl since 1995. Not necessarily because they’re going to face a lot of strong competition — the NFC is rather weak this year — but because they have to win four straight games with 2022's Mr. Irrelevant und...
