aw Page 155 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The Canadiens are so weird
When you still consider yourself the league’s signature franchise, maybe things just have to be weird. The pressure the team is putting on itself year after year just warps things, and that’s before you even get to the media that considers itself some sort of modern version of the Knights of the Rou...

What it means when prosecutors decline to charge sexual assault
I have a love/hate relationship with Olivia Benson and the ubiquitous Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (SVU to those of us who have it on the background at least 65 percent of the time). On one hand, it’s copaganda of the highest order, where police are nearly always the good guys, and one cop in p...

Automated offside is here, and it’s pretty damn cool
Even through its many, many bumps and hiccups (the kind of hiccups where you feel like you’ve pulled an oblique) I have been pro-VAR. It is hardly perfect, and far too much of it still depends on the whims and judgements of people. Except now being in the hands of whatever is floating between one pe...

College players sue to be classified as school employees
Out west, the students are taking matters into their own hands, pushing college athletics another step further into its new athlete-empowered era — and they may be making things a lot more complicated for the NCAA....

I know just the coach for Auburn
The writing is on the wall for Bryan Harsin at Auburn, to the point where Paul Finebaum is openly speculating about Hugh Freeze coming in from Liberty — after five years of SEC exile — to take the Tigers job....

Did Micah Parsons just beat Tyreek Hill in a footrace?
We never got to see Micah “The Lion” Parsons run an official 40-yard dash. When the 2021 NFL combine was canceled due to COVID concerns, we were robbed of an opportunity to see several strong prospects like Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson, Ja’Marr Chase, Patrick Surtain II, and Micah Parsons strut thei...

Jake Paul and Phil Mickelson go to battle for their sports
Golf and boxing — could two sports be more different? Both have been around for centuries, but on the opposite sides of the class spectrum — golf historically (and, some may argue, presently) reserved for the “gentlemen” of society, an extremely exclusive hobby that has long prided itself on its dec...

The biggest NBA bandwagon fan base at the midseason mark
As someone who is loyal to a fault, people who hop team allegiances never cease to make my brain hemorrhage. I don’t know how the LeBron James cult does it. “He’s my favorite player” is what a child says when they first discover what sports are. Yeah, I loved Penny Hardaway, too, but when I moved to...

Which Super Bowl featured two former No. 1 picks at QB?
Q1: What is the only previous matchup of two No. 1 overall draft picks as Super Bowl starting quarterbacks?...

Where does the USMNT stand in World Cup Qualifying?
Call this the Idiot’s Guide to World Cup Qualifying. The diehard American Outlaws probably know this information by heart. Casual fans may know some. Most general sports fans in America will only tune in to soccer should the United States men’s national team make it to the World Cup, meaning it’ll b...

Tennis is having the goldenest of all Golden Ages
It’s strange how normalized greatness is during something’s golden age. If you look at music for example, hip-hop peaked in the ’90s for a lot of people like classic rock did in the ’60s and ’70s. However, even when 2Pac and Biggie were at the apex, rappers like Nas and Jay-Z weren’t in the picture ...

Being a Black head coach in the NFL is a Catch-22
Brian Flores’ racial discrimination lawsuit against the NFL has multiple elements to it. On different levels, Flores is alleging, and claiming to have receipts for, behavior in the league that’s long been suspected, but would be damning to have shown as true — especially to the extent that Flores is...

Who are Tom Brady’s peers in other sports?
There’s no doubt Tom Brady won championships at a rate we’ve never seen before in the NFL, with no fellow football players lifting as many titles as the longtime Patriot and most-recent Buccaneer did. He alone holds the record for most Super Bowls won by an individual player....

QB guru Jim Caldwell is Exhibit A in Brian Flores lawsuit, we’ve got the receipts
Before we get into Brian Flores lawsuit against the NFL, let’s get something straight: The brilliant Jim Caldwell has been the best available coach for four straight years, especially for teams developing young quarterbacks....

How to Indict Yourself 101 — taught by Rocky Wirtz
I didn’t think the definition of “transparency” was all that hard to understand....

Is tanking illegal?
Among the many incriminating allegations in former Dolphins head coach Brian Flores’ lawsuit against the NFL’s obvious and rampant discrimination lies what could perhaps be the most legally damning accusation: Dolphins owner Stephen Ross offered to bribe Flores to “tank” games in the 2019 season in ...

Caleb Williams follows Lincoln Riley to USC, furthers OU fans’ spiral
Caleb Williams officially twisted the knives Lincoln Riley stuck in the backs of Oklahoma fans when he left for Southern California as the talented QB announced Tuesday he’s following his coach to USC. He did so via tweet, featuring videos with appearances by Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, and Will Ferrell....

Oh look, the East is finally better than the West again
Remember the, I don’t know, decade stretch when the East was so bad and the West was so good that people were shouting at the NBA to put the top 16 teams in the playoffs regardless of conference because the 38-44 Brooklyn Nets made the playoffs and the 45-37 Oklahoma City Thunder did not?...

Shohei Ohtani is on the cover of MLB the Show 22, much to the chagrin of Stephen A. Smith
When you talk about an audience gravitating to the tube, or to the ballpark, to actually watch you, I don’t think it helps that the number one face is a dude that needs an interpreter so you can understand what the hell he’s saying....

What was the shortest touchdown play in Super Bowl history?
Terry Brown and Derrick Jensen share this record, both on blocked punts that were recovered in the end zone. So the answer is 0 yards....