ball Page 72 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Washington is giving Pac-12 football a beautiful swan song
The finality of the Pac-12 is depressing. The Washington Huskies beat the Oregon Ducks, 34-31, on Friday night, and looked like a title contender doing it. Michael Penix had his full array of receivers, with Jalen McMillan returning to grab nine balls for 131 yards. Husky running back Dillon Johnson...

The week in random sports news: Mbappe could be gone, the Bears, well, are the Bears and what were the Yankees thinking?
In the end, the Chicago Bears screwed up what could have been something historic. Last week they managed to be the first team to lose while winning the turnover battle by three and holding the ball for 40 minutes. They had the chance to do it two weeks in a row and live forever. Instead, they’re jus...

The week in MLB: Cody Bellinger's free agency twist, Luis Severino changes boroughs, Nelson Cruz lands role with Dodgers
On the surface, Cody Bellinger’s life is about to get better no matter what. He was a down-ballot MVP candidate last season who’s heading into free agency, as well as a former MVP and Rookie of the Year. He would have been labeled a unicorn back in the day, given his ability to play Gold Glove-level...

The week in the NBA: Josh Giddey accusations drama, Ball brothers injury bug, Jason Kidd loses it for no reason
When you continue to embrace a man who reportedly impregnated a 13-year-old when he was in college, and honor that same man regularly by inviting him to marquee league events (like the 2023 All-Star Game) alongside Kareem Abdul Jabbar and LeBron James, it makes it really hard to discipline a current...

The week in the NFL, college football: Sean McDermott facing heat, Deion Sanders fools everyone, Bobby Petrino gets another chance
The Buffalo Bills might be the biggest disappointment of this NFL season. A supposed Super Bowl contender, as predicted by many, can barely stay alive in the wild-card race. Buffalo lost another game on Sunday in Philadelphia, which they could’ve won had their coach not folded in crunch time. Too ma...

Being a fired college football head coach is the best job in America
Being a coach is a tough and thankless job. It’s a profession where everybody thinks they can do your job better than you, which often leads to a high turnover rate — especially when you’re the head coach of a Power Five college football team. But, being fired isn’t so bad when you have a million-do...

The case <i>against</i> Deion Sanders as Sportsperson of the Year
We are on the brink of our last full college football Saturday slate before bowl season. So, it’s apropos that Deion Sanders’ overhype earned him Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year. After announcing Sanders as the recipient of the honor, Sports Illustrated is dodging tomatoes from the Int...

Who else but the Yankees would release a statement about Henry Kissinger dying?
There is probably a long treatise on how a crumbling empire of a baseball team wants to honor Henry Kissinger, the architect of American exceptionalism being an excuse to do whatever that country wants around the world that only led to this crumbling empire, but quite frankly I’m too tired and incap...

Ball don't lie: NBA life not what Lonzo and LaMelo thought it would be
The NBA is Ball-less after Lamelo suffered an ankle injury earlier this week that will leave him sidelined for what sounds like at least a few weeks. Shams Charania reports that it’s a sprain of the same ankle Ball fractured last season. As the Charlotte Hornets prepare for life without LaMelo, the ...

Deion Sanders deserved Sportsperson of the Year honors — 28 years ago
In 1992, Deion Sanders was named first-team All-Pro for the first time in his career as a cornerback for the Atlanta Falcons. One of the games he missed that season was to play in the World Series for the Atlanta Braves. They lost to the Toronto Blue Jays in six games. Those who thought that Sanders...

We've seen Klay Thompson overcome the whispers that he's washed
The Golden State Warriors should be reeling after squandering a 24-point lead against the Sacramento Kings in their NBA In-Season Tournament’s group stage exit. Yet, they’re oddly sanguine about backsliding below .500 since they launched out of the regular season gates to a 6-2 start. Klay Thompson ...

Maybe Dallas isn't the marquee free agency destination it was thought to be
The Dallas Cowboys may have missed out on another free agent signing in former Indianapolis Colts linebacker Shaquille Leonard. Quite frankly, Jerry Jones may have lost some of his mojo for drawing players in. Players used to flock to the Cowboys, but Leonard’s choice has reportedly come down to Dal...

Matt Rhule waxes moronically during Nebraska’s year-end news conference
Matt Rhule will not go quietly into the offseason. The Nebraska coach opted to make news, again, by saying some dumb stuff off the field. This time it wasn’t to preen about integrity and honesty, but rather to let college football know that he knows how the game’s played — and isn’t going to bend. ...

If all hell breaks loose on championship weekend, a Michigan/Ohio State rematch would be welcomed
When the Big Ten signed a massive seven-year, $7 billion media rights deal with Fox, CBS, and NBC last year, ESPN was left out in the cold. But if championship weekend gets wild and Michigan and Ohio State are lucky enough to find themselves both in the College Football Playoff with the opportunity ...

Hate James Harden all you want, but the Clippers are actually good
Some people in this world delight when James Harden is not successful as an NBA basketball player. His iso-heavy style of play is an acquired taste, but so is coffee and yet a Starbucks gift card can win the heart of the average American adult. What really grinds peoples’ gears in regard to Harden i...

The NBA's In-Season Tournament takes from soccer but isn’t a cup
I’ll give the NBA this, as a soccer fan. It’s the only league to take notice of soccer’s consistently rising popularity and attempt to capitalize on that by co-opting some element of it. This is where anyone like me has to fight a blinding urge to scream about promotion and relegation, and earlier t...

The Vikings’ coach and GM are having a staring contest with the sun
It’s no surprise that journeyman quarterback Josh Dobbs re-entered the atmosphere. Players are backups for a reason, and it was only a matter of time before Dobbs reminded folks why he was available multiple times this season. What is a surprise about this current predicament is after the Vikings us...

Billy Donovan needs to end this Chicago tragedy and get back to college hoops
One thing that became apparent during the final night of the NBA’s In-Season Tournament Group Stage was that the Chicago Bulls stink. ...

Sorry, Congress, Adam Silver and the NBA aren't going to stop doing business with China
When the U.S. is at war with China in 20 years, on the list of microaggressions that incited the conflict will surely be NBA-China relations. The Association’s dealings in the People’s Republic of China are so well-documented and lucrative that they created in-roads for its players, who may not real...

The NBA In-Season Tournament: Where you can lose and still win
The NBA has really outdone itself this time. This In-Season tournament nobody asked for in the first place has gotten more convoluted as it extends into the later stages. Rewarding teams as they lose is the biggest participation trophy-era thing there could be. Sure, the analytics crowd is juiced ab...