ben Page 12 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
This is what an Ohio pro sports renaissance looks like: Joe Burrow carted off the field
At some point on Thursday, before seeing the news that Joe Burrow was carted off the practice field, I was running over some story ideas in my head as one does in late July when very few sports are in season. The half-baked concept I was playing around with was: Are we in the middle of an Ohio pro s...
This might be Trey’s last dance in San Francisco
Trey Lance is entering year three in San Francisco and has suited up for eight games and started just half of them. Multiple injuries coupled with the emergence of Brock Purdy during the second half of last season has built some doubt around the former No. 3 overall pick. With Purdy’s status up in t...
You have to marvel at the wretchedness of the Chicago White Sox
There are certainly a host of disappointing teams in MLB this year. More so than usual it feels like, with the Mets, Padres, and Cardinals face down in a muck they never considered being in back in the spring. You can throw the Mariners on there if you’re feeling truly dispirited and want to take it...
World Cup Day 4: Not much more than a feeling
If the story of the first three days of the World Cup was that the tournament favorites were kind of inching their way through their first matches, nothing changed on Day 4. Sweden, Holland, and especially France all had an air of trying to figure out what all the buttons do and what the lights mean...
NFLPA prez implies franchised running backs should fake injuries for leverage
Apparently all the striking and picketing going on at various writer and actor guilds has seeped into the professional sports. The New York Giants and running back Saquon Barkley are at an impasse over the team giving him an ultimatum of a shitty contract, or the franchise tag, and now he’s mulling ...
ESPN Cleveland radio host goes off on low expectations for Browns
Success for the Cleveland Browns has been limited over the past few decades. Since 1990, the Browns have advanced to the postseason three times. The last won a division title in ‘89 in the old AFC Central. Needless to say, there aren’t too many Browns believers outside city limits. That’s what has E...
Trade James Harden for Grade-A role players, you coward!
When Daryl Morey says he’s not going to be irrational with a James Harden trade, he is to be trusted. We saw what happened with Ben Simmons, and the plain-clothes staring contest that resulted in Harden becoming a Philadelphia 76er. It was an arduous ordeal that festered until mid-February 2022, and...
These NFL teams haven't been on HBO’s <i>Hard Knocks</i>
Football season is near, which means HBO is gearing up to give us another season of all-access on Hard Knocks that won’t feature anything worth seeing....
Wiz Khalifa continues Pirates tradition of pitching while totally zooted
While the Pirates will never build him a statue, Dock Ellis has made sure that the greatest accomplishment in sports was performed by a Pirate. That was throwing a no-hitter while on LSD. Perhaps as our country continually lessens its aversion to drugs it’ll get the display it deserves at PNC Park, ...
Robert Kraft would be crazy to pick Mac Jones over Bill Belichick
Bill Belichick on the hot seat sounds like sci-fi fiction, but according to the Boston Globe, Robert Kraft might be losing his patience. There are truths, lies, and somewhere in between that sandwich are juicy, salacious rumors....
The Braves and the White Sox were supposed to both have bright futures
Now that the MLB has reached the midsummer classic portion of its schedule, it gives me time to reflect. This period of deep thought has taken me back to a time when the Chicago White Sox and Atlanta Braves had the two best farm systems in MLB....
Where should expectations be set for Victor Wembanyama’s summer league dress rehearsal?
Victor Wembanyama’s career prologue is almost as long as he is. It already feels like Wembanyama’s in his second NBA season doesn’t it? It feels like just yesterday, when he was in the (French) Finals at the exact same time as Nikola Jokic. According to Marc Stein, Wembanyama’s scheduled NBA debut h...
Christian Pulisic’s move to AC Milan is the USMNT’s biggest news of the summer
The most substantial story for the United States men’s national team this summer has nothing to do with the Gold Cup. Nor any of the drama surrounding Gregg Berhalter’s return to the Yanks’ helm. It was always where the best American male soccer player on the planet, Christian Pulisic, landed in the...
Team USA Basketball needs to bring back multi-year commitments
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. And if it does break, fix it the same way you did after you originally broke it. Grant Hill, this is for you....
First-round NBA Draft grades on a pass/fail system
If you’re like most underachievers and procrastinators, the letter grade doesn’t matter as long as you pass. I’ve lived most of my life by the mantra that “C’s are for degrees” and look where it’s gotten me: Writing about sports for living, and passing judgment upon others without retaliation....
Victor Wembanyama won't be NBA Rookie of the Year
Every betting site has Victor Wembanyama installed as the runaway favorite to earn Rookie of the Year. In case you want to start engraving Victor Wembanyama’s name on the award already, take a moment to consider this. Rookie of the Year hasn’t always gone to the incandescent talent from every draft ...
Kirby Smart: New Nick Saban, or Urban Meyer with a visor?
The Georgia Bulldogs football program entered rarified territory after back-to-back titles this year, joining Alabama, and USC as the only programs to accomplish that feat this century. Kirby Smart has constructed a doomsday machine in Nick Saban’s image, and the proof is not only clear from the win...
The NHL Playoffs have turned players from heroic to selfish
It’s now an NHL playoffs tradition right up there with the handshake line. Right after a team is eliminated, usually starting with the second round, and beyond, the losing team’s coach or beat reporters or both will start to announce what injuries various players had been carrying throughout the spr...
Here we go with this Kylian Mbappe nonsense again
Some transfer/trade/free agency stories go on for years, which is what it appears Kylian Mbappe is intent on creating. We all knew about LeBron James’s first free agency three years beforehand as ESPN turned it into its own Odyssey. And his second one a couple years before. Kevin Durant’s next desti...
The Athletic was supposed to own local sports news. Instead, it's getting owned by the current state of media
The Athletic’s plan to replace sports pages worldwide has taken another blow. It announced on Monday that it will be laying off about four percent of its staff, per The Washington Post’s Ben Strauss. Further proof that nothing in media is being replaced just yet. Instead, it is steadily eroding due ...