ben Page 33 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

See? Americans love ties!
You could feel the collective frustration of every sports fan outside of Pittsburgh last night. It was as if we all punched the couch at the same time. You could hear it in the wind, a spiritual “THUNK.”...

The Celtics need to wake up and move on from either Jayson Tatum or Jaylen Brown
The Boston Celtics have one of the richest legacies in North American sports, but as of late, they have not been able to get over that hump to capture another NBA championship. In recent years, their two young stars, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown have led them to multiple Eastern Conference Finals a...

Let me breakdown this Djokovic-Aussie mess
Let’s just begin by talking about Novak Djokovic’s skills. He is very, very good at hitting fuzzy, yellow, bouncy tennis balls. He can hit them very hard, and yet he can also hit them very softly. He makes people clap with delight with how he hits tennis balls. He wins very large trophies. Hitting f...

Let’s use the Girlfriend Transfer Portal Theory to figure out where Caleb Williams is headed
The transfer portal is college football’s most controversial, unpredictable, and ever-changing tool. After a 2021 rule change that eliminated the requirement for transferring athletes to sit out a year before being eligible to play again, this postseason portal activity is exploding....

Joe Burrow is the leader I thought he was
I’ve gone on record stating that Joe Burrow might be one of the best leaders in the NFL. However, after seeing the stunt he is pulling ahead of his team’s final game of the season with the AFC’s top seed on the line, I have to alter my statement....

There’s no getting around it, the NFL despises women
There was a time in my life when nothing was as exciting as the start of the NFL season, the Bears season, here in Chicagoland....

ESPN’s Roethlisberger coverage was vomit-inducing
Most would honestly prefer it if ESPN, and other outlets that broadcast sports, not even attempt to provide any semblance of balance to their coverage of players or teams or individuals who have anything resembling a checkered past. Just be the megaphone for the league you’re in bed with, because we...

Jordan vs. LeBron, the SEC, Urban Meyer and other things we’d like to leave in 2021
As 2021 comes to a close, we’re granted the opportunity to look back fondly (or not so fondly) on all the insane things that happened in sports this year, from the athlete anti-vax movement to the entire Urban Meyer saga, from the NHL’s near-constant blunders to the NCAA’s unprecedented coaching car...

Centers aren’t extinct, they’ve just evolved
As humans, we tend to eulogize the extinct with reverence. The Dodo Bird. The Rocky Mountain Locust. The Golden Toad. And why wouldn’t we? It was us who eradicated these precious, sentient creatures. Some theorists would argue it had to do with their inability to adapt. But what if things are adapti...

Former USC player charged with fraud in COVID relief scheme
USC athletics may want to start getting more creative — come on, how many times can you be associated with mail fraud in three years’ time? Just two years after the athletic department was rocked by the infamous college admissions scandal in which USC administrators were found guilty of accepting br...

Come on Daryl Morey, let’s get this Ben Simmons trade done already
Ben Simmons has yet to play a single game this season for the Philadelphia 76ers. The window for his full return to the team seems to have been slammed shut once Doc Rivers booted Simmons (figuratively, unlike Urban Meyer) out of practice in October for refusing to participate in team drills. Now th...

If going for two is your thing, then make it your thing
The going-for-two discussion will likely become the most annoying debate in sports, usurping reliever usage and Hall-of-Fame credentials. Poor execution is different than a poor decision, and the play-call for the Baltimore Ravens in their 31-30 loss to the Packers was pretty piss-poor. Two weeks ag...

Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving become eighth, ninth Nets players to enter COVID protocols
Kevin Durant and, yes, Kyrie Irving, have entered the chat, err, COVID protocols, becoming the eighth and ninth Nets player to do so, and Brooklyn seems to be going the way of the Chicago Bulls, who are on a break from action due to a similar rash of positive tests....

Will Urban Meyer get a shot at redemption? Let's look at how other coaches bounced back after failing miserably
Urban Meyer is out as coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars after going 2-11 in his only partial season at the helm. While that’s 13 more games than Meyer ever should have coached in the NFL, and he leaves with a lower winning percentage in the league (.154) than Marty Mornhinweg (.156), it somehow does...

Phillip Adams suffered from CTE and desperately sought help from the NFL before shooting spree
A recent autopsy from Boston University revealed that ex-NFLer Phillip Adams, who shot six people to death before killing himself in April, had an unusually severe form of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, better known as CTE, at the time of his death. A degenerative brain disease caused by repeated...

Real Madrid won La Liga this weekend
Whether it’s much of an accomplishment or not, that’s hard to figure out. La Liga has questionably turned to trash, when compared to what it used to be. Thanks to Barcelona’s torching their own establishment for the insurance money and forgetting the insurance money, and no other club being able to ...

Of course the Blazers say Damian Lillard is untouchable
There are a couple of ways to parse the report from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Zach Lowe that the Trail Blazers are not willing to discuss trading Damian Lillard, “one of the Sixers’ top targets” in a potential Ben Simmons deal....
![Chase Claypool’s antics cost Steelers in loss to Vikings [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/444d7239883b6730b8518a79d68f1003.jpg)
Chase Claypool’s antics cost Steelers in loss to Vikings [Updated]
Chase Claypool may have finally received his long-awaited, much-needed wake-up call last night against the Vikings....

NFL Week 14: The battle at the bottom of the NFC playoff picture
Most NFL fans will tell you that in recent years the AFC has been a better conference than the NFC. Despite an NFC team winning the Super Bowl last season, they also had a 7-9 team (Washington) reach the playoffs by winning their division, along with an 8-8 team (Chicago) as a wild-card. Meanwhile, ...

Tiger Woods to play with son at PNC Championship
Tiger is back. And I don’t say this lightly, nor do I make this statement without sincere consideration, but all the evidence is pointing there: Tiger is back. After suffering a car accident in February that was almost fatal and left doctors questioning whether the legendary golfer would ever walk a...