benn Page 3 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
![Keep an eye on these 23 breakout stars in 2023: Part 2 [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/e08bdbb97c11892cea1c15abaa73e766.jpg)
Keep an eye on these 23 breakout stars in 2023: Part 2 [Updated]
We’ve already brought you the first 13 figures on this list. Check out the rest below....

I’m picking Max Duggan and TCU in the college football championship — picking TCU like a fox
When college football opponents have had the Georgia Bulldogs’ full attention this year, it hasn’t gone great. From the opener against Oregon to the SEC title game against LSU and the Tennessee game in between, every time we think there’s a hint of vulnerability, the Dawgs come out and trample squad...

A decade-plus of Eastern Conference mediocrity can’t be easily forgotten
It’s weird how much energy goes into debating which conference is the NBA’s best. It makes sense in college football because schools can’t play all 100-plus teams each year, and strength of schedule determines playoff spots. But in basketball, with all 30 organizations facing each other at least twi...

Make the Heisman Trophy more than the 'Best QB' award it’s become
The Heisman Trophy has been college football’s most prestigious award since University of Chicago halfback Jay Berwanger was awarded the first stiff-armed prototype in 1935. Since then, Chicago has dumped its football program and the award has morphed into a Quarterback of the Year award. That lazin...

5 surprising NBA rookies you need to know about
As Paolo Banchero begins to run away with the Rookie of the Year award, there are still hidden gems and surprise showings by first-year players selected outside the top 10. We have highlighted which ones have been the biggest surprises thus far and project comps for their young career....

World Cup 2022 — Group H preview: Yes, Portugal can win this and no, it won’t be pleasant if they do
Let’s get the main reason out of the way. No one outside of Portugal wants to see giant pain in the ass, huffing his own farts, twice-accused rapist Cristiano Ronaldo — who has denied the allegations — hoist the trophy. It was bad enough in 2016 when he left the final injured that he made sure every...

This is not the year to rely on SEC bias for a trip to the College Football Playoff
College football fans would presume that a one-loss SEC team who doesn’t have to play in the conference title game would’ve lucked out as far as the College Football Playoff is concerned. Georgia made it last year with one loss, as did Alabama in 2017-18. The only one-loss SEC program not to get an ...

This World Series is a beautiful juxtaposition
If styles make fights, then this World Series is for you. While the Houston Astros and Philadelphia Phillies have their similarities (like green mascots), they also occupy opposing poles in a lot of ways. And also the perception of them is actually opposite to reality in some ways as well. There are...

I hope Evan Mobley is as true as he is in my dreams
While often depicted, lamented, and sanctified as liberating, hope can also be a virus. It can rot rationality from the inside. It can lead to danger, injury, and death. As Ellis Boyd Redding, best known by his friends and fellow convicts at Shawshank State Prison as Red, once said… “Hope is a dange...

10 NBA preseason takeaways that provide insight into the regular season
The NBA will give everyone their first real look at the league’s rapidly transforming landscape and its latest rookie class when the regular season tips off on Tuesday, but the preseason is a window into what to expect from certain teams. Wins and losses are mostly meaningless, so don’t read into th...

Rafael Leão is carrying AC Milan, and should punt Cristiano Ronaldo off of Portugal
In a lot of ways, AC Milan mirrors Serie A overall. They’re incredibly fun, and were able to take advantage of Juventus’s slide into the abyss and a blip from Inter to win the Scudetto last year. But how good they actually are, much like the league as a whole, is hard to pin down. Considering that t...

The SEC is obnoxiously perfect in Week One
The upset of Week 1 in college football wasn’t really an upset — if you ask SEC fans. Bill Napier, in his first game as the head coach of Florida, knocked off defending Pac-12 champ, No. 7 Utah, in a contest of physical strength that featured six lead changes and a tie....

This kid is making sports fans everywhere proud
If you’ve ever gambled on sports, you know the feeling. You spend all your time prepping, finding the perfect line, and studying the trends in order to maximize the money you can win. You get through the first three legs of your four-game parlay totally unscathed and all that’s left is the final gam...

College Football’s 2022 Jekyll & Hyde QB situations
The top 25 is littered with pinpoint passers or dual threats, ranging from Bryce Young to Devin Leary to Tyler Van Dyke and K.J. Jefferson. For programs returning subpar starting quarterbacks, the offseason was about ironing out the deep wrinkles in their existing starters or hoping a clipboard-hold...

The AP preseason poll is in! College football is almost here
People, we are less than two weeks away from real football. In 12 days, games will be on television, and will be played in various parts of America — not just Birmingham — and I assume players can keep their scholarships if they don’t want to eat chicken salad at the hotel....

The George Pickens show continued Saturday, this time he was in game uniform
Surely the Pittsburgh Steelers would’ve hoped that the star of their 2022 training camp would be Kenny Pickett or maybe even an improved Mitchell Trubisky. Going into their first season with a new starting quarterback since Ben Roethlisberger became the unquestioned starter in 2005, the Steelers sig...

Predicting college football’s New Year’s Six teams
College football starts in a little more than two weeks. And for 135 days, the jostling to become a national champion will be ongoing. Obviously, only four teams will compete in the College Football Playoff but a dozen teams will be selected to the most lucrative bowls, otherwise known as the New Ye...

Is this the beginning of the end of Brittney Griner’s detainment?
From the beginning, Brittney Griner’s status has been the most unique American hostage situation in modern history. The Russian invasion of Ukraine, her celebrity status, and her identity as a Black lesbian woman have heightened the urge to get her home as quickly as possible in a wartime climate th...

The JaMarcus Russell story is much more complicated than you think
JaMarcus Russell really does feel like one word. That’s the way that it goes for athletes like him, Tony Mandrich, Ryan Leaf, Anthony Bennett, and Trent Richardson. The reason for that, only one word comes to mind at the thought of them: Bust....

Jerry Reinsdorf is holding White Sox fans hostage
I have tried to explain the weirdness that encompasses, and in some way constitutes, the Chicago White Sox. They are a unique entity, both on the field and off, and in the stands and on the airwaves and in the bars....