cc Page 49 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Aaron Rodgers slams Sean Payton for recent comments

World Cup Day 12: Speed kills, and so does a lack of it

We had our clash of teams that have looked most dominant so far, and we can pare that list down to “one team that’s looked dominant so far.” And in something of a surprise, Canada got their leaden asses booted back to the Great White North. Let’s get in. ...

World Cup Day 10: Sweden want you to know it’s not messing around

To open this year’s World Cup, Sweden hoped for a straightforward contest against, on paper, the easiest team to beat in Group G in South Africa. It didn’t go that way, with the Swedish escaping that contest Wellington by the skin of its teeth with a win. Sweden needed a 90th-minute Amanda Ilestedt ...

NBA doing everything it can to marginally disrupt player empowerment

The NBA league office prolonged the current stalemate between the Portland Trail Blazers and Miami Heat over a deal for Damian Lillard. A memo was circulated to all 30 franchises Friday saying that any player, or agent, who makes public comments about an unwillingness to “fully perform the services ...

So this is what it feels like to be a howling soccer fan at the World Cup?

There’s a unique frustration to watching Team USA men’s basketball in the Olympics after the world caught up. Yes, America has a better collection of raw talent, and when motivated, and conducted like an actual team, they can come away with gold. However, it’s always a slog at some point, with savvy...

World Cup Day 8: The Aussies step in it

This tournament started with how every organizer wishes it would, with both hosts getting wins to up the energy and buzz around the whole thing. World Cups and big tournaments are just better when the hosts are relevant and getting the home fans excited. But now both Australia and New Zealand are up...

The USWNT gets out of medium security jail

The pregame chatter mostly centered around Netherlands manager Andries Jonker’s quotes in the Matchday -1 press conference. It certainly had USWNT followers getting a little tight in the seat. In full:...

Lionel Messi’s quick start for Inter Miami has MLS’ detractors quiet

The shouts about Major League Soccer at large from other parts of the sports world get repetitive. Stating it’s a retirement league was always a jaded view. Perhaps it was the league with the most publicity that was willing to take big names past their prime. And while a lack of promotion and relega...

Elon Musk, anti-vaxxers bouncing back into action after Bronny James’ cardiac arrest [Update]

The reaction to Bronny James’ proves how loopy the sports wing of anti-vaxxers is. Bronny James’ cardiac arrest animated the worst example of disconfirmation bias plaguing. Anytime they’ve witnessed a cardiac incident since 2021, a segment of society rears their head to play Six Degrees of Kevin Bac...

World Cup Day 7: It’s easy when you’re big in Japan…and Spain we suppose

After Group A decided to keep everyone alive with some truly weird (and awful) soccer on Monday night, it was time to send some teams to the land of wind and ghosts on Tuesday, as Costa Rica, Zambia, and Ireland will make it home before the postcards. Let’s make it happen, captain!...

Saudi Arabia poaching NBA talent is possible, but unlikely

In a jocular response to the Saudi Public Investment Fund offering a record $1.1 billion to PSG and Kylian Mbappé for the French icon to play one season in Saudi Arabia, two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo offered up his services to the Al Hilal club. ...

World Cup Day 6: Linda Caicedo is ready to be soccer’s next big female star

Group H was always going to be a battle between the teams not named Germany for who would advance alongside the European powerhouses. There were thoughts that Morocco could go from unknowns to the knockout rounds, then it lost 6-0 to Germany. The last two teams to play their first group stage game w...

Arthur Smith’s Falcons are riding the Bijan Robinson train in an age of aviator offenses

Arthur Smith migrated to the Falcons after laying down the railroad tracks for the Tennessee Titans’ 2020 AFC Championship berth. One would hope he isn’t trying to put his spin on the Derrick Henry cloud of dust offense he conducted for two years, but with Bijan Robinson. An essential part of buildi...

World Cup Day 5: We cannot run from who we are

Day 5 of the World Cup was probably the most rewarding, and a great example of how football is football no matter who is playing it, no matter where they come from. We do our best to not compare or relate the women’s game to the men’s, as they’re two different sports. But Sunday night’s fare was per...

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...

World Cup Day 3: A demolition to start the United States’ three-peat campaign didn’t happen

The last time the United States women’s national team opened a World Cup, it scored 13 goals against Thailand. That pile-on isn’t typical and wasn’t a drubbing for the sake of sticking it to Yul Brynner. There was no downside to putting up the unanswered baker’s dozen for the sake of goal difference...

Baker Mayfield propaganda is back in full effect for 2023

We haven’t heard much from Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Baker Mayfield this summer. After signing a one-year deal with the Bucs in March, it’s been relatively quiet on the home front for Mayfield, which is unusual. His name hasn’t been mentioned much this offseason outside of Tampa. Now that tra...

World Cup Day 1: It’s their party and they’ll win if they want to

And we’re off. World Cup 2023 finally kicked into gear, and while it’s a bit disorienting to watch an event on a cold winter night from a summer morning locale as the sun comes up, we here tend to do our best work when we’re disoriented. Both hosts started the tournament, and both exited the day wit...

How to completely crap on your legacy, by Jordan Henderson

It’s my fault. I know better than to buy into it, but being so cynical, and assuming that every athlete that seems like he’s above the usual morass isn’t much of a way to live. I wanted to believe in Jordan Henderson, and still do in a lot of ways. ...

Tommy Tuberville continues his detestable streak

Tommy Tuberville is as two-faced with the military as he was as a coach and recruiter. As a senator, his list of accomplishments reads like the list of demands from an 80s B-movie....