champ Page 15 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
World Cup Group H Preview: Why can’t there be more like Morocco?
The women’s World Cup should be, and still is in a lot of ways, a celebration of how far the game has come from where it was even just four years ago. The attention is more, the players, and teams are better, the quality of play keeps rising, the anticipation grows, as does the appreciation when it ...
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, ...
Dak Prescott calls his shot — but do his words ring hollow?
The 2023 NFL season is right around the corner, with the start of training camps just days away. As usual, there are plenty of storylines for fans to follow all over the league, and of course, “America’s Team” is never lacking in that department. As if there wasn’t enough pressure on the Dallas Cowb...
Emoni Bates is fighting his way back from the abyss
It’s hard to believe that it’s been six years since Emoni Bates was the nation’s No. 1 middle schooler in the country. Three years ago, Bates was imagined as the type of ethereal prospect who would have viewed the summer league as a formality. By the time he arrived in Memphis during the fall of 202...
History has its eyes on Carlos Alcaraz and his early quest to become tennis’ GOAT
Tennis is undergoing its Steph Curry moment. The way Carlos Alcaraz controls the country club sport through his racket is unlike anything we’ve seen before. Nearly a decade after Curry’s rise to superstardom, every high school sophomore thinks swishing a 40-footer is routine. It’s not, and every air...
'Vacating' wins is the dumbest punishment of all time — do better, NCAA
The kids might not realize it, but in 1997 the movie of the summer was Men In Black. In the ‘90s, Will Smith was the king of summer blockbusters, especially if they opened July 4th weekend — or included aliens. One of the best parts of the MiB franchise was the Neuralyzers, a device that was used to...
Carlos Alcaraz out-Djokovic’d Novak Djokovic
There is a vision of how to beat Novak Djokovic at a major, especially at Wimbledon, and even more especially at Centre Court, where he hadn’t lost in 10 years. It’s only a vision, because so few have ever achieved it. Only Rafa Nadal and Daniil Medvedev had managed to beat Djokovic in a major in th...
Saudi Arabian money is bleeding into the sports world
In 2017, one of the top chess players in the world announced she wasn’t going to play at the World Championships this year in Saudi Arabia. Anna Muzychuk cited the conditions that women would have to play in on her Facebook post, she explained she didn’t want to be accompanied by a man when she trav...
Deebo Samuel chucks up deuces on national radio host Zach Gelb
Some days you wake up, and you’re just not in the mood for anybody’s shenanigans, no matter how innocent they might be. San Francisco 49ers All-Pro wide receiver Deebo Samuel must’ve been in one of these moods when he appeared on “The Zach Gelb Show” on CBS Sports Radio. During the interview, which...
Saquon Barkley’s only option is to threaten to end the Giants’ season before it starts
A big second contract for an NFL running back is a rarity. Derrick Henry shared carries during his first three seasons as a pro, following his nearly 400-carry junior season at Alabama. In Year 4 he became the best running back in the NFL and received a new 4-year contract in 2020. Saqon Barkley has...
World Cup Group B Preview: It’s time for Sam Kerr to take this itty bitty world by storm
We spilled some ink in these parts about Mallory Swanson by herself making the USWNT a threat to win the World Cup, before her unfortunate injury. But the US isn’t the only team with a player who is capable of grabbing a short tournament by the haunches, and the co-hosts Australia may have the bigge...
Sha’Carri Richardson is as speedy and swaggy as ever
If a young, talented, and boisterous Black woman bothers you, then divert your eyes from track and field — also, you’re probably racist. Sha’Carri Richardson’s feet torched the track at the 2021 Olympic Trials. Unfortunately for her, much of her career following her dynamic performance was littered ...
The Orioles need to trade for Shohei Ohtani, and Christian Pulisic in Milan
Sure, it’s completely ridiculous. But being a baseball fan is about being ridiculous and, before owners crushed our spirits, discussing trades used to be the most fun part. Are the Angels going to admit that thanks to Mike Trout’s injury on top of all their others that it’s probably over for them? N...
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...
The 15 Most Valuable Professional Sports Franchises
This story was corrected and revised on July 6, 2023. ...
Michelle Wie West is retiring and she’s leaving behind a weird legacy
Somehow, Michelle Wie West is only 33. She was a grown adult when I was a kid and now the prodigy is only two years older than me. After a professional golf career of nearly two decades, Wie West is hanging up the clubs after this week’s U.S. Open. Wie West, who didn’t marry Kanye or Adam, but Golde...
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...
Arsenal are loading up
Little ammunition joke for ya there. Anyway, if the accusation, and thought was that Stan Kroenke regularly cheaped out when it came to strengthening Arsenal, this week might change all that. While Kroenke has had no problem finding success in the salary-capped worlds of the NFL, NBA, and NHL, with ...
Simone Biles' return to competition needs to be applauded before her first routine begins
The GOAT is back. The best to ever appear on the floor, beam, vault, and uneven bars is returning to competition after nearly two years away from gymnastics. Simone Biles last competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics, which was of course delayed a year because of the pandemic. Her return to the sport in...
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....