champ Page 20 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Rose Zhang announces her LGPA presence with authority
As Tiger Woods, LeBron James, Tom Brady, Serena Williams depart for their respective GOAT farms upstate, their respective sports are in desperate search of phenoms to replace them. Tiger’s departure from golf’s summit has cleared the way for a new generation to take the reins. On Sunday, in her firs...

Zlatan Ibrahimović retired from soccer, and the world is a bit duller today
To say we’ll be Zlatan-less is probably wide of the mark. Whatever Zlatan Ibrahimović goes on to do, you can be sure it’ll be loud and full of bravado. But he won’t be on the field, which is a loss for the sport, if only because there simply can’t be anyone like him again. First off, no one’s going...

Jimmy Butler was good enough in Game 2
There was a little too much fouling of 3-point shooters for my taste on Sunday night, but other than that, the Miami Heat and Denver Nuggets played quite the thrilling Game 2. The Nuggets threw run after run at the Heat, who ate every blow and kept countering. Eventually the Heat put the Nuggets on ...

A month before the start of the Women’s World Cup, TV rights are still a mess
In the moments after England won the Women’s European Championships last summer, BBC presenter Gabby Logan issued an inspiring call for the accomplishment to be a mere stepping stone in the growth of the women’s game. Would have been nice if her employers were listening ahead of the 2023 Women’s Wor...

Sage Steele’s beef with ESPN is legit, but you can’t play the victim after being the villain
Despite how she may identify, Sage Steele is a Black woman. That needs to be addressed because, within the sports media landscape, you’d be hard-pressed to find many, or even a few, women — especially Black ones — and Black people who’ll advocate for her. What also needs to be addressed is that Stee...

The past, present and future of Ted Lasso
The landing was stuck. Many storylines came to a close in the Ted Lasso season-three finale, with the main timeline of the show likely over based on the perfection that was the closing montage. There’s no way we’ve seen the last of all of these characters, whether a spinoff called “AFC Richmond” or ...

Toronto trolls Blue Jays pitcher Anthony Bass for his bigoted views
In a rare display of an MLB team following the lead of its fans, or at least being in the vicinity, something satisfying took place last night in Toronto when bigoted Blue Jays asshat Anthony Bass came out of the pen:...

The Southeastern Conference’s lack of remodeling for next season has everyone frustrated
Running in Southeastern Conference circles for most of my adult life, the debate on future football schedules has been raging for several years. The addition of Texas and Oklahoma to the conference only threw gasoline on those fires. It’s a good problem for the SEC to have, but it’s an unsolved issu...

Where should the USMNT players move this summer?
There’s going to be a lot of movement for the top end of the USMNT roster, but what would be best for them? We mean other than Ibiza or The Algarve on vacation. Though they should do that too. They’ve earned it. But after the Nations League semis and (hopefully) final, the main cogs of the USMNT wil...

It's the end of an era for Ted Lasso, no matter what fate awaits the beloved Midwestern coach
I can’t remember looking forward to a single episode of a television show more than this week’s season-three finale of Apple TV’s Ted Lasso since “Felina”, the series finale of Breaking Bad, which aired on AMC on Sept. 29, 2013. Literally a decade ago, my roommates and I during my senior year of co...

The Celtics find an even better way to lose than just getting swept
Remember the “Minneapolis Miracle?” You might, but if you don’t it’s when the Minnesota Vikings pulled out a last-second win in the divisional round over the Saints when the entire New Orleans secondary decided to reenact a Three Stooges routine. However, it doesn’t really get the play that, say, th...

Boston Celtics got a lucky bounce — along with Game 7 and all the momentum
After falling behind 3-0 in the Eastern Conference Finals, Boston Celtics’ guards Jaylen Brown and Marcus Smart told the media, “Don’t let us get one.” Not only did the Celtics get one, but they got a second and a third in a row to tie the series and become only the fourth team in NBA history to adv...

Epic upsets, stellar QBs, and the most notable sports moments of the first half of 2023
Take a deep breath before I reveal a stunning fact, it’s almost June. Some of you were just pulling out the trusty snow blower and now it’s swimsuit season — I hope your diet went better than mine....

Aaron Boone wants to yell at real people, not robots
Aaron Boone has a knack for early showers. You can blame it on a short temper or having the pinky-up attitude of being the Yankees’ manager. Whatever the case, no one has spent less time helming his team from the dugout in Major League Baseball than Boone this season, or since the start of the 2018 ...

MLB scheduling change making it easier for American League East to assert its dominance
Six months or so after the NFC East was the best division in football, the American League East has overtaken MLB. No team is below .500 as of Friday morning/early afternoon, and the fives clubs are a combined 105-56 against opponents outside the division. The Tampa Bay Rays (37-15) and Baltimore Or...

Roberto Firmino will play his last game for Liverpool as my heart aches
The shelf life for soccer players might just be the shortest around. Baseball would like to get there, but in the world of football it still basically works that once you hit 30, they start counting down the clock on you. So on one hand, it seems Roberto Firmino has been playing for Liverpool foreve...

How many wins do the Angels need at the deadline to keep Shohei Ohtani?
If the Los Angeles Angels don’t make the playoffs this season then there’s no question that Shohei Ohtani is gone. Now in his sixth MLB season and heading into free agency, he has yet to reach the postseason and has said that winning is the most important thing to him....

It says a lot about the state of golf that Michael Block won the weekend
Michael Block was a godsend for the PGA Tour over the weekend, as the league’s championship was hijacked by Brooks Koepka, and it desperately needed a storyline to distract people from a LIV player winning a major for the time since any of the big names defected. It was only a matter of majors befor...

Here comes Newcastle… maybe
As Manchester City have bulldozed their way through the second half of the season that gives off the feeling that they’re simply strolling to a Treble, if bulldozing, and strolling can be the same thing, there’s been a question of what anyone can do to stop them in the years to come. Sadly, for ever...

Don't tune out the rest of the NBA playoffs just because the Lakers lost
Some of you American sports fans might be done with the NBA for the 2022-23 season. With the New York Knicks, Philadelphia 76ers, and Golden State Warriors all eliminated, some may feel that it’s time to prepare NFL fantasy draft strategies. Feel free, but with the Denver Nuggets playing the Los Ang...