chicago Page 21 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

AL Central Preview: Which is it, Luis Robert?
The White Sox are probably the second-most fascinating team heading into the 2021 season. They haven’t quite cannonballed into the pool and ruined the buffet the way the San Diego Padres have — a team they will always be linked to thanks to Fernando Tatis Jr. and the rampant screen-punching amongst ...

NL Central Preview: Smell the glove
The teams in the NL Central seem to be going completely anarchist punk these days. In a league where everyone is trying to hit more homers and amass more power, the top of this division’s strength is going to be defense, the absence of runs and hits, the cooler. When is that the case with one baseba...

With Francisco Lindor and Anthony Rizzo seeking extensions, it's a tale of two owners
Lindor-palooza has apparently begun. News broke last night that the Mets have offered Francisco Lindor a 10-year, $325 million extension to his deal that ends after the season. Lindor is apparently after a 12-year, $385 million deal. As always, both sides are making noise about negotiations being cu...

NBA trade deadline winners and losers (Can you guess which ones go where?)
There were 16 trades involving 23 organizations and 46 players yesterday, making it the most active trade deadline ever. ...

Can properly kicked, as Andy Dalton will not fix a single problem for the Bears
The Chicago Bears are officially the Bad News Bears of the NFL. Their free-agent signing of quarterback Andy Dalton was hardly a solution to this franchise’s ongoing QB dilemma....

Back in the Saddle(dome) for Darryl Sutter
Nine years ago, the Kings were 13-12-4 when they fired coach Terry Murray. After four games with John Stevens behind the bench as interim coach, Los Angeles tapped Darryl Sutter, six seasons removed from his last job with the Flames, to return to the NHL and take the helm....

The Derrick Rose trade could work for Knicks, but only if Immanuel Quickley is allowed to grow
Derrick Rose is back in his second home. The New York Knicks re-acquired the former MVP in a deal over the weekend with the Detroit Pistons, confirmed on Monday morning. The Knicks sent a 2021 second-round pick and enigmatic 2017 top-10 draft choice, Dennis Smith Jr., to Detroit....

Mets fire creep Jared Porter hours after report of his sex harassment
It had been one of the few Mets offseasons with a glow. A new owner who, at least at the moment, wants to run the team like it should be run. The acquisition of possibly the most fun player in the league in Francisco Lindor. But this is the Mets, and stepping on a rake is never more than two strides...

Quit insulting Bears fans’ intelligence, they know this debacle is Nagy’s fault
The Bears are going nowhere fast....

Alabama provides yet another COVID-era chalk title
With the added obstacle of a pandemic, you’d think we would be ripe for surprises. The greater protocols, disrupted or interrupted preparation schedules, the increased pressure based on not really being able to do anything else (not to mention the mental strain), the shortened seasons increasing the...

The Bears’ offense should be ashamed for torturing the kids watching on Nickelodeon
I feel sorry for every child who tuned in to that Bears-Saints game Sunday evening. They deserved better than to see Mitch Trubisky and Matt Nagy completely wreck the Bears offense. Those two probably decreased the team’s end-zone “slime probability” by more than 50 percent by themselves....

If ‘small-market’ teams like the Cubs can't make it, what hope is there?
If this is the reality of baseball, then something about the system needs to change. Trades of top talent for prospects are nothing new in the game, of course, but you don’t expect to see the teams giving up on frontline starting pitchers to be making those trades when they’re in the middle of a win...

Jaguars fans brave COVID to root for Bears
It’s gotten so bad in Jacksonville, that it’s good....

Duke’s women’s team wasn’t the only basketball program to suspend its season last week
When you’re 0-9, people tend to ignore you even when your acts are newsworthy....

Chicago gives Cubs pandemic tax reprieve — residents get tax hike, thumb in eye
There’s seemingly a parade of stories about how the only people not getting utterly fucked during this pandemic are the ones who never get utterly fucked. If you feel like you see something like Tom Brady’s boat purchased with money meant for small businesses, it’s because you do. And if there’s a g...

Losing Len Kasper to the Sox might be hardest blow for Cubs fans
The Chicago Cubs take another hit....

Baseball’s winter of discontent begins
As baseball’s non-tender deadline passed last night, it didn’t end up being the bloodbath that some had predicted, and indeed was expected. Fifty-nine players who could have been offered a contract weren’t, which is a slight rise from the 54 who found themselves in the same situation last year, when...

Which 2-0 NFL teams were frauds? An investigation revisited
Every year, we overreact to 2-0 teams. And every year, a hot team in September cools off by December....

Titans give Colts the Jake Paul combo, Belichick treats Murray like he’s 5’2”, and Bears are NFL’s most depressing team
It’s been a crazy week in the NFL....

Ricketts family gets a landmark tax break on Wrigley Field just in time to gut the Cubs
There is little question that Wrigley Field is not just a Chicago landmark, but an American one. It is the second-oldest ballpark in the land, housing the game that we still at least partially pretend is our pastime and some slice of Americana. It is a major tourist attraction, and one of the more i...