christian Page 11 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Which USMNT players punched their ticket to Qatar?
The United States men’s national team has zero minutes of game time remaining before it lines up against Wales at the FIFA World Cup, the country’s first contest on soccer’s biggest showcase in eight years. Tuesday’s scoreless draw against Saudi Arabia gave us one final look at the Yanks before head...

At least Matt Turner played well
It’s never a good sign when the biggest pro from the United States men’s national team’s Friday debacle full of cons — a 2-0 loss to Japan that doubles as the Yanks’ penultimate FIFA World Cup tune-up — was goalkeeper Matt Turner. The Arsenal summer signee was called into action frequently and made ...

Someone might want to check to see if Boone is still standing
Appalachian State earned its first appearance on ESPN’s College Gameday after upsetting then No. 6 Texas A&M in College Station a week ago. Usually, when Kirk Herbstreit, Lee Corso, and the crew roll into town, the game rarely lives up to the pregame festivities....

Berhalter’s shortcomings on display with September roster omissions
Mark it down now. John Brooks, one of the two Americans in any severity of contention to claim one of the 26 United States men’s national team spots on the plane to Qatar, will be watching the games on a TV screen. Brandon Vazquez, the 23-year-old FC Cincinnati striker with 16 goals this season, won...

It pays to have a top target
Do you remember the wide receiver carousel of the offseason? Do you remember when star wideouts were being moved like they were 30-year-old NBA players with a salary-matching contract (looking at you Trevor Ariza)? Do you remember when teams elected not to pay their best pass-catchers because they d...

Rockies’ C.J. Cron helps baseball beat mountain traffic
C.J. Cron’s rise in Major League Baseball has been slow but steady. He’s 32 and has played for five teams and is in the middle of his second year with the Rockies. He made his first All-Star game this summer. Yet, the biggest, or should I say longest, individual play of his career took place Friday ...

Are Russell Wilson’s best days behind him?
The odds have always been stacked higher than Russell Wilson’s 5-foot-11 frame. A decade into his NFL career, he’s vanquished the skeptics who thought he was too short to excel under center behind towering offensive linemen. Wilson’s high release which prevents defensive linemen from batting down hi...

It’s All Happening — WWE and AEW now: CM Punk is just another word for Hulk Hogan
For the first time this past weekend, and intentionally no matter what they may say, WWE and AEW ran PPVs/PLEs on the same weekend, perhaps being in direct competition with each other for the first time since NXT was backed off Wednesday nights. Feels like as good of a time as any to see where the c...

NFC South Preview: It’s Tom Brady’s world, we’re just living in it
Logical outcome: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers get the jump on this division and never relent. Let’s keep it 100: The Panthers, Saints, and Falcons don’t have the cannons to match up to Tampa Bay’s gunpowder on both sides of the ball. Brady breaks Peyton Manning’s single-season passing yardage record, to...

AFC South Preview: It’s all about Indy
Logical outcome: The last few years have been a song of Matty Ice and Fire. He’s either an MVP-caliber passer or he’s a borderline starter watching defenders react faster while he gets slower. For the first time in Ryan’s career, he’ll share the backfield with an All-Pro-caliber running back, which ...

VAR might tear England apart more than the Tories will
Someone much smarter (i.e. everyone) than me one day will write a book about how VAR is the perfect distillation of the dual track of technology, both the advancement and the hindrance on society that it can be. Although, unlike most technological advances, VAR has actually provided another job for ...

Remember when James Franklin was rumored for the USC job? Lol, me too
Any writer looking to get a head start on next year’s “Coach on the hottest seat” countdown might want to keep an eye on James Franklin. Even though the 10-year contract extension Penn State gave him in 2021 is likely enough to ensure his seat stays lukewarm, it was impossible to watch the season-op...

These USMNT players vying for World Cup roster will benefit from transfer window
The biggest hammer never dropped during transfer deadline day for the United States men’s national team fans. Christian Pulisic still wears Chelsea blue, which will prove to be a blessing in disguise or what plummets the USA’s chances at a deep run at this year’s World Cup. The Yanks’ captain and be...

5 breakout candidates for the 2022 NFL season
Whether it was Cooper Kupp in 2021, Josh Allen in 2020, or Marlon Humphrey in 2019, breakout players have always been difficult to predict, but not impossible. Solid underlying stats, good coaching, and an obvious opportunity for increased usage are the three main characteristics we need to look at ...

Don’t worry at all about Amon-Ra St. Brown
As fantasy draft season ramps up, there are numerous questionable decisions to be made at every juncture....

If the Packers are going to take that final step, David Bakhtiari has to be dominant
After a long 2021 — complete with a rapid heel turn — that ended with a home-playoff loss as the top seed in NFL, along with Aaron Rodgers’s second consecutive MVP, the drama appears to be over. Rodgers signed a three-year extension during the offseason that guarantees him over 100 million, and aver...

After all the drama, Baker Mayfield got what he wanted
North Carolina, get ready for commercials for the new Baker Box at Bojangles, because the Carolina Panthers have named a Week 1 starter. The team traded for Baker Mayfield in July, and have announced that he is their QB1....

My, how Antonio Gibson has fallen
A long, long time ago, I can still remember when Antonio Gibson used to make me smile. And I knew if he got that chance, that he’d make all of DC dance, and maybe they’d be happy for a while. Then, Aug. 16, 2022, made me shiver, because I just read that Gibson was taking reps with the Commanders’ pu...

Don’t do it, Christian
The transfer window is closing soon, and that would normally mean a pretty furious avalanche of rumors, requests, bids, and stories. Deadline day has become the sport’s free agency day in the NHL or NBA (or even election night), with masses of reporters spread out across the European continent breat...
