fl Page 261 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

MLB umps play Keystone Kops in punishing wrong guy in bench-clearing non-brawl
Nicholas Castellanos was angry about being hit by a pitch from Cardinals right-hander Jake Woodford, so when the Reds’ right fielder came in to score on a Woodford wild pitch, sliding into Woodford in the process, he made his feelings known....

Which team played the villain role best?
With the Houston Astros now wearing the crown as the most hated team in professional sports — as indicated by the chorus of boos and piercing screams of “CHEATER!” that rang through the Oakland Coliseum (whatever ridiculous name it has today) last night on Opening Day (ahh… welcome back baseball, an...

Justin Fields, Dan Orlovsky, and the never-ending degradation of Black QBs with age-old stereotypes
I find myself often being perplexed by the way some things are happening. Currently, one of those situations is the seemingly-inexplicable decrease in draft stock of a quarterback prospect I love, Justin Fields, who before the season was the consensus second-best quarterback behind Trevor Lawrence. ...

Once you can return safely, here are One Lucky Fan’s picks for the best at MLB parks
It’s Opening Day… and the vast majority of Americans are at least 550 days removed from their last trip out to the old ballgame. We all know about the 2020 shortened season and the cardboard cutouts and we are trying hard to forget it. As such, I know that I am looking heartily forward to my second ...

Athletes who turned their careers into an April Fools joke on all of us
Happy April Fools Day to all. I hope everyone reading this hasn’t already gotten duped by one of their friends or loved ones. If you have, it’s okay at least you didn’t get fooled like these organizations did when they picked the “star” of their franchise. There’s been so many examples of these play...

Kyle Pitts might be this draft’s best wide receiver, and he’s a tight end
Travis Kelce, George Kittle, and Darren Waller have ushered in a new age of receiving-threat TEs, following in the footsteps of Rob Gronkowski (who’s still around) and Jimmy Graham (who mostly isn’t). Next in line could very well be a prospect out of Florida that will go very high in this year’s NFL...

The NFL is poised to be the victory cigar
It was a triumphant day for the NFL, at least the business of the NFL and for its owners. Somehow it always is, even when they’re not playing games. The league announced adding a 17th game officially, even though it doesn’t make sense on any logical level other than owners looking at a pile of money...

17 NFL games, 2,000 yards rushing, 7-9 records and more math to make your head hurt
The NFL has officially voted to expand the regular season to 17 games, opening up a whole can of oddities to accompany it. What happens to single-season NFL records? What about playoff seeding? What even is a .500 team? There’s so much to unpack. I’m sitting over here absorbing this news playing a h...

You might actually get ‘Super Bowl Monday’ off thanks to the NFL’s 17-game schedule (and Presidents)
The NFL’s 17-game schedule, which was just approved this afternoon, is many things. Odd? for sure. A risk to player health? Definitely. “Dumb as hell”? Alvin Kamara says so....

How NOT to talk about the Deshaun Watson allegations
On Sunday, three new lawsuits were filed against Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson, all three accusing Watson of sexual assault and sexual misconduct by women who worked as massage therapists for him at one time or another. That brings the grand total of lawsuits filed against Watson, alleging subst...

The Flyers have eaten another one
As every sport relies more heavily on analytics to tell us what’s really going on, there are fewer and fewer occurrences that seemingly spring from a different plane of existence. Something beyond explanation. Things that are only familiar to Wiccans. We can just about always point to some number or...

MLB and MLBPA need to pull All-Star Game out of Georgia after passing ‘Jim Crow’-era voting laws
Major League Baseball should take action....

A modest proposal for the NFL’s 17th game
It was the worst-kept secret, and the NFL owners have been pushing for this for years. But this week the NFL will make the 17th game official. The players hate it (see Alvin Kamara), but some are kind of shocked that they agreed to this in the latest CBA. Communication is not the NFLPA’s strong suit...

If white athletes took a knee after mass shootings, we’d have gun reform
The most glaring misconception about white privilege is that some white people believe it angers people of color not to have it. That’s a lie. We’re upset because we have to watch as you waste it, knowing all the good we would do with it if we had it....

Darryl Sutter gets point across to Johnny Gaudreau as only he can: Through snark
Darryl Sutter played 406 games in the NHL, so he knows what an achievement it is to get to 500....

NFL Draft season is officially bonkers with ’Fins flipping picks with 49ers, then Eagles
Oh, hell yes. NFL draft madness is now officially underway. The Miami Dolphins this afternoon traded their No. 3 overall pick to the San Francisco 49ers for the No. 12 pick, a compensatory 2021 3rd round pick, and first-round picks in 2022 and 2023. This trade news broke roughly one hour before BYU ...

MLB continues to fail at marketing its product
Just a question — do you know when MLB Opening Day is? No, seriously, without looking, when is baseball back? Have you heard or seen any advertising? I sure as hell haven’t. Coming out of a year of isolation and quarantine, where we as the sports fans are clamoring for sports back on our screens, yo...

Pats O-lineman Justin Herron lauded for helping to stop a sexual assault in Arizona
Justin Herron was exercising at Kiwanis Park in Tempe, Arizona, late Saturday morning when he heard screams. They were coming from an elderly woman who was being attacked by a 30-year-old man, later identified as Kevin Caballero. According to eyewitnesses, Caballero pushed the 71-year-old retired sc...

Deadspin reseeds this senseless men’s Sweet 16
A week into the NCAA Tournament, and madness is the perfect word to describe what has taken place so far in March. The only logical explanation for how things have gone is based on just how nuts this season has been from the jump — given all the pauses and disruptions that have occurred due to COVID...

The NFL is hell-bent on returning to normal, starting with a live draft in scenic Cleveland
We’re kinda sorta trending towards normalcy, and the NFL Draft on April 29 in Cleveland will lean into that, consequences be damned. The NFL announced today in a press release that the draft will be live, in person, with actual live people, including commissioner Roger Goodell, prospects, and fans. ...