fl Page 299 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

What Do Germany Have To Do To Get Anyone At Home To Pay Attention?
BERLIN — “We play for a nation that doesn’t even know our name.” So begins a video released last month by the German national women’s soccer team, right in time for the start of the Women’s World Cup. Die Nationalelf, two-time World Cup winners and one of the favorites in the tournament, was packing...

They Want Her To Be The Next Yao Ming, But What Does She Want?
Han Xu, the tallest player in the WNBA, hunched over the menu at a trendy Brooklyn pizza spot, trying to figure out what to order in a place that lists “bèchamel” as an ingredient. This would possibly be difficult even if she could read English, but the Chinese center does not. Decked head to toe in...

Dear The NFL: The CFL Is So Much Better At Video Reviews Than You Are
As the NFL keeps pondering ways to define the undefinable when it comes to pass interference, the CFL just up and simplified things for everyone. Seriously, someone over on Park Avenue should probably take a look at this statement that was put out this morning by the CFL’s commissioner and senior di...

Real Madrid Are Spending Big To Strike Fear Once Again
Three managers in one season; a distant third place in La Liga; an early come-from-ahead Champions League exit; the continued ignominy of paying Gareth Bale’s massive wages. The 2018-19 season was not a good one for Real Madrid, who saw their streak of three straight (and four out of the last five)...

Can American Soccer's Salvation Be Found In The Streets?
Every Wednesday after the snow disappears, the message goes out: Who can play soccer this week? “Want” appears nowhere in the question; it’s assumed that everyone is desperate to get out and play. A poll in a private Facebook group gauges how many people can show up. Only 16 can play at a time, as 8...

Who The Hell Knows How This Ends, But At Least It's Not Without A Fight
Nope, I have nothing for you. I cannot explain how the Golden State Warriors won Game 5 of the NBA Finals, and neither can any of you. A team in tatters refused to shred, and it remains obstinate in the face of a hockey team’s list of injuries. This is almost not at all about the Toronto Raptors any...

Success Spoiled Golden State Warriors Fans
A year ago, Steph Curry told SLAM how grateful he was that Oakland had embraced him “as one of their own.” He’s done his part, there: tons of local charity work, putting Oakland on a shoe and then giving 30 of them away. All of which is to say that he could likely tell you more about the town other ...

Florida State Is Privatizing Its Athletic Department To Shield Itself From Scrutiny
Florida State University’s Board of Trustees voted Friday to establish a new organization that’ll run the school’s athletic department: The Florida State University Athletics Association. According to the Orlando Sentinel, FSU boasted that the new organization would “streamline the relationship” bet...

Twenty Years Ago, Bobby Valentine Snuck Back Into The Dugout And Woke Up The Mets
This is an excerpt from Matthew Callan’s book Yells For Ourselves: A Story Of New York City And The New York Mets At The Dawn Of The New Millennium....

Bray Wyatt's Psychedelic Puppet Show Is The Best Thing In WWE
It’s no secret that WWE programming feels stale at the moment. Very little is landing, live crowds for TV tapings have been noticeably more sedate, and new talent has reliably been squandered. When WWE’s new TV contracts start in October, the promotion will be competing with a new and well-funded ri...

Former Florida Gator Tony Joiner Charged With Murdering His Wife
The Fort Myers News-Press is reporting that Tony Joiner, former standout football player at the University of Florida, has been arrested and charged with murdering his wife....

The Raptors Are The Warriors Now
Recency bias is a hateful but dominant force in the best-of-seven world, so the clear assumption to be made from Game 4 of the NBA Finals is that Game 6 seems unlikely. The Toronto Raptors are the new Golden State Warriors, and the Golden State Warriors are finally all about the trailing step, the a...

When Your Country Is On Fire, There's Always Softball
When he lived in Venezuela, Freddy de Freitas played baseball every day of the week, except for the occasional Monday. He played and baked under the Caracas sun on weekends, and on weekdays after work he’d rush over to his local stadium to play under the lights. That was before the stadium lights st...

Simone Biles Reminds Us How Deep Every Gymnast's Bag Of Tricks Really Is
If I had been drinking something when I clicked play on a video Simone Biles tweeted out on May 28, I would have spat it out. The video in question shows Biles during a training session, once again challenging what I thought I knew about gravity:...

The Night Climbers Of Islamabad
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Every night during Ramadan, about a dozen boys meet up in a parking lot that sits near Islamabad’s network of hiking trails to play cricket under the streetlights. You’re likely to see the same scene play out in any well-lit parking lot across the predominantly Muslim city. Bu...

Blues Honor Rent-A-Car Company With Color Guard Flag, Then Quietly Dishonor It
You might think sports are about sports. No. They’re about the troops. And America. And sometimes Canada too, but rarely in the NHL playoffs. But how can you prove, if you’re a team in, say, the Stanley Cup Final, that you really care about America and its uniformed services? (If you go one day with...

Can’t Everyone Just Stop Hollering At Phil Kessel While He’s Tryin’ To Watch The Teevee?
With the long NHL offseason here and no more hockey being played at all*, a young fan’s fancy turns, of course, to trade drama. This year’s downright biblical playoffs mean lots of teams are likely to be in the mix this summer—Columbus is about to lose high-value Russians faster than Petrograd afte...

What Happened To All The Interesting Refs?
One of the nerdier things a basketball fan can do at 9 a.m. Eastern Weirdo Time is to go to the NBA website and glom onto the identities of the officials who will work whatever game interests you True, NBA ref nerddom is an exceedingly small subset of Nerdvania, but let a thousand sets of hipster gl...

The Scummy Bucs Tried To Keep Secret Their Failed Attempt To Get Millions From The BP Oil Spill Settlement
This is old, but so what. The more we can talk about how the Tampa Bay Buccaneers cooked their books in a failed attempt to claim settlement money from a far-off oil spill that didn’t actually affect them, the better. Turns out there’s one more twist to pass along: The Bucs sought to keep from publi...

Even If The Warriors Win, Oakland Loses
This is the real NBA Finals, the one that transcends Larry O’Brien, Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, Doris Burke, Woj, Adam Silver, dynasties, the next Why-The-Lakers-Are-On-Fire tell-all, the works. This is Oakland’s last stand with the team it raised from a pup, its last healthy bite of an apple that ...