fl Page 4 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Why Antonio Brown Needs His Helmet
Antonio Brown is the most prolific wide receiver in football over the last eight seasons (or so), even while being a smaller and less imposing physical specimen than nearly every “No. 1” receiver in the NFL. How does he do it?...
The Olympics Are Coming To Tokyo, And So Is The Movement To Kill The Games Forever
TOKYO, JAPAN — In the lobby of the Marunouchi Nijubashi Building, which is undergoing final preparations to host the 2020 Olympics, a robot is on patrol. A combination of information kiosk and surveillance camera, the robot stops directly in front of me. It has the word ALSOK plastered across its ne...
Antonio Brown Had Better Have Something Else In Store
You hate when a great story about massive foot blisters, home-painted football helmets, ultimatums, and coaches supporting their players through clenched teeth and retirement threats takes an obvious plot twist, but here we are: Antonio Brown v. Roger Goodell:...
NFL Owners Have Always Been Terrible. It's Just That Now The President Is Worse.
When it comes to marrying brain-frozen, heavily armed plutocracy with mindless and quasi-religious ritual, the National Football League pretty much got there ahead of everybody. The number of NFL owners whose general political and social outlook has progressed past the conventional wisdom of the Art...
The Start Of The Premier League Means The Start Of Manager-Sacking Season
The Premier League begins Friday. By Sunday, at least one manager will be rumored to be in trouble “if results do not improve.”...
The Fight Against The Los Angeles Olympics Isn't Over Yet
On a sweltering July morning in Los Angeles, the LA 2028 flags flew as “Mayor” Eric Garcetti stood on the steps of City Hall and cancelled The LA 2028 Olympic games. The games that he had insisted on were being called off, citing the absurd costs, impossibility of staging outdoor events due to clima...
As The Border Bled, Juárez Watched The Game It Waited Nine Years For
JUAREZ, MEXICO — On a scorching hot Sunday afternoon, as you walk through the parking lot of Estadio Olimpico Benito Juárez, you can feel the excitement. Nine long years have passed since the last time Juárez had a team in Mexico’s top soccer league. And now, Los Bravos of FC Juárez, are about to pl...
What In The Hell Is Happening In The NL?
I am surprised that Comrade Roth hasn’t mentioned this a couple of hundred times because as a Mets fan he is by definition skin-rash-level annoying, but there’s this: The Mets are now in the National League wild card mosh pit....
Okay, Maybe That's Enough <i>Fast And Furiouses</i> For Now
One of the earliest signs that the Fast and Furious film franchise has finally flown too close to the sun comes within the first 10 minutes of Fast and Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, the ninth installment in the now 18-year-old series....
The Raiders Will Be The Death Of <i>Hard Knocks</i>
I do not consider Hard Knocks a part of my sport-watching schedule, so I come to this conclusion solely without bias and based entirely on the hearsay of others, minimal news reports, Antonio Brown’s balloon arrival, and the law of diminishing returns:...
Let's Rebrand The Clippers
Steve Ballmer said he is open to renaming/rebranding his basketball team, which would be noble if the rest of the sentence read, “because the amoral pig who owned this before me turned the enterprise into a urinal and even shouting like a lunatic and bringing Jerry West and Kawhi Leonard on board do...
What It Was Like To Be Covered By Champ Bailey
I was playing in NFL Europe in the spring of 2004, eating schnitzel in Düsseldorf for the Rhein Fire, when I learned that we had traded for Champ Bailey. I had just spent the year on the Broncos practice squad and Clinton Portis was my teammate. Now Clinton was gone and we had Champ coming to town....
Anyone Mad At LeBron James For Dadding Out Never Played AAU
At an AAU tournament when I was 16, just minutes before my third game of the day, I ate three slices of pizza and drank a sugar-free Red Bull. I nearly threw up twice during the game, but I got shots up and hit six threes. I think we won that game, but I don’t remember. I don’t remember anyone even ...
A Trade Deadline Full Of Sound And Fury And Setup Men
Of the enduring images that make live sports television great, few rival the trade deadline shows for pure unalloyed reality. Men in coats staring at phones that don’t ring, then looking plaintively at each other and the hosts as if to say, “We got nothing here. Go to break, do a puppet show, crack ...
I Got The Last Laugh At Broncos Training Camp
For the past year, I’ve been dipping a mangled toe into the stand-up comedy waters around L.A. It’s hard, but not nearly so nerve-wracking as my very first gig: making fun of Mike Shanahan....
Vince McMahon's Defiant Paranoia Was Shaped By His Steroid Trial
Twenty-five years ago this week, at the now-shuttered federal courthouse in Uniondale for the Eastern District of New York, WWE chief Vincent Kennedy McMahon was acquitted on charges of conspiracy and possession with intent to distribute anabolic steroids. It was a pivotal moment in wrestling histor...
To Win An Ultramarathon Through Hell, You Need A Devil To Chase
JAMMU AND KASHMIR, India — If you go about as far north as a vehicle can reasonably take you in India, and about as high as your lungs can handle, you may well end up in a city called Leh. One of the few ways to get to this city, which sits 11,500 feet above sea level, is to travel along the Leh-Man...
Get Ready For The Real Tampering Fight
Sure, you people laughed about the new NBA-wags-its-withering-fingers-at-tampering story. Of course you did. You’re still drunk, high, and sleeping on the front lawn about the latest offseason. It’s what you do, because drunken no-limits you is the best you you’ll ever be....
Transit Records Show How 12,000 WWE Fans Got Stranded After WrestleMania
The biggest story of WrestleMania 35 might have been just how damn long the show was, a whopping seven and a half hours, including the “kickoff” show. The card ran until just before 12:30 a.m., which impacted everyone watching both live and at home, but it caused a very specific set of problems for ...
The Forgotten All-Star Game That Helped Integrate Baseball
When Cleveland celebrated its sixth time hosting MLB’s All-Star Game last week, it might have seemed an odd event to commemorate baseball’s integration. But when Jackie Robinson stepped onto the field in a Brooklyn Dodgers uniform in April of 1947, becoming the first African-American to play in whit...