football Page 146 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The baseball is deflated again
I’m cribbing heavily from Joe Sheehan’s newsletter again, but in his latest missive he points out that things keep getting better and better for pitchers. Thanks to technology and greater study, they discover new pitches or tweaks to existing ones as they keep throwing harder and harder. At the same...

Well look here, the NBA got smart and finally hired social media’s favorite sports broadcaster
Imagine attempting to run a necessary errand before the start of Monday’s first playoff game. It’s the only time that you have during the day to complete this task. You scramble, get it completed and head home safely, but also with purpose, to get home and see as much of the first game as possible. ...

Let’s open up Marshawn Lynch’s portfolio
One of the names you may not have expected to be mentioned as an up-and-coming business tycoon is former Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch. For many fans, Lynch is primarily known for his infamous phrase, “I’m here so I won’t get fined.” He wasn’t always the most agreeable player during h...

Tom Brady ESPN exclusive provides zero answers
OK, seriously — does Tom Brady have dirt on someone at ESPN? Does ESPN have a large chunk of its investments tied up in Brady? Wait — actually, yeah, they do. That should explain the PR puff piece they just put out on the Bucs QB a week after the news broke that Brady had planned to become a part-ow...

The NWSL has some good Twitter beef
If Drive to Survive on Netflix has taught us anything, it’s that people love the story behind the story, and it can rocket the popularity of a sport if they allow people to see it. But you don’t need a Netflix special to get into some personality and character. Twitter can do that for you, as long a...

Reboot USFL will be remembered for its chicken salad, not the football
The contemporary USFL is the chicken salad of spring professional football leagues. In theory, it may feature the name of two ingredients people love, but it’s a stomach-churning and second-rate mixture in practice. For example, USFL running back De’Veon Smith was cut by his Pittsburgh Maulers team ...

The Colts were a trendy Super Bowl pick last season, this season they want to be a favorite
The Indianapolis Colts were certainly not thrilled with the way that their 2021 season ended. It started in disappointing fashion by losing their first three games. They improved, but still lost twice to division rival Tennessee Titans, including a heartbreaker at home — 34-31 in overtime. Then the ...

Green Bay has 11 picks in this year’s draft, but replacing Davante Adams won’t be easy
As the 2022 NFL draft approaches, the Green Bay Packers find themselves in retool mode after handing Aaron Rodgers a colossal contract extension and trading away All-Pro wide receiver Davante Adams. The good part of that equation is locking up Rodgers for the next few years and acquiring extra first...

Deebo Samuel, A.J. Brown and Terry McLaurin want, and deserve, new contracts
It is mid-April, which means the NFL Draft is a couple of weeks away, OTAs are around the corner, and Week 1 is a mere five months away. Besides the draft, most teams have made their major offseason moves. Several record-breaking contracts have been signed since this offseason, and a few young stars...

The USMNT is crafty in the middle but dangerous at both ends… to themselves
Being panicky and reactionary about the USMNT is now part of the deal. Perhaps it’s a sign we’re growing up. Fuck, three weeks ago, the US qualified for next fall’s World Cup (and got something of a favorable draw), Christian Pulisic was starting regularly for Chelsea — looking good doing it, too — ...

Ranking the NBA’s first round matchups by how likely we are to see an upset
The NBA’s playoffs are easily the most predictable of the major American sports leagues. Without the variability of baseball or the single playoff game format like football, it’s pretty rare that there are any true upsets in the first round of the NBA playoffs. In most years you look at the bracket ...

Can we please get an LS-U <em>30 for 30</em> already?
It’s hard to quantify what makes a thing charismatic. I recently went to New Orleans for the first time, and before I arrived, I was a little skeptical because often when people can’t shut up about how great something is, the expectation is set so high that anything but perfection is going to be a l...

USMNT in the knockout round! An Argentina-Brazil semifinal! Oh, Canada! (and more World Cup predictions)
Instead of a World Cup taking place in the summer, we’re waiting until the late fall for the festivities to start to get to a manageable playing temperature in Qatar. The 2022 FIFA World Cup draw took place a few weeks ago, giving a path to the 37 teams still in contention to lift the trophy. Four w...

No one asked for a Joe Paterno retrospective on his ‘legacy’
“We have never covered up things around here. We just didn’t have problems.”...

Sure seems as if Ryan Tannehill’s job ain't safe
Prior to 2021, I was chugging along on the Ryan Tannehill hype train. I still believed Derrick Henry was the key to Tennessee’s success, but I saw way too many people claiming Tannehill was a bum. He hadn’t done anything to prove he wasn’t able to contend in the AFC. He’d defeated Lamar Jackson and ...

Mike Bossy, scoring star of 1980s Islanders dynasty, dies at 65
Mike Bossy, star of one of the NHL’s greatest dynasties, died Thursday night according to TVA Sports, a French-language network in Canada where Bossy was a hockey analyst....

Ukraine set to resume chase for World Cup spot, could play US in Group B
Russia’s brutal war isn’t stopping the Ukraine national football team from returning to competition. With the 2022 FIFA World Cup starting in November, the Ukrainians are one of seven teams vying for the final three unclaimed spots in the tournament with three hailing from Europe....

Baker Mayfield is doing himself no favors with this woe-is-me act
Baker Mayfield hasn’t done himself any favors since learning of his official demise in Cleveland after the Browns traded for his replacement, DeShaun Watson. The 22 civil cases for sexual misconduct still pending for Watson weren’t enough to scare the Browns away, which meant the end of Mayfield’s c...

Don’t do this FOX - don’t make Urban Meyer relevant again
If I ever became President (let’s hope that’s never the case), my first executive order would be to make it illegal to say “Urban Meyer” and “NFL” in the same sentence, unless of course that name and organization are separated by either the phrase “does not belong in...” or “does not belong anywhere...

The Brian Kelly-Notre Dame breakup gets even messier
We’ve got a new rivalry on our hands — the tension has been brewing all off-season between LSU and Notre Dame, and it escalated this week when former Tigers head coach Ed Orgeron was photographed observing a spring practice in South Bend. ...