fr Page 96 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

2021 was an incredibly fun year for the USMNT, let’s never do it again
As stated many times before, what the USMNT attempted, and really accomplished, in 2021 is unheard of in international soccer. Turning the entire roster over to children at once just isn’t done. Usually, teams are trying to blend generations, mixing in the aging vets (around 30) with those in their ...

It’s the lack of answers that's so frustrating
I see the sentiment a lot the past couple days that it’s March 2020 all over again. But it isn’t. We are armed with so much more information than we were then, and there are vaccines. The one thing…well, I won’t say “miss” about March 2020 and beyond, because it sucked, but perhaps the biggest diffe...

IDIOT OF THE YEAR 2021: Countdown begins with Stephen A. Smith, Adam Silver, Johnny Damon, and more luminaries
Happy holidays, you filthy animals, and welcome to Deadspin’s annual IDIOT OF THE YEAR extravaganza. Within these hallowed slides are 50 of the year’s least bearable dorks, whose transgressions range from “just kinda silly,” to “dangerously stupid,” to “Trevor Bauer.”...

Deron Williams defeated Frank Gore via split decision and Gore is already saying he’s ready for another taste
All current, former, and future NBA players should thank and praise former NBA All-Star Deron Williams for bringing a little credibility back to the ballers arena. For those who still believe that all basketball players are soft in comparison to their football counterparts, then you probably didn’t ...

YouTube TV cuts off game feed on Lakers
Cord-cutting Lakers fans enjoyed one of their better moments of the season Friday night as YouTube TV cut off ESPN and all the other Disney-owned channels at midnight Eastern amid that bane of streamers and cable customers alike, a carriage dispute....

Soda giveaway is a Giant slap in the face to fans
The Giants have clinched their fifth straight losing season, are going to miss the playoffs for the ninth time in 10 years, and the most intriguing thing about them right now is how long they’ll start Mike Glennon at quarterback over Jake Fromm. That’s because Daniel Jones, a bust from the moment he...

It’s Week 15 of the NFL, the most magical week of the year, and everyone is either injured or has COVID
Welcome to Week 15 of the NFL, where playoff races are heating up and things are getting good. Let’s see what’s cooking over at ESPN....

Cleveland has hope — and a pretty good basketball team
If there was a way to slyly tell you that Cleveland has the second best scoring defense in the NBA behind the Warriors, I would do that. But me doing the whole, “I bet you couldn’t guess who the second best scoring defense in the league is” bit isn’t clever, because Cleveland is in the headline of t...

Sorry Vegas, but there’s no way Jim Harbaugh or Nick Saban goes to the NFL
NFL teams have been looking at college coaches to fill their head coaching vacancies more than ever. In each of the past three seasons, at least one coach made the jump to the NFL after years of working at the collegiate level. Urban Meyer is the most recent college coach to take that route, and alt...

It doesn’t sound like the NHL is going to the Olympics
There are few good ideas in the pandemic. The most you can muster is, “Well, I guess that’s the best they can do.” The urge to try and have anything normal is an understandable one, it’s just there are so very many limits to how to get to that safely, so we either can’t have them or just ignore the ...

Replicating Pickett’s fake slide? No Ken do
If you liked Pitt quarterback Kenny Pickett’s fake slide on the way to a 58-yard touchdown run in the ACC championship game last week, you’ll need to savor it, because you’re not going to see it again....

NFL Week 14: The battle at the bottom of the NFC playoff picture
Most NFL fans will tell you that in recent years the AFC has been a better conference than the NFC. Despite an NFC team winning the Super Bowl last season, they also had a 7-9 team (Washington) reach the playoffs by winning their division, along with an 8-8 team (Chicago) as a wild-card. Meanwhile, ...

This will be good for Barcelona
I’m sure Barcelona, both their fans and the club itself, are tired of signs and symbols of how far they’ve fallen. Must get repetitive. Blockin’ out the scenery breakin’ their mind by this point. But their last Champions League game of the season was one of the harshest yet....

Major League Soccer has a better ‘Rooney Rule’ than the NFL
Eighteen years ago, the most prejudiced sports league in American professional sports (Major League Baseball is a close second) created their version of “affirmative action” when they came up with the Rooney Rule — named after the legendary Steelers owner Dan Rooney — in hopes of helping diverse can...

Oregon picking over suspect Thanksgiving coaching leftovers after flurry of hires
Mario Cristobal is taking his talents to South Beach and is out the door at Oregon after Utah hit him in the ass with it. (Looking at the judges to see I get credit for two cliches in a lede. And… yes, “taking his talents to South Beach” qualifies.) The hire for Miami is seemingly a home run because...

Watch Lincoln Riley at your own risk
It looks like USC used up their entire athletic budget on Lincoln Riley’s $100 million contract. The video of his introduction as the Trojans’ new head coach is making the Twitter rounds, an introduction that can truly only be described as a combination of an SNL skit, a vivid melatonin-induced drea...

Biden’s diplomatic boycott of Olympics in China is about as empty as his presidency
It’s not that anyone should have expected the Joe Biden administration to pull the big card and keep U.S. athletes away from Beijing in February. It would have led other nations to do the same, and might have actually been the rare instance of someone standing up to China for all the atrocities it c...

Tommy Fury is pulling out of his fight against Jake Paul, but the replacement is one helluva second option
Getting that middle finger tattoo may pay off in the long run for Tyron Woodley, because he got the fight that he wanted. Tommy Fury has pulled out of his Dec. 18 pay-per-view bout against Jake Paul. Fury, the former Love Island UK star, sent out a statement through his promoter, Frank Warren, annou...

The Flyers needed to fire Alain Vigneault last year
The Philadelphia Flyers fired coach Alain Vigneault on Monday, and the truth is it should have come sooner, and it’s probably not enough....

These teams did not go quietly into the night in Week 13, their seasons may be done but they gave their home fans at least one last smile to take into the holidays
Be honest with yourselves because I’m about to be honest with you, I didn’t expect much from this Week 13 slate of the NFL season. With just over 1/4th of the regular season remaining, there were four teams on a bye week and the only one of those four teams has a record under .500 (the Carolina Pant...