il Page 558 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Maple Leafs have no bottom
I am as guilty as anyone else of turning the NHL into “How The Maple Leafs Turn.”You spend enough time commenting on how everyone’s always commenting on the Leafs, and well, you’re then part of the problem. But every time the Leafs do something, it’s generally causing some sort of ripple given their...
Rob Manfred’s dumb ghost runner is here to stay
The start of the World Series always means that whichever ghoul is the commissioner of MLB is going to emerge from the damp and dark dwelling in which he inhabits. That’s the rule for every league of course, so it’s not to single out baseball. A Super Bowl, a Stanley Cup Final, the NBA Finals always...
The Second Coming of Dennis Smith Jr.
Maybe all he needed was to come home. Smith is from Fayetteville, North Carolina, and is now playing with the Charlotte Hornets, just a mere three hours from his hometown. The Hornets are Smith’s fifth team in six seasons. Last year, he split time between three teams, including the Hornets. So why h...
Waiving Josh Primo demonstrates why the Spurs are still a first-rate franchise
The Spurs’ announcement that they had released Josh Primo was the ultimate Friday evening news dump that caught the entire league by surprise. Lottery picks don’t get waived heading into their second season, and definitely not an hour before tipoff for a regular season matchup without forewarning. T...
Just in time for Halloween, these are the scariest athletes of all time
In order to make money as a professional athlete, a person’s body must be able to defeat another person with a body that has gone through the same rigorous training. All of these people would be intimidating to those of us just trying to consistently get to the health club three days per week....
NFL Week 8 Takeaways: Beware, you’re in for a scare, running backs are running amok
For those of us who remember physically putting a finger into a hole and waiting for the plastic wheel to spin back around to make a phone call, we know that the running back used to be one of the most important positions in football. Many of you out there whose football talent would never be apt fo...
Welp, it turns out the Bills were every bit as good as advertised
While there is no guarantee that the Buffalo Bills will win the Super Bowl this season, there is no reason to remove them from their perch as championship favorites....
A championship that means more
It’s been a busy time for the study of what exactly championships mean. Especially in baseball, the discussion of the inherent faults of any playoff system seemingly have been under the microscope, though mostly from teams in whose favor it didn’t work (I Love LA!). In soccer, MLS is considering tin...
No, Kanye wasn't right — so stop sharing antisemitic hate speech
This is exactly why Kanye West’s recent antisemitic interviews are so dangerous. Ye has over 50 million followers on Instagram and Twitter combined. His words carry weight and it’s his failed responsibility to know others would adopt his belief because of his lofted and unworthy celebrity status. At...
Should a player’s legacy be defined by postseason results?
Justin Verlander has a great shot at winning the American League Cy Young award this year. He pieced together a dominant season — at age 39 — after recovering from Tommy John surgery and helped lead the Houston Astros to another World Series. ...
Still amazed by the Phillies? You haven’t been watching them
The Houston Astros entered the World Series perfect for the postseason. They extinguished the sizzling Seattle Mariners, and then sent New York Yankees fans spiraling. And in Game 1 of the World Series, they looked inevitable, getting out to a 5-0 lead after three innings with Justin Verlander perfe...
NFL Week 8: The Falcons are the least pathetic team in the pathetic NFC South
Another week means another heavy underdog getting tons of money thrown its way. This is interesting because the dog seems to win when bettors throw a lot of money behind it. Just this season, most of the reviews I’ve written about have surrounded the 6-1 New York Giants. Big Blue has an incredible a...
LeBron James dropping the Dallas Cowboys over ethical reasons yet somehow rooting for the Cleveland Browns? Who wants to tell him?
Noted frontrunner LeBron James has switched his NFL allegiances because it’s clear the Cowboys aren’t going to win the Super Bowl — oh, wait. He’s actually dropping Jerry Jones and Dallas because of the owner’s stance on players kneeling. If the story stopped there — and of course, it doesn’t becaus...
There are 10 unbreakable NFL records
Nowadays, in the NFL, it feels like there’s a record broken every week in almost every game. Once the league moved to an 18-game schedule, certain records — such as most catches by a rookie, or a team’s single-season mark — have been surpassed. But then there are those feats that have — and will — s...
That time Bo Jackson tried to kill Kevin Seitzer
In the summer of 1986, Bo Jackson and Kevin Seitzer played side-by-side on the Memphis Chicks, the Kansas City Double-A farm team. And although there wasn’t any noticeable animosity, the men — now teammates on the 1988 Royals — shared little in common. Unlike Jackson, blessed by the Gods to be an at...
Tom Brady and the infinite sadness
Thursday Night Football is usually a pretty sad occasion as ritual, given the mess that it tends to be with the short rest and everyone still very much sore from the game they played just four days prior, and the lack of practice time dulling any sharpness. But last night was particularly acute. ...
I could play this New York Times umpire game for hours
I love umpires. I don’t love to hate them like other baseball fans do, though. I’ve always leaned in the direction of leniency. I know that officiating in any sport is difficult, thankless, and downright hazardous to your health in some situations. Umpires get it the worst though, perhaps because th...
World Series X-Factors: Who needs to step up for Houston Astros, Philadelphia Phillies to win the title?
The World Series kicks off tomorrow night between two teams with wildly different expectations heading into the postseason. On one hand, the Astros were the top seed in the American League. Houston reached the World Series in three of the last five seasons and reached the ALCS in all five. Everyone ...
Westbrook definitely needs to be traded, but he’s far from the only reason Lakers are losing
Russell Westbrook was out Wednesday night with a hamstring injury as the Lakers were soundly defeated on the road against a Denver Nuggets squad missing Michael Porter Jr. and featuring a sub-100 percent Jamal Murray. Truthfully, the Lakers could have used Westbrook’s energy. Someone needed to stand...