il Page 646 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Man City is running away with the Premier League title, so what can the rest of the EPL teams still win?
Slow starts, midseason swoons, and collapses are ways soccer clubs can blow a title race, but if you’re Man City, those don’t happen. Pep Guardiola’s team beat Chelsea for the second time Saturday, 1-0, and are now 13 points clear of the second place Blues and 14 points clear of third place Liverpoo...

The Rangers are a mystery that analytics can't figure out
The best way to determine the best teams in any sport is to look at the standings, right? If they’ve been playing well, they’ll be near the top of the league. As Bill Parcells said, “You are what your record says you are.”...

Death, taxes, and Kirk Ferentz
Speculation about Kirk Ferentz retiring from coaching has been going on since the Obama Administration, when Iowa inked its longtime head man to an extension through 2025. Even with the caveat that it was “a few years off,” we’ve seen ideas tossed out for who might eventually take the helm in Iowa C...

Bo Jackson Curse? The Bengals aren’t cursed, they’re just inept
In my perusal of Wild-Card Weekend storylines to write about, I found the curse of Bo Jackson particularly interesting. If you’ve never heard of Bo Jackson then my god are you young, but if you’ve never heard of the Bo Jackson Curse then, like me, you’re new to this borderline contrived curse....

Without Paul George, a Kawhi Leonard return means nothing this year
After advancing to the Western Conference Finals for the first time last season, this year has been an up and down struggle for the Clippers with key players in and out of the lineup. Kawhi Leonard hasn’t played a game yet this season after tearing his ACL in the second round of the playoffs against...

Are you pumped for a docuseries about golf??
If you’ve been waiting your whole life to get a behind-the-scenes look at the riveting world of golf, your wait is over. Netflix has announced that they’ll be producing a PGA Tour docuseries in the style of the popular Formula One: Drive to Survive reality show that premiered in 2019....

Judging your QB by Instagram followers is just sad
Bears quarterback Justin Fields finished the regular season with a 2-8 record as the team’s starter. He threw 7 touchdowns and 10 interceptions, completing just 58.9 percent of his passes and averaging just 6.9 yards per attempt. ...

Damian Lillard’s injury, sadly, is exactly what the Trail Blazers needed
If the Portland Trail Blazers ever wondered what an unfortunate but well-timed injury looks like, Damian Lillard’s abdominal issue is it. The team announced Thursday that the All-NBA guard underwent surgery to repair it, and he will be reevaluated in six weeks, with a six-to-eight week timetable to ...

Seriously, how did Ken Holland win those Stanley Cups?
Edmonton Oilers owner Daryl Katz is a headline-chaser. He wants to win the press conference, get the attention, and that might be priority No. 1 for him most of the time. I mean, look at this fucking guy. This is someone who wants to be fawned over....

Can Russell Westbrook even fix this?
It’s not breaking news that things are not going well for Russell Westbrook with the Lakers, but things reached a particularly embarrassing point on Wednesday night as the Sacramento Kings’ game ops trolled the former MVP with an “Ice Cold Player Of The Game” scoreboard graphic, on a night when the ...

Why, God?! WHYYYYY?!?!
I fear to guess the main question on the minds of Bills’ fans heading into Saturday night’s playoff game against the Patriots, but one of the recurring queries has to be, “Are you kidding me?” Not only do they have to face New England, the longtime rival who has owned them for the past couple of dec...

This is what happens when you get the aristocracy’s attention
A good portion of fans, most I would say, fail to recognize just how long the NBA season is. Goes for the NHL and MLB ones, too. It’s always hard to explain to a lot of them that there are nights in the middle, or maybe on the second of a back-to-back or the last of a four games in six nights, when ...

In a league of inconsistent-to-bad teams, Memphis is neither
There are currently nine NBA teams hovering around .500 and in or tied for the playoffs/play-in tourney. If that seems like an abnormally high number, that’s because it is, and the Mavs barely missed out on this list because they’re technically four games above .500....

AFCON gets some CONCACAF refereeing
The African Cup of Nations gets a rough ride from most of the soccer world, and it’s mostly because of its place in the calendar. It deprives several clubs in Europe of some of their best players for most of January every two years, which isn’t exactly met with acceptance and gratitude. So it can ac...

Jon Lester just gave more of a s–t than you
Sadly, the, “You’re not winning this game,” term used to describe a transcendent performance from an athlete that just seems a Herculean or galactic level of defiance and denial has been co-opted by Bill Simmons. Which means it’s become as cartoonish as he has....

Deadspin takes a look at every Black coach that’s been hired in the NFL since 2000 and how they fared
When Stephen Ross’ Miami Dolphins fired Brian Flores on Monday, it sent shockwaves around the NFL. For some reason, fans of all genders and races were stunned that Flores was unemployed as if Ross doesn’t have a long history of being a contradictory figure. This is the NFL, a place where Black coac...

It’s been a rough year in Chicago, NFL award voters, give Bears fans a hug and give Roquan Smith some love
I don’t know if anyone knew this, but the 2021 season was a rough one for the Chicago Bears. They finished with their worst record since 2017. Of course playoff hopes being extinguished before the fire ever got to really burn will anger any fanbase, but it’s not like a double-digit loss season is un...

Score one for basketball
Saturday night in Philadelphia, the NFL kicked off its latest Scorigami, as the Cowboys defeated the Eagles, 51-26, in a game that otherwise meant next to nothing as Dallas had already clinched the NFC East and the Birds had already locked up a wild-card spot....

God help me, but I’m starting to hate Nick Saban less
Nick Saban has somehow made a remarkable transformation from one of the most hated men in American sports to a begrudgingly respected and liked — if perhaps not yet universally beloved — figure. How is it even possible to make that sort of shift while remaining the coach of a team that has kept on u...

Three straight deep shots with a national championship on the line? Explain yourself
Up until the final minute, last night’s college football national championship saw Alabama and Georgia within one score of one another for the entirety of the game. Even when Brock Bowers waltzed into the endzone with 3:33 left on the clock, the extra point only made it an eight-point game....