il Page 654 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
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...
You’re a fool if you think Belichick doesn’t trust Mac Jones
Monday night, we saw a familiar outcome in the NFL: the New England Patriots beating the Buffalo Bills. Despite horrid weather conditions and having to play on the road, the Patriots continued their dominant play as of late, thus lengthening their lead in the AFC East and doing so while having their...
Spare thoughts for the former Gil Hodges Lanes
I don’t really know what I was expecting, going to a bowling alley that’s two names removed from what it was called when my grandparents used to take me there, and thinking that maybe there would be something special about the fact that the old namesake, finally, many years late, had been elected to...
Russell Westbrook is tired of hearing about his alleged phone call to Kawhi Leonard in the summer of 2019
The Lakers’ Russell Westbrook-LeBron James experiment hasn’t exactly worked out how everyone in Los Angeles had hoped coming into the season. But if Westbrook had been able to persuade Kawhi Leonard to bring him along on his way to LA a couple of years ago, Westbrook would have been a Clipper and no...
These Bulls are so much goddamn fun
I won’t lie to you, dear reader. Things are pretty bleak around here in Chicago, sports-wise. And actually beyond sports-wise, but I’m not qualified to discuss those things, really. Our center, the Bears, are an elaborate prank played on all of us by a trickster god, or at least they’d better be. Fi...
The New England Patriots still rule the AFC — deal with it
Bill Belichick is the AFC’s Thanos. He’s inevitable. ...
2021 Rookie QB Rankings: It takes two to make a thing go right
It’s Week 13 of the NFL season, and rookie quarterbacks are front and center, with some living up to the hype and others not as much. With that, let’s look at how the 2021 rookie class fared in Week 13....
So it really wasn’t necessary to blow up the Dolphins a second time after all
It was all over for the Miami Dolphins after the trade deadline. They were willing to sell all of their credibility and goodwill to trade for Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson, despite the whole “Tanking for Tua [Tagovailoa]” hashtag in 2019. The No. 5 overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft did ...
Divock Origi, the club legend who never plays
Every fandom has their cult heroes who seemingly drop in out of the sky and provide a lifelong memory. Phillies fans have Matt Stairs. Bulls fans have Steve Kerr, to an extent (Kerr was a fine player but he does seem an odd choice from the gods to hit a title-clinching shot, no? Then again, he did i...
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....
The Philadelphia Union got screwed, but there was probably little MLS could do
We don’t think any of the current seasons taking place now as “COVID seasons” like we did of the previous ones played in empty stadiums/arenas or in weird, neutral venues altogether. But it still very much is, which the Philadelphia Union learned the all-too hard way yesterday....
F1 season will come down to bonkers last race after bonkers race in Saudi Arabia
You don’t need to know much about F1 racing, or racing in general, to know that a race that had to be started three different times, and had an incident that saw the race’s leader attempt to give the lead to his closest competitor only to have the whole thing end in a collision, to know that Sunday’...
A Hall of Fame announcement we can all get behind
In the past, I’ve tried to remove myself from Hall-of-Fame debates. Because at the end of the day, they’re really no more useful or material than the Oscars or Grammys. You’re basically debating someone’s opinion. And because of the esteem these things have gotten over the years, you’re debating the...
Week 13 NFL Powerless Ranking: Detroit finally wakes from nightmare
Welcome to this week’s NFL Powerless Rankings. We’re closing in on the home stretch of the NFL season, and we know the contenders from the pretenders at this point. We’ll talk about the contenders later because this list is about the less fortunate teams in the league. Let’s check out the worst of t...
Gardner Minshew may have had <em>Top Gun</em> on the brain, but he needs to operate the Eagles like a 747 today
America’s favorite hipster quarterback is making his return to the field today. Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts is out with an ankle injury, so for the first time since Week 14 of the 2020 season, Gardner Minshew II will be starting in an NFL game....
Week 13 NFL Betting Primer: Best Over/Under, Spread, Teaser and Prop Bets
The weekly player prop is starting to become a curse of sorts, after another player succumbed to injury and cost us. Fortunately, it didn’t cost a winning week....
Clock ticking on Big Ben
The news that Ben Roethlisberger “expects this to be his final season playing quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers,” as Adam Schefter reported, is some big-time “duh” stuff....
The U stifles stalkers, blocks tracking of its private jets
Rumors have been floating around for weeks that the University of Miami is eyeing Oregon’s Mario Cristobal to take over their head coaching vacancy, just one of many moves that has happened in the insanity that is this year’s college coaching carousel. But the U, a former powerhouse hoping to return...
Neil Olshey firing is only going to prolong the wait for your Dame dream trade
Let’s try an exercise. Something happens to the Portland Trail Blazers franchise, and they don’t immediately try to trade Damian Lillard. It’s to the point that I wouldn’t be shocked if media outlets have a pre-written template for Blazers stories....
Sports have a Gen Z problem, and it could take some experimenting to fix
In 2020, a survey of several Gen Z Americans revealed that only 53 percent considered themselves sports fans, and only 21 percent considered themselves to be “avid” sports fans. Both these figures are the lowest of any age demographic. Gen Z has shown a general disinterest toward professional sports...