ill Page 247 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
The best games on the NBA schedule this week — only one back-to-back
Don’t let anyone tell you the NBA schedule during the regular season is a poor entertainment product. Of course, a single game does not impact a team’s overall record the same way that it does an NFL team. In the NBA teams play multiple games per week. That is not changing anytime soon, especially w...
Mahomes and Hurts’ Black quarterback Super Bowl showdown has been decades in the making
With all due respect to the Salt Lake City NBA All-Star Weekend, Glendale, Arizona is 2023’s “Black Super Bowl.” A week before NBA superstars and celebs descend on Utah, Jalen Hurts and Patrick Mahomes will take the field as the first pair of black quarterbacks to start against one another in a Supe...
WWE hits the right notes, even if it can’t play the song
You’d be forgiven if you thought that WWE falls into its best long-term storytelling by accident, including in last night’s Royal Rumble. It’s so fixated on providing “moments,” where the crowd pops to a riotous level and (these days) social media starts spinning and buzzing like a slot machine. Wha...
Is Eric Bieniemy being held to an unrealistic standard?
Eric Bieniemy’s circuitous route to an NFL head coaching throne has taken him through at least 16 interviews, and the beat goes on. The coaching game of musical chairs is nearing its conclusion once again, and Bieniemy’s only coaching interview during this cycle has been with the Indianapolis Colts....
Don’t worry Philly, San Francisco brought their own beef
The San Francisco 49er faithful came prepared to Philadelphia, bringing more beef from the bay area than an authentic Philly cheesesteak sandwich. In the days leading up to this clash for the NFC title, Niners fans have trolled through the city of brotherly love spreading disrespect like funk in a g...
Tua Tagovailoa is too close to stop now, right?
The people closest to Tua Tagovailoa might say they support him publicly, but there has to be some part of them that wants to scream, “Intervention! Intervention! Intervention!” The parents of the Miami Dolphins quarterback, Galu and Diane, both said their son “comes back,” and I can’t imagine them ...
A rising tide lift all boats and it's time we threw Jason Whitlock’s ilk overboard
Choosing between women’s and men’s sports is a false choice. If you’re a certain blogger for Glenn Beck’s conservative Blaze media, revisionist history can be a comfort zone that vilifies feminism in sports as your woke sports boogeyman, but makes you look like a headass instead. Jason Whitlock’s re...
NFL QB candidates for the Daniel Jones ‘Don’t give up on me just yet’ award
One of the biggest stories to come out of a very eventful New York Giants season was the emergence of Daniel Jones. Jones went from not having his option picked up to being nicknamed “Vanilla Vick” and the team most likely franchise tagging him. There are two narratives to come of this development. ...
Another AFC championship loss and the Chiefs’ run will begin to resemble the Pistons of the 2000s
Over the last five years, the Kansas City Chiefs have been the closest thing we’ve seen to a dynasty in the NFL. Having won only one Super Bowl, the clock is ticking on their opportunity to claim the dynasty title. Playing in five consecutive AFC title games is an accomplishment but bringing home ju...
The AFC Championship Game’s weakest links
A championship-caliber unit is only as strong as its weakest link. Entering Championship Weekend, the rosters are so deep, and refined that it gets tougher to find dents in their armors. These aren’t the Houston Texans and Chicago Bears. The Kansas City Chiefs found a way around their lack of go-to ...
NFL Coach of the Year: The Good, the Snubbed, and the Bumbling
NFL Coach of the Year finalists are out, and we’re ranking them, plus an added bonus of a couple of snubs and coaches who need to stay as far away as possible from any awards. Some names are expected, and others might surprise you by where they land on the list. ...
2023 Baseball Hall of Fame voting results fallout
Unlike most sports’ Hall of Fame votes nowadays, the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame voting process has been the subject of much analysis, scrutiny, and often ridicule in recent years. There isn’t another major sport with so much elitism that all-time great players aren’t offered immortality via ...
So you’re telling me there’s a chance!
Tommy Paul didn’t play collegiate tennis. Instead, he came up through the junior circuit and turned pro in 2015. He’s one of the rare Americans who plays best on clay, yet his career breakthrough has come on the hardcourt of the Australian Open. Paul took down fellow American Ben Shelton on Wednesda...
NBA All-Star Draft a change for the better
For sports fans who believe that NBA basketball has been “too playground” since Larry Bird retired in 1992, this year’s All-Star game is doing the opposite of reaching out to those fans....
Lakers and Pelicans stars should be back...sometime soon
Somehow the Los Angeles Lakers and New Orleans Pelicans are simultaneously in different and similar situations. One major commonality they share is all-star caliber talent due to soon return to action — Anthony Davis for the Los Angeles Lakers and Brandon Ingram for the Pelicans....
Is it the coach or the team?
Determining an NFL head coach’s value is difficult as hell. Sometimes it’s easy, like with the Jacksonville Jaguars and Urban Meyer, or the New York Giants and Brian Daboll. But most of the time, figuring out how much of a team’s success is based more on the coach or the talent on their roster is an...
Sports networks will invest in just about anything before women’s sports — including pickleball
In a sign that ESPN and other networks can choose to devote broadcast hours to new and emerging sports, the American sports cable channel announced that it was adding pickleball to the lineup....
Stefon Diggs has little to apologize for after loss to Bengals
After an abrupt end to a Super Bowl-or-bust season, Buffalo Bills’ wide receiver Stefon Diggs broke his silence Monday night on social media, responding to his apparent frustration with quarterback Josh Allen and quick attempts to leave the stadium moments after his team’s 27-10 AFC Divisional Round...