it Page 423 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Coming off the bench has brought back some semblance of vintage Russell Westbrook
Russell Westbrook’s first season in L.A. was an unmitigated failure. He was plugged into a lineup of non-shooters including LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and a confusing mix of ill-fitting pieces. Of Rob Pelinka’s misfit toys, though, nobody took last season’s debacle harder on the chin than Westbroo...

By all means, the 49ers should have no trouble with the Chargers
The Los Angeles Chargers are a very good football team. Even in the absence of Keenan Allen and Mike Williams for parts of the season, the downfall of JC Jackson, and the abysmal play of Jerry Tiller on the D-line — thankfully he just got waived — the Chargers have played their way to a 5-3 record a...

Can someone please explain how Josh Bell won a Silver Slugger award?
At the end of October, MLB announced their finalists for the Gold Glove awards. Every MLB fan collectively put palm to face at the sight of Juan Soto being named a finalist for the NL right field Gold Glove. Thankfully, he didn’t win the award. MLB coaches and managers dodged a huge bullet with that...

Have the Mets learned nothing from Bobby Bonilla?
A few days ago, the New York Mets officially re-signed closer Edwin Díaz to a five-year deal worth $102 million, the largest contract ever for a reliever, by a wide margin. The details of Díaz’s contract are as follows:...

Germany has always wanted American football
When tickets for the NFL’s first game in Germany went on sale in July, the worst seats in the entirety of Allianz Arena were being sold left and right for upwards of $600. Germany has never had a mainstream NFL game in the country before, and although the first matchup would obviously be given a ser...

This is all Jack Eichel has
It’s not that the relationship between Jack Eichel and Buffalo Sabres fans will ever be good. Their union promised too much and delivered so little that there should be bitterness on both sides. The No. 2 pick the Sabres sold out for didn’t deliver them from the wilderness that they’ve been stuck in...

Jacob deGrom and Bruce Bochy are a match made in heaven
The MLB hot stove is not officially underway, but it’s warming up, and arguably the biggest name on the pitching market is two-time Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom. Earlier this week, deGrom officially opted out of his Mets’ contract — a decision most people saw coming — and almost immediately th...

The warm glow of MLB Hot Stove’s warming glow: NL Central
It’s officially the offseason now, as we’ve gotten Scott Boras’s Fozzy Bear-in-the-college-dorm act at the GM Meetings. So let’s keep this record spinning right round and move to the NL Central, which I don’t feel personally about at all....

I know exactly who’s under the Bride costume on ‘The Masked Singer’
From the clue package to both performances on Wednesday night’s edition of FOX ratings juggernaut The Masked Singer, anyone who’s a fan of the inaugural All Elite Wrestling world champion knows his signature growl and tone. Chris Jericho is the only current wrestler on American television to sing hi...

Tua Tagovailoa is the real deal
Prior to the season, the NFL world was conflicted on Miami Dolphins starting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa’s viability as a franchise quarterback. Even after his six-touchdown performance in Week 2, the world was still divided. Maybe it was just a fluke game. Hell, even I pointed out that bad quarterba...

Gregg Berhalter is getting loose
Any coach hired by U.S. Soccer, at least for the men’s side (though Vlatko Andonovski isn’t winning many fans these days either), is never going to have 100 percent buy-in. They just haven’t gotten it totally right in… well, ever? Berhalter being related to an exec at the time of his hiring didn’t h...

Jacque Vaughn is Brooklyn’s next man up or their next sacrificial lamb
Mere hours before a nationally televised matchup against the New York Knicks, the Brooklyn Nets opted for a semblance of stability, or at least a stable shoulder to lean on, when they removed the interim tag from assistant coach Jacque Vaughn’s title....

Pete Carroll is still a damn good football coach and he’s getting the very best out of Geno Smith
Pete Carroll still gets it....

This awful stretch of Raiders’ 1st-round draft picks is a sign
Yesterday, after failing to find a trade partner, the Las Vegas Raiders cut former first-round safety Johnathan Abram. According to reports, the Raiders were shopping both Abram and fellow 2019 first-round selection Clelin Ferrell, but, after being unable to find trade partners, Vegas opted to cut t...

Here's the USMNT's roster for the 2022 World Cup
Well, it’s official. Here’s the merry band of men that will head to the deserts of Qatar…unless they get hurt this weekend and have to be replaced. But let’s be positive. After eight years, we now have an actual World Cup squad to debate! Get to know them and love them before you curse their name wh...

Some day, not now, Jabari Smith Jr. will know what it’s like to have a true point guard
For as much tanking and general thirst that the top three picks of the 2022 NBA Draft garnered, they haven’t merited that attention quite yet. In Chet Holmgren’s case, it’s impossible because he’s out for the season. Paolo Banchero is going to win Rookie of the Year, and little else on an Orlando Ma...

Southgate of Dawn — World Cup 2022 Group B Preview: England, Wales, USA, Iran
Don’t worry, we’ll have plenty of USMNT stuff, starting tonight with the roster announcement. It’s all we’ll do. Well, all I will do. I’m collecting Hacksaw Jim Duggan gifs, let me tell you. This is a space for all the others. ...

The US Midterm elections explained to NFL fans
U.S. midterm elections are similar to the midpoint of the NFL season in that everyone is under the impression that it’s all rigged when, in fact, it’s merely a complex, shambolic set of systems from state to state that are sometimes overburdened and can fall victim to the occasional human error. The...

The warm glow of MLB Hot Stove’s warming glow: AL Central
We continue our whip around the baseball offseason by looking at the American League’s worst division, which was won by a team that wasn’t even trying to win, the AL Central....

Who will be stepping into the limelight this NBA season?
When a new wave of players becomes NBA relevant, it usually happens over time, never all at once. It’s a gradual increase in relevance, sometimes under the radar, because it’s guys who reach their potential in small markets and losing situations. When a lottery pick hits early and fast, like Paolo B...