ja Page 234 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The Browns are smart not to lock up Baker Mayfield just yet
The Cleveland Browns come into the 2021-22 season looking to build off a campaign where the team registered its first playoff victory since 1995. To call this a drought is the understatement of the century. Some deserts aren’t as dry as the Browns have been in terms of winning the past 25 years....

What even <em>is</em> taunting, and why is the NFL fixated on killing it with fire?
First it was the Big 12 deciding that any Texas opponent who flashes the “Horns Down” gesture would be fined. Mostly everyone agreed that it was a pretty weak move by a football program that claims to have such an elite reputation. ...

Deadspin Waffles: Should the Bulls trade or keep Lauri Markkanen?
Over a week into free agency, Lauri Markkanen is still looking for his moment of clarity....

Come on, Lamar Jackson, step up and save Black lives by getting vaccinated
Lamar Jackson has a responsibility to be better than this....

Let’s not give Bryce Harper the NL MVP just yet
At the All-Star break, the Philadelphia Phillies were a .500 team and weren’t being taken very seriously as threats to take the NL East crown from the Mets. Despite throwing everything and the kitchen sink at All-Stars Bryce Harper and J.T. Realmuto in 2019, the Phillies have not reached the playoff...

So what does this say about Neymar?
When it comes to anything off the field in La Liga, and especially the two giants Barcelona and Real Madrid, if one of my eyebrows isn’t raised then it’s certainly in the starting blocks to be so. So when news last Thursday broke that Lionel Messi was leaving Barca due to their self-imposed, financi...

Once eyeing $100M+ deal, Dennis Schröder now may be lucky to get $6M
We should all bet on ourselves when the opportunity presents itself....

All those clinging to the belief that LeBron James is still king need to wake up
It’s a Trash Talking Tuesday, and today I’m trashing all those LeBron minions who still are hanging on to the false narrative that he’s the best player on the planet....

Rob Manfred must be looking to Barstool to keep Major League Baseball racist and white
It’s no surprise that the commissioner of the most historically racist and prejudiced pro sports league in America is in negotiations with America’s most racist, misogynist and prejudiced sports site in America to broadcast midweek games, to keep Major League Baseball racist, white, and prejudiced....

Luka Dončić proves there’s few problems that $207 million can’t solve
It was just six weeks ago that the NBA world quaked a little when reports of Luka Dončić’s unhappiness first slithered out of Dallas. A report of strange dude in the front office who had somehow charmed Mark Cuban. Dissatisfaction with the roster around him. Then some longtime organizational stalwar...

MLB definitely wants to die like horse racing
Either MLB’s PR people are locked in a room with no escape, no windows, and all communications shut off to the outside world. Or it’s just a team of koala bears stoned to the bejesus and lying on the floor. That’s the only conclusion you can draw when, on the same day it looks like MLB ducked a majo...

Dawn Staley should be the NBA’s first woman head coach
Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach. Dawn Staley can “do” both, and it’s why she should be the first woman to be a head coach in the NBA....

Are the Mets toast?
It’s rarely a good idea to try and judge what a team is in the middle of a losing or winning streak. No team is ever as good for a whole season as they are when winning eight in a row. Nor are they truly as bad as when they spend a week and a half looking like the Austro-Hungarian Empire. But these ...

Here come the Yankees... either up the standings, onto the COVID list, or both
The hope for most teams before and after the trade deadline is that their new acquisitions will lead to either some sort of inspirational turnaround or make it clear just how much more they’re solidified for the playoffs. It hasn’t worked out that way for a lot of teams....

Mauricio Llovera makes baseball history for wrong reasons
The Phillies are now atop the National League East by a game and a half over the Mets, whom they’ll send back to New York as a second-place team after Sunday’s series finale. Philadelphia’s 5-3 win on Saturday ensured that, after the Mets had held the lead since May....

Should Major League Baseball have taken Olympic play more seriously?
Despite baseball making its triumphant return to the Olympics this year, nobody really seemed very excited to watch. There were probably a lot of factors that went into the lack of hype: general lack of public interest in the Olympics as a whole, the fact that Major League Baseball was going through...

The world is closing the gap… but there’s still a gap
When Team USA’s men’s basketball squad lost against France to officially begin Olympic play on July 25, the doubts were significantly heightened....

Yes, it's a gold medal for Team USA, but what does that mean?
Nobody is going to argue that this was the best men’s basketball team the United States has sent to the Olympics. They’re gold medalists today thanks largely to Kevin Durant — throughout the tournament and including the title game against France; deciding that play time was over, and proceeding to w...

Only reason to sit down with O.J. is to hear him say ‘I did it’
The Athletic is running a series called “the NFL 100,” ranking the top players in football history. This might have made more sense a year ago, when the NFL celebrated its 100th anniversary … and also unveiled an all-time team … but, whatever, everybody likes lists....

France vs. USA — for a gold medal, and 73 years’ worth of revenge
Put yourself in the summer of 1948....