john Page 39 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Hey James Harden, you've got airmail
James Harden’s most iconic sequences are so identical they blur together. Jab step, dribble, dribble again, dribble behind the back, dribble between the legs, dribble one more time… I check my phone… he stutter-steps — oh wait — one more dribble, crossover dribble, crossover dribble, step-back. The ...

MJF is going to bring AEW back to what it does best
Though he’d probably never admit it, and what pisses him off most is that MJF knows it (MJF’s whole character is knowing the things you don’t want to talk about), Tony Khan would tell you with no one else around that MJF is absolutely the heart of AEW. It’s why he brought him back after he completel...

Here are our early season NFL award winners
We’re through a third of the NFL season as we head into Week 7, and there have been plenty of ups and downs thus far in 2022. While we’ve seen plenty of bad football (looking at you, Carolina, and Las Vegas), the season hasn’t been devoid of top-tier play from perennial stars, breakouts, and many ot...

Catching up with the soap opera drama of the NBA
The NBA is one of the longest-running unscripted nighttime soaps on television. Even outside of tip-offs and the final buzzer, its headliners are some of the most accessible figures in professional sports. The rosters are smaller, their faces aren’t obstructed, their games air nightly for at least h...

Russell Wilson’s well-manicured persona now in lock-step with his play style
This NFL season has been defined by a lot of unwatchable prime-time games, and the biggest offender without a doubt is the Denver Broncos. They’ve been on national TV four of the first six weeks, and are 1-3 in those appearances. The offense has tallied outputs of 16, 11, nine, and 16 points in thos...

Carson Wentz, the best a man (Ron Rivera) can get
As the now-Commanders acquired Carson Wentz to be its next quarterback after three decades of unsuccessful options — none lasting more than three seasons as Washington’s primary starter — the fan base just sighed. Wentz was never going to be the guy. He looks like Peyton Manning and Ryan Leaf on bac...

Is this why Daniel Snyder hasn’t been drop-kicked out of the NFL?
It’s still blackmail if it’s done in plain sight. Daniel Snyder’s alleged antics to uncover disparaging information about other league owners — and possibly NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell himself — were detailed in Thursday morning’s near-8,000-word ESPN expose written by Don Van Natta Jr., Seth Wic...

NFL history tells us that the Carolina Panthers won’t hire coach Steve Wilks permanently
Sometimes a promotion is just an extended two-week notice....

The NBA’s Western Conference is going to be like bumper cars with all the movement this season
It’s October, so Halloween season is upon us, but it’s also time for the NBA to return. All the talk and some drama will be shoved aside as teams return to the court, hoping to do what the Golden State Warriors did last season in raising the Larry O’Brien NBA Finals trophy....

Tom Brady, LeBron James, Drew Brees, and Kevin Durant are all pickleball obsessed, which is why you shouldn’t be
With the growing number of Nirvana shirts I see young people wearing, I’m eagerly awaiting the angst to match the apparel. Kurt Cobain’s era-defining band became popular because it was part of a movement that was in direct contrast to heavy metal hair bands and ’80s glam epitomized by cocaine and Mi...

Randy Johnson is one NFL photographer Davante Adams wouldn’t mess with
These days, Randy Johnson is still combining his two favorite interests, owning a bird’s eye view of the world beneath him, and photography. As a 6-foot-10 Hall of Fame pitcher, he towered over the field as the tallest player in Major League Baseball History. He’s also probably one of the few aces w...

The NBA’s Eastern Conference might see a bit of a shake-up in the standings this season
It’s October, so it’s Halloween season, but it also means the NBA is back. All the talk and some drama will be moved aside as teams return to the court, hoping to do what the Golden State Warriors did last season in raising the Larry O’Brien NBA Finals trophy....

Ranking the 12 NFL head coaches hired straight from the Power 5 college ranks since 2000
Dear NFL GMs and owners, you may want to think twice about hiring a head coach straight outta the college ranks. While there have been success stories — Jimmy Johnson going from the U to Big D being the best example — that really hasn’t been the case in this millennium. Matt Rhule is the latest flop...

Can WWE get Bray Wyatt right this time?
It has become obvious that Triple H is going to get as much mileage as he can by reclaiming all that Vince McMahon tossed overboard. There’s certainly a lot of goodwill from fans to win by bringing back their favorites, and the whole business is about the buzz you can create with pops from big or sh...

The Maple Leafs are going to try again with Matt Murray and that’s great for the rest of us
The NHL season kicks off for real tomorrow night (the two appetizer games in Prague don’t count, especially because they involved the Sharks), or as it’s known for most of the hockey covering world, “Six months of how does this affect the Leafs?” Yep, the sport’s biggest soap opera, the question of ...

The Ravens got past the Bengals, but they still have problems to fix
Through five games, it is quite clear that the Baltimore Ravens do not have the best roster in the NFL. Their pass protection is not elite, their receiving corps is at best young and feisty, at worst inexperienced and lacking depth. They even had to sign Jason Pierre-Paul after the start of the regu...

The Pelicans have finally taken flight
Bourbon Street in New Orleans exists in a loop. Every night the street clicks back into a state of debauchery, repeated with perverse precision. Lonely men drift in and out of red neon strip clubs holding cans of Natty Light. Police on horses stroll between sleeping bums, screaming preachers, pools ...

Kawhi Leonard’s return puts the Clippers back in the Western Conference hunt
It’d been nearly 16 months since LA Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard played an NBA game before Tuesday night’s preseason win over the Portland Trail Blazers. Leonard finished with 11 points in 16 minutes but, more importantly, looked to be fully recovered from the torn ACL he suffered in game four of ...

The NBA and ESPN keep searching, but will never find their Roundball Rock
ESPN does an outstanding job with its NBA coverage. The network has an army of insiders, reporters, analysts, a daily midday show, as well a stellar game broadcast quality that has long satiated this one high schooler who was not happy to see his beloved NBA on NBC gone forever....

The 10 most proficient cheaters in the history of sports
There are many forms of cheaters in sports, and often the dumbest of them get the press because they’re as close to dumb criminals as one gets — and everybody loves a dumb criminal. The 2000 Spanish Paralympic basketball team that won gold despite only two of the 12 players actually having a mental ...