john Page 41 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

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 ...

These 10 modern-day players’ primes were squandered by inept teams
Mike Trout is the tree that falls in the forest every September. He might as well exist in the cold, vacuum of space. If there’s any evidence that sports are raw and unscripted, it’s Trout’s annual storyline. His slow fade from public consciousness as the playoffs creep closer is in stark contrast t...

Victor Wembanyama is in America, and taking part in a matchup that, on a college court, would be one of the most anticipated of all time
While it was great to see Ja Morant taking off for a 360 dunk on Monday night, and Paolo Banchero throwing it down on two people, that was just preseason Memphis Grizzlies vs. Orlando Magic basketball. The NBA regular season doesn’t begin until Oct. 19. Until that day, any minutes fans see of their ...

Micah Parsons declares Dallas Cowboys’ ‘Doomsday Defense’ is back
The Dallas Cowboys are playing the best defensive football we’ve seen from them in quite some time. Last year the defense was good at creating turnovers, but this season they’re barely giving up anything to opposing offenses. Comparisons to past Cowboys defenses are beginning to emerge, and one pers...

FTR is so good Tony Khan can’t book them
FTR — Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler — are the best wrestlers in the world....

IDIOT OF THE MONTH: Kyrie Irving and Brett Favre are taking over this list
Welcome to Deadspin’s IDIOT OF THE MONTH, the world-famous series in which we enumerate and mock idiots. Everything is bad and the internet was a mistake....

The end of an era: Last outfield hill in professional baseball has been destroyed
Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2022 — six years to the date after the Houston Astros played their final game with Tal’s Hill in center — the Albuquerque Isotopes played their final game with a hill in center field....

NFL Week 4: Are backup QBs better than we give them credit for?
America loves an underdog story, but the betting public hates backup quarterbacks. Despite the Cowboys going 2-0 with Cooper Rush filling in for Dak Prescott, Dallas is seeing only 16.7 percent of bets placed on them to take down their division rivals, the Washington Commanders on Sunday....

In what multiverse could Shedeur Sanders win the Heisman?
Deion Sanders is a master of self-promotion. Whether it was his Primetime or Neon Deion personas, he is a bonified gridiron influencer. Those personas have blended these days into Coach Prime and his dad duties. The Jackson State coach’s new passion project has been building an HBCU powerhouse spear...

Look at the NBA being hypocritical in the way it honors Bill Russell
The honorable Bill Russell. Argue among yourselves about which player is the best in the history of the NBA, there is no name more revered in the 76-year history of the league than his....

One, two, three … balks, you’re out?
Is Marlins’ reliever Richard Bleier the first Jewish pitcher to be called for a balk on Rosh Hashanah? I don’t know. What is a stone-cold fact is coming into Tuesday’s game against the Mets, Bleier had made 572 professional baseball appearances over the course of 15 years — never in his seven big le...

Remember The Vet? MetLife Stadium is garnering the same reputation
Some of you out there remember what used to be unanimously known as the worst venue in major North American professional sports, Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. The Eagles and Phillies shared that facility for more than 20 years....

Which USMNT players punched their ticket to Qatar?
The United States men’s national team has zero minutes of game time remaining before it lines up against Wales at the FIFA World Cup, the country’s first contest on soccer’s biggest showcase in eight years. Tuesday’s scoreless draw against Saudi Arabia gave us one final look at the Yanks before head...