kirk Page 3 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

A lot of NFL teams tanking for Caleb Williams already have a QB
If you’ve found yourself noticing more bad football than usual in the NFL, you’re not wrong. After five weeks, there are seven teams with one win or fewer, and none of them are the New York Jets, Houston Texans, or Washington Commanders. The New York Giants, Minnesota Vikings, New England Patriots, ...

Trade talk is the nadir of sports journalism
Imagine being a Chicago Bears fan — I know empathy is hard, but just try — and going through what they did Thursday only to open ESPN on Friday and see a bunch of misguided, braindead analysts talking about trading Justin Fields. Over his past two starts, the Chicago QB is 43-for-64 for 627 yards wi...

On-campus pregame shows are the latest casualty of college football’s ‘evolution’
As someone who was programmed to watch college football every fall Saturday from birth, the on-campus pregame show (now plural) was the background noise to my morning routine. It’s always fun to see how drunk college kids get just to stand outside and scream on cue for three hours. All of the analys...

The NFL’s new flex rules are helpless against this season’s national TV slate
There are so many more interesting teams than the New York Jets and Giants, Denver Broncos, and Chicago Bears, but from now through Thanksgiving, NFL fans will be subjected to those franchises 13 times on national TV. It’s early, and there’s still time to course correct, yet after just two weeks, th...

Cam Akers gets what he wanted
A potential Cam Akers deal has been rumored for quite some time, and the LA Rams finally found a trade partner willing to take him off their hands....

Welcome to the Pac-12 funeral procession
Stating “we’ve never seen something like this before” in sports is usually overused. ...

The Jets are exactly who we thought they were
The Jets are finding out quickly that every game isn’t going to be like Week 1, where they were gifted a win by Josh Allen, and the Buffalo Bills. Life without Aaron Rodgers will be just like it was before he arrived. All this talk about rolling with Zach Wilson already looks like a huge mistake. It...

The Jalen Hurts-AJ Brown ‘drama’ embodies the Eagles' expectations
This time a season ago, the Philadelphia Eagles also were 2-0 coming off a convincing win over the Minnesota Vikings. Unlike last year though, there’s a little controversy surrounding the Birds as Jalen Hurts and wide receiver AJ Brown were caught having an exchange on the sidelines. The incident wa...

Behold, the magic of the Blue Jays' face-plant!
It’s been a wonky season for the Toronto Blue Jays. It was supposed to be the one where they leaped from just a playoff team to AL East titan. Didn’t work out. Part of it is that Alek Manoah started throwing wiffle balls. Another part is that Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s power went to the zoo for most of...

For once, you can't blame this Vikings' prime-time loss on Kirk Cousins
We might have to retire our opinions on Primetime Kirk. ...

Don't be fooled by the NFL teams that played above and below expectations in Week 1
Week 1 of the NFL season is in the books, and as usual, we’ve got some extreme overreactions to some of the action. We see this every year early on when teams play far above their expected output or well below. So, let’s figure out which teams may have fooled the masses during the opening week of th...

The Giants and Vikings are who we thought they'd be
Bill Parcells was correct when he said “you are what your record says you are.” In all sports, the champion is decided by who wins the tournament, and the seeding is determined by victories leading up to it. ...

Green Bay’s patience with Jordan Love should make Trey Lance envious
Green Bay took the Jordan Year literally. Early in 2023, general manager Brian Gutekunst read all the stars and tea leaves, glanced at Aaron Rodgers’ advancing age — not to mention his diminishing mobility and prima donna behavior — and named the Packers’ latest first-round QB pick, Jordan Love, as ...

Fantasy Football Rankings 2023 - PPR Quarterback (QB)
This slideshow is based on 2022 NFL season data from Sportradar. Rankings were compiled by an AI engine that were then reviewed and edited by the editorial staff....

10 NFL teams everyone thinks will be good this season, but won't be
Every team had a great offseason. All those gaping, even-the-blind-can-see problems your favorite team had no longer exist. Here’s where a path to greatness starts. Of course for most, that won’t be true. The heavy hitters didn’t go away and until your favorite players get hit in the mouth, all the ...

Hello, my name is America, and I have a sports gambling problem
The current handling of sports gambling in this country is American exceptionalism at its most American. Investigations, or suspensions, are cropping up almost weekly, but due to the nature of the violations, or the parties involved, nothing has seriously resonated. One offensive lineman didn’t know...

Running backs meet as changes to the franchise tag are long overdue
Disgruntled NFL tailbacks are on the counteroffensive against unfavorable market forces and a collective bargaining agreement that leaves them with few options have spent the last few days discussing their current predicament amongst one another and appear to have emerged from their Zoom meeting wit...

Jaylen Brown and the volatility of a $304 million contract
It’s difficult to contextualize what just happened with Jaylen Brown and the Boston Celtics. The team’s second-best player, who’s got the handles of a wing with two left hands, landed the largest contract in NBA history, signing a five-year, $304 million supermax extension. That’s a lot of money, an...

Is Saquon Barkley stuck in a time loop, or just us?
On the surface, Saquon Barkley’s new contract with the New York Giants feels a lot like the franchise tag. It’s a one-year deal worth roughly the amount of same money — $10.1 million fully guaranteed vs. $10.091 million via the franchise tag — but with about a million in incentives. The main distinc...

These NFL teams haven't been on HBO’s <i>Hard Knocks</i>
Football season is near, which means HBO is gearing up to give us another season of all-access on Hard Knocks that won’t feature anything worth seeing....