lance Page 9 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
If expanding MLB playoffs was about keeping people interested, why does no one care?
The concepts of “parity” and “fairness” in sports were exposed as fig leaves long ago. The idea that fans would care more, i.e. buy more tickets and watch more games on TV, if more teams had a chance at playoff berths and championships was never as important to owners. What was important was not bei...
Offense was nonexistent for the 49ers and Broncos on Sunday Night Football
The San Francisco 49ers and Denver Broncos totally mailed in the offense on Sunday Night Football. Even for the few fans (like myself) that still enjoy a defensive battle at times, it was hard to focus on this game. The passing games were despicable for both teams, and Jimmy Garoppolo made his best ...
Week 3 NFL Takeaways: Rihanna is performing at the Super Bowl, also the two best teams in the league lost
Let’s be clear, the biggest moment during Week 3 of the 2022 NFL season was when news broke that Rihanna is going to perform at halftime of the Super Bowl this season. If you don’t believe me, believe the official NFL Twitter handle. This is what it looked like this afternoon, and it didn’t change a...
Best non-MVP seasons in MLB history
The MVP Award is the pinnacle of baseball. Anybody who wins that award has cemented themselves in the annals of baseball history, and while one win doesn’t guarantee enshrinement in Cooperstown, it’s still one of the highest honors a baseball player can ever receive. The only bad thing about the awa...
The White Sox’s year finally dying the death it deserves
It’s not that you have to go back all that far for a season by an MLB team that was as disappointing, confounding, and overall just as big of a waste of time as the 2022 Chicago White Sox. It was just last year that the San Diego Padres acquired every player that wasn’t nailed down, and then finishe...
Jimmy G is back in the saddle for the San Francisco 49ers following Trey Lance’s season-ending injury
Jimmy Garroppolo is running the offense again in San Francisco after second-year quarterback Trey Lance suffered a horrific ankle injury Sunday, akin to Dak Prescott’s in 2020, during the Niners’ 27-7 win over the Seattle Seahawks. He was carted off the field toward the end of the first quarter with...
NFL's 1-0 frauds: Don't let them fool you
Week 1 gave us some surprises, late-game blunders, and heroics we’ve come to expect from the NFL each week. For some teams that captured a Week 1 victory, it was business as usual. But for others, there is still plenty of doubt whether Week 1 is the start of something magical or if they’re faking th...
We need to redefine what an ‘expert’ is in sports media
One of my favorite parts of NFL coverage is no matter how bad you were at your job, you qualify as an expert because some clueless owner made the mistake of hiring you. Imagine if you hired a plumber, he came over and not only didn’t unclog your toilet but clogged the others in the house and was so ...
NFL Week 1 Powerless Ranking: Sloppy play ruled the day
Week 1 of the 2022 NFL season is officially in the books and it’s time to look at the teams that stunk it up. Week 1 gave us plenty of sloppy football to process and some of the teams in this first ranking might surprise you. Then there are the others you probably predicted in the preseason....
Should the Rays, Jays, and Mariners race to the bottom?
We knew the new baseball playoff system, with the addition of a third wildcard team, would create quirks. In a vacuum, it works because all division winners are considered equal. But in reality, where people play the games, they very much are not. Teams are hard to judge on just their record, becaus...
Week 1’s most and least valuable players
Saquon Barkley had never won a season opener in the NFL prior to Sunday. If it weren’t for his 24 touches and 194 yards from scrimmage, Barkley would be starting an NFL season in a 0-1 hole for the fifth time in his career. Instead, Barkley’s high usage day kept the New York Giants afloat in their 2...
NFL Week 1: The Bears money line is a (surprisingly?) popular bet
Heading into Week 1 of the NFL season, the biggest underdogs are the Houston Texans (+7), the New York Jets (+6.5), the Pittsburgh Steelers (+6.5), and the Chicago Bears (+6.5). When it comes to betting, if anybody was interested in picking one of these teams, you’d think they’d choose the spread. A...
George Kittle’s groin injury is bad news for Trey Lance
With all the quarterback drama swirling around the San Francisco 49ers, other important parts of the team have seemingly flown under the radar. One of those significant pieces is tight end George Kittle. What’s being called a Grade 2 groin strain looks like it will keep Kittle sidelined for the team...
Preseason NFL Powerless Ranking: Here's the bottom of the barrel
It’s football season again and this time of year most sites give you their weekly power rankings. But here at Deadspin, we go against the grain, so once again we’re bringing you our Powerless Rankings for 2022. This season we’ve even got a season preview of the teams you can expect to be pulling up ...
The NFL's 5 most intriguing Week 1 storylines
The 2022 NFL season kicks off Thursday, with the Los Angeles Rams beginning their title defense against this year’s favorite, the Buffalo Bills. Other than this potential Super Bowl matchup in Week 1, there are plenty of different storylines to keep an eye on coming out of a tumultuous offseason. ...
The Jimmy Garoppolo drawings will live on
On Monday, the Jimmy Garoppolo saga in San Francisco took an unexpected turn. Rather than trading the two-time Super Bowl champ, as many people expected, the 49ers opted to keep Garoppolo around, restructuring his contract to make him the highest-paid backup in the NFL. For most people, this move wo...
Jimmy G, Trey Lance, Kyle Shanahan trying to pull of the impossible
Jimmy Garoppolo sticking around as the backup in the San Francisco 49ers quarterback after all the goodbyes since February is one of the offseason’s biggest shockers. It probably shouldn’t be. Jimmy G and the Niners re-committing to each other ends a summer of long, drawn-out farewell NFL episodes t...
Looking at possible numbers for the NFL to retire league-wide
The NFL is now the only big-four pro sports league in North America to not have a number retired throughout the league. The NBA retired Bill Russell’s No. 6 earlier this month after his death. Major League Baseball gave that honor to Jackie Robinson’s No. 42, while the NHL has barred anyone from don...
Trey Lance flips projections after 5 preseason passes in win over Green Bay
San Francisco 49er second-year quarterback Trey Lance turned heads in his first preseason start against the Green Bay Packers. In less than an hour, Lance went from being a huge question mark to the next Patrick Mahomes. Lance also changed people’s impression by passing for 92 yards and a TD. ...