league Page 202 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The NBA’s very confusing playoff picture, as it currently stands
We know which 20 teams won’t be heading for summer vacation after the last day of the NBA regular season on Sunday, but that’s about all we know....

Albert Pujols is the latest Hall of Famer you’ll forget played for the Dodgers
The possibility of Albert Pujols returning to St. Louis to finish his career where he started it, this time as a bench bat for a Cardinals team that has title aspirations and Paul Goldschmidt at first base, was too good to be true....

The obvious case for Connor McDavid as unanimous MVP
The Stanley Cup playoffs started on Saturday, which is weird because the NHL regular season continued on Saturday, as the Canucks handed the Oilers a 4-1 loss that was notable only because Connor McDavid picked up his league-best 72nd assist, which also wrapped up the scoring title for the presumpti...

We'll never see another Doc Gooden
You know you’re getting old when you remember Doc Gooden’s no-hitter with the Yankees on May 14, 1996. It was now 25 years ago — so long ago that the Mets have gone through multiple waves of promising young pitchers who ultimately disappointed: Pulsipher, Wilson, Isringhausen. Harvey, etc....

Uh-oh, Jarred Kelenic is off to a good start (and the Mets are probably stewing)
Calm down; it was just one game. (It was a damn good one, though.)...

Media bootlickers continue to carry water for the NFL
Ja’Wuan James tore his Achilles while working out, and since the injury did not occur at the Broncos’ team facility, Denver was able to cut the offensive tackle, voiding his $10 million contract....

Aaron Jones’ twin brother is getting another shot to play in Green Bay
Rookie mini-camp is an exciting time for all involved. It gives the new guys their first opportunity to strut their stuff in front of their coaches and teammates. Plus, it gives football-hungry fans something to talk about for a little over a week until we inevitably realize that the NFL season is s...

Happy 38th birthday to the indestructible Frank Gore, who deserves a Hall of Fame bust with a bow on it
Today, Frank Gore is another year older. At a spry (by NFL standards) 38 years old, he’s at the age when he’s outlasting quarterbacks, which is just not something running backs get to do....

Why are the Twins such a bad team in non-9-inning games? Like, 0-11 bad
The Minnesota Twins probably weren’t expecting to be where they currently sit heading into this season. Minnesota reached the playoffs in three of the last four seasons, and were looking to return once again in 2021 in the hopes of actually winning a playoff series for the first time since 2003. So ...

Udonis Haslem joins the greats
Udonis Haslem might have authored one of the best send-offs in team sports history last night....

Let's predict each NFL team's win-loss record!
The NFL season is still four months away, but with the draft, the schedule release, and most of free agency in the rear-view mirror, it’s time to start looking forward to a season with lots of storylines to follow, more games than ever before, and fewer preseason games than ever before (three is sti...

Hey Chicago Bears, could you not screw up Justin Fields?
The Chicago Bears have their quarterback of the future in Justin Fields. Nobody really questions that. I certainly don’t. However, the question remains — how long before he takes over, and are the Bears even capable of effectively developing a quarterback?...

With Alex Rodriguez as ownership, at least there’s a damn Latino in the room
Look at what it takes to get a seat at the table....

Hockey’s head in the sand on sex abuse continues to get more people hurt, as latest USA Hockey lawsuit shows
There is unavoidable, though sickening, symmetry in the news coming out of the hockey world today. And there’s a good chance that the NHL will try to avoid commenting on any of it, hiding behind the “open litigation” shield as most organizations do. But it’s the silence and the hope it all goes away...

NFL schedule offers weird and wonderful highlights (and, oddly, a lot of Saints in primetime)
Football people are weird people, because we get giddy over something as simple as a schedule release. That giddy feeling happened last night, as the NFL (and it’s teams’ social media departments) released their full 18-week slate for the upcoming season, which will be the first in which every team ...

Lawsuit claims ex-Blackhawks coach, a convicted sex offender, masturbated in front of player, threatened retaliation if he didn't participate in sexual activity
I don’t mean to turn this into “Chicago Controversies This Morning,” but it just so happened that another pretty gross story broke out of these parts last night:...

Mike Polisky stepping down as Northwestern AD is something we can all celebrate
It’s still a week where some states’ proposals to “placate” athletes’ desire to be compensated for their work and likeness still involve schools poaching 75 percent of said athletes’ income from such things. But still, it’s fun and satisfying to mark when a school has to take a step back, admit it w...

A long-awaited Matt Harvey return means a reminder of all the ‘what-ifs’
You were constantly reminded of what was, and led to pointlessly ponder what could’ve been. ...

Patrick Baldwin Jr.’s commitment to UW-Milwaukee is a fascinating tale of basketball, family, and money
On the surface, Patrick Baldwin Jr.’s Wednesday morning commitment to play college basketball next season for his dad at UW-Milwaukee doesn’t seem like anything out of the ordinary. But when you peel back the layers, you realize that it’s an intriguing case of a top-5 recruit turning down offers fro...

After 28 years, hockey finally corrects its Habs-Leafs mistake
The NHL has been through so many realignments that sometimes you wonder if it shouldn’t just do a random draw before every season (actually, that’s not a terrible idea). It’s when you get to the real aims of past realignments that things get more interesting. ...