lean Page 14 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Get the NFC South out of here
Nearly every NFL season there is at least one division that if ripped from the league and cast into the sea, the product would be much better. This season, that division is the NFC South. ...
Lotta goals in the desert - World Cup Daily Diary: Day 12
Japan, Germany, and Belgium all accomplished the absurd in different ways today. And that’s before we even get to Morocco winning their group. Let’s kick this pig!...
A Las Vegas women’s college basketball tournament provided a court, and almost nothing else
Apparently, Ja Rule was called for advice on how to set up a college basketball tournament, because just like Fyre Fest, this Thanksgiving tournament was not all what it was advertised to be. ...
Sean Payton is haunting coaches on the hot seat
It’s rare to read scuttlebutt about which job a coach wants. The job market for unemployed coaches typically works the other way around. Jobs open up, a slew of coaching candidates cram into the interview lobby. Sean Payton is in a unique position where he can call the shots. ...
World Cup 2022 Preview — Group F: Old man take a look at my defense, I’m a lot like you
“BELGIUM’S LAST CHANCE!” You’ve heard or seen this already. They are Europe’s big waste of the last decade. There has been no bigger collection of talent than what Belgium has sported for the last four major tournaments, and a 3rd place in Russia is all they’ve had to show for it. Either this is whe...
Albiceleste of Steel? World Cup 2022 Group C Preview: Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Poland
OK, I’m stretching to get a Rush reference into these. But the heart wants what it wants. ...
What might have been
It’s a shame that we’ll probably never get a true look at what the New Orleans Saints would’ve looked like with Jameis Winston running the offense at full strength....
Both the Ravens and Saints could really use a win on Monday Night Football
BYE-maggedon concludes on Monday night with a game of great importance. The Baltimore Ravens need a win to remain one game ahead of the Cincinnati Bengals for first place in the AFC North. A victory for the New Orleans Saints at home would give them the same record as the Atlanta Falcons and the Tam...
How the mid-2000s Suns f’ed it all up
Everything we love about the current NBA was made mainstream by the “seven seconds or less” Phoenix Suns of the mid-2000s. They mostly ran lineups that went four out, surrounding their All-Star big man, Amar’e Stoudemire, with space to dominate less athletic bigs. In the 2000s, just about every othe...
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...
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....
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 ...
USWNT-England exhibition set as specter of NWSL abuse scandal looms
There’s no doubt about it. Friday’s far-from-friendly, friendly between the United States women’s national soccer team and the Lionesses from England is the biggest glorified exhibition in American soccer history, regardless of gender. It’s the first women’s soccer match — non-World Cup edition — to...
NFC South Preview: It’s Tom Brady’s world, we’re just living in it
Logical outcome: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers get the jump on this division and never relent. Let’s keep it 100: The Panthers, Saints, and Falcons don’t have the cannons to match up to Tampa Bay’s gunpowder on both sides of the ball. Brady breaks Peyton Manning’s single-season passing yardage record, to...
The health of Michael Thomas can make or break the Saints’ season
It’s supposedly only the smallest of detours — like having to briefly merge because of a single city truck in the right lane — but still no New Orleans Saints fan wanted to hear that Michael Thomas is currently injured. He’s been out since Saturday due to a hamstring injury....
The Knicks shouldn't agree to a trade with Danny Ainge
The New York Knicks are in a tough spot. They recently gained some future first-round draft capital, but all three picks are lottery-protected next season. In fact, only one of those picks – the first-rounder from the Washington Wizards — can be at best the 11th pick by 2025. ...
Hey Bleacher Report, if you’re gonna do win-loss predictions, at least make them mathematically possible
NFL fans are in purgatory. The season seems close, but the preseason hasn’t even started. We’re seeing clips from training camp, but don’t really know how good or bad each team looks. It’s the time of year when hot takes and predictions run rampant. Nobody knows how anything is going to go, so the m...
How far can Brighton go?
The question almost every soccer fan gets from non-soccer fans, which is healthy, is, “So which team should I support?” You never mind hearing it, because it means your friend/acquaintance/bookie wants to become a fan, but it’s also an impossible question to answer. Your football club usually finds ...
Sean Payton is already prepping the NFL for his comeback, but it won’t be with Dallas
Former New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton walked away from the sideline this offseason after 15 years but is already speaking about the possibility of a return — and it sounds like it could happen sooner rather than later....
Danny Ainge has turned the Utah Jazz into a League Pass offseason team
Now in his third decade as a general manager or team president, Danny Ainge is in the next stage of what’s been a blessed NBA existence. As a supporting player on a pair of championship Celtics teams, he was one of the league’s first 3-point specialists, and reached the NBA Finals with Portland, the...