mac Page 9 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Becky Sauerbrunn’s absence at the World Cup hurts more in the heart than on the field
The women’s World Cup continues to be a battle of attrition, even if it doesn’t start for another month. All the major powers are heading to Australia and New Zealand next month, seemingly with one hand tied behind their back, either through injury or strife within their programs (Canada and Spain)....

What Lionel Messi coming to MLS means — and what it doesn’t
MLS, arguably, have already gotten what they wanted from the signing of Lionel Messi. They were in the headlines the past couple days, a place the league has struggled to stay in. It is something, for the league, that ESPN.com has a Messi headline right next to a headline about Liverpool signing Ale...

Frank Vogel is an upgrade over Monty Williams — for a discount price
A year after getting unceremoniously released through the trap door LeBron James has designed into the floor beneath the head coach’s seat on the bench, Frank Vogel has re-emerged as the head coach of the Phoenix Suns. The 49-year-old Vogel and the Phoenix Suns are familiar with each other’s games. ...

DeAndre Hopkins' Instagram story fuels rumors of where he'll sign
After a few months of speculation and trade rumors, the Arizona Cardinals decided to cut WR DeAndre Hopkins. According to Sports Illustrated, only the Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs engaged in “substantive” trade talks with the Cards. The reason a trade didn’t go through, per Albert Breer, was...

Which MLB hot starts through Memorial Day are here to stay?
We’ve reached Memorial Day, the first real milestone of the MLB season. The first seven weeks or so don’t decide who makes the playoffs, but it gives us a pretty good barometer. But which (at least somewhat surprising) starts are here to stay?...

USWNT's striker depth will be put to the test at World Cup
The U.S. Women’s National Team’s spoils at forward have always been in excess. Most countries’ talent pools over 50 years don’t go as deep at striker as America’s would for one World Cup cycle. That depth is being put to the test this summer as a second potent goal-scorer won’t be traveling with the...

These 10 NBA teams have the brightest futures
There are many elements to consider when predicting who will succeed in the future of the NBA. To tank the 10 teams with the brightest futures, we focused on three to five years in the future while thinking about each team’s draft capital, promising young players, cap flexibility, and free agent des...

Black magic is no match for perfection
It’s impossible to be neutral on Manchester City. If you support a club that has to compete with them in England or in Europe, it’s likely they are a symbol of all that’s wrong with the modern game, given their state ownership, and bottomless financial resources. If you don’t belong to one of those ...

Pickleball at the mall? Sounds like a good time for all
Are you sick of the Johnny-come-lately groups at your tennis court playing a game that sounds like batting practice? Fear not, local American malls are working on getting those people into proper courts that are being built where the Home Depot-sized Old Navy was once located....

Gabriel ThreeYaksAndADog will miss all of next season, and the Colorado Avalanche era may already be over
In the salary-capped NHL, you get one, or two shots with one roster, and then you basically have to reshuffle everything around your core stars, and hope that new hand still produces a flush. It’s a constant game of draw poker. ...

It’s not supposed to be that easy, Connor
The NHL playoffs like to revel in its celebration of depth and the unsung. Everyone gets a shift, so everyone had better do a job or more, and the puck can bounce onto anyone’s stick or off anyone’s ass to change a game, a series, a whole spring. It is not always a stage for the leading men to provi...
![College athletics is a perfect breeding ground for gambling scandals [Update]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/3cb9df7f9558ba1253c34f502be74833.jpg)
College athletics is a perfect breeding ground for gambling scandals [Update]
Updated Nov. 15, 2023: Ex-Alabama baseball coach Brad Bohannon and his associate Bert Neff Jr. will be banned, pending an appeal, from Ohio sportsbooks due to an alleged inside information scheme involving a Crimson Tide baseball game, according to the Ohio Casino Control Commission....

Jerry Reinsdorf, why don’t you stop talkin’ for a while?
We can’t be far from sports teams and organizations banning any of their management team from speaking at any kind of conference or forum. It’s what started the whole Gregg Berhalter fiasco, even if he thought it was a private, closed event. Jerry Reinsdorf pulled the same trick yesterday, and with ...

Examining the 2023 NFL Draft’s most polarizing war rooms
Drafting is an inexact science. If it were an exact one, teams wouldn’t rely on so much vacuous football speak during the evaluation period. That uncertainty is what makes the draft an annual crapshoot. The 2023 edition is no different. After the top two picks, the draft pivoted into unpredictable t...

Playoff hockey is stupid anyway
The NHL Playoffs gets its jollies from defying logic or explanation, and reveling in its unpredictability. That doesn’t mean it’s always a free-for-all, as hockey and its fans would have you believe. But it delves into the chaos and silliness more often than its brethren, that’s for sure....

Nick Saban made his presence known at the NFL Draft
I see what you’re doing Nick Saban. You knew that you were going to have two players selected top five in the NFL Draft, and you were not about to let that recruiting opportunity go to waste. It was time to remind the world who the true boss is in college football....

How come the Padres don’t hit good?
“If he’s a good hitter how come he doesn’t hit good?”...

The Women’s World Cup is already a battle of attrition
The World Cup is always a measure of health and a team’s ability to deal with it. It comes at the end of a long season — unless you’ve fisted it into a desert, totalitarian country that makes you have it in the middle of the season — and players have logged the most possible miles before they play i...

When did the NBA playoffs become the NHL playoffs?
The first round of the NBA playoffs usually isn’t all that good, which doesn’t stop people from complaining about it. The difference between the top seeds and lower seeds is large enough that those series should result in nothing more than dress rehearsals for the true powers and the later rounds. W...

Misfortune has once again befallen the Clippers
The poor Los Angeles Clippers have no luck. In 2019, they acquired what appeared to be the perfect tandem in Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. The Clippers are currently the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference and tied 1-1 with the Phoenix Suns in a first-round playoff series. On Thursday night at hom...