mad Page 18 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Stephen A. Smith and Chris 'Mad Dog' Russo scream at each other
Is Stephen A. Smith and Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo screaming at each other on Wednesdays producing hot air at a speed so ferocious that it threatens to blow out the windows at ESPN’s Seaport Studios? Yes....
Don’t expect Gregg Popovich to go the Coach K retirement ceremony route
Going out to dinner with Gregg Popovich is up there with golfing with Charles Barkley, gambling with Michael Jordan, watching football with John Madden, and talking shit with Gary Payton on the list of activities with sports figures that sound like fun. As awesome as good food and better wine with C...
The fastest NFL Combine ever created a new class of sonic boom or bust prospects
The NFL’s Underwear Olympics has always had a tangential connection to actual football. Bench press reps are the equivalent of Strong Man competitions, but until linemen are pulling trucks, they don’t move the needle. Besides, the best combine bench press numbers typically are posted by the lineman ...
Oh, damn, MLS started this weekend
Part of it was due to still being on vacation, and the other part was my general obliviousness. But I only realized at the last minute that MLS started its season this weekend, about 12 minutes after the last one ended with NYCFC’s manager in his undies in the rain in Portland, thanks to having to w...
Keep an eye on the Heat, NBA fans
Jimmy Butler has missed 19 games, Kyle Lowry has missed 15, and Bam Adebayo has missed 25. Yet, as the NBA regular season resumes tonight after the All-Star Break, the Miami Heat are in first place in the Eastern Conference. The Heat have the same winning percentage as the second-place Chicago Bulls...
Report: Troy Aikman headed to ESPN
Maybe Troy Aikman was more peeved about not calling the Dallas Cowboys Wild Card Game last month than we initially thought?...
With the MLB trying so little to end the lockout, here are other things they could try less at, too
I’ve seen disgruntled NBA superstars dogging it because they want to be traded, try harder than the MLB has tried to end this lockout. All parties bear some of the onus over these extended, aggravating negotiations, but when given the choice between ripping the proverbial Man, or ripping the people ...
The Knicks are living a regression to the mean nightmare
I know I spend way too much of my time mocking the plight of New York Knick fans and their undeserved cockiness, but Thursday night’s fiasco felt like a turning point. They may finally be devoid of hope. For the third time in their last seven games, the Knicks squandered a lead of 20-points or mor...
Cody Rhodes is nuts
Cody and Brandi Rhodes must be insane, right? The couple integral to the founding of All Elite Wrestling, with a strong family heritage inside the squared circle, has left the upstart promotion they helped lay brick and tile for and could head back to their former employer, World Wrestling Entertain...
What were the biggest upsets in Super Bowl history?
As of Saturday, the line on Super Bowl LVI is Rams -4, one of the closer spreads in the big game’s history. Though the Bengals are technically the home team, the Rams are, of course, playing in their own home stadium, so the current line suggests these are two evenly matched teams. Though the Super ...
When a Super Bowl is in town, the unhoused are unwelcome
LOS ANGELES — If you saw Eugene at a Chevron station or a 7-Eleven in Los Angeles, at first glance you might not notice anything out of the ordinary. He is a Black man with a dark complexion clear enough in the early evening light that some might ask for his skincare routine. He’s under 6 feet tall,...
The Senior Bowl ceased public weigh-ins that resemble slave auctions the same week Brian Flores filed his lawsuit against the NFL
Back in the era of slavery — which wasn’t as long ago as racists, conservatives, and the GOP would like you to believe — Black bodies would be stripped naked, or close to it, and put on the auction block where they were sold to the highest white bidders. Their height, weight, skin color, sexual orga...
A modern tragedy: Chad Johnson wants to get breakfast
All Chad “Ochocinco” Johnson wanted was to get some breakfast. He’d flown all the way to Las Vegas for an opportunity to be around the best players in the NFL today, and all he wanted was to congratulate a few of the guys who’d earned the Pro Bowl title this season and perhaps treat them to a nice m...
Who is the best player to bet on for Super Bowl MVP?
One of the most popular prop bets for the Super Bowl is determining who will walk away with the game’s MVP award. Every year, we see people convince themselves that a non-quarterback has a shot at taking home the hardware, and more than half the time, they’re proven wrong. In 55 Super Bowls, a quart...
Hank’s for nothing, old buddy
Henrik Lundqvist’s No. 30 was raised to the Madison Square Garden rafters Friday night, a well-deserved honor for the future Hall of Famer who backstopped the Rangers for 15 years and won everything but a Stanley Cup as one of the best and most consistent goalies in the business....
Porzingis to the basket and the cash... D'OH!
The hottest new trend in NBA betting seems to be first basket parlays. Essentially, a bettor guesses which player will score the first basket in a given game. On December 29, 2021, Jim James thought he’d give one of these parlays a shot. He put $100 on a four-game parlay assuming that Jaylen Brown w...
Does Tom Thibodeau have any idea what to do with Cam Reddish? So far, it doesn’t look like it
Do me a favor, search “Cam Reddish” on Twitter and see what you find. Yes, I know Twitter is a place where a lot of idiotic and terrible takes call home – especially when it comes to sports, particularly the NBA. But, now and then, people come together in unity to form one tribe – like we all did on...
Difficult Super Bowl Trivia: Part 1
It’s the 20th anniversary of the Tuck Rule Game, or the Snow Game, depending on whether or not you’re from New England. That was the night in Foxboro that the Patriots got the benefit of a controversial call on what appeared to be a Tom Brady fumble, tied and won the game on Adam Vinatieri field goa...
The Rangers are a mystery that analytics can't figure out
The best way to determine the best teams in any sport is to look at the standings, right? If they’ve been playing well, they’ll be near the top of the league. As Bill Parcells said, “You are what your record says you are.”...
The women are coming for baseball
It’s probably too early to call it a new era, but with names like Rachel Balkovec and Genevieve Beacom making the headlines, America’s pastime is definitely due for a change-up. Earlier this week, Balkovec was hired as the new manager of the Yankees’ minor league affiliate the Tampa Tarpons. This hi...