mad Page 22 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Beloved, zany coach and legendary broadcaster John Madden dies
Famed Raiders’ coach and NFL analyst John Madden died unexpectedly Tuesday morning at the age of 85....

Centers aren’t extinct, they’ve just evolved
As humans, we tend to eulogize the extinct with reverence. The Dodo Bird. The Rocky Mountain Locust. The Golden Toad. And why wouldn’t we? It was us who eradicated these precious, sentient creatures. Some theorists would argue it had to do with their inability to adapt. But what if things are adapti...

YouTube TV cuts off game feed on Lakers
Cord-cutting Lakers fans enjoyed one of their better moments of the season Friday night as YouTube TV cut off ESPN and all the other Disney-owned channels at midnight Eastern amid that bane of streamers and cable customers alike, a carriage dispute....

Here’s a dumb baseball argument
Before we get into this at all, it has to be stated that Dan Szymborski, and his ZiPS computer projections, have changed the way most people watch and evaluate baseball. They are revolutionary, so to call him to the mat isn’t really fair. It’s what ESPN asked, he did his job. But this latest piece, ...

Real Madrid won La Liga this weekend
Whether it’s much of an accomplishment or not, that’s hard to figure out. La Liga has questionably turned to trash, when compared to what it used to be. Thanks to Barcelona’s torching their own establishment for the insurance money and forgetting the insurance money, and no other club being able to ...

This will be good for Barcelona
I’m sure Barcelona, both their fans and the club itself, are tired of signs and symbols of how far they’ve fallen. Must get repetitive. Blockin’ out the scenery breakin’ their mind by this point. But their last Champions League game of the season was one of the harshest yet....

The New England Patriots still rule the AFC — deal with it
Bill Belichick is the AFC’s Thanos. He’s inevitable. ...

Gardner Minshew may have had <em>Top Gun</em> on the brain, but he needs to operate the Eagles like a 747 today
America’s favorite hipster quarterback is making his return to the field today. Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts is out with an ankle injury, so for the first time since Week 14 of the 2020 season, Gardner Minshew II will be starting in an NFL game....

Sooners’ planned move to the SEC might’ve pushed Riley to USC
There were too many openings at too many big colleges for a notable school or two not to be on the losing side even after being on the side of winning for so long. In a not so subtle reminder that there’s always a bigger fish, Lincoln Riley opted for Southern California rather than the Southeastern ...

Noah Syndergaard and Mike Francesa got into some Twitter beef over the weekend and yes, it’s glorious
There are times when watching people argue on social media isn’t depressing or infuriating. When it’s not about whether marginalized groups of people deserve rights or if the scientific method is anti-freedom, watching two grown people argue in front of the entire world can be quite amusing — especi...

NFL Powerless Rankings: The not very good, the bad and the ugly
The NFL season is halfway done, and now we know who the contenders are and the teams we can write off as pretenders. We can talk about the contenders another time because this list is about those less fortunate teams in the league. Now it’s time to check out the worst of the worst from Week 9....

James Madison gets its moment in the Sun (Belt)
Conference realignment trickle-down has officially reached the Football Championship Series, as the Sun Belt Conference officially announced the addition of James Madison University Saturday by a unanimous vote of its members’ CEOs....

Friends don't let friends go on the ManningCast
Everyone knows about the Madden curse. Whomstever graces the cover of the latest installment of the Madden franchise is doomed to suffer a terrible season. It doesn’t happen every year, but more often than not, having your face on EA’s broken football simulation video game is a horrible omen....

This Atlanta World Series team signals the end of starting pitching
With Huascar Ynoa on the IL with a shoulder injury and ace Charlie Morton out with a broken leg, the Braves are now looking at two back-to-back bullpen games as their starting pitchers rest up. The pen’s performance closing out for Morton in Game 1 and for Ian Anderson yesterday should give Atlanta ...

The baseball is good at the World Series, but Baseball is horrendous
Once you get past the Astros merely being there again after suffering no meaningful consequences for their cheating, and the racist Chop, and the scheduled attendance of Donald Trump at Game 4, and the idea that losing awaiting-trial-on-felony-charges Marcell Ozuna was some kind of “adversity” that ...

Russell Westbrook went all 'unwritten rules enforcer' last night and that’s a shame
Ugh. Russell Westbrook has become a “guardian of the game” guy, and it couldn’t be more disappointing....

The Braves are in the World Series, and the Knicks are winning in prime time: Someone bring me my damn Tamagotchi
It was throwback night in professional sports on Tuesday. The evening began with a nationally televised prime time Knicks game at Madison Square Garden on TNT… and a half hour after that started, the Atlanta Braves played in their first World Series game in 22 years. Both teams won, but that wasn’t ...

Kyle Lowry’s leadership will be key to Heat’s success this season
Miami guard Kyle Lowry’s value to his new team is already being realized, just a couple of games into the season. After blowing out the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks, the Heat suffered their first loss against the Indiana Pacers in overtime, 102-91, without Lowry....

Well, at least Americans are in position to blow El Clásico?
It’s always a touch reductive and harsh to boil down a game to a single chance or moment. There are 90 minutes, after all, and you’d like to believe that each team will create more chances and those are allowed to go in as well. But soccer being what it is, there’s only one or two or three goals per...

Ime Udoka announces his presence with authority
Boston Celtics first-year head coach Ime Udoka isn’t wasting any time making his mark on this team. During Boston’s preseason finale against the Miami Heat, forward Grant Williams decided to argue a foul call with an official, allowing the Heat’s Bam Adebayo to beat him back down the court for an ea...