mat Page 62 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

After all the Aaron Rodgers drama, where <i>are</i> the Packers, really?
The Green Bay Packers had one hell of an offseason. To say it was drama-filled doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface. Even with all the tension during the offseason, the Packers are still a favorite in the NFC. Back-to-back NFC Championship Game appearances say they have a shot....

Rookie QB watch: Preseason freak-out, geek-out edition
The 2021 quarterback draft class will be on the minds of many football fans this upcoming season....

With World Cup qualifying imminent, let's check in on how many rakes Berhalter is stepping on
Good God, would someone take the air out Tim Ream’s tires or barricade his apartment door for a couple days so Gregg Berhalter will stop picking him for the national team?...

What to make of these L.A. Chargers
The Los Angeles Chargers enter the 2021-22 season with high expectations. Or at least they should, given that they seem to have found their next franchise quarterback in Justin Herbert. ...

Does Big Ben even have anything left to run it back with?
One last run for the Pittsburgh Steelers and future Hall of Fame quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. The last ride for the six-time Pro Bowler and two-time Super Bowl champion is about ready to take off into the regular season. But how much does Big Ben have left at this point? Enough for a last dance?...

Yo, Bears: Please don't feed Justin Fields to the wolves
Did the league not learn anything from Joe Burrow’s catastrophic knee injury last season?...

The Cardinals need a playoff appearance to save Kliff Kingsbury’s job
The Arizona Cardinals come into the 2021 season looking to improve on their 8-8 finish from last season. More importantly, the team needs a playoff berth to help head coach Kliff Kingsbury remove his feet from the fire. In only his third year as head man of the Cardinals, many believe Kingsbury is a...

Yeah, this Romelu Lukaku thing is going to be a problem
Well, a problem for anyone who isn’t a Chelsea supporter at least, which the most annoying of my close friends just happens to be. So that’s great. And no, I don’t mean colleague Julie DiCaro, though I’m sure she’ll be rocketing up the list this season. Also great. (Ed. Note: - Blue is the color! Fo...

Ironman triathlete gets bitten by fish, confirms all my fears about open-water swimming
Back in my high school days, I’d come home after swim practice, finish whatever work I needed to get done for school, and before any of the teams I followed started playing, I’d plop down on the couch to watch River Monsters. You remember that show? It ran for nine seasons on Animal Planet. In the s...

Brett Favre finally does something smart
Lately, it seems like whenever we hear Brett Favre’s name in the news, it’s because he’s said something controversial. This time Favre’s name is in headlines due to a positive message he’s sending out. The topic he is speaking on is significant to those involved with football in any capacity on any ...

Steve Cohen calls out the Mets' hitters for being 'unproductive'
Owners...they’re just like the rest of us(?) Underneath the billions and billions of dollars, they’re just fans like everyone else — prone to disappointment and rage-filled rants on Twitter. Last night, the Mets lost their fifth straight game and fell below .500 for the first time since May 5 (huh, ...

Alex Rodriguez is the Alex Rodriguez of saying idiotic stuff
“[The Dodgers] have become the New York Yankees of baseball.”...

That's baseball: Saturday night, West Coast, no-no edition
Tyler Gilbert made his major league debut on August 3 against the Giants, mowing ’em down 1-2-3 with a pair of strikeouts in the eighth inning of the Diamondbacks’ 3-1 victory. He then made two other appearances out of the bullpen: an extra-inning loss thanks to a Giants ghost runner scoring on Augu...

We are about to enter the end of the beginning in wrestling
Wrestling has been here before. Everything is cyclical in the business — everyone comes back, stories pop up again and reference what came before, it’s a never-ending soap opera. So the idea of being on the precipice of something at least resembling a sea change in the world of big-time professional...

Hey, NCAA: Let J.R. Smith play college golf already!
J.R. Smith never played college basketball. He jumped straight from high school to the NBA. Now that his NBA career is over, he’s making an effort to get a college degree. Smith will be attending North Carolina A&T — the largest HBCU in the nation, with just over 12,700 students — which consistently...

Deadspin wins you money*: Slam that over on the Carolina Panthers
Are you a betting man or woman? If so, you might want to take a closer look at the Carolina Panthers’ over/under totals. Right now, the team is projected to win just 7.5 games — tied for the 7th-lowest in the NFL, per Vegas Insider....

Mitch Trubisky is trippin’
Former Chicago first-round pick Mitchell (Don’t call me Mitch) Trubisky has finally moved on from da Bears to a team where he claims people want him and care about his progression — leading to the obvious inference that his previous team, in fact, did not. ...

Why does the NFL care about taunting?
I’m going to answer my colleague John Hoefling’s question from yesterday afternoon. Why does the NFL care about taunting? Because it scares old, white people....

It’s getting away from the Red Sox
In some ways it’s heartening, at least for those of us who aren’t part of The Nation, to see the Red Sox backing up. Because no team that trades Mookie Betts, then doesn’t really do much in the following offseason either, should return to the playoffs after only a gimmick season. Fenway Sports Group...

The only thing certain about this upcoming NFL season is that Falcons and Cowboys fans will cry
Well, well, well… we are actually going to see an NFL football game tonight....