mbl Page 54 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Black coaches must remain a priority in XFL-USFL merger
If you’re gonna do it, do it right. And, if the XFL and the USFL are on the verge of a merger, then the new league must continue the XFL’s trend of hiring and employing Black coaches....
Wait, did Phil Mickelson just humblebrag in his gambling PSA?
The football season is upon us, and at least one notable fan can’t fully participate: Phil Mickelson. While you’re probably saying, “Duh, he’s a golfer,” let me explain. Normally, the face of LIV Golf would be wallowing with the other degenerates, tracking juicy lines, and calling in three-team parl...
What was Chaim Bloom supposed to do?
Just how well is a GM/executive reign supposed to go when the first task given to them is to trade the best player in baseball? That was the road set out for Chaim Bloom, who came to Fenway from Tampa, probably with hopes that he could set up a Rays-with-money set-up like Andrew Friedman in Los Ange...
Stop complaining about sportsbooks reimbursing Aaron Rodgers bets
The internet has created a phenomenon where people see a news story, and then rush to explain to those with (assumed) lower brain function, why they shouldn’t believe what they see. A perfect example of this is the ditty about DraftKings refunding all bets related to Aaron Rodgers after his Jets car...
Djokovic and Gauff were machines at the US Open
There are a lot of ways to win in tennis. Novak Djokovic has found all of them. Coco Gauff may yet one day, though she found the one for this US Open. While Djokovic has had to vary his game at various points to overcome various challenges, at the base of it all remains the same truth as the day he ...
Coco Gauff will write her own story
When Coco Gauff beat Venus Williams at Wimbledon in 2019, a flood of expectations followed considering she was 15, American, Black, and had just ousted tennis royalty. The talent and potential was obvious enough, yet there are too many variables and unknowns to account for that calling anything a fo...
Anti-fossil fuel protestors disrupt Coco Gauff U.S. Open semifinal
There were some folks in the stands during Coco Gauff and Karolína Muchovás semifinal showdown at the U.S. Open who were quite concerned about climate change....
Ben Shelton's moment has arrived
I went to the US Open last night. First time inside Arthur Ashe Stadium and on the grounds in Flushing. It was also my first professional tennis event since attending the semifinals of the 2003 Legg Mason Tennis Classic and watching Andre Agassi lose in a third-set tiebreaker. The US Open dangles be...
Coco Gauff is proof that tennis is wack without Black women
They used to not want Althea Gibson’s “kind” around. Now we don’t know where tennis would be without them. That’s how you ace an opportunity....
Ben Shelton feels limitless
There’s been a lament, until recently, that on the men’s side American tennis just had a ceiling. And that ceiling wasn’t anywhere close to winning a Grand Slam. Which is a little unfair to Andy Roddick, who without the existence of Roger Federer would have been a multi-Wimbledon champion and probab...
After 30 years (!!), it is finally time for Venus Williams to call it a career
Unlike at this time last year, the central figure of the US Open isn’t a Williams sister. Serena’s matches were all appointment television, maybe because of the known stakes, being one of tennis’ all-time great’s last event. And Flushing lost its luster after Serena’s third-round exit, until the sta...
Maria Sakkari didn’t complain about the smell of weed at the U.S. Open, she simply noted its presence
This is how marijuana gets a bad rap. A tennis player says she could smell weed during her match, and goes out of her way to say it didn’t affect her whatsoever, yet media outlets still take it out of context. During a changeover, Maria Sakkari informed the chair official that she detected a hint of...
Spanish FA President Luis Rubiales is a creep
Update Aug. 24: According to multiple reports, Luis Rubiales plans to resign....
Hello, my name is America, and I have a sports gambling problem
The current handling of sports gambling in this country is American exceptionalism at its most American. Investigations, or suspensions, are cropping up almost weekly, but due to the nature of the violations, or the parties involved, nothing has seriously resonated. One offensive lineman didn’t know...
Don’t let the door hit you on the ass, Ronda Rousey
It all started so well, which is generally how things go for Ronda Rousey. ...
Here's betting Iowa State QB Hunter Dekker's career is over after allegedly gambling on team
As of July 2021, name, image, and likeness allowed college athletes to earn money using their personal brands while under the NCAA’s watch. Well, at least above-the-table payments. Betting has obviously never been part of that agreement, as placing money down on games you’re involved in brings in th...
The NFL is all in on betting, just not for players
Five years after states won the right to regulate a sports betting market, American consumers are starting to get it. With sports shows adopting the language of wagering, and professional leagues partnering with fantasy and betting outfitters, those campaigns to “educate” a sports fan base where bet...
Everyone wants to love women’s soccer without taking any responsibility for it
It wasn’t quite the theater of the idiotic that his pre-Qatar speech was, but FIFA president Gianni Infantino had to get in front of a mic before the kickoff of the women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand and certainly wasn’t in any more of a mood to take any responsibility for problems with ...
History has its eyes on Carlos Alcaraz and his early quest to become tennis’ GOAT
Tennis is undergoing its Steph Curry moment. The way Carlos Alcaraz controls the country club sport through his racket is unlike anything we’ve seen before. Nearly a decade after Curry’s rise to superstardom, every high school sophomore thinks swishing a 40-footer is routine. It’s not, and every air...
Carlos Alcaraz out-Djokovic’d Novak Djokovic
There is a vision of how to beat Novak Djokovic at a major, especially at Wimbledon, and even more especially at Centre Court, where he hadn’t lost in 10 years. It’s only a vision, because so few have ever achieved it. Only Rafa Nadal and Daniil Medvedev had managed to beat Djokovic in a major in th...