new Page 39 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Here's which NBA playoff teams will boom or bust
NBA fans are preparing for one of the most equitable and competitive playoffs in recent memory. The lack of an active dynasty or superteam has the door open for nearly any team to make a Finals run. We’ve highlighted five teams headed toward playoff glory and five teams destined for despair. We cons...

Cleveland Browns Stadium needs new naming rights — here are our ideas
The Cleveland Browns are taking the Commanders’ route of naming things associated with their team. The home of the last-place team in the AFC South is now called Cleveland Browns Stadium after the team and FirstEnergy ended their naming rights agreement. The company was charged in a political corrup...

No one wants to get their teeth kicked through their skull by the Bruins
If the NHL ever considered instituting its own play-in tournament, and they have, and last night’s Lakers-Timberwolves what-have-ya wasn’t enough to dissuade them, then the Islanders and Penguins have recently showed the league that were they forced to waylay into each other in a single-elimination ...

When Rajon Rondo retires, no one will remember him like my mom will
Love is a mysterious thing. It can’t always be explained. It involves a certain kind of alchemy. Sometimes the people you love are widely adored. Other people hear about your love for them and think, “Gee, that’s only natural.” Other times, the people you love are misunderstood, overlooked, or even ...

Who will win as the Lakers, Timberwolves, Pelicans, and Thunder battle for play-in spots?
The 2022-23 NBA regular season has come to a close, and it’s time again for the league’s newest tradition, the play-in tournament. This year the Western Conference had the race to watch down the stretch as it was tighter than spandex in the wrestling ring. In fact, the west was close for most of the...

At Princeton, a turnaround one man saw coming
“I was born delusional,” said Chris Ayres, Princeton’s head wrestling coach, earlier this year. “But I think — I really do — that delusion is a good thing.” He just proved his point. At Tulsa, Oklahoma’s NCAA wrestling tournament last month, Ayres pulled off one of the least likely turnarounds colle...

Vince McMahon is in charge again, in case you couldn’t tell
The first hour of this week’s Raw was commercial-free and contained two minutes of actual wrestling. Brock Lesnar appeared in both the opening and closing segments, opposing Roman Reigns (if only for a moment in the end), culminating in a nonsensical heel turn. Then there was a rerun of a women’s ta...

Is it time to start talking about Aston Villa?
The Premier League, at least this season, has become stratified in a way it never has before. There seem to be only two categories. You’re either fighting against relegation or you’re in the race for the Champions League. It’s a little more nuanced than that under the hood, though not by much. From ...

The Baltimore Ravens are doing everything they can to agitate Lamar Jackson
Lamar Jackson has suffered a plethora of indignities at the hands of the Baltimore Ravens. Add one more to the mix. Traditionally, MVP-caliber quarterbacks negotiate for top-dollar extensions that set the standard for the quarterback compensation model. Throughout their battle with Jackson, Baltimor...

Erie County should tell the Buffalo Bills to kick rocks
Terry Pegula is worth $6.7 billion. ...

Bill Belichick is reportedly shopping Mac Jones because he's still pissed at the QB
Bill Belichick must have forgotten that he is not the only football luminary who has been Mac Jones’ head coach. Jones played college football for Nick Saban — arguably Belichick’s greatest student. Remember, “One band, one sound,” from the movie Drumline? That line is Alabama football. Every person...

The new-look Los Angeles Lakers are peaking at just the right time
What appeared to be a lost Los Angeles Lakers season six weeks ago has sprouted wings in the final home stretch before the postseason. After missing countless weeks mending injuries in 2023, Anthony Davis and LeBron James returned to a lineup terraformed on the go....

I don’t know why <i>you</i> trusted WWE to do anything differently
We were just here. Not all that long ago. WWE doesn’t like you. We thought when Triple H took over creative, things would change. They decidedly have not, and it’s a wonder whether he’s actually in charge of creative anymore. Or whether he was yesterday, and whether he will be tomorrow (we’ll get ba...

Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn crash the party
On a night and weekend that is meant to celebrate the sheer enormity of WWE–the bombast, the cultural reach, the money, the sheer scale of it all–it was two guys who made their names in various, darkly lit auditoriums and armories and bingo halls and whatever other seedy corner you might find indie ...

UConn did not get the memo about March Madness
After everything this NCAA men’s tournament has had to offer. After all the one seeds fell. After an Ivy League school made the Sweet 16. After a Conference USA team made the Final Four. After 62 other schools lost, we get a blueblood in the title game. The UConn Huskies aren’t just advancing, they’...

The Hornets have replaced the Kings as the NBA’s most beleaguered franchise
The Sacramento Kings Beam season isn’t over yet, but success is relative. The Kings finally ended the NBA’s longest playoff drought. All it took was De’Aaron Fox straightening out his jumper, an offseason for Domantas Sabonis to get fully integrated into the offense, trading for Kevin Huerter and Mi...

