nf Page 103 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Arsenal are the Premier League’s new chaos masters and Chelsea can’t buy goals
It used to be Jürgen Klopp’s first Liverpool teams, and possibly the current one, that were considered the most raucous chaos merchants in the Premier League. They were equally capable of the most destructive football, going in both directions, equally capable of howitzer-ing their opponents or thei...

The NCAA shortened football games only to shove more ads into broadcasts
College football is changing at such a rapid pace that it’s hard to keep track of every alteration. One example is the new rule that keeps the clock rolling after a first down. In recent years, it went from a full stop after moving the chains to pausing until the ref spots the ball. Now it only stop...

College football on Labor Day has always been a sick joke
Labor Day Weekend serving as the official kickoff for college football is still the biggest oxymoron in sports. For decades, college football was the most abhorrent, openly accepted form of free labor. Unlike their basketball counterparts, NFL-caliber athletes are forced to push themselves through t...

Life without Tom Brady: For the first time since 1999, here are all the things we (thankfully) never have to think about again
As far as we can tell, Tom Brady is retired from the NFL. That doesn’t mean he definitely won’t change his mind once Week 1 is underway and Brady is sitting at home, asking people if they think he can throw a football over them there mountains, or whatever. He’s kinda sorta retired before, only to c...

Skip Bayless’ new <em>Undisputed</em> bombs in Week 1
Week 1 of the new and “improved” Undisputed with Skip Bayless on FS1 proved to be anything but an improvement, according to most. The numbers don’t lie either, as the season debut last Monday peaked at 131,000 viewers and has only gotten worse from there. By day three on Wednesday, Undisputed was ch...

If you’re not watching Coco Gauff, you’ve got Spectrum
After a week of US Open coverage, two things are apparent: You need to see Coco Gauff and Carlos Alcaraz in person to really appreciate them, and for some tennis fans, that might be the only option. A carriage dispute between Charter Communications and Disney led to the Mouse pulling all its channel...

The ACC is the least powerful Power 4 Conference — even with Cal, Stanford, SMU
It’s better to be proactive than reactive, right? Unless you consider what the Atlantic Coast Conference is already doing to be reactive, scraping up the leftovers from the Pac-12 Conference instead of having enough power in the college athletics landscape to attract more lucrative schools of their ...

How much is Travis Kelce worth if TJ Hockenson can get $17M annually?
TJ Hockenson’s new contract makes him the NFL’s highest-paid tight end. The former Detroit Lion — who last year was traded to NFC North division rival Minnesota mid-season — will earn $17.125 million per year after receiving more targets, hauling in more receptions, and gaining more yards than only ...

From Northwestern to San Diego, college football hazing isn’t going away
From the billion-dollar Big Ten to the “mighty” Pioneer Football League, hazing is allegedly alive and well in college football....

Houston is getting the Oilers back ... for a day, at least
Unfortunately, there is no reason for the Houston Cougars to have an oil derrick on their helmet and trademark law wouldn’t permit it anyway. Still, the nostalgia was clear as a cloudless blue sky as the program elected to don the old Houston Oilers colors for its first game as a member of the Big 1...

It’s Georgia’s schedule vs. the field this college football season
It’s abnormally weird for the University of Georgia to be odds-on national title favorites. I’m not saying Kirby Smart’s group is unworthy — they won the past two College Football Playoffs, and appear to be every bit the juggernaut Vegas thinks they are. It simply takes a beat for perception to catc...

College football is back, and Nebraska is still gonna suck
The obsession with college football led to the creation of “Week 0” and it’s an American oxymoron to which no one will object. The tribalism compared to the NFL’s fandom spreading to every corner of the country that comes with having a longer season – that will only get longer next season with the e...

Behold the dumpster fire that is the Los Angeles Angels' front office
On Wednesday, the Los Angeles Angels added another day of ignominy to their woeful franchise’s history under Arte Moreno by placing starting pitcher Lucas Giolito, relievers Matt Moore and Reynaldo López, plus outfielders Hunter Renfroe and Randal Grichuk on waivers. In a vacuum, they aren’t the big...

The Nebraska football sellout streak is a lie
One of the biggest farces running in sports is Nebraska football’s sellout streak. The Big Red has been a shadow of its former self for going on two decades, but the streak, currently at 389 games, persists because this is all Nebraska football fans have left, and the seats get bought solely to keep...

It’s OK to feel uneasy about Damar Hamlin’s return to football
Damar Hamlin’s return is almost complete. Bronny James is “doing extremely well” in his recovery. You’re not a bad person for wondering if playing again is the best idea for both of them....

In defense of New York Giants LB Jihad Ward
I think I am on Jihad Ward’s side. Maybe the New York Giants LB shouldn’t have placed his hands on New York Jets QB Aaron Rodgers at the end of a play when the ball was long gone. Two wrongs don’t make a right, and going after a person — who was minding his own business when the original wrong occur...

Green Bay’s patience with Jordan Love should make Trey Lance envious
Green Bay took the Jordan Year literally. Early in 2023, general manager Brian Gutekunst read all the stars and tea leaves, glanced at Aaron Rodgers’ advancing age — not to mention his diminishing mobility and prima donna behavior — and named the Packers’ latest first-round QB pick, Jordan Love, as ...

The Dallas Cowboys trade was the life raft Trey Lance desperately needed
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is no stranger to controversy, whether it positively or negatively affects his franchise. Jones recently made a move that won’t yield immediate results but may have saved a career. Trading that fourth-round pick to San Francisco for Trey Lance was the life preserver ...

The Angels wave the white flag, and Gregg Berhalter doesn’t know how a phone works
It obviously hasn’t worked out for the Anaheim Angels. While their determination to try and make themselves worthy of Shohei Ohtani’s long-term commitment, or at this point even a short-term one after the season, was admirable and certainly unique to MLB these days, their immediate nosedive after ac...

<i>Hard Knocks Episode 4</i>: Finally, something other than Aaron Rodgers
I would estimate that more than half of the fourth episode of Hard Knocks had nothing to do with Aaron Rodgers. Outside of an extended practice sequence that portrayed him as a conquering hero for turning the offense around after a poor drive, his lecture to Zach Wilson about Bluetooth EMF waves, an...