nf Page 201 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

How bloated are the preseason win totals for the NBA teams fans love to hate?
When oddsmakers release NBA win-total futures, most casual fans scan right to their teams’ over/under and say, “My team’s better than that.” After a prolonged and misguided rant about sharps who do this for a living doing their job, the next move is to find the franchises they hate and bitch about t...

Welcome to Blah-gust, the worst time of the sporting calendar
Mark it down: 9:35 a.m. Wednesday, Aug. 10. We’ve reached the peak (nadir?) of sports’ slow season. You know it’s the doggiest of dog days when ESPN is killing time with Little League World Series coverage. No disrespect to the youth, but I’m not going to subject myself to watching children’s athlet...

Brenden Aaronson is going to be just fine
Amongst the excitement of any US player heading overseas, there’s always a tremor of trepidation (I’m usually anti-alliteration but here we are). This angst is sure said player will fail, and will cast a pall over any future Yank moving to that team or even that league. We’re probably past that, giv...

This 'Hard Knocks'<em> </em>season premiere was good, but Lions coach Dan Campbell needs to drink that strong-ass coffee on camera soon
At some point during the time that the Detroit Lions are on “Hard Knocks,” we had better get to see Dan Campbell at Starbucks....

The Seahawks’ unofficial depth chart is officially certifiable
“What if — and this is purely hypothetical — we float out an unofficial depth just to see how they react?” — (Probably) Pete Carroll buzzing around a 3 a.m. coaches meeting, a few Adderall and five sugar-free Red Bulls deep, trying to figure out how to ease Seattle fans into a reality where Geno Smi...

No matter the regime, the Bears remain unfathomably weird
It’s easy, as a Bears fan, to use any piece of news to lament your lot in life. The slightest misfortune or misstep, and we can’t wait to find the nearest fiery pit to throw ourselves into, as long as there’s a cross we can land on briefly before watching our skin peel off (yes, I know a cross almos...

Here’s Aaron Rodgers’ path to a third straight MVP award
Aaron Rodgers can win his third straight NFL MVP this coming season....

Expect more illegal contact calls from refs this NFL season
It is bad enough how bold the league is about its financial goals. The NFL wants to bring in $25 billion in revenue by 2027. It has been two years since the start of the pandemic, and the league generated $11 billion per Sportico. That number includes no local revenue dollars....

6 FBS teams are favored to win all of their regular season games — and one is not like the others
As Vegas oddsmakers start trickling out their predictions for the 2022 college football season, the murkiest of pictures becomes a little clearer. Benchmarks become tangible for each team. It’s easy bulletin board material. Most of the people making these props never played the sport at a high level...

Now it’s time to get on the Brandon Vazquez train for USMNT
Yeah, I know. We do this every few months. Have for basically our entire lives, except for maybe that brief Jozy Altidore interlude…right until he popped his hammy in Brazil. And we’ll continue to do this every few months for the rest of our lives, pinning our hopes for a genuine No. 9 for the USMNT...

Exploring QB options for the Rams if Stafford’s elbow keeps him sidelined
All eyes are on Matthew Stafford and his nagging elbow injury as the defending Super Bowl champs navigate training camp. ...

Good news from Bears camp: Justin Fields is in a happy place
The Chicago Bears offense. Those words could be presented to children to teach them the meaning of the word oxymoron....

Kareem Hunt wants out of Cleveland, Jimmy G needs out of San Francisco
The offseason drama and turmoil in Cleveland will apparently carry over into the regular season. DeShaun Watson’s punishment was handed out last week to the tune of a very underwhelming six-game suspension, which has been appealed by the NFL. Now one of Cleveland’s primary offensive weapons, Kareem ...

How can Steph Curry be the petty king when that’s already Kevin Durant’s lane?
Steph Curry’s new moniker, The Petty King, feels contrived. He’s on this post-Finals MVP mission to call out everyone who’s ever slighted him. Cool, man, your legacy is as pristine as they come. Why didn’t this persona come out before his long-sought Finals MVP, when you were still vulnerable? ...

How many times does old man Brady have to teach us a lesson?
Tale as old as time, song as old as rhyme: “Brady’s gonna fall off this year.”...

Never mind the draw, just enjoy Darwin Núñez’s first EPL goal for Liverpool
It took Darwin Núñez 13 minutes to notch his first goal in the English Premier League, but it came at the 64th minute because he was brought on as an £85m super sub during a swirling match at Craven College that saw Liverpool and newly promoted Fulham finish in a 2-2 draw. This is the first game of ...

Analyzing Jimmy Garoppolo’s next-team odds
Most people thought Jimmy Garoppolo would be traded long ago. Yet, with barely more than a month until the start of the NFL regular season, Garoppolo is still a 49er. At this point, it’d be easy to assume that Garoppolo will remain on the team for at least a few weeks of the season. Some sportsbooks...

I’d wreck my Subaru to be on the Patriots, too
In the barren wasteland that is sports in August, there are only baseball and speculative NFL stories to write about. And since we just wrote about Aaron Judge and he didn’t hit a dinger Friday night, we’ve got football chatter for you. Today’s anecdote comes from former New England Patriot offensiv...
