nf Page 78 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Sean Payton is heading into the most crucial offseason of his coaching career
Sean Payton’s first year in Denver was full of twists, turns, and controversy, yet somehow the Broncos managed to win eight games. Now comes the offseason and since they missed the playoffs for the eighth consecutive postseason, it’s time to get started on some of the tough decisions the Broncos wil...

Sometimes the magic of the FA Cup is getting your teeth kicked in
Every sports fan likes to complain. That’s the main point, really. I’m a Chicago Bears fan, for God’s sake. I’m made of gripes now. But we have it pretty good over here in the States, when compared to what you might go through in other parts of the world. What we would have all gone through had we b...

Trevor Bauer still doesn’t get it
Mere days after I wrote about the penchant of accused athletes to find a friendly face in the sportswriting community to help them rehab their image among the mouth-breathers in the fandom, Trevor Bauer offered himself up as Exhibit A, launching his own redemption tour in a nakedly desperate attempt...

Brandon Aubrey has suddenly given the Cowboys reason to be worried
The Dallas Cowboys are riding high entering the playoffs after securing the No. 2 seed in the NFC and a third consecutive 12-win season. That’s quite the feat for these Cowboys, but means nothing if they can’t break their unlucky streak of bowing out before championship weekend. While Dallas looks p...

DeMeco Ryans is the only choice for NFL Coach of the Year
Mike Tomlin still hasn’t had a losing season. Kevin Stefanski’s squad endured five different starting quarterbacks. Dan Campbell has the Detroit Lions hosting a playoff game and they’re the favorite. But, they all fail in comparison to what DeMeco Ryans has done in Houston. A rookie head coach has t...

The playoffs will not be easy for the Ravens and 49ers
The end of the NFL regular season is always a sad day. It signals that only four weeks of NFL games remain until the second week of September. That means I have to spend my next seven months of Sunday afternoons with commercials since there is no RedZone for the rest of the season. (Also, RedZone on...

Remember when the Eagles were Super Bowl contenders?
My how the mighty have fallen. In September, Jalen Carter looked like the next coming of Aaron Donald and the tush push was the most debated offensive play since the double reverse that won a state championship game in Remember the Titans. After going 10-1 in their first 11 games, the Philadelphia E...

Everyone has a gimmick in the NFL. Until they don’t
The NFL season zips by, which might be one of the hundreds of reasons it remains our national religion. There isn’t really time to get bored with it and everything that happens in it feels truly important. Which means any team that can string a few good weeks together has turned some mythical corner...

The Jets reportedly want to trade Zach Wilson. Good luck
Way to go New York Jets. They halted a losing streak to the New England Patriots that stretched back to the Obama administration. In what might have been Bill Belichick’s final game as head coach of the Patriots, a team that he has dominated since leaving them at the altar in 2000 buried him in the ...

Derrick Henry all but confirmed his future following Tennessee’s win over Jacksonville
Titans running back Derrick Henry arrived in Tennessee in 2016 as a second-round pick following an incredible career playing for Nick Saban at Alabama. Henry has topped the 1,000-yard mark in five of his eight seasons with the team and became the eighth player in NFL history to run for more than 2,0...

Despite a 13-win campaign, it’s still hard to trust the Ravens
After dominating Jacksonville, San Francisco, and Miami in consecutive weeks, the Baltimore Ravens looked like the dominant force everyone had been waiting for all season. Forget about the hiccup Saturday night against Pittsburgh (minus Lamar Jackson), Baltimore is viewed by many as the favorite to ...

The Texans are proof that serendipity is the NFL’s most valuable asset
Think about the Houston Texans’ path to this moment. After gutting out a win over the Indianapolis Colts, 23-19, on Saturday, DeMeco Ryans and CJ Stroud locked up a playoff spot in their rookie campaigns. The team that opted out of hiring Josh McCown because it didn’t want to get sued also let the C...

John Fisher's move of A's may have a snag; Jim Harbaugh avoids a choke job; the strange case of Luke Littler
There’s generally little hope for fans when it’s already been announced that their team will move to another city. That hope evaporates more when a league approves it, as MLB has done with the A’s move to Vegas. And yet, there’s always a sliver of light that can’t be extinguished when an owner is so...

Darvin Ham in crosshairs; Giannis thinks of Pacers during sex; James Harden, Clippers don't deserve your faith
News flash: The Miami Heat are a better coached team than the Los Angeles Lakers. It showed in the fourth quarter of their Wednesday night matchup. Erik Spoelstra has been with the Heat organization since 1995 — its head coach since 2008. Following nine seasons as an NBA player, Darvin Ham was an as...

Jimmy Kimmel-Aaron Rodgers libel suit looms; Justin Fields is not the answer in 2024; ESPN apologizes for live, bare boob
Near the end of Justin Fields’ triumphant win over the Atlanta Falcons, Chicago Bears fans serenaded him with a passionate “We want Justin” chant. The chorus reached a fever pitch on a night when Fields threw for north of 260 yards and one touchdown in a blowout win over the Atlanta Falcons. Through...

The NBA was on fire in its return to Thursday night on TNT
My original plan was to write about Giannis Antetokounmpo and Victor Wembanyama going head-to-head on Thursday night. These two skyscrapers, who were born on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, played basketball like the Empire State Building if Dr. Octopus’ metallic arms were attached. Those two ...

NFL scriptwriters couldn’t have penned a better ending to the regular season than Bills-Dolphins
Give the NFL credit. The league obviously hired writers from disparate backgrounds to arrange the season’s plotlines. On Sunday, the Week 18 finale will climax with an end-of-season clash of genres between the Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins, who couldn’t be more different. The Dolphins even have a...

Darvin Ham is not the reason the Lakers are losing
News flash: The Miami Heat are a better coached team than the Los Angeles Lakers. It showed in the fourth quarter of their Wednesday night matchup. Erik Spoelstra has been with the Heat organization since 1995 — its head coach since 2008. Following nine seasons as an NBA player, Darvin Ham was an as...

The NBA's participation policy wasn't meant for guys like Dorian Finney-Smith
The NBA likely implemented its player participation policy — read: anti-load management protocol — so that fans wouldn’t attend games only to see LeBron James and Anthony Davis, or Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, in street clothes. ...
