ns Page 883 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The casual American soccer fan's guide to the best international players ahead of the World Cup
For the fair-weather soccer fan, and let’s be real, that’s 99 percent or more of American sports fans, the World Cup is the one event taking place over multiple weeks where general interest is at a high. The United States men’s national team didn’t make the world’s best 32 in 2018, and a huge chunk ...

Coming off the bench has brought back some semblance of vintage Russell Westbrook
Russell Westbrook’s first season in L.A. was an unmitigated failure. He was plugged into a lineup of non-shooters including LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and a confusing mix of ill-fitting pieces. Of Rob Pelinka’s misfit toys, though, nobody took last season’s debacle harder on the chin than Westbroo...

Drake may have lost a couple of big bets on Saturday
At the start of the fifth round UFC 281’s main event, the rapper with the Instagram handle @champagnepapi might have been ready to go get a ridiculously overpriced bottle. His $2 million bet on Israel Adesanya looked certain to be a winner....

World Cup 2022 Preview: Group D — Can Denmark be the midnight bomber what bombs at midnight?
If you ascribe to the theory that this will be a truly goofy World Cup — that the short run-up, the injuries everywhere (not clear the amount of injured is all that abnormal but let’s go with it), the odd setting — and that some team from out of nowhere could make a run, you’re probably sizing up yo...

By all means, the 49ers should have no trouble with the Chargers
The Los Angeles Chargers are a very good football team. Even in the absence of Keenan Allen and Mike Williams for parts of the season, the downfall of JC Jackson, and the abysmal play of Jerry Tiller on the D-line — thankfully he just got waived — the Chargers have played their way to a 5-3 record a...

Can someone please explain how Josh Bell won a Silver Slugger award?
At the end of October, MLB announced their finalists for the Gold Glove awards. Every MLB fan collectively put palm to face at the sight of Juan Soto being named a finalist for the NL right field Gold Glove. Thankfully, he didn’t win the award. MLB coaches and managers dodged a huge bullet with that...

Germany has always wanted American football
When tickets for the NFL’s first game in Germany went on sale in July, the worst seats in the entirety of Allianz Arena were being sold left and right for upwards of $600. Germany has never had a mainstream NFL game in the country before, and although the first matchup would obviously be given a ser...

Dan Snyder’s alleged corruption oozed into nearly every pore of the Washington Commanders
I don’t mean to go down a whole rabbit hole dive into corporate personhood, but team owners infuse their NFL franchises with personalities. The Dallas Cowboys exude Jerry Jones’ swashbuckling oilman bravado, the Pittsburgh Steelers have ingrained the Rooney family’s consistency and competence into t...

If the NFL cares deeply about player safety, then why are teams still playing on artificial turf?
In the inherently violent contact sport of football, there’s only so much that can be done to make the game safe. Ensuring the safety of its players should be the No. 1 concern for any football league, especially the NFL. Over the past decade, the league’s favorite slogan has been “player safety.”...

Civil suit filed against Washington Commanders, Dan Snyder, NFL, and Roger Goodell by D.C. Attorney General
D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine announced Tuesday his office is going after Washington Commanders owner Daniel Snyder, the franchise itself, the National Football League, and league commissioner Roger Goodell, filing civil charges against the quartet....

Grizzlies broadcasters got so mad they couldn’t even call the game, and it was wonderful
There is a charm to a local sports broadcast. Sports is about energy, and passion, and a way to draw that out of fans is with the MCs of the event....

Jacob deGrom and Bruce Bochy are a match made in heaven
The MLB hot stove is not officially underway, but it’s warming up, and arguably the biggest name on the pitching market is two-time Cy Young Award winner Jacob deGrom. Earlier this week, deGrom officially opted out of his Mets’ contract — a decision most people saw coming — and almost immediately th...

UNSUNG GENIUS: Dissecting Dusty Baker's bullpen brilliance for his sabermetric critics
Dusty Baker “ought to be part of the conversation around MLB’s best-ever managers,” concluded Neil Paine from FiveThirtyEight after studying the most overachieving managers, and “shouldn’t need a ring to validate his career.” Agreed. Let’s go further....

Why are the Warriors looking so shaky this year?
The Golden State Warriors are far from the only team in the NBA that’s surprisingly struggling. Hell, there are surprises all over the league. The Utah Jazz gutted their team and have the best record in the Western Conference....

I know exactly who’s under the Bride costume on ‘The Masked Singer’
From the clue package to both performances on Wednesday night’s edition of FOX ratings juggernaut The Masked Singer, anyone who’s a fan of the inaugural All Elite Wrestling world champion knows his signature growl and tone. Chris Jericho is the only current wrestler on American television to sing hi...

Gregg Berhalter is getting loose
Any coach hired by U.S. Soccer, at least for the men’s side (though Vlatko Andonovski isn’t winning many fans these days either), is never going to have 100 percent buy-in. They just haven’t gotten it totally right in… well, ever? Berhalter being related to an exec at the time of his hiring didn’t h...

Jacque Vaughn is Brooklyn’s next man up or their next sacrificial lamb
Mere hours before a nationally televised matchup against the New York Knicks, the Brooklyn Nets opted for a semblance of stability, or at least a stable shoulder to lean on, when they removed the interim tag from assistant coach Jacque Vaughn’s title....

Pete Carroll is still a damn good football coach and he’s getting the very best out of Geno Smith
Pete Carroll still gets it....

Here's the USMNT's roster for the 2022 World Cup
Well, it’s official. Here’s the merry band of men that will head to the deserts of Qatar…unless they get hurt this weekend and have to be replaced. But let’s be positive. After eight years, we now have an actual World Cup squad to debate! Get to know them and love them before you curse their name wh...

Some day, not now, Jabari Smith Jr. will know what it’s like to have a true point guard
For as much tanking and general thirst that the top three picks of the 2022 NBA Draft garnered, they haven’t merited that attention quite yet. In Chet Holmgren’s case, it’s impossible because he’s out for the season. Paolo Banchero is going to win Rookie of the Year, and little else on an Orlando Ma...