odd Page 8 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The NBA trade deadline was a bit of a dud, but here's a look at who won and who flopped horribly
After last year’s insane trade deadline, which featured Kevin Durant being dealt to the Phoenix Suns, this year brought a bunch of smaller, shrewd moves that moved teams into contention. We have tracked the trades and broken them down by time-tested winners and losers rubric to track how the day wen...

The most outlandish Super Bowl LVIII prop bets
This is going to be the biggest Super Bowl for gambling in recent memory. The American Gaming Association estimates that Americans will wager a combined $23.1 billion on the Big Game this year, up from $16 billion year-over-year. ...

It’s been a positive hiring cycle for Black head coaches in the NFL, but . . .
All of life’s wins should be celebrated, but parades are meant for special occasions. And despite how progressive this hiring cycle for Black head coaches in the NFL has been, anyone who has already poured the champagne is an idiot....

Lamar Jackson may win MVP, but he's still second fiddle to Patrick Mahomes
Now that NFL Championship Sunday is in the rearview, it’s time to reflect on what was and what could have been. For the Baltimore Ravens, it’s a matter of looking back and figuring out what you could have done differently as a team. But for Lamar Jackson, at this point, it has to be tough playing se...

The 12 most important NFL players in the Conference Championship Games
Football is a game of X’s and O’s, but the real difference gets made by the Jimmies and Joes. As we prepare for Conference Championship weekend, here are the 12 most important players to pay attention to on Sunday. ...

Nathan MacKinnon & the bra brigade; A requiem for the Bills; Todd Helton's magic act
Seeing a four-goal game is perhaps the rarest thing a hockey fan can witness in person. It’s not too far off from seeing a no-hitter. I’ve been going to hockey games for 364 years, and I’ve seen one. Steve Thomas vs. the Devils in March of 1990 at Chicago Stadium. I didn’t have to look that up (well...

Islanders lose way with Patrick Roy; Sex assault charges rock WJC; Why is Corey Perry with the Oilers?
The hammer may be coming down on members of the 2018 Canadian World Junior team faster than we thought. Over the past couple of days, two players — Carter Hart of the Flyers and Dillon Dube of the Flames — had taken indefinite leaves of absence from their teams. - Sam Fels Read More...

Mauer, Helton join elite single-team club; Dodgers continue to be offseason champions
The 2024 Hall of Fame inductions added two names to a very exclusive list. With Joe Mauer and Todd Helton’s nomination to Cooperstown, the two join 53 other players as the only in MLB history to make the Hall of Fame after spending their entire careers on one team. Listed by team, here are the reale...

The Los Angeles Kings are getting itchy
Rarely is it a good sign when, A) the head coach is being asked if his job is in jeopardy, and B) the coach doesn’t have much of a problem with that being asked. That’s where the Los Angeles Kings, along with coach Todd McClellan, find themselves after either losing or tying their 12th of 14 games l...

Joe Mauer, Todd Helton and the 1-team baseball Hall of Famers by franchise
The 2024 Hall of Fame inductions added two names to a very exclusive list. With Joe Mauer and Todd Helton’s nomination to Cooperstown, the two join 53 other players as the only in MLB history to make the Hall of Fame after spending their entire careers on one team. Listed by team, here are the reale...

Adrian Beltre and Joe Mauer are headed to Cooperstown, while Todd Helton snuck in Vincent Adultman style under their jackets
Wading into Baseball Hall of Fame debates is like diving into a pool full of eels, if the eels were up their own ass (personally, not physically, which eels might be able to do). Everyone’s got their own benchmarks, everyone hates your benchmarks, and never the twain shall meet. At the end of the da...

Adrián Beltré leads baseball's 2024 Hall of Fame class
Adrián Beltré, Todd Helton and Joe Mauer are headed to Cooperstown. ...

Raiders remove interim tag, hire Antonio Pierce as head coach
The Las Vegas Raiders are finalizing a deal to make Antonio Pierce their full-time head coach....

Rookie WRs could be the key this week for Chiefs, Ravens
Three of the best quarterbacks in NFL history will take the field for Divisional Round weekend, each with a different narrative surrounding him. Patrick Mahomes is participating in the first road playoff game of his career on Sunday. He is Michael Jordan in 1993 and 1998, having to rely on his own g...

The NFL buying ESPN is the final frontier in the effort to kill sports journalism
Last week, my colleague Sean Beckwith wrote about the NFL possibly buying a stake in ESPN, and the potential for the self-proclaimed Worldwide Leader in Sports to become nothing more than the PR arm of the most popular league in America (at least, more than it already is). Yesterday, over at The Nat...

All the remaining NFL playoff teams, ranked
Anything can happen in the playoffs, and I mean anything. In just the wild-card round alone, we saw:...

The NFL’s Black coaches are turning Wild-Card Weekend into a diversity showcase
There’s one storyline the NFL hasn’t highlighted heading into the postseason, and that’s probably for legal reasons. At least, I can’t imagine the league’s attorneys would advise them to showcase its entire roster of Black head coaches making the playoffs, considering Brian Flores’ lawsuit is still ...

Every team in the NFL playoffs, ranked
The NFL playoffs are officially set. All the ups and downs, laughs and years, improbable comebacks and unprecedented collapses, none of those mean anything now. All that’s left is a four-week sprint to immortality. ...

Sick, Sad World of Sports: Jumbo holiday edition
The holidays are a stressful time for everyone, including criminals, athletes moonlighting as criminals, and criminals moonlighting as athletes. ...

Aaron Rodgers and the biggest transactions of the 2023 NFL season
With just a handful of weeks left before the end of the NFL regular season, it’s time to evaluate the moves that defined the year in review. Everyone makes big deals about offseason moves and trades, but only in hindsight can we truly find the moves that defined the year. ...