of Page 132 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Bettors backing 3-win Bears over 1-loss Eagles… am I getting that right?
The Chicago Bears are coming off a bye week. That is pretty much the only advantage they have over the Philadelphia Eagles this weekend. Still, despite the obvious disparity in talent between the two squads, bettors seem inclined to reach for the stars, just as they did with the Texans over the Cowb...

Bowl games are now more like the preseason than the postseason
Everything they’ve done all season has led up to this game: The [insert sponsor] Bowl. These teams worked all season long so that they could get six wins and the opportunity to play in the postseason. At least that’s what bowl games are supposed to be: The culmination of the season. But if anything ...

Naming Pat McAfee Sports Media Person of the Year is an indictment of us all
This is not (totally) a hit piece on Pat McAfee. It’s more about how we should categorize what McAfee does, because The Athletic — you know that sports site owned by The New York Times — named him its Sports Media Person of the Year, and that implies that he’s a journalist....

Leave it to the Raiders to exploit the rules
A week ago on Thursday Night Football, the NFL world paid witness to a pretty odd kickoff strategy from the Las Vegas Raiders during their game against the Los Angeles Rams. After the first drive of the game resulted in a Raiders touchdown, kicker Daniel Carlson had to boot the ball away, but he did...

NBA answers G.O.A.T. debate by picking MJ over LeBron for MVP trophy’s namesake
LeBron James’ fans must simply concede. The charade is over. That flimsy argument is washed. James isn’t the G.O.A.T. And who said so? Who settled this long-running barbershop debate? Well, the NBA, itself....

The NWSL wants transparency, as long as no one’s looking at that moment
You would think that there wouldn’t be much of anywhere to hide for the NWSL after not only the Yates Report came out in the fall but the NWSL’s and NWSLPA’s joint report followed it yesterday, both detailing the rampant mistreatment, abuse, and ass-covering that followed that various coaches, front...

World Cup 2022 Diary: Day 25 - Morocco's historic run comes to an end
What if you just Morocco’d Morocco?...
![Mike Leach, renaissance man [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/7769d662c8b0822220e88909069f3194.jpg)
Mike Leach, renaissance man [Updated]
Former Texas Tech head football coach Mike Leach will be posthumously inducted into the school’s Hall of Honor, along with his former QB Kliff Kingsbury. Leach won 84 games during his tenure, which lasted from 2000-09....

Which NBA title contender will Jae Crowder join?
Championship NBA teams have always revolved around star players, but the glue guys/role players make it possible for franchises to become title contenders. There are stars all over the Association, but only those with the best supporting casts can make deep runs into the postseason year after year. ...

From drug suspension to blunt ambassador, Ricky Williams is rolling his own path
RICKY WILLIAMS was sitting on a couch in a smoke-filled room, blazing a joint to celebrate his cannabis lifestyle brand “Highsman” during one of the biggest sports weekends of the year. ...

An 1800s outfielder is baseball’s most searched athlete… in Delaware
I spend a lot of time on Baseball-Reference. Apart from it being my job to do research and correctly relay player statistics to you, the readers, I enjoy looking back at old names from the late-90s and 2000s to see if they were as good as I remember them in my head. Casey Blake? Better than I rememb...

Hey Adam Silver, glossy new trophies won’t fix the NBA’s regular season
They say millennials are obsessed with trophies, but our elders have been expanding the ones propping up that industry. Commissioner Adam Silver’s quest to revitalize the regular season’s infrastructure has been his pet project for almost his entire eight-year stint. One day after Kawhi Leonard expr...

I’m not ready to go all in on the Brooklyn Nets — no matter how good they look currently
After so much turmoil to start the 2022 campaign, the Brooklyn Nets have finally begun to look like the contenders many expected. The Nets have had two different four-game win streaks since Nov. 27, winning eight of their last nine. Suddenly Brooklyn is five games over .500 (17-12) and in fourth pla...

Longtime college football coach Mike Leach dies at 61
College football’s most-beloved pirate, Mike Leach, died Monday night at age 61 following complications from a heart condition. Leach was a longtime high-level-conference head coach, starting with 10 seasons at Texas Tech, and eight at the helm of Washington State, before spending his last three at ...

RG3 has done lost his damn mind
As an analyst on TV, you need to be either entertaining, say something shocking, or have controversial opinions, but sometimes they can go a little far in attempting to make Twitter waves. Robert Griffin III is the latest, basically saying NFL teams don’t want the Detroit Lions in the playoffs. ...

Dak Prescott hushed his detractors with final drive against Texans
The Dak Prescott discourse has become one of the most polarizing in the NFL. He’s not an MVP-caliber quarterback, but he’s been a steady hand for seven seasons. He has a higher career passer rating than Tony Romo and led explosive offenses, but Prescott’s leap to top-5 quarterback never came, and no...

HBO's <em>Hard Knocks</em> was more than simply Detroit Lions propaganda apparently
Grit is all well and good, but it takes far more than turning a cliche sports term into an acronym on national television to get the most out of professional athletes....

The Golden State Warriors are clutch test-takers
Boston’s league-leading winning percentage meant nothing once Golden State decides to ascend to a higher plane of basketball nirvana. Golden State’s geezers might sprint out the gates as quickly as they did in years past, but when they need to hit the thrusters, they still have the energy to tap int...
