off Page 96 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Major League Soccer has a better ‘Rooney Rule’ than the NFL
Eighteen years ago, the most prejudiced sports league in American professional sports (Major League Baseball is a close second) created their version of “affirmative action” when they came up with the Rooney Rule — named after the legendary Steelers owner Dan Rooney — in hopes of helping diverse can...

A Hall of Fame announcement we can all get behind
In the past, I’ve tried to remove myself from Hall-of-Fame debates. Because at the end of the day, they’re really no more useful or material than the Oscars or Grammys. You’re basically debating someone’s opinion. And because of the esteem these things have gotten over the years, you’re debating the...

These teams did not go quietly into the night in Week 13, their seasons may be done but they gave their home fans at least one last smile to take into the holidays
Be honest with yourselves because I’m about to be honest with you, I didn’t expect much from this Week 13 slate of the NFL season. With just over 1/4th of the regular season remaining, there were four teams on a bye week and the only one of those four teams has a record under .500 (the Carolina Pant...

Week 13 NFL Powerless Ranking: Detroit finally wakes from nightmare
Welcome to this week’s NFL Powerless Rankings. We’re closing in on the home stretch of the NFL season, and we know the contenders from the pretenders at this point. We’ll talk about the contenders later because this list is about the less fortunate teams in the league. Let’s check out the worst of t...

CFP is as easy as 1-2-3… or 2-3-4
For weeks, we’ve been dissecting, diagramming, and divining what the College Football Playoff might or should look like at the end of this zany season, and then Saturday’s conference championships came along and made everything pretty darn clear....

NFL Week 13: Baltimore is better, but Pittsburgh has a good history in these types of games
Week 13 is normally when we start seeing the NFL playoff picture unfold. However, in 2021, we’re still unsure if there are even any good teams in the league. The NFL is so tightly knit nowadays that even the 0-10-1 Detroit Lions still have not been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs....

The NFL has a diversity coaching fellowship named after Bill Walsh – a white dude
The NFL sent out a press release this week that screamed, “Hey look, we did a good thing,” while being completely oblivious to the fact that their actions were shameful – which is very on brand for this league....

Sooners’ planned move to the SEC might’ve pushed Riley to USC
There were too many openings at too many big colleges for a notable school or two not to be on the losing side even after being on the side of winning for so long. In a not so subtle reminder that there’s always a bigger fish, Lincoln Riley opted for Southern California rather than the Southeastern ...

College athletes get criticized for being selfish — college coaches get huge contracts
In the olden days of 2016, many of the favorite people you like to follow on Twitter or watch on TV were upset that three future first-round draft picks in Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey, LSU’s Leonard Fournette, and Michigan’s Jabrill Peppers were sitting out of their bowl games due to injury, as t...

As rivalry week comes to a close, what does the CFP picture look like now?
It took 10 years for Michigan to beat Ohio State, and what feels like another 10 years in college football has passed since the Wolverines finally claimed their first-ever spot in a Big Ten championship game....

Week 12 NFL Powerless Ranking: All around the world same song
We’re in the second half of the NFL season, and we can separate the contenders from the pretenders. We’ll talk about the contenders later because this list is about the less fortunate teams in the league. Let’s check out the worst of the worst from Week 12. Welcome to this week’s NFL Powerless Ranki...

Week 12 NFL Betting Primer: Best Over/Under, Spread, Teaser, and Prop Bets
If CeeDee Lamb didn’t get hurt leading up to halftime, the column was looking at a 4-0 week. Instead, we took an otherwise delicious 3-1 showing going into Thanksgiving. Let’s be thankful for not having action on any of those wacky games and opting to wait till the weekend....

OSU is still in the playoff picture… no, not the Buckeyes
Ever been dumb and smart at the same time?...

Tigers kings no more as ACC has exotic new look
For the first time since 2014, the ACC will have a new champion, as Clemson’s hopes for a seventh straight conference title officially bit the dust Friday night....

Bears look like Lions’ best shot at a win this year
It’s been nearly a year since the Detroit Lions won a football game. In early December 2020, they managed a 34-30 victory over the Bears, before dropping the last four games of the season. In 2021, Dan Campbell’s squad dropped eight straight — until, rejoice, rejoice, a tie against the Steelers a fe...

Darryl Sutter might look like Sam the Eagle but he’s doing that thing again
Merely by looking at him, and certainly when you hear him talk, it’s easy to dismiss Darryl Sutter as the hilt of old-school NHL coaches. Throw in the fact that he was nothing more than a bottom-six grinder in his playing career, and you’d be forgiven for concluding that he would send his teams out ...

Where will we see Ohio State and the rest in this week’s round of CFP rankings?
Last week, it was Oklahoma....

So what is WWE’s plan for Roman Reigns?
I’ll admit to watching Survivor Series last night hoping that it would be an unmitigated disaster. Through WWE’s terrible promotion and build to the event, spiced with the disheartening and cold releases of wrestlers due to “budget cuts” even though the company keeps trumpeting record profits, there...

Week 11 NFL Betting Primer: Best Over/Under, Spread, Teaser, and Prop Bets
Going into Thanksgiving Weekend up on the campaign is always something to be thankful for. Making sure that happens, though, still requires one more solid week....

Oregon gets whooped
You could feel an Oregon loss coming at some point, and did it ever come on Saturday night in Salt Lake City, a 38-7 thrashing by No. 23 Utah which means that for the fifth straight season, the Pac-12 will not have a representative in the College Football Playoff....