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The Brittney Griner-Viktor Bout deal is being unfairly criticized [See the exchange]
The end of Brittney Griner’s detainment in Russia arrived early Thursday morning, after the White House announced that she was on an airplane returning home safe and sound. The timing was a surprise to everyone outside of the Biden and Griner family’s inner circle. However, the two individuals invol...

Brittney Griner is free
At long last, a deal has been struck to release WNBA player Brittney Griner from a Russian prison. She was sentenced to a draconian nine years after a small amount of cannabis oil was found in a vape cartridge in her luggage....

Week 13.5 NFL Powerless Rankings: Nothing good is happening for these teams
At the intersection of Week 14 and Week 13, it’s time to take an unsettling look at this season’s worst. These are the squads who need a 12th man on the field to keep pace with their peers because whatever they’re doing right now isn’t working. Let’s dive in, but hold your nose, the stench is strong...

The NBA’s newest award is a better fit for MLB teams
It’s bad enough that there have been 16 NBA playoff spots since 1984. At that time there were only 23 teams in the league. It’s 2022, and still more than half of the league gets into the playoffs, and that’s not even counting the highly entertaining Play-in Tournament. Sure the New Orleans Pelicans ...

Carl Nassib helped save the Buccaneers’ season
The effect of an individual defensive player is hard to measure by statistics alone. It’s actually hard to even measure offensive players by traditional numbers. (What do 1,000 yards mean? Is it right to hold a single player responsible for his average yards per touch? How much should an individual’...

Get the NFC South out of here
Nearly every NFL season there is at least one division that if ripped from the league and cast into the sea, the product would be much better. This season, that division is the NFC South. ...

Bryan Reynolds requests a trade — what is he worth?
Remember a few years ago when a power-hitting shortstop was all the rage? They were a dime a dozen, and securing a shortstop that could be a serious threat in your lineup was an enormous deal. Nowadays, every team has one of those. The Boston Red Sox had two in Xander Bogaerts and Trevor Story last ...

Deion Sanders’ pimping of Jackson State and HBCU culture is finally over
What started with a lavish indoor pep rally during the height of the pandemic — putting the health of students and school employees at risk — ended with a cowardice move to dodge reporters, as the head coach of a 12-0 football team that just won its second straight Southwestern Athletic Conference C...

Let the King hold court on any subject, especially Jerry Jones
Whataboutism is a dangerous game. The comparison of apples to oranges, as opposed to just Honeycrisps and Fujis, appears to be the necessary pivot to distract from an actual issue. Walking and chewing gum at the same time is possible, preferable, and has become an impressive skill in the public eye....

Can Yanks keep Judge with historic deal?
The New York Yankees have offered star slugger Aaron Judge an eight-year deal, worth roughly $300 million, according to ESPN insider Jeff Passan....

NBA Players As <i>Black Panther: Wakanda Forever</i> Characters
Warning: Spoilers ahead...

For whom the Bellingham tolls — how the US can beat England…maybe
The kicking rocks and bemoaning the gods are in the past now for the USMNT. They let two points slip against Wales, while the one they gained is certainly valuable. They’re still very much in the tournament, but the draw against Wales means that the game against England is no longer a free hit. Had ...

This week in obnoxious athlete entitlement
Nearly 10 years after the ButtFumble, a next-generation Jets quarterback is fumbling his job away and coming across like a buttface in the process. There was no escape for the Jets quarterback on Sunday or afterward. Based on reports from Jets insiders such as Rich Cimini, the Jets’ fractured locker...

For your own health, never play against the Carolina Panthers
The Carolina Panthers are not a good team. They’re one of the worst teams in the NFL in fact. They’re trotting out a former XFL quarterback as their starter. They lost Christian McCaffrey and Robbie Anderson. They don’t utilize DJ Moore. They’re one of only two teams to have undergone a head coachin...

Bellinger's days in Dodger blue aren't necessarily behind him despite being non-tendered
Prior to the start of the 2021 season, Dodgers’ outfielder/first baseman Cody Bellinger was considered one of the best baseball players on planet Earth. In his three full seasons with LA prior to 2021, he’d won NL Rookie of the Year, an NL MVP, and had smashed 111 home runs. 2020 wasn’t the kindest ...

Mike Trout finishing outside the top 5 in AL MVP voting is a travesty
Mike Trout missed 43 games this season, most of which were due to injury. Whether it was a rare back condition or rib cage inflammation, the three-time MVP was forced to miss a considerable amount of time in 2022. Still, despite missing all that time, Trout was undoubtedly a top-five player in the A...

A College Football Playoff bid is on the line for USC the next three weeks
It’s the penultimate week of college football’s regular season, and I’ll give you four guesses as to which conference has the most ranked teams. I’d like to thank SEC fans for their quick response, but nope, it’s not them. Big Ten fans aren’t even chiming in because one of their two divisions doesn’...

Here are some alternative MLB awards to highlight underappreciated athletes
Last night, the American League and National League MVP Awards were handed out (Aaron Judge and Paul Goldschmidt, respectively), ending MLB’s week-long parade following the World Series celebrating the 2022 season. While the MVP and Cy Young Awards are great, they don’t pay any homage to the hard wo...

