ow Page 131 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The 2023 Lions feel like the post-Katrina Saints
Another dome team led by an acolyte of Sean Payton with a young, innovative playcaller helming an explosive offense, a rehabilitated quarterback making the most of his second chance and a highly drafted rookie tailback are coalescing to alter the trajectory of a bottom-feeding franchise....

The Ravens are the best team left in the playoffs. And it's not even close
There were some tense moments for most of the favorites in the Divisional Round. The current NFL darling Detroit Lions almost let the game slip away on Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The San Francisco 49ers are fortunate that Jordan Love forgot how to throw a football in the fourth quarter...

Jordan Love’s best and worst were on display this postseason
No matter how Jordan Love’s season ended, it was an unmitigated success. He put himself in a position to secure a bag from Green Bay this offseason, obliterated the Dallas Cowboys with a 3-touchdown performance in his playoff debut, and was an all-around feel-good story despite the unhappy ending. B...

The 49ers can’t play like they did against the Packers and expect to win a Super Bowl
The San Francisco 49ers advanced to their fourth NFC championship game in five years after escaping a Green Bay Packers onslaught, 24-21. While they are the favorites to represent the NFC in Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas, it’s clearly going to take a herculean effort by Christian McCaffrey to carry ...

C.J. Stroud and every rookie QB to win an NFL playoff game
C.J. Stroud became the latest rookie QB to win a playoff game for his team. The Houston Texans shellacked the Cleveland Browns, 45-14, and the second overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft looked terrific....

What happens when Green Bay, San Francisco meet in the playoffs
The San Francisco 49ers and Green Bay Packers square off in the first 1 seed-vs.-7 seed matchup in NFL history. The two teams will set a record for their 10th playoff meeting, with the Packers looking to even a series that’s spanned 27 years. In a rivalry that’s racked up plenty of historic moments,...

Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown need a two-man game
The best duo in the NBA put on a show against the best team in the East on Friday night. Denver’s 102-100 win over Boston snapped the Celtics’ perfect mark at TD Garden this season, and 27-game home-winning streak overall. Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray combined for 69 points, 20 rebounds and 14 assi...

Blame Michael Jordan for Krause widow disgrace; Rudy Gobert trade finally paying off; Lakers need Zach LaVine
Michael Jordan won a widow getting booed. My colleague Stephen Knox covered this yesterday, the booing of Jerry Krause’s widow Thelma during the Chicago Bulls’ Ring of Honor ceremony on Friday, and he isn’t wrong. It’s another “feather” in the “cap” of Jerry Reinsdorf, though he wouldn’t have been i...

Kelce retires; Pete Carroll isn't having it; Dan Quinn gets dunked; Jerry Jones keeps on Jerry Jonesing
When it was announced last week that the Seattle Seahawks were moving in a different direction at head coach, the news caught many by surprise. It was framed as though Pete Carroll and the organization had mutually agreed that Carroll would step out of the way and into an advisor’s role. But now wit...

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...

This year’s Australian Open is drunk
The Australian Open is already kind of geared for weirdos, at least on these shores, given that you have to sacrifice sleep and any usefulness the next day to enjoy it. But this year’s edition has been off the rails, making it even more worth it for those of us who are prepared to throw ourselves of...

Baker Mayfield and Jared Goff joined some elite company
After the Wild Card Round of the NFL playoffs, Baker Mayfield and Jared Goff have etched their names in history, joining a short list of quarterbacks to win a postseason game with two different teams....

Bill Belichick could sure use Tom Brady’s advice finding a final stop
The path back to winning for Bill Belichick is as easy as parroting Tom Brady’s search for a contending roster following his departure from the New England Patriots. Like Brady at 42, the 71-year-old Belichick doesn’t have too many of his best years left either, which is why the QB targeted Tampa Ba...

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...

Lamar Jackson is stepping into one of those career defining moments
Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson has had one heck of a season, but all he’s accomplished could be nothing but a memory if they stumble against the Houston Texans this week. Jackson was so good this year that he could become the first QB since Steve McNair in 2003 to win the MVP award with ...

If you already think the Kansas City Chiefs get all the calls...
Good news, Chiefs fans. Shawn Hochuli will be the referee for Kansas City’s AFC Divisional round game against the Buffalo Bills. ...

In college coaching, it’s better to have a <i>Succession</i> plan than deal with a surprise retirement
So much about sports is often about who’s next. But ironically, over the last few years, we’ve seen how multiple team’s inability to look to the future in one certain area has hurt more than it’s helped. From Nick Saban and Jay Wright to what Tom Izzo has recently shared, it’s clear that focusing on...

So far, Old Man Winter is the winner of the 2024 sports world
Winter is throwing quite a wrench in the professional sports calendar. Outside of rainouts in baseball, the weather does not cause many game cancellations. The worst months of the year for weather in the United States are usually January-March. That is hockey and basketball season and those sports a...
