owns Page 32 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

2021 NFL Preview - AFC North: Baker Mayfield and Lamar Jackson will duel for the division
All eyes will be on Baker Mayfield and the Cleveland Browns in 2021 after making the postseason for the first time since 2002 last year. A major storyline for the Browns this year will be Mayfield’s contract status. Baker is eligible for an extension of his rookie deal, but the Browns are being caut...

Hawk Harrelson would love this horse
I don’t know what the future holds for horse racing, or if there’s much of one to hold. It feels like it could be consigned to the past within the next decade. Or maybe sports gambling will revive interest as more tracks get their own sportsbook to go with the slots they needed years ago. Or maybe t...

The Browns are smart not to lock up Baker Mayfield just yet
The Cleveland Browns come into the 2021-22 season looking to build off a campaign where the team registered its first playoff victory since 1995. To call this a drought is the understatement of the century. Some deserts aren’t as dry as the Browns have been in terms of winning the past 25 years....

Only reason to sit down with O.J. is to hear him say ‘I did it’
The Athletic is running a series called “the NFL 100,” ranking the top players in football history. This might have made more sense a year ago, when the NFL celebrated its 100th anniversary … and also unveiled an all-time team … but, whatever, everybody likes lists....

Deadspin fixes NBA free agency, Part IV: Power Forwards
Charles Barkley once said, “What do you call a power forward that only averages six rebounds per game?” Someone said, “what?” And the answer was, “A small forward.” That was funny as shit....

Who should be ‘next <i>men</i> up’ for Team USA if more replacements are needed?
This is not what the R&R Partners meant by “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.”...

Bob Baffert’s attorney gets eviscerated on CNN
After Kentucky Derby winner* Medina Spirit failed his first drug test, his trainer, Bob Baffert, did the media rounds to blame cancel culture and everybody besides himself for his horse’s unusually high levels of betamethasone....

Bob Baffert inexplicably blames ‘cancel culture’ for horse-doping controversy
Trainer Bob Baffert’s horse, Medina Spirit, who won the Kentucky Derby on May 1, tested positive for a banned substance. Apparently, according to Baffert, this happened because one of the groomers decided to take a piss on the hay in the horse’s stall after taking cough medicine, and the horse consu...

What happens if Medina Spirit is disqualified?
Only one horse has been disqualified for a drug test after winning the Kentucky Derby. That happened in 1968, when Dancer’s Image was DQ’d for testing positive for a banned anti-inflammatory. But Forward Pass, who finished in second was not declared the official winner until 1972....

Bob Baffert cries wolf again
You have to ask if there’s anything left of horse racing to kill. Perhaps it’s entrenched so deeply into irrelevance, outside of four or five days a year, that just about nothing can make it worse. This is an industry basically surviving on the courtesy of state governments, really....

Ja Morant and Anthony Edwards gave us a glimpse into the future last night
It’s too early to call this a rivalry, but hopefully, it’ll become one. ...

Browns fans have earned this Factory of Gladness
Take a bow, Browns fans. After years of torment, ridicule, bags over heads, a parade “celebrating” a winless campaign, and a Factory of Sadness, you have earned the right to be excited for this season, and the season after that, and the season after that. Yes, there was already excitement brewing in...

Are the Minnesota Timberwolves... not that bad?
Sure, you are what your record says you are, but during a COVID-19 pandemic, could we do that in spurts? The Minnesota Timberwolves are 20-44, but they’re 9-8 since March 31 and riding a four-game winning streak into tonight’s home game against the New Orleans Pelicans. ...

Sports world hails guilty verdict for Derek Chauvin
The sports world took to twitter before and after the Derek Chauvin verdict was announced Tuesday. Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of the murder of George Floyd, was found guilty on all counts, which included second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree mansla...

Jadeveon Clowney is a great pickup for the surprisingly jacked Cleveland Browns
Shockingly, the Cleveland Browns aren’t Brownsing things up right now. Signing veteran edge rusher (and I use that term loosely) Jadeveon Clowney to a one-year deal worth up to $10 million is the latest in a trend of impressive and savvy moves by the Browns front office. That is, um. Different....

The NFL is hell-bent on returning to normal, starting with a live draft in scenic Cleveland
We’re kinda sorta trending towards normalcy, and the NFL Draft on April 29 in Cleveland will lean into that, consequences be damned. The NFL announced today in a press release that the draft will be live, in person, with actual live people, including commissioner Roger Goodell, prospects, and fans. ...

Anthony Edwards has arrived, and we’re starting to see what Dwyane Wade sees in him
Anthony Edwards is averaging 23.5 points per game since we engaged in that stupid conversation about that no-fun Nate Duncan tweet reacting to the dunk of the year. ...

A small school in Georgia is channeling the 1986 Mets in all the best ways
There’s a moment in 1986 Mets: A Year To Remember, the greatest sports year-in-review video ever made, when, as Ray Knight hits a walkoff homer to beat the Astros on July 3, Tim McCarver crows, “They’re spreading the news that they are right now the dominant team in this game — in either league!”...

Here are some buzzer beaters from last night for you
There’s no such thing as buzzer beater season. But if there was, it would start around championship week (now) and wrap up in early April. You and I have seen plenty of game-winning shots in our time. Do buzzer beaters ever get old? You know the answer. (They do not.)...

It's not a good look for the NBA when Kevin Garnett can't get a stake in Timberwolves ownership
If there’s any former player who deserves an ownership stake in a franchise he helped build, it’s Kevin Garnett. But unfortunately, the Minnesota Timberwolves don’t see it that way....