port Page 296 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Even when Mike Tomlin is joking, he stays on brand
Of course, no one is as ready for some football as Mike Tomlin. He isn’t simply employed as a football coach, he is the living embodiment of every person who has scolded someone for walking while on the field. ...

The WNBA Finals are A’ja Wilson’s to lose
Candace Parker’s repeat bid being squashed by the Connecticut Sun in Friday evening’s winner-take-all Game 5 against the Connecticut Sun was the sort of hoops history-altering that will reverberate more than Queen Elizabeth. Sue Bird is the all-time point god, but her career also arrived at its firm...

The future is bleak for retired RBs
The phrase “taking one on the chin” has never been more appropriate than in the sport of boxing. Going into the Adrian Peterson vs. Le’Veon Bell boxing exhibition, we already knew who the better NFL running back was. But now we know who the better boxer is, or at least the one who lands a better pun...

There’s losing to Kentucky and Marshall, and then there’s losing to App State and Georgia Southern
The unassuming weeks are always the most dangerous for college football, but especially so early in the season when the rankings are more guesses than earned distinctions. Still though, when you schedule an FCS school and pay them to come play non-conference patsy during homecoming or whatever else,...

Here's what you missed from college football while watching Alabama-Texas
To begin the Saturday marathon of college football most of us were watching the shitshow in Austin that turned into an early Heisman resume builder for defending-award recipient Bryce Young. Plenty of other weird stuff went down in the early window of intercollegiate gridiron. Aside from Alabama, th...

Alabama-Texas was drunk, I mean like drunk drunk
This is why people can’t quit Texas. They have all the talent to hang with and beat the best teams in the country even with a backup QB, and like Mikey with a number in Swingers, fuck it up. The rest of the SEC watching wishes that version of Alabama shows up to conference play, but still someone ha...

Stephen A. Smith forgets the basics of football
Stephen A. Smith is great television. The way he casually cascades between idioms in an excited, commanding voice is magnificent. I get jealous of his inflection just watching him. That said, he’s also had a series of brain farts that can’t be overlooked. Whether it’s ranting about nonexistent ties ...

How do you cheat in live chess?
Magnus Carlsen achieved the rank of chess grandmaster — the highest rank achievable in chess — at the age of 13 years old. The 31-year-old Norwegian mastermind is a five-time World Chess Champion and widely regarded as the best chess player in the world. He rarely loses, and that made his loss in th...

Rockies’ C.J. Cron helps baseball beat mountain traffic
C.J. Cron’s rise in Major League Baseball has been slow but steady. He’s 32 and has played for five teams and is in the middle of his second year with the Rockies. He made his first All-Star game this summer. Yet, the biggest, or should I say longest, individual play of his career took place Friday ...

NFL Week 1: The Bears money line is a (surprisingly?) popular bet
Heading into Week 1 of the NFL season, the biggest underdogs are the Houston Texans (+7), the New York Jets (+6.5), the Pittsburgh Steelers (+6.5), and the Chicago Bears (+6.5). When it comes to betting, if anybody was interested in picking one of these teams, you’d think they’d choose the spread. A...

Oh great, they’re letting humanoids play tennis now
The US Open could’ve fizzled out after Serena Williams and Rafael Nadal lost. Casual fans are conditioned to look for those four names when following a Grand Slam. While we weren’t watching for Williams’ pursuit of her 24th Slam, we were still watching for Serena. The men’s bracket was more of the s...

Card subject to change
The Ultimate Fighting Championship isn’t having a banner week with plenty of drama and changes surrounding Saturday’s UFC 279 PPV, mostly caused by headlining welterweight Khamzat Chimaev. The Swedish fighter couldn’t wait until he entered the octagon to throw hands, first getting into a verbal alte...

MLB pushing long overdue rule changes for 2023
So far in 2022, the batting average across MLB is .243 — the lowest mark for the entire league since 1968. On-base percentage sits at .312 — the lowest mark since 1972. Slugging percentage is currently at .395 — the lowest since 2014. OPS is at .707, once again, the lowest since 2014. It’s no secret...

It was Molina and Wainwright, not Pujols, making Cardinals fans verklempt Thursday
The issue I have with nostalgia is it makes people sentimental. Having a deep conversation with anyone is right next to “root canal” on my list of things that I actively avoid. If you’re going to melt into a puddle of tears, I need a 5-foot buffer minimum, and I’m going to slowly back peddle to the ...

Lamar Jackson betting it all on Lamar Jackson
Lamar Jackson sees his market value. With the bank accounts of proven starting quarterbacks soaring, and the number of them throughout the NFL fluctuating, the Ravens starter is one of two former NFL MVPs to be active and not past their prime....

Are Russell Wilson’s best days behind him?
The odds have always been stacked higher than Russell Wilson’s 5-foot-11 frame. A decade into his NFL career, he’s vanquished the skeptics who thought he was too short to excel under center behind towering offensive linemen. Wilson’s high release which prevents defensive linemen from batting down hi...

Don’t forget that Brian Flores is still suing the NFL for its racist hiring practices
Thirty-two teams. Sixteen games. Three African-American head coaches. Those stats have been tattooed in the NFL’s Week 1 box score for months. Mike Tomlin, Lovie Smith, and Todd Bowles are the lone Black coaches in the NFL this season due to new Miami Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel identifying as...

Deadspin’s NFL gambling guide/futures bets to make for 2022 season
The term “same faces, new places” has never been more relevant after the NFL hosted probably its wildest and most active offseason in history. We even witnessed the greatest of all time do a complete about-face on his retirement....

Defending champs look less than Super in season opener
The NFL has the longest offseason in American sports. Thursday’s season opener was 207 days after the Rams won Super Bowl LVI. The hype surrounding Los Angeles entering the 2022 season was palpable. According to Caesars, the Rams have the fifth-best odds to repeat as champions at +1100 with Buffalo....
