rad Page 166 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
The Royal Shrovetide Football Game Is A Very Dumb, Very English, And Very Good Sport
For centuries, the citizens of Ashbourne, England have annually contested the Royal Shrovetide Football match, a sprawling, chaotic wrestling match masquerading as a soccer game. The thicket of ruddy blokes you see up top there are members of two teams: the Down’ards and the Up’ards, thus named for ...
Coy Signals About NFL Trade Rumors Don't Serve Anyone
If you are an NFL fan who has spent any amount of time looking at Twitter over the last few days, you have surely been exposed to some amount of chatter about vague rumors concerning something that the Cleveland Browns are about to do. There was probably an emoji involved. Things really heated up, t...
Report: The Lakers May Have Leaked The Trade Offer Details That Nuked Their Own Team Chemistry
The whole Anthony Davis trade deadline saga was twisted up and poisoned by posturing and strategic leaking and all the passive-aggressive indirect communication that could be crammed into a day, each day, for a solid two weeks. But Brian Windhorst’s delicious scoop—that the Pelicans conducted trade ...
The Blue Jackets Going All-In Isn't Crazy <i>Or</i> Stupid
It’s not at all rare for a contending NHL team to say “Fuck it” and go all-in at the trade deadline. God knows the window of opportunity to win a Cup is small and it makes sense, rather than overvaluing the potential of prospects and draft picks, to acquire the One Final PieceTM that will put you ov...
The Blue Jackets Going All-In Isn't Crazy <i>Or</i> Stupid
It’s not at all rare for a contending NHL team to say “Fuck it” and go all-in at the trade deadline. God knows the window of opportunity to win a Cup is small and it makes sense, rather than overvaluing the potential of prospects and draft picks, to acquire the One Final PieceTM that will put you ov...
Maybe Brad Stevens Isn't Quite Up To <i>This</i>
“We’re just not together. Plain and simple.” That’s Boston’s Marcus Smart, in the aftermath of the 118-95 ass-whomping his Celtics received at the hands of Pascal Siakam and the Toronto Raptors last night. By my informal count, this is something like the 917th time in this disappointing Boston seaso...
Maybe Brad Stevens Isn't Quite Up To <i>This</i>
“We’re just not together. Plain and simple.” That’s Boston’s Marcus Smart, in the aftermath of the 118-95 ass-whomping his Celtics received at the hands of Pascal Siakam and the Toronto Raptors last night. By my informal count, this is something like the 917th time in this disappointing Boston seaso...
Are The Lightning So Good That They Didn't Need To Get Better?
Every Cup winner since 2010 has made a deadline (or deadlineish) trade. The Lightning stood pat. So either Tampa Bay is going to regret not trying to make the NHL’s best team just a little better, or they’re going to buck some recent history. But, then again, no Cup winner, no team, since 2010 or ev...
Are The Lightning So Good That They Didn't Need To Get Better?
Every Cup winner since 2010 has made a deadline (or deadlineish) trade. The Lightning stood pat. So either Tampa Bay is going to regret not trying to make the NHL’s best team just a little better, or they’re going to buck some recent history. But, then again, no Cup winner, no team, since 2010 or ev...
At Least The Oscars Satisfied Mike Francesa
When the Oscars handed Best Picture to Green Book, the filmic equivalent of saying “I don’t see color,” it was widely seen a goof on the order of Crash winning the same in 2006. Awards shows are stupid, sure, and the Oscars reliably get things wrong in silly and self-conscious ways. But you could at...
Sports Are For Crying Because Your Friend Got Traded Away
Professional sports are a job, but in many ways very much unlike other jobs. Your teammates are more than co-workers; you work together, but you also socialize together, travel together, practically (and sometimes literally) live together. For half of the season you’re on the road together, sharing ...
Columbus Blue Jackets Pick At Ottawa's Corpse, Trade For Matt Duchene<em></em>
Just as everyone was gawking at a horny Robert Kraft, the sports world blessed us with even bigger news: The last-place Ottawa Senators have traded center Matt Duchene to the Columbus Blue Jackets, in exchange for highly regarded prospect Vitaly Abramov, promising Swede Jonathan Davidsson, and some ...
Letting Larissa Kelly Fall To The Sixth Pick In <i>Jeopardy!</i> <i>All-Stars</i> Is One Of The All-Time Draft Blunders
Michael Jordan sliding to pick No. 3. Tom Brady dropping to the sixth round. Mike Piazza going 1,390th. Add another one to that list: Larissa Kelly dropping to pick No. 6 in the Jeopardy! All-Stars draft....
Denver's Joe Flacco Trade Gets The Coveted Mike Francesa Seal Of Approval
John Elway has a very poor history of acquiring quarterbacks for his Denver Broncos. This isn’t to say he can’t do it, or that he’s doomed to failure, or even that all his failures to date are necessarily his fault. Maybe he’s been really unlucky! Point is, if you’re looking for evidence that being ...
NBA Refs Defend Bradley Beal's Comical, Insanely Obvious Travel
Late in the Wizards’ loss to the Pistons on Monday night, Bradley Beal took it to the rim. He gathered the ball, took his usual two steps, saw an enormous Blake Griffin looming in his airspace, and then ... just kept walking. As one does. Blake’s face on the replay says it all....
Rich Paul Snitched On The Pelicans And Got Anthony Davis His Playing Time Back
It seems like just yesterday that Anthony Davis had his image wiped from nearly every part of Pelicans-related media in anticipation for the team to honor his trade request. But both sides had to put that bit of their history behind them on Friday when the All-Star big man suited up to play agains...
Jim Gray Gets Weirdly Snippy When Asked About His Friendships With Tom Brady And Oprah
Career access merchant Jim Gray has made his name lobbing softballs to famous people, and he would prefer to have those same softballs tossed in his direction, thank you very much. In a Super Bowl week interview with Boston radio station 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Toucher and Rich, Gray had barely settle...
Tom Wilson Got Brutal Revenge For A Dirty Hit By Ian Cole
This guy again, huh? Yeah. It had been by my count a little over three weeks since Capitals violence-lover Tom Wilson last dropped the gloves, so he must have been just twitching from withdrawal, aching to go out and throw some haymakers at an opponent. It was Colorado Avalanche defenseman Ian Cole ...
The Zombie Pelicans Will Cross Their Fingers And Allow Anthony Davis To Play Out The Season
Having used these last few weeks for nothing more productive than shedding salary and spiting the Lakers, and having sagged now to 13th place in the Western Conference standings, the Pelicans have announced their decision to return Anthony Davis to their rotation for the rest of this lost and wasted...