rte Page 19 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

IDIOT OF THE YEAR: 10 more for the worst of 2023 (Nos. 30-21)
Oh, the hell with it, you know the drill by now. Deadspin’s IDIOT OF THE YEAR continues on, as does the meaningless treadmill of existence. All is for naught and free will is an illusion!...

Let’s hand out some NHL awards. It’s Christmas after all!
Generally, this comes up at the quarter-mark or halfway through the season. But hey, it’s Christmas, so let’s hand out some Christmastime NHL awards just to get into the spirit of the thing! Who is leading in the various categories that the league likes to hand out some weird looking silverware for ...

These are the oldest players in NFL history
The NFL is a rough, violent game. The average career length in the modern NFL is just 3.3 years in the league. This is why it’s so impressive to see these NFL legends play so deep into their 40s. How many more names will we see join the ranks of the league’s oldest players in history? ...

This week in the NFL, NCAA: A Black vs. white game?; Aaron Rodgers fooling no one; Chargers coaching intrigue; time to talk MVP Award
The Week 15 finale on Monday Night Football has the biggest NFC playoff ramifications of any game on the slate. The Philadelphia Eagles travel to Seattle to face the Seahawks in a game neither can afford to lose this late in the season. It’s pretty apropos of these teams closing out Week 15, seeing ...

Why does the NFL refuse to return the bench press competition to Pro Bowl weekend?
The list of events for the Pro Bowl games was released on Wednesday. This annual celebration of the NFL’s top players has turned into summer camp. Like summer camp for kids, not training camp or an Illinois music festival. The players compete in events like dodgeball and tug of war, and the game is ...

This might be Sidney Crosby’s masterpiece, because it has to be
It hasn’t worked in Pittsburgh. While the Penguins made perhaps the offseason’s splashiest move by trading for Erik Karlsson, pairing another surefire Hall of Famer with the three they already had, they’re still only being propped up in the Metro Division by the pointless Blue Jackets. They’re only ...

The Flyers are good right now, but having faith in them might be like believing in Santa Claus
For the past 10 years or so, the Flyers have just muddled. There has never been any particular direction. Sometimes they’ve been kinda good, but nowhere near good enough to do anything that mattered. Sometimes they’ve been kinda bad, occasionally really bad, but never by design with their sights set...

It's time to take a hard look at who deserves to win NFL MVP
We have three Sundays left. Three more Sundays until that IV is ripped out of our arms and we are forced to trudge through the subsequent eight months not being able to start the week with at least 10 NFL games. With the holidays on the way to provide a bit of a distraction from that fate, let’s tal...

We’re being held hostage by bad or pointless football
The first two games of the NFL’s Saturday football lineup featured four backup quarterbacks. Instead of Joe Burrow, Kirk Cousins, Anthony Richardson and Kenny Pickett, we got Jake Browning, Nick Mullens, Gardner Minshew and Mitch Trubisky. Thank god for Jared Goff and Russell Wilson in the night gam...

This week in the basketball: Illinois St. coach in n-word flap; Giannis Antetokuonmpo still hasn't found his ball
What a typical response to racism from the head coach of Illinois State men’s basketball. During a home game on Saturday, Ryan Pedon got in an altercation with Norfolk State head coach Robert Jones. A situation that was none of Pedon’s business, because Jones was not even talking in the direction of...

The NFL has an offensive line problem — and help is not on the way
The league has an offensive line problem, according to longtime lineman Andrew Whitworth. ...

The Champions League group stage went out with a bang
The Champions League group stage spent most of its time getting maligned, some of that in bad faith from the biggest clubs who just wanted to mold the competition to their whims. But their main argument held a lot of water, which was that it lacked drama or suspense, as for the most part the top clu...

Mike Vrabel wants Will Levis to not try and truck defenders
Mike Vrabel is hoping some reverse psychology will work with his rookie QB....

Are lawyers in Ja Morant's case really dissecting how one checks the ball in pick-up games?
Ja Morant’s life has become a theater of the absurd and that continued Monday. Instead of executing crisp crossovers while Kyrie Irving plays ragged defense, Morant is finishing his 25-game suspension and was taking part in cross-examinations and scuffing up courtroom wood. As a consequence, Morant ...

The numbers don’t lie: Steph, Klay and Dray’s Golden State Gilded Age is over
Around 2017, I realized I was behind the curve by using free Pandora. I still kept my account for another few years out of an irrational attachment to it, long after everyone else had matriculated away from Pandora digital radio towards Spotify. That’s how it feels watching Golden State try to count...

Liverpool uses smoke, mirrors and its depth to get back on top of the Premier League table
Following the Premier League this year, it feels that the term “Mentality Monsters” should be emblazoned on the front of Liverpool’s shirts instead of their Standard Chartered sponsorship. Jurgen Klopp coined that term after the hallucination of the 4-0 comeback over Barcelona in 2019, Steve Kerr co...

God, I’m sick of the Kansas City Chiefs
Full disclosure, I’ve never been on board with the Kansas City Chiefs. Sure, they were, for a while, the best team in America, with a young and exciting generational talent under center and a head coach who never had to answer for anything because he wears Hawaiian shirts, has a funny mustache, and ...

These are the holiday films certain NBA fanbases need to watch this season
Christmas is the ultimate overlap of entertainment and sports. The year’s blockbusters are typically reserved for release on Christmas Day, with a slew of big-budget and indie hits releasing all month. Christmas Day sees the league’s best rivalries matched up for primetime holiday viewing. ...

This week in the NBA: Ime Udoka wrong to jaw with Lebron James; top 3 rookies are off to rough starts
Everyone who works for the NBA or one of its franchises should always behave in a professional manner. That being said, the head coach is supposed to be the person in charge of the team. A head coach is like the general manager of a store. That person may not own the place, but the person does need ...

This week in football: Aaron Rodgers finally sees the end; FSU boycotting the Orange Bowl?; Oregon hit with Title IX suit
Injured New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers had a lot going on over this first weekend in December. He turned 40 on Saturday, then stood on the sideline Sunday and watched the Jets lose to the Atlanta Falcons while scoring eight points. That could be when it dawned on Mr. Rodgers that suiting up...