rte Page 25 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Last year Deshaun Watson apologized, this year he's playing the victim
Deshaun Watson is great at reading defenses — he’s completed 67 percent of his passes and thrown for over 100 touchdowns and 15,000-plus yards in his career. But, what Deshaun Watson is not great at, is reading the room. He has a history of it....

Arthur Smith’s Falcons are riding the Bijan Robinson train in an age of aviator offenses
Arthur Smith migrated to the Falcons after laying down the railroad tracks for the Tennessee Titans’ 2020 AFC Championship berth. One would hope he isn’t trying to put his spin on the Derrick Henry cloud of dust offense he conducted for two years, but with Bijan Robinson. An essential part of buildi...

World Cup Day 3: A demolition to start the United States’ three-peat campaign didn’t happen
The last time the United States women’s national team opened a World Cup, it scored 13 goals against Thailand. That pile-on isn’t typical and wasn’t a drubbing for the sake of sticking it to Yul Brynner. There was no downside to putting up the unanswered baker’s dozen for the sake of goal difference...

The Seahawks are taking a trip back to 90s this season with a brief uniform change
Unlike the orange popsicle colored uniforms in Tampa Bay, the Seattle Seahawks have a throwback jersey worthy of throwing back to. The Kingdome may be long gone, but the royal blue home jerseys have returned. Rookie Jaxon Smith-Njigba was featured in 90s inspired promo for the old jerseys, and there...

World Cup Group H Preview: Why can’t there be more like Morocco?
The women’s World Cup should be, and still is in a lot of ways, a celebration of how far the game has come from where it was even just four years ago. The attention is more, the players, and teams are better, the quality of play keeps rising, the anticipation grows, as does the appreciation when it ...

Deadspin predicts the Women’s World Cup
How was the USWNT’s Megan Rapinoe being thrust into the forefront of sport and society while helping the United States women’s national team lift a second straight World Cup title four years ago? No matter how long ago it feels, the next edition of the global showcase is here, with 32 teams competin...

Is Sam Howell the next great Tank Commander or Kirk Cousins redux?
Renewed hope for the Washington Commanders is on the menu in 2023. New ownership will have an opportunity to leave their imprint on the organization eventually. But for now, the direction of the Commies 2023 season rests in the relatively small hands of its anointed Tank Commander Sam Howell. Tank c...

Women’s World Cup Group G preview: Italy and Argentina, you're in the middle of the ride
There’s a clear top and bottom in Group G. Sweden is No. 3 in the world and has every bit of skill needed to win the whole tournament. It’ll be a minor miracle if South Africa picks up a point before a return flight to Johannesburg. The most important game of Group G will be contested by the two tea...

Dak Prescott calls his shot — but do his words ring hollow?
The 2023 NFL season is right around the corner, with the start of training camps just days away. As usual, there are plenty of storylines for fans to follow all over the league, and of course, “America’s Team” is never lacking in that department. As if there wasn’t enough pressure on the Dallas Cowb...

Women’s World Cup preview: The Americans will run into trouble in Group E
The most deceiving thing about the United States women’s national team’s chances of a three-peat isn’t that it has a major target on its back and therefore is part of the game plan to knock out from every other nation in Australia and New Zealand. That was true for the 2019 showcase in France. How’d...

Guess who Justin Jefferson left off his top 5 QB list?
The internet is a place that constantly gets people into trouble, especially when social media is involved. Whenever athletes want to be honest or “keep it real,” they usually do so on some social platform. Minnesota Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson did not hold back when asked to rank his top...

World Cup Group D Preview: Can England complete the set?
The question in all sports has been that once you break through and win, does winning again become easier? Is the mental block gone? Or does the pressure simply build even more, as triumphs go from hoped for to expected? This is only one of the few things that England will be wrestling with at the W...

The Gold Cup was never about lifting another trophy for the US
The reinforcements won’t be coming from this group. Outside of goalkeeper Matt Turner — whose status as the unquestioned No. 1 goalkeeper for the United States men’s national team didn’t change after five games in this year’s CONCACAF Gold Cup — what player from this American squad that only defeate...

Women’s World Cup preview: Can the Japanese bookend the American’s dominance from Group C?
This should be pretty straightforward. It’s a matter of whether Spain or Japan advances from Group C as the winners, and who heads to the knockout stage as runners-up. That leaves Costa Rica and Zambia leaving Oceania early, but does anything exactly go to plan on the world stage? Group C has as cle...

World Cup Group B Preview: It’s time for Sam Kerr to take this itty bitty world by storm
We spilled some ink in these parts about Mallory Swanson by herself making the USWNT a threat to win the World Cup, before her unfortunate injury. But the US isn’t the only team with a player who is capable of grabbing a short tournament by the haunches, and the co-hosts Australia may have the bigge...

The USMNT looked terrible against Canada, and it doesn’t matter
It took until the 88th minute for the United States men’s national team’s C-squad to score a goal on home soil in a major-tournament quarterfinal and 15 seconds after play resumed for the offense to take place that gave Canada a golden opportunity to take it away. An uninspired first half, saved by ...

The Rockets have become the NBA’s most polarizing team
The Houston Rockets have been stuck in zero gravity since their post-Harden rebuild began two years ago. Despite their lottery successes they still have no direction. The Rockets lit the fuse this summer expecting a controlled explosion and witnessed the creation of the NBA’s most opulent sparkler....

Hey, at least the Houston Rockets are trying
We laughed at Dillon Brooks’ unceremonious exit from the Memphis Grizzlies, but it will be him with the cheshire grin plastered to his face every time that a direct deposit hits his account. On Saturday he signed a four-year, $80 million contract with the Houston Rockets. The day before, Fred VanVle...

Christian Pulisic’s move to AC Milan is the USMNT’s biggest news of the summer
The most substantial story for the United States men’s national team this summer has nothing to do with the Gold Cup. Nor any of the drama surrounding Gregg Berhalter’s return to the Yanks’ helm. It was always where the best American male soccer player on the planet, Christian Pulisic, landed in the...

ESPN breaks up its broadcast superteam-in-slacks as Jeff Van Gundy enters NBA free agency
As ESPN reaches the end of its fiscal year today, the Worldwide Leader has commenced its semi-annual purge of top talent. On Wednesday, the pink slip Russian Roulette landed on Jeff Van Gundy, after 16 years with the network....