sam Page 16 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Week 3 NFL Takeaways: Ugh. Did somebody die in here?
A lot of poor professional football was played during Week 3 of the NFL season. Going into the first window of games, most of the schedule appeared uninspiring — especially after 4:00 p.m. EST. However, mismatches were not the sole reason for poor play throughout the day....

If you're going to crash and burn, crash and burn like the Reds
Almost every demise in a baseball season is slow (unless you’re the Pittsburgh Pirates–more on them later). When a team still has a shot at the postseason by September, every game means that team is chasing something. And that chase means that should they falter on Tuesday, by Wednesday’s first pitc...

Notre Dame chokes, and Dan Lanning steals Coach Prime’s soundbite
Throughout the Notre Dame-Ohio State game, the booth constantly reminded viewers that Irish skipper Marcus Freeman said he wasn’t going to coach scared like he did a season ago against the Buckeyes. For 57 minutes in South Bend on Saturday night, he did that, and the Irish lost, 17-14 as a result. ...

Notre Dame-Ohio State should show us how far their QBs can take them
While the big media outlets fall all over themselves to slurp Deion Sanders, there is an actual marquee matchup Saturday that could have real ramifications for the College Football Playoff. No. 6 Ohio State and No. 9 Notre Dame are set to finish their home-and-home stand in South Bend, and it should...

We don’t want to know where Brock Purdy keeps that horseshoe hidden
The most annoying thing about Brock Purdy, and there’s more than a few, is the idea that the Niners planned all of this. ...

Novak Djokovic is tennis' unquestioned GOAT. Is there anyone who could catch up to him?
It isn’t a question as to who the male tennis GOAT is anymore. In recent years Novak Djokovic’s almost-robotic dominance as he continues to age has pushed him ahead of his contemporaries and predecessors. One of Djokovic’s greatest challengers to the crown conceded the throne recently when Rafael Na...

WWE gets richer while 100 employees get the boot
Time moves fast for a company trying to send its stock price up a percentage of a point. Yes, this is how big corporate America works. Cut employee expenditure to as lean as possible while maximizing revenue. WWE cashing in on a new $1.4 billion deal to move Smackdown back to USA Network is a perfec...

Woe is a Chicago Bears fan
It’s obvious a fandom is completely beaten down and without hope when all they ask for is for their team to just be bad and unnoticeable. ...

The Denver Broncos are picking up where they left off last year
New Denver Broncos head coach Sean Payton’s tenure in the Mile High City is off to a rocky start. His team lost the first two games of the season by a combined three points against Las Vegas and Washington, respectively. The offense looks to be moving in the right direction under Payton, but now the...

Just how far can the Orioles go?
It would be folly to pin too much on just a handful of games, no matter how good the Baltimore Orioles have looked. But then again, October doesn’t really adhere to trends or reason or logic either. When you get to this point in the season and try to look forward, you can throw darts at stardust, an...

The umpires strike back
There is no longer season than the MLB one, and it’s understandable that just about everyone is at the end of their rope and not ready to deal with any sort of guff from any sort of swine. ...

Is there any point in playing this Champions League?
Nope, not really! But my editors and management insist that these posts are longer than three words, so I guess I’ll have to explain. If Manchester City waltzed to last year’s trophy, only really sweating in the final for about an hour against a stubborn Inter, they very well may never get out of a ...

Coming soon to a city near you: MLB expansion
It’s always been the mantra of Rob Manfred that MLB wouldn’t look towards expansion until the stadium situations for the A’s and Rays were settled. After all, anywhere they’d award an expansion team could still be used as leverage for those teams to wrangle all the tax giveaways and government hando...

The Commanders are one of the most baffling 2-0 teams in the NFL
As Brandon Johnson hauled in the tip-drill Hail Mary pass from Russell Wilson, the entire District of Columbia and surrounding areas let out several expletives, I’m sure. ...

With Cooper Kupp out, rookie Puka Nacua has been putting in a star effort for the Rams
When the Los Angeles Rams announced that Cooper Kupp would begin the season on injured reserve, that was supposed to significantly hinder their offense. He was targeted 191 times during his first-team All-Pro 2021 campaign. In 2022, Kupp had 98 targets in only nine games. In his place has stepped ro...

Connor Bedard's most recent highlights prove he is going to be even better than everyone thinks
I’ll throw out all the caveats first, because that’s what every hockey fan outside of Chicago wants. ...

Manchester United are doing that thing again
Yes, we have been here before. It was the beginning of last season that Manchester United started like ass, got utterly thwacked by Brighton, manager Erik Ten Hag made them run a few more miles in training, and then it was fine for a while. It was mostly fine because Marcus Rashford turned into the ...

Mike Babcock sets a land speed record for being fired for being Mike Babcock
It has to be asked what did the Columbus Blue Jackets think they were going to get by hiring Mike Babcock? ...

The Cubs are doing their best to piss away their wildcard spot
On the morning of September 7th, life was pretty good for the Chicago Cubs. They had just, essentially, ended the San Francisco Giants season by sweeping them in three games at Wrigley, leaving San Francisco 5.5 games behind the Cubs and 2.5 games out of any wildcard spot. The Cubs meanwhile were on...

The Houston Astros don’t deserve a first-round bye
With playoff baseball rapidly approaching and the standings nearly complete, this feels like a good time to point out a flaw in the new six-team format (other than increasing the number of games per round). If you’re going to hand out first-round byes, give them to the two best teams in each league....