si Page 150 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

On Sports Illustrated, the LA Times, and why sports writing matters
These are dark days for journalism, once considered the “Fourth Estate” of American democracy, so named because of journalism’s role in advocating for citizens, framing political and social issues, and holding the government to account on behalf of its people. These days, it seems there are two kind...

Joe Mauer, Todd Helton and the 1-team baseball Hall of Famers by franchise
The 2024 Hall of Fame inductions added two names to a very exclusive list. With Joe Mauer and Todd Helton’s nomination to Cooperstown, the two join 53 other players as the only in MLB history to make the Hall of Fame after spending their entire careers on one team. Listed by team, here are the reale...

Novak Djokovic was the boulder, Taylor Fritz was Sisyphus
It has to be hard enough to work through the mental gymnastics it takes to take the court against Novak Djokovic, convinced you can win. That’s what professional athletes do, of course, it’s part of the job. But they’re also still human, and it gets hard to shut out the list that makes Djokovic the ...

Tristan Thompson gets 25-game PED suspension
Cleveland Cavaliers center Tristan Thompson was hit with a 25-game PED suspension, according to reports. ...

What do the Edmonton Oilers want with Corey Perry?
The Edmonton Oilers have been the NHL’s hottest team for a good long while now. They’ve won 13 in a row, and since that woeful 2-9-1 start, they’ve gone 24-6-0, which over a full season would be a 131-point pace. They’ve vaulted themselves out of the Motel For Men where the Sharks live, that they sp...

If Karl-Anthony Towns drops 62 in a forest on the same night Embiid delivers 70, does it make a sound?
That sound you heard last night was Karl-Anthony Towns reminding us that he’ll always be in the shadows of his peers. On Monday night in Philadelphia, Joel Embiid painted his magnum opus en route to a 70-point, 18-rebound exhibition of scoring prowess. Embiid’s 70 also came on the 18th anniversary o...

Black coaches must recognize when they are Rooney Rule pawns
Are you helping yourself or are you helping them? That’s what every Black man in the NFL must ask themselves before accepting an interview for a head coaching position. The answer to the question is a personal one that affects many — just look at David Shaw....

The Coco Gauff era is fully underway
Coco Gauff was brought to tears at the 2023 Australian Open following a fourth-round loss to Jeļena Ostapenko. A year later she was in danger of another early exit in the first Grand Slam tournament of the year. Unforced errors were piling up and Gauff was forced to rally to pull out a win by tiebre...

This about sums up the Penguins season
Hockey can be infuriating. In no other sport can you do mostly everything right, but a little chinks in the armor can have an outsized effect if they’re spaced out correctly. Go 0-fer on the power play, or don’t get a save at the right time, or give up the wrong odd-man rush in the gimmick of overti...

The New York Islanders have lost their minds
The silver lining, we suppose, is that at least the Islanders are noticeable for a few minutes. The other one, possibly if you’re really stretching for them, is that if the Isles are going to have a dinosaur GM that the game has passed by, they might as well have (another) coach who is also a dinosa...

Buccaneers have tough decisions to make on Baker Mayfield, Mike Evans
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ surprising season is finally over, but now they’ve got some huge decisions to make. Primarily about the futures of Baker Mayfield and Mike Evans in Tampa. Both would like to stay, and with Evans being homegrown, he’ll likely have some influence on the team when it comes to ...

Are there two worse words in Buffalo Bills history than 'wide right'?
Buffalo had Kansas City right where they wanted them with two minutes left at home in the main event of the Divisional Round. It looked like Josh Allen and the Bills might finally vanquish their nemesis from the Midwest, and send them home with a loss in Patrick Mahomes’ first road playoff game. How...

A playoff game for the top pick in the NFL Draft sounds good — until you remember that human beings would be participating in it
Professional athletes play sports for two reasons: They play to make money and to win games. There is no other incentive necessary, or that would even work, to get the maximum effort out of players. And what would certainly be a terrible idea, is adding a “playoff game,” in which the result is the w...

Eastern Conference is a mess; Bruins don't need centers?; Sam Reinhart makes history
We’re halfway through the NHL season, which is now meant as a device to make everyone look stupid. Or really, to make me look stupid, which isn’t all that hard, because I’m stupid. After 41 games, we should have an idea of who is what and who’s going where. But in the Eastern Conference, we really d...

Kelce retires; Pete Carroll isn't having it; Dan Quinn gets dunked; Jerry Jones keeps on Jerry Jonesing
When it was announced last week that the Seattle Seahawks were moving in a different direction at head coach, the news caught many by surprise. It was framed as though Pete Carroll and the organization had mutually agreed that Carroll would step out of the way and into an advisor’s role. But now wit...

How suspected or confirmed PED users have fared in Baseball Hall of Fame voting
Is Gary Sheffield more Hall of Fame worthy than Alex Rodriguez, despite the fact that both are inextricably linked to performing enhancing drugs?...
![Sports Illustrated's future in flux after layoffs [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/c003c2d679d34432ba5675e064dc6a1a.jpg)
Sports Illustrated's future in flux after layoffs [Updated]
The future of Sports Illustrated is up in the air as The Arena Group laid off a portion of its staff on Friday, with the rest expected to be let go in three months’ time, according to Front Office Sports. ...

Soccer’s had load management for some time — now there just might be more of it
As if on cue, one of soccer’s biggest stars on one of the world’s biggest clubs went down with injury in the Africa Cup of Nations. While there’s not a diagnosis yet, Mohamed Salah limped off just before the half in Egypt’s draw against Ghana on Thursday. This comes a day after Kylian Mbappé warned ...

This year’s Australian Open is drunk
The Australian Open is already kind of geared for weirdos, at least on these shores, given that you have to sacrifice sleep and any usefulness the next day to enjoy it. But this year’s edition has been off the rails, making it even more worth it for those of us who are prepared to throw ourselves of...

Just when it looked like Boston area was free of King Sourpuss, Joe Mazzulla says, 'Hold my beer'
In the void left behind by Bill Belichick, Joe Mazzulla’s introverted-ness has risen to the occasion. And no, I’m not talking about the Boston Celtics giving the New England area a front-runner they desperately need. Mazzulla is the boorish head coach of a major professional franchise that the affab...