smith Page 29 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

'Fair' has got nothing to do with it
An organization can do everything right during a rebuild: Hire a good, young coach, make shrewd, smart personnel decisions, lead the NFL in rushing, make the playoffs. Those are all signs of a team trending upward....

The Jimmy G to Tampa Bay rumor was asinine, but another NFC team makes sense
Now that San Francisco 49ers quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo is on the mend following shoulder surgery in March, trade rumors are starting to resurface, with one sounding too ridiculous to be true. The rumor that Tampa Bay is interested in bringing Garoppolo to Florida has been floating around....

A.J. Brown is off and running in Philly after laying the smack down on Micah Parsons
Philadelphia Eagles’ new star wide receiver A.J. Brown is diving-in headfirst to the NFC East rivalry with the Dallas Cowboys. Brown participated in a charity softball home-run derby hosted by teammate DeVonta Smith. In the final, it was Brown against Micah Parsons, with A.J. coming away the victor ...

Raiders make NFL history again, but it’s another instance of a minority being brought in to clean up the mess
The Las Vegas Raiders are making NFL history again in the front office by hiring Sandra Douglass Morgan as the first Black female team president. The Raiders were also the first team to have a female CEO in the NFL when Amy Trask took on the role in 1997....

USWNT qualifies for World Cup, but we still don’t have all our answers
It’s hardly a surprise, but the USWNT walloped Jamaica 5-0 in the CONCACAF Women’s Championship to qualify for the 2023 World Cup, where they carry the heavy but illustrious burden of being two-time defending champs....

Travis Kelce’s age, not Tyreek Hill’s absence, is the key to Kansas City’s season
Before I start, Travis Kelce should still be the first tight end off the board in this year’s fantasy football draft. He’s going to get an increased workload with Tyreek Hill in Miami, and Patrick Mahomes will lean on him early like you lean on that one person you know at the wedding before the alco...

KD is a superstar player, but not a great talent evaluator
In an era where title-starved NBA owners are increasingly taking responsibility out of the hands of their front office and handing their organizational control to their superstars, it’s telling that Kevin Durant personally issued his trade request from Brooklyn with owner Joseph Tsai....

Good luck Arkansas
The Arkansas Razorbacks football team is coming off one of their best seasons of the 21st century: nine wins, their most since 2011 and a victory in the Outback Bowl. Yes sir, things are really starting to look up for the Razorbacks. Even better, most of their key players are returning for the 2022 ...

The U.S. Open Twitter account went all in clowning a Seattle Seahawks fan and Drew Lock
The Seattle Seahawks are about to embark on a long NFL season. And whoever runs the U.S. Open’s official Twitter page knows that and isn’t shy about throwing it in the face of Seahawks fans. The tennis account fired back at a Seahawks fan that said tennis wasn’t a sport. They took down that fan, the...

Big bucks for wide receivers is bad news for several other positions
There are currently 12 wide receivers in the NFL with contracts that earn them an average annual value of $20 million or more. Nine of those contracts — Chris Godwin, DJ Moore, Cooper Kupp, Davante Adams, Tyreek Hill, Mike Williams, A.J. Brown, Terry McLaurin, and Stefon Diggs — were signed during t...

Which players have played on the most teams in each sport?
Adjusting to the environment around you is key to success in any sport. Even with NBA rosters having the smallest maximum roster size of the big four North American leagues with 15 players, there are personnel changes all the time. Imagine having to deal with that in new cities with new teammates an...

Here’s why the Eagles will win the NFC East
The Philadelphia Eagles are getting quite a bit of attention during the offseason. Different pundits have already picked Philly to win the NFC East in 2022 and possibly even make a little noise in the playoffs. Pro Football Focus ranked the Eagles seventh among all 32 NFL rosters. But is this Philly...

Once again, we must remind you that Doug Gottlieb is an idiot
My compatriot Stephen Knox covered all this not so long ago, but if you need a refresher…...

The Atlanta Hawks adding Dejounte Murray would change the entire landscape of the Eastern Conference
The Atlanta Hawks were the second best offensive team in the NBA this past season. Trae Young had the best season of his career averaging 28.4 points and 9.7 assists per game on 46/38.2/90.4 shooting splits. He kept his team’s offense rolling all season despite many injuries. Of players who averaged...

Fighting is condoned, even celebrated in baseball and hockey, but not in basketball and football — you know why
Has anyone checked on Amy Schumer?...

If I’m Victor Wembanyama, I’m all good on being called a unicorn
Now that Aleksej Pokuševski and Franz Wagner have understudies and Jabari Smith Jr. has a couple more guards who won’t pass him the ball, it’s time to peek inside the 2023 NBA Draft. And if you’ve done that, you’ve no doubt come across the name Victor Wembanyama. The French big man has a frame simil...

How ’bout that Cowboys Ring of Honor?
Less than a year ago, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones made it sound as if the long-awaited induction of two-time Super Bowl champions head coach Jimmy Johnson in the Ring of Honor was just around the corner. Now, it seems that has been all but forgotten by Jones....

Tina Charles hops from superteam to superteam in midseason
Superteams are having a tough go of it in 2022. Tina Charles’ “contract divorce” with the Phoenix Mercury was the type of clean, drama-free breakaway from an underwhelming superteam Kyrie Irving could only dream of. Charles, 34, is at the tail end of her prime and reportedly upset with her role on t...

Steph-mania has seeped into the WNBA
If it were not already apparent that Steph Curry is the popular kid who dictates whether 10th graders one- or two-strap their backpacks, fans needn’t look no further than the WNBA for proof. I debated if Sabrina Ionescu hitting a game-clinching 3 and striking the Steph “night night” pose against the...

What are the odds Gronk will unretire?
I remember a time when an athlete would retire and mean it. However, after years of players like Brett Favre, Randy Moss, Marshawn Lynch, and Tom Brady all pulling the ol’ “Just kidding! We’re back!” on fans, you can’t help but feel skeptical that Rob Gronkowski’s retirement is also temporary. After...