smith Page 38 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Coach K’s succession mistake was bigger than choosing Scheyer over Amaker
Hours before Coach K’s dizzy spell sent him to the locker room in Duke’s win over Wake Forest, excerpts from Ian O’Connor’s upcoming book, Coach K: The Rise and Reign of Mike Krzyzewski” detailed a brief power struggle within Duke last year over Coach K’s plans to name his replacement. O’Connor’s in...

The path to an NBA championship is increasingly volatile
Neil Young gets credit for the line, “It’s better to burn out than to fade away,” but Kurt Cobain made it infamous. That dichotomy stuck with me, and it’s impossible not to see it in sports....

The Rams organization owns two of the worst rushing outputs by a Super Bowl champion in NFL history
The Los Angeles Rams are world champions after defeating the Cincinnati Bengals 23-20 in Super Bowl LVI Sunday night. Matthew Stafford and the Rams’ passing attack put on quite the show, but the same cannot be said for their running game. LA finished with one of the worst total rushing performances ...

Raheem Morris is the latest Black coordinator to win a Super Bowl who did not get a head coaching job
Raheem Morris got a bonus, but he won’t be getting a promotion....

The Mavericks are a mess
The Mavericks’ Kristaps Porziņģis acquisition and subsequent trade has been one of the most embarrassing and impactful mistakes of modern NBA history. Especially when it comes to surrounding their young superstar, Luka Dončić, with a contending roster....

If Matt Eberflus helped turn Darius Leonard into a star by helping him with more than just Xs and Os, maybe he can do the same for Justin Fields
The Chicago Bears are in a familiar position, starting all over again. Since they fired Lovie Smith following their 10-6 2013 season in which they missed the playoffs for the third consecutive season, they have relieved three coaches of their duties. They followed a predictable pattern with each hir...

Top 10 Super Bowl one-hit wonders
We all know Tom Brady, Joe Montana, Terry Bradshaw, and Roger Staubach. People like them made a name for themselves by coming up big in the Super Bowl on numerous occasions. Their ability to stay calm and play phenomenal football on the game’s biggest stage is what made them all-time NFL greats, but...

Arkansas will pay for fans rushing the court after beating Auburn, but who cares?
It was a matter of if, not when, Auburn men’s basketball lost another game. As its football team, the biggest draw of the athletic department that overshadows every other sport combined, goes through unsettling offseason turbulence, the fightin’ Bruce Pearls are putting together the school’s best re...

The Senior Bowl ceased public weigh-ins that resemble slave auctions the same week Brian Flores filed his lawsuit against the NFL
Back in the era of slavery — which wasn’t as long ago as racists, conservatives, and the GOP would like you to believe — Black bodies would be stripped naked, or close to it, and put on the auction block where they were sold to the highest white bidders. Their height, weight, skin color, sexual orga...

From bad to worse: 15 years ago the NFL had 2 African-American coaches in the Super Bowl, now they barely have that in the entire league
To fully understand just how bad the NFL is at hiring African-American and Black coaches, a history lesson is needed....

An old beef classic has returned: Stephen A. Smith versus Kevin Durant
It all started with Stephen A. Smith’s Thursday appearance on NBA Today, which included a searing hot take about Kevin Durant. The Brooklyn Nets at the time were on a six-game losing streak that on Friday extended to seven. They are currently on a five-game Western Conference road trip that ends fol...

The biggest NBA bandwagon fan base at the midseason mark
As someone who is loyal to a fault, people who hop team allegiances never cease to make my brain hemorrhage. I don’t know how the LeBron James cult does it. “He’s my favorite player” is what a child says when they first discover what sports are. Yeah, I loved Penny Hardaway, too, but when I moved to...

Brian Flores is the new face of racism in the NFL — where’s Jay-Z?
Lyrics stay with us forever....

The road to the next title keeps getting tougher for Pat Mahomes and Co.
I’ll admit it. I jumped the gun. The overwhelming reaction to the Chiefs victory over Buffalo in the AFC Divisional Round had me thinking of a much bigger picture than I should have. It’s a fact that at their best, Kansas City can beat anyone because when it’s clicking, no one slows down Patrick Mah...

Like Colin Kaepernick, Brian Flores is the latest Black person getting overlooked for a job they deserve
On the first day of Black History Month, just two years after America had a supposed “racial awakening” following the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and the shooting of Jacob Blake, former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores followed in Colin Kaepernick’s footprints by ex...

Shohei Ohtani is on the cover of MLB the Show 22, much to the chagrin of Stephen A. Smith
When you talk about an audience gravitating to the tube, or to the ballpark, to actually watch you, I don’t think it helps that the number one face is a dude that needs an interpreter so you can understand what the hell he’s saying....

Jimmy G repays Deebo Samuel’s praise with hospital pass
If you’ve tuned into sports media at all over the last couple of weeks, you’ve undoubtedly heard the barrage of criticism being hurled at Jimmy Garoppolo, the San Francisco 49ers’ quarterback. It’s arguably been more criticism than any quarterback has faced amidst back-to-back playoff wins. It has b...

Freshman golfer J.R. Smith is seeking an NIL deal
The J.R. Smith undergrad Twitter chronicles have been a delightful highlight of the past few months. The 15-year NBA veteran was drafted straight out of high school in 2004, and after retiring from basketball, decided to get his degree at North Carolina A&T, the largest HBCU in the country. He also ...

Kansas City has its own version of the ‘Super Bowl Shuffle’ and it’s… something
This Kansas City Chiefs team is already legendary. Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Co. led by Andy Reid, will never have to buy a plate of Jack Stack in K.C. again. I personally know way too many Chiefs fans, so it’s nice to see them not have to pretend Elvis Grbac, Alex Smith, or Trent Green were...

Jeff Garcia goes after Mina Kimes in rant straight out of 1995
I thought we, as a sports community, were moving away from the “You didn’t play the game so you can’t comment on it,” way of thought. Maybe that’s just my echo chamber that doesn’t include a voice like former NFL quarterback Jeff Garcia....