sports Page 308 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The last chapter of the greatest rivalry?
It’s a testament to their greatness that whenever Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic line up in a major, where everyone projects they might meet, everyone starts girding up for it. Be it the quarters, semis, or final, everyone knows to block out half a day and gather the supplies necessary. Because whi...

Landon Donovan: Fall World Cup could hurt USMNT
Part of the charm of every FIFA World Cup is how it takes up a large chunk of summer. It either coincides with the tail end of the NBA and NHL playoffs, or misses it all together and only has to share sports airwaves with baseball’s slow ass. And it’s much more palatable to sit through a pair of 45-...

Half of the coaches in the NBA are Black — The NFL doesn’t have an excuse anymore
With less than 100 days before the 2022 season kicks off and a week after the NFL hosted a “diversity summit” for Black coaches, the NBA has shown us just how useless those summits are when you operate a league where the best person is hired for the job....

We got a fun Game 7, and here are the players who made their mark the past two weeks
The playoffs just haven’t felt the same since that thrilling Game 6 between the Memphis Grizzlies and Golden State Warriors. Blowouts, unfortunately, littered the conference finals, especially in the east. The Dallas Mavericks only got thoroughly walloped in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals, ...

Congrats Boston, but you have no shot against the Warriors
The Boston Celtics have torn through the playoffs, eliminating each team that’s ousted them in the last three postseasons. After a seven-game slugfest with the Miami Heat, the C’s are in Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 2010, led by Jayson Tatum, who is making a strong case for ent...

The story of the man who conned his way into a massive soccer contract
Fraud runs deep in the veins of professional Bulgarian soccer club, CSKA (Central Sports Club of the Army) Sofia. In 2009, former club president Alexander Tomov and former chief executive Alexander Garibov, were arrested and charged with embezzlement and document fraud. The pair had allegedly been m...

Fight fire with fire, burning with fear
You have to hand it to Avalanche coach Jared Bednar. He does have one of the best checking centers in the NHL at his disposal in Nazem Kadri. It would be easy, explicable, and defensible to just toss Kadri over the boards every time the Oilers put Connor McDavid out there, and be done with it. After...

Even a FCFL guy lighting up after a TD pass isn’t enough to get people to watch
The NFL has a stranglehold on us as viewers, which has made it nearly impossible for another professional football league to make a lasting impression over the last three decades. The Fan Controlled Football League is one of the latest to make a run at competing on the big stage. Former quarterback ...

Tommy Pham got rightfully suspended for slapping Joc Pederson, but whoever gave him that news probably did it out of arm’s reach
The Tommy Pham-Joc Pederson story did not end the Friday before Memorial Day. For those who still need to scrape the barbecue, or whatever else, from their brains to think back that far, Pham slapped Pederson in broad daylight on a baseball field, before the game even started. Pham raged on Pederson...

Get ready for hot pickleball action!
It’s not often that we get the chance to live through the invention and ascension of a sport into popular culture. American football dates back to the Civil War era. James Naismith invented basketball in 1891. FIFA was founded in 1904. But thanks to a man named Joel Pritchard trying to entertain his...

Almost half the teams in the NFL have never had a Madden cover player
You might be surprised to learn how many teams have never had a player appear on the cover of Madden NFL...

Jimmy Butler’s superstar card got declined when Miami needed it most
Earlier this month, FS1’s Nick Wright debuted a bit called the Superstar Club. I don’t usually endorse debate show takes, but this was a solid metaphor. Jimmy Butler was depicted standing in line, waiting for entry. In this year’s Eastern Conference Finals against the Boston Celtics, he nearly cemen...

Icarus can kiss my ass
Perhaps there’s no bigger showcase of Lucy yanking the football away than Liverpool chasing The Quadruple. Because as it got closer, it only became harder and only felt further away. Which sounds stupid, because no team has gotten closer. But fatigue was clear for the last few weeks, and the more ma...

Charges dropped against Broncos’ WR Jerry Jeudy
Ahead of a scheduled hearing in Arapahoe County, Colo., today, the prosecution dropped all charges against Denver Broncos’ wide receiver Jerry Jeudy, stemming from arrest earlier this month per an ESPN report. ...

Tank Davis’ star continues to rise
In Saturday night’s main card at Barclays Center, Gervonta “Tank” Davis was engaged in an even tilt against Rolando Romero. After nearly six rounds of exchanging power punches, Davis connected with a clean counter to Romero’s head. The energy coursing through the southpaw’s left hook temporarily i...

I feel great about not trusting the Hurricanes again
The problem with upping the degree of difficulty on your playoff run is that no matter how good you are, eventually you’ll push yourself off the cliff. The NHL playoffs are hard enough as is without trying to navigate them like they were a bar bet. The Hurricanes didn’t bother to win a road game in ...

Reformatting the NBA Playoffs could solve the league’s injury issue
The NBA Playoffs are gradually winding down, and to be honest, it’s been a bit of a mixed bag where quality is concerned. Despite the rating increase early in the postseason, some of these games have been hard to watch. Injuries to stars and the lack of downtime between games have some thinking it m...

Landry Shamet hath brought a plague upon every house he’s entered
Athletes and fans are a very superstitious lot, and if rituals and patterns are to be taken seriously, Suns’ guard Landry Shamet should be forced to play for lottery teams for the rest of his career. If your team is contending for a championship, needs a piece in the offseason, and picks up or trade...

Top 5 overachievers in MLB thus far
The thing about baseball is that sometimes you think a team will be good, but they’re not. Other times, you think a team will be bad, but they’re really good! O fortuna!...

The top 5 underachieving teams in MLB, so far
It’s about the quarter mark of the MLB season, with most teams surpassing 40 games played. There’s still a looooooong way to go this season and the trade deadline is still two months away so a lot can change, but now seems like an apt time to compare teams’ records to their preseason expectations....