sports Page 390 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Baseball's fake deadline nears
And so MLB heads into the final jump today, with the current CBA expiring today at 11:59 p.m. It’s important to remember that the owners don’t have to lock out the players when it expires. They can keep talking, and both sides would if both sides felt there was progress being made. Apparently, they ...

Blake Griffin was blindsided by his benching, and the end could be closer than he’d imagined
Former No. 1 overall pick and slam dunk champion Blake Griffin received a rude awakening recently when he was not only benched by head coach Steve Nash but removed from the Nets’ rotation altogether. LaMarcus Aldridge certainly appears to have more left in the tank than Griffin, so being replaced by...

Rangers are spending big, Blue Jays are playing smart
We knew Hot Stove season was going to come earlier than usual, given the ongoing MLB CBA dispute, but holy smokes! This got nuts real quick! Over the weekend, a myriad of moves were made involving the biggest free agents on the market. ...

Please God, just anyone but Urban Meyer
I, along with the rest of the Notre Dame fanbase, was hit with an absolute punch in the gut yesterday that has thrown me for the loop of my life. Maybe Jack Swarbrick saw this coming, but this announcement was a complete blindside to everyone else involved with Notre Dame football, players included....

L.A. didn’t work out, LaVar Ball has sights set on his sons taking over Chicago
Everybody knows LaVar Ball is a character who’s never short on words, but he’s also someone whose words you should be taken with a grain of salt at times. Ball’s latest plan is to have all three sons reunite in Chicago as Bulls....

Sooners’ planned move to the SEC might’ve pushed Riley to USC
There were too many openings at too many big colleges for a notable school or two not to be on the losing side even after being on the side of winning for so long. In a not so subtle reminder that there’s always a bigger fish, Lincoln Riley opted for Southern California rather than the Southeastern ...

Javy Báez, the most interesting man in baseball
I wouldn’t pretend to not have a personal connection to Javier Báez, who is signing with the Detroit Tigers at some point today for six years, $140 million. He’s always been the most interesting player to watch first on the Cubs, back when I cared a lot, and in baseball overall. And it was both good...

College athletes get criticized for being selfish — college coaches get huge contracts
In the olden days of 2016, many of the favorite people you like to follow on Twitter or watch on TV were upset that three future first-round draft picks in Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey, LSU’s Leonard Fournette, and Michigan’s Jabrill Peppers were sitting out of their bowl games due to injury, as t...

As rivalry week comes to a close, what does the CFP picture look like now?
It took 10 years for Michigan to beat Ohio State, and what feels like another 10 years in college football has passed since the Wolverines finally claimed their first-ever spot in a Big Ten championship game....

2021 Rookie QB Rankings: Hair we go again
It’s Week 12 of the NFL season, and rookie quarterbacks are always front and center, with some living up to the hype and others not as much. With that, let’s look at how the 2021 rookie class fared in Week 12....

Brian Kelly broke up by text after the second date
If you’re a Notre Dame fan, and I assume you’re done trashing your underground hovel and listening to your entire Bob Seger collection, you can look forward to the fact that you’re only about 10 months away from watching Brian Kelly getting his brains beaten in by various SEC schools. It’s a cold wo...

Are the Knicks already regretting Kemba Walker?
Sometimes in life, you just need to admit that you were wrong and not continue attempting to fit a square peg in a round hole. The New York Knicks may be coming to this realization already regarding their big offseason acquisition, hometown favorite Kemba Walker. Today, Knicks head coach Tom Thibode...

Well, Mike McCarthy has COVID
The Dallas Cowboys are continuing to deal with the spread of COVID-19 in their organization. This time it’s their coach, Mike McCarthy. The Cowboys announced on Monday that McCarthy tested positive and will not be with the team in person as they prepare for Thursday’s game against the New Orleans Sa...

Max Scherzer is the big name (so far) in this week’s frenzy, but does it mean anything?
No, I’m not asking, “Does it mean anything for the Mets?” Because as we all know, everything is meaningless to the Mets. Look for Scherzer to head for an MRI in June and discover that there are dozens of tiny, ambulatory gummy bears living in there. This is the Mets, after all. ...

It happened again, back surgery for Michael Porter Jr.
Denver Nuggets’ forward Michael Porter Jr. is going under the knife... again. His agent told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski that Porter will have to undergo surgery on his lower back and will miss an “indefinite” period of time — the same time frame the Nuggets gave when they announced he was out of the ...

Devin Booker is staking his claim for the crown of best shooting guard in the NBA and he’s got a damn good argument
Phoenix Suns shooting guard Devin Booker is following in the footsteps of his mentor, Kobe Bryant, staking his claim as the best at his position in the NBA. Like Bryant, it’s taken Booker a few years to scale that mountain of elite two-guards, but I think we can say he has arrived at the peak....

Dmitry Kulikov is the best defenseman in the NHL (just go with me on this)
It’s a sensationalist headline, and obviously one I don’t truly believe, at least fully. That doesn’t make it a lie either, and Kulikov sums up the Minnesota Wild’s surprising start that has them atop the Central Division by four points. ...

Start spreading the news, the Green Bay Packers are scary good
The scariest thing about the Green Bay Packers is that they will only get better as the season goes on....

Now that you’re probably sick of those leftovers and I have your attention, I have some dark horse Super Bowl contenders for you
Happy late Turkey Day. I hope those who enjoy Christmas music were at least able to hold out until after the Thanksgiving meal. ...

Why did anyone think an ex-Lion would help?
In some ways, NFL teams and fanbases can be a lot like that friend you have who makes terrible romantic choices. No matter how many times you explain to them that no, they can’t “fix” that person, or “save” them, they still try. And it always ends in tears when said romantic prospect turns out to be...