the-u Page 6 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

US Open pits the face of the PGA against one of LIV's top blood money takers
The merger between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf Tour doesn’t have to wait long to see some corporate synergy, as one of the PGA’s four major tournaments, the US Open, tees off this week in California. Possibly the biggest cash cow on each side of the debate won’t have to wait long to get reacquainted w...

The United States men’s national team’s Gold Cup squad lacks stars, serves better long-term purpose
It’s clear by interim United States men’s national team head coach B.J. Callaghan’s 23-man roster for this summer’s CONCACAF Gold Cup that winning the tournament isn’t the only priority. How else do you explain giving players like Christian Pulisic a pass? It’s not a break as he barely played at Che...

The Miami Heat ran out of gas, just like they did in 2014, 2020 NBA Finals
When we were all stuck in the house in the middle of the pandemic, basketball was the first sport available to watch on TV. The Bubble proved that sports could go on despite COVID-19. And while the 2020 NBA Finals were forgettable to some, it gave us one of the best memorable memes of all time — exh...

The Athletic was supposed to own local sports news. Instead, it's getting owned by the current state of media
The Athletic’s plan to replace sports pages worldwide has taken another blow. It announced on Monday that it will be laying off about four percent of its staff, per The Washington Post’s Ben Strauss. Further proof that nothing in media is being replaced just yet. Instead, it is steadily eroding due ...

A chaotic NBA season punctuated by a chaotic championship finish
The perfection of basketball offense. The shooting is too great. There is no way to defend the entire floor. The 3-point shot has ruined basketball. The Denver Nuggets had one of the greatest statistical offenses in NBA history during the 2022-23 NBA regular season, and defeated the Miami Heat in Ga...

Tomorrow is going to have to wait on Novak Djokovic
Eras don’t end on schedules. There wasn’t an assigned time when Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal exited the royal hall of the ATP Tour, it was just sort of a nebulous “time.” Federer’s knee eventually gave out, it might be that Nadal’s hip has done so as well. It would appear that Novak Djokovic is not...

Yelling at Brittney Griner isn’t going to put Viktor Bout back in prison
The latest example that human beings weren’t meant to have the internet came Saturday. The Phoenix Mercury’s Brittney Griner was traveling with her team when she was confronted by a conservative YouTube host at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport....

Deion Sanders is escalating his feud with Pat Narduzzi
Deion Sanders’ recruiting tactics have been pilloried or celebrated far and wide across the college football spectrum since he became the top dog in charge of the University of Colorado’s football program in December. Since then, most of Sanders’ peers have been tightlipped about their concerns surr...

The Nuggets are immune to the Heat’s Dark Arts
The Miami Heat’s success has been hard to define all postseason. Words like resilience, toughness, and intelligence certainly apply, but that can be said about any team in any sport that makes a deep playoff run. No, Miami has been Jonathan Crane, injecting fear into Gothamites and Bostonians alike....

Alcaraz’s cramps robbed us of satisfying conclusion to dream match against Djokovic
Well, that escalated quickly. It was nearly even in one of the biggest matches tennis has had in decades with a clash of the generations between old-standard Novak Djokovic and rising star Carlos Alcaraz. Then that damn charley horse in Alcaraz’s right leg happened and Djokovic won 10 of the next 11...

EA’s new NCAA College Football video game is already outdated
The two groups most often on the losing side of college athletics’ neverending lust for revenue are its unpaid workforce and the fans. The latest example is the alleged payout system, or lack thereof, for those who opt-in for the rebirth of the NCAA College Football video game franchise. Reports hav...

Bryce Young winning the Carolina Panthers QB1 job was a given
If you ever needed proof of America’s obsession with football — particularly the NFL — just take a look at what’s happening in Charlotte. Carolina Panthers head coach Frank Reich has made news by elevating No. 1 overall pick Bryce Young to QB1. ...

Could James Harden reunite with Kevin Durant in Phoenix?
Just when you thought super teams were fading away, ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne dropped this bomb on us. The senior NBA writer says to keep an eye on James Harden making his way to the Phoenix Suns, as this bombshell comes just a day after news broke about Chris Paul being shown the door. This is anothe...

Does Dalvin Cook’s departure foreshadow a Kirk Cousins exit?
The Minnesota Vikings have made it official: It’s all on Kirk Cousins. Skol and longtime running back Dalvin Cook are parting ways, according to Tom Pelissero, and thus the front office is putting the onus squarely on Cousins’ shoulders. Whether this is a new direction for the offense, or general ma...

Bryson DeChambeau thinks PGA-LIV merger is enough to heal 9/11 wounds
If LIV in any way influenced Bryson DeChambeau to do a one-on-one interview with CNN following its merger with the PGA, its public relations team needs to put together a retreat and hold a three-day seminar. The decision-making process needs a complete overhaul because DeChambeau suggested that Amer...

Won't somebody please think of the NBA Finals?!
The next time someone fixes their lips to tell you how much they hate dynasties and the same teams winning all the time, please stop them before they begin spewing lies because they’re full of more crap than a Porta Potty. This Denver Nuggets-Miami Heat NBA Finals has already been one of the more di...

Lionel Messi retirement tour is coming to the US, not Saudi Arabia
Labeling MLS as a “retirement league” has been unnecessarily callous for a few seasons now. It is much more than that, and has become more of a selling league, i.e. a league that is mostly interested in developing young players to sell off for big profits to Europe to then be reinvested and start th...

Michael Block killed golf
It’s not a coincidence that the day after Michael Block failed to qualify for the US Open, the PGA Tour panic merged with its alleged arch-nemesis LIV. There was a star vacuum left once Greg Norman and obscene sums of money convinced a lot of big names to defect to the LIV Tour. I don’t have to go t...

Clemson’s fancy NIL facility is working with latest commitments
According to ESPN, five-star linebacker Sammy Brown and four-star wide receiver Bryant Wesco have decided to play their college ball at Clemson. Brown comes in at No. 17 in ESPN’s rankings of the top 300 players in his class, while Wesco comes at No. 23. Nothing about two really good football player...

Skip Bayless gives us another reason to hate him
The takes don’t get created by themselves, so I understand that it takes a lot for Skip Bayless to have enough of them to fill up a two-hour television program. However, speculating on how someone’s personal life is affecting their play is usually a bridge too far. That goes double when it’s informa...