the-u Page 74 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

It’s time to drop Roman numerals from Super Bowl branding
The NFL is the only league of the four major North American sports that use roman numerals in the moniker of its championship. The MLB, NBA, and NHL all use the year in which the championship occurs. But the NFL decided to go a different route with their naming convention....

Rooting for Stafford because ‘Burrow will be back’ is a dangerous game
There are a lot of good reasons to cheer for both sides in this Super Bowl. Perhaps you like the underdog story of the Bengals so you cheer for them. Maybe you like the incredible career arc of Matthew Stafford so you’re opting for the Rams. It could be the emergence of Joe Burrow, the greatness of ...

Eli (Bad) Apple’s unwarranted hubris has him running his mouth like a 24-hour 7-11
If the NFL had an award for Cockiest Player of the Year Without Any Good Reason, then Cincinnati Bengals cornerback Eli Apple would have taken it home at this year’s NFL Honors award ceremony. Apple has had quite the bit to say during the Bengals’ surprising run to the Super Bowl for a player with z...

What were the biggest upsets in Super Bowl history?
As of Saturday, the line on Super Bowl LVI is Rams -4, one of the closer spreads in the big game’s history. Though the Bengals are technically the home team, the Rams are, of course, playing in their own home stadium, so the current line suggests these are two evenly matched teams. Though the Super ...

NFL award winners haven't been Super in the big game
Super Bowl LVI will feature four NFL Honors Awards winners: Cincinnati’s Ja’Marr Chase (OROY) and Joe Burrow (CPOY) as well as the Rams’ Cooper Kupp (OPOY). Rams’ offensive tackle Andrew Whitworth also won the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award, but that’s not important for the context of this pie...

Pittsburgh's well represented in the Super Bowl
Super Bowl LVI will be considered by some a homecoming for LSU. Former Tigers who will be playing in this game include Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase for the Cincinnati Bengals, and Odell Beckahm Jr. and 2003 National Champion Andrew Whitworth for the Los Angeles Rams. LSU is tied with Florida for the...

Grab your Detroit Rams gear while it’s still relevant
Matt Stafford leading the Rams this Sunday is the closest that Detroit has ever been to being in a Super Bowl — and some fans are embracing that fact more than others. ...

Lindsey Jacobellis and Nick Baumgartner’s gold is more than Super
Lindsey Jacobellis’ gold medal, 16 years after she stumbled to silver in Turin, and after three other Olympic disappointments, was a good enough story on its own, but now it’s even better....

Auburn keeping Bryan Harsin, this should totally work out well
For better or for worse, Auburn is saving themselves from throwing $18 million down the drain (for now), announcing Friday that Bryan Harsin will remain the Tigers’ head football coach into the 2022 season. Harsin has had quite the week, one that started out by trending on Twitter for having an affa...

The long road of Cooper Kupp
Heading into the 2013 FCS football season, Eastern Washington was expected to be one of the prominent challengers to the early parts of the North Dakota State dynasty. The red-and-white Eagles were the best team in the Big Sky Conference. They knew it, too, throwing a lot of moxie behind quarterback...

I think we owe Daryl Morey a huge apology
When it was first reported that Ben Simmons didn’t want to play in Philadelphia anymore, fans and the media immediately rushed to create dream trade scenarios for the 76ers. Even considering Simmons’ awful performance in the most recent postseason, the three-time All-Star still had some trade value ...

Meet Kenny Washington, the man who broke the NFL's color barrier
LOS ANGELES — There is a lot going on in the NFL shop at the Los Angeles Convention Center. There’s a section for Los Angeles Rams gear, Cincinnati Bengals gear, a place to customize your own gear, places for memorabilia such as autographed helmets and portraits, and a DJ. At the entrance of that NF...

Remember the Ickey Shuffle?
For me, the highlight of my week has been Ickey Woods doing the griddy....

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...

Can Joe Cool solve the NFL’s Gen Z problem?
Much has been written about how deeply cool Joe Burrow is — and that’s really the only word anyone can come up with to describe him. Sometimes, there’s no further adjective that can really capture the appeal of a public figure than the simple, self-explanatory “cool.” As OBJ said, “If you look up co...

The best (worst?) Super Bowl celebrations
For all the cultural impact the Super Bowl has built up, from the game itself to the ridiculous ads to the high-budget halftime show, it’s honestly a crime that the following Monday hasn’t been declared a national holiday yet. While the average watcher may be going into work not feeling quite in tip...

A Matt Stafford victory is a win for all mid-career professionals
During the summer of 2006, I was a fledgling student journalist baking under the blistering sun at a preseason practice at UGA, capturing B-Roll of a fellow pimply-faced true freshman from Texas. The quarterback phenom was about to be the talk of the SEC. Matthew Stafford’s singular talent created r...

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...

Avert your eyes, either Stan Kroenke or Mike Brown will get to hoist the Lombardi
Mere mention of the names Stan Kroenke and Mike Brown, owners of the two NFL teams facing off in the Super Bowl on Sunday, triggers largely negative emotions from fans of teams they own. (LA Rams fans are nihilists, dude, so discount them.) Talk to Bengals fans, former St. Louis Rams fans, Arsenal f...

Meet Deadspin’s Super idiots
The Super Bowl is the biggest stage in sports, where stars are made, legends are born… and embarrassment lives forever. There are plays that just don’t get made, sure — like Scott Norwood’s field goal at the end of Super Bowl XXV — but there’s a difference between not getting the job done, and screw...