the Page 101 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Bill Belichick tried to eff around without a first-class Tom Brady clone and found out
From the beginning, Bill Belichick flaunted the egalitarian team culture he sought to establish in New England. Before they took the field for Super Bowl XXXVI, the St. Louis Rams’ Show on Turf offensive starters followed tradition by exiting the dimly lit tunnel one by one by one into the spotlight...

These are the biggest flops of the 2023 NFL season
The NFL is a small-sample league. Before you can even blink, 18 games have flown by and we’re left trying to make sense of everything that happened. It means that luck can play a massive part in whether a team succeeds or fails, with a few bounces of the ball defining the entire story for an entire ...

Revenge is a dish best served in the NFL playoffs
According to Christopher Wallace’s definition, beef is when you need two gats to go to sleep; when your moms ain’t safe up in the streets; when I see you, guaranteed to be an ICU; when you make your enemies, start your Jeep; and when you roll no less than 30 deep. While I don’t know how many of this...

Barcelona are selling its LGBTQ+ fans down the river
Ah, yes, we’ve gotten to that point in the European football season where most everyone asks themselves, “Why are these teams in Saudi Arabia?” before quickly correcting themselves....

These are the teams most likely to suffer upsets during NFL's Wild-Card Weekend
After 18 weeks of grueling NFL action, we’ve made it to Wild-Card Weekend and the first round of the postseason. We often hear the term “must-win” during the regular season, but once a team makes it this deep into January, every game is truly a must-win scenario. Like any other week, there’s always ...

ESPN earned 30+ Emmys using fake names for on-air talent
Updated Jan. 12: According to a report by the New York Post, ESPN’s former senior vice president of production Lee Fitting’s dismissal was directly tied to the fake-name Emmy scheme....

The NFL’s Black coaches are turning Wild-Card Weekend into a diversity showcase
There’s one storyline the NFL hasn’t highlighted heading into the postseason, and that’s probably for legal reasons. At least, I can’t imagine the league’s attorneys would advise them to showcase its entire roster of Black head coaches making the playoffs, considering Brian Flores’ lawsuit is still ...

Sure, Bill Belichick was a great coach, but he was also a jerk
Yes, we get it. Bill Belichick is arguably the greatest coach in NFL history. He’s also one of the sport’s biggest jerks. ...

Every team in the NFL playoffs, ranked
The NFL playoffs are officially set. All the ups and downs, laughs and years, improbable comebacks and unprecedented collapses, none of those mean anything now. All that’s left is a four-week sprint to immortality. ...

This week’s award for grossest act goes to the ATP Tour players
It’s one thing when a sport either ignores or is oblivious to whatever is surrounding a certain player or individual. It’s quite another when they know and just don’t care. Such is the case with this week’s announcement that the ATP Tour players had chosen Alexander Zverev to their players’ council....

Stephen A. Smith says he 'hates' Jason Whitlock, calls him 'a devil'
I did not get the memo that Festivus had been moved from Dec. 23 to the entire month of January. Grievances have been aired and an expansion for that holiday is the only explanation I have for why so many celebrities are beginning the year by verbally going upside the heads of those whom they dislik...

If this is it for Nick Saban, he leaves with a real claim to GOAT status
Retirement for coaches like Nick Saban are always shocking, especially when Alabama hadn’t really lost a step. Maybe a half-step, but certainly nowhere near Bobby Bowden or Joe Paterno levels, and that’s going to lead to a ton of speculation about why he’s doing this now, as reports say the coach is...

Here's to Golden State learning to age gracefully
Golden State is probably permanently entrenched as a middle-of-the-pack team. There are no renovating crumbling support beams around their Big 3 pillars because they are the source of deterioration. All they can do now is continue their reign as the most well-adjusted teammates ever cobbled together...

On Pete Carroll and how to be a great coach without being a jerk
Not many football coaches can dominate both college and the NFL. Jimmy Johnson was able to do so, but also ran so hot that it burned his relationship with Jerry Jones and he eventually burned out of coaching entirely after a few seasons with the Miami Dolphins. Pete Carroll has spent much of the las...

Here are 8 candidates to fill the Aaron Rodgers-sized hole on the Pat McAfee Show
Be careful what you ax for, ESPN. The network’s decision — because it certainly wasn’t Pat McAfee’s — to terminate Aaron Rodgers’ scheduled diatribes now gives viewers little to no reason to tune into the $86 million program. Seriously, who is pining for McAfee’s armpits, censored frat humor and AJ ...

The latest NBA-Netflix project shows just how little creativity is left in Hollywood
Netflix is teaming up with the NBA to do a basketball version of the NFL Quarterback Show series. Since Hollywood and sports are about copycatting what’s worked in the past, it’s no surprise the streaming service is immediately following up with a hoop’s version. Cameras will follow around five of t...

The Bears once again do the minimum in the most backward way possible
To make it clear right at the top, here are all the things Matt Eberflus was allowed to do to keep his job: Completely waste training camp, except getting pretty much half the team hurt. “Mr Track Shoes” didn’t have his team ready to start the season, starting 0-4 and looking bewildered while doing ...

Michigan’s national title is a crop in the Big Ten’s budding football harvest
As maize-and-blue confetti streamed from the NRG Stadium rafters, it felt like the Big Ten’s harvest was finally ripening. The national title game was decided when Michigan outmuscled Alabama a week earlier, but Monday night’s national title was merely the coup de grâce in a process that began five ...

The luster on Brian Daboll’s bald head rubbed off in record time
While the New York Giants didn’t intend to undergo drastic changes this offseason, they are now. On the same day that head coach Brian Daboll said he expected both offensive and defensive coordinators to return, the latter reportedly went scorched earth on his boss before storming out. With Wink Mar...

Aaron Rodgers has to find another platform for his nonsense
Aaron Rodgers, who spouted his usual garbage on The Pat McAfee Show yesterday, will no longer be appearing in his weekly paid spot on the ESPN program....