the Page 309 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The biggest thing to happen to the USMNT this weekend was not becoming the villain
The USMNT played two friiendlies this week, and in a normal year these would be the “World Cup Sendoff” games where the roster would basically be finalized. They would have been a lot more intensely watched by both Gregg Berhalter and fans alike, with the final cuts following soon after. The matches...

2022 NBA Draft Profile: Chet Holmgren
It almost feels too perfect. The scrawny, 7-foot, 195-pound sopping wet Chet Holmgren from Gonzaga playing for the Oklahoma City Thunder. It’s easy to imagine him sharing the court with Josh Giddey and Aleksej Pokusevski. Three caucasian dudes, all above 6-foot-8, and all with diverse skill sets and...

Canadian soccer up in arms
Speaking of political issues and sports, the protesting soccer team phenomena has spread north of the border. The Canadian men’s national team refused to take the field against Panama for a friendly on Sunday after a dispute with Canada soccer over how exactly the funds from their upcoming World Cup...

LeBron James said he was going to be a billionaire and, well, damn, he pulled it off
“In the next 15 or 20 years, I hope I’ll be the richest man in the world,” LeBron James said to Tim Withers of the Associated Press in 2005. “That’s one of my goals. I want to be a billionaire. I want to get to a position where generation on generation don’t have to worry about nothing. I don’t want...

Rafael Nadal winning the French Open is still the most inevitable outcome in sports
Rafael Nadal’s dominance on clay courts is to be expected. When he enters Roland Garros, his path to the title is Jordanesque, Gretzky-like, Ruthian, or whichever GOAT athletes of the last century come to mind....

Bearded millionaire calls it quits after 17-year run built on mediocrity
Long-time NFL quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick recently announced his retirement after 17 seasons in the league. Fitzpatrick became known more for his ability to obtain a new contract rather than his knack for tossing the old pigskin. Fitzmagic earned upwards of $82 million during his NFL career. One th...

CM Punk's injury clears the way for MJF
Before All Elite Wrestling World Champion CM Punk could address the Ontario, Cali., crowd during Friday night’s episode of Rampage, his eyes were bright red. As tears developed around his corneas, it was easy to know what was going through the Second City Saint’s mind. And he hadn’t opened his mouth...

DeSantis pulls Rays funding after gun control tweets, donation
Oh, doesn’t it just give you so much faith in our country’s leadership and…nope, can’t even finish that sentence. In an apparent act of retaliation earlier this week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed $35 million in state funding that would have gone to a youth sports complex in the Tampa area that t...

Dodgers finally honor first openly gay MLBer on Pride Night
The Los Angeles Dodgers are finally honoring Glenn Burke....

Boston can sure take a punch
We’d seen this script before. Fans with any kind of decent memory recognized it. In the NBA Finals, as Golden State locked in and took a double-digit knockout lead. Turn off your TVs, the game is over. Or as the late-great Chick Hearn would say “The game’s in the refrigerator, the door’s closed, the...

The best sports scenes from <i>The Wire</i>
On yesterday’s date in 2002, the Michael Jordan of television series made its debut on premium cable. It didn’t have near the hype of Bobby Knight calling it the best basketball player of all time. In fact most people didn’t even watch it until years after the final episode aired. But The Wire would...

The Steelers’ lack of spending on offense is...worrisome
Heading into 2022, there are 14 teams whose biggest cap hit on offense is their quarterback. There are seven teams whose biggest cap hit on offense is an offensive lineman. Six teams are spending the most on a wide receiver. Three on a tight end (JAX, MIA, NE) and one on a running back (CIN). That m...

Yes, women’s tennis is compelling
The call is coming from inside the house. Last night, the French Open’s first ever female director and former No. 1 player Amélie Mauresmo told the press that men’s tennis has “more appeal” than the women’s game right now, which was why 9 of the 10 primetime night sessions were scheduled for men’s m...

We found something sports-related that Mike Trout can’t do
Mike Trout being the worst commissioner in sports is not the development I expected from 2022. On the field, the Los Angeles Angels star is finally attaining similar levels of individual and team success. The Angels are competing for the American League Wild Card, their pitching is much-improved and...

Tracy McGrady’s new league highlights a style of hoops NBA players took mainstream in the 90s
Although basketball is a team sport, there are multiple one-on-one matchups within a game. Michael Jordan is credited with ushering in the isolation style of hoops into the NBA during the 1980s and ’90s....

Patrick Mahomes, golfer of the people
Patrick Mahomes may have lost The Match (not in small part due to Josh Allen’s self-described “garbage can” play) but he won over American hearts yesterday for being a true Golfer Of The People. As he was trash-talking not only his opponents but also his teammate, chugging back Coors Light after Coo...

For someone who hates CM Punk, MJF sure knows the playbook
It doesn’t matter if you think it’s a work, or a shoot, or some combination of those words that tend to send wrestling fans into hysterics. What matters is MJF and AEW are the talk of the wrestling world. The business is about buzz, and well, a mile long swarm of bees wouldn’t produce this kind....

2022 NBA Finals: How the teams stack up and storylines to watch
The NBA Finals are finally upon us, and it’s one of the better matchups anyone could’ve hoped for. There is plenty of star power, and each game should be tightly contested as both teams are known for their stifling defense. The league should be thoroughly pleased with the series we’re set to embark ...

Which NBA players saw their stock fall during these playoffs
A player’s worth is most accurately weighed in the playoffs. Just refer to last season’s Julius Randle debacle. Randle averaged 24 ppg, 10 rpg, and 6 apg on scorching shooting splits of 46%/41%/81%. Every metric but his FG% was a career-best. Then came the playoffs. In that first-round series vs. th...