ti Page 838 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

$1.5B in debt, Barcelona are broke-ass broke — and royally FC'd
We’ve spent the past year casting doubt upon American sports franchises’ claims of just how much an effect the pandemic had on their finances. They claim “biblical” losses left and right, while never bothering to provide any information to confirm that. Well, thankfully, unless you’re a Barcelona su...

Jake Paul boxing Ben Askren won’t give him the legitimacy he longs for, but it will be entertaining
Though he won’t be competing against a professional boxer, Jake Paul has booked his first bout with an actual fighter for once. ESPN’s Ariel Helwani reports that Paul will main event his first card and face retired mixed martial artist and former amateur freestyle wrestler “Funky” Ben Askren. ...

Repeated COVID outbreaks won't stop Michigan from lusting after NCAA Tournament cash
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: the University of Michigan can’t play games due to the coronavirus....

Five artists who should play the Super Bowl halftime show
There is probably some esteem to be gained from being labeled A) a big enough act and B) just inoffensive enough to be tapped as a Super Bowl halftime performer. As for national TV, there is no bigger stage, in part thanks to the Grammys being the butt of jokes for three decades. So this isn’t a lis...

Eric Bieniemy should be an NFL head coach yesterday, but he deserves better than the Texans
Eric Bieniemy is a coordinator for a defending Super Bowl champion, on its way back to the big game on the strength of the side of the ball he oversees. Bieniemy is 51 years old, has had experience as an assistant head coach with the Vikings, and has a couple of college assistant jobs on his resume,...

Matt LaFleur's garbage decision stinks to high heaven
It’s a Trash Talking Tuesday, and today I’m trashing Packers head coach Matt LaFleur....

Which Clipper will step up fantasy production without Leonard, George, or Beverley?
Three games tonight, and the best one features the New York Knicks. God bless if tonight’s a big gambling night for you because this is one of the season’s worst evenings on paper so far. No, it’s not because of the Knicks: Their match-up with the Utah Jazz saves this from being downright abysmal. T...

The NBA, for some dumb reason, still thinks having an All-Star Game makes sense
The NBA is still trying to conjure the All-Star game for March, and likely in Atlanta, according to ESPN, which seems patently ridiculous. We don’t know how things will look with the coronavirus next week, so we definitely have no clue what they’ll look like in March. But we can guess that it probab...

Women and Black assistant coaches will be on display in the Super (Minority) Bowl in Tampa
As “Black Monday’’ sits in the NFL’s rear-view mirror, the ongoing conversation around the lack of African-American head coaches continues. The Rooney Rule isn’t working. The Fritz Pollard Alliance is frustrated. And as Roger Goodell and Troy Vincent, the NFL’s head of football operations, sit insid...

Madden Pro Bowl might be the NFL’s smartest move in years
ESPN reports that the NFL Pro Bowl will not only forego their annual Orlando festivities due to COVID-19, but that the event itself will be held virtually and air on television in place of the in-person game....

Peacock conscripts WWE in ongoing battle for your soul
Last week, it was the announcement that NBC would be shutting down NBCSN by the end of 2021. That meant that the network’s NHL and Premier League coverage, as well as various other sports, would be spread between NBC Universal’s other entities, like USA Network. But the real goal seemed to be to get...

Frank Lampard could do the first job, but he couldn’t do the second at Chelsea
The thing about getting a dream job is that most likely it’ll turn into just another job, i.e. it won’t feel like a dream after some time, and you’ll probably get fired. The latter is even more likely in sports, even more so in soccer, and yet even more so at Chelsea. They cycle through managers lik...

Cory Booker tells Deadspin there is a 'real window of opportunity' for the College Athletes Bill of Rights to pass
Over the summer, Cory Booker told Deadspin that he “would not be here today if it were not for college sports” and the lessons he learned from playing college football. The former tight end was a high school All-American and received a scholarship to play Division I ball at Stanford. But his experie...

Aaron Rodgers is in the middle of a midlife crisis
The end of any season sends every player into a reflective period. Well, except for maybe Gronk. So let’s say it sends every player who can spell “reflective” into a reflective period. Months of work, hours of anticipation, to what ends up being the last game, and the assuredness that it all led to ...

Tom Brady has been to more Super Bowls than every franchise in the NFL except…the Patriots
Ten has always been a number of completion....

We get Super Showdown of GOAT vs. GRN (Greatest Right Now)
In unsurprising yet still shockingly dominant fashion, the Kansas City Chiefs are going back to the Super Bowl. They mollywhopped the Buffalo Bills 38-24, but it was not nearly as close as the score suggests....

Why the hell did Matt LaFleur elect to kick a field goal?
With a Super Bowl berth hanging in the balance, down eight points to the greatest quarterback of all time, this year’s presumptive MVP under center, Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur opted to kick a field goal with 2:09 left in the game. It was fourth-and-goal from the eight yard line. ...

Just contract the Pirates already
I know how that sounds. Just another big market resident showing up just long enough, take a brief look around, turn my nose up, and declare Pittsburgh not worth the time. ...

Coach K should apologize to student reporter for being a condescending jerk
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski showed his tail on Saturday when addressing a question from a student reporter after the team’s loss to Louisville....

Dubois-Laine trade is full of sound and fury, but signifies... not much
There is something truly hockey about two players wanting to get away from cities and situations they find lacking, and coaches they find dinosaur-like, only to be swapped into the other country’s version of the situations they were trying to escape. But that’s the setting both Patrik Laine and Pier...