up Page 281 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Real Madrid have more than just black magic against Liverpool
While four years is a long time in soccer, and teams can greatly transform a couple times in that timespan, Real Madrid and Liverpool look a lot like they did four years ago. Liverpool are still anchored by Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold, and Andrew Robertson in defense and Sadio Mane and M...

Is the NHL’s Presidents’ Trophy curse real?
The Florida Panthers breezed through the first round of the playoffs and then got bounced from the second round so fast we barely had time for the annual discourse about the Presidents’ Trophy and whether it’s a curse for a team’s Stanley Cup hopes....

The Nuggets are Kroenke’s side piece, but still, a little more effort could go a long way
The Denver Nuggets are an NBA executive factory. Some of the best front-office talent in sports has come through that organization, and hopefully that’s because they have a development system like the San Antonio Spurs, because they continue to lose talent. On Monday the Minnesota Timberwolves hired...

Winning fourth ring and first finals MVP would quiet critics and crush many narratives surrounding Stephen Curry’s legacy
On the cusp of returning to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2019, Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors find themselves in prime position to silence critics. With a 3-0 lead, the Warriors are all but guaranteed to have a spot saved for them on June 2 when the Finals begin. Winning a four...

Kylian Mbappé is PSG’s only hope
Let’s be fair, it isn’t much of a sacrifice or even a hard choice to make more money than a lot of countries’ GDP and live in Paris. It’s a pretty sweet deal, and something 95 percent of the world would opt for (with the other five percent either already living there, making millions somewhere bette...

CM Punk never lets us down
For the second straight time that All Elite Wrestling’s weekly flagship television show, Dynamite, was held in Texas, CM Punk, arguably the company’s biggest star, wore a t-shirt to support abortion rights. ...

An incomplete list of people we’d like to see at the 2023 Tom Brady Netflix roast
Tom Brady’s love affair with the spotlight will take yet another form come 2023 — Netflix announced yesterday that the recently unretired QB will be the executive producer and first subject of a new series, Greatest Roasts of All Time....

No more excuses: 2022 needs to be Tua time in Miami
Year Three will be a make-or-break year in Miami for Tua Tagovailoa. While the former Alabama QB has been decent for the Dolphins, he’s yet to lead them to the postseason. There’s absolutely no reason that shouldn’t change in 2022 with how the team has been restructured to focus more on the offensiv...

USWNT finally gets paid
Today is the first day that the US men and the US women’s soccer teams will earn the same wages for performance on the field. The US women’s team has won four World Cup gold medals and four Olympic medals. In 1930, the US men had their best result in World Cup play, finishing third. ...

Messi to MLS could be a reality
For most of his career, it was impossible to picture Lionel Messi in any other jersey than the blue and maroon of Barcelona. Nine months into his stay with Paris Saint-Germain, transfer talk for one of the best to ever lace up a pair of boots is surfacing once more, with a report coming out on Tuesd...

Tale of the tape: Battle of Alberta vs. Battle of Florida
The second round of the playoffs worked, in part, the way that the NHL dreamed up when it went to this postseason format of divisional brackets. You can question the wisdom of it happening in the second round, but we’re getting the Battle of Alberta and the Battle of Florida now....

Have we learned nothing from Ja’Marr Chase last year?
Before the 2021 NFL season started, before the preseason started, before team minicamps started, from the moment Ja’Marr Chase was drafted, people were calling him a bust. I’m not some saint in this situation either. I wholeheartedly believed that the Bengals should’ve selected Penei Sewell with the...

The Saudis are having trouble finding golfers to give garbage bags of cash to
Despite Phil Mickelson sticking his foot so far down his throat it almost came out the other end, LIV (read: Saudi-backed league) golf continues to press forward with their plan of an eight-event series that begins this June in London and includes five tournaments in America. The only problem? Micke...

We're seeing an NBA coaching reformation
If the success of Boston’s Ime Udoka and New Orleans’ Willie Green has taught NBA ownership anything, when it comes to hiring coaches, it should be out with the old, in with the new. These two rising coaching stars stepped into dysfunctional messes, with Udoka trying to bring together a team that wa...

The origins of the Chris Paul-Patrick Beverley feud, explained
Patrick Beverley sure didn’t waste any time jumping on the Chris Paul slander wagon following Phoenix’ Game 7 loss to Dallas. Pat Bev was up bright and early on ESPN, throwing jab after jab after jab at long-time rival CP3. Nowadays, it feels like we hear the phrase, “keep it real,” far too often, b...

Drew Brees’ midlife crisis is right on time
Over the weekend, Jameis Winston’s commentary about realizing his passion “wasn’t football,” it was “playing football” seems to have resonated with Drew Brees. It was also more interesting than anything he’s ever said in the public sphere. Brees is going through a pseudo-mid-life crisis exacerbated ...

Gary Bettman must make the Oilers wear their ‘80s jerseys for the second round
Much like the Canadiens-Leafs series last year, this is why the NHL rejiggered its playoff system nearly a decade ago. To get things like the Edmonton Oilers vs. the Calgary Flames in the playoffs. OK, Gary Bettman’s NHL was only really concerned with getting Penguins-Capitals as often as possible a...

The Saints have a chance to do something no NFL team has ever done
The New Orleans Saints are looking to do some damage next season. Will they overtake the Buccaneers for top dog in the NFC South? Probably not. Will they compete? Probably. They will be a competent team with the talent to win several games, and with the NFL schedule officially unveiled, some people ...

Failure to capitalize: Washington out in first round for fourth-straight season
The Washington Capitals just pissed away their first-round Eastern Conference series against the Florida Panthers. The President’s Trophy winners were on the ropes in three straight games. And the Panthers won all three of those postseason contests in succession, two in overtime and one after traili...
