us Page 426 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Sarri’s Not Enough: Juventus Boots Manager as Champions League Drought Continues
It is strange for a club to fire its manager after winning the league. It’s not unheard of, as Real Madrid once fired Vicente Del Bosque after he’d won both the Champions League and La Liga twice, but it’s still strange. To do it in two consecutive years however suggests a nutty desperation, a flail...

NFL Opt-Out 2020: Here's Every Player You Won't See This Year
While MLB sorts through various positive COVID-19 cases in its league, and the NBA hunkers down in a theoretical bubble in Orlando to finish its season, the NFL — even while agreeing to cancel its preseason — has made it clear the ball will be snapped under the bright lights this fall....
![Division III Had No Problem Shutting Down Championships. What’s the Hold-Up for D1? [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/w8vzwnwfhmh9jj5f5eqe.jpg)
Division III Had No Problem Shutting Down Championships. What’s the Hold-Up for D1? [Updated]
The NCAA Division III Presidents Council’s decision, Wednesday, to cancel all fall sports championships for the 2020-21 school year in what could foreshadow the fate of larger divisions....

The Mourning After: Canes Eliminate Rangers, Plague-Ravaged Marlins Blank Orioles
We’ve had our first ejection out of the NHL bubble, as the New York Rangers never came close to beating the Carolina Hurricanes and have hence been punted out of Toronto. I hope they line them outside the hotel and loudly shut the gate behind them as all the players of the teams still competing watc...

Citing Growing COVID Cases, Rafa Opts Out of US Open
Tennis legend Rafael Nadal has decided to skip the U.S. Open. Nadal broke the news via Twitter, where he outlined his concerns about the spread of COVID-19....

No, Really. The NFL Has a Lou Williams Rule
Foresight can be invaluable, especially for a league that’s always its own worst enemy....

Baseball's 2020 Playoff Plans Are Simultaneously Absurd and Perfect
Major League Baseball’s plan for this fall, an expanded postseason in which 16 of 30 teams have a chance to win the World Series, is patently ludicrous....

Pac-12 Football Players Use Their Platforms To Promote #WeAreUnited Message, Demand Better Treatment
Since the #WeAreUnited letter released via the Players’ Tribune, Pac-12 players have come out to publicly support the letter written by a collection of conference athletes....

Rating Each League’s Virtual Fans
With all the leagues that had to restructure their schedules or create a completely new tournament now back in action, we’ve seen various ways of trying to incorporate fans into the TV presentation. All leagues want you to know just how much they miss you (or your money), and how welcome you (or you...

A Navy SEAL Wore Colin Kaepernick's Jersey During A Dog Demonstration - Don't Be Shocked When Those Involved Get Off Scot-free
One step forward, two steps back. That’s usually how the fight for progress goes in America. ...

Baseball Has a New Hero, and His Name Is Judge
MLB’s messiah has arrived....

Yoenis Cespedes Opts Out but Doesn’t Tell the Mets
Yoenis Cespedes went missing in action this afternoon, sparking a brief panic and outpouring of concern for the Mets slugger’s safety — but now, it appears he chose to opt out of the season without first letting team management know....

Adam Silver’s NBA Fiddled for Three Weeks as Thousands Died in Florida
It’s a good time to be a professional basketball propagandist....

Ain’t a Sheet of Ice North of Fargo I Ain’t Played: NHL’s Return Preview – Eastern Conference
The winter sports and their summer bubbles return to us this weekend, because we’re descending into the Upside-Down. The NHL has decamped to Toronto and Edmonton, with a modified playoff system kicking straight off on Saturday. It’s a bit run-before-you-can-walk, with each team only getting one pres...

Don't Cheer Joe Kelly for Being a Coward
It’s a staple of some true heel work to do all the talking and then run behind their allies when confronted. Apparently MLB won’t stand for that....

A Farcical Stroll Through an All-New York MLB Season (Including the Brooklyn Dodgers!)
Listen, this whole idea is ludicrous, BUUUUUT just hear me out …...

Rob Manfred is in Over His Head, And He Knows it
If baseball is a symbol or microcosm of our nation at large, as baseball writers like to constantly tell us while finishing their Weetabix, then it scans that both of those entities are lacking leadership at this moment. Rob Manfred has no clue what to do, because his only directive — making sure th...

US Men’s Soccer Team Can Screw Up World Cup Qualifying in a Whole New Way This Time
If you can believe it, World Cup Qualifying in CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football) was supposed to have started already. However, with FIFA canceling the spring, summer, and September international windows due to COVID-19, the North American region ...

Why Didn’t the Phillies Get a Vote Sunday?
The main problem of MLB’s “strategy,” such as it was, for playing this season was that it depended on baseball people. It depended on sports people. And in the world of sports people, the binary has always been, “Playing = good, not playing = bad.” Which is how MLB got into this mess....

Are You Watching, NFL?
It’s a day we all suspected, if not outright knew, would come....