vic Page 26 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
P.K. Subban was just a little ahead of his time
Hockey still can’t seem to recognize its need for a rockstar. While not the biggest problem with hockey’s culture at the moment (hi there Hockey Canada), the ethos that no player can stand out or be above the team keeps the game from having vibrancy or personality. And vibrancy and personality are w...
Geno Smith was always a starting QB
If you think Geno Smith’s performance Monday night was a fluke, you haven’t been paying attention....
The Favorite
I won’t be alone in saying that Roger Federer was the first winner I consistently cheered for. Part of that was growing up in Chicago, when as a child, being a fan of a consistent winner really wasn’t much of an option (as it is now. And everything turns, turns, turns…). But a sports fan’s natural i...
Berhalter’s shortcomings on display with September roster omissions
Mark it down now. John Brooks, one of the two Americans in any severity of contention to claim one of the 26 United States men’s national team spots on the plane to Qatar, will be watching the games on a TV screen. Brandon Vazquez, the 23-year-old FC Cincinnati striker with 16 goals this season, won...
Drew Brees can’t cut it as a broadcaster or a doctor
Even though fans decided en masse that they did not want to hear Drew Brees’ football observations on television, there are still a lot of people still wearing their No. 9 New Orleans Saints jersey that wants to know his thoughts as he watches football over the weekend....
HBO isn’t the only home for a Song of Ice and Fire
You can only hope you’re witnessing history at the moment. You obviously can’t know until the perspective of time kicks in. You tell yourself that this moment or that moment feels different than other ones you think you saw. But does it? Are you just telling yourself that? You can tell yourself anyt...
Oh great, they’re letting humanoids play tennis now
The US Open could’ve fizzled out after Serena Williams and Rafael Nadal lost. Casual fans are conditioned to look for those four names when following a Grand Slam. While we weren’t watching for Williams’ pursuit of her 24th Slam, we were still watching for Serena. The men’s bracket was more of the s...
Lamar Jackson betting it all on Lamar Jackson
Lamar Jackson sees his market value. With the bank accounts of proven starting quarterbacks soaring, and the number of them throughout the NFL fluctuating, the Ravens starter is one of two former NFL MVPs to be active and not past their prime....
Relieved to miss the redemption arc we didn’t need
It certainly speaks to the world’s ability to completely turn over and surprise you that Nick Kyrgios was installed as the favorite to win the U.S. Open after he pretty much paddled Danil Medvedev and Francis Tiafoe overturned Rafael Nadal. This is Nick Kyrgios after all, who never needed more than ...
Who needs the NFL after a sports weekend like the one that just passed?
Usually, the best sports weekends happen in October. A few days of dramatic playoff baseball, a good old-fashioned upset Saturday in college football followed by a championship bout, and then a dizzying Redzone Witching Hour on Sunday....
It’s come together for Frances Tiafoe
There’s a pretty common narrative for tennis players, which has been blunted on the men’s side for a while because well, there’s been three guys stopping anyone else from taking the final step. The arc is supposed to be that a player shows up in his late teens or early 20s, flashes some serious game...
It’s just a game
The first time I wrote “professionally” about Serena Williams, back when Bleacher Report was still an onslaught of slideshows, I called her overrated. I was just out of college, and my terrible, awful, horrendous take was she didn’t win as much as she could. This was more than a decade ago, and it w...
Doctor’s strange love
Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard is a top-five player in the NBA when healthy and has proven his greatness among The Association’s all-time greats, as he was named to the NBA 75th anniversary team last season. Another member of the 75th Anniversary squad is a huge fan of Leonard’s game. Th...
Novak Djokovic is stopping Novak Djokovic from playing in the U.S. Open
Update (8/25/22): It ain’t happening, chief....
The Chet Holmgren Experiment suffers its first setback
Unicorn status has been bestowed throughout the last decade upon NBA players with proportions so fantastical that we thought they only existed in fables. Whenever one of those hoops fantasies steps out of our imaginations and onto the court, it’s akin to witnessing a futuristic autonomous concept of...
The system doesn’t work with this Virgil van Dijk
This isn’t my beautiful house....
Mike Tomlin should just start Kenny Pickett
“What is this if not betrayal? She sent you after me knowing you’re not ready, knowing you would likely die. Mommy was very bad.” - Raoul Silva...
Chelsea and Tottenham is why we watch
After yesterday’s fracas (it was certainly more than a game,) the temptation is to call Chelsea-Spurs the best rivalry going in the Premier League. Liverpool-City might have more quality, and the best quality in Europe arguably, but everything is pretty civil and they’re too respectful of each other...
Once again Herschel Walker shows who he is
A political attack ad, nothing uncommon about that in America. Midterm elections are a few months away and in Georgia, the race for a United States Senate seat is tight. Incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock is leading Donald Trump-endorsed Republican candidate Herschel Walker by about three points, ac...
Mariners' outfielder Jarred Kelenic has been off to a historically bad start to his career
Seattle Mariners outfielder Jarred Kelenic was supposed to be a savior. He was supposed to help pull a franchise that had been mostly irrelevant in the annals of baseball history into World Series contention. He was a very popular pick for the 2021 AL Rookie of the Year Award last year....