w Page 2960 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

UCF Is The National Champion, According To UCF
The University of Central Florida ended the season as the only undefeated team in college football, and though they didn’t make the playoff, they have decided to go ahead and claim the national championship. They’ve spent the time since they beat Auburn in the Peach Bowl justifiably boasting and gen...

Ball Family Arrives In Vilnius, Gets Serenaded With "Welcome To Lithuania"
LaVar, LaMelo, and LiAngelo Ball touched down in Lithuania today ahead of the kids’ scheduled debut for their new team, Vytautas Prienu. Their appearance was cause for a pretty wild welcome party....

Japan's Version Of WrestleMania Is Striving For A U.S. Audience Tonight
The second-biggest pro wrestling event of the calendar year is already upon us, and you should probably brew a pot of coffee. At 3 a.m. ET on Wednesday night/Thursday morning, New Japan Pro Wrestling’s 12th annual Wrestle Kingdom supershow will air live from the Tokyo Dome on their NJPW World stream...

Oh No! <i>Infinity War</i>'s Stupid-Ass Rob Dibble Thumb Looking-Ass Villain's Birth Name Is As Stupid As His Other Name, His Head, His Existence
It’s “Dione.” Which I guess is somehow a dumber name than “Thanos” because, uh, it’s traditionally the name of a goddess instead of a male god? I don’t know. He looks like a thumb with Rob Dibble’s face tattooed on it. Comic fans are not nearly embarrassed enough about this....

Patrick Ewing Gets Brutally Honest With A Georgetown Player
Georgetown forward Marcus Derrickson might have thought he had less time on the shot clock than he actually had in Tuesday’s game against DePaul, because his sloppy Dirk Nowitzki tribute sadly clanked off the front of the rim. Head coach Patrick Ewing carefully tore into Derrickson during a timeout....

Marquese Chriss Had A Heroic Game-Saving Block
The Phoenix Suns are basically toast in the Western Conference playoff race, and they were going up against the lowly Hawks at home last night. But that lack of high stakes doesn’t mean there can’t be any thrilling late-game drama....

Alex Ovechkin Is On Pace For Yet Another 50-Goal Season
Alexander Ovechkin took over the NHL lead in goals with a late pair, the first tying a sloppy, high-scoring game, and the second giving Washington the 5-4 OT win in Carolina. “It’s almost like whenever he decides to end it,” said his linemate Devante Smith-Pelly,” he can just go do it.”...

Arizona Fires Rich Rodriguez; Former Employee Claims Sexual Harassment, Files Intent To Sue
Arizona fired Rich Rodriguez as head football coach tonight after a former athletics department employee accused him of sexual harassment; a university investigation into those accusations found “information” that led the department to be “concerned,” according to a statement from the university. ...

<i>Jeopardy!</i> Is A Harsh Mistress
Nick Spicher was embroiled in the Jeopardy! equivalent of an NFL replay review when he gave an incorrect response to the following before/after clue in Monday’s episode: “A song by Coolio from ‘Dangerous Minds’ goes back in time to become a 1667 John Milton classic.”...

Just Kidding, The Bengals Will Never Get Rid Of Marvin Lewis
Though all the evidence pointed Marvin Lewis finally leaving the Bengals—the usually reliable Adam Schefter reported on Dec. 17 that Lewis would be gone after the season—the team announced today that Lewis will receive a two-year extension. What?...

Some More Things That Should Die In 2018
Last week, we ran staffers’ nominations for shitty things of 2017 that should stay in 2017. Because we are bad at organization, we left out some things. Here they are....

Christian Pulisic Rings In The New Year With A Powerful And Absolutely Legit Slam Dunk
Christian Pulisic—the wonderteen, the nation’s best and most favored soccer man, an elite athlete blessed with speed and agility and hops we don’t normally associate with slight, diminutive whiteboys—had himself a (mostly) great 2017. To commemorate his metaphorical ascent to the heights of the spor...

If The UFC Wants Conor McGregor To Defend His Belt, They Should Pay Up<em></em>
What’s your favorite Conor McGregor title defense? Since catching Eddie Alvarez reaching a few days after the 2016 election to nab the lightweight championship, the Irishman hasn’t fought in the UFC. He earned the featherweight belt in 2015 by unhooking Jose Aldo’s jaw in 13 seconds, but the UFC re-...

Bad Quarterback Performance Of The Week: Kirk Cousins Is Cold And Wants To Go Home
Welcome to Bad Quarterback Performance Of The Week, a recurring feature in which we celebrate the worst quarterback play the NFL has to offer....

Polish Skier Finishes Downhill Race On A Single Ski
Pawel Babicki finished 67th out of 67 competitors at a downhill race last week in Bormio, Italy. He trailed eventual winner Dominik Paris by 36 seconds, which is all the more impressive considering that Babicki lost his left ski before the halfway point of the famous Stelvio downhill run....

I Don't Really Know What To Make Of The U.S. Olympic Men's Hockey Team
During Monday’s Winter Classic, USA Hockey revealed the rosters for next month’s Olympics. And because of the NHL’s refusal to release its players (though the IOC is more deserving of the blame), the men’s team is weird as hell:...

UCF Deserves A Shot, But At Whose Expense?
It was a day of statements, with Alabama emphatically proving they belonged in the playoff and Georgia delivering a classic 2OT win. But no statement was louder than Central Florida’s 34-27 win over No. 7 Auburn, and UCF’s players and coaches weren’t shy about making the subtext text....

319-Pound Defensive Lineman Da'Ron Payne Gets Interception, Catches TD Pass In Five-Minute Span
Alabama’s Da’Ron Payne pushes well past 300 pounds and bench presses 500. He is a large man. Here’s the large man catching two passes in five minutes—one of them from his own team, for a touchdown—and making us all very happy to be alive. Except for those of us who went to Clemson, and I didn’t go t...

Sean Payton And Dirk Koetter Get Into Weird Chest-Slapping Contest During Postgame Handshake
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the New Orleans Saints 31-24 Sunday, and although the game didn’t carry too much weight, there were clearly feelings left over from the two teams’ first divisional matchup in November. During the postgame handshake, Saints head coach Sean Payton gave Bucs head coach Dir...

UCF Completes 13-0 Season
With a 34-27 win over Auburn in the Peach Bowl, the UCF Knights confirmed their status as the only undefeated team in this season of college football, improving to 13-0 in head coach Scott Frost’s final game before leaving for Nebraska. ...