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Anytime professional athletes are ushered out of town in favor of another player, the first meeting against their old team tends to bring out the best in the banished player. So, when Jared Goff and the Detroit Lions play the Rams in Los Angeles Sunday afternoon, you know Goff will be hell-bent on playing the best…Read more...

It’s always a touch reductive and harsh to boil down a game to a single chance or moment. There are 90 minutes, after all, and you’d like to believe that each team will create more chances and those are allowed to go in as well. But soccer being what it is, there’s only one or two or three goals per game, which…Read more...

The outrage over the NBA’s 75th-anniversary team has shed light on the lack of respect for some of the legends of the past. But everybody cannot make this team. And with Kyrie Irving not making the cut, some fans and even current players strongly oppose this decision. Simply having a sweet handle with the ball in hand…Read more...

The fourth and 12th-best teams in baseball will meet in the World Series, as Atlanta wrapped up its first pennant in 22 years with a 4-2 triumph over the Dodgers in Game 6 of the NLCS on Saturday night.Read more...

I know it’s early, but how in the world are the San Jose Sharks 4-0? There is nothing about this team that jumps off the page when you look at their roster. In fact, their roster looks filled to the brim with huge, unfulfilling contracts attached to players way past their prime, unproven youngsters, and an aging…Read more...

Consider yourself lucky if you’ve never had that feeling about a coach when he’s not awful and he’s not great, but you’d rather not sack him because you don’t trust ownership to hire someone. I imagine it’s a lot like purgatory when you know you’re damned. You’re just kind of floating there, knowing that the higher…Read more...

Penn State has now lost back-to-back games by blowing a two-touchdown lead at Iowa and scoring eight points over the course of nine overtimes at home against Illinois. That’s quite a way to go from being No. 4 in the country to having no hope for the national title whatsoever.Read more...

With Oklahoma up just five in the fourth quarter, coach Lincoln Riley decided to play aggressively, keeping the offense on the field for a 4th-and-1 on OU’s 46-yard line. The Sooners’ defense had been pecked apart (buh-dum-tss) in the second half, and the Jayhawks’ last drive prior to this play saw Kansas walk away…Read more...

It was only inevitable to endure our first below-.500 week of the campaign. The key is to put that behind us and move on.Read more...

You know that kid in high school who could eat any spicy food, no matter how hot? They would go around gobbling ghost peppers, Carolina Reapers, or packets of “Fire” hot sauce from Taco Bell, one right after the other, just to prove they were tougher than everybody else. Then, when they asked other people whether or…Read more...

The Miami Hurricanes are 2-4 and their athletic director is saying things like, “Everyone’s constantly being evaluated,” which is AD speak for “Manny Diaz needs to start winning or I’m gonna lose my job, too.”

The one good thing about the Astros returning to the World Series, which they’ll do after wrapping up the American League pennant with a 5-0 win over the Red Sox in Game 6 on Friday night, is that Dusty Baker will get his chance to finally manage his way to a World Series ring.

A report on Friday that there’s a report coming on racism, sexism, and harassment by Suns and Mercury owner Robert Sarver prompted Sarver to somehow make himself look worse before the reported report could even be reported.

The second game of the season is hardly time to panic, so the 76ers shouldn’t. They’ve got a really good team, the Ben Simmons drama will eventually work itself out with either a trade or a return to the lineup and eventual “but what about the playoffs?” storyline (that would grate on everyone until it finally turns…Read more...

The Dodgers aren’t going to have Max Scherzer start Game 6 of the NLCS due to arm fatigue, after the ace lasted only 4.1 innings in Game 2 and clearly wasn’t his regular self in the wake of his dramatic save in Game 5 of the division series in San Francisco.

If only the NBA season were the Colecovision game that the Lakers roster grew up playing, they could unplug it, and plug it back in.

Mike Gundy’s new perpetually renewing contract at Oklahoma State is just another reminder that cancel culture does not exist, and especially does not exist for mediocre rich white men like Gundy.

The Denver Broncos got embarrassed last night. The Broncos — who started the season 3-0, might I remind you — lost to the Browns’ practice squad offense. Yeah, I know Cleveland’s defense is solid, but come on. Case Keenum? D’Ernest Johnson? Those guys beat you?

This year’s Heisman race felt a lot like last year’s race early on, in that no one really dropped jaws instantly a la Lamar Jackson, Reggie Bush or Johnny Football. It will probably end up going to Bryce Young, just because Alabama will be 12-2/13-1 and his stats will be better than everyone else’s. We’ll all just…Read more...

Yep, you read that right. The University of Pittsburgh is favored Saturday against the formerly formidable Clemson Tigers — the same team that made appearances in six College Football Playoffs in a span of six years, winning two championships along the way. With the way Dabo Swinney’s team is playing this season,…Read more...

If you’re not a fantasy football player, you might want to avert your eyes on Sunday, because there isn’t a single matchup that really jumps off the page at you. In fact, there is only one game set to take place between two teams with winning records: Cincinnati (4-2) at Baltimore (5-1), but Cincinnati isn’t exactly…Read more...

The Atlanta Hawks blasted the Dallas Mavericks in their season opener, 113-87, with Trae Young racking up 14 assists and Deandre Hunter holding Luka to 18 points on almost as many attempts (17). Afterward, Young had a message for the haters:

The Raiders can’t do better because they don’t want to do better.

The Braves are facing down the possibility of blowing a 3-1 lead to the Dodgers in the NLCS for the second year in a row after an 11-2 rout in Los Angeles last night. As they head back home to Atlanta, the Braves’ offense prepares to face Max Scherzer in Game 6 — a sentence that’s not as daunting as it was a week ago.

Former MVP Cam Newton hasn’t stepped foot on an NFL field since he was released by the New England Patriots just days before the regular season. Now that Newton is vaccinated, it seems his chances of catching on with a team this season may have increased.

I’m going to get out ahead of this and just condemn the Braves. I know what happens now, because my motherfuck skills have risen to a level I can no longer control or understand. I just speculated on what the baseball world would think of Dave Roberts. I tried to make it clear that I didn’t think the series was over.…Read more...

Perhaps I’m feeling wistful because last October, we didn’t have our normal schedule. There’s a clock to this, a rhythm, that we have spent our entire lives attuned to. Hockey and basketball start during the MLB playoffs. Go a year without it, and suddenly the axis is off, red lights are blinking, there’s a weird…Read more...

You always have to take the word of a former/disgruntled employee with a few grains of a salt and a shot of tequila (and a lime if that’s your thing), so when former Mavs front office exec Haralabos Voulgaris compares your franchise’s dysfunction to “high school drama,” it’s fair to be skeptical. Yet, when you dig a…Read more...

Philadelphia 76ers general manager Daryl Morey saw what happened Tuesday just like the rest of the world. He knows that 76ers guard/forward Ben Simmons refused to fully participate in practice and was asked to leave by coach Doc Rivers. He knows that center Joel Embiid is on the record expressing his exasperation with…Read more...

Nothing against him, but New York Yankees outfielder Joey Gallo is irrelevant in Major League Baseball right this second. His team isn’t in the playoffs. He’s never played for any of the teams involved in either Championship Series. He’s at home watching the games from his couch, the same as you and I. So, why on…Read more...

For the second time this season, we’ve been privileged to get a glimpse into the part of Alabama coach Nick Saban that’s not a myopic, grumpy, brooding football coach. In September, Alabama safety Jordan Battle told the media that Saban loves a good “deez nuts” joke, much to the chagrin of what sounded in the…Read more...

While MLS still has its fair share of issues, the one thing you have to give it credit for is that during the regular season, the league rewards teams that just say, “Fuck it, it’s free cake.” They don’t generally live on in history, because wonky defensive teams get found out by the extremely callous and punitive MLS…Read more...

If you thought Run the Jewels’ RTJ3 slapped, just wait until a new interracial rap duo from North Carolina releases their debut project. They don’t have a name yet, but for now let’s just call them “A Couple of Forwards for the Hornets.”

Former L.A. Laker and Clipper Montrezl Harrell completely showed out in his debut with the Washington Wizards Wednesday night — but not just in the context of the game. Harrell scored 22 points and grabbed 9 rebounds in the Wizards’ 98-93 victory over the Toronto Raptors. But it was Harrell’s interaction with…Read more...

The Browns and the Broncos play tonight in Ohio in what might be one of the most mediocre Thursday night matchups that we’ll see all season.

Greg McDermott was “this close” to signing TyTy Washington — arguably the highest-ranked recruit in the history of Creighton basketball — last season in a year in which he was coaching a Top-25 team. But then, he just had to mess it all up by saying something super racist:

It’s 2021. Only a single win away from the Word Series, the Atlanta Braves seem poised to take one of the most visible stages in American sports for the first time since 1999. If they do, 10 million people will be tuning in to their home games to see their majority white fanbase in their majority white suburb joining…Read more...

Night two of the NBA season came through strong, delivering a double-overtime thriller where the New York Knicks bested the Boston Celtics, 138-134, in front of the home crowd at Madison Square Garden. This night was supposed to be about the return of NYC’s own Kemba Walker, but by the end of the night, it was about a…Read more...

Whether the label of “pastime” still applies to baseball, specifically Major League Baseball, I don’t know. It’s certainly not America’s favorite sport anymore, if that’s what gives a game and league that mantle. But it certainly does represent what America is these days, which isn’t a good thing.Read more...

The Dolphins are 1-5 and very much not the team pundits and oddsmakers thought they would be (they need to go 9-2 the rest of the way to hit that 9.5 O/U win total). A large part of that is that second-year QB and alleged franchise savior Tua Tagovailoa hasn’t lived up to expectations.Read more...

This is not about ripping Keith Olbermann. If you want to do that, you can start with “Why I Think Trump Is Finished (And My Work Is Done),” from November 28, 2017, a time at which Trump was far from finished. You can go forward or backward from there, it doesn’t really matter, and he’d admit himself that he can rub…Read more...

On Sunday night, Seahawks’ lineman Darrell Taylor went in for a tackle and ended up motionless on the field. It was a frightening moment in a sport filled with injuries. The very real threat of a concussion is ever-present in the NFL, along with less-likely injuries like paralysis or even death.

J.J. Watt could’ve gone to just about any team he wanted in free agency last year. At age 32 and in his 11th year in the league, it’s more probable than not that he’s entered the twilight of his career, but with three DPOY awards under his belt, anyone would’ve taken him.

I know better than to write the Dodgers’ eulogy now. We’re just where we’ve been before. The series should be over, and if it wasn’t for Cody Bellinger guessing right on a high fastball on Tuesday, it would be. The Braves’ 9-2 win in Game 4 only makes it 3-1, which is exactly where they were against the Dodgers last…Read more...

Kyrie Irving has been the talk of the town around sports and entertainment circles for his stance against the COVID-19 vaccination. Irving continues to display an extreme lack of self-awareness and overvalued self-importance. Just days after Irving posted a video where he spoke about his decision to be vaccinated,…Read more...

In private moments everyone on the team has to have looked up at the sky at least once and asked, why?

What is choking? Choking is the belief that a certain team or player cannot hold a lead. They cannot win close games, and almost anytime a win is being handed to them on a silver platter, they cannot finish their opponents off.Read more...

Much to Washington State’s chagrin, their Nick Rolovich troubles aren’t over yet (and that doesn’t even count his 5-6 record with the Cougars). After Rolovich received several warnings from the Washington State University administration and athletic department that he would be removed as head coach if he didn’t get…Read more...

The NBA season officially began Tuesday night with a doubleheader, and in the main event, the hoops world was treated to a showdown between the Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Lakers. One thing I took away from the season opener is what I’ve been saying all along. The Warriors will contend this season…Read more...