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We’re in the second half of the NFL season, and we can separate the contenders from the pretenders. We’ll talk about the contenders later, because this list is about the least fortunate teams in the league. Let’s check out the worst of the worst from Week 11. Welcome to this week’s NFL Powerless Rankings.

Once upon a time, Deron Williams was seen as a top-five NBA point guard alongside draft classmate Chris Paul. Now Williams is retired and admits being a little jealous of Paul and how he’s still playing at such a high level all these years later.

Tiger Woods is swinging golf clubs again. It’s not at a tournament, or what even looks like a practice round, but a club is technically making contact with a ball. On Sunday morning, Woods posted a brief, three-second, clip on Twitter of him with a basket of golf balls, and taking practice cuts. The only words he sent…Read more...

Terence “Bud” Crawford and “Showtime” Shawn Porter put on a display of pugilism Saturday night in Las Vegas that more than lived up to its billing. Crawford retained his WBO welterweight championship with a 10th round TKO over Porter. But what happened in the bout’s aftermath could create a pathway for a mega-fight…Read more...

Rarely do finals turn out to be great games. When it all comes down to one game, teams tend to prioritize no mistakes over getting truly brave, and wait for their chance. Obviously, nerves play their own part, too, as the stakes become impossible to ignore.Read more...

Ole Gunnar Solskjær has finally been taken off hospice, and Manchester United fans’ burden of caring for their ailing family member through their final days has ended. After a valiant battle with the cancerous disease of poor managing, it was Watford that landed the decisive blow.

Going into Thanksgiving Weekend up on the campaign is always something to be thankful for. Making sure that happens, though, still requires one more solid week.

You could feel an Oregon loss coming at some point, and did it ever come on Saturday night in Salt Lake City, a 38-7 thrashing by No. 23 Utah which means that for the fifth straight season, the Pac-12 will not have a representative in the College Football Playoff.

The Philadelphia Eagles are just one of many unanswerable questions in the NFL this year. Their record says they’re bad. Their quality of opponent and matchup data says they’re good. They just handed the Broncos a three-possession loss, and the Broncos were just one week removed from handing the Dallas Cowboys a…Read more...

Yikes. I wouldn’t want to be a Michigan fan right now. After letting Penn State and Nebraska keep it close, Ohio State made a statement last weekend with a big win over a good Purdue team. “Statement” doesn’t even begin to describe what just happened in Columbus. Sure, after those two quick opening touchdowns, I…Read more...

Is it real?Read more...

Can Bears’ head coach Matt Nagy do anything right? The supposed “offensive genius” currently has Chicago ranking second to last in total offense — more than 20 yards behind the third-worst team, Seattle — and tied WITH DETROIT for the third-fewest points scored in the NFL this season. Nagy has more than disappointed…Read more...

As long as you’ve known baseball, it’s been four balls for a walk, but it wasn’t always that way. Today is the 133rd anniversary of the Joint Rules Committee taking away 20% of pitchers’ margin for error, reducing the number of balls for a walk from five to four.

Kyle Rittenhouse got away with murder, acquitted on all charges in the two killings that he admitted to last year, because he was able to convince a Wisconsin jury, with the help of a sympathetic-to-say-the-least judge, that he was acting in self-defense after having brought a rifle across state lines to play…Read more...

Come here. Sit down. Let’s have a talk. I’m not angry, just disappointed.Read more...

Twenty-three-year-old Riley Tufte got called up to the Dallas Stars’ roster last week to play for their fourth line. He saw a few minutes of playing time in victories against the Flyers and the Red Wings, but the big game for him was going to be his homecoming to face the Minnesota Wild in his home state, in the arena…Read more...

One of the biggest disappointments thus far in the 2021 season has to be Patrick Mahomes. This man had the greatest three year start to any career ever. Now, in his fourth season, the man is tied for the third-most interceptions in the league. He has been absolutely manhandled by some of the toughest teams in the…Read more...

Before this season, if you made a catch like the one Jared Casey did last weekend to clinch the Kansas Jayhawks victory at Texas in overtime, you’d probably be a hero on campus for a few weeks. Your family would fawn over you at Thanksgiving, your parents wouldn’t shut up to their neighbors about the game-winning…Read more...

The Guardians are here and ready to start selling their merchandise, marking a new era of baseball in Cleveland, moving beyond the 73 years without winning a World Series, the decades of intransigence over Chief Wahoo, the...

When politics and sports collide, people tend to lose their shit. “This is supposed to be my happy place!” “How dare you use your platform to speak out against racism!” “Loud noises!”

Your apology should be louder than your disrespect.

So here’s Connor McDavid once again dragging the Oilers to a point, and eventually a second one, all by himself:Read more...

The case of tennis player Peng Shuai gets scarier by the day. Jane McManus covered the first steps a couple days ago. Since then, the Chinese government, through their propaganda channels, released a statement that Peng is safe, except no one believes the evidence it produced. Which is what any reasonable person would…Read more...

For any NFL fans out there who think that officiating hasn’t been at the level it should be, you are not alone. Earlier today, New Orleans’ Sean Payton was interviewed on the Dan Patrick Show and he was asked about how long it takes him to get over a loss. Payton responded that it usually takes about 24 hours, but…Read more...

Ime Udoka’s rookie season as head coach of the Boston Celtics hasn’t been a smooth one. A couple of weeks ago, one of his role players felt the need to publicly call out the team’s stars following a bad 128-114 loss to the Chicago Bulls. Now Udoka finds himself the focal point of a Twitter rant composed by big man…Read more...

The WNBA announced a new playoff format today that will increase the number of potential games in the tournament and completely get rid of single-elimination games. It will remain an eight-team playoff, with teams seeded based on overall standings over a 36-game regular season, but the first- and second-ranked teams…Read more...

I’ll be honest. I didn’t expect Philadelphia’s Bryce Harper to win the National League MVP this year. I didn’t think his hot streak would last as long as it did, and I certainly didn’t think Harper’s incredible OPS figure halfway through August would be enough to overcome his home run and RBI numbers.

Welcome. Yes, you’re in the right place. This is a boxing post that’s not about a YouTuber or non-boxers boxing. There’s an actual fight this weekend featuring one of the best pound-for-pound fighters against, well, a good fighter, but that’s not the point. The point is Terence “Bud” Crawford is fighting, and you…Read more...

I had no idea that Tavon Austin was playing for the Jacksonville Jaguars. Nine years ago he was the most explosive player in college football at West Virginia, and arguably one of the most dynamic players in the history of the sport. At 5-foot-8 and under 180 pounds, he was still the No. 8 overall pick in the 2013 NFL…Read more...

Jay-Z once asked, “Would you rather be underpaid or overrated?” For Black coaches, that option has rarely presented itself, as most times they’re both underpaid and underrated. Mel Tucker and Michigan State are about to change that.Read more...

NBA general managers are circling the wagons.Read more...

In a lot of ways, having the Washington Spirit in the NWSL final is perfect for the league. No matter where the league goes from here, what it becomes, the 2021 season will be viewed as a turning point. While the stories themselves were horrifying, heartbreaking, and infuriating, sunlight is always the best cleanser.…Read more...

New England is one of the biggest surprises of the NFL season. While there was certainly skepticism surrounding rookie QB Mac Jones, most doubters had their sights set on the lack of talent at the Patriots’ offensive skill positions.

(TW: domestic violence, assault)

For almost two years now, we’ve all (well, sensible folk anyway) been worried about a global pandemic. Amid something so widespread like this, other health factors or worries might have gone under the radar as a result. One of these health factors is the safety and hygiene standards in those NFL stadiums we all love…Read more...

The story out of Smyrna, Tenn., on Wednesday night appears to be both rage-inducing and fairly self-explanatory, but there’s a lot more that needs explanation, and a lot of questions that need answering.Read more...

The most fascinating aspect about the Tampa Bay Rays competing and winning in the AL East — Kevin Cash repeated as AL manager of the year, and Randy Arozarena took home rookie of the year honors this week — is how they do it not despite their financial shortfalls but almost with the help of them.

It has been all smiles in Charlotte since Cam Newton signed with the team that drafted him No. 1 overall in 2011. Last week, the Carolina Panthers went on the road and defeated the Arizona Cardinals — who were playing without two of their best, Kyler Murray and DeAndre Hopkins — who have the best record in the NFL.…Read more...

Nothing gets pretty inane arguments going like individual baseball awards. I can’t claim to be above them, but I also have never claimed to be a functioning member of society. To a lot of people, and they aren’t completely wrong to think so, who we give a Cy Young or MVP award to is a statement on what the game of…Read more...

The knuckleball might not be dead, but it’s certainly on life support. There are only two active players who’ve primarily used a knuckleball at the Major League level: Steven Wright, who is currently a free agent and hasn’t pitched in the Majors since 2019 and Mickey Jannis, who is also a free agent after making his…Read more...

Don’t make Kelly Stafford angry. If you do then you might find a salted, carb-loaded treat coming your way. A person who attended Monday night’s Los Angeles Rams-San Francisco 49ers matchup at Levi Stadium told TMZ that Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford’s wife threw a soft pretzel at a fan. The witness said that her…Read more...

Generally, the fall has always been the downtime on the WWE calendar. Before SmackDown on Friday nights became the A-show, WWE was happy to cede the floor to Monday Night Football and let its booking from September through the end of the year get even lazier and more banal than it normally is, which is saying…Read more...

Jerry Dipoto is either stupid or a liar. Probably the latter, but don’t discount the former.

Mullets, mom jeans, the United States Football League — you’d be forgiven for thinking you woke up back in the ’80s this morning. Fox Sports announced its sponsored relaunch of the short-lived league, scheduled for the spring of 2022. With an eight-team, two-conference model, spring football will return in yet another…Read more...

New York Jets Rookie quarterback Zach Wilson has still not recovered from his knee injury, but that doesn’t mean we get another week of the Mike White experience. The Jets instead will be going with a face from their recent past against the Miami Dolphins — 36-year-old Joe Flacco. They traded a sixth round pick (that…Read more...

Welp, that’s it. It’s time to shut down the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Stephen A. Smith is done and never going back after the Nets’ lackluster performance Tuesday night against the Golden State Warriors.

I don’t know how TV critics (like Alan Sepinwall) do their jobs when they’re forced to watch awful shows. How many spinoffs of rich people behaving poorly can you honestly consume before low-brow insults from high-class people lose their effect?

In the euphoria of the US’s latest “Dos a Cero” triumph over Mexico, most US fans probably joked with their friends that they would follow this up with a turgid and flat performance in Jamaica. Joke to mask the pain, because we all suspected it, just at differing levels. Maybe some thought they would still gut out a…Read more...

There’s a lot going on in California. The Golden State Warriors are on fire. Anthony Davis thinks the Lakers “suck.” And the Staples Center will be called the Crypto.com Arena starting on Christmas. Maybe that’s why more people aren’t focused on what’s still happening to Vanessa Bryant.Read more...

What’s the point of owning a sports franchise if you can’t make irresponsible trades, overpay role players, furtively watch from a dimly lit owner’s box or make Roger Goodell eat shit?