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It was there at Soldier Field last Sunday. It didn’t result in a win, but it was there. The electricity, the oohs, the aahs, the dazzling, the breathtaking type of football that Bears fans have been clawing at their walls waiting to see from quarterback Justin Fields.

The Russell Westbrook experiment in Los Angeles has not clicked yet, and I don’t know if it ever will. LeBron James missing games with an injury doesn’t help, but things were scary even when he was playing. Acquiring Westbrook was a LeBron decision, made in place of trading for a much better shooter in Buddy Hield…Read more...

You probably don’t remember Dan O’Toole and Jay Onrait. They were the Canadian SportsCentre guys (yes, the e goes there up north) that Fox Sports brought in to host its competitor to SportsCenter (with the e where it belongs down here) when FS1 launched. You don’t remember the former, because no one watched it, which…Read more...

The NFL had a case of the upsets in Week 9. Some teams were dealing with extenuating circumstances, such as the Green Bay Packers without MVP quarterback Aaron “I discount double-checked the coronavirus myself” Rodgers and the New Orleans Saints trying to get quarterback Trevor Siemian to play like it’s Week 3 in 2016…Read more...

Welp, here we go again with Matthew Stafford. It must be extremely tough to be a fan of Stafford. Just when you think he’s rolling along and nothing can stop him, Stafford lays a giant egg in a game that he should win. It almost sounds like being a Dallas Cowboys fan. So, I get it.

While Manchester United have done their best to make sure the Premier League doesn’t become completely stratified into just a “top four and everyone else,” and Arsenal and Tottenham have made the idea of a “Big Six” laughable, that only works if there are other teams willing to crash through the door left so…Read more...

Mark Cuban saw it coming. Adam Silver did not.Read more...

On Sunday, ahead of noon kickoff across the country, FOX analyst Terry Bradshaw let Aaron Rodgers have it for lying about being vaccinated for COVID back in August.Read more...

MLS had its “Decision Day” yesterday, the last day of the regular season when all of its playoff spots get shaken out. The permutation for the top, middle, and bottom of the playoff picture were David Lynch-level convoluted, so sometimes it’s best to express the happenings in one highlight:

It was qualifying-offer season over the weekend for MLB teams. Maybe the most interesting name to not get a qualifying offer, meaning he could sign anywhere without draft-pick compensation, was only the best pitcher of his generation in Clayton Kershaw.

The NFL season is halfway done, and now we know who the contenders are and the teams we can write off as pretenders. We can talk about the contenders another time because this list is about those less fortunate teams in the league. Now it’s time to check out the worst of the worst from Week 9.

The start of the season hasn’t been the NBA 2K simulation that most thought it would be for the Brooklyn Nets, but James Harden had himself a moment over the weekend that sums up the Nets’ slow start this year.Read more...

Some Minnesota Vikings players gave their front office a little elbow nudge to make a roster move this week. Wide receiver Justin Jefferson and cornerback Cam Dantzier both played their college football at LSU and made their pitch for another former Tiger to become a member of the team — Odell Beckham Jr.

Canelo Álvarez not only fulfilled his promise of becoming the first undisputed 168-pound super middleweight champion in boxing Saturday night, but Canelo also inflicted the pain and damage on Caleb Plant he promised before the fight.

Yeah, so I did write this last year. The Reds only ended up moving Raisel Iglesias, and you can always fashion a bullpen out of the leftovers, scraps, and spare duct tape you have laying around if you’re determined enough. The Reds didn’t move anything else, and were competitive until the season’s final throes.…Read more...

Oof, a rare goose egg came out of last week’s action, though to be fair, that was easily one of the most bizarre football slates any of us had ever seen. When something like Mike White beating the surging Bengals outright to sink our teaser happens, just try to laugh and move on.Read more...

Finally, something interesting about Northwestern football.Read more...

Maybe college football coaches are overrated. Not individual college football coaches. The entire concept of college football coaches.

Christmas might have come early for Portland Trail Blazer fans, as team president Neil Olshey is being investigated for allegedly creating a toxic workplace, Yahoo Sports reported Saturday. Olshey has been with the organization as general manager since 2012, and despite the Trail Blazers making the playoffs every…Read more...

The Las Vegas Raiders are in the midst of one of the most tumultuous seasons we’ve ever seen. First it was their head coach, Jon Gruden, whose leaked emails revealed racist and misogynistic tendencies from the Super Bowl-winning coach. Less than a month later, the team’s leading receiver and 2020 first-round draft…Read more...

Say what you will about college football, but Saturdays are never boring.Read more...

The Atlanta Braves won the World Series, and, after going through a comically horrible championship parade, they now have the daunting task of attempting to become the first repeat World Series winner since 2000. The 29 other Major League clubs are all looking to knock the Braves off their throne, and there’s a likely…Read more...

Deron Williams announced Friday that he is becoming the latest boxing/MMA enthusiast to get in the ring.

Conference realignment trickle-down has officially reached the Football Championship Series, as the Sun Belt Conference officially announced the addition of James Madison University Saturday by a unanimous vote of its members’ CEOs.Read more...

Mental health has been a hot-button issue in sports the past few years. Dating back to 2017, when Cleveland Cavaliers’ forward Kevin Love stepped away from his team after a panic attack suffered in the middle of a game, we’ve started seeing more athletes either take a stand in support of people with mental health…Read more...

Sorry, not sorry, Kyrie Irving, but those hopes that incoming New York mayor Eric Adams will relax the city’s vaccine rules to allow “World B. Flat” to suit up for the Nets after the inauguration at the turn of the new year?

On the night that Edmonton retired Kevin Lowe’s number 4, the Oilers and Rangers paid tribute the best way they could, by reviving the 1980s with an 11-goal thriller.

You would think that after the year they’ve had — after the past couple of weeks they’ve had — USA Hockey would want to steer clear of anything remotely controversial. The organization could cynically circle the wagons or engage in some reflection about its place in the sport’s toxic culture, but USA Hockey needed a…Read more...

Well, looks like Aaron Rodgers has gone full QAnon.

Oh, wow, look another Texas Longhorns football coach is underwhelming.

Half a billion dollars.

No Aaron Rodgers for the Packers. Possibly no Kyler Murray for the Cardinals. But it’s alright. Their teams are both facing opponents with four losses. Oh… it’s the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers.

Less than two weeks ago, Mike White’s mere presence on an NFL roster seemed a miracle. He muddled through a 6-7 senior season with the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers, had a poor performance at the 2018 Combine, and wound up a fifth-round draft pick from the Dallas Cowboys, where he was then cut from the practice squad.…Read more...

This isn’t a story about how Aaron Rodgers is a liar that tried to run game on the NFL, the media, and his fans. It’s one about how unfortunate things happen to quarterbacks before they travel to Kansas City.Read more...

Los Angeles Rams’ receiver Cooper Kupp is on pace for 1,964 yards in 17 games. The all-time single-season record for receiving yards is, in fact, that same 1,964, and was set in 2012 by former Detroit Lions’ receiver Calvin Johnson.Read more...

Kyrie Irving vaccination watch 2021 may have received a boost — not booster — from Election Day 2021. If New York mayor-elect Eric Adams, who takes office Jan. 1, lifts vaccine mandates, Irving would most likely be welcomed back to the Nets regardless of vaccination status, according to Brooklyn coach Steve Nash.

Scottie Pippen is still angry about that contract. It didn’t take up much time in “The Last Dance,” which is what the released excerpt in GQ of Pippen’s autobiography entitled “Unguarded” focused on, but it’s been the guiding light for most of Pippen’s life. It filters through the article in the New York Times. It’s…Read more...

(TW: Sexual assault)

I’m always here for any Black Jesus content. Not only because biblical scripture and the region that Jesus was born in lead me to believe the portraits that I’ve seen of Jesus most of my life appear to be a touch inaccurate, but I enjoy the art that comes from the Black Jesus motif. The portraits are lovely — my…Read more...

Green Bay Packers’ backup QB Jordan Love has been like the infrequent Bigfoot sighting of the NFL. We’ve heard his name a lot over the past year and a half without much payoff, and I’m not counting preseason because established players don’t even take it seriously anymore.

It’s been a while since we’ve heard much of anything from LaVar Ball.

ESPN’s report on Phoenix Suns owner Robert Sarver is as damning as the Suns hinted it was going to be in their initial denial about everything that was going to be in it.

I guess I’m old enough to start a column with “kids these days” because I actually have a “kids these days” moment. Before you could break down, clip and analyze every pick and roll of a Wednesday night Pistons-Wizards game, kids these days don’t know how hard it was to rewatch your favorite games let alone any game.Read more...

The NCAA is making a statement, that’s for sure — that being “don’t cooperate with us. It will only end badly for you, your players, and your school.”

Whenever the players break.Read more...

After just one week, where he stunningly led the NFL in passing yards, Jets’ quarterback Mike White will get to display his talents in primetime against a Colts team that has three wins and two one-possession losses in their last five games. And those two drops were to Tennessee and Baltimore — both teams currently…Read more...

The kneeling has stopped. The messaging on the backs of jerseys has been replaced with last names. Black Lives Matter isn’t plastered on the court. And journalists have ceased asking “those questions” after games. But, the pain is still there – and the racism, too.

The Denver Nuggets have struggled a bit to start the 2021-22 season. Following three consecutive campaigns with a win percentage of .630 or better, they are .500 following a 108-106 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday night. Still, there is encouragement for Nuggets fans, both from this game and their team’s…Read more...

We’ve known for a long time that Jack Eichel was on his way out of Buffalo, and as of Thursday morning, it’s finally happened.