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Update (February 22, 2021): The kid apologized.Read more...

Today, Ian Desmond announced that he will opt out of the 2021 season “for now.” The veteran outfielder will miss his second straight year of baseball to be with his family. He announced his decision Sunday morning via Instagram, writing:Read more...

Thirty-four-year-old wide receivers aren’t hot commodities in the NFL. But it doesn’t mean they can’t be intriguing.

Every Grand Slam for the past...well, the years are getting innumerable now, and barely even fathomable, given the unseen greatness and longevity of Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic. Fans keep asking: “Will this be the time?” That is, the time someone else breaks through, someone else rises to the level of the three best…Read more...

Sports fans, meet Caleb Pendleton. We already mentioned him in The Mourning After, but I think he deserves his own story.

Naomi Osaka could be on the verge of becoming a cultural icon.

Charlotte and Golden State are both squarely on the playoff bubble in their respective conferences. What if their fate at the end of the season comes down to one game?

Apparently it’s difficult to keep a 200-by-85 foot sheet of ice in pristine condition, appropriate for world-class ice sports, while it bakes under recently discovered celestial bodies that produce light and heat. Who knew?Read more...

Mike Babcock has long had a reputation of not being good at working with young players because he lacks the patience necessary to develop talent as part of a long-term plan. It was a major question mark from the time the Toronto Maple Leafs hired the two-time Olympic gold medal-winning coach, and Babcock’s failure in…Read more...

You may remember 2015, when Syracuse announced that Jim Boeheim would “retire in three years.”

A month before the disgruntled Carson Wentz was traded by the Philadelphia Eagles to the Indianapolis Colts, there was a poll conducted by Philly sports radio outlet, 97.5 The Fanatic.Read more...

To find the last time two NBA players scored 50 points on the same night, you have to go all the way back to February 7, when Stephen Curry and Nikola Jokic both went for half-a-century (57 in Curry’s case), both in losing efforts.

It’s still a long way back to the Premier League for Sunderland, the club whose fall from the top flight to the third tier of English soccer was chronicled in the Netflix documentary Sunderland ’Til I Die.Read more...

We already know that Trevor Bauer is a huge jerk and that the Mets lucked out when he spurned them to take the Dodgers’ $102 million, but the reigning National League Cy Young winner went ahead on Friday and demonstrated once again that he’s a lot dumber than he thinks he is.

Carson Wentz has been traded, yet somehow the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback situation is not firmly answered, and I have no idea why.Read more...

The decision to not only hold an NBA All-Star Weekend in Atlanta, highlighted by the game itself on March 7, is as befuddling as commissioner Adam Silver’s efforts to triple-down on it. Last night, Silver spoke to Inside The NBA regarding the All-Star Game, and Ernie Johnson actually opened the floor, discussing his…Read more...

Because the NHL insists on trying to play a regular season during a pandemic and ecological disasters, there are going to be some ugly games.Read more...

Johnny Damon looks like he had a rough night.

The American baseball fan’s median age as of last season was 57-years-old, or, as Dan Le Batard occasionally jokes, death. And it doesn’t require a Pulitzer-worthy investigative search to discern Major League Baseball’s whiteness.Read more...

Craig Carton sucks.

There is a poignancy in the current moment in women’s tennis. Naomi Osaka learned from the best, and then ended another one of Serena Williams’ evanescent chances to tie Margaret Court’s 24 record Grand Slam singles titles.Read more...

We’ve known for a while now that even though the overwhelming majority of people are slogging through the pandemic, and a lot pine for “slogging,” the uber-rich have profited even more than they usually do during these times.

Jeanette Lee, at one time was the most famous pool player in the world. While the temptation for the ignorant will be to dismiss that as simply being attractive or having the ass-kicking nickname “The Black Widow,” most of it was due to her being one of the best players in the world. Her accolades stack from here to…Read more...

The Maple Leafs were able to clear some, if not all, the clouds of stink out of ScotiaBank Arena after their collapse against the Senators on Monday by beating those same Sens 2-1 last night. You can be sure the Steve Simmons ilk will still be referencing that pissing away of a four-goal lead to the remedial class…Read more...

The Miami Heat can’t keep losing like this.

The NBA and NBA Players Association are committing more than $2.5 million to HBCUs in addition to providing more support to fair COVID-19 care.

We’re getting a little more clarity on the death of former Chargers and Buccaneers wide receiver Vincent Jackson, and it’s a sad yet familiar story. According to Florida police, Jackson suffered from chronic alcoholism and his family feared that he showed signs of brain trauma stemming from his football career. Former…Read more...

If you want to understand just how crazy, uneventful, and weird this college basketball season has been, just look at the top of the rankings.

Injuries suck.Read more...

The Carson Wentz waiting game is finally over. Wentz has been traded to the Indianapolis Colts, where he will be reunited with his former offensive coordinator Frank Reich. And just like that, “Wentzylvania” is no more.Read more...

Naomi Osaka has faced Serena Williams five times now, and the 23-year-old’s straight-sets victory in Thursday’s semifinal at the Australian Open marked the third win for the three-time (so far) major champion over the 23-time (so far) major champion, including both of their meetings at Grand Slam events.

We all know the end is nearing for Serena Williams’ career.Read more...

A pissed-off Draymond Green is one of the most insightful NBA minds we’re blessed to have.

Tim Tebow’s career was a bust.Read more...

It’s fair to say that Serena Williams has met her Serena Williams in Naomi Osaka.

Pitchers and catchers reported to training camps on Wednesday, and the San Diego Padres marked the traditional passage of spring by turning the baseball world on its head by announcing they had signed Fernando Tatis, Jr. to a staggering 14-year, $340 million contract, according to reports.

It’s easy to make fun of Tim Tebow’s minor league adventure, to brush it off as a publicity stunt, to mock the whole enterprise for being peak Wilpon era Mets when they signed him in September of 2016.

The NBA has no business having any form of an All-Star Weekend in the middle of a pandemic, but since it is going to go forward with it anyway, we might as well tweak it to have a little fun.

Pittsburgh has a Ben Roethlisberger problem.

On February 1, NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar penned a New York Times op-ed calling for NBA players to set an example by taking vaccines for the coronavirus, in order to instill faith in the process among the Black community, due to hesitancy stemming from years of (justified) distrust. Abdul-Jabbar noted data…Read more...

It hasn’t been a vintage season for Juventus, who look like they might surrender the Serie A title for the first time in 10 years. Their pursuit of the Champions League the past few years has moved beyond obsession, which led them to pay $120 million for Christiano Ronaldo a few years ago. That has looked to be in…Read more...

I was always taught that you should never show up somewhere unless you were invited. I’m guessing Adam Silver didn’t learn that lesson growing up.

The big story out of Melbourne today is that Rafael Nadal actually looked like he’s in his mid-30s last night, as he blew a two-set lead to Stefanos Tsitsipas, with the latter looking much the fresher in the fifth set. That sets up a semifinal match with Daniil Medvedev, who when he hasn’t been yelling at his coach…Read more...

At some point, the Brooklyn Nets will need to get stops. Simultaneously, when it matters, they’ll need to prove they’re healthy. But even without Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, James Harden was able to turnaround what would’ve been a dispiriting loss to the Phoenix Suns — who led by as many as 24 points earlier in the…Read more...

Rush Limbaugh, who died on Wednesday at the age of 70, was a terrible human being whose hate the world is better off not having in it. That includes the sports world, which at least did its best to expel Limbaugh years before the physical world finally did.

Zion Williamson is only 50 games into his career as a New Orleans Pelican but it already seems clear that he’s going to be a problem for years to come — if he can stay healthy and in shape. Through 50 games, he’s averaging 23.6 points per game and 6.5 rebounds per game. According to ESPN Stats and Info, he’s been one…Read more...

For the most part, the NBA has done a good job navigating through the pandemic.

Brett Gardner was the Yankees’ third-round pick in the 2005 draft, debuted in pinstripes in 2008, and has been in the Bronx ever since. He’s the last remaining player with the Yankees from their last championship team in 2009… except that right now, even he’s not remaining.

It’s not what the NBA wants you to think about. And Jayson Tatum probably doesn’t want to think about it much either. It’s not how athletes at his level process things. But Tatum was honest Tuesday when he talked about being short of breath during games more than a month after testing positive for COVID-19. That he…Read more...

There really isn’t a better wielder of the axe that struck the final blow on this era of Barcelona than Kylian Mbappé and his three-goal night. While it’s been Lionel Messi’s world for so long, any minute now it’s going to be Mbappé’s to do with how he sees fit. That is, if it isn’t already.