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With one day left from Day One of the NFL Draft, folks are either speculating about what teams will do, making stuff up to look cool on Twitter, or watching the clock until the event begins in Kansas City. So of course, the Detroit Lions had to make headlines again — this time about a potential draft selection.Read more...

As you get older, all you really ask of sports is to keep you entertained and to provide something interesting to talk about from time to time. You want good teams playing a lively style, and you want them playing another team with perhaps a good story and some verve to them. At the very least, you want to watch games…Read more...

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Aaron Rodgers is with the New York Jets. Thank goodness it finally happened. The anticipation was annoying, and resulted in me gaining more knowledge of Rodgers’ personal life than I cared to have.Read more...

The World Cup is always a measure of health and a team’s ability to deal with it. It comes at the end of a long season — unless you’ve fisted it into a desert, totalitarian country that makes you have it in the middle of the season — and players have logged the most possible miles before they play in the biggest…Read more...

The SEC is threatening extreme punishment for fanbases who rush the field or court after big home wins. Two of the potential repercussions are an immediate forfeiture of the win that’s being celebrated, or ceding the rights to the winner’s next home game between the two teams. So LSU’s win over Alabama in Baton Rouge…Read more...

Jimmy Butler had a memorable Game 4 against the Milwaukee Bucks on Monday, dropping 56 points in a 119-114 victory over the No. 1 seed.Read more...

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Entering the playoffs, Milwaukee was seen as head and shoulders above the rest of the Eastern Conference despite dealing with injuries to key players all season. Someone forgot to pass that memo to the Miami Heat, who have come out the gates smoking hot and now have a 3-1 lead over the Bucks.Read more...

Hockey looking back on its history is not usually a good thing. The game is better now, it’s faster now, there is more skill than ever before, and the sport is better off now that it’s moved out of its bar brawl past, even if Flyers fans still base their entire existence on thinking that’s how the game still works.Read more...

If I were to ask the casual NFL fan for an over/under for the number of mock drafts penned regarding the 2023 iteration starting Thursday, I don’t think anyone comes within 10,000 of the actual number. Maybe a staunch cynic gleans what the question is implying and throws out an obscene number, but that’s about it…Read more...

It was a 30 and over night on Monday during the NBA Playoffs. For those who didn’t burn “Many Men” onto a blank CD, and dance with a crush to “Into You,” the night wasn’t for you. The evening began on Biscayne Bay in Miami with 33-year-old Jimmy Butler dropping 56 points on the Milwaukee Bucks. It ended in LA Live…Read more...

At a time in which it appears that Major League Baseball is seemingly doing all it can to keep African-Americans from being on Big League rosters, a group in Salt Lake, Utah is throwing its hat in the ring to land a franchise in the coming years. Remember this the next time MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred mentions…Read more...

Monday night’s pandemonium was indicative of the Miami Heat’s Jimmy Butler era. Grinding and persevering have defined the Heat for the last four seasons. When the odds are against him, Jimmy Buckets rises to the top of the food chain, but Game 4 was the capstone in his postseason cap. In the pantheon of postseason…Read more...

We here on the shores of Lake Michigan have been eating it from our neighbors to the north, the Green Bay Packers, for 25 years or so. When it goes on that long, you really stop dreaming of revenge or the tables ever turning your way, and certainly of things evening out. But there’s always a faint ember or two. You…Read more...

Thank goodness this game of “hard to get” has finally come to its conclusion, and along with it one less reason for Aaron Rodgers to appear on my timeline. The deal has been completed between the Green Bay Packers and the New York Jets.

The NBA playoffs are a months-long meat grinder that consumes tired NBA bodies and spits out the bones of all but one champion. Joel Embiid, Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, and Ja Morant have all missed significant time in the postseason nursing injuries. The playoff meat grinder may have dealt a fatal blow to the…Read more...

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I’m not always one to agree with ESPN analyst and former NBA hooper Jay Williams, but he was on point in his comments regarding Julius Randle on Monday morning. Williams went off Monday during a segment of Keyshawn, Jay, and Max, where he pointed out how Randle ducked the media following the Knicks’ Game 4 win over…Read more...

My favorite part of the NBA playoffs is certainly not riding the highs and lows of the Jimmy Butler experience. As great as he plays two-three games per series, he’s better as an antagonist that a great team has to overcome. Giannis Antetokounmpo is the best player in the NBA, and with him returning to the floor, the …Read more...

Anthony Richardson should be off the board in a blur whether he goes number one to the Carolina Panthers, third to whoever trades up with Arizona, or fourth to the Colts. However, the Seahawks drafting Richardson as the anchor of their budding offensive track team is the best fit.Read more...

The first round of the NBA playoffs usually isn’t all that good, which doesn’t stop people from complaining about it. The difference between the top seeds and lower seeds is large enough that those series should result in nothing more than dress rehearsals for the true powers and the later rounds. Which is what we’ve…Read more...

There is always a suspicion that US Soccer has fucked up. They’re too insular, too greedy, too cheap, and too weird to ever get out of their own way. Even when it looks like they’re taking a step forward, they’ll find a way to sabotage it. The Berhalter-Reyna mess is perhaps the perfect example of just how ingrained…Read more...

ESPN made a business decision. Montana Lemonious-Craig did too.Read more...

Every Dallas Cowboys draft is an adventure, just trying to figure out which direction Jerry Jones will go with the team’s first-round pick. Over the past decade, Jones and company have placed more stock in the draft than in free agency. Contrary to popular belief, Jones, his son Stephen, and the team’s scouting…Read more...

Even though he’s nearly 35 years old and basically a journeyman at this point in his career, Patrick Beverley always feels slighted whenever a team moves on from him. When the Lakers traded him to the Bulls after half a season, he said his goal was to “knock them out of the playoffs.”Read more...

Jalen Brunson is the straw that stirs the drink for the New York Knicks. My mea culpa on his free agency will come at a later date. All of that being said, the Knicks were in the Play-in Tournament and their record was a mere three games over .500 on Feb. 10. On that date they lost to the Philadelphia 76ers one day…Read more...

I’m only halfway through Netflix’s Beef series — chronicling the escalating conflict between two unstable drivers on opposite ends of the socioeconomic spectrum and the reverberations of their road rage incident in Southern California, but it fits Dillon Brooks’ plight. Dillon Brooks’ one-sided beef with LeBron James…Read more...

Chaos should be absorbed in moderation. Watching the Succession characters act as if they’re on a Jerry Springer Show reboot, in which guests are from the top one percent is amusing chaos. A think tank/lobbyist organization called Foundation for Government Accountability working to get legislation passed that rolls…Read more...

I wouldn’t have thought giving someone a vanilla nut-tap on national TV and in front of 18,000 was actually a media conspiracy. I’m glad Memphis’ Dillon Brooks taught me better.

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It’s almost always futile to look for “signs” or “omens” in playoff hockey. The next bounce off someone’s ass doesn’t really care what happened before, and apparently, this season, neither will the next call the ref misses but still manages to leave your D-man maimed, and the opposing forward an open path to your net.Read more...

Game 4 against the Brooklyn Nets is a game that would normally be a disappointing loss for the “Trust the Process” era Philadelphia 76ers. The opportunity to close out a first-round series against an inferior team, along with a Joel Embiid injury to navigate.

As I said in an initial review, Welcome To Wrexham, the show isn’t really for me and my ilk (nor should most anything be, really, we’re a broody bunch). It wasn’t meant for the diehard soccer fan, who already is at least somewhat familiar with promotion, and relegation, the football pyramid in England, and the…Read more...

During a contentious news conference Thursday, Gervonta “Tank” Davis (29-0, 27 KOs) threatened to break Ryan Garcia’s jaw. Turns out that was a misdirection. In the seventh round, Davis glanced a left hook off the side of Garcia’s abdomen that stunned his opponent, giving Davis the 27th knockout of his fledgling…Read more...

They say “never meet your heroes,” and while Phil Jackson was never a personal hero of mine, many did look up to Jackson, especially here in Chicago, where he led our beloved Bulls to six titles in the 1990s. During that time, when the United Center was brand spanking new, and the near West side of the city not…Read more...

Boxing is a shell of its former self. Under the right circumstances, it can break through sports purgatory and be genuinely exciting. Enter two undefeated fighters in Gervonta Davis and Ryan Garcia, with one of the duo no longer having an unblemished record after this weekend’s catchweight bout. Beyond the tale of the…Read more...

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It’s about 20 games into the MLB regular season. It’s a small sample size, but no longer so small that we can completely dismiss it. Just like every year, there are some teams that are over-performing and underperforming expectations, but which of these surprising records are actually telling the truth?Read more...

Always take the over. On Friday morning, the NFL announced the suspension of five players for gambling policy violations. Quintez Cephus, C.J. Moore, Stanley Berryhill, and Jameson Williams of the Detroit Lions, and Shaka Toney of the Washington Commanders apparently all ignored how Calvin Ridley missed all of last…Read more...

New Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. has been named as a suspect in an assault investigation, per a TMZ report, where a woman claims Beckham allegedly put his hands around her neck at a Los Angeles restaurant. However, representatives for the wide receiver and the restaurant’s owner where the alleged…Read more...

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In politics, candidates win and lose elections all the time. And despite the outcome, a lot of the money is left over from what was raised during the campaign. But, Herschel Walker was never like any other political candidate. He was just a “country boy” who wasn’t “that smart,” remember? Well, he’s still proving just…Read more...

He’s synonymous with World Wrestling Entertainment if not all of professional wrestling as one of the most popular performers in the theatrical sports’ history. Stone Cold Steve Austin can still garner a crowd reaction like few ever have with the simple sound of glass shattering to start his entrance theme. And the…Read more...

I’m well aware that the most visible of the loud sports fans reside between Boston and Washington. In that nearly 450-mile stretch of I-95, there are more than 16 million television households along with ESPN’s two main studios. Of course that will inevitably lead to East Coast griping about sports being televised…Read more...

Though I’m from the Midwest, the Oakland Athletics were always a fascination for me. It started well before the Moneyball era. When I first became a baseball fan was the rise of the Mark McGwire-Jose Canseco A’s. Even beyond McGwire and Canseco, when the A’s would be on the national game…they just looked different.…Read more...

Former WWE superstar Ted DiBiase Jr. has been charged in connection with the now-infamous Mississippi welfare scandal. As revealed in an unsealed federal indictment from the Department of Justice, the 40-year-old DiBiase Jr. was charged with the misappropriation of millions diverted from families in need in…Read more...

The poor Los Angeles Clippers have no luck. In 2019, they acquired what appeared to be the perfect tandem in Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. The Clippers are currently the No. 5 seed in the Western Conference and tied 1-1 with the Phoenix Suns in a first-round playoff series. On Thursday night at home, they will be…Read more...

The annual NBA Draft Combine, hosted in Chicago, is a footnote on the offseason calendar ranking somewhere between the preseason and the Rookie-Sophomore Game in the hierarchy of trivial offseason events. The Association’s one-stop pre-draft shop for teams to screen prospects medically, conduct interviews, obtain…Read more...