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It’s bad enough that there have been 16 NBA playoff spots since 1984. At that time there were only 23 teams in the league. It’s 2022, and still more than half of the league gets into the playoffs, and that’s not even counting the highly entertaining Play-in Tournament. Sure the New Orleans Pelicans were a late bloomer…Read more...

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In the end, it came down to being either Derek Jeter or Robinson Cano.

In an era of the NFL where yards after the catch reign supreme, with star ankle-breakers like Justin Jefferson, Deebo Samuel, and Cooper Kupp constantly putting on shows with their ability to turn screens and slants into scores, it’s weird to think about how successful someone like Tyler Lockett has been.

It would be interesting to see how much ESPN was responsible for of the $1.5 billion that Disney lost last quarter in the streaming section. What section of the Mothership do the contracts for Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, and the Mannings fall under? After a year-plus, the nuance of the ManningCast has worn off. It Isn’t…Read more...

After a long night of negotiations, the biggest offseason domino fell early this morning as Aaron Judge, the AL MVP who gambled on himself this season and had a historic 2o22, has decided to return to the Yankees on a 9-year deal worth $360M, according to Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. The massive deal, pending a…Read more...

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Oh we got narratives! New ones! Old ones! Tired ones! Exciting ones! If you can find better narratives than here…fuck it!

The Heisman Trophy has been college football’s most prestigious award since University of Chicago halfback Jay Berwanger was awarded the first stiff-armed prototype in 1935. Since then, Chicago has dumped its football program and the award has morphed into a Quarterback of the Year award. That laziness has led Heisman…Read more...

“Your network is your net worth”

The Los Angeles Lakers have turned their season around.

Looks like Baker Mayfield is indeed headed to California, but not to the Bay Area to join Kyle Shanahan and the San Francisco 49ers, as many have suspected.

Unlike most people, I enjoy bowl season. Despite how irrelevant it is to the final outcome of the season, eclectic matchups are the best kinds of matchups. They determine bragging rights for people whose values still align with those of their conference. Programs who only schedule cream puffs when it’s up to them now…Read more...

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The effect of an individual defensive player is hard to measure by statistics alone. It’s actually hard to even measure offensive players by traditional numbers. (What does 1,000 yards mean? Is it right to hold a single player responsible for his average yards per touch? How much should an individual’s contract be…Read more...

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Dave Dombrowski and the Philadelphia Phillies apparently don’t understand the new atmosphere of baseball. The expanded playoffs mean, or were supposed to mean, that teams don’t have to go all out for 95-to-100 wins anymore. The Phightins are proof! 87 wins and a trip to the World Series!! You just have to win 85 or…Read more...

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Fear not Boulder, Colorado, Deion Sanders is here to save Colorado football. All he needed when he stepped off a private jet was his own silk cape to accompany his messiah complex. If the extremes and excesses of the NIL era were molded into human form, it would be the man known as Coach Prime.

Brazil finally become all they can be, and Croatia do their thing of refusing to end a match in 90 minutes. They must really like each other! Let’s spin it right round!Read more...

Nearly every NFL season there is at least one division that if ripped from the league and cast into the sea, the product would be much better. This season, that division is the NFC South.Read more...

The Mets don’t have to be unique. There are plenty of teams that wouldn’t have to use the departure of a player like Jacob deGrom as an excuse to declare it’s all over for them, that they’d have to find a new way, and to take a step back. You can get away with that if you’re the Astros and your minor leagues…Read more...

Somewhere between the evening of Tuesday, Dec. 6 and the early hours of Wednesday, Dec. 7, we will know the results of another crucial election in Georgia that has national implications. But, more than that, we will know if the Republican Party was successful in electing a Senator strictly because he’s a…Read more...

Here’s a multiple choice essay question. You’ve got a blossoming superstar in Trae Young who has plateaued after some early career triumphs. Young is 24, played in a conference finals two seasons ago, but he’s also got a penchant for taking too many heat-check shots which are exhilarating to watch go in, but most…Read more...

The NFL regular season goes way too far into winter, but the home stretch is here. The time for some to assert dominance and others to sink claws into the final playoff spots has come.Read more...

If any team can settle the quarterback market a bit it’s the 2022 San Francisco 49ers.

The Dallas Cowboys throttled the Indianapolis Colts last night. A 54-19 victory against a team in flux is what should be expected when the team that administered the beat down is a championship contender.

Obviously, I’m biased. I don’t much care for Alexi Lalas, which I’ve made clear. But this isn’t about him exactly. It’s just that he’s the type of media analyst that dabbles in this kind of horseshit all too often to justify his existence. We can thank First Take for this, the idea that debating about sports was more…Read more...

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Today was about England and France eyeballing each other over their respective opponents, with the only drama being whether or not they would get caught looking too far ahead. They most certainly did not, engaging in a “Anything you can do..” dance that set them up for a glossy quarterfinal on Friday. Let’s get into…Read more...

In the opening minute of regulation against the Houston Rockets on Saturday night, Jordan Poole picked up his between-the-legs dribble and whipped a pass to Draymond Green in the short corner. Green caught the pass and rose to drain his only points of the night. It had no effect on the final score, but Green’s bucket…Read more...

At the top, we should refresh the list of things Gregg Berhalter can’t help. Everyone knows this list by now, but it deserves reinforcing. He can’t help that the US doesn’t have a genuine striker. He’s hardly the only international manager affected by such a thing. They’re just not that common. Spain and Germany don’t…Read more...

Legal disclaimer: this article is for the express written purpose of helping my Dad, whose worldview is so obscured by his SEC bias that he can’t see his hand waving inches in front of his face. I’m writing this as a service to him and others like him who need to be de-brainwashed like liberated cult members so that…Read more...

Remember a few years ago when a power-hitting shortstop was all the rage? They were a dime a dozen, and securing a shortstop that could be a serious threat in your lineup was an enormous deal. Nowadays, every team has one of those. The Boston Red Sox had two in Xander Bogaerts and Trevor Story last season. The power…Read more...

What started with a lavish indoor pep rally during the height of the pandemic — putting the health of students and school employees at risk — ended with a cowardice move to dodge reporters, as the head coach of a 12-0 football team that just won its second straight Southwestern Athletic Conference Championship was…Read more...

If the College Football Playoff committee does its job correctly, the TCU Horned Frogs will be the first school from Texas to make the cut for the CFP. While it’s not a shock considering the Toads and Baylor Bears have been the two best programs in the Lone Star State for the past decade, they were 5-7 last year, Gary…Read more...

As the NFL season marches toward its conclusion, bettors understand which teams are good, which teams are bad, and which teams have no shot of reaching the postseason. All of that will play a role in how betting lines are made, change over the course of the week, and how they are bet on. Oftentimes, the favorites will…Read more...

How far do moral victories and actual losses go for the United States men’s national team? After failing to defeat The Netherlands at the World Cup, U.S. Soccer needs to take a hard look in the mirror.

Congratulations, Texas Rangers fans! You’ve just secured one of the greatest pitchers of our generation for the next five years.Read more...

If you told USC fans before the season that the eulogy for the Trojans’ College Football Playoff hopes wouldn’t be penned until after the conference title game, their reaction would’ve been euphoric. Though the first year under Lincoln Riley ended in disappointment — you don’t come a win away from the CFP and feel…Read more...

The term “measuring stick” game is seldom used in professional football. The term indicates a game that will determine whether or not a team is the real deal or not and is used more in a college football setting since those teams can change drastically from year to year.Read more...

Two-time Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom is departing Queens for the Lonestar State.Read more...