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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.

Congrats to the Atlanta Braves on winning the World Series! Congrats to Freddie Freeman! That man deserves everything. Congrats to Ozzie Albies, Mike Fiers, Jeff Mathis, Austin Riley, Will Smith, and especially congratulations to Drew Smyly!Read more...

The “going out on top” card rarely gets played. Mostly, it’s just because there’s too much money to be had for any player that was once great. There’s too much money for really any player to play a game for a living, no matter how physically taxing. Which you can’t blame them for. Unlike most every other job in the…Read more...

That friend of yours who thinks he’s smarter than your entire fantasy football league can finally drop Michael Thomas from their bench now. The Saints receiver had a season-ending setback while recovering from ankle surgery, and announced the news himself via Twitter:Read more...

It’s time for the Dallas Mavericks to move on from the often-injured Kristaps Porziņģis. He’s already missed more than half the team’s games this season, and they’re only a couple weeks in. The unicorn is gone, lost forever, now they’re stuck with Kris-taps. Kristaps keeps tapping out of games and can’t seem to get…Read more...

The NHL’s biggest on-ice soap opera, the Jack Eichel trade derby, appears to have rounded the final turn. Last night, ESPN’s Emily Kaplan said that the Calgary Flames and Vegas Golden Knights are the finalists. Both teams are fine with the neck procedure Eichel wants but that the Sabres wouldn’t allow him to get. And…Read more...

Yesterday, I wrote that the Cleveland Browns and Odell Beckham jr. relationship can absolutely be salvaged, but Beckham’s father sharing that 11-minute video is a problem if the post is a frustrated father speaking for his son, who is also frustrated with his current situation.Read more...

It’s been three weeks since the start of the NHL season. In those three weeks, the Dallas Stars have played nine games, but have only scored nine goals 5-on-5. That’s the fewest of any team in the league, and these struggles at even strength have led many fans wondering what’s going on. Jason Robertson’s return to the…Read more...

Whenever I watch a nature special and we get to the point where that one wildebeest is starting to straggle and the lions are slowly creeping up, I feel bad for the prey. The Pelicans are that disease-ridden, emaciated wildebeest begging to be feasted upon by a pack of hungry potential new owners.Read more...

Over the years, some great players have come off the bench and embraced the role of sixth man, but Lou Williams might be the best of the bunch. He’d surely tell you the list starts with him, at least.Read more...

Scottie Pippen decided to air out some grievances this past summer. He talked with GQ’s Tyler R. Tynes about the reason he didn’t go in for that last play in Game 3 of the 1994 semi-final series against the New York Knicks, operating as a professional basketball player in an environment where everything revolved…Read more...