If you’ve followed this NFL Draft closely, you know that consensus isn’t exactly a thing. There’s no quarterback prospect worth lusting over, and even if that won’t stop teams from reaching on one, we won’t have a storyline until Chicago actually drafts Mitch Trubisky with the No. 2 overall pick. The fun aspect of mock drafts varying widely is fans can talk themselves into, or out of, any selection. The potential for confusion over whether to cheer or boo a prospect walking across the stage in Las Vegas has never been higher, which is why I wanted to add some clarity for fans who want to know definitively who to jeer. So, welcome to the mock draft you love to hate. The following is a batshit crazy (mostly) worst-case scenario that probably won’t play out — but could — f…
As Dougie Freedman recalls with relish in When Eagles Dare, persuading Bristol City’s manager Derek McInnes to allow him to sign Yannick Bolasie in August 2012 a few days after his Crystal Palace side had been thrashed 4-1 at Ashton Gate was one of the most straightforward transfers in which he has been involved.
Zidane reveals he quit Real Madrid because he felt undermined by clubRead more
“He was sitting back in his chair and looking very pleased with himself,” says the former Scotland striker in the forthcoming Amazon Prime documentary which tracks Palace’s recovery from the brink of collapse in 2010 to Premier League promotion via the play-offs three years later. “It was a very easy deal to do because he was feeling sorry for me…
The traditions were almost religion in Ahmed Shareef’s home in Baghdad. When soccer was on television, everything stopped. His father, siblings, uncles, cousins, whoever was in the vicinity gathered around the table and watched the beautiful game, each viewer loyal to their own squad.
For the young Shareef, Barcelona was his team, and his loyalty was unwavering. One day he would play, making his name internationally like his heroes on the pitch.
“I used to play soccer, way early, and my dream was to be on a professional team, but losing my sight didn’t give me that dream,” said Shareef, now 25.
In 2004, in the heat of the United States-Iraq war, one of many bombs went off in Baghdad…
Eddie Howe is confident that Anthony Gordon will stay at Newcastle and emphasised that, despite interest from Liverpool, the England winger remained an “integral” part of the club’s plans.
Although Howe’s future as manager is slightly opaque amid interest from England and a restructuring of Newcastle’s hierarchy, the 46‑year‑old is finalising preparations to take his squad to Japan this weekend.
Manchester City considering move for Eze with De Bruyne future uncertainRead more
It will be intriguing to see how Newcastle’s Saudi Arabian ownership reacts to Howe’s very publicly stated concerns about the new sporting director, Paul Mitchell, and performance director, James Bunce, potentially …
When three different coaches have combined to win five national championships at one men’s college basketball program since 1999, it means they’re one of the sport’s blue bloods. But, you know that question that goes, “If a tree falls in the forest, and there’s no one around to hear It, does it make a sound?” Well, if every time you play for an NCAA Tournament Championship and no one cares to watch — or you need a crutch to bring viewers in — do you have as much juice as you think you do? This is the Connecticut predicament. The Huskies are in the same room with Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, and North Carolina, but they’re sitting at the kid’s table. According to SportsMediaWatch, Monday night’s matchup between UConn and San Diego State was the lowest-rated and least-w…
There will be plenty on the line when longtime rivals Real Salt Lake and Houston Dynamo FC square off Saturday in a late-season Western Conference match in Texas. RSL holds a 14-13-11 edge over Houston in the all-time regular season series. The sides have met twice this year, with RSL winning 3-2 at home on July 3 in MLS play and Houston victorious 3-0 in the Group stage of the Leagues Cup on Aug. 4. RSL hasn't won a match in Houston since August 2018. The Dynamo (11-8-8, 41 points) begin the weekend in seventh place in the West, one point ahead of the Portland Timbers and a point behind the Vancouver Whitecaps in the crowded bottom middle of the conference table with seven matches to play. Four points separate fourth place from eighth in the West. Houston has earned points in tw…
Congratulations to the New York Mets, who shook off the vexing enigma that is the Pittsburgh Pirates and beat the Florida Marlins 4-0 tonight to clinch the National League East title. They're the first team to punch the proverbial ticket to the playoffs, and now we can all breathe a sigh of relief that, for the first time in about 15 years, we don't have to watch dreary October Braves games with 20,000 people in attendance. The ever-inventive Shea Stadium PR staff mercifully avoided "Our Team, Our Time" and played the hip-hop hit "Takin' Care Of Business" by East Coast gangsters Bachman Turner Overdrive. We still hope that the Mets will find a way to expand their postseason rosters to include Vince Coleman, so that he will work as official tarp blocker…
Quick: what’s the biggest joke of the decade in the NBA? If you answered, “the New York Knicks,” fine, I’ll give you that. But most people would answer, “that damn Brooklyn Nets-Boston Celtics trade,” and most people would be correct. When Celtics general manager Danny Ainge fleeced his Brooklyn counterpart, poor Billy King, back in 2013, it didn’t just set the Celtics up to be a rebuilding team also capable of winning 50 games a season, it also set the Brooklyn Nets back at least half a decade, turning New York City’s second team into a scrap heap comprised of bad players and worse contracts. Well, the scrap heap has looked more like a mighty Voltron this month, with D’Angelo Russell at its head: Russell will always be known to a certain subset of NBA fans as the gu…
Overshadowed in the international selection controversy sparked by Eric Cantona’s comments and Karim Benzema’s fanning of the flames was Cantona’s lamentation that Hatem Ben Arfa wasn’t called up for the France team for the Euros. As understandable as the Ben Arfa snub is, it’s still sad. Because Ben Arfa has been eating people alive this year. We’ve covered a few of the Nice attacker’s feats of skill this season, but now that it’s officially over, we have the above video to memorialize the torn knee ligaments and snapped ankles and obliterated egos Ben Arfa’s magic feet have counted as casualties this year. It’s wild to think that just a year ago, Ben Arfa was out of the professional game and well on his way to becoming one of those sad “Where are they now?” gu…
data-mm-id=”_cu6vajcqe”>Philip Rivers might be finished, or he might just need a change of scenery. All it takes to see that he is broken is one look at his demeanor when he talks about the latest road crowd to overrun the Chargers' "home" stadium in Los Angeles. When they move into Stan Kroenke's new billions-plex next season, it may actually get even worse as there will be more territory for the visitors to conquer.Jon Gruden and the Raiders are reportedly considering the idea of moving on from Derek Carr, and Rivers is a looming free agent. This is a marriage of convenience that is the optimal situation for both sides. Rivers would get to stay in the general geographic vicinity of his family in San Diego (it's about a five-hour drive to Vegas), play for a te…