Month: August 2024

Tick, tick, tick … Hockey, like any sport, is synonymous with numbers. Goals, assists, points, power-play percentage, advanced statistics, salary-cap figures, player ages. They’re all numbers. With that in mind, here are some numbers that should snatch everyone’s attention: 43 — The number of days since Sidney Crosby could have signed a new contract with […]

The AP Top 25 is out and it looked almost identical to last week’s Coaches Poll. At least one unranked team is guaranteed to make the College Football Playoff (no Group of 5 team is ranked), but my hunch is that two sleeper candidates will make it in. Last year, Missouri finished No. 8 in […]

It feels like a lifetime ago, before Léon Marchand had a nation cheering his every stroke at La Défense Arena, before Simone Biles had us out of our seats watching the women’s gymnastics all-around competition, before Steph Curry put the French crowd to sleep at Bercy Arena, and before the U.S. women’s basketball team eked […]

Pep Guardiola bought himself a Boston Celtics hoodie, flipped his baseball cap backwards and took his courtside seat in the TD Garden arena for the opening game in the best-of-seven NBA Finals. “He sat right by me,” Celtics co-owner Steve Pagliuca says. “I talked to him a lot.” It wasn’t like pulling teeth, which is […]

The number of rookies who don’t bother waiting for their true breakout season seems to increase annually. The latest example, perhaps, is Houston Texans QB C.J. Stroud. Or, maybe Texans edge Will Anderson Jr. Or Detroit Lions tight end Sam LaPorta and running back Jahmyr Gibbs. Maybe Atlanta Falcons running back Bijan Robinson. Oh, and probably […]

SOMEWHERE OVER THE ATLANTIC OCEAN — Now for the question you know you’ve been dying to ask for three weeks about the Team USA men’s basketball “Avengers”: With their gold-medal mission accomplished, which players on this star-studded squad are going to join forces on an NBA team down the road? With the national team’s rich […]

Seth Greenwald, a linebacker on a southern Minnesota high school team called Mankato West that won a state championship 25 years ago, glanced at his buzzing phone earlier this week. The caller ID flashed with a location: Paris. Greenwald answered. A reporter introduced himself over the phone, then asked if he could interview Greenwald about […]

NEW YORK — Aaron Judge wanted a change. One of the most feared hitters in the majors, the New York Yankees center fielder had struggled through the first several weeks of the season. By the end of April, he was hitting just .207. “I wasn’t doing too hot,” he recently said. So, Judge — who, like […]

PARIS — The atmosphere of the mixed zone for track and field, on the bottom floor of Stade de France, felt like a locker room and a pizza kitchen sharing a space. Hot and stanky enough to sweat while merely standing. Waiting became like a cruel prank. And Rai Benjamin, the clutch anchor leg who […]

After nearly three weeks and more than 1,000 medals, the Paris Olympics have awarded their final gold. From the ambitious opening ceremony to the handoff to 2028 host Los Angeles, the Paris Games delivered numerous memorable moments. Acclaimed stars cemented their legacies and new faces became Olympic fixtures. But some stellar performances and viral memes […]