Month: December 2024

We are now exactly 10 weeks away from the NHL’s March 7 trade deadline. That leaves enough runway for the needs of buyers and sellers to shift before the biggest decisions are made — or for buyers and sellers to switch places. But in a season where there’s already been plenty of trade action, it’s […]

First prize — We tip our cap  Here at Strange But True Injury Central, there’s only one thing we love more than a good Injury of the Year caper. And that’s having the same player churn out an injury caper sequel that elevates him onto this list for the second year in a row. So […]

It was an absolutely wild year for the U.S. women’s national team: a new head coach, an Olympic gold medal and more retirements from the greats of the program, from forward Alex Morgan to goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher to former captain and centerback Becky Sauerbrunn. It was a year of change, a year of joy and […]

This is the fourth entry in a five-part series about the state of the New York Giants. Within “Giants 2025,” we will examine the talent on the roster, the team’s positions of need, their pathways to improvement, the players they could target in the offseason and finally, the people charged with restoring this franchise to […]

Manchester City attempted 683 passes in their 1-1 draw with Everton, but it was one that Nathan Ake refused that revealed the tensions that are gnawing at them.  It came just as another flurry from Pep Guardiola’s side was beginning to settle down. A familiar sense of exasperation was already brewing in the stands — […]

Ashton Jeanty was into basketball more than football as a kid. So before he grew up to be a 5-foot-9 battering ram in cleats, his favorite athlete was LeBron James. Jeanty, who bounced around the globe as the son of a Naval officer, spent a chunk of his childhood in Florida when James was on […]

Tennis is back. Did you miss it? The season resumes from today, December 27, with the United Cup opening proceedings in Perth, Australia. The Athletic’s tennis writers Matt Futterman and Charlie Eccleshare are here for the second of two mailbags, answering your questions submitted earlier this month. The first focused on tennis in 2024; this […]

Thirty-five years ago, new Atlanta Falcon Deion Sanders arrived in Suwanee, Ga., with a carefully crafted reputation. During his college career at Florida State, he had driven to a game in a white stretch limo and stepped out wearing a tuxedo. Sanders was known for strutting into end zones in a way hardly anyone else […]

Asking an Olympic and world champion to name her favorite race is akin to asking her to choose her favorite child. There is little doubt, though, that the seven races that make up cross-country skiing’s Tour de Ski rate very high on Jessie Diggins’ list of triumphs. Diggins, the defending overall world champion, is in […]

DALLAS — Mychel Thompson was a four-year player at Pepperdine who started 114 games from 2007-11. Early in his college career, the Waves tried recruiting his younger brother. Klay, the Thompson family’s middle child, took an official visit to campus in Malibu, Calif. In an attempt to get him to commit, Pepperdine called in one […]