Month: October 2024

The Kansas City Chiefs face the San Francisco 49ers tonight in Super Bowl 58. While it’s a rematch of Super Bowl 54, a lot has changed in four years — starting with the 49ers being led by quarterback Brock Purdy.

The “Mr. Irrelevant” of the 2022 NFL Draft, Purdy has become a star in San Francisco and was the MVP front-runner until he threw four picks against the Ravens in Week 16. 

Purdy’s Super Bowl odds are expected to be a highly debated option in the NFL player props market. While he’s surrounded by game-changing weapons, an inexperienced signal-caller facing one of the league’s top defensive units still adds an element of uncertainty.

I break down the Brock Purdy odds and give my best NFL picks and predictions for how he’ll perform …

The Commanders vs. Ravens battle in the early window of NFL Week 6 is a must-see matchup pitting Rookie of the Year frontrunner Jayden Daniels against reigning NFL MVP Lamar Jackson. Both teams are hot going into this one, with Washington rattling off four straight victories and Baltimore boasting a three-game win streak.

My Commanders vs. Ravens NFL picks will attempt to extract value from the NFL player props for this game, so let’s get right into my favorite Commanders vs. Ravens same-game parlay with a generous potential payout. 

…

On Friday, the Qatari national soccer team did what it had never done before, beating Japan 3-1 in the final of the Asian Cup to claim its first continental trophy ever. Qatar steam-rolled the entire competition, going undefeated in group play with a goal difference of +10 before nipping by perennial contenders Iraq and South Korea in the first two rounds of the knockout stage. Then they put four goals on the hosts, the United Arab Emirates, leading to UAE fans pelting the Qataris with shoes and bottles of soda. No matter, because Qatar then defeated top continental power Japan in the final, thanks to not one but two incredible goals. The first came 12 minutes in, from Sudan-born Qatari striker Almoez Ali; watch him control the ball with some ridiculous touches before firing off a no-l…

As a child Kasper Schmeichel could have mistaken the FA Cup for a shiny heirloom. The final represented an annual family jamboree that sometimes ended with the trophy being paraded around his house. His dad, Peter, won it three times with Manchester United. Young Kasper dreamed of winning it himself one day.

On Saturday, at the age of 34, he will lead Leicester out at Wembley in the hope of fulfilling the ambition he has long nurtured, though not quite as long as Leicester, who yearn to get their hands on the Cup in their 137th year of trying.

“My story might be slightly different to others,” says Schmeichel. “I obviously followed Manchester United and my father in the FA Cup and it was always a special occasi…

In a World Cup that has teased and confounded expectations, England march mercilessly on. A familiar blend of the Stakhanovite and the sublime saw off Senegal, the champions of Africa. Now France, the reigning world champions, await in the quarter-finals next Saturday – along with the world’s most thrilling player, Kylian Mbappé.

England will be underdogs there, for sure. But the ruthlessness and efficiency of this 3-0 victory against Senegal, and the way they emerged from a sticky start to dominate, has laid down a significant marker.

Along the way, England also punctured the “curse” of playing on ITV. Since 1998, they had won just three of 16 World Cup games on the channel, a miserly 19% – compared with…

Once again Didier Deschamps made changes, once again they had a negligible effect, once again France advanced – rinse and repeat. That is the story of Les Bleus’ Euros so far as they played to type in their latest victory, over Portugal on penalties.

Dysfunctional diamond

The diamond was ditched by Deschamps against Belgium, despite deploying it in training on the eve of the last-16 game. However, his solution, moving Antoine Griezmann to an unfamiliar position out wide in a 4-3-3, did not get the best out of the Atlético Madrid forward, nor did it solve the continued issue of finding balance in midfield.

So it was no surprise to see Deschamps twist again against Portugal. In all five…

Don’t listen to them. Don’t let them steal your joy. The 2020 baseball season is within our grasp. MLB players are reporting to their makeshift “spring training” facilities all over Baseball America today. If all goes well, or at least as well as it can given the circumstances, the season will start in earnest on July 23. Teams will play 60 games, not 162, and have a regular postseason before crowning a World Series champion in late October. It isn’t much. But it’s all we got. You should be thrilled, excited. Few love baseball more than I do. Not only as a reporter who has covered the sport since 1986 — I’m a proud Baseball Writer of America Association member and I have a coveted Hall of Fame vote — but as a fan of the sport. And to be honest, I can’t wait for …

Welterweight boxer and all-around shitheel Adrien Broner is being sued in Ohio by a woman he sexually assaulted in a club in Cleveland in June 2018. For those keeping score at home, this is at least the second incident from the first half of 2018 where Broner was arrested for allegedly attacking and sexually assaulting a perfect stranger. In the June incident, Broner is accused of throwing himself on a woman who was seated on a couch at The Park Social Lounge in Cleveland, which was crowded with patrons watching Game 4 of the NBA Finals. The lawsuit says Broner pinned the woman on her back and assaulted her, in full view of, and in at least one case in physical contact with, startled onlookers. From a summary provided in a press release by the victim’s lawyers: According to the comp…