Category: Sports

Before Sidney Crosby’s first home opener at Pittsburgh’s now-extinct Mellon Arena in October 2005, Mario Lemieux walked past a media scrum encircling Crosby and into the players’ lounge, pouring a cup of black coffee. Smirking, he opined about soon being “forgotten.” Then, in an unusually earnest moment, Lemieux predicted Crosby would “own all my records…

Read More “Sidney Crosby’s new contract keeps him with Penguins — and in control” »

Enjoy the next three years of watching Sidney Crosby play for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Breathe it in. Cherish it. Get a little sentimental, if necessary. Never in your lifetime will you see his kind again. I’m not talking about the hockey, the backhand, the vision, the power, the tenacity — you know, all of the…

Read More “Sidney Crosby’s new Penguins contract is his sweetest assist yet” »

It is perhaps easy to hear Mauricio Pochettino say his new players must “believe” they can win the World Cup and roll your eyes. It’s the sort of flashy soundbite in first press conferences that ambitious managers often produce. What else could he say after all those months of international courting from his new employers,…

Read More “The U.S. must believe ‘we can win the World Cup’? Pochettino will need all the help he can get” »

The question came 20 minutes into Mauricio Pochettino’s introductory press conference as U.S. men’s national team coach; the first query of the event in his native Spanish. “It’ll give me a break,” Pochettino joked at the chance to rest his English. “What was the challenge that made you want to take the U.S. job?” the…

Read More “Mauricio Pochettino aims to bolster belief as USMNT role takes him outside his comfort zone” »

Editor’s note: This is a Weird and Wild short. To read this week’s full Weird and Wild column, go here. For weeks now, months to be honest, we’ve been spending way too much valuable time making all-important comparisons between the 2024 White Sox and Casey Stengel’s legendarily hapless 1962 Mets. But now we know: That was actually…

Read More “The White Sox — 81 games under .500! — are piling up mind-blowing numbers for the ages” »

At first, his screams were met with silence. Stunned silence, really. This rookie was standing there, two weeks into his NFL career, moments after a humiliating loss at home, and he was calling out … the entire team? “Where my leaders at?!?” C.J. Stroud shouted, grabbing the attention of everyone inside the home locker room…

Read More “The Texans have Super Bowl aspirations. C.J. Stroud is the reason: ‘He’s got some dog in him’” »

Defining the best goalkeepers in the world used to be straightforward — but no longer. There was a time when a goalkeeper’s responsibility was simply to keep the ball out of the net. However, in recent years, the role has transformed radically and irreversibly. In today’s game, a ’keeper is deeply integrated into the team’s…

Read More “Building the perfect goalkeeper: Alisson’s one-on-ones, Ederson’s passing, Raya’s catching” »

James Earl Jones, who was 93 when he died Monday, will be remembered by baseball purists for the stirring, soul-reaching words he delivered in the 1989 film “Field of Dreams.” Cast as a fictitious writer named Terence Mann, Jones is nominally speaking to Kevin Costner’s Ray Kinsella. But what he’s really doing is speaking to…

Read More “James Earl Jones’ voice marked the time, in baseball and beyond” »

This was going to be about the search. It was going to be one of those pieces with an absence at its heart, a kind of magical mystery write-around, Frank Sinatra Has A Cold for the Brazilian football heads. Sometimes you get the interview. Sometimes you just have to shrug and tell the story without…

Read More “In search of Kerlon and his seal dribble” »

Lee Carsley was one of the first men out from the England dressing room, almost an hour before kick-off. He only had the England goalkeepers for company and he stood arms crossed in the middle of the pitch watching them work. Eventually, the outfield players and the rest of the staff came out to join…

Read More “Lee Carsley lives for coaching – but anthem furore shows England job has another side to it” »