Professional sports coverage
There’s not a lot to criticize when it comes to The Americans, whose final season debuts Wednesday on FX. It's technically brilliant and emotionally engaging with an unsurpassed attention to detail. Several critics have called it the best show on TV, and it's hard to argue. But, in a show featuring Soviet spies embedded in…
March beckons casual fans to tune into more basketball than at any other time in the year, in part due to the promise of unlikely underdogs catching fire. In 2018, some of the most astounding Cinderella stories in recent memory emerged: UMBC. Loyola Chicago. The Indiana Pacers. OK, so the NBA might take a backseat…
Entering Sunday's Air Canada Centre matinee vs. the Oklahoma City Thunder, the vibes around the Toronto Raptors were at an unprecedented levels of positivity. On a double-digit winning streak -- including a handful of come-from-behind wins -- the Raptors were flying high with Russell Westbrook and the Thunder. This showdown of the surprising Eastern Conference…
Nostalgia overtakes The Open Man as I write this entry. With conference tournament basketball on the TV and an empty duffel bag waiting to be packed, memories of spring break flood my mind. Of course, circumstances in 2018 differ: I'll pack my bag in anticipation of a 24-hour trek to Las Vegas, which is very…
Not all college basketball stars translate to the NBA -- hello, Marcus Fizer -- but most of the NBA's best who went to college shined at that level. Consider last season's NBA Finals MVP, Kevin Durant, who put up 25.8 points, 11.1 rebounds and two steals per game in one season at Texas. This year's…
The NFL Draft Combine is afoot, kicking my least favorite season on the football calendar into high gear. Yes, dear friends of The Open Man: It's Slander Season. This year's primary target for the annual gauntlet of criticism and, at times, misinformation? Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson. Now, anyone who followed Jackson's exploits in college saw…
A Virginia Beach high schooler took to Twitter this Valentines Day eve to ask Canadian Olympic figure skater Gabrielle Daleman if she would attend his prom in exchange for hitting a certain number of retweets. Now, these stories surface with some regularity -- today marks the one-year anniversary of tennis pro Genie Bouchard joining a…
Kyrie Irving's alter ego, Uncle Drew, hits the big screen this June. The film arrives in theaters as summer blockbuster season is in full swing, suggesting Lions Gate has faith in the big-screen debut for the Celtics guard. The June 29 premier is no accident, either. The NBA Finals will have just ended, and you…
The NFL tweeted the below video in honor of Randy Moss' 41st birthday today, a fitting tribute recapping each of his 40-yard-plus touchdown receptions through an illustrious professional career (h/t @bennyjet34). In honor of @RandyMoss' 41st Birthday... Here's every single 40+ yard touchdown he had in his career! pic.twitter.com/93YqpI68GQ — NFL (@NFL) February 13, 2018…
An injury-plagued start to 2018 left UFC with a bevy of early fight cancellations, but that proved only to be opportunity for new stars to shine at UFC 221 in Perth. The absence of notable names on a card headlined by the main event of Luke Rockhold-Yoel Romero for the interim UFC Middleweight Championship gave…
University of Arizona football's never won an outright Pac-12 Conference championship, much like the Philadelphia Eagles and the Super Bowl prior to Sunday's 41-33 win over the New England Patriots. In 2009, Nick Foles led the Wildcats team that came the closest. Arizona had better teams in its history than the 2009, which finished an…
After an excellent night of fights at UFC 220, where Daniel Cormier and Stipe Miocic put on classic performances to set up a planned July superfight, the UFC landscape quickly descended into a February lull. With the Super Bowl and Olympics dominating the February sports schedule, the UFC opted to fill the month with an…
Ronda Rousey made her WWE debut over the weekend at the Royal Rumble, the culmination of a years-long flirtation that began in earnest at the height of the former MMA champion's popularity. In the 34 months since Rousey teased a feud with Stephanie McMahon -- appearing alongside mega-star Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and WWE fixture…
Among the din following Major League Baseball's announcement Monday that the Cleveland Indians uniforms would no longer feature Chief Wahoo -- which Chase Ruttig tackled here -- I learned of the Cleveland Spiders. The short-lived organization predated the current Cleveland MLB franchise's launch in Grand Rapids as the Rustlers by a few years. Likewise, the…
On Monday morning, Major League Baseball announced the news that the upcoming 2018 season will be the last for the Cleveland Indians' controversial Chief Wahoo logo on their uniforms. The move signals the end of a logo MLB commissioner Rob Manfred made a goal to remove from the league after decades of pressure from Native American…
