The Vikings and Chiefs signal callers are usually more conservative than Fox News hosts. But this season things could change dramatically - and permanentlyA year after Jared Goff and Carson Wentz were selected one and two overall in the NFL Draft, five months after the Bears traded up to take Mitchell Trubisky and days after DeShaun Watson made his NFL debut, it’s looking like the league may have a new batch of quarterback superstars. But it’s not any of those young quarterbacks who are taking the leap, at least not yet. No, the NFL’s new superstar QBs are ... Sam Bradford and Alex Smith? Really? OK. Sure. Continue reading...
The upcoming fight in Las Vegas between the aggressive Kazakh and the wily Mexican has the look of a bout from boxing’s golden ageIt is time for boxing to fix its house. Two weeks after Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor did each other a mutual favour in a cross-discipline public spar that delivered them an estimated $400m to share (the Irishman getting a quarter slice), Gennady Golovkin and Saul “Canelo” Álvarez meet in the same ring on Saturday night to decide who is the best middleweight in the world. Related: Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather the only ones enriched by this fight | Kevin Mitchell Related: Golovkin and Álvarez start the hard sell for middleweight title defence in Vegas Continue...
A key point often lost in the criticism of the IOC’s tolerance of tyranny is that by hosting the Olympics, democracies become more authoritarianOn Wednesday, the International Olympic Committee will rubberstamp the plan to hand Paris the 2024 Summer Games while Los Angeles will host in 2028. Given the lack of bids from democratic countries and the increasingly frequent torpedoing of bids by activists and referenda, Olympic boosters are surely thrilled to lock down Paris and LA, two cities in democracies with storied Olympic histories.After all, the IOC has received negative attention – and rightfully so – for bestowing the Games on authoritarian regimes. Olympic honchos even handed Beijing its second Games – it will host the Winter Olympics in...
MLS has long been derided as a retirement home for aging stars. But some young English players are choosing to kickstart their careers in the StatesOver the last decade, Major League Soccer has attracted its fair share of British footballers. Since the league’s watershed moment with David Beckham’s acquisition, the likes of Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Jermain Defoe and Ashley Cole have taken their talents to North America.Of course, they all had one thing in common: their careers were in their twilight years when they made the move to MLS. It took a few years for Beckham’s superstar sheen to settle down enough for him to play quality football. Gerrard struggled to adapt to the league after his love affair...
The Spaniard’s victory at the US Open for his 16th grand slam title was a tribute to his enduring commitment and he reacted to the triumph with typical graceIn three words, Rafael Nadal captured the essence of his tennis career and his life: “Very happy, no?”It was getting late at Flushing Meadows, a place where the Spanish clay-court supremo was never supposed to thrive but where he has appeared in four finals, won three titles and won 53 of 64 matches. Only a few hours earlier, he had neutered the power of the big South African Kevin Anderson to take his tally of majors to 16, again only three behind Roger Federer. Related: The US Open showed black women have...