Neither the Cleveland Browns nor the Cincinnati Bengals have won a Super Bowl. Since 1988, the last time an Ohio team made the Super Bowl, the two teams have combined to win as many playoff games as both you and I. Zero. So, naturally, it's difficult to be a fan of the Browns and/or Bengals. But Ohio-based pro football fans have taken a unique approach toward venting their frustration. MORE: Week 16 scoreboard | Playoff scenarios...
Lance McAlister, host of Sports Talk, 700 WLW and ESPN 1530 Cincinnati, doesn’t two-step around the question. McAlister grew up a Bearcats fan. He’s hosted a show in the Queen City for 16 years. There’s some pent-up resentment. “It should be a mandate,” McAlister told Sporting News. “If Ohio State wasn’t running around with a full display of arrogance 365 days a year, it would happen. Ohio State doesn’t worry about the marketing in this city....
With senior safety Christian Bryant already sidelined to start the game, the Buckeyes lost cornerback Bradley Roby, who was ejected for targeting in the first half. Roby’s hit came against Hawkeyes tight end C.J. Fiedorowicz and Roby has to sit out the second half, but he still found a way to stay connected. MORE: Upsets galore | Scoreboard | Week 8 photos (GIF via Land Grant Holy Land) Roby took to Twitter in the second half and had this to say after Ohio State tied the game, 17-17....
Even one of the wounded in Monday’s assault by 18-year-old Somalian student Abdul Razak Ali Artan made sure to bring up the win after being released from the hospital. Professor William Clark, who was injured when Artan crashed his car into a cement planter before randomly targeting students and staff, says Ohio State will recover from the attack. MORE: Ohio State players react to attacks “We’re a great university,” Clark said in a press conference Tuesday, via WHIOTV....
Penn State probably should have held a three-point lead heading into halftime, but Buckeye forward Sam Thompson scored one of, if not the, most bizarre baskets of the season. MORE: Worst bubble losses | Best states for college hoops OK, we take that back, Florida’s Jacob Kurtz scored the most bizarre basket of the season, but still, being No. 2 is not too shabby.
No. 1 Ohio State limited Western Michigan to 338 total yards in a 38-12 win at Ohio Stadium on Saturday. Defensive tackle Adolphus Washington provided the game-breaking 20-yard interception return for a TD in the second quarter; Ohio State’s third defensive score in three weeks. MORE: How Top 25 fared | Welcome to Big Ten party, Michigan Meyer hasn’t seen the film yet, but his snap judgment didn’t hold back....
“I don’t know,” Brooks said of Westbrook’s return. “I just focus on his work that he put in today and just continue to build off that. He will get evaluated later on this week and then we can make some of those decisions later on.” MORE: Knight: No ‘bad blood’ | Crawford now top 10 in 3-pointers | Malice in the Palace While Westbrook has sat out 13 games with a broken right hand, Durant has missed the entire season....
Players Conventional Wisdom Clinton + Achieves “relevance” as mourner-in-chief, child-grief counselor, lord high executioner. Reno +- Her dept. comes through. But was fuse of Okla. City lit in Waco? FBI + Cracks case faster than Efrem Zimbalist Jr. Who says the federal gov’t never works? Hate groups - Finally seen for what they are: not gun-toting patriots, but seditious baby-killers. Arabs + CW is sorry it jumped to conclusions. Terrorists don’t all look alike....
On Saturday, Gundy backtracked and apologized. “I have been made aware that comments from my press conference have offended some,” Gundy said in an ESPN.com story. “It was never my intention to offend anyone and I apologize. My first priority is and will always be the student-athletes and doing what is best for the program and the university.” Gundy said during a teleconference last Tuesday with reporters he thought his players, coaches and staff could return so they could begin getting ready for a 2020 football season—if it actually happens...
Rico Gathers scored 14 points, Gary Franklin scored all 11 of his points in the second half and Cory Jefferson had 11 points and 13 rebounds for Baylor (14-7, 2-6 Big 12), which greatly improved its fading NCAA tournament hopes. The Bears had scored fewer than 70 points in four straight games, but shot 52 percent from the field and outrebounded the Cowboys 32-26. PHOTOS: College basketball cheerleaders Markel Brown scored 24 points and made 6 of 8 3-pointers, Le'Bryan Nash scored 19 points for Oklahoma State (16-5, 4-4), which lost to rival Oklahoma 88-76 on Monday night....
At a pro-am golf tournament, a reporter asked Freeze, “How anxious or eager are you guys to get over this NCAA sanction stuff?” Before the reporter could even finish his question, Freeze responded, “Nah,” and walked away from the media scrum. MORE: Former Baylor volleyball player alleges gang rape by football players This spring Ole Miss announced a self-imposed postseason for the 2017 football season, after the NCAA informed the university the number of allegations against its football program had increased from 13 to 21....
Because when was the last time anything ended right for either Ole Miss or Mississippi State? Next up after Ole Miss’ 31-17 victory in the Egg Bowl: can both (or either) keep their coaches? MORE: Week 14 photos | Top 25 updates | HAYES: Doubt if you must, Mizzou back in Atlanta Ole Miss, which has struggled since losing star wideout Laquon Treadwell earlier this month, finally put it all together in the biggest game of the year in the state of Mississippi....
The 39-year-old appears incensed by the course of the case thus far. In an earlier interview, he revealed sensing calculated attempts to deny his second tier side promotion to the first division. “I’m ready to follow this issue to the latter, no matter what it takes," Kingson told Asempa FM. “Even if it will take me to quit football and resign as goalkeepers’ trainer, I will do it for the truth to come out....
The 28-year-old made the confession just days before her debut on the Game of Thrones prequel as the older Queen Alicent. Cooke said her first day on set was “amazing,” but she made the mistake of drinking too much wine the night before. “I was very hungover. Really bad, actually. Really bad,” Cooke told Jimmy Kimmel on his late-night talk show. “And I never do that, but there’s this comedian in England who I love, Alan Carr, and he’s got a podcast....
Tilly Kearns, a water polo player competing for Team Australia, shared a typical lunch routine she and her teammates have while staying in Tokyo. After posting the video to her verified TikTok account on Tuesday, the video has since been viewed over 4.8 million times and liked by nearly 1 million viewers. “This is how we keep COVID safe in the Olympic dining hall,” Kearns narrates over footage of her grabbing some hand sanitizer before proceeding indoors....
The NBC family of networks will televise nearly 2,100 hours of coverage from Rio, with coverage airing on NBC, NBCSN, USA Network, MSNBC, CNBC, Bravo, Golf Channel, Telemundo, NBC Universo and separate soccer and basketball-specific specialty channels. NBCSN leads those outlets with 330 hours, followed by the NBC broadcast network with 260.5. Reading through NBC’s full Olympic tonnage can be daunting (full schedules are available on Sports Media Watch and here at Sporting News )....
Was Stevens just being a loyal teammate? Or did withering pressure from the Aussie press and swimming world leave him with no choice? For once it seems no one is crying foul–including Stevens. Asked on TV if Thorpe had put any heat on him, he replied, “No, none whatsoever. He’s not the type to put pressure on anyone. The decision I’ve made comes from my heart.” The $45,000 the TV network paid Stevens for his story might have eased his heartache....
Perhaps it is Todd’s slightly bland, nice-guy persona, perhaps his middle-of-the-road taste that has too often had him skating to uninspiring movie themes, or perhaps his lack of macho; he’s the only top men’s skater at this Olympics unlikely to try a quadruple jump when competition starts tonight. All this helps explain why this week the son of a Cape Cod fisherman was still talking about the upset win of his hometown New England Patriots in the Super Bowl....
And no other sport offers more opportunities for individual medalists than track and field. It features 48 medal events — 11 more than second-place swimming — and 189 medals over the final 10 days of competition in Tokyo. Several athletes are worth watching over the course of the track and field schedule — especially Allyson Felix. She will compete in the women’s 400-meter dash and perhaps the 4x400 women’s and mixed relays; one medal would tie her with Carl Lewis as the most decorated United States track and field athlete in Olympic history, while another would give her that distinction by herself....
Part of the Al-Hilal squad that made it all the way to the 2017 AFC Champions League final before a heartbreaking defeat to Japan’s Urawa Red Diamonds, Khrbin also shone for his country as they were only two steps away from reaching the 2018 FIFA World Cup finals in Russia. Khrbin finished with 10 goals in the competition, which also earned him the top scorer’s title for the competition in which his team finished as runners-up....
