Game 1 of the 2024 NFL regular season features the Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs hosting the Baltimore Ravens on Thursday, Sept. 5. The Week 1 headliner was confirmed by the league as the build-up begins for a full schedule release on Wednesday night with select marquee games and dates made official by the NFL. The Chiefs beat the Ravens, 17-10, in the AFC Championship game to reach the Super Bowl, where Kansas City topped the San Francisco 49ers. This is the third time in five seasons the Chiefs and Ravens are scheduled to face off. The Thursday night primetime game has become a traditional spotlight game for the defending Super Bowl champions. Last season, it became a springboard for the Lions when Detroit left Arrowhead Stadium with a 21-20 win. Previously the NFL confir…

In the NBA, the playoffs are truly a second season. There are no more back-to-backs, but there are also no more rest games for players. Also, there are no more sub-.400 teams on the schedule. To recover from a bad loss in the postseason, requires returning to the court 48 hours later and playing against the very same good-very good team. The coaching staff isn’t split up scouting different teams, all of their professional brain power is devoted to breaking down the same roster over the course of two weeks. The energy required to get through this gauntlet of four best-of-seven series is at least equal to what is necessary to get through an 82 game regular season. It’s a brutal road, but highly entertaining television. While free agents know that a couple of key performances this time…

Third-seeded Casper Ruud defeated 14th-seeded Jordan Thompson 6-1, 6-4 to advance to the quarterfinals of the Barcelona Open Banc Sabadell on Thursday in Spain. Ruud, of Norway, won the first five games of the first set and overcame four aces by the Australian to capture the match in 73 minutes. Ruud will face Italian Matteo Arnaldi in the next round. Fourth-seeded Alex de Minaur of Australia was unable to follow up the momentum of his victory over Rafael Nadal on Wednesday, as he dropped a 7-5, 6-2 decision to 16th-seeded Arthur Fils of France. Other seeded winners included No. 5 Stefanos Tsitsipas of Greece, No. 12 Cameron Norrie of Great Britain and No. 13 Tomas Martin Etcheverry of Argentina. Eleventh-seeded Alejandro Davidovich Fokina of Spain and 17th-seeded Fabian Marozsan were…

It’s an even year, so the San Francisco Giants will win the 2016 World Series. Thank you to all the other teams for participating. Maybe next year! But not the one after that (we’re unclear what happens in 2020). Their procession to the title started a bit wonkily up in Milwaukee, as a flu-ridden Madison Bumgarner walked in a run and gave up a pair of dingers in the first three innings. But that didn’t quite matter, as debutante center fielder Denard Span led a 12-3 Giants rout with four RBI. His last two came on a long homer to right field off of Brewers reliever Ariel Peña. After a ball, then a swing-and-a-miss, Joe Panik jacked a meteor to the upper deck. Peña regrouped, took a breath, then gave up another home run to Buster Posey on the very next pitch. Three dingers in five…

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To: John Koblin, Barry Petchesky Yes, those were the Jets, weren't they, throwing a brick through the window of the New York media? Funny how that happened. One lesson from yesterday: Preseason games are phantoms. You can't trust them to gauge how a team will perform in the regular season—not just the wins and losses, but the feel of a team, the look of its offense and defense, and the fire within. The team who will win a Super Bowl in five months has no more idea than we do about who they are yet. Preseason games test a coach's ability to circumvent them. He wants to fine-tune his machines without putting any wear and tear on them. He would like to try out some concepts, but also not show the other teams what h…

This morning Ohio State CB Eli Apple, who’s projected to go mid-first round in next month’s draft, appeared on Comcast SportsNet in Philadelphia and revealed the strangest question he’d been asked at the NFL scouting combine. Turns out, the strangest question he got was also the first. “The Falcons coach, one of the coaches, was like, ‘So do you like men?’ It was like the first thing he asked me. It was weird. I was just like, ‘no.’ He was like, ‘if you’re going to come to Atlanta, sometimes that’s how it is around here, you’re going to have to get used to it.’ I guess he was joking but they just ask most of these questions to see how you’re going to react.” The Falcons will probably get in a little bit of trouble for this, even if the coach was joking, b…

data-mm-id=”_f2mkdjdkm”>With their hard-earned victory over the New England Patriots, the Tennessee Titans earned a trip to Baltimore to take on the NFL's top team, the number-one seeded Baltimore Ravens. It may not be as one-sided as it looks, either. Here are three bold predictions for this week's game.1. This will be an offensive shootoutDon't be fooled by the second half of the Patriots-Titans game, where absolutely no points were scored until Tom Brady's pick-six in the final minute. Both the Titans and Ravens are perfectly equipped to put points on the scoreboard, and they match each other on offense strength-for-strength – particularly on the ground. While the Titans have the NFL's number-one rusher in Derrick Henry, the Ravens as a team had more rushing…

data-mm-id=”_bgk61y9h7″>Not long ago, speculation over the next duo or trio to fill ESPN's Monday Night Football booth was the rising tide that lifted all sports-media-adjacent boats. The saga was covered breathlessly, with informed and less-than-informed prognostication taking place on this very site and countless others. Having personally participated in both, it's fun to look back at a simpler, freer time. But the momentum slowly came to a near halt. That can happen when big names like Peyton Manning and Drew Brees opt for other opportunities. And when fun names like Pat McAfee aren't extended the offer. We've had a pretty clear idea of who the booth would be, especially after Dan Orlovsky's role on NFL Live was confirmed. Jim Miller got to have all the fun …

data-mm-id=”_3qwy4avvi”>Dwyane Wade has clarified a tweet he sent in support of Nick Cannon after the latter was fired by VIacomCBS for going on an unhinged, anti-Semitic rant on a podcast. Wade initially posted a tweet supporting Cannon, but faced immediate backlash. He deleted the tweet, then tried to explain himself and did so poorly. And it wasn't exactly an apology. His initial tweet is preserved below:After Nick Cannon was fired for his disturbing anti-Semitic vitriol, Dwayne Wade tweeted his support… but then deleted the tweet. I screenshot it below. What leadership was @DwyaneWade supporting? pic.twitter.com/c0bFsILkQk— (((Jason Rantz))) on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) July 15, 2020And here is the follow up:I want to clarify my now deleted tweet. I was not supporting or co…

data-mm-id=”_w9jkz3aww”>The University of Kentucky's football program suffered a tough loss earlier this week when offensive line coach John Schlarman passed away at the age of 45 after a fight with cancer. Schlarman has been a part of the team since 2013 and was clearly a beloved figure in the Kentucky football community. Saturday's game against Vanderbilt marked the first in seven years without Schlarman there to coach. They honored him by leaving the left guard spot open and accepting a delay of game penalty on the first play. Vanderbilt declined the penalty. This is powerful. @UKFootball left the LT position open on the first play of the game to honor late OL coach John Schlarman who died on Thursday. Vanderbilt declined the penalty. pic.twitter.com/Ukv5ReBOsm— SEC Netw…