The Los Angeles Rams can take a huge step toward winning the NFC West for the first time since 2003 if they win in Seattle on Sunday. The Seahawks can be had. The Legion of Boom is decimated, Seattle’s linebackers are wobbling, the offensive line is porous and the club might be 5-8 instead of […]

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Yes, I was the guy who suggested this match could end 4-0, and added 7-0 might be OK if the UAE club held mighty Real Madrid scoreless for, say, a half-hour. I underestimated Al Jazira, the Arabian Gulf League champions, in a semifinal of the Fifa Club World Cup. And perhaps Real did, too. But […]

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The MLS Cup needs some help. Starting with the site of the championship match being decided years in advance and going to the most attractive bid city — in a place where December weather is not predictably nasty. Why? Because giving the championship match to the team with the best record can yield something that […]

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No. Really. Al Jazira of Abu Dhabi and the UAE … will play Real Madrid of Spain in the semifinals of the 2017 Club World Cup on Wednesday night. In Zayed Sports City, in the capital. This is the Madrid of Cristiano Ronaldo and 12 European championships. And the Jazira of Ali Mabkhout, twice champions […]

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Think back to the Los Angeles Rams’ 2016 NFL season. Prize draft pick Jared Goff was a mess. When he finally got a chance to play, in the final seven games of the season, the rookie quarterback looked clueless and panicked, conditions that rule out competence. And, yes, he was 0-7 as a starter. The […]

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Twice, I have seen Lionel Messi play at Camp Nou. In 180 minutes of La Liga play witnessed by moi, he has scored three goals (and Luis Suarez has another) … but FC Barcelona did not win on either occasion. The first Camp Nou match for me was a 2-2 draw with Real Madrid in […]

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The World Cup without the U.S. national team? Those who consider it a disastrous setback for soccer in America are badly mistaken. It’s 2017, not 1998! Soccer in the U.S., at the club level, is in fine shape and trending upward. If anything, sitting out Russia 2018 can serve as a wake-up call for the […]

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Eli Manning will not start for the New York Giants on Sunday, ending a streak of 210 consecutive starts at quarterback for the Giants, going back to 2004. However, the Giants are 2-9 and their playoffs hopes were buried weeks ago, and Eli will be 37 in five weeks and is not having a very […]

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Let’s make this formal. I apologize for suggesting that Jared Goff was a bust. (This is Day 2 of the Empathy Tour; pretty sure I will get over it.) I never directly wrote, on this blog, these words: “Goff is a bust.” But I did suggest here and here and here that he could be, […]

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You would think the NCAA knew better. That the sturm und drang that accompanies the 68-team college basketball playoffs would have prompted them to leave football alone — ending the season with bowl games and letting collections of journalists and/or coaches and/or cranks with a trophy to figure out who ranked where. But then some […]

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