Sports

8:00 AM ET Health and safety protocols continue to be a concern around the league. Several stars sat out their teams’ Christmas Day matchups, including Trae Young, Luka Doncic and Kevin Durant, though James Harden and Giannis Antetokounmpo returned to action for Saturday’s slate of games. Antetokounmpo led the Milwaukee Bucks past the Boston Celtics,

8:00 PM ET NFL NationESPN Week 16 of the 2021 NFL season should give some clarity to the playoff races in both conferences. Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers made history in the early game on Saturday, throwing his franchise-record 443rd career touchdown pass. Green Bay, which clinched a playoff spot last week, beat the Browns, dimming

4:07 AM ET It’s been a tough season for Newcastle United fans, even though they became the richest club in the world following their Saudi Arabia-led takeover earlier this year. The Magpies remain marooned in the relegation zone, level on points with rock-bottom Norwich City. And with 11 goals conceded, and just one scored, in

5:40 PM ET Associated Press COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — A deal for the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency to police drugs in horse racing cratered Thursday after months of negotiations that the agency’s CEO said did not give it “a reasonable chance to put in place a credible and effective program.” The USADA was set to become

9:00 AM ET It’s hard to think about leveling up at a time when hockey is sinking into an abyss of positive tests, postponed games and a best-on-best Olympic tournament that will exist only in our daydreams and video game simulations. So let’s remember the good times, shall we? Here are 10 players and teams

7:00 AM ET Carlos Correa is a generational talent. Carlos Correa is inconsistent and injury-prone. Carlos Correa is one of the best all-around players in the game. Carlos Correa is overrated. Carlos Correa is worth a $300 million contract. Carlos Correa is a risky investment. While MLB teams committed over $1.9 billion to 51 free

3:42 PM ET Associated Press KAPALUA, Hawai’i — Phil Mickelson is headed back to Hawai’i for golf, not a vacation, committing to play the Sentry Tournament of Champions at Kapalua for the first time in 21 years. Mickelson won the winners-only tournament at La Costa Resort in 1998, then has played only twice since it

7:00 AM ET THE JOURNEY BEGAN, like so many frustrating and ultimately fruitless quests, with the 2019 Florida State Seminoles. Florida State had opened that season by blowing a 31-13 lead to Boise State, and in the aftermath, offensive coordinator Kendal Briles pinned at least a portion of the blame on one of the most

9:00 AM ET This has been one of my annual columns for ESPN for a while now, and it’s always fun to look back at the previous year’s list to see which prospective fights, if any, came to fruition. So, before getting into the MMA fights I want to see in 2022, let’s take a

7:48 AM ET Katie Taylor, Claressa Shields and Amanda Serrano continue to lead the way in the ESPN women’s pound-for-pound rankings. But now we have a new order. Serrano (42-1-1, 30 KOs), dominated a game Miriam Gutierrez on Dec. 18 to set up a potential megafight against undisputed lightweight champion Katie Taylor next year, in

4:04 PM ET EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The New York Giants shut down quarterback Daniel Jones for the remainder of the season because of his neck injury, the team announced Monday. It prematurely ends what many considered a make-or-break year for the young quarterback. Jones, 24, was officially placed Monday on injured reserve. He was

8:00 AM ET Stephen Curry took center stage to start the week as he continued his pursuit of Ray Allen’s 3-point record. Curry hit six 3s on Monday night against the Indiana Pacers to pull within two shots of the top spot, then quickly hit two 3s in the first quarter of Tuesday’s win over

6:24 AM ET Rafael Nadal said on Monday he had tested positive for COVID-19 upon arrival in Spain after making his comeback from injury in the Mubadala World Tennis Championship exhibition event in Abu Dhabi last week. The 20-time Grand Slam champion said he was having some “unpleasant moments” but was hoping to feel better

7:00 AM ET ESPN staff The college football regular season just ended, but before diving into bowl season, let’s look back at a memorable season that reminded us all why we love the sport. We saw a return to stadiums for fans across the country, and the action on the field matched the pageantry of

5:51 PM ET ORLANDO, Fla. — Not quite sure exactly how this week would play out, Joe LaCava decided to get to Florida a few days early. After a year of virtual inactivity, the caddie for Tiger Woods wanted to get out of the house. Playing some golf with his son, Joe Jr., and soaking

4:00 PM ET New York Mets owner Steve Cohen is an avid collector of art, his collection of Picasso and Doig and others reportedly worth many hundreds of millions of dollars. But one of his favorite pieces is round: the baseball that rolled between the legs of Bill Buckner to end Game 6 of the

1:27 PM ET Last season, we celebrated a number of players aged 27 or older who, like Ilkay Gundogan, had either pushed their respective games to new heights or thrived in slightly different roles in the 2020-21 season. (We also gave out Gundogan lifetime achievement awards to Bayern’s Thomas Muller and Lazio‘s Ciro Immobile.) Some

1:56 PM GMT All Round 2 matches between U.K. and French sides have been postponed hours after Ospreys vs. Racing 92 was called off due to a number of positive COVID-19 cases in the Welsh squad. European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) awarded Racing 92 a 28-0 victory and five match points, in accordance with competition

9:00 AM ET Hearing someone say that the NHL’s 3-on-3 overtime has gotten boring is like hearing someone say, “Hey, remember when pizza was good?” It’s pizza. Even when it’s bad, it’s good. I’ve chanted the same mantra about the 3-on-3 overtime format, which the NHL implemented in 2015 to end games before they reached

Aug 6, 2021 Editor’s note: This story originally was published in August, ahead of Derrick Lewis’s interim title bout with Ciryl Gane. Lewis lost that one and is back this Saturday, facing Chris Daukaus. It was Oct. 6, 2018, at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Derrick Lewis was losing badly, on the verge of one