I used to play sports. Then I realized you can buy trophies. Now I am good at everything. | | | | Chrs Froome is the world's best cyclist. Again.
(Bryn Lennon/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “I used to play sports. Then I realized you can buy trophies. Now I am good at everything.”
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| | rantnrave:// JORDAN SPIETH walked the fine line between disaster and champion Sunday. It was a back-nine high-wire act. Straddling chaos and victory has become routine for golf's 23-year-old boy king. It's funny how quickly perceptions can change. Spieth had blown another major lead. His 13th hole was a spectacular mess. Spieth has already mastered the art of the choke in his career. It was easy to see a reputation bubbling. Would the 2017 BRITISH OPEN follow him like the 2016 MASTERS? Not this time. Spieth is the British Open champ. He's one PGA CHAMPIONSHIP away from the career grand slam. The only other golfer to win three-quarters of the slam so young: JACK NICKLAUS. Life is good for Spieth. He's drinking it in. But unlike TIGER WOODS at the same age, he's fragile and complex. Woods was a sensation because he was great without a fault. He stormed AUGUSTA at 21. He was feared on Sundays. If he led after he three rounds, he did not lose -- a trend that survived until the 2009 PGA Championship. Spieth has no such sheen. He's vulnerable. No Sunday lead is safe for him. That's not Tiger. Spieth is the anti-Tiger... There are no sacred cows in college sports. We learned that again last week when OLE MISS fired HUGH FREEZE. Freeze was another in a line of successful college coaches who were built up into something larger. But, as DAN WOLKEN reminds us, we need to stop turning college coaches into demigods. They are fallible and the fall will be long and hard. This happens most in college because the players come and go every three to five years and the system is designed to diminish them. The coach develops a cult of personality in that vacuum. He is the biggest man on campus. NICK SABAN is ALABAMA football. URBAN MEYER is OHIO STATE's true star. But they're still just men coaching a sport. They're flawed and make mistakes. That gets lost too often. No matter how many games they win, none are too big to fail... What do sports broadcasters eat and drink to get through a long game?... The legendary college football coach who became a renowned gardener... For once, will LEBRON JAMES get left behind instead of leaving? | | | - Mike Vorkunov, curator |
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 | ESPN |
| Kyrie Irving expressed a willingness to return to the NBA Finals with LeBron James just two months ago. Paul George was nearly a Cavalier. Now, Irving's trade demand has thrown Cleveland for yet another loop this offseason. | | |
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 | The Atlantic |
| Even hardcore devotees disagree, though many acknowledge there’s something profoundly spiritual about catching waves-a feeling scientists attribute to the power of being in the water. | | |
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 | Garden & Gun |
| Hall of Fame football coach, athletic director… master gardener? How the University of Georgia legend found a second love on the turf around Athens. | | |
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 | The Telegraph |
| Jordan Spieth did not merely fend off Matt Kuchar here at the 146th Open Championship to become only the second male ever to win three different majors before his 24th birthday. | | |
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 | Golfweek |
| Given that he went on to win the British Open, it might have been the greatest bogey in major championship history. | | |
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 | Deadspin |
| The NFL's investigation into allegations against Ezekiel Elliott highlights one of the thornier parts of the NFL’s quest to “get it right” on domestic violence. Yes, that sounds good in theory. For now, though, it clearly now entails the NFL—a private employer—asking agents of the state to fork over nonpublic information about alleged victims whose spouses or partners work for them. | | |
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 | Mashable |
| But can an upstart compete with some of the biggest companies in media? | | |
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 | Bleacher Report |
| Certainly there have been football films that have been hugely influential, and which have left an indelible mark on the culture of football fandom. But arguably none have gone as close to the bone as "Goal!" with the way it embedded itself within the football DNA, rousing the undying optimist that exists in some dormant form inside every football fan. | | |
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 | Forbes |
| In looking at the Scottie Pippen model for sneaker viability, it seems Roger Federer could still be due a moment after all. It’ll take a while, sure, but collectors and fans alike would be wise to pick up what they can. | | |
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 | BBC Sport |
| A lack of charisma? His background? Image and perception? Why does cycling great Chris Froome not receive the admiration he surely deserves? | | |
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 | USA TODAY |
| With Hugh Freeze, just like the defrocking of Baylor’s Art Briles and Penn State’s Joe Paterno, the lesson doesn’t seem to get learned. | | |
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 | The Indianapolis Star |
| Chris Ballard was led here, flip-flops on his feet, franchise on his shoulders, defense to fix, QB to help, title-hungry owner to satisfy. | | |
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 | New York Magazine |
| He (and it was mostly guys) could have been among the 175 hopefuls that showed up for open auditions at the Barclays Center on Tuesday (Jul 18). | | |
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 | FiveThirtyEight |
| Each member of MLB’s ruling class this season is unusually strong, which suggests that, come October, we may be watching the the most stacked playoff fields in memory. That’s great news for fans -- but it’s also really bad news for the wannabes and would-be Cinderellas that are currently chasing the front-runners. | | |
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 | The New York Times |
| At 30, Angel McCoughtry could tell her body needed a break from the game, so she took a season off from the W.N.B.A. and opened McCoughtry’s Ice Cream in Atlanta. | | |
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 | The Players' Tribune |
| I asked the commissioner about everything from his "secret" Twitter account, to gambling in sports, to whether teams should or shouldn't visit the White House -- and much more. | | |
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 | The Hardball Times |
| The worst name ever for a major league team is no more. | | |
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 | The Washington Post |
| Beer and hot dogs have been replaced by Hennessy and vegan diets (sort of), but at the Trent Williams-organized offseason camp, the new Hogs are chasing a legacy. | | |
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 | Los Angeles Times |
| As e-sports continue to expand at breakneck pace, they may have reached a wake-up moment. | | |
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 | Vice Sports |
| With O.J. Simpson back in the news and all over our Twitter feeds for a parole hearing, we started wondering what other notable sports moments would have blown up on social media. | | |
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