Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. | | | | That's Jon Jones' ring.
(Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images) | | | | |  | “Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion.”
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| | rantnrave:// Is JON JONES a hero or villain? It's hard to label him in any binary way. He's the champ, though; that's all that matters. For now. Jones is unpredictable and unreliable. He's been arrested, stripped of his title twice, suspended for a year and almost killed his career. But he can still fight and he knocked out DANIEL CORMIER Saturday night. If Jones can stay on the right side of UFC, he remains must-watch. His ugly history is a draw for the casual fight fan. With CONOR MCGREGOR off boxing, Jones is the guy who can pull me in to watch a UFC fight I might otherwise skip. Too bad for him, the talk after the fight was Cormier's post-match interview. His sad, beaten face was the lasting image from UFC 214. If you didn't see the fight, you still knew Cormier lost. We love in-the-moment emotion from athletes, but did the Cormier interview cross a line? He got knocked out and was later diagnosed with a concussion. The interview was captivating and icky. If Cormier wasn't all there, should he have had a TV camera in his face? JOE ROGAN admitted he shouldn't have interviewed him. He said he broke a personal rule about not interviewing knocked-out fighters, but that shouldn't be his call to make. Can't ask him to turn down the interview we all want. It's on UFC to protect Cormier at a time he seemed helpless... Congrats to the 2017 BASEBALL HALL OF FAME class. It took too long for TIM RAINES to get his plaque. He had a stat-line ahead of his time and his RBI BASEBALL legacy looms large. JEFF BAGWELL shouldn't have been kept out so long by unfounded PED accusations. PUDGE RODRIGUEZ is the best defensive catcher of my lifetime -- and he could rake. JOHN SCHUERHOLZ built a dynasty in ATLANTA. But maybe BUD SELIG should've had to wait a little longer because of his controversial tenure as MLB commissioner. At least until BONDS and CLEMENS get in... We'll see ADRIAN BELTRE in COOPERSTOWN eventually. He didn't need it for his resume but here's to baseball's newest entry into the 3,000-hit club. The on-deck circle is wherever you say it is... The US WOMEN'S NATIONAL TEAM's comeback against BRAZIL was fast and furious. Three goals in nine minutes. MEGAN RAPINOE was the rainmaker, scoring once and assisting on two goals. No US soccer player I'd rather watch. | | | - Mike Vorkunov, curator |
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 | Texas Monthly |
| The Tarahumara of northern Mexico became famous for their ability to run incredibly long distances. Now, they’re running for their lives. | | |
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 | Sports Illustrated |
| A plane crash in November 2016 turned a fairy tale story into a national nightmare for Chapecoense. Months later, the survivors--and the rest of Brazil--are struggling to carry on. | | |
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 | Yahoo Sports |
| Editor’s note: The following is a first-person account of a college athlete’s spiral into opioid addiction, as told to Eric Adelson. | | |
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 | espnW |
| A former basketball star teaches us that the unpredictable scourge of mental illness doesn't discriminate. | | |
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 | The Eric Jackson Podcast |
| Eric welcomes Rich Greenfield back to the podcast to have a knock-down drag-out debate about Disney and ESPN. Rich strongly believes that that cable bundle is dying and ESPN has massively overpaid for sports rights. He thinks a big digital player is about to scoop up future sports rights and ESPN will end up blowing a hole in Disney's future earnings. | | |
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 | Bleacher Report |
| They were back where the horror all began, the father and the lone survivor, sitting side by side in the cool of the Wisconsin summer night. On the back deck of a house in the wooded countryside-the same house where Sam Foltz and Mike Sadler spent the final hours of their lives one year ago-the two men talked and talked and talked as the stars above twinkled in the sweeping Midwestern sky. | | |
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 | The Ringer |
| John McCain recommended that we “watch the show,” and what ensued riveted and befuddled. Minus the life-and-death part, it had the feel of an unexpectedly competitive Pac-12 football game that the country noticed in installments. And -- for some of us -- the right team won. | | |
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 | The Buffalo News |
| With the '85 Yankees, one crazy play was just part of a season full of baseball history. From Mattingly to Meacham and Niekro to La Russa, it was a season they'll never forget. | | |
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 | Deadspin |
| When discussing Rickey Henderson’s Hall-of-Fame prospects, Bill James once wrote that “if you could split him in two, you’d have two Hall of Famers.” It’s a seemingly hyperbolic quip from one of sports’ most precise thinkers. So it’s probably worth a closer look. | | |
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 | Billboard |
| When Shakira and Carlos Vives released their global hit, "La Bicicleta," in May 2016, the Colombian diva followed up with a personal request to her Zumba instructor, Marta Formoso: Could she do anything with the song? | | |
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 | The CUSP Show |
| Tom Thirwall and Mark Horine join a conversation on the future of sports content. Tom is the CEO of Copa 90. Marc is the GM / President of the Americas for Copa 90. The company has won back-to-back Cannes Lions for Adidas and Nike, been nominated for 3 BAFTA’s and established itself as one of the most innovative media businesses in the world. Copa90 is now the largest digital first soccer media business reaching over 75m fans every week in 200+ countries with premium video content. | | |
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 | ESPN |
| You know his father's voice. LaVar Ball is always talking. LaMelo doesn't say much. "He's wild like me," LaVar insists. As LaVar talks, the intense criticism of his youngest son grows. What does LaMelo think? He's a five-star prospect who shrugs it off. | | |
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 | Pre Snap Reads |
| In a true meritocracy where every team prioritized winning, Colin Kaepernick wouldn’t have hit the free agent market. But now that the situation is in front of us, it’s clear that the smart move for the Ravens would be to sign Kaepernick as true competition for Flacco, not just as a camp arm or third-string backup. | | |
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 | The Washington Post |
| TopGolf is striking a chord with millennials as the golf industry struggles to attract new players. | | |
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 | The Guardian |
| Female athletes have stood up for what they believe in before - but a leap in status and popularity and social media has helped athletes’ activism take off. | | |
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 | Los Angeles Times |
| The beach city boys used to throw on USC jerseys and run plays in the driveway, all thinking they’d one day make like Matt Leinart or Reggie Bush. | | |
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 | SportsDay |
| When Adrian Beltre signed with the Rangers in the winter of '11, he came in second, at best, on the club's wish list. The locals would have preferred Cliff Lee, who'd led them out of the wilderness into their first World Series. Projecting the balance of his career at 32, when he dropped anchor as a Ranger, who envisioned 3,000 hits? Three more Gold Gloves? At least another three All-Star games? A man on the brink of 500 home runs? | | |
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 | The Verge |
| The inaugural festival turned into a costly mess for Niantic. | | |
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 | The New York Times |
| Charlie Stillitano has no official role with any club. But he has brought his many connections to the International Champions Cup, soccer’s highest-profile summer event. | | |
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| Yahoo Sports |
| Raines was not the best player in "RBI Baseball." And you know what? That’s Tim Raines’ career personified. Others can sleep on him, overlook him, doubt him. | | |
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