Sports

Dec 23, 2022 The NHL’s holiday break can’t come soon enough for some teams, while other clubs seem to have hit a new stride as winter officially begins. How far did the New Jersey Devils fall this week? Which Eastern Conference team surged up seven spots? We rank all 32 teams here, and offer a

7:52 AM ET For some fans, 2022 was one of the most underwhelming years of the century in boxing, with conversations about star-studded bouts leading to nothing. Others may view the sport as having considerable bright spots, like undisputed championship fights, upsets and the rebirth of women’s boxing. A few notable fighters had breakout years

Dec 22, 2022 World Rugby will encourage elite competitions to have a shot clock for penalties and conversions from Jan. 1, with sanctions to be issued for time wasting as part of plans to speed up the game in 2023 – a World Cup year. The guidelines have been designed by the global governing body

Dec 22, 2022 The sport of mixed martial arts is never dull, and 2022 was a perfect example of that. In the span of four months, three of the top pound-for-pound fighters in the world weren’t just beaten, but finished. The year started with Francis Ngannou, the hardest puncher in UFC history, using wrestling and

10:44 PM ET ESPN News Services NEW YORK — Pascal Siakam scored a career-high 52 points and the Toronto Raptors snapped the New York Knicks‘ NBA-leading eight-game winning streak 113-106 Wednesday night. “It’s cool,” Siakam said of posting his first 50-point game at Madison Square Garden. “I’m not a super basketball historian. I didn’t start

6:56 AM ET ESPN News Services PITTSBURGH — Franco Harris, the Hall of Fame running back whose heads-up thinking authored the “Immaculate Reception,” considered the most iconic play in NFL history, has died. He was 72. Harris’ son, Dok, told The Associated Press his father died overnight. No cause of death was given. His death

8:10 AM ET ESPN staff National signing day is here, with college football‘s early signing period kicking off Wednesday and lasting through Friday. High school recruits are able to sign their national letters of intent to lock them into the colleges of their choice. It already has been a busy start to the week, with

Dec 20, 2022 Augusta National Golf Club announced Tuesday that any golfer who qualified for the Masters tournament based on its previous criteria will be invited to play in 2023, including 16 players who are currently competing in the LIV Golf League. Six past Masters champions are part of the group that defected from the

8:20 AM ET On Dec. 3, the New York Rangers were nearing an abyss. Things came to a pressure point during the home game against the Chicago Blackhawks, one of the worst teams in the league. En route to another loss, captain Jacob Trouba had enough. The defenseman laid out two massive hits, got into

7:00 AM ET It’s not an exaggeration to suggest we are in a golden era of shortstops. This past season, 12 shortstops reached at least 4.0 WAR via the Baseball-Reference measurement of the metric, one more than in 2021 and matching 2019 for the most ever. Before 2018, there had never been even 10 shortstops

Dec 18, 2022 ESPN News Services MELBOURNE, Australia — Venus Williams has been awarded a wild-card entry to play at the Australian Open next month, 25 years after she played the Grand Slam tournament for the first time. The 42-year-old Williams has reached the final twice in Australia, including a loss to her younger sister,

6:25 PM ET LUSAIL, Qatar — Kylian Mbappe had converted France’s first penalty in the shootout, the fourth time he’d beaten Argentina keeper Emi Martinez in the World Cup final, following his earlier hat-trick. And so Lionel Messi walked up to take Argentina’s opening penalty. – Report: Messi, Argentina win 2022 World Cup on penalties

Dec 16, 2022 England’s Rugby Football Union (RFU) on Friday approved the application by a bidder for the planned takeover of Wasps but rejected another for Worcester Warriors after an assessment by the governing body’s Club Financial Viability Group. Financially-hit Wasps and Worcester have both been suspended for going into administration and will drop from

Dec 15, 2022 The UFC is close to finalizing an important middleweight fight between Marvin Vettori and Roman Dolidze in March, sources told ESPN. Both sides have agreed to the 185-pound matchup, which will take place at UFC 286 on March 18 in London. The UFC has not yet announced a main event for that

5:24 PM ET ESPN News Services The former Tampa Bay Buccaneers executive hired to be the chief operating officer of LIV Golf has resigned after one year as the Saudi-backed rival circuit moves toward a league format, sources confirmed to ESPN’s Mark Schlabach. The news was first reported by The New York Times. Atul Khosla

8:00 AM ET 2022 featured the breakout of many boxers, the retirement of others — some of them short-lived — and a few new undisputed champions. The year also included plenty of upsets, disappointing performances, and of course, controversies. What fight will be remembered as the best of 2022? Who did we select as Fighter

Dec 15, 2022 Associated Press SANDUSKY, Ohio — Hailie Deegan will drive full time in the NASCAR Truck series next season with ThorSport Racing. ThorSport formally added Deegan to its driver lineup Thursday as it announced a manufacturer move from Toyota to Ford. Deegan, a 21-year-old California native, will race in the Truck series for

8:54 AM ET Associated Press LONDON — Iga Swiatek and Rafael Nadal were honored by the International Tennis Federation as its 2022 ITF World Champions on Thursday after each claimed two Grand Slam titles this season. The ITF determines its awards based on criteria that include all events and give special weight to the four

When LeBron James passed Karl Malone for second on the NBA’s career regular-season points list, he set his sights firmly on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the NBA’s current all-time leading scorer. Abdul-Jabbar has been atop the career points list since April 5, 1984 — eight months before James was even born — when he broke the mark

Dec 14, 2022 December 14, 1947 was a Sunday afternoon. Yes, most of the men who gathered in Daytona Beach, Fla. on that chilly, gray day were dressed in suits. But no, it was not a church service. Far from it. There was entirely too much brown liquor on the table and cigar smoke in

Dec 14, 2022 Eric WoodyardESPN ALLEN PARK, Mich. — A familiar face was reintroduced to the Detroit sports community Jan. 21, 2021. And he could hardly contain his excitement. On this rare occasion, Dan Campbell eschewed any team-issued gear for a dark suit while addressing reporters for the first time, via Zoom from the broadcast

Dec 1, 2022 Associated Press NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Goodyear will remain the exclusive tire for NASCAR’s top three national series under a new multiyear deal announced Thursday. Specifics of the extension weren’t included, but the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company will continue as title sponsor of the annual Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway as part

11:06 PM ET Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin scored the 800th goal of his career Tuesday night, becoming the third player in NHL history — behind Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe — to reach the milestone. He also became the first to do it with a single franchise, and it came as part of a

7:00 AM ET There has already been a lot of action in what will likely end up as the biggest MLB free agent extravaganza of all time, but there are still plenty of solid players left on the market. After the most recent New York Mets-driven spending explosion and the flurry of activity Monday, it’s

Dec 13, 2022 It wasn’t just any year in college football. We’re going to have a College Football Playoff for the first time that doesn’t include Alabama or Clemson and one that does include TCU. There are similar surprises on ESPN’s 2022 All-America team. Some of the players on everybody’s radar when the season began

9:24 AM ET Associated Press Tony Stewart‘s Superstar Racing Experience is moving to ESPN and a new night as the network plans to use the all-star summer racing series to revitalize its “Thursday Night Thunder.” ESPN said Monday it signed a multiyear agreement with Superstar Racing Experience that begins in July. SRX will air on

8:34 PM ET United States midfielder Giovanni Reyna was almost sent home from the World Cup in Qatar due to a lack of effort in training and in a pre-tournament scrimmage against Qatari side Al Gharafa SC, sources told ESPN on Sunday. Reyna, 20, did not start a single game for the US in Qatar

2:00 AM ET Brett Okamoto Close ESPN Staff Writer MMA columnist for ESPN.com Analyst for “MMA Live” Covered MMA for Las Vegas Sun Marc Raimondi Chuck Liddell. Randy Couture. Tito Ortiz. “Rampage” Jackson. Daniel Cormier. Jon Jones. The UFC light heavyweight division has been home to some of the biggest stars and best fighters in

Dec 9, 2022 Associated Press NEW YORK — Trainer Jason Servis, whose horse Maximum Security was the 3-year-old champion in 2019, pleaded guilty Friday to federal charges involving a widespread scheme to drug horses. The 65-year-old New Jersey-based trainer faces four years in prison when he is sentenced next May in U.S. District Court in

9:37 AM ET If you were hoping for the venom of a Phil Mickelson–Tiger Woods showdown in previous iterations of The Match — or certainly what a rematch might bring today — then Saturday night’s made-for-TV clash featuring Woods and world No. 1 Rory McIlroy against Jordan Spieth and Justin Thomas might seem more like

Dec 9, 2022 Mike CoppingerESPN Teofimo Lopez was at the pinnacle of boxing after beating Vasiliy Lomachenko in 2020. A new contract, celebrity, sponsors and fandom followed the undisputed lightweight champion. Just months after his 23rd birthday, Lopez was poised to be the next superstar in a sport with a long history of them. Lopez

6:49 PM ET Associated Press ATLANTA — Hawks guard Dejounte Murray is expected to miss about two weeks because of a sprained left ankle, the third Atlanta starter to go down with an injury in the past week. Murray was hurt Wednesday night early in the first quarter of a 113-89 loss to the New

6:00 AM ET THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — As Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay was answering questions about quarterback Baker Mayfield on Wednesday afternoon, he paused to do the math. “It’s 12 o’clock right now,” McVay said. “Literally he just got here about 14 hours ago, when we ended up starting to meet with him.”