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Cheng Min / Xinhua / Eyevine / Redux What Simone Biles Understands About Greatness
In walking away from an Olympic event, the world’s best gymnast rejected the false dichotomy between personal well-being and professional excellence.
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Nathaniel S. Butler / NBAE / Getty / … The Ugly Side of NBA Fandom Can No Longer Be Ignored
The post-pandemic return of spectators should be an opportunity to reset their antagonistic relationship with athletes.
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Scott Winters / Icon Sportswire / Getty The Coronavirus Is Revealing Football’s Human Cost
Amid a global pandemic, the NFL’s non-guaranteed contracts force players into a familiar choice: stay safe, or stay on the field.
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Chung Sung-Jun / Getty Baseball’s Strange and Poignant Return to TV
The first live sports games to air in the U.S. since the start of the pandemic provide a hopeful, yet harrowing, look at the future.
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Troy Taormina / USA Today The Case Against Stripping the Astros of Their World Series Title
The MLB has handed harsh penalties to Houston for sign stealing, but revoking the team’s ill-gained 2017 championship is implausible.
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USA Today / Reuters What the Patriots’ Wild-Card Loss Really Means
Even before Saturday’s game, New England was showing signs of having been passed by.
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Rich Barnes / USA Today Sports The Two Players Who Are Breaking the ‘No-Fun League’
As the 2019 season enters its final stretch, an entertaining MVP race showcases a less restrictive brand of football.
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Gerald Herbert / AP Carmelo Anthony’s Melancholy NBA Return
After a season away, the future Hall of Famer comes back to a league that no longer has much use for him.
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Troy Taormina / USA TODAY Sports The Washington Nationals’ Against-All-Odds Championship
In a bizarre World Series in which the home team never won, the underdogs upset the juggernaut Houston Astros for the franchise’s first title.
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Jeff Chiu / AP Unpredictability Returns to the NBA
For the first time in years, nobody really knows what to expect.
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Brad Mills / USA TODAY Sports / Reuters The Washington Nationals’ Persistence Paid Off
Breaking a pattern of first-round heartbreak, the decade’s most downtrodden playoff team finds itself in the World Series.
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Geoff Burke / USA TODAY Sports / Reuters The Year of the Home Run Reaches October
After a record-setting regular season, the MLB playoffs figure to host offensive fireworks and long-ball fatigue.
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Mitch Stringer / USA TODAY Sports Lamar Jackson and the NFL’s Quarterback Double Standard
As the league looks to the future, the way many analysts talk about black players such as the Baltimore Ravens passer still belongs to an ugly past.
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Ken Blaze / USA TODAY Sports / Reuters How the Cleveland Browns Are Bucking NFL Convention
In trying to reverse a generation’s worth of losing, the team is loading up on stars and embracing the hype.
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Matthew Emmons / USA Today Sports / Reuters Why Is Trevor Lawrence Playing College Football?
The Clemson quarterback and Heisman favorite, seen by many as NFL-ready, is all but forced by the mechanisms of amateur sports to play for free.
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Thomas J. Russo / USA TODAY Sports / … What Andrew Luck’s Retirement Says About the NFL
The Colts quarterback is leaving the game at age 29—a move that reaffirms the danger of the sport and the willingness of some players to walk away from it.
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Benoit Tessier / Reuters One Question Hanging Over the World Cup Final
As the United States and the Netherlands prepare to face off, teams and fans wonder whether VAR—or instant-replay reviews—will decide the champion.
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Tyler Kaufman / AP Why the Anthony Davis and LeBron James Pairing Will Be Different
Two of the NBA’s best players have teamed up in the league’s glitziest and most history-rich locale, each with a legacy to burnish and an unhappy narrative to reverse.
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Kyle Terada / USA Today Sports / Reuters A Historic NBA Championship for the Raptors
The Golden State Warriors were hampered by injuries, but the league’s newest victors were built to seize on the opportunity.
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Kyle Terada / USA TODAY Sports Kevin Durant’s Disastrous Comeback
After Golden State’s star forward injured his Achilles tendon in the NBA Finals, the team’s decision to let him play is facing scrutiny.
