The first 20 minutes of Game 1 between the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals were scoreless. But just 12 seconds into the second period, Sidney Crosby gave the Penguins the lead. And just 52 seconds later, he doubled it. In a series that had been billed as “Crosby vs. Ovechkin — Round 10,000,” this game lived up
The Pittsburgh Penguins couldn’t even make it onto the ice for the puck drop in Game 1 before the injury bug that has hurt the team all season struck once again. With about eight minutes left to go in warmups, expected starting goaltender Matt Murray left the ice with what appeared to be lower body injury and
Today was going to be the day. It was going to be the day the Pittsburgh Steelers finally beat the New England Patriots in the AFC Championship Game to get a spot in the Super Bowl. It was going to be the day Ben Roethlisberger finally proved himself against Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. It
I’ve been a football fan for as long as I can remember. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if I was spewing QBR and DVOA ratings in the crib. And, until recently, I’ve never questioned my loyalty to football or wondered why I spend so much of my time praying at its altar on Sunday
On Thursday, the long-awaited conversation between James Harrison and the NFL regarding PED allegations made in an Al Jazeera America report finally happened. The meeting lasted about 45 minutes, at the Steelers’ training facility. Harrison — and Green Bay Packers Clay Matthews and Julius Peppers, also named in the report — have claimed the allegations
On the football field there’s just about no one smoother than Cal quarterback Jared Goff. In the shotgun, he’s poised and confident, and he makes threading pin-point passes to his receivers in double coverage look easy — almost too easy. He stays cool and collected as 300-pound defensive linemen rush at him, and he easily
After losing his grandfather in middle school, Eloi Vasquez would raise his pointer fingers to the sky after scoring a goal in a soccer game and say, “That’s for you, Papa.” Now, after the UC Berkeley freshman’s death, his two younger brothers — who are both soccer players — will do the same for their
To start the game, nothing was going right for Cal men’s basketball player David Kravish — he couldn’t find the net. The senior missed, in a row, a layup, a jumper, another jumper, another layup, yet another layup and still another layup — his first six shots of the game. But the forward’s seventh shot,
As the clock started to wind down to zero, the tension at Haas Pavilion was palpable. The Cal men’s basketball team was down by three. Twenty seconds, 19 seconds, 18 seconds. And then, with 17 seconds left, the ball sailed over to sophomore guard Jordan Mathews in the right corner. During the timeout, he had
Bang. A boy on the streets knows he has to keep moving. He’s got to keep his head down as he makes his way along the concrete streets and past the dark buildings as he walks to school. The sound is nothing new. Only 12 years old, and he’s become numb. Bang. Just an elementary-school
The Cal football team did a lot of things right in the game Saturday. It just forgot one key part of the game plan: It forgot to knock on wood. At halftime, the game looked like it was over. The Bears led 28-6, and Arizona didn’t look like it was going to threaten the Bears.
Missy Franklin always has a smile dancing at the edge of her mouth. Even when she’s just talking, she looks like she’s smiling, ready to burst out into a laugh. When she laughs — which is often — she doesn’t sound like Tinkerbell, as the name Missy might suggest. She has a hearty laugh, and
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