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Here are a few scoops you didn’t see scrolling across ESPN’s Bottom Line this weekend: Michael Bennett burned an American flag in the Seahawks locker room. Fox refused to air NFL games because of the protests. Jerry Jones gave a rousing, pro-flag speech to his players that sounded like Al Pacino in Any Given Sunday reincarnated as a Fox News host. Though the term has been abused by everyone from…

The 150-year-old marketing strategy casts professional athletics as an escape from, rather than a part of, American corporate culture.

Kyle Busch won the third race of these NASCAR playoffs at Dover on Sunday, his second straight postseason win, but there are other implications from the race as well. Here are the three biggest takeaways from Sunday’s Apache Warrior 400 race: 1. The playoff field shrinks from 16 to 12 Dover was the first playoff cutdown race, and coming into the weekend, it was clear which drivers were in trouble….

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – Legal sports betting could be offered in 32 states within five years if the U.S. Supreme Court rules in favor of New Jersey’s quest to offer such gambling, according to a new report. Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, which tracks state-by-state gambling legislation, said a new market would be worth more than $6 billion. If all 50 states got on board, legal sports betting could be worth…

Kyle Busch won the third race of these NASCAR playoffs at Dover on Sunday, his second straight postseason win, but there are other implications from the race as well. Here are the three biggest takeaways from Sunday’s Apache Warrior 400 race: 1. The playoff field shrinks from 16 to 12 Dover was the first playoff cutdown race, and coming into the weekend, it was clear which drivers were in trouble….

Enlarge / Front row from left, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Justice Clarence Thomas, and Justice Stephen Breyer, back row from left, Justice Elena Kagan, Justice Samuel Alito Jr., Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and Justice Neil Gorsuch pose for a group portrait in the East Conference Room of the Supreme Court on June 1, 2017 in Washington, DC. reader comments…

Some San Francisco 49ers players knelt during the national anthem before a game against the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri) Of all the unwritten “rules” in sports, broadcaster Howard Cosell believed it the cardinal decree: Sports and politics don’t mix. But as the events of the past few weekends have demonstrated, the reality is that was always a fantasy. American sports culture is still — largely, if often…

Photo: Tom Curley/AP This is a really good time of the year for non-football fans. The weather is lovely, and the sports are good: European soccer is still sorting itself out, so you’ve got circumstances like Real Madrid starting their La Liga campaign like a bunch of busters, and Real Betis looking awesome; the golf season is still ongoing, as is a bitchin’ Presidents Cup; baseball’s regular season is wrapping…

Kyle Busch won the third race of these NASCAR playoffs at Dover on Sunday, his second straight postseason win, but there are other implications from the race as well. Here are the three biggest takeaways from Sunday’s Apache Warrior 400 race: 1. The playoff field shrinks from 16 to 12 Dover was the first playoff cutdown race, and coming into the weekend, it was clear which drivers were in trouble….

Photo: Tom Curley/AP This is a really good time of the year for non-football fans. The weather is lovely, and the sports are good: European soccer is still sorting itself out, so you’ve got circumstances like Real Madrid starting their La Liga campaign like a bunch of busters, and Real Betis looking awesome; the golf season is still ongoing, as is a bitchin’ Presidents Cup; baseball’s regular season is wrapping…

Legal sports betting could be offered in 32 states within five years if the U.S. Supreme Court rules in favor of New Jersey’s quest to offer such gambling, according to a new report. Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, LLC, which tracks state-by-state gambling legislation, says a new market would be worth more than $6 billion. If all 50 states got on board, legal sports betting could be worth $7.1 to $15.8 billion, they estimate. Americans…

The 2017 Major League Baseball regular season concluded on Sunday. Unfortunately, no races went down to the wire and instead we were caught watching individual milestones on the last day.  Still, plenty happened this season between Brett Gardner digging in against Chris Archer back on Sunday, April 2 and the final out on Sunday.  By no means is this an all-inclusive look, because far too much happens over the course…

New York Mets manager Terry Collins resigned Sunday after seven seasons and said he will take a position in the team’s front office. “It’s been a blast, but it’s time,” the 68-year-old Collins said. Collins announced he was stepping down after the Mets lost to Philadelphia 11-0, finishing a 70-92 season that began with great expectations but was quickly derailed by injuries. “It’s one of those years you want to…

When a young girl was injured by a foul ball at Yankee Stadium last week, a cry went up across the baseball world for increased protection for fans from batted balls. In the search for an answer, perhaps Major League Baseball can look to Japan, where the danger of foul balls has been monetized. The good news is that the girl who was hit by a foul ball crushed by…

In 2010 I started covering the Kansas City Royals and back then if you said you saw a light at the end of the tunnel, longtime Royals fans would assure it was an oncoming train. The Royals hadn’t had a winning season since 2003 and hadn’t been to the playoffs since the discovery of fire. But early on in my baseball writing career, I got to sit down and have…

Walt Disney Co. and cable provider Altice USA Inc. reached a preliminary programming agreement that will enable 2.4 million New York-area pay-TV subscribers to continue to get ABC, ESPN and the Disney Channel. The two sides “have extended the deadline accordingly to try and finalize the terms,” according to a joint email on Sunday. No details were included in the statement. The preliminary terms were struck at the last minute, as…

Photo: Tom Curley/AP This is a really good time of the year for non-football fans. The weather is lovely, and the sports are good: European soccer is still sorting itself out, so you’ve got circumstances like Real Madrid starting their La Liga campaign like a bunch of busters, and Real Betis looking awesome; the golf season is still ongoing, as is a bitchin’ Presidents Cup; baseball’s regular season is wrapping…

When a young girl was injured by a foul ball at Yankee Stadium last week, a cry went up across the baseball world for increased protection for fans from batted balls. In the search for an answer, perhaps Major League Baseball can look to Japan, where the danger of foul balls has been monetized. The good news is that the girl who was hit by a foul ball crushed by…

Photo: Tom Curley/AP This is a really good time of the year for non-football fans. The weather is lovely, and the sports are good: European soccer is still sorting itself out, so you’ve got circumstances like Real Madrid starting their La Liga campaign like a bunch of busters, and Real Betis looking awesome; the golf season is still ongoing, as is a bitchin’ Presidents Cup; baseball’s regular season is wrapping…

Fox Sports says they will not air any live anthem coverage from any other game except for the London contest between the Miami Dolphins and New Orleans Saints. Last week, the network aired the national anthem from games as more than 250 players took a knee during the anthem to protest President Trump calling for NFL players to be fired for what he says as disrespect to the flag. The…