Sports

Now that the 2022 World Cup is over in Qatar — a Middle East country not even as big as Connecticut, where they spent $220 billion and killed 500 people, by its own count, to host the event — the focus will now be on the next games, spread across a whole continent. The 2026 World Cup will be played in North America with games set for Mexico’s Guadalajara, Mexico City, and Monterrey; Canada’s Toronto and Vancouver; and in the U.S., Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, San Francisco Bay area and Seattle. And Scranton. Just kidding about Scranton. It’s just a funny word to say or type. Like Buffalo. Here’s where not one single World Cup game will be played in 2026 — Washington, D.C., the nation’s capital, when the country will b...

Alex Ovechkin being the greatest athlete in Washington team sports history isn’t a declaration, as much as some would like it to be just that. It’s a conversation. It’s a worthy conversation, one that Ovechkin very much is part of, adding another chapter to his legacy this week with his hat trick Tuesday night against the Chicago Blackhawks, reaching 800 career goals. The Capitals forward continued his skating on rarified ice Thursday night at Capital One Arena against the Dallas Stars, when he tried to pass Gordie Howe and his 801 goals for second place on the all-time scoring list. Once he passes Howe, Ovechin would then trail only the great Wayne Gretzky, who holds the once-seemingly unbreakable NHL record of 894 goals scored — an exorbitant number now likely within his reach.  The...

NASSAU, Bahamas — The player everyone assumed was a lock to join LIV Golf is still a PGA Tour member and might be the only one capable of making sense without making enemies. Adam Scott speaks without an agenda, and in these acrimonious times, that can make it difficult to discern exactly where he stands. Actions remain louder than words. But his comments ahead of the Australian Open are worth digesting. Scott has listened over the last month as the two strongest voices, Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, took turns saying golf cannot come together as long as Greg Norman remains the face of LIV Golf. “No one is going to talk unless there’s an adult in the room that can actually try to mend fences,” McIlroy said in Dubai. “I think Greg has to go, first of all,” Woods said in the Bahamas. And t...

Last week Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh had this to say about the Washington Commanders: The Washington Commanders (formerly the Washington Redskins) collected security deposits from season ticket holders and other purchasers of tickets for seats in luxury suites. Under its contracts with ticket holders, the team was required to return the deposits within 30 days after their contracts for seat licenses expired or were terminated. The Commanders did not return the deposits to consumers unless they requested the return in writing. Attorney General Frosh accused the team of violating the Consumer Protection Act when it failed to honor its contracts and return the deposit to consumers. For many years, the Commanders kept money that was not theirs. It belongs to their customers. Today’...

ATLANTA — Hey, Izzy, we’ve got some good news. Your 26-year reign as the worst Olympic mascot is over. The much-despised, often-ridiculed, computer-generated blob from the 1996 Atlanta Games has been toppled as the G.O.A.T. (Grossest Of All Time) by a … well, we’re not quite sure what it’s supposed to be. A blood droplet? A red poop emoji? A French version of Gumby? (Where’s Eddie Murphy when you need him?) After a further bit of research, we discover the mascot for the 2024 Paris Olympics is a hat known as a Phryge, which would be great if they were staging “Les Misérables” instead of the world’s grandest sporting event in two years’ time. “I would like it better if they made a mascot that looks like Jean Valjean instead of this thing,” said Andrew Kollo, an avid Olympic collector who l...

Washington Commanders fans had forgotten the chants of “Sell the Team” that they made coming into Ghost Town Field Sunday. They put down their “Sell the Team” signs they had waved early in the game, hoping perhaps that a television camera might see them and tell the world of their anger toward franchise owner Skipper Dan the Sailing Man and their joy of the news that he was putting the team up for sale. Those chants were replaced by “Heinicke, Heinicke,” the underdog quarterback who had somehow staked his team to a 17-7 lead over the favored Minnesota Vikings early in the fourth quarter. The signs were put down and the half of the stadium that wasn’t Vikings fans cheered as deliriously as they had all year. They had seen the Taylor Heinicke magic. The quarterback had given Washington a 10-...

In all the talk about what it would take to perform the public service of ridding Skipper Dan the Sailing Man from the lives of battered Washington Commanders fans, the speculation has always been about needing a smoking gun. That’s supposedly what the NFL is waiting for — the results of the investigation by former federal prosecutor Mary Jo White into the sexual misconduct allegations against the Commanders owner by former Washington employee Tiffani Johnston. But what if the smoking gun was already uncovered, talked into existence by the league itself, when former New York prosecutor and now NFL legal lackey Lisa Friel — speaking to reporters about the Beth Wilkinson investigation into Skipper Dan and his damaged dysfunctional business — said the following in July 2021 statement issued b...

More than 18,000 Washington Capitals fans filled up the Capital One Arena for the team’s home opener Wednesday night. They were red, they were loud and they were hungry for some mac and cheese. Alas, the mac and cheese was cold, as were the Capitals in a 5-2 loss to the Boston Bruins. After dropping their second game of the season in Toronto, the Capitals came back home Saturday night.  Again, more than 18,000 Capitals fans filled the arena — red, loud and hungry for some chicken soup. This time they were satiated, and they left feeling good after a 3-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens. Feeling good is a rare feeling of late for Washington sports fans. But the Capitals have become the comfort food for starving DMV sports fans. Everyone else in this town is dishing out gruel — the Natio...

When reliever Sean Doolittle walked into the Washington Nationals’ clubhouse in February — a homecoming after spending last year in the Cincinnati and Seattle bullpens — he didn’t see many familiar faces from the 2019 World Series championship team he had been part of. There was no Max Scherzer or Trea Turner or Anthony Rendon, all dealt away in the sell-off by the Lerner family, the Nationals owners who lost $200 million in their baseball business in 2020 and 2021 instead of reaping the rewards of a World Series title. But Doolittle put on his rose-colored glasses and said, well, maybe they’ll have a chance to compete in 2022 — if everything goes right. “They did a good job of getting guys that will fit in really well, and if they do that, they are going to feel comfortable right away and...

CHARLOTTE, N.C.— The final match of the morning session ended, and players in carts navigated their way through parts of 40,000 spectators at Quail Hollow. The grandstand around the first tee already was filling an hour before the next session at the Presidents Cup. Music was blaring, the crowd was chanting. The scene brought one phrase to mind. Golf, but louder. Really. The slogan of LIV Golf comes naturally at the Presidents Cup, and it’s even louder at the Ryder Cup, where the heritage is deeper and the competition more intense. Nothing brings out passion like team golf — once a year — even when the matches have been as one-sided as the Presidents Cup. Peel away the history and other factors that make comparisons unreasonable, and the Presidents Cup and the Ryder Cup each have had the...