Mark Madden stories, Page 7

It’s convenient to say exhibition play has no bearing on the NFL regular season. It’s even more convenient to expect a switcheroo in form from exhibition games to real ones by remembering that Kenny Pickett had a passer rating of 158.3 in the 2023 preseason, then fell apart when live...

False and misguided patriotism duly noted, the U.S. men’s basketball team winning gold at the Olympics (as pre-ordained by a string of double-digit point spreads) was farcical to the objective eye, best exemplified by LeBron James dunking over some swizzle stick from South Sudan, then going through his flexing and...

There’s a fine line between being patient and being played. In the case of the attempted acquisition of wideout Brandon Aiyuk from San Francisco, it feels like the Pittsburgh Steelers have fallen into the latter category. If it was going to happen, it would have happened by now. The Steelers...

With the Pittsburgh Pirates collapsing in thorough and spectacular fashion, the citizens need a scapegoat. The easy pick is manager Derek Shelton. Should the Pirates fire Shelton? Absolutely. They shouldn’t have hired Shelton in the first place. He will never again manage in MLB once his tenure with the Pirates...

The United States won Olympic gold in men’s and women’s basketball. Ho-hum. The men have won every gold since 2008, the women since 1996. U.S. basketball is like the Soviet hockey dynasty that won seven Olympic golds from 1956-88: It’s only interesting when they get beat. When the juggernaut loses,...

JuJu Smith-Schuster very quickly went from litty to … well, not very good. It’s not a cautionary tale. Just a reminder of how quickly and decisively life in the NFL can turn. At 27, Smith-Schuster is no longer the Pizza Hut guy, or the stolen bike guy, or the high...

Sidney Crosby has one year to go on his Pittsburgh Penguins contract. He hasn’t yet signed an extension. He was able to do so as of July 1. When his 37th birthday came and went Wednesday (Aug. 7, you know, 8/7) and the numerically obsessed Crosby still hadn’t put pen...

After months of speculation, San Francisco has put want-away wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk on the market. The Steelers are among the teams kicking the tires. If the Steelers don’t get Aiyuk, it’s a failure by management. If Cleveland gets Aiyuk, the Steelers will finish last in the AFC North. (The...

Once his calf is totally healed, and he’s taking regular snaps, and the 100% fabricated battle for the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback job is over, Russell Wilson will be the team’s saving grace. If there’s anything to be made of the team’s 2024 season, Wilson will do it. Not the $160...

Oneil Cruz giveth and he taketh away. The Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop did the latter this past Wednesday when he made three errors, including two on the same play. Cruz’s miscues led directly to three unearned runs and a 5-4 loss at Houston. Cruz did the former Friday when he went...

Pittsburgh Steelers training camp is a wonderful occasion. Full of hope. Full of excrement, too. That’s why I get nowhere near it. Dino’s and Sharkey’s are the closest I come. On Tuesday, the first day of practice in pads, the offense used six running plays during the “seven shots” segment. That’s...

The Pittsburgh Pirates’ flurry of positive activity at the 11th hour of Tuesday’s MLB trade deadline makes for an unexpected flurry of positive analysis. I figured them to do nothing by way of avoiding increased payroll. But the Pirates accomplished that, too. Unloading pitcher Martin Perez — to fellow National...

Jordan Love signed a four-year extension with Green Bay worth $55 million per. That ties him for highest average annual value among quarterbacks. Tua Tagovailoa signed a four-year extension with Miami worth $53.1 million per. That puts him fourth in average annual value. Neither Love nor Tagovailoa has played in...

Quarterback Russell Wilson missed the first three days of Steelers practice because he tweaked his calf pushing a blocking sled during a conditioning test. What’s gained by making a 35-year-old QB push a blocking sled? How much blocking will Wilson have to do? What would Ben Roethlisberger have said had...

HBO’s new four-part, four-hour documentary on Pete Rose reveals little new but is nonetheless provocative. That’s because Pete Rose is provocative. He’s everyman, a monument to hard work maximizing skill. If you don’t believe that, ask Rose. He’ll tell you. His ban from MLB for betting on baseball is something...

I’ve lived in Pittsburgh my entire life. Pittsburgh believes that the greatest football team in the world plays at Acrisure Stadium. Friday night, for the first time, that actually happens. I’m not sure exactly where my devotion to Liverpool Football Club came from. It definitely revved up in the late...

Yet another column on why the Pittsburgh Pirates have to get a legit bat before MLB’s July 30 trade deadline: The Pirates aren’t far from a playoff berth. The standings show that, as did the Pirates with their performance in the just-completed home series against Philadelphia, baseball’s best team. Winning...

Here’s why the Pittsburgh Pirates should add a significant bat before MLB’s July 30 deadline, proposed in a way that owner Bob Nutting might approve: If the Pirates legitimately appear to be trying to win, it would hook the marks for at least five more years. The suckers. That’s you....

The Pittsburgh Steelers will lose at Atlanta in Week 1. Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins will outscore them. We’ve talked about training camp issues throughout what’s been an interminable offseason. Since those topics are exhausted, why not jump ahead to predicting games? Records, too. I’ve got 9-8, trending toward 8-9. Card...

Paul Skenes’ performance at the MLB All-Star Game was anticlimactic. The Pittsburgh Pirates’ rookie pitching phenom did face Aaron Judge after walking Juan Soto. Unintentionally, no matter what conspiracy theorists think. But that “big on big” matchup wasn’t too big: One pitch, fielder’s choice. (That’s good for Skenes’ pitch count.)...

It’s a new holiday in Pittsburgh: Skenes Day. It occurs roughly once a week. The city stops and watches. The biggest Skenes Day yet is Tuesday. Paul Skenes starts for the National League in the MLB All-Star Game at Arlington, Texas. All-Star games are meaningless. But in this one, the...

The Pittsburgh Steelers’ offseason hasn’t gone as well as you think. Consider the trade of wideout Diontae Johnson to Carolina for cornerback Donte Jackson. When it was made, I liked it. Johnson is a knucklehead: Overpaid, quit on plays, bad teammate, middling stats. Dealing him seemed like a good idea...

Paul Skenes has been pulled twice while pitching a no-hitter: Once after six innings May 17 at Chicago, then Thursday after seven innings at Milwaukee. That speaks as loudly to baseball losing its romance as it does to Skenes’ dominance. A no-hitter used to be a pitcher’s pinnacle. That’s been...

Pittsburgh Pirates owner Bob Nutting said GM Ben Cherington would have the flexibility to add players (and payroll) before the July 30 MLB trade deadline if the situation dictated. The situation dictates, however marginally: The Pirates are three games out of the National League’s third and final wild card. The...

How we ruin sports (one in a series): We are saturated with sports: Too many sports, leagues, teams and games. Demand (or lack thereof) doesn’t matter. All we ever get is more. Not better. More. How many times does spring football have to fail before it never gets resuscitated again?...