Cross-Sport

With the NBA nearing the climax of its drawn-out season and the Premier League campaign just beginning, I often find myself drawing parallels between the two leagues. While soccer and basketball are very contrasting sports, the NBA and the EPL have a striking number of similarities.

Both are flowing games and have seasons that extend across nearly three quarters of the year. These similarities become more obvious when you consider the coaches, players and teams in each league. Here are some of the best examples corollaries between the two leagues:

There’s nothing like September in the sporting calendar. 

The crisp, serene, hazy weather of an Indian summer descends on the land. Fall coloring dashes the landscape in vivid hues of earthly life. The crack and smoke of an afternoon barbecue rolls into the flame and warmth of an evening fire pit. 

Hoodies come out. The beer grows darker. The movies and TV shows are more frightening. All good things.

American football is one of the most watched sports in the United States, but domestic soccer — the world’s football — usually falls by the wayside.

Out of all the soccer leagues across the pond, the English Premier League is the most popular in the U.S., while the NFL is facing a somewhat uncertain time.

The 2019-20 season, like all things in 2020, proved to be different. Viewership for both of these professional leagues was turned on its head. So what is the average EPL vs. NFL viewership?

It was, without doubt, the most earthshattering sports moment of 2020. It didn’t happen on the pitch, but via an anachronistic piece of equipment long since forgotten. Lionel Messi informed Barcelona of his intention to leave the club via a fateful fax last week. The memo immediately became one of the most stunning faxes in sports history, but was it the most shocking of all time?

The reviews are in, and they are not good for Madden 21.

The latest installment of EA Sports’ flagship NFL franchise has been obliterated by reviews since its Aug. 25 release. The Metascore currently sits at 63, with the user rating score a shockingly low 0.3, making it one of the lowest-rated games of all time. From awful glitches to predatory microtransactions in Ultimate Team, no one seems to like the game. It’s so bad, if you Google “Metacritic” the autofill will suggest “Metacritic Madden 21.”

Despite the best attempts of stadiums built in the late 80s and early 90s to suck the soul out of everything, we’ve now entered an arms race in super-stadium building brought forth by mega-wealthy owners bent on redefining arenas as both works of art and places of entertainment. Still, there’s nothing like some of the weirdest stadium features that’ve withstood the test of time, and we’re more than happy to add some of the latest eccentricities to the fold.

Here are 15 designs and features that immediately capture the eye.