The Army–Navy game occupies a special, yet peculiar position on the college football calendar. Its significance is undeniable, given the history, ferocity and pageantry of the rivalry. It stands alone — literally — as the only game on the Saturday after conference championship weekend in December. Yet the stakes of the game haven’t typically mattered…

Let me apologize in advance for cheating a bit. We use the term “breakout” like it’s just spontaneous combustion, but that’s rarely how it happens. Like most reactions, usually they require a catalyst. Thus, the inherent issue about calling a “breakout” in advance is that often the term isn’t quite what we’re describing. Instead, the…

Shohei Ohtani has been a superstar in Japan for more than a decade, but one day earlier this year, a Tokyo resident named Tatsuo Shinke noticed something different. Shinke, the CEO of Mint, a leading trading card store, had already watched as Ohtani’s soaring popularity had fueled the Japanese collectibles industry, spiked Japanese television ratings…

Ashburn, Va. — His alarm buzzes at 4:45 a.m. each morning, but most days Jayden Daniels doesn’t need it. He’s already awake, driving through the predawn darkness, pulling into an empty parking lot at 21300 Coach Gibbs Dr. The routine he started his final year at LSU has become a staple of his rookie season…

Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is expected to make his return to action Sunday against the Arizona Cardinals after missing four games due to a concussion he suffered in Week 2. It was Tagovailoa’s third diagnosed concussion in two years, which prompted league-wide discussion about whether he should continue playing football. GO DEEPER Former players…

South Florida men’s basketball coach Amir Abdur-Rahim died Thursday while undergoing a medical procedure, the school confirmed. Abdur-Rahim was 43. The school said in a statement that complications arose during his treatment at a Tampa-area hospital. “All of us with South Florida Athletics are grieving with the loved ones of Coach Abdur-Rahim,” athletic director Michael…

Conventional wisdom has it that being tall is advantageous. The problem with conventional wisdom is that it’s often wrong. There are studies that correlate height with happiness and higher salaries, admittedly at the cost of shorter lifespans. In certain sports, elite athletes are almost exclusively big, such as basketball, rowing (except the cox) and volleyball…

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — A cardboard tray filled with chicken fingers can hide more than you think. On Wednesday, a man named Chris used one to make LA Clippers history. See, Chris had a plan. A Los Angeles resident attending the first-ever regular-season game at the Clippers’ new arena, he would enter enemy territory, and he…

KLADNO, Czechia — In Kladno, Czechia, 30 kilometers northwest of Prague, sits a 5,200-seat hockey arena in a clearing in the woods. This is the town and the rink that made Jaromir Jagr. Before he piled up 1,921 points in 1,733 NHL games and won five Art Ross trophies and two Stanley Cups, Jagr was…

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Andy Dalton had just picked up his kids from school on Tuesday’s off day and was headed home, then off to a tennis lesson and a baseball game. In addition to his wife and three children, Dalton also had his dog in the Tesla. And then, a couple miles from his family’s…