ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Stooped beside his silver and black Mercedes W15 car on the main straight of the Yas Marina Circuit on Sunday, Lewis Hamilton paused to soak up the moment. It was the final time after 12 seasons, 246 grands prix, 84 race wins and six drivers’ world championships, making it…

Who will win the first 12-team College Football Playoff national championship? I believe there are six teams that have the personnel, savvy and leadership to make a run and win it all, handling top competition as the margin for error gets smaller and the spotlight gets so much brighter. I love so many of these…

A Caitlin Clark trading card sold at auction for $234,850 on Saturday night — more than doubling the previous all-time record for a Clark or WNBA card of $97,212.54 set in October. The latest record was achieved by Clark’s one-of-a-kind 2024 Panini Select WNBA Gold Vinyl autograph rookie card and was sold by Goldin. The…

With the Hot Stove warming up and the Winter Meetings getting underway in Dallas, let’s pull back and survey more of the free-agent field. We’ve already seen Blake Snell sign a $182 million contract with the Dodgers and Willy Adames agree to a $182 million contract of his own with the Giants, along with several…

Taking up the cause for Alabama and the SEC feels like going to bat for Apple or Amazon. It’s fighting for a tax break for Elon Musk or Warren Buffet. It’s rushing to the defense of the biggest bully on the block the one time somebody gets in a shot that knocks him to his…

And now, 20 Final Thoughts from Championship Weekend, a celebration of kickers and backup quarterbacks. 1. A college football selection day unlike any before is upon us. There will be griping. There will be grief. There will be questionable seedings and logical inconsistencies from the committee. But first, take a minute and soak this thing…

By Ralph D. Russo, Matt Baker, Justin Williams, Joe Rexrode and Sam Khan Jr. The first 12-team College Football Playoff field will be revealed on Sunday, but a lot was still to be determined by Saturday’s Power 4 conference championship games after Boise State locked up the first automatic bid on Friday. Our experts are…

It’s do or die for many NFL teams in the last full month of the regular season. After the Dallas Cowboys host the Cincinnati Bengals on “Monday Night Football,” only four weeks of competition remain. The playoff picture has started to come into focus. The Kansas City Chiefs, Buffalo Bills and Detroit Lions have already…

Andrea Stella shut his eyes, taking a moment to collect his thoughts and pick the right words. An engineer by trade, the team principal of McLaren speaks with total precision. Every detail shared is well-considered. No answer is given flippantly or lacking proper thought, all delivered with a softly-spoken assurance. Sat with The Athletic in…

At the end of his free skate Saturday, Ilia Malinin sprawled out on the ice, eyes closed, soaking it all in. The man known as the “Quad God” had just unleashed a series of quadruple jumps — including the quad axel, a jump that no one else has ever landed — and even a backflip…