Jameson's Sport Writing Portfolio

Leicester City was relegated back to the EFL Championship at the end of the 2022-23 Premier League season. The club sold and loaned multiple star players, including star attacker James Maddison, winger Tete, fullback Timothy Castagne, winger Harvey Barnes, and lost free agents Youri Tielemanns, Cayglar Soyuncu, Daniel Amarety,  Ayoze Perez, Jonny Evans, Luke Thomas, and Boubakary Soumare. The club enjoyed a solid 7-year run in the Prem, which saw them win the league title in spectacular fashion in 2016, the FA Cup and Community Shield in 2021, and enjoyed four seasons of European football competition.  They sacked Brendan Rodgers, who oversaw their FA Cup and Community Shield wins and took them into the Europa League and the Conference League, but it was Dean Smith who guided them to the drop as the ship became rudderless. Leicester had to do a massive reset of their finances and transfer budget but will be aided by parachute payments from the Premier League. Parachute payment...

There was once a time in our lifetimes when video replay was not a concept in professional sports. Since the introduction of instant replay and more camera angles in remarkable places never thought possible, the sports world has been mired in controversy. Instant replay has made watching sports torrid affairs, particularly because no matter how many camera angles and technology assists officials have these, they have been - in my honest opinion - getting the calls incorrect. Sure, that is par for the course; referees are humans just like you and me. They get calls wrong. It happens, but with all of this technology that is supposed to minimize officiating mistakes, why does it feel like there are more incorrect calls than ever before? Association football was very late to adopt a video replay system. Critics cited how it slowed down the game and put the laws of the game under such a narrow scope, leading to misinterpretation. Before 2017, most leagues did not use video assistant referee...

The day Tottenham Hotspur sold Harry Kane to Bayern Munich in a deal worth nearly 100 million pounds was viewed as the beginning of the end of Tottenham's time in the elite. Gone was their top goalscorer, club legend, star player, the man who was Spurs. How do you replace 30 goals from one of the best strikers in Europe? Pundits and fans alike believed there was no way for Spurs to compete with the big teams anymore, especially with teams like Newcastle, Aston Villa, and Brighton challenging for European spots.  Then came Ange Postecoglou and his "never back down" attitude. He brought exciting, attacking football. He restructured a leadership group that was floundering. He was given players he knew would fit his system perfectly. The players have taken to the Australian's tactics brilliantly. They all sing his praises, calling him a father figure and for bringing the fun back to training and gamedays. Tottenham is currently 1st in the Premier League after 8 games. The...

There's no denying the brilliance of Neymar Jr, Brazil's No. 10, PSG's club-record signing, perhaps one of the most technically-gifted footballers to ever play the game. And at age 31, he has already called time on his European career. PSG accepted a near-100 million euro bid from Saudi club Al-Hilal. The Brazilian forward departs Europe with a Champions League title, plenty of Spanish and French league titles, and a highlight reel that the streets will remember. Except that's not what people will remember Neymar for. What they will remember (at least discourse on social media suggests) is the unmet expectations and the egotistical decisions that derailed his career.  We don't need to go over all of Neymar's pre-PSG career history. The condensed version is he hit the map of top European clubs in the late 2000s and early 2010. By 2011, he was already playing for Santos, the same club the legend Pele played at. Neymar was applauded for his talent, and by 2013, Bar...

June 26, 2015 is an infamous day in NHL lore. The Edmonton Oilers and Buffalo Sabres, two franchises that were dwelling in the basement of the league for years, held the first two picks in the Draft. The top prospects were a Canadian phenom many scouts tagged as the next Wayne Gretzky. The other was a brash American college student who thought he was larger than life. With the first pick in the draft, the Oilers selected Connor McDavid from the Erie Otters of the Ontario Hockey League. With the second pick, the Sabres selected Jack Eichel from Boston University. Two superstar rookies who are forever intertwined in the evolution of the modern NHL game. Highly-skilled forwards who put up points and serve as the face of a franchise. Yet, the #2 pick has just won his first championship. The #1 pick is still searching for his.  The Vegas Golden Knights just won the Stanley Cup for the first time in...six years. They've only been in the league for six years. The Edmonton Oilers, meanwhil...

June 3 deserves to be the day for star striker Christopher Nkunku to play his final game for RB Leipzig. Set to complete a 60 million pound move to Chelsea, he and Leipzig took home the DFB-Pokal against Eintracht Frankfurt this past Saturday, with Nkunku scoring and assisting in the 2-0 victory. Thus, the Red Bulls' star man leaves with back-to-back Pokals, three Pokal finals, a top 4 finish in the Bundesliga in each of his seasons in Germany, a Europa League semifinalist, a Champions League semifinalist, and joint top scorer in the Bundesliga in 2022-23. It was a highly successful spell for a club that is known mostly for its player development.  But, in a way, Nkunku's time at Leipzig seems incomplete. It's hard to imagine given the state of German football there would ever be a disrupter to Bayern Munich's monopoly on the Bundesliga title. It typically falls to Bayern's main rival, Borussia Dortmund, to reclaim the prize for themselves. And they came close this ...

"Who is America's hockey team?" This was a question my friend from South Korea asked me one night while we were watching a Rangers game in my apartment. It was an interesting question, and one I had never considered myself. NHL teams have always had a regional appeal compared to a national appeal. It's the reason why New Yorkers root for the Rangers, Islanders, or Sabres depending on where they live. I gave him an answer after some careful thought: the Detroit Red Wings. He was surprised to hear me say Detroit would be the city with America's hockey team. So it got me thinking more. Who REALLY is America's hockey team? Who are the Toronto Maple Leafs of the USA?  1) Detroit Red Wings Here's my case for the Red Wings: name another hockey team that's mentioned more times in pop culture, streetwear, or sporting heritage. If you can't think of one, that's understandable. Detroit has been seen in plenty of media: Cameron in Ferris Bueller's Day ...

In 2001, the first edition of the XFL folded. A brainchild of Vince McMahon and his WWE empire, the league opened and closed within the blink of an eye. Then in 2020, McMahon announced the XFL was back, but then the upstart league was canceled due to financial constraints caused by the pandemic. Just when all hope was lost, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson bought the league and decided to change it. A minor league system hoping to become a player-development football league. Subtle rule changes like the 3-point conversion line add an extra layer of intrigue. That certainly makes games tougher for coaches to manage. But it gives fans something new to marvel about.  And perhaps that's why McMahon and The Rock have pursued this lucrative, springtime football venture. Because Americans LOVE football. We complain a lot about the NFL (terrible reffing, conspiracies about rigging, head trauma, players' legal issues, etc.), but we always tune in on Sunday for the best sports league...