Bryan Graham

If baseball is a metaphor for America, then there's no better way to see how much society has changed than a look back at the World Series a century ago.  In 1914, the Boston Braves, who had rallied from last place in July to capture the National…

It's been seven years since Mark Waller, the NFL's international chief, said the league could establish a permanent London franchise by 2022. It sounds as barmy today as it did then. Yet the idea appears to gaining traction after Sunday's game…

In the high-stakes, cutthroat world of college football recruiting, top-flight programs must exploit any edge available to seize the upper hand. Leave it to Stanford to make the smartest pitch imaginable. According to ESPN recruiting analyst Tom…

The NFL is a national obsession, generating an estimated $9.5 billion in annual revenue. Last year, 34 of the 35 most-watched programs on TV were football games, one of the last vestiges of monoculture in a fragmenting media landscape. It's…

There's no shortage of reasons why the Kansas City Royals have become the darlings of this year's postseason. They're super fun to watch. They party with their fans. They're a small-market team that's managed to outlast the free-spending Angels,…

Jennifer Yu is like any other eighth-grader at Trailside Middle School in Ashburn, Virginia, with one major exception: Last month, the 12-year-old became the first American girl in more than a quarter-century to win a title at the World Youth Chess…

A high school football powerhouse in New Jersey canceled the remainder of its season Monday as police and prosecutors investigated a report of hazing within the program. Sayreville War Memorial High School, whose storied football program won state…

On Monday, Florida quarterback Treon Harris was suspended indefinitely from all team activities after being accused of sexual assault. The alleged incident took place in a campus residence hall at 3 a.m. on Sunday, hours after the freshman came off…

It's hard to pinpoint exactly when St. Louis Cardinals supporters took on the nominal title of Best Fans in Baseball, but there's no question it's made them a target of disdain among unaffiliated observers.  The Wall Street Journal named the…

Men's Health, a magazine with a decorated history of mind-numbingly insipid sex tips and recycled cover lines, caused quite a controversy Monday when it published, then retracted, an article that sought to explain how to talk about sports with…

Let's start with the premise that deconstructing a viral video to draw conclusions about a living, breathing human being is reckless at best, irresponsible at worst. What meaningful judgments can possibly be inferred from a brief encounter…

Maybe you heard, but the Philadelphia Eagles released DeSean Jackson this offseason.  On Sunday, the three-time Pro Bowl wide receiver made his first appearance in South Philly since signing a three-year contract with NFC rival Washington in…

On Saturday night, Floyd Mayweather Jr. — boxing's pound-for-pound champion and the world's highest-paid athlete — earned roughly $50 million for less than an hour’s work at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. His unanimous-decision win over…

The backhand sailed past the baseline and Serena Williams collapsed to the court. She'd just swept away Caroline Wozniacki to capture her sixth U.S. Open championship and 18th career major singles title, pulling level with Chris Evert and Martina…

America's favorite sport kicks off this week at stadiums around the country. What follows are 40 little-known facts about the NFL that are certain to wow your friends and spice things up around the water-cooler. Please use responsibly. 1. If all 256…

Kei Nishikori's charmed run through the U.S. Open continued Saturday afternoon with his biggest shocker yet: a 6-4, 1-6, 7-6(4), 6-3 upset of top-seeded Novak Djokovic to advance to Monday's final (5 p.m. ET, CBS).  Nishikori, the No. 10 seed,…

With a résumé that includes a record 17 major championships, 302 weeks at No. 1 and the career Grand Slam, Roger Federer has accomplished just about everything possible to achieve on a tennis court. But the 33-year-old Swiss had never rallied from a…

Maybe 1,000 spectators peppered the stands of the world's largest tennis stadium at 2:26 a.m. Tuesday. After 4 hours, 19 minutes — the longest match of this year's U.S. Open — Kei Nishikori stepped to the baseline with a match point against Milos…

It was 7:52 p.m. when Catherine Cartan "CiCi" Bellis emerged from the tunnel for her first match since becoming the youngest girl in 18 years to advance past the first round at the U.S. Open. The 15-year-old from Atherton, Calif., wore the same…