Brendan Rodgers has insisted any offence taken by Philippe Clement over comments the Celtic manager made in relation to Saturday’s Old Firm derby is “without merit”.

Rodgers’ opposite number at Rangers claimed his rival lacked respect after promising Celtic would have “a bit of fun” in what is being widely billed as a title decider. Celtic lead Rangers by three points with the same number of Premiership games remaining.

“I think anyone who was at my press conference would have sensed the way in which it was said,” Rodgers said. “The reaction to that is totally without merit. It has no context whatsoever.

“I have never referred to these [games] other than being intense, b…

Four teams emerged as winners in the quarterfinals of The International Sunday, as Team Liquid, Cloud9, Tundra Esports and Gaimin Gladiators all advanced to the upper bracket semifinals in Copenhagen, Denmark. The losing teams — nouns, Team Falcons, Aurora and Xtreme Gaming – all fell into the lower bracket and await for their opponents to be determined by Round 1 matches over the next two days. Team Liquid defeated Xtreme Gaming 2-0, winning in 39 minutes playing on red and in 19 minutes playing on green. Cloud9 downed Aurora 2-0 by winning in 35 minutes (playing on green) and 39 minutes (playing on red). Tundra Esports got the 2-0 victory over Team Falcons, winning on green in 36 minutes and on red in 68 minutes. Gaimin Gladiators had the toughest route to victory of the bunch, fa…

That's the word from Peter Kafka. He reports: People familiar with both companies say they haven't agreed on final terms, but are now negotiating exclusively and have agreed on a price: If the transaction goes through, Time Warner's cable network unit is set to pay more than $200 million for the sports site. Two hundred million dollars. That'll buy a lot of unpaid contributors! Turner wants a sports site—it manages NBA.com and PGA.com but owns neither—after it split from managing Sports Illustrated's site. Why not just buy one? Kafka reports that SI and Bleacher Report's monthly traffic (roughly 9 million uniques a month, according to comScore) is about the same. Turner nearly bought Bleacher Report last month before backing out. [ AllThingsD] …

Los Angeles Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager will miss the rest of the season after undergoing Tommy John surgery, the team announced today. He has some excellent company on the disabled list, joining a solid crew of teammates that currently includes Justin Turner, Yasiel Puig, Logan Forsythe, Rich Hill and Julio Urias. Hampered by those injuries, the team has gotten off to a 12-15 start—and losing Seager, the 2016 Rookie of the Year, is the most serious blow yet. The Dodgers don’t have great depth at short to replace him; utility man Enrique Hernandez can work there, and they’ve called up non-prospect rookie Breyvic Valera as another option, but neither of those choices feels particularly heartwarming when the goal is to replace a guy who’s earned MVP votes in each of his two maj…

Some people are fans of the Cleveland Browns. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the Cleveland Browns. This 2015 Deadspin NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read all the previews so far here. Your team: Cleveland Browns: Your 2014 record: 7-9. I’m as stunned as you are. They should hang a banner. Your coach: Mike Pettine. Keep in mind that the Browns fired poor Rob Chudzinski after just one season, and Pettine was the only person out there willing to replace him. And how did the Browns reward him for volunteering to throw himself into the dumpster fire? By having their moron GM send illegal texts to the sideline during games to actively bitch about Pettine’s handiwork. Only the Browns could find a way to cheat (and get caught and punished) in a way that o…

We'll be doing a Tournament Pick 'Em most likely tomorrow but for now here is a downloadable version of the 2012 Bracket, hot off the presses for your enjoyment, scrutiny and pipe-dream gold mine. [CBS] Relatedbetting on footballnew nfl betting sitesbest college football betting sitestop betting sites for nbalatest mlb linesnhl propstop betting sites for ufcbest soccer sportsbooksbet on copa america games …

Do me a favor. Click this link, check out the headline, then come back. I'll wait. *taps foot patiently* On the day that he was assigned to write that article, I'm guessing that Lester Haines had a pretty good day at work. No less than three cock puns appear in the article, and anytime you can get paid to make cock puns, well, that's a good day. The gist, if you were too lazy to click the link, is that New Zealand has named their national badminton team the "Black Cocks." Now, they're considering changing it, because the International Badminton Federation doesn't like it. I guess they weren't able to look into the future and predict that any controversy might arise from the term "Black Cocks." If they think they have problems, they s…

data-mm-id=”_yq9httl48″>Patrick Mahomes won the MVP award last season in one of the most speculator showings in NFL history. And instead of suffering from a slump like most do after a season of that degree, Mahomes has taken it up several notches to a historic level. Yet, for some reason, his greatness is actually being under-discussed. The media right now is instead focusing on Daniel Jones, the Patriots, Dak Prescott, Antonio Brown, Baker Mayfield, and constantly recycled NBA topics. None of which have the long-term impact of what Mahomes is doing– playing the sport at the highest level it has ever been played at. The eye test is one part of this. Regardless of your knowledge of football, you watch this guy, and can diagnose his magnificence instantly. The debate between Aaron Rodg…

data-mm-id=”_7kolgov0z”>The Houston Astros are currently embroiled in an incredible cheating scandal that involves both the latest technology and literal garbage. Major League Baseball today announced that they were expanding their investigation into the Astros alleged sign-stealing to include the 2018 and 2019 seasons. And now there's this Astros sign-stealing bobblehead. Just gonna leave this right here and slowly back away… ?@wyshynski pic.twitter.com/pPg6VgPJMA— BobbleHouse® (@BobbleHouse16) November 22, 2019The bobblehead features an Astros employee wearing a jersey that says MVP, holding a Macbook next to a trash bin. The spring effect on the mallet he uses to smash the trash can is the perfect final touch. It doesn't appear that this is being sold anywhere, but it…

data-mm-id=”_yif76v56v”>ESPN NFL reporter Jeff Darlington named the Tennessee Titans as the favorites to land Tom Brady on Adam Schefter's podcast earlier this week. According to Darlington, the Titans are followed by Las Vegas and New England..@TomBrady to…….. Tennessee? Las Vegas?@AdamSchefter on the latest landing spot he’s heard for the #NFL ?: pic.twitter.com/CXNk748AQu— Rich Eisen Show (@RichEisenShow) February 19, 2020Schefter, speaking on the Rich Eisen Show, noted Darlington is “a lot more connected to that particular situation than a lot of people realize.” This news is surprising. The Titans are rarely brought up in the discussion and the oddsmakers have them at 16-1 to add the quarterback. The Patriots, Raiders, and Chargers have been the three most rumored…