Deadspin

When studying bewildering decisions that Jerry Jones makes - like deciding to keep the consistent playoff dry heave Mike McCarthy, the guy who could only get to one Super Bowl with Aaron Rodgers - it's important to remember how he and the Cowboys got here. It was a long time ago now and a lot of NFL fans might not...Read more...

The Buffalo Bills are the greatest what-if franchise in NFL history. They've repeatedly brushed up against greatness without it rubbing off on them. Next month, Buffalo is approaching the 30th anniversary of Marv Levy's K-Gun Bills' fourth Super Bowl loss.Read more...

The calendar has not yet reached February, but the Indiana Pacers have decided to kick the trade deadline into high gear. The No. 6 seed in the Eastern Conference made a win-now move with darkhorse MVP candidate Tyrese Haliburton currently sidelined with a hamstring injury. Per ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowksi, the Pacers...Read more...

Jerod Mayo won his introductory press conference. Robert Kraft told the media that it was instinct that led him to choose Mayo as the new head coach of the New England Patriots. In his first public moment in this new role, Mayo's message was one of both collaboration and boundaries. Once the staff and front office are...Read more...

Mark Davis is making this coaching situation more complicated than it needs to be. Interim head coach Antonio Pierce is the obvious permanent choice. This really is the hire that should've happened already. The odds of the Raiders luring one of this year's top candidates to Las Vegas are slim. Pierce is the best and...Read more...

It looks like Saints fans should expect more of the same come 2024. New Orleans Saints executive vice president and general manager Mickey Loomis held his annual end-of-season press conference Wednesday. Despite firing longtime offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael on Tuesday, Loomis remained steadfast in his decision...Read more...

Warriors assistant coach Dejan Milojevi has died at the age of 46, Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported on X Wednesday afternoon.Read more...

The Raptors' fire sale continues. The Indiana Pacers are finalizing a trade to acquire Toronto Raptors forward Pascal Siakam, according to a report from ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. According to Woj, the Pacers will send Bruce Brown, Jordan Nwora and three first-round picks in the deal. The New Orleans Pelicans will...Read more...

In a lot of ways, feverishly watching the flight route of a plane that wasn't everything it was cracked up to be is a pretty nice metaphor for the Toronto Blue Jays' offseason and outlook. The Jays knew Shohei Ohtani wasn't on that flight, but their fans certainly didn't. That doesn't mean that the Jays themselves...Read more...

The Baltimore Ravens will play their first playoff game of the season this coming weekend after securing a bye due to being the AFC's top seed. They finished the season 13-4, and despite not having key players like tight end Mark Andrews or wide receiver Devin Duvernay, they trampled almost everyone around them.Read more...

The only streaming platform fans want a sporting event aired on is one in which they already have a subscription. That's why, on the surface, Amazon buying a minority stake in Bally Sports is a rare win for the people who make these franchises profitable. (No, not the owners. The fans.) The move announced Wednesday...Read more...

The funny thing about Gio Reyna, and more to the point, all the noise about him - the controversy with his family and Gregg Berhalter, the anticipation of any appearance with the national team, the confidence that he's the country's most talented player - is that it is built on such a tiny foundation. Everyone has...Read more...

This time last year Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn was the talk of the town and the hottest potential head-coaching candidate in the NFL. One road trip around the sun later and Quinn is almost an afterthought on the minds of teams needing new coaches. With names like Jim Harbaugh and Bill Belichick on...Read more...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a proposal to ban youth tackle football Tuesday night.

Ligue 1 and the NBA are two leagues that usually don't go together, but French soccer superstar Kylian Mbappe is worried that European soccer is starting to mimic professional basketball in one very specific way.Read more...

Caitlin Clark eclipsed another scoring milestone Tuesday night, inching her one step closer to college basketball immortality. The Iowa Hawkeyes took care of business at home against Wisconsin, cruising to a 96-50 victory. Clark put up a game-high 32 points, passing Baylor's Brittney Griner (3,283 points) for fourth...Read more...

It's a good thing Kansas City goes on the road this weekend because I'm not sure their fans have thawed yet. According to reports, 69 people were treated by the fire department during Saturday's Wild-Card win, with half showing signs of hypothermia. Fifteen people were sent to the hospital, with three fans being...Read more...

In response to Nick Saban's sudden retirement, the Crimson Tide hired Washington's Kalen Deboer and averted the mistake that's plagued program after program over the last half century. Bravo to Alabama for expanding beyond their horizons.Read more...

It's not what you say, but how you say it," is a wise adage. But at ESPN, it's always felt like who said it was more important than what was said. Aaron Rodgers and Pat McAfee haven't been sticking to sports for a while now, which was, and still is, a privilege that former and current Black employees aren't privy to.Read more...

I did not know what I was getting into when I became a Knicks fan. I got into it to find a bond between my father and me. He grew up as a New York street ball legend who listened to the Knicks on transistor radios with his buddies, huddled around a car drinking tallboys and sharing a joint. As a chubby weirdo with no...Read more...

Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay was found unresponsive, cold and struggling to breathe after Carmel Police were dispatched to his home in December, according to a police report obtained by TMZ.Read more...

I hadn't really thought about Brooklyn Nets broadcasts much. I hadn't really thought about the Brooklyn Nets much, to be more accurate. They'd be more appointment viewing if they had told all of us that a knife fight was liable to break out at the broadcasters table at any moment:

James Dolan has once again found himself with legal problems. His decision to ban lawyers who represented a group of ticket resellers who sued the New York Knicks team owner - a suit that was dismissed in spring 2023 - currently has Madison Square Garden's liquor license in jeopardy. A new suit against Dolan, has...Read more...

When it was announced last week that the Seattle Seahawks were moving in a different direction at head coach, the news caught many by surprise. It was framed as though Pete Carroll and the organization had mutually agreed that Carroll would step out of the way and into an advisor's role. But now with roughly a week...Read more...

Former WWE and sex tape superstar Hulk Hogan reportedly helped save a teenager's life Sunday night after her car flipped on the highway due to being clipped by another vehicle on the Veterans Expressway, heading towards Clearwater, Fla.Read more...

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The Washington Commanders have new ownership and a new GM, with a new coach and quarterback presumably on the way as well. Like a dog who finally catches the mailman, fans in the DMV pined for Dan Snyder's removal with such fervor that I'm not sure they know what to do now that it's happened. It's rare for any...Read more...

For fans of the iconic series Mad Men, seeing a person named Draper throwing up isn' that much of a surprise. But unlike his alcoholic TV namesake, British tennis player Jack Draper didn't have a drop of booze in him on Monday.Read more...

The Boston Bruins are the perfect team in the NHL to have the eternal-long fatalism vs. determinism debate. They sit atop the Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference once again, just as they did last year. Just as last year, David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand are two of the best players in the league. The goaltending...Read more...

The Premier League has reached the portion of the season when it paws at having a winter break, splitting up the 21st round of fixtures over two weeks to give half the teams the week off this week and half the teams the week off last week. Unless they have a FA Cup replay. Or a League Cup semifinal. But every team...Read more...

Wild-Card Weekend in the NFL is a wrap and while it wasn't as exciting as billed, it did lead to some shocking moments. One of the biggest happened in Dallas where the Packers came through like a tornado and tossed the Cowboys around like rag dolls. Everyone has been focused on the Cowboys getting outright...Read more...

A woman has accused New York Knicks owner and Madison Square Garden Entertainment CEO James L. Dolan of pressuring her into unwanted sex and arranging an encounter with Harvey Weinstein, who is also accused of sexually assaulting her, according to the New York Times.Read more...

The Buffalo Bills and the Kansas City Chiefs will meet in the postseason for the third time in four years on Sunday. It is the first time in the Patrick Mahomes-Josh Allen era that the playoff game is not at Arrowhead, which could prove to make all the difference.Read more...

Anything can happen in the playoffs, and I mean anything. In just the wild-card round alone, we saw:Read more...

The Tampa Bay Bucs' margin for error coming into the season was pretty high for a team that had low expectations and a quarterback the rest of the league passed on. They have a receiving corps that's healthy, deep and full of playmakers to go with a defense that's also healthy and rife with big-time talent. All Baker...Read more...

A week after Pat McAfee failed spectacularly in his quest to CHECK!" noted anti-vaxxer and conspiracy theorist Aaron Rodgers, announced that Aaron Rodgers Tuesdays" were done for the year, and then had Rodgers back on the show the very next day, I have begun to ask myself if what McAfee is doing is some kind of...Read more...

Midway through January of 2024, Detroit exists at the cross-section of grief and euphoria. Grief for the terminally ill Detroit Pistons and euphoria towards the Detroit Lions reanimating. Nothing encapsulates the circle of life and sports quite like the present-day 313. There's even a dash of relief that Michigan is...Read more...

Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce told his teammates he is retiring after Monday night's 32-9 wild-card loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, according to ESPN's Adam Schefter.Read more...

Every other generation, a player changes how his position is taught, scouted and played. For the current generation of players entering their prime years, that dude is Nikola Joki. The Joker" has taken the passing acumen of former bigs Vlade Divac, Yao Ming, Bill Walton and Arvydas Sabonis and combined it with the...Read more...

From the moment it happened in the summer of 2022, the Minnesota Timberwolves' acquisition of Rudy Gobert from the Utah Jazz looked like an all-time terrible trade. But suddenly, the Timberwolves have the NBA's second-best record, the best in the West, and the best defensive rating at 108 this season. And much of that...Read more...

As usual Jerry Reinsdorf failed to read the room. The Chicago Bulls are looking at a second-consecutive appearance in the Play-in Tournament, rounding out yet another rebuild on its disappointing last leg. Now is not the time to force more nostalgia on the fans, reminding them of an era many of them feel ended...Read more...

WNBA's free agency started this week, and while players can't sign until Feb. 1, teams are allowed to be in conversation with them. Here are the top 10 players who are eligible free agents and some scenarios around what would happen if they re-sign or go somewhere else.Read more...

Snow is as omnipresent in Buffalo as rivers are in Pittsburgh. Buffalonians are accustomed to sheets of snow piling up on the city's roads and sidewalks. Highmark Stadium was supposed to host the opening playoff contest of 2024 until Mother Nature intervened, despite the fact that the city has experienced more extreme...Read more...

We've already highlighted some of the famous Black celebrities who are HBCU alumni, but what about the athletes?Read more...

NBC decided to broadcast Saturday's wild card matchup featuring Kansas City and Miami exclusively on their streaming channel Peacock. This was the first time an NFL playoff game was televised in such a way and, if you're like most folks, you weren't too thrilled about it. It sucked for millions, but you might as well...Read more...

Miami is the nexus of cult phenomenons. Heat Culture, cryptocurrency, crash diets. Over the last year and a half, Tua Tagavailoa has also become a South Beach cult favorite. Tuanon is the most prominent group of devoted believers in the Dolphins quarterback. When the Tuanon founder died last year, Tagovailoa even...Read more...

Super Wild Card Saturday lived up to its name in the city of Houston, with the Texans' introduction to the postseason making light work of the Cleveland Browns, 45-14. If you thought Houston's 10 wins in head coach DeMeco Ryans' first year with a rookie quarterback was a fluke, go ahead and smack yourself right now....Read more...

Coming into Wild-Card Weekend, there were different narratives about the Kansas City Chiefs and Cleveland Browns than usual. Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid spent the second half of the season trying to convince us that something was off - then Kansas City rolled Miami, 26-7. The other game featured a Browns squad...Read more...

Updated Jan. 13: New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced that the Bills-Steelers game will be postponed to Monday at 4:30 p.m. ET.

ESPN is reportedly close to completing its full transition to propaganda production as the NFL is in advanced talks to buy a stake in the network. This comes as no surprise given ESPN's parent company, Disney, has encountered a few well-documented, multimillion-dollar missteps of late, and the network's facade as a...Read more...