Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

This much is true: Rafael Nadal won the U.S. Open, and he’s playing exemplary tennis. In the present, soft field, the tennis is so good that it brought Nadal back to world No. 1 for the first time in four years, with two slams, two masters, and a 56-9 record. But all the hyperbole does make one wonder.

Drew Magary’s Thursday Afternoon NFL Dick Joke Jamboroo runs every Thursday during the NFL season. Email Drew here. Buy his book here.

On July 29, Jon Jones completed his long redemption arc by knocking out Daniel Cormier with a vicious head kick in the third round, winning the UFC light heavyweight belt back in the process. On Sept. 13, Cormier was reinstated as champ after a second test confirmed that Jones had tested positive for a banned anabolic…Read more...

So there’s never going to be a Hüsker Dü reunion after all. Grant Hart is dead.

Alexi Lalas barred up the entire USMNT on TV this past weekend, which was great and deserved and frankly overdue. Lalas’s brief rant included clear shots at a number of national teamers, but his barbs aimed at Michael Bradley and Christian Pulisic were arguably the most pointed. Bradley and Pulisic have responded, and…Read more...

Isaiah Wright and Camion Patrick were arrested this week in connection with the death of Caleb Thomas Radford, who was stabbed to death on July 25 in Alcoa, Tennessee. Patrick was arrested in Bloomington, Indiana by IU campus police and will be extradited to Blount County soon, while his younger brother Wright was…Read more...

Shit sucks, right now. Pretty much all of the news is so bad that it’s almost, but not, funny. You can’t even fall back on sports right now! This week I am conducting myself on the internet like a wayward pedestrian forced to traverse Murder Alley, neck stiff, the plane of my face at a perfect right angle to the…Read more...

If reliability is something you crave in a pair of shoes (if it isn’t, you may need to reconsider), I bet you have Cole Haan in your closet. And if you’re looking for a new pair but don’t want to spend the normal asking price, Nordstrom Rack is having a huge sale on everything Cole Haan. Men’s and women’s styles, plus …Read more...

Earlier this week Deadspin published a story about how SB Nation team sites’ traffic accounts for the vast majority of the network’s total traffic, even though the people who staff these sites are primarily paid low monthly stipends or nothing at all. The story detailed, among other things, how a Vox media…Read more...

ESPN’s initial approach to handling SportsCenter host Jemele Hill’s remarks on Donald Trump was supposed to placate both sides, and ended up placating neither. Then the White House called describing the president accurately a “fireable offense.” The network tried a second take Wednesday night, which isn’t much better.

Hot, steamy Europa League action kicks off this afternoon, and the formerly great Premier League club Arsenal’s first opponent will be the German Bundesliga’s FC Koln, whose fans took an approximately 600 kilometer trip on a Thursday in order to completely overtake the streets of London. These incredibly enthusiastic…Read more...

Taro Daniel, last seen taking one set off eventual U.S. Open champion Rafael Nadal, had a 7-5, 7-5 win over Renzo Olivo yesterday at the Szczecin Challenger. Good luck pronouncing the name of that Polish town, or returning this serve Olivo attempted at 5-5 in the second set:

Pro Football Focus has consistently ranked Lions guard T.J. Lang as one of the best offensive linemen in football. This doesn’t seem to have curried any favor with Lang, who went on 97.1 The Ticket yesterday and called the site “absolute garbage.”

Welcome to the Deadspin 25, a college football poll that strives to be more democratic and less useless than every other preseason poll. Leading up to the college football season kickoff, we will give you previews of the 25 teams that you, the readers, voted to be most worthy of writing about. Now, No. 10 Maryland.Read more...

DOSS’s Bluetooth Speakers, SodaStream, and Thermos Gold Box kick off today’s top deals.

Against truly stiff competition, Tom Savage took home our Bad QB Performance of the Week award for Week 1. It looks like he will not get to defend his title; it’s being reported, though not confirmed by the team, that Deshaun Watson will get the start for the Texans against Cincinnati tonight.

This Amazon Gold Box is ostensibly meant as a back-to-school Thermos sale, but several items in there could appeal to adults who want to pack lunch for work.

Some people can’t live without their coffee, but for me, it’s fizzy water. Today only in Amazon’s Gold Box, you can get a SodaStream Genesis from Amazon for $59, complete with a small starter CO2 canister, and a mail-in rebate for a free full-sized starter canister, and two carbonating bottles (worth nearly $20 by…Read more...

Sources on social media are reporting that Grant Hart, a singer, drummer, and songwriter who helped define the sound of alternative rock with his work in legendary post-hardcore band Hüsker Dü, has died. Hart was 56; Variety reports that he had been suffering from cancer.Read more...

Rhys Hoskins now has 33 major-league games under his belt—more than 140 plate appearances—which means that Rhys Hoskins has had a little time to back away from his freakishly hot start and begin looking more like the ordinary prospect people thought he was. But he hasn’t.Read more...

Young Brewers outfielder Brett Maverick Phillips, best known for his wonderful laugh, started a brilliant unorthodox double play in Milwaukee tonight. Phillips’s powerful right arm took away a sacrifice fly and protected an early lead against the Pirates.Read more...

A banner reading “Racism Is As American As Baseball” was briefly unfurled over the Green Monster between the top and bottom of the fourth inning of the A’s-Red Sox game at Fenway Park tonight.Read more...

After being arrested last month for felony drug possession with intent to sell, Sacramento Kings forward Zach Randolph has cut a plea deal that will allow him to avoid jail time, TMZ reports. Online court records show a hearing is scheduled for an “arraignment and plea” in Randolph’s case tomorrow morning.Read more...

WFAN radio host Craig Carton resigned today, exactly one week after news broke of his arrest for securities and wire fraud.Read more...

Division-II Stonehill faced a tough challenge yesterday against third-ranked Adelphi, but they got some unbelievable help from the right foot of one Connor O’Brien, who scored the game’s first two goals in the opening 13 minutes from eye-popping range with pinpoint accuracy.Read more...

Last weekend, offensive lineman and five-star recruit Jackson Carman visited Ohio State. On Monday, he made the fairly benign comment that he would like to see Dwayne Haskins, Jr. get some playing time. On Tuesday, Kirk Herbstreit chided him for it and doubled down when someone suggested that football recruits should…Read more...

Remember Tony Buzbee, the lawyer on the Texas A&M Board of Regents who recently called for Kevin Sumlin to be fired? He just blew a “little over $600,000" on an M4 Sherman tank that was used during World War II.

Thank you for your continued support of Deadspin. Everything will be as it is now, just a little different.Read more...

I should admit up front that the following beef between Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp and his coaching counterparts on Sevilla’s bench doesn’t make total sense, but the strange, match-long affair does involve Sevilla’s manager twice playing keepaway with a Liverpool player, him getting sent off for doing so, and a…Read more...

The promise of $40 million is an eye-popping figure that would push anyone into an unfamiliar situation, and for former international superstar Carlos Tevez, that kind of money was even enough to get him out of what seemed like a perfect fit and over to China. In January, Tevez left his boyhood club of Boca Juniors,…Read more...

Go ahead and picture it...

French neo-pro Maxime Roger was motoring through a time trial at the Tour of Moselle last weekend, when his time trial bars snapped off of his bike after he went over a bump, sending Roger sprawling to the deck at approximately 60 kilometers per hour (or 36 mph). Roger was in second place heading into the stage but he…Read more...

io9 Our First Look at David Harbour as the New Hellboy | Kotaku How EVE Players Pulled Off The Biggest Betrayal In Its History | Foxtrot Alpha How Two A-10 Pilots Saved A Group Of Marines Who Were Cornered And Under Siege By The Taliban | Lifehacker How to Find Out If You Were Affected by the Equifax Hack | The A.V.…Read more...

The most drama out of Cleveland’s clinical, record-breaking win today came when some hot-tempered Tigers were tossed from the game, and when the Indians’ broadcast booth suggested that one of Detroit’s pitchers retaliated by hitting the umpire.Read more...

Today’s Champions League match between NK Maribor and Spartak Moscow was briefly interrupted after a fan in the Spartak section fired a flare onto the pitch, narrowly missing the head referee.Read more...

Everyone knew today’s Tottenham-Borussia Dortmund match was going to be the one to watch even before the games kicked off, seeing how good and evenly matched both teams are. But even the most optimistic spectator probably didn’t foresee the completely wide-open golazo contest the match has so far turned out to be.Read more...

The Indians will apparently never lose again. They won their 21st game in a row today, 5-3 against the Detroit Tigers. The win ties the streak held by the 1935 Cubs, and gives Cleveland sole ownership of the AL win streak record, which the A’s have held since 2002.Read more...

During today’s White House press briefing, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked to comment on SportsCenter host Jemele Hill’s recent tweets about Donald Trump, in which she described the President and his policies as white supremacist. Hill was publicly reprimanded by ESPN for her tweets.Read more...

Bob Davie, head football coach of the New Mexico Lobos, is being investigated by the university following allegations of player mistreatment and questions about the integrity of the team’s drug-testing program, according to NMFishbowl.com.Read more...

What’s up YouTubers—you know who’s “on fleek” right now? The Minnesota Vikings are, or will be. The team has hired Jonah Stillman as a “Gen Z advisor.”

Originally titled “Is Everything Okay?” this profile appeared in the April 1994 issue of GQ and is reprinted here with the author’s permission.Read more...

The first step in the Oakland A’s long, seemingly never-ending quest for a new ballpark has reportedly been taken. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that A’s ownership has settled on a desired location for a new stadium. Now, they just have to convince everyone else—from the current land-owners to the city to Major…Read more...

Foam rollers are great for loosening up muscles before a workout, or recovering after you’re done, and $15 is a fantastic price for a 13" model. Just be sure to use promo code KINJAROLLER3 at checkout to get the deal.Read more...

Conor McGregor, who’s currently luxuriating in the afterglow of getting his ass kicked for money, recently saw a big boat. He was just hanging out on a boat of his own in Ibiza, but this boat was even bigger. The Irishman was struck dumb by the presence of the Big Boat, and yearned to learn more about it.

In a recent interview, Real Madrid’s Marco Asensio recalled that manager Zinedine Zidane once told him that the wonderkid was in possession of the best left foot since Lionel Messi’s. Sadly, we won’t get to see that special foot in action today, not after Asensio injured himself while trying to prettify the legs…Read more...

Vince McMahon is 72 years old. Back when he was a spry 50-something, McMahon took constant beatings from wrestlers. But in the last six years, he’s only made sporadic appearances on WWE television.Read more...

Japanese baseball star Shohei Otani, who is in the midst of a Ruthian season for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters—the two-way stud had a 1.86 ERA and 174 strikeouts in 140 innings, to go along with 27 homers and a .322/.416/.588 triple slash in 2016—is reportedly ready to play ball in America. He’ll be doing so on the…Read more...

After a bizarre, court-ordered ban from golf, a preteen golf prodigy in suburban Washington, D.C., has returned to the sport, and has picked up right where she left off.

A little less than two weeks after Serena Williams gave birth to a baby girl with her fiancé Alexis Ohanian, she posted a photo of her daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian, Jr., to Instagram.