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In the third quarter of Pittsburgh’s 28-21 win over the Bengals on Sunday, Antonio Brown caught a pass over the middle. A trio of Bengals defenders closed in on him, and as he was already well wrapped up, Vontaze Burfict flew into the pile and walloped the back of Brown’s head with a flying elbow.

As the federal wire fraud trial against James Gatto, Merl Code, and Christian Dawkins continues, with each new day bringing some new detail about the apparently widespread payment to young basketball players by companies like Adidas and agents looking to direct them to specific schools, it’s getting clearer and…Read more...

The history of the Montserrat soccer team is brief and inglorious. The tiny Caribbean nation has only been competing on the international stage since 1991, and in that time they’ve played 36 matches, managed just five wins, scored 33 times, and given up an eye-watering 161 goals to opponents. We aren’t exactly talking…Read more...

At Wimbledon, Novak Djokovic reascended, and he’s more or less stayed there ever since. It took awhile to fully jar himself out of his blue period, but the Serb is back to dominating in all in the old ways, barely leaving so much as a scrap for anyone else. When Novak Djokovic is in full flow, he takes the air out of…Read more...

I’ve been writing about Simone Biles since 2013, when she made her senior international debut at the American Cup. She placed second there, in what wound up being one of the last second-place all-around finishes of her career, but she already displayed all the physical prowess we’ve come to associate with her: speed,…Read more...

Iowa State upset 13th-ranked West Virginia 30-14 Saturday, which is of some consequence in the landscape of college football, but who cares—look at the dinosaurs. There are so many of them!Read more...

On Oct. 7, one day after Reuters first reported the alleged murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who Turkish officials later said was tortured and dismembered by Saudi agents in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul, Head of Saudi Arabia’s General Sport Authority Turki Al-Alshaikh announced Rafael Nadal and…Read more...

Last week, Joe Flacco’s wife Dana called out her husband for his complete dearth of enthusiasm on plays where he lines up as a wide receiver. The Ravens quarterback had a chance to show some of that trademark Flacco spark in the third quarter of Sunday’s game, when Lamar Jackson took a snap behind center. Flacco might…Read more...

Another season of Sacramento Kings basketball is upon us, and you will not be surprised to learn that Year 13 of the rebuild will be yet another futile one.

The dance isn’t the Bernie. Even though it very much looks like the Bernie, and there’s no significant difference between it and the Bernie, Adam Thielen’s touchdown dance is not the Bernie. The Vikings receiver wants to get that straight.

Thanks in large part to God of War and the Final Fantasy Tactics iOS port, I’ve been gaming regularly for the first time in about a decade. As I emerged from my dumb hibernation to become a Gamer once again, I realized I could now fill a huge gap in my cultural literacy. I wanted to understand the game that enchants…Read more...

Maybe you’re a real smart guy who predicted that last year’s trip to the AFC Championship game was going to go down as more of an aberration for this era of Jaguars football rather than a sign of things to come. But nobody could have been prepared for Jacksonville’s defense, the unanimous Best Defense In The NFL,…Read more...

If you didn’t find the socks you wanted in REI’s clearance sale, Backcountry just started its own 20% off sock sale. Options include plenty of reader-favorite Smartwools and Darn Toughs, but that’s just for starters. Sock sales are never the most exciting sales, but this is a great chance to stock up on socks that…Read more...

If you’re going to score a goal as a keeper, you might as well be like KRC Gent’s Kevin Frans in Belgium’s fourth division yesterday and make it a stoppage time, point-saving wonder strike of an overhead kick. You’ll probably only get one—maybe two—in your whole career, so you’d better make it count:Read more...

I do not blame every low-level worker at every evil organization for the sins of their employer. Most people just need jobs. People need to pay the rent. Still—even if the standard is very low—there has to be a standard.Read more...

The Chiefs couldn’t quite do enough to beat the Patriots on Sunday night, falling 43-40 for their first loss of the season to a New England team that suddenly looks like it has no worries in the world. Still, despite the loss, Kansas City has plenty to be proud of, and as the game came down to the wire, it was their…Read more...

Lifehacker How to Play Commodore 64 Games Online for Free | Jalopnik Stop Overbuying Your Cars | io9 Chris Evans’ Last Day on the Avengers 4 Set Was Apparently Not All That Exciting | Kotaku Meet SonicFox, The Queer Furry Who’s Destroying Everyone Else At Fighting Games | The Takeout How to dine out when you have…Read more...

Halloween costumes, LEGO’s incredible Apollo kit, and refurbished Sonos speakers lead off Monday’s best deals from around the web.Read more...

It ultimately didn’t matter much, because there was a defensive holding call on the play that would have given the Pats a first-and-goal, but the oddest play of last night’s thrilling Chiefs-Patriots game belonged to Chiefs linebacker Breeland Speaks.

Some Patriots fans lived down to their reputation in the waning minutes of the Patriots’ 43-40 win over the previously undefeated Kansas City Chiefs. After Tyreek Hill went 75 yards to set up the game-tying extra point, he pulled up in front of the crowd where Pats fans threw beer on him and flipped him off.

Things did not go well for the Tennessee Titans on Sunday. They lost to the Baltimore Ravens 21-0, giving up 11 sacks in the process, and fell to 3-3. It was their second straight loss.

The first and most unmistakable sign that a team has a full-fledged QB controversy on its hands is when its coach denies there’s a controversy. “Case is our quarterback,” said Broncos coach Vance Joseph, which means that Case Keenum may not be Denver’s quarterback for all that long.

LEGO’s 1969 piece Saturn V Apollo kit is usually out of stock at major retailers, but Amazon actually has it on sale for $105 right now, or $15 off its MSRP right now. That’s a great price for a kit that size, let alone such a coveted one. The set lets you build and simulate an entire Apollo mission, from launch, to…Read more...

If you still haven’t settled on a Halloween costume, this one-day Amazon sale has several options available, mostly for under $30. It’s not the widest selection we’ve ever seen, so if you can’t find what you’re looking for, check out our guide for where else you can find a good costume.Read more...

The Baltimore Ravens this season have fluctuated between a contender for the AFC title and complete ass. It makes sense that after taking an embarrassing loss at Cleveland to give that franchise their first Sunday win in over two years, the Ravens shifted in the other direction and shut out the Tennessee Titans.

Hello and welcome back to the Blake Bortles show. Today, our hero valiantly tried to defeat triple coverage. You will not be surprised to learn that the throw was so ill-advised that the Cowboys got an interception almost by accident.

Cooper Kupp’s afternoon came to an early, violent end, when his left knee buckled under him as Darian Stewart brought him down with a horse collar tackle. Kupp immediately grabbed his leg in pain, and he had to be carted off the field. It initially looked like Kupp hurt his ankle, though the Rams later announced it…Read more...

I’ll be the first to admit that the taunting penalty is one of the lamest things about the NFL. In a hyper-aggressive game like football, you’ve got to give players room to express emotions on the field, otherwise it gets held in and boils over. That being said, this taunt might have been a little extra.Read more...

Things got real weird in Miami at the end of Bears-Dolphins. After a scoreless first half, Chicago roared back with three touchdowns in the third quarter. It seemed like the Brock Osweiler-led Dolphins were toast, but Albert Wilson forced overtime with a pair of long catch-and-run touchdowns, boosting Osweiler’s stats…Read more...

The Buccaneers were mere inches away from completing one of the wildest game-ending plays in NFL history. With no timeouts remaining and a five-point deficit, Jameis Winston had to march down the field and score a touchdown in just over a minute. With seven seconds left in the game on Atlanta’s 21-yard line, Winston…Read more...

Time to add another highlight to the Nathan Peterman archives. After rookie QB Josh Allen hurt himself in the second half of Buffalo’s game against the Texans, Nathan Peterman took the field, and even gave the Bills a fourth-quarter lead with a very pretty touchdown pass. Buffalo’s defense was mauling Deshaun Watson,…Read more...

After publicly demanding a trade from the Wolves right before the start of the regular season, Jimmy Butler has definitely burnt through a great deal of his popularity in Minnesota. But he’s prepared to face whatever welcome the fans are willing to give him during the team’s home opener against the Cavaliers on…Read more...

This is a legal tackle, but good lord, it looked painful as hell. I’m just happy that Jadaveon Clowney didn’t yank Chris Ivory’s dreadlock all the way out.

Chargers receiver Tyrell Williams caught a nice leaping touchdown in the end zone to take a 20-3 lead over the Browns, and Cleveland’s fans booed loudly. They weren’t booing the score so much as the officials, who they thought missed a false start penalty on Chargers left tackle Russell Okung.Read more...

D.J. Moore is having an awful day. The Panthers first round pick has been really helpful for Washington this afternoon, handing over the ball twice, as well as helping them out with their field position. First, he misplayed a Matt Palardy punt and gave Washington a bonus 20 yards. After the Panthers forced a…Read more...

Amari Cooper was taken into the locker room after being on the wrong end of a helmet-to-helmet hit from Seahawks safety Bradley McDougald. On 2nd-and-20, Derek Carr sent an errant throw down towards Cooper’s shins, leaving him in an exposed position to get blown up the way that he did. No penalties were called on this…Read more...

Whenever the Bengals and Steelers meet, things inevitably get ugly. The worst and most hallowed AFC North tradition is the biannual (God willing only biannual) yelling match between these two teams, and Dre Kirkpatrick and JuJu Smith-Schuster got things started early today with a little scuffle. Props to Kirkpatrick…Read more...

The Dolphins scored first in their game against the Bears today and while head coach Adam Gase should be celebrated for somehow getting an offense to succeed under the helm of Brock Osweiler, it’s not like Miami didn’t have any help getting near the end zone.

Considering how long the Stanley Cup celebrations over the summer lasted for the Washington Capitals, it’s a feat in its own right that they’re able to play any hockey at all, let alone win a game or two. Evgeny Kuznetsov in particular has shown that he’s shaken off the championship hangover, leading the team in…Read more...

The Oakland Raiders have been a disaster this season, which should surprise nobody, since they spent the offseason backing up the Brinks truck for washed-up geezer Jon Gruden, trading the best defensive player in the NFL, and completing the saddest player transaction of the summer. Their lone win this season came…Read more...

A season that began with momentary optimism for the Miami Dolphins has slowly regressed to become the staple of comical mediocrity we all expected it to be. The team’s prospects against the Chicago Bears and their man-eating defensive unit for Sunday got even worse when the Dolphins announced that starting quarterback…Read more...

The Boston Globe’s Spotlight team just published the first part of a six-part series on the life of former Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, who died by suicide last spring in a Massachusetts prison. It’s a heartbreaking story that digs deeper into the foundational early years of Hernandez’s short, painful life,…Read more...

As first reported by PhillyVoice reporter Kyle Neubeck, the Philadelphia 76ers issued an apology on Saturday afternoon for some gross tweets made by Mike Muscala’s father Bob. The elder Muscala has apparently operated the anonymous account @MuskieBobber for years alongside his professional account, @ChemicalHealth,…Read more...

History was made at the Vazgen Sargsyan Republican Stadium in the Armenian capital on Saturday as Gibraltar won its first ever competitive match, beating Armenia 1-0. The self-governing territory was first officially recognized by UEFA in 2013 and had lost 22 competitive matches since, including all of their Euro 2016…Read more...

Florida stormed back from a 21-3 deficit against Vanderbilt on Saturday to escape the Commodores home field with a 37-27 win. But that was far from the most important highlight of the game. Late in the first half, Gators linebacker James Houston IV laid this monstrous hit on Vanderbilt’s Dare Odeyingbo during a punt …Read more...

USA Gymnastics announced the appointment of Mary Bono as interim CEO and president of USA yesterday. Bono previously worked at Faegre Baker Daniels Consulting in Washington, DC. Before that, she was a congresswoman from California. She was first elected in 1998 to replace her husband Sonny Bono, who died in a skiing…Read more...

The Joakim Noah era in New York will finally come to an end after the Knicks announced they were waiving the 33-year-old on Saturday. The New York Daily News reports that Noah did not take a buyout deal, which would have reduced his earnings, as well as the cap hit on the Knicks, and was waived outright. The team will…Read more...

The latest bit evidence to support bringing the relegation system into college football comes from the incredibly under-anticipated matchup between Rutgers and Maryland. Near the end of the first quarter, the Scarlet Knights failed to complete one of the simplest tasks someone could be asked to do on a football field:…Read more...

Heat president Pat Riley released a statement on Friday denying that he ever called Tom Thibodeau a motherfucker during negotiations with the Timberwolves coach and president for disgruntled superstar Jimmy Butler.

Mike Kimbel is only 21 years old and already he’s become a history-maker at Bellator. The bantamweight needed just six seconds to knockout his opponent, Alex Potts, during his undercard bout at Bellator 207 on Friday, tying him for the fastest knockout in the promotion’s history.Read more...