Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

If yesterday’s strike from Gylfi Sigurdsson was evidence of the kind of goal that can be produced by individual brilliance, then today’s game between Arsenal and Fulham provided an example of the sorts of wonders a team that’s perfectly in sync can conjure.Read more...

The NBA season doesn’t start for another nine days, but J.R. Smith and Marcus Smart are already back on their bullshit. In the first quarter(!) of last night’s Cavs-Celtics preseason game, Aron Baynes and J.R. Smith got into a scuffle when Baynes appeared to try and pull a Kelly Olynyk on Smith’s shoulder. After Smith…Read more...

Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez had an awful year. He endured multiple stints on the DL, hit .186/.291/.406, and played unsustainably bad defense behind the plate. If the Yankees hadn’t made the playoffs we might be settling into conversations about whether the former rookie sensation still has a place on the team. Those…Read more...

Around this time last year, Mike Pence pulled one of the corniest political stunts imaginable when he walked out of a 49ers-Colts game early because he wanted to take a stand against the players kneeling to protest police violence and racial injustice who were supposedly “disrespecting” the troops, flag and anthem.

An hour or so before Khabib Nurmagomedov went ballistic at UFC 229, another Russian fighter was putting on a dominant performance. Heavyweight Alexander Volkov worked Derrick Lewis for 14 minutes and 40 seconds, using his superior length to tag Lewis whenever he wanted and staying out of range when Lewis tried to drop…Read more...

Of all the insane and ridiculous things that happened in the immediate aftermath of Khabib Nurmagomedov’s victory over Conor McGregor at UFC 229, perhaps nothing was more absurd than UFC president Dana White’s shock and disappointment.

After 15 or so boring minutes of complete control, Khabib Nurmagomedov ended Conor McGregor with a brutal rear naked choke in the fourth round of their highly anticipated title fight at UFC 229. Conor got his ass ground into the fence as Khabib talked shit to him for three-plus rounds, reclaiming a little dignity by…Read more...

The Golden State Warriors and the Sacramento Kings played the NBA’s first game in Seattle since 2008, when the team was relocated and rebranded as the Oklahoma City Thunder. To the optimistic former Supersonics fan, this could be interpreted as a sign that the NBA is looking closely at the northwest market to put the…Read more...

Saturday’s game between Missouri and South Carolina was a meteorological shitshow. Nothing in the game really encapsulated just how bad the rain in Columbia was like Missouri quarterback Drew Lock failing to see that his intended target on a screen pass had slipped and fallen, and throwing the ball straight to a South…Read more...

Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz’s alter-ego “New Kirk” made a scintillating return to the football field on Saturday just over halfway through the second quarter during a fourth-and-goal opportunity for his Hawkeyes. The play call was a bizarre formation that lead to Iowa doubling its lead over Minnesota.Read more...

Texas kicker Cam Dicker forgot he was a freshman on Saturday and absolutely nailed a 40-yard go-ahead field goal to give the No. 19 Longhorns a 48-45 lead over No. 15 Oklahoma with nine seconds left in regulation. Texas looked as though it would win the game with ease, entering the fourth quarter up 45-24. But the…Read more...

José Mourinho will likely survive another matchweek at Manchester United thanks thanks to an incredible comeback led by players who have few reasons to play hard for their manager.Read more...

Ben Mason has become my personal hero. It’s already great enough that he has chosen to be a fullback in the Big Ten, but he’s decided to crank his likability up a notch and a half by embarrassing defenders on national television like he’s a projected first-round halfback.Read more...

Clayton Kershaw pitched a two-hit gem last night for the Dodgers, blanking the Braves over eight strong and efficient innings of work. It was easily the best postseason outing in Kershaw’s decidedly snakebitten playoff career, as he needed just 85 pitches to dispatch 24 batters. After Ronald Acuña smacked a double on…Read more...

The NFL’s senior vice president of officiating, Al Riveron, admitted in a Twitter video that the officials of the Browns-Raiders game made the wrong call in the fourth quarter when it appeared that Derek Carr fumbled the ball, and Larry Ogunjobi had a straight shot to the end zone. The refs blew the play dead because…Read more...

After Hall of Famer Junior Seau took his own life as a result of CTE in 2012, at age 43, his family chose to sue the NFL individually instead of participating in the broader settlement that has become a nightmare for players with football-induced brain trauma. Six years later, the league has finally agreed to pay the…Read more...

Everton beat Leicester City this morning, thanks in part to Leicester beef man Wes Morgan getting himself sent off after a series of bad tackles. But the man who carried the day was Everton midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson.Read more...

You aren’t as young as you used to be...concerts these days are just too dang loud. Luckily, Eargasm makes special earplugs that attenuate sound evenly, preserving the fidelity of the music you’re hearing while reducing its volume. They even come in an aluminum case that you can keep on your keychain.Read more...

The U.S. Center for SafeSport banned swimming coach Sean Hutchison on Friday for what its documents called a violation of policies by “digitally penetrating a minor, receiving oral contact from a minor, and engaging in sexual intercourse all with an athlete whom he coached.” That swimmer is Ariana Kukors-Smith, who…Read more...

Oakland A’s fan John Spencer had a rough night on Wednesday, when he saw his team get clobbered in the wild card game by the Yankees and then had beer poured all over him. His sad plight was captured on video, and it reverberated with a nation now wearily accepting the prospect of yet another Yankees run in the…Read more...

I’m writing this blog from a weird airport bar while drinking the smallest $12 glass of wine I’ve ever seen, feeling both relieved and very stupid. Earlier today I was supposed to take a flight from JFK to Seattle to visit one of my college roommates. Our other college roommate was flying in from D.C. and we were…Read more...

Jalopnik The SEC Deserved This | Lifehacker Back Up Windows 10 Before Installing the October Update or Risk Losing Your Files | Kotaku How The ‘NPC’ Meme Tries To Dehumanize ‘SJWs’ | io9 The Vast New Aquaman Trailer Teases an All Out Undersea War | The Takeout Why you probably shouldn’t worry about that LaCroix lawsuitRead more...

According to a report from the Baltimore Sun’s Talia Richman, there is video footage of Jordan McNair’s final practice with the Maryland football team, footage that could potentially help illuminate the circumstances of his tragic death from heatstroke.Read more...

There’s a rather elemental question at the heart of mixed martial arts: who would win in a fight between a dominant wrestler and a fearsome striker? It’s a question the sport has been asking for two decades, and one that, by its nature, will never be convincingly answered, because it depends on the wrestler and the…Read more...

On Friday, Senator Susan Collins, in a 43-minute speech, announced she will vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. “He has been an exemplary public servant, judge, teacher, coach, husband, and father,” she said.Read more...

In April 2017, German newsmagazine Der Spiegel reported that Cristiano Ronaldo in 2010 reached a $375,000 settlement with a woman who said he raped her in a Las Vegas hotel in 2009. The story barely made a ripple in the sports world, even after Der Spiegel followed up the initial story a week later by reporting on the …Read more...

In the past week, we’ve been inundated with information about Dr. Christine Ford’s allegations about Judge Brett Kavanaugh. And while we have seen (and been prevented from seeing) a great deal of new material, as well as their highly personal testimony, it appears that few minds were changed. Democrats found Ford’s…Read more...

Right now, the red glow from Clay Travis’s ass is visible from 100 miles away. His book Republicans Buy Sneakers Too, a title that aged very poorly from when it was announced to when it was published, has also sold very poorly.Read more...

I was alone in a hotel room on the East Side of Manhattan last week (PRO TIP: Never stay on the East Side of Manhattan during the UN General Assembly, unless you enjoy endless traffic barricades and the overwhelming stench of cologne in elevators), when I had a really bad nightmare. Like all dreams, the particulars of…Read more...

Portland, ME — On Thursday night, as Maine Republican Susan Collins weighed her vote on Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation to the Supreme Court, around 60 protestors stood in a plaza across the street from her Portland office. They held signs reading “I believe her.” Tourists cut around the outskirts of the crowd. As one…Read more...

The NFL is in the midst of a genuine offensive revolution. It’s also the latest phase of an evolution, given that teams have been passing more frequently and attacking defenses with additional receivers since the early part of this decade. But this year, something’s up. Way up. Scoring is off the charts. Quarterbacks…Read more...

Since coming forward last year as a survivor of former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar, Olympic gold medalist Aly Raisman has become a prominent voice and advocate for victims of sexual violence. Now her passionate words from her victim impact statement are being used—presumably without her consent—to promote…Read more...

Rotten news, Knicks fans: Kyrie Irving told an assembly of Celtics season ticket holders that he plans to return to Boston in free agency in summer 2019. And if you’re clinging to the hope that he was just saying that to ingratiate himself with Celtics diehards, he went into greater detail Friday at practice, saying…Read more...

It is the dream of all dogs to spill the treat container so that the treats held within it may be scattered about and easily consumed. This dream came true for a dog named Zeus, and even when his owner and a closed door conspired to deny him his bounty, he persisted.

Usually when Manchester United manager José Mourinho—who has been presiding over a plummeting team full of star players who hate him—is backed up against a wall of his own failings, he reacts by talking some insane and/or defensive shit or by storming away in anger. In his pre-match press conference today, however,…Read more...

Don’t watch this video of Lazio defender Riza Durmisi wrecking his arm (early reports say it’s a dislocated elbow) in the Europa League yesterday if you don’t want to see an elbow become double-jointed against its will:Read more...

The Nationals are despicable and I hate them, and anyway they’re out. The Orioles were the lousiest team in living memory this year. As a baseball fan in and from the broader D.C. area, I’m stranded in these playoffs, with no obvious rooting interest—except one: the joy of my dear coworkers’ sadness.

This should not be interpreted as proof that Brandon Ingram is Good now. He had a promising sophomore season; he’s got some defensive versatility; he’s a terror when pointed at the cup and on the move. These things will sort themselves out in the regular season. Certainly a preseason game against the putrid Kings is…Read more...

Double-shifting in 3-on-3 overtime is dangerous, when every forward has to backcheck on every counterattack, and a tired skater could easily mean an odd-man rush the other way and sudden death. But that’s exactly what Artemi Panarin did for Columbus, staying on the ice for a line change in overtime against Detroit.…Read more...

The investigators tasked with studying sexual harassment at the Dallas Mavericks say they interviewed 215 current and former employees and reviewed 1.6 million documents before releasing their 43-page report two weeks ago. But after all that, one name was still absent from the report, surprising some former Mavericks…Read more...

io9 The Speculation About Avengers 4's Real Title Rages On | Jalopnik Buy This Beautiful Bronze Lotus Elise Totaled Over Bumper Scratch | Offspring Is Your Teen Hiding Sexting Photos in a Fake Calculator App? | Kotaku NBA 2K19 MyCareer: The Kotaku Review | The Takeout Ask The Salty Waitress: An acquaintance just…Read more...

During the regular season, Rockies reliever Adam Ottavino worked 36 at-bats to an 0-2 count. Hitters went 0-36 against him in those situations, and 31 of them ended up as strikeout victims. It’s hard to understand, then, how this happened:

The vagaries of walk-offs and crowd dynamics meant that when Mike Moustakas singled in Christian Yelich to win Game 1 for Milwaukee, the dugout chased Moustakas, eventually settling in right-center field, where the Brewers jumped, slapped, and celebrated. One problem with that: It’s a long way to go for a Gatorade…Read more...

Hyun-Jin Ryu pitched seven dominant innings, and the Dodgers walked a whopping eight times against Braves pitchers, but it was late-blooming-ass, rags-to-riches-ass, minor-league-veteran-ass Max Muncy who dealt the heaviest blow in Thursday night’s 6–0 Dodgers win over the Atlanta Braves, in Game 1 of their NLDS…Read more...

Brian Bowen’s dad testified Thursday in the federal criminal trial of agent Christian Dawkins, Adidas executive James Gatto, and former Adidas operative Merl Code, who are accused of committing felony wire fraud as part of the FBI’s massive investigation of corruption in basketball recruiting. Bowen Sr. described…Read more...

The Brewers got nine innings of excellent pitching in a 10-inning game, and won on a walk-off single in extras from Mike Moustakas, to grab Game 1 of their NLDS matchup with the Colorado Rockies.Read more...

Marriott hotel workers are striking in Boston, San Francisco, and San Jose this week. Unite Here Local 26, the union representing the striking hotel workers in Boston, has organized its members around the slogan One Job Should Be Enough, and after months of negotiating with Marriott, last month 96 percent of Local 26…Read more...

Oh no, not this again.Read more...

Late Wednesday, a day after the Chicago Cubs had been eliminated from the playoffs, Major League Baseball announced that it was suspending Addison Russell for 40 games for “violating Major League Baseball’s Joint Domestic Violent, Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Policy.” Russell will also be required to “participate in…Read more...

Cavaliers guard J.R. Smith, who will be startled some time in late November when he realizes he has inbounded the ball to Collin Sexton and not LeBron James, will pay a fan $600 after hurling the man’s phone into a Manhattan construction zone in late July.Read more...