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ESPN is reporting its employee Jon Gruden will leave the company after eight years and take his turkey hole to the Raiders, where he started his head coaching career 20 years ago. The deal to bring Gruden back to coaching could include giving him a chunk of team ownership, again according to ESPN.Read more...

Aided by a ridiculous Baltimore Ravens loss and a barely conscious performance from their own opponents, the Buffalo Bills will head to the NFL playoffs for the first time since 1999. The Bills did all they could do, beating Miami 22-16 in a game that was nowhere near as close as the score, but their playoff hopes…Read more...

Most of you likely recall last year’s Super Bowl between Atlanta and New England, in which the Falcons somehow blew a 28-3 lead and let Tom Brady claim yet another championship. But many of you may also be shocked to hear that the Falcons weren’t immediately banned from all future postseasons after that disturbing…Read more...

Defensive lineman Kyle Williams has played for the Buffalo Bills for 12 seasons. Today could be his last game. With the Bills on the goal line in the third quarter, the team lined up the defensive tackle at fullback—and handed him the ball.Read more...

Despite the worst efforts of Joe Flacco, who went 4 of 18 for just 28 yards in the first half, the Ravens are actually trying to make the playoffs by beating the Bengals today. It’s proving to be extremely difficult, and Darqueze Dennard made the task even harder by stealing a catch away from Chris Moore and taking it…Read more...

The Saints’ Alvin Kamara—the most fun surprise of the NFL season—appeared to have some second thoughts about taking out his first touch of the game on the Bucs’ kickoff. It’s a good thing he didn’t take the touchback, though, because once he got up a head of steam Kamara just blew straight through all his blocks for a…Read more...

This game really looked like it could be the one. Granted, the overtime loss to the Packers in Week 14 looked promising too, as did Week 7's extra time 12-9 defeat against the Titans. But going up against Pittsburgh’s B team, with all the Steelers’ best players resting, the 0-15 Cleveland Browns had as good a chance…Read more...

The New England Patriots wrapped up the No. 1 seed in the AFC today with a dismantling of the New York Jets. The primary highlight of the game, however, was this flop by Johnson Bademosi.Read more...

If you haven’t noticed by the ice forming in your water glasses, it’s very cold up north and out east today, and it’s messing with at least a few NFL players. One of them was Eagles punter Donnie Jones, who went out to punt while still wearing his warm-ups, then had to treat fans to a little show.Read more...

A few trick plays have been some of the only highlights of this otherwise poor Bears season, and Chicago sprinkled in another one for their final game of the year. On a punt return against the Vikings, the Bears pulled off the always-satisfying decoy punt return, with Tarik Cohen serving as the bait and Bryce Callahan…Read more...

The turds of the San Pasqual Valley Unified School District, in California, passed a rule this year prohibiting “kneeling, sitting or similar forms of political protest” during national anthem ceremonies at athletic events, because they are lame-brained suckers with tiny little meaningless existences. That dipshit…Read more...

Here is ESPN reporter Diana Russini, with an all-time brilliant live demonstration of the ferocious arctic cold of Foxborough, Massachusetts, this morning:Read more...

Jon Gruden coached in Oakland for four good years, leading the Raiders to four consecutive .500-or-better seasons, including two playoff appearances and an AFC Championship game. In the 16 seasons since the franchise traded him to the Buccaneers, the Raiders have had four .500-or-better seasons, and two playoff…Read more...

Crystal Palace ended Manchester City’s 18-match Premier League win streak today at Selhurst Park, but they could have had so much more than just the draw they came away with. After surviving 90 minutes at 0-0, Palace’s Wilfried Zaha went down in the box on a foul by Raheem Sterling, giving the 17th place side a golden…Read more...

Thirty-seven years after he first began calling Huskies games, Washington radio announcer Bob Rondeau signed off from his final broadcast in a characteristically low-key fashion.Read more...

Villanova, Arizona State, and TCU entered their Saturday games as the sole undefeated teams in men’s college basketball, and one after another, they all lost that honor. Tenth-ranked TCU went down in a 90-89 thriller against Trae Young and Oklahoma, the number-one ’Nova Wildcats got beat up in Indiana by a…Read more...

The Knicks narrowly prevailed over the Pelicans last night in New Orleans, but not without great sacrifice. Ron Baker, blue-collar reserve guard, fell in the line of duty attempting a foolhardy contest of a driving Anthony Davis dunk:Read more...

At least twice in 2017 game-winning buckets have been scored by players who appeared to have stepped out of bounds immediately prior to sinking their shots. The NBA’s replay rules have a big dumb hole that makes these kinds of plays unreviewable, and therefore uncorrectable, but that may not be the case for much…Read more...

If you read this Dave McMenamin story about LeBron James reflecting upon his life and career on his 33rd birthday, which is today, first of all you will learn that LeBron has lost his last six games in Utah. Far stranger than that bit of trivia, you will come across a link that will direct you to this video, which is…Read more...

Here is Lakers guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, boldly and tragically attempting the old off-the-backboard self-assist during last night’s loss to the Clippers:Read more...

Manchester United striker Romelu Lukaku was stretchered off the pitch early in the first half today after a nasty-looking head-to-head collision with Southampton centre back Wesley Hoedt. It didn’t look like much in real time, but the angle on this review shows the crown of Hoedt’s head squared up with the back of…Read more...

Well, you knew this was coming: the Cleveland Browns have been owned by another dead person.Read more...

Break up the damn Bulls! Three NBA teams have won eight of their last 10 games, and two of those teams are the Golden State Warriors and the Oklahoma City Thunder, a couple of superstar-laden superteams. The Bulls are the third team, and the Bulls are led in total minutes by Justin friggin’ Holiday. This run of…Read more...

For exclusive videos, pictures, and more, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Send us your confidential tips at tips@deadspin.com, call our confidential tips hotline at (347) 746-8471, contact our writers directly, or use our anonymous SecureDrop system.Read more...

Tied with the Thunder in the closing seconds Friday night, the Bucks ran a simple out-of-bounds play to get superhuman monster Giannis Antetokounmpo isolated on the baseline against regular human Josh Huestis. Giannis is an insanely tough cover for anyone, and he found a way past Huestis, driving baseline and muscling…Read more...

Tonight’s big Cotton Bowl matchup proved to be a snoozer, as Ohio State dominated USC and Trojans quarterback Sam Darnold pooped all over the field in what can only be seen as a desperate attempt to avoid being drafted by the Browns. USC finally woke up with two minutes left, showing a bit of grit and determination to…Read more...

New Mexico State, freshly kicked out of the Sun Belt conference, beat Utah State 26-20 in an overtime walkoff to keep the Aggies undefeated in bowl games in the school’s history—though tonight’s Arizona Bowl was NMSU’s first bowl appearance in 57 years.Read more...

For exclusive videos, pictures, and more, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Send us your confidential tips at tips@deadspin.com, call our confidential tips hotline at (347) 746-8471, contact our writers directly, or use our anonymous SecureDrop system.Read more...

TMZ reported today that Detroit Pistons guard Avery Bradley “entered into a confidentiality agreement” with a woman who said he sexually assaulted her while she was “passed out drunk” on May 23 in Cleveland. The agreement with the woman was reached earlier this year, according to TMZ.

Breitbart quietly deleted the archive of a radio show Curt Schilling recorded two weeks ago with white supremacist Paul Nehlen after falsely claiming it stopped covering the anti-Semitic candidate seeking to dethrone Paul Ryan “months” ago.Read more...

The NFL and the NFLPA completed their inquiry into what happened when Texans quarterback Tom Savage was permitted to re-enter a game earlier this month after smacking his head on the turf and sustaining a brain injury that caused him to experience a fencing response. Their joint conclusion: The concussion protocol was…Read more...

Women’s MMA has seen a succession of stars rise and fall over its five years in the UFC.

It was a miserable year full of miserable things. Here is some stuff from 2017 that we hope stays in 2017.

Are you discouraged by our national political nightmare? Looking for a project for the new year? Great: Your local Democratic Party, which may not be worth a damn today, is just waiting for you to revive it.Read more...

Eddie Bauer makes great stuff all year ‘round, but their wares really shine in the winter, and you can stock up on coats, pants, boots, and pretty much everything else from their semi-annual sale, including a rare deal on the iconic Downlight Stormdown jacket for men and women, which can keep you warm in temperatures…Read more...

The munchies have set in, and you’re not sure whether you want greasy tacos, Sourdough Jacks, or seasoned curly fries. Or perhaps your cognitive functions are hazy at best, and you prefer a Snoop Dogg-curated deep-fried grab bag. Have we got great news for you, wasteoids.Read more...

The writers at Deadspin asked their moms and dads what they thought of the site in 2017. Here are their unedited responses.Read more...

We had to wait nearly 50 weeks for the biggest wrestling story of 2017, and it’s only sort of a wrestling story. The most dramatic development in the sport this year was Vince McMahon selling almost $100 million worth of WWE stock to fund what appears to be his new, private company’s XFL revival, but that news came in…Read more...

Former FIFA World Player of the Year George Weah has been decisively elected President of Liberia. [BBC]

The A.V. Club We regret to inform you that Guy Fieri’s Times Square restaurant is shutting down | io9 Do Marvel Lego Sets Reveal Avengers: Infinity War Secrets? | Jalopnik Look At This Pedestrian Walk Away From Nearly Getting Hit By A Car Like It’s No Big Deal | Kotaku Bloodborne Hackers…Read more...

Gulfstream Park in Florida has something called the Rainbow 6, a pick-six that carries over each day if there’s not a single unique winner. For a mere 20 cents, bettors, if they select the winners of the day’s final six races, walk away with big money—on Thursday, the jackpot stood at $571,744. One better nailed the…Read more...

The Trail Blazers made a very impressive comeback against the 76ers tonight, starting the fourth quarter down 13 and finishing it as the victors, 114-110. In that final quarter, no one in Portland made a more amazing play than Shabazz Napier. With his team up four, Napier drove, drew two defenders, then dished a…Read more...

Amazon’s annual Digital Day has kicked off for 2017, with big discounts on pretty much anything you can download from Amazon, including movies, TV shows, PC games, apps, and more.

A stunning coast-to-coast individual goal from Samuel Bucek gave Slovakia a massive 3-2 win over the United States in the preliminary round of the World Junior Championships tonight. With just 2:08 remaining in the game, it served as the perfect rebuttal to a Casey Mittelstadt equalizer a minute prior, and triggered…Read more...

Earlier tonight, in a quick blog about James Harden’s layup off the shot clock, I wrote the following:Read more...

If you know anything about announcers, you know that Gus Johnson gets excited a lot. His Gusgasms at the slightest hint of any action in the games he calls has delighted and aggravated fans for years in equal measure.Read more...

Tampa Bay Lightning scorers Nikita Kucherov and Steven Stamkos have only been teammates since 2013, but at the end of the second period tonight against Montreal, the pair showed off the communication skills of a longtime married couple. As the Lightning pushed the puck down deep in the Canadiens’ zone, Kucherov…Read more...

OK, so it didn’t count. But the way the Rockets are beating up the Celtics tonight, two points won’t matter.* In that case, here’s a layup off the shot clock by James Harden that’s much, much cooler than any normal field goal that would actually show up on the scoreboard.