Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

The pain of a swatted shot typically lies with the shooter alone. In the second quarter of tonight’s Thunder-Clippers game, though, this poor ref got saddled with all the agony (physical and emotional alike) of Jerami Grant’s block of an attempted layup by Jawun Evans:Read more...

Serena Williams has announced that she’s withdrawn from this year’s Australian Open. Less than two weeks after making her official return to the court with an exhibition match at the Mubadala World Tennis Championship, and four months after giving birth to her first child, she said today that she would not be…Read more...

The Leafs’ Nazem Kadri and Sharks’ Joe Thornton got chippy with each other about as fast as possible tonight—sniping at each other in the faceoff circle to the point of getting kicked out of the circle before dropping gloves to start fighting, all of two seconds into the game.Read more...

Pittsburgh police say they were summoned to North Shore bar Tequila Cowboy on New Year’s Eve because of a “minor scuffle” involving Steelers offensive coordinator Todd Haley’s wife Christine. That information only came out after the team said Tuesday that Haley was hurt in a fall but would resume his coaching duties.…Read more...

Pro gaming has yet to become normalized enough for the parents of America to feel proud of their offspring for pursuing it professionally. At least, not until those children defy all expectations and start making hundreds of thousands of dollars in tournament winnings. Parents of pro gamers told the Wall Street JournalRead more...

Steelers linebacker Ryan Shazier, who was carted off the field with a spinal injury during a Dec. 4 game, has regained feeling in his legs, according to a report from WPXI.Read more...

If you are not PUMPED UP and ready to THROTTLE MEDIOCRITY after watching cartoonishly burly Alabama strength coach Scott Cochran SHATTER Crimson Tide’s second-place trophy from last year’s College Football Playoff final with gravity and also a large hammer, then you’re not ready to TACKLE GREATNESS.Read more...

Oh, what’s that? Your dog can sled? That’s real cute. Now get the fuck out of here, because this one can also act as its own ski lift.Read more...

Early-season basement dwellers West Ham showed some promise and held their own in a 1-1 draw against Tottenham today, but the point they won is mostly thanks to a bit of magic from Pedro Obiang. The Hammer midfielder, who had only scored two goals total since the start of the 2015-16 season, pulled off a rare feat by…Read more...

Most of the time, the tennis ball needs to be struck up and over the net, only to fall back down to earth. Viewed from the side the ball’s path would describe a gentle arc, like a parenthesis tipped onto its back.

Tongan athlete Pita Taufatofua jazzed up the 2016 Olympics opening ceremony when he walked into the arena shirtless and slathered in oil. He competed in taekwondo in the summer games, and now he’s trying to qualify for this year’s Winter Olympics as a cross-country skier.Read more...

Riot Games confirmed to Compete that it has lifted the indefinite ban on Twitch League of Legends streamer Tyler1.Read more...

Fighting game veteran Daigo Umehara hosted a series of high-level exhibitions earlier this week as part of his new Kemonomichi event series, and one matchup became the perfect opportunity for two stars with personal grudges to settle their differences in Guilty Gear Xrd Rev 2.

A truly unfortunate woman in Little Rock, Ark. is the victim of one of the shittiest possible crimes: a mad poopening.

House hunting is such a pain! (I am reliably told this by people who make enough money to know.) Beleaguered martyrs Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are about to experience this struggle first hand when they finally buy a house in Washington, D.C.Read more...

Perry Ellis is sailing into the colder weather by giving you an extra 40% off their entire sale section, no code needed. If you need a new blazer, or some slacks, or even a nice button down or flannel, this is the sale you’re not gonna want to miss out on.

The longtime Sports Illustrated writer Michael Silver works for the NFL now, and it appears that his editors there are finally allowing him to live his dream of writing like a prestigious version of Bill Simmons circa 2002. His lengthy profile of Rams head coach Sean McVay is packed with more pop culture references…Read more...

Many athletes present first and foremost as carefully crafted public brands, but we know at least one thing to be true about Mike Trout: this dude really, earnestly loves the weather. Not a specific season, like most normal people who love swimming in the summer or wearing sweaters in autumn. No, Trout just loves…Read more...

Jonathan González is not only one of the best players in the U.S. Soccer youth system, he’s already one of the most accomplished teens in Liga MX. The 18-year-old Monterrey midfielder broke into the Rayados first team this season and immediately established himself as a starter in the defensive midfield, supplanting…Read more...

SAN JOSE, Calif.— The judges were still calculating the scores of the previous competitor when Mirai Nagasu took to the ice for her short program at the 2018 National Championships. She zoomed around the rink, not doing much of anything, just staying warm and waiting for her turn, yet the crowd cheered for her. It was…Read more...

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

If you’ve got some Amazon gift cards from the holidays burning a hole in your wallet, today’s a great day to treat yourself to a robotic vacuum.

We have likely witnessed the end of an era for the Seahawks. Seattle missed the playoffs for the first time in six seasons, and the harsh realities of age, the cruel logic of the salary cap, and the inevitability of injuries all now threaten the makeup of one of the NFL’s most stable rosters. The presence of Russell…Read more...

It took just six seconds for young Red Wing upstart Andreas Athanasiou to get the winning goal in overtime against the Senators Wednesday night. And for that, he can thank the best defenseman in hockey.Read more...

Steph Curry hit a three with three seconds left to give Golden State a 125-122 win over Dallas Wednesday, and the best way to watch it is from a high-speed camera with faces of anxious Mavericks fans in the background.

Kenny Omega is considered by many to be the best wrestler in the world. Chris Jericho is an unquestioned wrestling legend. They both showed why in Tokyo on Thursday.

Jacqueline Kent Cooke, daughter of former Skins owner Jack Kent Cooke, was arrested last night after getting into an altercation with a man on an Upper East Side sidewalk.

Noise-canceling Bluetooth headphones, Bowflex adjustable dumbbells, and two water bottles sales start off today’s best deals.Read more...

This was the season that the Los Angeles Lakers, coming off four consecutive seasons with less than 30 wins, were supposed to finally show signs of becoming something other than a tanking waste biding time for young players to develop and star free agents to become available. The plan was supposed to go like this:…Read more...

It’s sort of a shame that the story of Andy Carroll’s sporting career will almost certainly be the arc of his failures. Yes, at 21 years old Carroll was selected as Liverpool’s heir apparent to Fernando Torres’s Merseyside throne, and yes, he failed miserably at making that seat his own—in large part because of the…Read more...

Thousands of our readers have bought Bowflex’s adjustable SelectTech dumbbells, and you can bundle them with a matching stand today for $3oo, a $119 savings over buying both items separately.

It’s still pretty early to be thinking about filing your taxes, but since you won’t be able to do it on a postcard, you’ll probably need some software to help you out. Luckily, if you buy it today, you stand to save big.

A maverick is, literally, a little cow. An unbranded calf, so named for nineteenth-century Texas cattle farmer Samuel Maverick, who did not brand his cattle. For nearly two decades now, the Dallas Mavericks have been known in China by a translation that works out roughly to “little cows.” Accurate! And also,…Read more...

There’s a 100 percent chance of snow in Foxboro tomorrow, with a foot or more expected. Blizzard conditions are possible, and Gov. Charlie Baker has asked everyone to stay off the roads as many schools and businesses have announced their closures in advance. And Bill Belichick, as always, expects all of his players to…Read more...

The Bills, as you’ve no doubt heard by now, have finally broken the NFL’s longest active playoff drought. Wonderful! Such joy for so many long-suffering fans! And a columnist for the local paper has one message for them: please shut up about your “sports,” haven’t you heard that there are literally dozens of other…Read more...

Former Arizona football coach Rich Rodriguez serially harassed his assistant, including grabbing his penis in front of her, trying to kiss her, telling her “I love you” in a text message, and making her cover for his extramarital affair, according to a notice of claim she filed last month with the state attorney…Read more...

In the first episode of Let’s Remember Some Guys, we learned that David Roth possessed a remarkable capacity to remember almost all early ’90s baseball players found on cards in a wax pack. But could he handle the off-brand, mysteriously vague “Baseball Legends” pack? The answer was an emphatic “Duh.”

The University of Central Florida ended the season as the only undefeated team in college football, and though they didn’t make the playoff, they have decided to go ahead and claim the national championship. They’ve spent the time since they beat Auburn in the Peach Bowl justifiably boasting and generally fucking with…Read more...

We see a lot of deals around the web over on Kinja Deals, but these were our ten favorites today.

2017’s “YouTube Rewind,” the end-of-year advertisement for the biggest trends and hottest creators on the platform, urges people to come together after an awful year. This heartfelt sentiment lasts about thirty seconds before the camera plunges back down to earth, where a rooftop party rages. Here, two blonde men look…Read more...

LaVar, LaMelo, and LiAngelo Ball touched down in Lithuania today ahead of the kids’ scheduled debut for their new team, Vytautas Prienu. Their appearance was cause for a pretty wild welcome party.Read more...

Here is an endlessly strange sentence: Blake Bortles will lead the Jaguars in a home playoff game this weekend against the Buffalo Bills. The Jags won the AFC South, looking at times like a legit Super Bowl threat, largely thanks to an all-time defense, a powerful rookie running back, and Bortles’s improvement from…Read more...

Two days after his team won its College Football Playoff semifinal and advanced to the national title game for the third straight year, Alabama head coach Nick Saban groused that there was only one week between semifinals and the championship. This has more or less been the case since the College Football Playoff…Read more...

Back when it came out, Star Wars: The Force Awakens played like a straightforward homage to 1977’s Star Wars. It was plenty fun, but wasn’t all that deep. Now that I’ve seen its follow-up, The Last Jedi, The Force Awakens seems a lot more interesting.

The second-biggest pro wrestling event of the calendar year is already upon us, and you should probably brew a pot of coffee. At 3 a.m. ET on Wednesday night/Thursday morning, New Japan Pro Wrestling’s 12th annual Wrestle Kingdom supershow will air live from the Tokyo Dome on their NJPW World streaming service; the…Read more...

Southern Mississippi baseball is a frequent NCAA tournament team. Last year, the Golden Eagles went 50-16, and for the 2018 season, the team has a preseason All-American in sophomore outfielder Matt Wallner. But the upcoming season will be slightly shorter than usual: A planned February series against Stony Brook had…Read more...

Tonight the Celtics and Cavaliers will meet for the second time this season, and ESPN’s Jackie MacMullan marked the rematch of the East’s two best teams with a feature on Kyrie Irving. Irving’s first half-season out from under LeBron James has been an unquestioned success, an especially impressive feat given that…Read more...

It’s “Dione.” Which I guess is somehow a dumber name than “Thanos” because, uh, it’s traditionally the name of a goddess instead of a male god? I don’t know. He looks like a thumb with Rob Dibble’s face tattooed on it. Comic fans are not nearly embarrassed enough about this.Read more...

The US and North Korea seem to be on the brink of starting a nuclear war almost every single day here in 2018. But even if a nuclear bomb is used and millions die, whatever humans left surviving will try to achieve some level of normalcy in the aftermath. How do I know that? In 1946, American troops played a football…Read more...