Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

Oscar Pistorius, the double-amputee sprinter who shot and killed his girlfriend, was quietly released from a South African prison today, and was allegedly warned he could be assassinated in retaliation.Read more...

When Rome was burning, there wasn't a definitive moment when it all collapsed. A definitive BOOM" where everyone can say, Well, that's it for the Romans. Good run." Had there been, it might have sounded like this:Read more...

Updated Jan. 5: Kyrie Irving denied being why Jazz security asked a rabbi to put down his I'm a Jew and I'm proud" sign despite an interaction between the two.Read more...

Give the NFL credit. The league obviously hired writers from disparate backgrounds to arrange the season's plotlines. On Sunday, the Week 18 finale will climax with an end-of-season clash of genres between the Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins, who couldn't be more different. The Dolphins even have a Hard Knocks camera...Read more...

The NCAA and ESPN agreed to an eight-year, $115 million annual deal to broadcast 40 different championships including the women's college basketball tournament.

Toxic ex-MLB pitcher Trevor Bauer - who sued Deadspin and lost - is hoping to find another gig in the majors.Read more...

News flash: The Miami Heat are a better coached team than the Los Angeles Lakers. It showed in the fourth quarter of their Wednesday night matchup. Erik Spoelstra has been with the Heat organization since 1995 - its head coach since 2008. Following nine seasons as an NBA player, Darvin Ham was an assistant with three...Read more...

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Last time I checked, Stephen A. Smith, a man who epitomizes the embrace really loud debate" and who, just this week, had a man sniffing a female colleague's shoe on his show, has decided to speak for journalism.Read more...

Golf is so much more fun when the players are petty. From Ryder Cup shenanigans to guys getting pissed about the pace of play, the game is infinitely more entertaining when there's a clearly defined heel who fans can collectively hate. That's why the past year-plus of golf was great television.Read more...

The NBA likely implemented its player participation policy - read: anti-load management protocol - so that fans wouldn't attend games only to see LeBron James and Anthony Davis, or Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, in street clothes.Read more...

While Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery still wait for their free-agent payday, two powerhouses that were also in need of starting pitching have chosen other routes. Oh, the Dodgers did splash free-agent cash, it was just for one pitcher who's never pitched in the majors (Yoshinubu Yamamoto) and one who won't pitch in...Read more...

In order for a rivalry to become a full-blown blood feud, there needs to be a little back and forth in the games themselves. The Knicks and Celtics, on paper, should hate each other, but on the court, New York is never seriously competitive so it doesn't really resonate.Read more...

The Los Angeles Lakers are in the midst of a slump and it looks like the team's woes will be pinned on Darvin Ham.Read more...

The Indiana Pacers have completely taken over Giannis Antentokounmpo's brain.Read more...

Three million dollars (total) in fines. Two atrocious owners. One franchise. The Carolina Panthers are a mess.Read more...

Updated Jan. 4: Ward pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Update: It's the final week of the NFL regular season and even more backups will get starts as teams who've locked up playoff spots rest their normal QB1s.

Nobody leaves a job with quite as much oomph as Bill Belichick. Twenty-four years ago this week, Belichick handed a note with a scribbled message signaling to New York Jets officials at a press conference, stepped to the podium, and delivered his infamous remarks.Read more...

Dominican prosecutors allege that Wander Franco paid hush money to the mom of the underage girl he is accused of having an inappropriate relationship with.Read more...

There is a segment of hockey fans that have always wanted to watch the bubble of hockey men discussing hockey things get totally pierced by even just the smallest bit of logic. For that is the true enemy of most things that have been hockey ethos. So a hearty thank you to Jennifer Botterill, who during an intermission...Read more...

Updated Jan. 4: Prosecutors in Kansas officially dismissed three felony charges against Patrick Mahomes' brother, Jackson, on Wednesday afternoon, according to reports. Jackson Mahomes appeared at a hearing Wednesday, where the charges were officially dropped.Read more...

We were told that once Shohei Ohtani signed, or promised to the Dodgers that he can take all his money after the ocean reclaims Los Angeles as a whole, the rest of the free agents would start to fly off the shelves. It's now Jan. 3, spring training is about six weeks away, and most of the free agents that were in the...Read more...

The bowl opt-outs are a letdown, but we all saw what happened to Jaylon Smith. During the 2016 Fiesta Bowl - which was not a playoff game - his leg was mangled. A projected top-five pick fell to the second round. Since then, many star players have made the intelligent business decision to not play in games that reward...Read more...

The darts world is abuzz over Luke Littler, a 16-year-old prodigy on the verge of winning the World Dart Championship. The Englishman burst onto the scene in this tournament, going from relative unknown to the sport's Bobby Fischer (minus the racism and genius though I'm not sure those two can be true at once).

There was a time in journalism when allowing people to spew false information in a public forum was frowned upon. That was before the ghouls at FOX News realized that there was a lot of money in telling people what they want to hear - truth be damned - first as wild speculation about where former President Barack...Read more...

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the NBA's dullest superstar, which has allowed him to sneak up behind the league while they sleep on his ascendance. On Tuesday night, SGA propelled the Oklahoma City Thunder to their latest signature win. After a two-week stretch in which they've made mincemeat of the NBA's best defense,...Read more...

The NHL is almost certainly delighted that it's seen an uptick in scoring the past three seasons (though down a skosh this season from last). It probably should pull a muscle patting itself on the back for the crackdown on goalie equipment leading to lower average save percentages across the Original 32 (.903 so far...Read more...

Claudine Gay is the new Nikole Hannah-Jones in the same way that Eric Bieniemy is the latest version of Sherman Lewis. And while there's a big difference between being a leader at an institution of higher learning and coaching football, the common denominator remains the same - excluding Black people from certain...Read more...

Welcome to Deadspin's The Sports Nihilist, where all is for naught, and we are but accidental jolts of electrified meat stuck to the surface of a rock in an indifferent universe.Read more...

The biggest brawl during the 2024 Winter Classic happened on the NHL on TNT set.Read more...

This article is based on data from Sportradar.Read more...

From the moment that Pat McAfee, Desmond Howard and Joey Galloway breathed a sigh of relief after Rece Davis said naysayers" on College Gameday, the College Football Playoff semifinals were off and running. With Michigan taking on Alabama and Washington going up against Texas, there were great expectations for the...Read more...

Near the end of Justin Fields' triumphant win over the Atlanta Falcons, Chicago Bears fans serenaded him with a passionate We want Justin" chant. The chorus reached a fever pitch on a night when Fields threw for north of 260 yards and one touchdown in a blowout win over the Atlanta Falcons. Throughout Sunday's win,...Read more...

We already know Dan Orlovsky is an odd character. The former NFL QB - best remembered for running out of the back of his own end zone - admitted on Twitter that he uses his towel at least 30 times before washing it; and once went on The Pat McAfee Show to reveal his wife's poop schedule.

If there's one thing you can count on in sports, it's the desire of a certain segment of the media to rehabilitate their favorite players and coaches, no matter the harm done. There was the infamous Adam Schefter softball interview with Greg Hardy shortly after he was accused of doing this to his then-girlfriend. In...Read more...

There's an owner problem across all professional sports. If you think the behavior of Carolina Panthers' owner David Tepper was abhorrent, and it was, and needs to be eradicated from the game, and it should, wait 15 minutes until the next entitled billionaire gets fussy.Read more...

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I have nightmares that I'll be seeing this in my sleep for the next decade:Read more...

As the NFL heads into the final week of the regular season, there are still division titles and playoff berths to be decided.Read more...

The horseshoe that's been up the Texas Longhorns' ass finally fell out Monday night. Hours after its claim at legitimacy flamed out, with Alabama squandering a seven-point fourth-quarter lead to a semi-lethargic Michigan team, UT repeatedly looked like frauds.Read more...

Alabama lost in the Rose Bowl to Michigan and the Crimson Tide's NIL collective wants your money.Read more...

Michigan vs. Everybody isn't just a catchy phrase on a t-shirt. It's more than a rallying cry when the entire sports world is cheering against you. It's a declaration that anybody can get it - line em up and knock em down. On Monday night, Nick Saban and the Alabama Crimson Tide got their names crossed off the list.Read more...

What happens on Bourbon Street doesn't always stay on Bourbon Street. In one case, it gets broadcast to millions of people.Read more...

On Saturday morning, the New York Knicks and Toronto Raptors put their litigation aside long enough to agree on a trade exchanging OG Anunoby, Precious Achiuwa, and Malachi Flynn with RJ Barrett, Immanuel Quickley, and a 2024 second-round pick.Read more...

There were many who had their headlines and stories written, piling on a third-straight CFP semifinal loss for Jim Harbaugh on top of his lost Super Bowl and two lost NFC Championship games. Nice sets come in threes and all that. And he still may add that next Monday.Read more...

UPDATE: Wander Franco was detained in his home country of the Dominican Republic after being interviewed by prosecutors regarding his alleged inappropriate relationships with young girls.

From the jump, Detroit Lions head coach Dan Campbell has shown zero interest in moral victories, and Saturday in Dallas was further proof of that. Down 20-19 with 23 ticks, the coach eschewed the tie and went for two and the win three consecutive times. After an illegal touching penalty overruled a successful fat-guy...Read more...

Happy New Year! We're on to 24. Years have become synonymous with athletes and their jersey numbers recently (ask any 23-year-old how their Jordan Year" is going). In honor of the trend, here are the greatest athletes to ever wear No. 24.Read more...

So, who has the hottest young talent in the league? We're analyzing the five teams who have built the best through the draft across positions and skill sets. No room for wannabes here - gotta be 25 or below to even join the party. We're also looking for impact players, not DNPs, with dreams bigger than their wingspan.Read more...