Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

Imagine, if you can, the USSF and new president Carlos Cordeiro, backed by a slew of MLS owners, calling a press conference and announcing their undying loyalty to Donald Trump, and urging all American soccer fans to vote Republican in the upcoming midterm elections. While the idea may seem fantastical, it is more or…Read more...

Shanghai Dragons, sitting in last place in the Overwatch League at 0-14, just announced that head coach Chen Congshan has “stepped down” from his post and will coach for one more week before getting replaced by assistant Sun Jun Young on an interim basis. Compete asked the Dragons if Congshan quit or was fired, and if…Read more...

Last night, Ronda Rousey made her third appearance on WWE TV since debuting at the WWE Royal Rumble. It went a lot like the last two, which is to say that it was a perfectly fine segment despite Rousey’s obvious inability to act.Read more...

The Kawhi-less Spurs are running on fumes, and it took a 23-point explosion from Tony Parker—who hadn’t cleared the 20-point mark in more than two years—to propel them past the league-worst Grizzlies 100-98 last night. Pau Gasol also hurt his shoulder in the game, making matters no easier for Gregg Popovich’s skeleton…Read more...

Cleveland Cavaliers center Tristan Thompson will miss at least the next couple of weeks recovering from a sprained right ankle. In his place, the Cavs will start spring-loaded slam-dunk bear Larry Nance Jr., whom they acquired from the Los Angeles Lakers back at the trade deadline. He got his first start as a Cavalier…Read more...

Baseball legend Mike Piazza purchased a lower-level soccer team in Italy last year. He became the majority shareholder of Reggiana FC, a Serie C (third division) team that has fallen on hard times in recent years. Piazza brought with him the promise of turning the club’s fortunes around, but there is one particular…Read more...

io9 The Ending of Star Wars Rebels Was Perfect Because It Was Also a Beginning | Lifehacker What Lawyers Wish You Knew | Compete If These Esports Fans Aren’t Giving Each Other Handjobs, They’re Very Good Actors | Jalopnik The Toyota GR Supra Racing Concept Finally Brings Back A Legend |Read more...

On February 11, the Trail Blazers got blown out at home by the Jazz, their fourth loss in six games, kicking off some mild panic in Portland about the team’s ability to hold onto a playoff spot in a stacked Western Conference. Three days later, the Rose Garden hosted a Valentine’s Day date between the Blazers and…Read more...

As good as they were when they launched a few years ago (and they are very good), Bang & Olufsen’s Beoplay H7 over-ear Bluetooth headphones were a tough sell at their original $450 price tag. But now, the street price on them is a much more palatable $250, and our readers can save an extra $50 on a pair with promo…Read more...

Today only, you can drive away with all-time low prices on a couple of car-focused product from Anker.

The official box score from tonight’s Maple Leafs-Sabres game says that this Ryan O’Reilly goal was unassisted, but the tape shows otherwise.Read more...

The Texans are refuting a Houston Chronicle report from this weekend that said the team wasn’t interested in signing free agents who’d protested during the national anthem:Read more...

Police will not seek charges against former Tampa Bay Rays physician Dr. Michael Reilly, who was fired in January after a former employee at his private practice came forward with allegations of sexual abuse.Read more...

Ex-ESPN employee Adrienne Lawrence filed a discrimination lawsuit against the company this past weekend, and her suit included the claim that Chris Berman left SportsCenter host Jemele Hill a “threatening and racially disparaging voicemail.” Hill released a statement this evening, confirming that she had a “personal…Read more...

This past weekend at IEM Katowice, Counter-Strike pro Janusz “Snax” Pogorzelski did an interview on behalf of his team Virtus Pro, since they’d ended up in last place. The interview footage gained attention thanks to a brief cutaway to the stands, which captured an insatiable couple going to town on each other.

Golden Boy Promotions announced today that Canelo Álvarez tested positive for clenbuterol last month. The Mexican fighter gave two urine samples to the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association on Feb. 17 and 20, both of which came back positive for the banned substance. Álvarez’s team blamed the result on tainted meat, and…Read more...

It helps to take a step back now, after Barcelona have all but assured themselves yet another league title by beating second-place Atlético Madrid at home yesterday, to accurately appreciate the enormity of the situation and the incomparable superiority of Lionel Messi.Read more...

io9 That Was a Truly Infuriating Episode of The Walking Dead | Jalopnik Here’s How A 7'7" Basketball Teen Gets Into A Small Car | Kotaku Final Fantasy XV: Royal Edition Adds A Big New Scene To The Final Act | Lifehacker Don’t Buy an Apple Laptop Until the New MacBook Air Comes Out |Read more...

Former ESPN employee Adrienne Lawrence filed a discrimination lawsuit against the company over the weekend, in which she accuses SportsCenter anchor John Buccigross of sexual harassment. The suit also contains an eye-popping claim about longtime ESPN host Chris Berman.

The UK Parliament’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee finally released their report about doping in British sports on Monday, capping a three-year investigation. In addition to the IAAF scandal and the questionable tactics of the Nike Oregon Project, the Select Committee also looked into British…Read more...

Former ESPN employee Adrienne Lawrence, who spent two years working for the network through a fellowship program, has filed a lawsuit against ESPN alleging that she was the victim of sexual discrimination and harassment.

Robert Bobroczkyi is 17 years old and already speaks three languages fluently. He taught himself to play piano purely through videos on Youtube, and he’s get a predilection for magic tricks. He’s also 7-foot, 7-inch, an inch taller than Yao Ming, and this is how he gets into a car.Read more...

Boat shoe season may seem very far away from us at this point, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take advantage of Sperry’s deals. Right now, grab some shoes made for the open seas for just $50. Select boat shoes (and sneakers that are somehow being classified as boat shoes) are discounted with no code needed.Read more...

Fabio Fognini, tennis’s sleepy pirate and occasional misogynist, is typically the one doing all the comical, soft-handed trick shots in his matches. I’m the irritable eccentric here in my dumbass camouflage-and-skulls getup, says Fabio Fognini, to no one in particular. But while serving out the match in his 1-6, 6-4,…Read more...

If you think that image’s gross, don’t watch the video. There’s more blood where that came from.Read more...

Memphis men’s basketball coach Tubby Smith, who quit his job at Texas Tech to take his current position in 2016, went off on NCAA transfer regulations following the last game of his regular season on Sunday, saying that relaxed transfer rules “teach (players) how to quit.”Read more...

USA Rugby won this weekend’s World Rugby Sevens Series event in Las Vegas, its first-ever USA Sevens championship, and, fittingly, American player Perry Baker had the highlight of the tournament. Baker was pinned near his own goal line, but he juked his way out of that tight spot, broke an open-field tackle, and…Read more...

Really, the only disorienting part of it is the uniforms. A team lately composed mainly of weird misshapen basketball nobodies scrounged from the sport’s couch cushions—a team that on any given night gets but more importantly needs and maybe even cannot survive without meaningful contributions from persons named Bryn…Read more...

Sage Northcutt—the UFC golden boy who just celebrated his birthday the only way he knows how—went on Australian MMA show Submission Radio last week and talked about the process of auditioning for the part of Ivan Drago, Tyron Woodley teaching him how to season chicken, his forthcoming move back up to fighting at 170…Read more...

Ryo “Dogura” Nozaki is a well-known player from Japan, who placed 7th in the Capcom Pro Tour global rankings in 2017 and took first place at Canada Cup 2017. He was also getting married last weekend, and during the wedding party, the happy couple set up a PlayStation and the groom took on a few challengers.Read more...

Despite being a professional athlete who is perfectly capable of throwing fastballs with pinpoint accuracy, Cubs starter Jon Lester cannot for the life of him throw the ball to first base. His struggles in this area have been well-documented over the past few seasons, but this spring he’s trying a new solution: throw…Read more...

PHILADELPHIA — A.J. Brodeur didn’t want to lie. Asked whether this was the first time he’d been in The Palestra after 2 a.m., he admitted it was.Read more...

A complaint filed with a U.S. District Court in Florida accuses former NASCAR driver Rick Crawford of trying to pay for sex with a minor, a fictitious 12-year-old girl used in a police investigation. Crawford was taken into custody upon arriving for the encounter, where he thought he was meeting the girl’s father.

Every year, WrestleMania weekend gets bigger. Not on the WWE side, to be clear—the promotion’s biggest event is about as big as it always is. It’s everything else, all the many non-WWE wrestling events that are, at least for the most hardcore fans, now as big a draw as or bigger than pro wrestling’s biggest show of…Read more...

The players of Dutch second-division club Go Ahead Eagles didn’t show much fight in their 4-0 home loss to De Graafschap this weekend. To remedy the situation, a handful of the home team’s most moronic fans stormed the pitch after the final whistle to try to literally beat up the opposing players who had just finished…Read more...

If there is anyone who still doubts that Michigan’s John Beilein is one of the best head coaches in the country, they should be shown a tape of Sunday’s Michigan-Purdue Big Ten title game. For the second day in a row, Beilein’s Wolverines faced an undeniably more talented opposition, and all they did was add to a…Read more...

Former 49ers and current (suspended) Raiders linebacker Aldon Smith is wanted in connection with a domestic violence incident on Saturday night in San Francisco, according to a report from the Mercury News.Read more...

Lifehacker This Is How Many Friends You Need to Be Happy | io9 Stranger Things Adds a Mysterious New Kid for Season 3 | Compete Overwatch Pro Called An Opponent A “Fucking Faggot”; ESPN Reporter Who Broke Story Immediately Caught With Racist And Sexist Tweets | Jalopnik Here’s How Similar The Mahindra Roxor Is To An…Read more...

The argument for fighting in hockey is twofold: that the threat of a beating serves as a deterrent, policing dirty hits against skill players, and that a good, rousing rumble can fire up an uninspired team. That hockey has neither gotten more dangerous nor less inspired as fighting had decreased dramatically would…Read more...

At some point in her life, a woman debates whether to say something or shut up. It could be the supervisor who keeps looking at her breasts. The partner who won’t let her have her own bank account. Or the man who raped her. While some offenses are, in the cold calculus of our court system, weighted as more serious…Read more...

Kobe Bryant and Glen Keane tonight won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film tonight in Los Angeles for Dear Basketball, based on the poem he wrote to announce his retirement from basketball in 2015. In his brief speech, he noted that while some expect basketball players to “shut up and dribble,” he’s got…Read more...

According to an ESPN report, someone filed a support ticket with Blizzard after Overwatch League player Taimou called another player a “fucking faggot kid” on a Twitch stream on January 23. The Overwatch League has yet to comment publicly, while his team, the Dallas Fuel, sent this statement to Compete:Read more...

I’m still digging the buzzer-beaters over here. This once comes from the Big South Conference tournament final, where 2nd-seed Radford had the last possession of a tied game against 5th-seed Liberty, who’d knocked out top-seed UNC Asheville on Friday. The Highlanders ran off some clock and set a pair of screens for…Read more...

The Lakers, stuck in the somewhat rare position of being a definite non-playoff team that also has no incentive whatsoever to lose, have, instead, been winning: they’ve now won five in a row, and seven of ten, and nine of 12, and 13 of 18, and 17 of 24. Barring a downturn over their final 20 games—a stretch that…Read more...

Yesterday one-handed UCF linebacker Shaquem Griffin was conquering the bench press. Today he ran the 40-yard-dash in a blistering 4.38 seconds, the fastest time for a linebacker at the combine in 15 years:Read more...

It is with great indifference (because it is impossible to feel any particular way about these Detroit Pistons) that I must inform you, a person who will be vaguely surprised to be reminded that the Pistons are an NBA team—not so much because you forgot altogether that they are an NBA team but by the sheer…Read more...

The scene of this incredible buzzer beater is the gym at Pace University, where Ardsley High School found itself down two, 51-49, with just seconds left in the New York Section 1 Class A title game, and opponent Teppan Zee High School inbounding:Read more...

If you missed last night’s Celtics-Rockets game—if, say, you were watching outdoor hockey or a heavyweight title fight—you missed an outrageously fun and fast and fiercely competitive game. You wouldn’t necessarily expect a game where James Harden and Kyrie Irving combined to shoot 12-of-35 from the floor to be very…Read more...

31-year-old Fiorentina captain Davide Astori died suddenly at the team hotel in Udine ahead of the team’s match at Udinese Sunday.Read more...