Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

The Hawks just can't get out of it, can they?

The great thing about fall guys in the NFL is they're interchangeable. It could be a quarterback, a coordinator, a distraction, the head coach, the owner, or Roger Goodell, and usually there's enough vitriol to spread around. Take the New York Jets for example. They're one of the most scrutinized franchises in the NFL...Read more...

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Before the 2023 season started, ESPN's Tom Luginbill said that Colorado might have the worst roster in college football. By the end of the 2023 regular season, Deion Sanders was strictly focused on the future, given that he had failed at the present.Read more...

Hello, and welcome back to the Sick, Sad World of Sports, a reminder that sports figures are human, and as such, are no more or less prone to fallibility than the rest of us. Everyone makes mistakes, but often fans overlook a misdemeanor or even a felony, because sports are supposed to be an escape.Read more...

There are far more important things to be thankful for in this world than being a fan of an NFL team with consistent quarterback play. Beginning with that caveat, many Americans do spend a lot of hours watching football. The product is exponentially better when the quarterbacks are above average.Read more...

The rapid integration of artificial intelligence into every corridor of society has created a surreal state of journalism in 2023. In its infancy, everyone is feeling around in the dark, stumbling over AI-generated content. A bevy of outlets, this site included, have dabbled in AI-generated content. Conversely, major...Read more...

An 18-week NFL schedule creates a plethora of nexus points where the season diverts from its expected path. Aaron Rodgers tearing his Achilles four plays into the season, the New England Patriots crashing, CJ Stroud flying out the rookie gates, Frank Reich being fired after 11 games and two rookies leading the entire...Read more...

It takes a lot to disrespect two groups of people at once. But on Sunday afternoon in Las Vegas, a Kansas City Chiefs fan found a way to hate Black people and the Native American at the same time.Read more...

On Sunday, the NFL made up for its Thanksgiving product that was more sleep-inducing than wolfing down a half a pound turkey in one afternoon. Jordan Love's late-season turnaround was worthy of a hat tip, but the rest of the day would have been better spent arguing about the 2024 election.Read more...

The Houston Texans suffered a setback in a 24-21 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars Sunday that throttled them back into a mosh pit of five-loss teams in the AFC. However, not all losses are created equal. Wins are utilized as a quarterback stat too frivolously, but throughout his rookie season, CJ Stroud has shown how...Read more...

Finally, someone out there has the guts to stand up to Tom Brady. Yes he has six championship rings and is the only player in NFL history to reach 600 career touchdown passes. However, that doesn't make him infallible. After all, his 2007 New England Patriots did pull a 2015-16 Golden State Warriors and blow a...Read more...

If you thought Texas A & M couldn't stoop any lower after paying Jimbo Fisher a record amount to scram, you thought wrong because they did just that on Saturday night,as all signs pointed to the Aggies hiring Kentucky's Mark Stoops. Reports by The Athletic's Bruce Feldman and Nicole Auerbach kicked off a brush fire...Read more...

And I cried because I knew I was leaving a place that I love, and it was a home, and I knew where I was going, wasn't going to be easy for a guy like me. Because I'm one of you. So I look at it like this: August 13th, 2005, I left professional wrestling."

Chaos is a ladder, said Lord Baelish. Especially when it comes to international soccer, where injuries, manager changes - both with country and club - a bad transfer or run of form can shift a player's standing with his national team within a week or two. Getting together only every month or longer leads to a lot of...Read more...

Josh Harris' first season of Washington Commanders ownership must feel like Calvin working the WacArnold's night shift. It seems like a distinguished opportunity at first to own a legacy franchise. Until you start contrasting them against the league's most respected franchises. Being congratulated on the team he owns...Read more...

On Saturday at high noon, Michigan and Ohio State will take the field in what may be the most anticipated matchup in the history of the greatest rivalry in all of sports. And for the first time since the Maize and Blue and Scarlet and Gray have been battling, a Black man will be serving as a head coach. Michigan's...Read more...

While debating politics over Thanksgiving can cause irreplaceable family fissures, debating the all-time starting fives for each NBA team holds way fewer stakes. There are many different ways to build an all-time starting five, all of which illicit strong reactions. Some people prefer to choose the players with the...Read more...

We've all heard of doppelgangers - people who aren't related but look like one another. There's a whole subreddit dedicated to finding lookalikes. There was a Saturday Night Live short on the subject. But have you ever looked at one of your favorite athletes, or a player on your favorite team and noticed how much they...Read more...

It's been more than two decades since we've seen an NBA game on Thanksgiving. And for the sake of communion and fellowship, we're better for it. It's not like the TV won't be on anyway. With Fox News and CNN rotting our brains and the NFL providing an annual doubleheader, there's plenty to go numb from.Read more...

With trust in the mainstream media dwindling daily, it's no wonder corporate sports journalism is also losing ground. Partisanship and traffic-driven agendas have diluted the public's trust in NBA talking heads. As anyone with a microphone and laptop can start a podcast, a DIY community of fan-driven podcasts has...Read more...

There's never been a more exciting time to be a Lions fan on Turkey Day than right now. Detroit is 8-2 entering Thursday's matchup with Green Bay and hasn't been this good to start a season since 1962. Much of the fanbase wasn't even alive the last time this franchise had this much hope on Thanksgiving. Waking up...Read more...

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It's the season of giving and the Indiana Pacers have one man to be thankful for their early season prosperity. Tyrese Haliburton has given the league whiplash leading Indiana's turnaround in the second year of his stint in Indiana. No offense is more captivating to watch or more dynamic than Indiana's swashbucklers...Read more...

Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay has gone full C. Montgomery Burns. That type of detachment from reality can happen when you grow up in a family that owns an atom-smashing plant - pardon me, the Colts franchise.Read more...

If there was a Villain of the Year award, Dillon Brooks would be a leading candidate every year. He's been able to bring some personality to the Houston Rockets, even if it annoys the hell out of everyone around. The Rockets host the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday night, and Brooks isn't giving his old comrades a...Read more...

It's been nearly two weeks since America last rolled their eyes at Aaron Rodgers, thus giving him the attention he so desperately craves, so you knew he was going to say something galaxy-brained and bone-headed before the week was up. Luckily, we have Pat McAfee paying him for that, so we were not disappointed.Read more...

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I have lived long enough to be aware that there are people who have no idea of the enormity of Monday Night Football. The Brady-Manning Bowl of 2005 was an MNF broadcast. For three and a half decades, there was no bigger regular-season NFL stage than that primetime matchup on ABC.Read more...

In May of 2018, at the Whitley Hotel in Atlanta - known then as the Ritz-Carlton (Buckhead) - Dave Tepper played one of the greatest games of Big Bank Take Little Bank" of all time. He bought the Carolina Panthers for a then-record $2.275 billion...in CASH.Read more...

The 2023 season for the St. Louis Cardinals was an absolute disaster. Though they entered it as the NL Central favorites, even if by default, they lost 91 games as pretty much everything went wrong. The epicenter of their collapse was their starting rotation, which contained pitchers that couldn't strike out anyone,...Read more...

Gather round. It's Feast Week: When college basketball and holiday branding collide in a breathtaking fireworks show of national championship contenders facing off in gyms barely fit for a church league game.Read more...

The Washington Wizards are an absolute mess. They are one of the three worst teams in the NBA and they are reportedly already regretting the trade that brought Jordan Poole to the nation's capital. Chris Paul might be a dirty, old man on the court, but at least he pays attention and takes the game seriously.Read more...

I don't have a favorite NBA team. There is no fingernail biting or throwing of remote controls in my home when viewing the league. What I do have is players whom I most enjoy watching. Two of them used to be LaMelo Ball and Miles Bridges. I used to always look forward to the Charlotte Hornets' 4 p.m. PST games.Read more...

Nobody expected the NBA's inaugural In-Season Tournament to have it all figured out right away. However, there are some drastic changes that need to be made. Friday night marks the final portion of the NBA In-Season Tournament's Group Stage. After this week, the tournament whittles down to eight teams in December....Read more...

Let it never be said again that the Rooney family, owners of the Pittsburgh Steelers, are loyal to a fault. It's easy to see how many fans of the Black & Yellow, and national observers of the franchise, developed that opinion in recent years.Read more...

While admitting I'm completely clueless as to the detailed logistics of constructing an international hockey tournament, the overall idea of it isn't complicated. While the actual hockey is probably better before the NHL season when players are fresh and teams have a chance to practice and shape themselves, the...Read more...

If you weren't too afraid of the never-ending Taylor Swift references to watch last night's Philadelphia Eagles-Kansas City Chiefs game, you might have noticed Philly defensive tackle Jalen Carter doing something you have never seen before late in the first half. (Personally, I'm far more offended by the fact that the...Read more...

Peyton and Eli Manning were back on Monday Night on the ManningCast" for the Super Bowl rematch between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles. As usual, they had a plethora of guests during this clash, which saw the Eagles hold on to win 21-17. One of the Manning brothers' guests on this evening seemed at...Read more...

It doesn't matter if you love or hate what has become of Michigan football this season, or if the drama around them has made you forget about Mel Tucker and Michigan State, we can all agree that they've both been the common denominator of their own drama. But that doesn't mean they've been the only thorn in the Big...Read more...

First off, I need to tell everyone that my bosses definitely aren't holding a taser to my neck to make sure we mention Taylor Swift the requisite number of times per day (c'mon, you know who we work for. The taser to my neck is our Christmas bonus). I write this of my own volition.Read more...

Obviously, the Kansas City Chiefs could have played better. Maybe the offense misses the big plays that JuJu Smith-Schuster made to help lift them past the Philadelphia Eagles in last season's Super Bowl. The referees could have also been better at their jobs.

Nobody knows what the hell is going on at LSU right now.Read more...

Najee Harris has every right to be frustrated. The Pittsburgh Steelers offense has been putting Band-Aids over its leaks all season just trying to get to the next day. It is a strategy that has largely worked. They have scored 25 or more points only once this season, yet still remain in the thick of the playoff hunt...Read more...

For multiple reasons, tonight's Monday Night Football game on ESPN might be one of the most watched in NFL history. For diehard NFL fans, it's last year's Super Bowl rematch between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs. On top of that, we have the parents of Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift set to meet for the...Read more...

If I can remove my red-tinted glasses that skew my view of everything Everton and always pushes me to have a good chuckle at their expense, last week's 10-point deduction penalizing the club for financial cock-ups for the years 2019-2022 was pretty convenient for everyone.Read more...

A man who first sued Joe Namath in 2019 under the name John Doe" spoke to the New York Post Sunday evening, telling the outlet he was routinely sexually abused at Namath's youth football camp back in 1972, when he was just 12.Read more...

The first Black woman to serve as this country's Attorney General is trying to get Jim Trotter's racial discrimination/retaliation lawsuit against the NFL dismissed - 21 months after she was hired to defend the league from Brian Flores' class-action lawsuit against the NFL's alleged racists hiring practices.Read more...

Winning a game does not mean the victorious team is better than the one that lost. The football is oblong and takes several unpredictable bounces every game. Sometimes sure-handed running backs fumble and undependable quarterbacks throw for 400 yards and four touchdown passes.Read more...

This week marks the 60th anniversary of William Clay Ford becoming the majority owner of the Detroit Lions on the same day JFK was assassinated. That inauspicious timing fits the Lions franchise. The Kennedy family curse has nothing on the Ford family's. Between 1952 and 1962, Detroit had won three championships and...Read more...