Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

After the Hamilton Tiger-Cats announced that they were hiring disgraced former Baylor coach Art Briles as an assistant earlier today, the CFL declared tonight that Briles won’t be joining the franchise after all:Read more...

Floyd Mayweather beat Conor McGregor’s ass; McGregor put on a respectable effort against an elite boxer, winning a moral victory. McGregor looked as sharp as he could have, and showcased improved skills; Mayweather was a faded husk of his former self. The fight was competitive in stretches; the fight wasn’t close.

The University of Illinois announced today that they would stop their traditional practice of playing “war chant” music at athletic events, a decade after they discontinued the use of their Chief Illiniwek mascot at the NCAA’s behest. That should be a step in the right direction, or at least a step away from the…Read more...

Until earlier today, the Astros and Rangers were scheduled to begin a three-game series tomorrow in Houston. However, since much of the city is now underwater due to catastrophic flooding from Hurricane Harvey, it was evident that MLB would need to find another locale. They did—and it’s the Tampa Bay Rays’ ballpark in…Read more...

Thank you for your continued support of Deadspin. Shout out to Coop.Read more...

Denis Shapovalov, the 18-year-old Canadian hereafter known as El Shapo, achieved something big today: He wore a normal hat without a busted-ass strap.

Eighteen days after Ohio’s Supreme Court decided that the Cleveland Cavaliers’ proposed $140 million arena renovations merited a referendum and the public’s input, the NBA team has decided to pull out of the project.Read more...

io9 All The Questions Game of Thrones’ Final Season Still Needs to Answer | Lifehacker This Is How Much Amazon Has Cut Whole Foods Prices | Jalopnik Here Are The Cars You Hate Irrationally | Kotaku What We Mostly Liked About Netflix’s Death Note |Read more...

The NFL’s decision to suspend Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict five games for his illegal hit on Chiefs fullback Anthony Sherman resulted from a new rule that will also be a point of emphasis for officials this year. (Let’s go ahead and informally name the rule after Burfict, in the grand tradition of eponymous NFL…Read more...

Ross County’s Scott Fox must’ve thought Rangers forward Alfredo Morelos had slid off the edge of the flat Earth after the keeper managed to juke away from Morelos’s tackle deep in Fox’s own penalty area. Unfortunately, the Earth is not flat—or at least the edge of it is not located just off the boundaries of County’s…Read more...

Welcome to the Deadspin 25, a college football poll that strives to be more democratic and less useless than every other preseason poll. Leading up to the college football season kickoff, we will give you previews of the 25 teams that you, the readers, voted to be most worthy of writing about. Now, No. 17 Oregon.

Go to the movies these days and here’s what you probably see: A famous Hollywood star, pretending to be something they obviously aren’t. There is a simple solution to this.Read more...

The Astros’ and Rangers’ three-game series, originally scheduled to be played in Houston beginning Tuesday, will move to St. Petersburg’s Tropicana Field due to the effects of Hurricane Harvey. [MLB.com]

Michigan and Florida open their seasons against each other on Saturday. As of today, nobody knows who will be starting at quarterback for either team, and nobody is really quite sure who is even on Michigan’s roster. This is because Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh and Florida head coach Jim McElwain are being petty…Read more...

Kids are captivated by the most random things, including some athletes who weren’t actually all that great. Let’s remember some guys—here are some of the Deadspin staff’s old, strange loves, with varying levels of explanation:Read more...

Tyrod Taylor and T.J. Yates, the Buffalo Bills’ starting and backup quarterbacks, are both concussed. This sounds like a job for...hold on, let me flip this card over—Keith Wenning.

A USA Gymnastics memo from 2000 that circulated on social media last week specifically advised young gymnasts to seek out Larry Nassar at night when they had problems at a training camp. Nassar, the former national team physician, has pleaded guilty to federal pornography charges and is awaiting trial on multiple …Read more...

Liverpool have spent the last generation in a strange state, a sort of high-end irrelevance. They’ve remained, for all but the topmost tier of players, a destination club—one with plentiful resources, a winning tradition, and one of the strongest fan bases in world soccer. The problem, though, is that even this…Read more...

Some people are fans of the New York Giants. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the New York Giants. This 2017 Deadspin NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read all the previews so far here.Read more...

If you’re a man who can stand upright without anything hurting, you’ve got as good a shot as anyone to win the 2017 U.S. Open. Gone are the elites usually clotting the late rounds of majors. Of the top 11 players in men’s tennis, five of them are too hurt to play: No. 11 Milos Raonic, No. 10 Kei Nishikori, No. 5 Novak…Read more...

Sexy Star, best known in the U.S. for her appearances on Lucha Underground, is being accused of intentionally injuring the arm of another wrestler, Rosemary, in an apparent shoot at a major Mexican wrestling card over the weekend.

Already at this early stage of the season, is there anyone who still thinks Arsenal’s decision to bring back Arsène Wenger was a good idea?Read more...

Art Briles, who coached the Baylor football team during a period in which his players are alleged to have committed up to 52 rapes, has found himself a new job. The CFL’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats have just announced that Briles has been hired as an assistant head coach.

The truth can sometimes be too on the nose: The Jets are signing a safety named Armagedon Draughn, who played at four different colleges and was briefly on a CFL team. A perfect fit for a roster stricken by pestilence.Read more...

The Mariners are playing meaningful baseball late in the season and have a chance to make the playoffs for the first time since 2001. With this execution, though, they’d be lucky to hang with the Little League champs.Read more...

San Francisco 49ers safety Eric Reid took a knee for the national anthem during Sunday night’s preseason game against the Minnesota Vikings, explaining after the game that he decided to resume his protest after conversations with Colin Kaepernick and after seeing what real “un-American” protests looked like in…Read more...

As the summer transfer window wanes and clubs are stressing over Ousmane Dembélé, Philippe Coutinho, Kylian Mbappé, Neymar, and other flashy strikers making (or not making) big moves around Europe, Torino’s 23-year-old big shot Andrea Belotti is over in Italy cooking up a storm. He’s long been linked to some of the…Read more...

Sixty-four at bats into his career, Rhys Hoskins is Babe Ruth.Read more...

io9 The Game of Thrones Finale Wasn’t Perfect, But It Made the Season a Hell of a Lot Better | Jalopnik Live News Team Covering Hurricane Harvey Saves Flooded Truck Driver’s Life | Kotaku Offensive Remarks At Sega’s Yakuza Event Cause Controversy In South Korea [Update] | Lifehacker How to Stay Safe on a Subway That’s…Read more...

Punters: Are they cool now? Marquette King and the recently retired Pat McAfee have spent the last few seasons trying to convince us that they are, and now they have the support of Bengals punter Kevin Huber.

Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict, no stranger to unpaid time off, is has received a five-game suspension for a dirty hit laid on Chiefs fullback Anthony Sherman in a preseason game earlier this month. The suspension would be for violating a newly installed NFL rule offering “defenseless player” protection to…Read more...

Thank you for your continued support of Deadspin. There’s no one above you.Read more...

Raise your hand if you’ve heard this one before: an important Pelicans player has suffered a major injury, and the Pelicans are, as a result, screwed.Read more...

If there’s one thing baseball needs more of, it’s inside-the-park dingers. If there’s a second thing baseball needs more of, it’s mascots racing everyday jamokes around the warning track. But if there’s a third thing baseball needs more of, surely it is the triple play. The Phillies turned a delightful, confusing,…Read more...

The Mets jumped out to a quick start today in the first game of a doubleheader against the Nationals, scoring three runs in the top of the first inning against Nats rookie pitcher Erick Fedde. With the score already 3-0, Travis d’Arnaud smoked a liner foul up the line in left field, where it bounced into the stands…Read more...

While many were watching one circus in a ring last night, a different, better one was taking place on Twitch. Streaming exclusively to the platform was the AAA Lucha Libre Worldwide TripleMania XXV, a spectacular wrestling event featuring high-flying maneuvers and death-defying drops.Read more...

Your vile protein shakers fill my clean heart with dread.Read more...

Floyd Mayweather went into the M Casino sportsbook Saturday afternoon and tried to plunk down $400,000 in cash on at least one bet on himself, according to this ESPN report.Read more...

Fresh off reports that the Cavs weren’t especially happy with the state of Isaiah Thomas’s injured hip, Adrian Wojnarowski last night reported that the Cavaliers will ask the Celtics to include more assets in the Kyrie Irving trade, with the threat of a veto looming over re-engaged negotiations:Read more...

“In the end,” tweeted the Times’s sports Twitter account, in the aftermath of Floyd Mayweather, Jr.’s 10th-round TKO of UFC star Conor McGregor,“McGregor didn’t have enough stamina to beat the world’s best boxer.”Read more...

A Title IX complaint and a subsequent letter from a former player describe Auburn’s softball program under recently retired head coach Clint Myers as one where players were subjected to a pattern of inappropriate, sexualized attention by the coach’s son, according to an ESPNW report.

Now here’s some solid fight analysis: As Stephen A. Smith talked about how Floyd would’ve won tonight’s fight more easily if he were younger, a man in a Boston Celtics cap jumped in front of him and yelled, “Fuck the Mayweathers!” Of course.Read more...

The Big Dumb Super Fight of the century ended in a rather predictable manner after a somewhat surprising start. Conor McGregor took a few rounds off of Floyd Mayweather, Jr., who was content to play matador for the purpose of dramatic tension. McGregor landed the odd jab, but nothing really heavy landed. It was nervy…Read more...

Thank you for your continued support of Deadspin. This masquerade is getting older.Read more...

Some Kentucky all-timers participated in an alumni game at Rupp Arena yesterday. The rosters were cool—Rex Chapman and Tony Delk were on the same side as Karl-Anthony Towns and Trey Lyles—and the action seems to have taken the form of your basic All-Star game: very little defense, lots of fancy passing, your basic…Read more...

Maybe it is time for the Nationals to consult a witch doctor. Their list of injuries this season is ridiculous, and now you can add to it Ryan Zimmerman, who reportedly screwed up his shoulder sliding home in the 11th inning of their Thursday night extra-innings win over the Houston Astros.Read more...

ESPN’s Chris Haynes is reporting today that Nerlens Noel will sign the qualifying offer to stay with the Dallas Mavericks, choosing to become an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2018 instead of signing what he apparently believed was a below-market long-term deal in restricted free agency this summer. Someday…Read more...

Albert Breer of MMQB reported today that an MRI has confirmed that Julian Edelman sufered a complete tear of the ACL in his right knee. That is almost certainly the end of his season.

Roughly one week after head coach Doug Marrone suggested that the job was up for grabs, the Jaguars starting quarterback competition has reportedly been settled. The man to lead the offense for your 2017-2018 Jacksonville Jaguars will be Blake Bortles.Read more...

There’s a fascinating boxing match on TV tonight between a faded, formerly great champion and a younger brawler with limited skills, but enough about the Cotto-Kamegai match on HBO. Instead of watching a real fight, millions will tune in for a glorified staring match between a middle-aged, retired, three-time ex-con…Read more...