Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

Sports is politics. Don't ever let anyone tell you otherwise. Whether it's racism, sexism, homophobia, or transphobia... it all plays out on our screens during professional and amateur sporting events. Billie Jean King took on the wage gap back in 1973, when she was paid just $10,000 (compared to $25,000 for the men) at...Read more...

Brooklyn Nets point guard Ben Simmons recently discovered what it's like to come face-to-face with himself. While interacting with a group of fans before Monday night's preseason game at Barclays Center, Simmons met a young fan with a tattoo of Ben's face on his chest. Even Simmons was a bit shocked at the piece...Read more...

Hi, Helen, let me tell you why the Eastern Conference sucks as a basketball league. Let's say some team goes into the season, and let's say they're even remotely capable of winning something. Well, then they get all excited like Jojo the idiot circus boy with a pretty new pet. The pet is a possible title. Oh, my...Read more...

As the NBA expands under the epoch of spacing and volume three-point shooting, general managers across the league scramble to draft, sign, and trade as many three-point shooters who can also play switchable defense and handle the rock. But something funny has happened along the way. While the 2000s saw a top-heavy...Read more...

Derek Jeter hired Kim Ng. Derek Jeter left. Ng is gone now, too. This isn't about the Miami Marlins having a dysfunctional front office. It's an example of how one historic minority employee's time with an organization came to an end after a successful season - and less than two years after the minority employee, with...Read more...

Here's where not to put your first fastball of the game in front of a ravenous Philly crowd that's looking for any excuse to turn the place into a cauldron:Read more...

A great team is only as strong as its weakest link. At least that's the consensus among every motivational coach I've ever heard. But for the sake of this space, it's true for NBA contenders as well. I'll examine the weak spots in some of the most iron-clad lineups in the NBA entering the 2023 season from...Read more...

The Todd Monken era was supposed to be the dawn of a new day for the Baltimore Ravens' offense. Under Monken's tutelage, Jameis Winston was making big plays even though he was not consistent, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers weren't winning games. At Georgia, he turned Stetson Bennett into a 4,000-yard passer. With 2019...Read more...

The Detroit Lions are for real. As shocking as that may sound to anyone outside the Detroit area, these new, and improved Lions have lived up to the hype thus far. All the offseason talk about the Lions and what they're building that led into the preseason, which has unfolded over the past six weeks, has been...Read more...

After Aaron Rodgers tore his Achilles tendon four plays into the season, nobody thought the New York Jets would still be alive and kicking five weeks later. Yet here we are, following their Week 6 upset over the defending NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles, and the Jets are 3-3. Indeed, Rodgers' speedy progress and...Read more...

Hello, and welcome 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...

Miami Marlins General Manager Kim Ng is looking for her next club, having declined her end of a mutual option for the 2024 season.Read more...

It doesn't take long to become considered playoff-tested anymore, given that teams are given way more spins of the wheel than they used to be as well as the inning-by-inning referendum fans, and media descend into. The Philadelphia Phillies, thanks to kneecapping Atlanta two years in a row, and appearing in their...Read more...

For two years, Jack Hammer established himself as an authoritative voice within the Niners community as a writer, and personality covering one of the NFL's most popular franchises for The Santa Rosa Press Democrat's Inside the 49ers" blog. He wrote hundreds of stories for the Press Democrat, reporting on the team and...Read more...

No matter the final score, triumph or tragedy is something the quarterback must carry - despite how they played. And since that's the way things work, Cleveland Browns third-string quarterback PJ Walker gets the praise for the team's surprising win over the NFL's best team, the San Francisco 49ers. But the game wasn't...Read more...

Week 6 saw the final two undefeated teams in the NFL fall in upset fashion as the San Francisco 49ers and Philadelphia Eagles took L's Sunday afternoon. Of course, this opened a door for the Detroit Lions to enter a first-place tie atop the NFC, which they accomplished by beating the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on the road.Read more...

It would have been nice to see Tyrod Taylor pull out that win last night. He has been afflicted with that professional sports condition in which he is just good enough of a player to spend his career bouncing around on many different teams. He got the start for the New York Giants in Week 6 on the road against the Buff...Read more...

The final remaining undefeated teams both went down in Week 6. The dominant San Francisco 49ers were bullied, and also a bit confused, by the ferocious Cleveland Browns. Near the Jersey side of the Hudson River, the New York Jets defense was undermanned and still took it to the Philadelphia Eagles to improve to .500...Read more...

We know that October doesn't have to make sense. It's not even really supposed to, given that it's the month of Halloween and we all act like children for a good couple weeks. When summer really dies, the foreboding of winter is on every breeze, and we all tend to lose our minds knowing that we'll spend the next six...Read more...

In what's become a familiar sight over the years, the Cleveland Browns ordered their brown pants late in an attempt to muck up a win that the defense put them in prime position for against one of the NFL's final unbeaten teams. But ultimately the San Francisco 49ers matched them with their own stercoraceous...Read more...

Every step I took would not have been little if I had been in the concession line at Mercedes-Benz Stadium and heard Bobby Brown blasting through the speakers. That $2 hot dog would have to wait until the third quarter of Washington Commanders vs Atlanta Falcons.Read more...

As the bloodshed in Israel and Gaza ramps up, the NWSL's Angel City FC is taking heat for announcing steps to quell any shows of support for either side ahead of today's match with Portland FC, issuing a statement saying that fans may only bring banners related to either team into the stadium:Read more...

The beauty of college football is that it's Ground Zero for raw athletes being molded into gems every week before our very eyes. However, pressure doesn't always make diamonds. Welcome to the D-List, Deadspin Dean's acknowledgment of the most woeful performances on any given Saturday. This is a nod to the unrefined...Read more...

If anything, Tyreek Hill deserved a bonus from the NFL for his touchdown celebration just before halftime of the Miami Dolphins' Week 6 matchup against the Carolina Panthers.Read more...

ESPN football analyst Robert Griffin III recently spoke out on the situation in Denver with Russell Wilson and head coach Sean Payton. Griffin sees similarities between the Payton-Wilson dynamic and his own, with former head coach Mike Shanahan in Washington. From the outside, it seems like coach Payton doesn't believeRead more...

Before the cast and crew of It's Always Sunny descend upon me with scythes and boards with nails in them, let me state I wish John S. Middleton owned the Cubs. Or the White Sox, so my friends of that parish could stop hitting themselves in the head with wooden planks just to feel anything. Middleton has the perfect...Read more...

Saying Field goals aren't going to win this game" is a catch-all along the lines of No offense, but ..." and We'll cross that bridge when we come to it." It's more of a philosophy than a strategy, and removes all nuance from those approaches. Calling someone a pompous chumbucket is still offensive even if it's...Read more...

Even in defeat, Deion Sanders is unbeaten. Following Colorado's epic 29-0 collapse against a Stanford team that had one win coming into Friday, the Buffs coach questioned whether his team was in love" with football or just in like" with it. Following the 46-43 double OT loss, Sanders made an impassioned plea for his...Read more...

The college basketball world thought it was done with The Cavinder Twins, the Miami duo who became central figures of the name, image, and likeness era of college athletics thanks to their popular social-media channels more than what they did on the court. Haley and Hanna Cavinder announced back in April they'd...Read more...

The annual MLB playoff format debate that Rob Manfred ignites every time he opens his mouth this time in October has returned. Like grocery stores pumping PSL into every item imaginable, and the farce that is apple cider doughnuts*, the topic sounds appetizing, yet when the effluvium hits your nostrils, all you can do...Read more...

The Travis Kelce-Taylor Swift attention train made its next stop Thursday night at Arrowhead Stadium. For the second time since the music-sports alliance became the hottest topic in sports, the biggest star in music watched her who-knows-what partner/friend/boyfriend/confidant tight end play in front of a home crowd...Read more...

Thinking you have things figured out before they start is a risky game. You look like a prophet when it works. You come off as a clown if it doesn't. A lot of Bozos love to show up around this time of the year. It's OK to say I don't know" sometimes. Trust me, you can keep your trash preseason NBA takes to yourself.Read more...

Whenever the youth ask me how to break into sports journalism - which they don't because I've never been approached to speak to a class, because most adults furl their faces puzzlingly when I tell them I work for Deadspin - my advice is to play sports. Not to fall in love with the games or anything sentimental like...Read more...

NEW YORK - Just when it seemed there was clarity on the biggest story out of the 2023 Women's World Cup, the unwelcome kiss that Spanish federation president Luis Rubiales forced upon player Jenni Hermoso, the most predictable thing of all time happened.Read more...

For the second straight season, the Philadelphia Phillies knocked Atlanta's dick in the dirt after a regular season that saw the latter dust the former in the standings. There is no meaning, it's just funny to watch.Read more...

Air Jordans have dominated the sneaker industry since before my birth, but those were not the first shoes that fascinated me. I thought the Reebok Pump was the coolest shoe in the world. I saw it on TV, then at Foot Locker, and one day one of my cousins walked into my grandparents wearing a pair. They somehow looked...Read more...

Zion Williamson is a series of contradictions. He's a near-300-pound space mover who elevates like he's in zero-gravity. He's both the mythic John Henry racing a machine and the steam-powered drill he beat in a race because it continuously broke down. Williamson has the build of a defensive end, but his body has put...Read more...

Was it inevitable? One won the American League West, while the other led it for most of the season and was forced to go the wild-card route to make it to this stage. The Texas Rangers and Houston Astros share a state and are bitter rivals and will face each other in the postseason for the first time in the ALCS. The...Read more...

Ah, the fresh hell of yet another international break. Club seasons are put on pause for a raft of qualifiers, be they Euro, or World Cup, that are pretty much foregone conclusions robbed of any real urgency, especially thanks to the expanded field for 2026. If not those, we get a helping of international friendlies,...Read more...

In case the NBA has not made itself clear over the last few months, the league office is fed up with load management. There are 82 games on the schedule, and players are expected to play in every single game unless they are actually injured. The NBA is going so far now as to claim it has data that the dreaded phrase l...Read more...

Stephen A. Smith is fanning the flames again in his ongoing beef with former ESPN colleagues.Read more...

You kind of knew it was over for the Dodgers the minute they acquired Lance Lynn. Lance Lynn? This is the Dodgers, for Christ's sake! When they need help in the rotation, they go get Zack Greinke, or Yu Darvish, or Max Scherzer. They shop at the supermarket that plebs like you and I aren't even allowed to look at from...Read more...

OK, it's time for Devil's Advocate corner: The NBA's stance on load management is a good thing, but not for the dumbass reasons Joe Dumars presented Wednesday. If you missed it, the executive vice president of basketball operations said there's no proof that load management prevents injuries. Maybe, maybe not, but I...Read more...

Ja Morant's predilection for flashing guns at teenagers during pickup runs and hitting send on threatening posts that invoke hollow-point rounds have repeatedly disrupted both his ascent and Memphis' pursuit of the franchise's first title. Morant's affinity for brandishing firearms in inappropriate settings earned him...Read more...

Dancing with the devil is a personal choice. But when the heat from that tango singes others, it becomes a problem. Some ESPN employees have to be burning mad over how they lost money due to pay cuts during the COVID-19 pandemic, all for the worldwide leader to spend almost $100 million for Pat McAfee to allow Aaron...Read more...

A string of text messages between current and former Michigan State University trustees show musings on how to smear the victim, lingering questions about how the school handled the sexual harassment allegations against Mel Tucker, speculation about revenge, and a suggestion that the MSU Board of Trustees use the...Read more...

The symmetry is almost startling. It was three days short of being the exact date, one year later. Brian Snitker didn't have an itchy enough trigger finger, or just fell asleep, and the Phillies teed off on a starter that shouldn't have been on the mound. Which pivoted the division series to a 2-1 Phillies lead, and...Read more...

Did anyone expect a different result?Read more...

Jared Goff's time with the Detroit Lions began the same way that it ended with the Los Angeles Rams, disappointing. By Week 7 of his first season with the Lions, Dan Campbell looked at the media, took a deep breath,and criticized Goff during a postgame press conference. At that point in the season, the Lions were...Read more...

For all the noise about WWE vs. AEW" and whatever that means to everybody, they don't really go head to head on our screens very much. WWE pulled NXT off of Wednesdays when it mostly got its brains beaten in by the burgeoning AEW Dynamite. AEW has struggled on the Saturday nights that WWE runs a Premium Live Event on...Read more...