Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

You never want to be Twitter's main character, but on NBA Twitter, Paul Pierce is used to being the center of unwanted attention. He's mostly innocuous, but goofy enough to set himself up to get swirlied by the internet on a regular basis. Twitter, IG, live streams, you name it and Paul Pierce is extremely...Read more...

The Dallas Cowboys squandered an opportunity to turn up the heat on the Eagles in the NFC East on Sunday, falling to Philly, 28-23. In only their second head-to-head meeting, many feel like Dak Prescott outplayed Jalen Hurts only to come up short once again when it really matters late in the fourth quarter. Entering...Read more...

Tanking has sadly become far too big a part of the sporting lexicon. We don't really bat an eye when a team chooses to pass on a season or two and barfs up a malformed, odorous product on the fields or sheets of play with the promise of better to come. Price of doing business these days, their fans will tell...Read more...

The Buffalo Bills playing the CIncinnati Bengals, Week 9, at Paycor Stadium made me feel uneasy. There is nothing wrong with two of the NFL's best teams matching up on Sunday Night Football, but NBC's intro that centered around Damar Hamlin nearly dying 10 months prior in that stadium was total grief porn.

Caleb Williams was an emotional wreck who just needed to be held. The Trojans lost their third game of the season because they couldn't stop a Pop Warner team. Head coach Lincoln Riley fired the worst defensive coordinator in college football with two games left on the schedule. USC is a Hollywood drama.Read more...

The halfway point of the 2023 NFL season has arrived. Per usual, the hard salary cap and expanded postseason is doing what they are designed to do. Only a handful of teams have records so bad that a No. 1 overall draft pick is more likely than playoff football. The Chicago Bears, Arizona Cardinals, Carolina Panthers, N...Read more...

It was utterly predictable that the Raiders would blow the doors off the Giants in their first game free of the weight and burden that was carrying Josh McDaniels as coach.Read more...

Nike needs to get some Joshua Dobbs jerseys to the Minnesota Vikings team store as fast as possible. I might even make a purchase with the way that he has played in the first season of his long NFL career in which coaching staffs have finally, intentionally started him at quarterback. He has spent most of this season...Read more...

Tua Tagovailoa has proven to his detractors that he's a viable starting quarterback. He's proven to his critics that he can ferry nuclear-powered offense. But Tyreek Hill's cheat code speed can only get the Miami juggernaut so far. There's still a barrier left for Tagovailoa to hurdle.

(TW: sexual assault, sexual harassment)

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 college football's most woeful performances. This is a nod to college football's...Read more...

It's always fair to wonder what will happen to an already great player if he is put on a team with teammates who are much closer, or even on, his level. We saw it with Erling Haaland last season at Man City. But going in the opposite direction, Harry Kane seems to be answering the question, What if we give a...Read more...

There was one game that mattered more than the rest Saturday, and though it had an impact on the College Football Playoff picture, the stakes at this season's Bedlam transcended national titles. In the final iteration of Oklahoma-Oklahoma State, the Cowboys sent the Sooners packing to the SEC, 27-24, and stomped out...Read more...

Every year, Texas and Texas A&M give college football experts reason to believe in the recruiting rankings. The Lonestar State sustains so many programs outside of its two bell cows that the assumption is the schools with first dibs should be perennial national title contenders. Then you watch them play, and it makes...Read more...

The first NBA in-season tournament kicked off Friday evening. If you were unaware, you're less informed than most because the gimmick has only been beaten into our brains every day since the season tipped. It's really a brilliant way to dress up a regular season game, and the courts are so obnoxious that casual...Read more...

Nelson Cruz retired on Thursday after 19 years in the bigs. What followed has been a steady stream of stories recalling Cruz's hitting prowess and clubhouse presence - both undeniable facts. But what serves as a side note - if that - in most of the coverage has been his involvement in the 2013 Biogenesis steroid...Read more...

More allegations of hazing and racist treatment against the Northwestern football program came to light Friday as two former Wildcat players, Noah Herron, and Rico Lamitte, alleged they and fellow Black teammates were mistreated as far back as the early 2000s. During a press conference in Chicago ahead of...Read more...

I want Taylor Swift and Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce to get all they can out of their relationship. I hope Simone Biles and Green Bay Packers safety Jonathan Owens have a long and productive marriage. I wish we lived in a world in which the level of coverage around these two power couples wasn't dictated by...Read more...

Certainly the timing fits. The overall aim, right as the baseball offseason was about to be upon us, seemed pretty clear. It definitely feels like there's a reason the San Diego Padres taking out a $50 million loan during the 2023 season came to all of us at this point in time.Read more...

Last August, I said in the past that Tyreek Hill was a high tide who could lift Tua Tagovailoa's boat. I didn't expect Miami's subterranean offense to morph into a seaplane.Read more...

To be frank, AEW is the product of impulse. Tony Khan saw the momentum that the original All In had generated, the legions of fans loyal to the Young Bucks, Kenny Omega, Cody Rhodes, and a host of other wrestlers in NJPW or on the indies on these shores, and Khan dove headfirst into forming a new, major wrestling...Read more...

The gluttony starts early this November with Saturday's all-you-can-gorge-yourself buffet of college football. We haven't had a season-defining slate of games yet, but that's only because it was all backlogged for Nov. 4. There are five top-25 matchups, and a litany of consequential games on top of that, so clear your...Read more...

Virginia McCaskey, the matriarch of the family that owns the Chicago Bears, is 100 years old. A common refrain from the family over the last decade has been that they want to win a Super Bowl again before Virginia goes on to the big owners' box in the sky. I have no doubt that's the case, but the team has been going...Read more...

Brooklyn Nets point guard Ben Simmons is in the early stages of reclaiming his career and getting it back on track permanently. The last couple of years have been nothing less than tumultuous and filled with drama. Most wondered (sometimes aloud) if Simmons even wanted to play basketball anymore and questioned whether...Read more...

Whether it matters that the World Series didn't resonate with audiences beyond casual baseball fans is its own discussion. The lust for ratings is something that TV networks care about because they're the ones paying for the broadcast rights. As long as the product is good, and the games and series are competitive,...Read more...

If you'd told me a sign-stealing controversy involving a man named Connor Stalions would be college football's juiciest scandal in 2023, I'd think it had something to do with a klepto College Gameday fan than clandestine operations, sideline intrigue, and infiltrated sidelines as part of football's secret intel wars....Read more...

Perhaps the challenge for Ryan Reynolds, Rob McElhenney, and Wrexham AFC is that they became such a story so quickly, that they all greatly outpaced the documentary about them. Even though the second season of the show hasn't concluded yet, we all know how it ends. Wrexham put up a record amount of points and gained...Read more...

Viewing Las Vegas Raiders interim head coach Antonio Pierce as a placeholder who checks off the diversity box isn't a slap in the face to his talent and intellect. It's a reminder of how NFL owners like Mark Davis do Black coaches by temporarily promoting" them so that they can attempt to clean up the mess the...Read more...

Remember when fans, long ago, and baseball pundits told everyone that you couldn't buy a World Series? It was more water-carrying for a majority of owners who didn't want to spend, but it was baseball truth that a team couldn't sign free agents all over the field and watch it all come together to win a championship.Read more...

Aaron Rodgers has accomplished many things during his NFL career. One of the more impressive feats that Rodgers has accomplished during his first year in New York is staying relevant. Since going down only a few plays into his first game with the Jets, Rodgers has remained in the spotlight thanks to networks like ESPN...Read more...

Several contenders were active around the 2023 NFL Trade Deadline. The Philadelphia Eagles, San Francisco 49ers, and Buffalo Bills all made moves to strengthen their rosters. - moves with the goal of dethroning the defending Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs.Read more...

Ah, the New York Rangers. A favorite punching bag. A team that always generates so much noise and then their lack of royal clothing always gets exposed in the spring. Not after a bunch of articles claiming they've saved hockey or that they've brought New York together and simultaneously sacked Eric Adams as mayor...Read more...

It won't be hard to convince Philadelphia 76ers fans that this version of the James Harden trade was the best they were going to get. Between Daryl Morey's insistence that he get a star in return, Harden's insistence that he makes this as uncomfortable as possible, and the NBA's insistence that it understands none of...Read more...

Tuesday was a busy one in the NFL, with teams - contenders and pretenders - scrambling to make last-minute deals ahead of the 4 p.m. EST trade deadline. Meanwhile, Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys, who, unlike the Chicago Bears - who traded for Commanders DE Montez Sweat - actually have a shot at a postseason run,...Read more...

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Hello there, esteemed reader, and welcome to Deadspin's IDIOT OF THE MONTH, the world-renowned series in which we mostly just make fun of Aaron Rodgers every few weeks.Read more...

Victor Wembanyama must be getting tired of spearheading simultaneous counter-revolutions. One is France's Golden Generation fortifying itself just in time for the 2024 Paris Olympics. But within the confines of Gregg Popovich's San Antonio Spurs, Wembanyama's on pace to emerge as the league's preeminent defensive...Read more...

A few days ago, the LA Times published an interview with LA Dodgers' star Mookie Betts. The main thrust of the story was Betts reflecting on his season and LA's rapid exit from the playoffs. But the interview made news for another, more disturbing nugget that Betts dropped about former teammate Trevor Bauer, who is...Read more...

The Colorado Buffaloes took a couple of losses Saturday as the team was punished on the field by UCLA and pilfered off of it, with multiple CU players alleging jewelry was taken from their locker room during the game. Since then, coach Deion Sanders hasn't stopped whining about the transgression, and is now asking to...Read more...

They told one to shut up and dribble." They thought another was going to desecrate the Champions Dinner at The Masters. They speculated that one's affinity for gambling was the reason his father was killed. We all thought the last one was going to die 32 years ago. Black athletes aren't just resilient - they're...Read more...

Many of the league's best running backs keep being told they're replaceable during contract negotiations, being franchise-tagged and given one-year deals. But those teams keep using those backs like they're not.Read more...

Bruce Bochy is lucky, at least at this point, that his Rangers have given him enough runway that he could get as itchy and sweaty as he did in Game 4. The Rangers have a 3-1 series lead, they had a 10-run lead in Game 4 and they have their two best starters lined up the next two games (their only two starters, at this...Read more...

The Las Vegas Raiders are certainly on the ballot for most dysfunctional NFL franchise of the 21th century.Read more...

This offseason, James Harden perfected his signature move.Read more...

The San Francisco 49ers made another bold move and took advantage of the fire sale going on in Washington as they've acquired former No. 2 overall pick Chase Young. San Francisco traded for former Broncos and Cowboys defensive end Randy Gregory earlier this month and continues to add pass rushers to the roster.Read more...

The Minnesota Vikings acquired a starting quarterback from the Arizona Cardinals in a blockbuster trade hours before the deadline. Ok, blockbuster may be a stretch, but the Vikings did make a move to bring in Joshua Dobbs from the Cardinals. This probably isn't the Arizona QB you first thought of, but Minnesota needed...Read more...

The World Series also acts as a platform for Rob Manfred to have whatever drivel has used the inattentive guards as a means to escape his mind and leap for freedom out of his mouth, which usually borders on cringe. Rob Manfred in front of a microphone is generally in the same folder as toddler with a zippo," if that...Read more...

All of these people agonizing over sportswashing, myself included, need to drop it.Read more...

Finally, the Chicago Bears did something to bolster the weakest position on the team. The offensive line has struggled at times, but continuity has been their biggest problem. That group entered Week 1 down two starters and their starting left tackle has been on the IR since Week 3. The biggest problem for the Bears'...Read more...

The Memphis Grizzlies have entered the 2023-24 campaign riding the struggle bus, losing their first four games. With Ja Morant suspended for the first 25 games of the season, some losing was to be expected, but not right out of the gate like this. Last season, Memphis finished one game over .500 when Morant did not...Read more...