Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

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...

The first-ever international exhibition on Sept. 8, 1978, is immortalized for the defending NBA champion Washington Bullets' loss to Maccabi Tel Aviv by the score of 97-98. Since 2000, when the EuroLeague was founded, NBA teams are 75-17 against Europe's top teams in exhibitions. Or 17-75 if you want to look at the...Read more...

The Los Angeles Lakers are coming off a rollercoaster ride of a season last year where they started out looking utterly defeated only to bounce back and make a Western Conference Finals run in head coach Darvin Ham's first year on the job. Now entering year two, Ham recently made waves when he stated he'd like to see...Read more...

Following a couple of games in which the Georgia Bulldogs looked semi-vulnerable, Kirby Smart's team put it on now No. 24 Kentucky to the tune of 51-13. It was such a lopsided victory that it left UK coach Mark Stoops with an aftertaste no amount of Listerine will wash out. While I understand his frustration, I'd just...Read more...

Last night should've been pure, unadulterated joy. I haven't been shy when it comes to the Texas Rangers and writing about my favorite baseball team. It swept the 101-win Orioles and advanced to the American League Championship Series for the first time in a dozen years. I was a sophomore in college the last time the...Read more...

Stanley Cup picks in October are dumb. We have no idea who will be hurt, what the trade deadline will do, what goalie will have an existential crisis (Jakob Markstrom), or what goalie will channel the Arc Of The Covenant and turn their also-ran into a threat (Igor Shesterkin). It's a long goddamn season, and it can...Read more...

Last Thursday, sports reporter Audrey Dahlgren had a very bad day, by journalistic standards. After attorneys for Mel Tucker, the recently fired head football coach at Michigan State, released 98 pages worth of text messages sent by Brenda Tracy - an anti-rape advocate who filed a Title IX complaint against Tucker for...Read more...

If you woke up a little late this morning, you may have missed the announcement out of Indianapolis that Colts rookie quarterback Anthony Richardson was placed on injured reserve. Richardson is scheduled to miss at least four games on IR with a right shoulder injury (AC joint sprain) and could miss up to eight weeks....Read more...

Anthony Richardson has never been so lucky to get injured in his life. The Indianapolis Colts' rookie QB has been operating on pure talent and instincts over the first four starts of his career. He's tallied seven TDs total - tied with C.J. Stroud the lead among all rookie QBs - in essentially 12 quarters, and the...Read more...

[Update]: The Maywood Police has released the following statement:Read more...

After Aaron Rodgers referred to Travis Kelce as Mr. Pfizer, Kelce fired a return grenade at Rodgers, whose team is owned by a pharmaceutical magnate. Rodgers' idea to resolve this once and for all was inviting Kelce onto his Pat McAfee Show home turf to debate the vaccine along with Robert Kennedy Jr. and Anthony...Read more...

Less than two months ago, four former athletes, a white female pseudo-reporter, and a rapper were announced as the new co-hosts of a worsening sports morning show. It was an example of how networks, and viewers, have incorrectly become obsessed with the idea that more athletes/coaches serve these broadcasts better...Read more...

The brand is strong with Dillon Brooks. He helped turn the Memphis Grizzlies into a contender, and for his services, he got thrown out of a window like Axel Foley.Read more...

It's awfully easy, and too easy, to point at an up-and-coming team like the Rangers that spent a lot of money to augment the players they developed from within and say that's the reason they clobbered an up-and-coming team like the Orioles that did the exact opposite, basically only adding the decrepit Jack Flaherty...Read more...

After a Week 5 loss to the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs, the Minnesota Vikings are off to a 1-4 start and seem to be throwing in the towel. On Monday, news broke that the Vikings are now more open" to trading quarterback Kirk Cousins. On Tuesday, more news out of Minnesota shed more light on a...Read more...

When the Seattle Seahawks defensive coaches go over the game tape of Cincinnati Bengals vs. Arizona Cardinals with players, the first play that they should show is Joe Burrow's 10-yard scramble at the end of the third quarter. The second should be Burrow running in a literal circle to evade a rusher before completing...Read more...

If you've found yourself noticing more bad football than usual in the NFL, you're not wrong. After five weeks, there are seven teams with one win or fewer, and none of them are the New York Jets, Houston Texans, or Washington Commanders. The New York Giants, Minnesota Vikings, New England Patriots, Chicago Bears, Denve...Read more...