Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

There’s burning the ships, and then there’s this.Read more...

Power Slap: Road to the Title is the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen. The new “hit” show on TBS that airs at the coveted 10 p.m. ET time slot on Wednesdays is so bad that it puts viewers in the shoes of the participants, because you feel like you’re getting a concussion watching it. As a lifelong fan of combat sports,…Read more...

Over the last five years, the Kansas City Chiefs have been the closest thing we’ve seen to a dynasty in the NFL. Having won only one Super Bowl, the clock is ticking on their opportunity to claim the dynasty title. Playing in five consecutive AFC title games is an accomplishment but bringing home just one Vince…Read more...

I like to say that we over here at Deadspin started the unofficial petition to prevent Jeff Saturday from becoming the next full-time head coach of the Indianapolis Colts. The backlash to Saturday getting the nod over many qualified candidates who have —get this — coached football before, was so large that Twitter did…Read more...

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The Philadelphia Eagles and San Francisco 49ers have been the NFC’s two-headed monsters all season. For the majority of this season, they’ve been the kaijus of the conference. However, the bigger they are, the harder the fall — and one of these behemoths has to end the weekend with a gaping hole in its record.

A championship-caliber unit is only as strong as its weakest link. Entering Championship Weekend, the rosters are so deep, and refined that it gets tougher to find dents in their armors. These aren’t the Houston Texans and Chicago Bears. The Kansas City Chiefs found a way around their lack of go-to receivers by…Read more...

If you aren’t familiar with @FootyScran on Twitter, and judging by their follower count you probably are, you should correct that. It’s a Twitter feed that documents some of the horrors, and the rare joys, that pass as food at various soccer stadiums around the globe. If you think you know what the English define as…Read more...

I doubt a college football game from 2019 will be used as scouting tape for an NFC Championship Game, especially when Brock Purdy was only a sophomore and that was the sole season that Jalen Hurts played in Lincoln Riley’s offense at Oklahoma.Read more...

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NFL Coach of the Year finalists are out, and we’re ranking them, plus an added bonus of a couple of snubs and coaches who need to stay as far away as possible from any awards. Some names are expected, and others might surprise you by where they land on the list.

Unlike most sports’ Hall of Fame votes nowadays, the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame voting process has been the subject of much analysis, scrutiny, and often ridicule in recent years. There isn’t another major sport with so much elitism that all-time great players aren’t offered immortality via enshrinement.…Read more...

There’s nothing more inside sports than talking shop about general managers and team presidents. Obviously, their job is vital to the success of the organization. It’s just, no one really needs to know more than that. Golden State Warriors GM Bob Myers has been leaking his contract negotiations to the press since…Read more...

As Signing Day approaches, Nease High’s disgraced quarterback Marcus Stokes has a second chance at fulfilling his college football aspirations. After a senior season in which Stokes gained 2,672 yards, rushed for 496 yards, and scored 28 touchdowns, the four-star passer (or 3-star, depending on where you look)…Read more...

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I’m not stupid. Well, I’m not that stupid. At least some of the time, when the few neurons I have left fire at the same time. I know Rhea Ripley is winning the Royal Rumble on Saturday. You know Rhea Ripley is winning the Royal Rumble on Saturday. And that’s not a bad thing! She’s great. But it should be Asuka.Read more...

Despite being the only prospect outside of the top 23 that made the McDonald’s All-American team, Bronny James is the game’s headliner. The 34th-ranked recruit in 2023 is getting a dramatically larger brand bump from his last name than Arch Manning, and I don’t know whether to be outraged or sympathetic. It’s possible…Read more...

It should be said at the top that it’s not clear that there’s too much the Chicago White Sox could have done before signing Mike Clevinger. It’s easy to say that they should have known, and maybe if a team was really looking for reasons to not sign someone they could have found the investigation by MLB into…Read more...

For sports fans who believe that NBA basketball has been “too playground” since Larry Bird retired in 1992, this year’s All-Star game is doing the opposite of reaching out to those fans.

Over the last few weeks, the situation concerning Ed Reed’s short tenure as the head football coach at Bethune-Cookman University has transcended discussions amongst those in Daytona Beach, Florida, the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC), and Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs), as a conversation…Read more...

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Somehow the Los Angeles Lakers and New Orleans Pelicans are simultaneously in different and similar situations. One major commonality they share is all-star caliber talent due to soon return to action — Anthony Davis for the Los Angeles Lakers and Brandon Ingram for the Pelicans.

Determining an NFL head coach’s value is difficult as hell. Sometimes it’s easy, like with the Jacksonville Jaguars and Urban Meyer, or the New York Giants and Brian Daboll. But most of the time, figuring out how much of a team’s success is based more on the coach or the talent on their roster is an impossible task.…Read more...

If there’s one thing we know about Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, it’s his love of the spotlight. The when, where, or why never matters. Shove a camera or live microphone in his face, and he’ll spew Cowboys propaganda to no end. So, when Jones cancels his weekly date (every Tuesday morning following a Cowboys game)…Read more...

White Sox pitcher Mike Clevinger is under investigation by Major League Baseball following allegations of domestic violence, per a report in The Athletic, and confirmed by ESPN.Read more...

Are you a single-celled organism? Do you feel like too much contemporary sports talk is just a bunch of nerds and women screaming about analytics, or that everyone on the TV talks too fast? Do you miss smoking in hospital wards? Then, Jason Whitlock has dug up some stale, low-hanging fruit disguised as sports takes,…Read more...

The idea that the NHL regular season is just an 82-game preseason is maybe the last vestige of a time when 16 of the then 21 teams made the playoffs. These days, when exactly half the teams are culled, some genuinely decent teams don’t make it. Teams like the Knights last year can rack up over 90 points and not make…Read more...

Tom Brady has officially entered the curmudgeon stage (of life, it would seem) after an exchange on his “Let’s Go!” podcast with Jim Gray and Larry Fitzgerald. Gray asked Brady a general question, the same one every sports outlet is asking after Tom’s 23rd season in the NFL. A simple question about a timetable was…Read more...

In a sign that ESPN and other networks can choose to devote broadcast hours to new and emerging sports, the American sports cable channel announced that it was adding pickleball to the lineup.

After an abrupt end to a Super Bowl-or-bust season, Buffalo Bills’ wide receiver Stefon Diggs broke his silence Monday night on social media, responding to his apparent frustration with quarterback Josh Allen and quick attempts to leave the stadium moments after his team’s 27-10 AFC Divisional Round loss to the…Read more...

WWE kicks its Wrestlemania season into fifth gear this week with Saturday night’s Royal Rumble. Even those who have soured on the product New York has been putting out come back in for the Rumble — for the most part — due to its uniqueness and penchant for surprises, and setting up what the build to Wrestlemania will…Read more...

When it comes to injuries, one of the ways in which the NBA and the NFL have similar dangers are ankle injuries. Harm to that area of the body is why the San Francisco 49ers are currently starting the last pick in the 2022 NFL Draft at quarterback in the playoffs, and why Patrick Mahomes completed the Kansas City…Read more...

After a pair of scintillating comeback victories over the Portland Trail Blazers and Memphis Grizzlies jolted the Los Angeles Lakers back to life, their embattled General Manager Rob Pelinka decided to clock in for the first time this season by finalizing a deal that would acquire Rui Hachimura from the Washington…Read more...

There are few people on this Earth who can stare down a couple of billion dollars, and well over 10 times what Artie Moreno paid for the Angels originally, and say to themselves, “You know what? I’m good actually.” That is a level of comfort and confidence only the smallest group will know.Read more...

We’re down to the final four teams remaining in the NFL playoffs. One of these teams will make history by winning LVII. All these teams have numerous playmakers, but like anything else, there are always a few who stand out above the rest. So, we’ll rank the top five non-QB playmakers remaining in the NFL postseason.Read more...

The Dallas Cowboys in-house media pulled no punches in the way that it covered Sunday’s 19-12 playoff loss to the San Francisco 49ers.Read more...

Gregg Berhalter’s days are numbered at the helm of the United States men’s national team. The Yanks didn’t win a knockout stage game in Qatar and Berhalter is under investigation from a domestic violence incident that occurred 31 years ago, where he admitted to kicking his now wife. US Soccer only learned it happened…Read more...

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Fred Warner’s role as the San Francisco 49ers’ defensive quarterback is to exist as destructive offensive antimatter. Every type of matter in the universe has an antimatter equivalent. Once they make contact, annihilation ensues. Similar physics applies to the gridiron. Warner is a defensive particle that has the…Read more...

When a point guard averages 27 points and 10 assists, you must be talking about one of the best in the game. Trae Young is that dude. He has solidified himself as one of the most lethal scorers in the NBA. He is known as a shooter, with some going as far as comparing him to Steph Curry. We all know he can score, but…Read more...

Maybe you were a wee lad or lass all the way back in…2006? Is that what it says here? OK. Well maybe you were just in high school or college then, and that was the last big Serie A scandal, known as “Calciopoli,” which saw Juventus punted to Serie B and other clubs docked points and money. That was about influencing…Read more...

Don’t let anyone tell you the NBA schedule during the regular season is a poor entertainment product. Of course, a single game does not impact a team’s overall record the same way that it does an NFL team. In the NBA teams play multiple games per week. That is not changing anytime soon, especially with the Golden…Read more...

Shannon Sharpe’s sideline tirade directed toward the Memphis Grizzlies turned the retired NFL tight end and Undisputed co-host into a trending figure during Friday night’s NBA on ESPN matchup. Sharpe’s feud with the Grizzlies just before halftime distracted from what was an otherwise entertaining game and on Monday’s…Read more...

In November, Mater Dei High School in Orange County, Calif. lost its first football game since before the COVID-19 pandemic. Bryce Young’s high-school program was defeated by St. John Bosco, 24-22, at the Rose Bowl in the Southern Section Division I Championship Game. There’s no shame for high school kids in losing a…Read more...

The Las Vegas Aces kicked off the WNBA free agency negotiation period on Saturday, Jan. 21, by kicking Dearica Hamby from the sidewalks of Sin City to the curbs of the City of Angels. Neither “The Heave,” which made Hamby into both a fan favorite and a household name among league aficionados, nor her repeat Sixth…Read more...

We’re down to four and they were arguably the NFL’s four best teams all season long — the Bengals, 49ers, Eagles, and Chiefs. For all the offseason shuffling of quarterbacks and coaches, three of the four teams from last year’s conference championship weekend, with the lone exception being the team that won last…Read more...

Another NFL season ends in disappointment for the Dallas Cowboys after falling to the San Francisco 49ers, 19-12, in the divisional round. Following big losses, we always want to know who gets the most blame. You surely can’t blame Dallas’ defense, as they held a hot Niners offense under 20 points. This game was there…Read more...

It is perfect that the most popular team in Mexico is the Dallas Cowboys, because the Mexican national soccer team and the Cowboys, they’re the same thing. A completely overhyped do-nothing outfit with a fanbase that is convinced of its team’s and their own greatness with absolutely nothing to support that. And every…Read more...