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The NHL decided this season had to be quartered off in order to keep the players safe as could be, and more importantly their TV money as safe as it could be. What it didn’t realize is how thoroughly it would illustrate how this country compares to others when it comes to dealing with the COVID pandemic.

The Minnesota Vikings are the super failures you never hear about (thanks a lot, Buffalo). Like the Bills, the Vikings also lost four Super Bowls — but over the course of eight years, not four.Read more...

Few performances during the intermission of a sporting event have come close to feeling like a truly artistic display, but one stands out above them all. Fourteen years ago today, Prince delivered the most iconic Super Bowl halftime show we have ever seen. On Feb. 4, 2007, at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida,…Read more...

Tom Brady is old.Read more...

The best way to figure out what’s ailing America is to tune into the annual “State of the League” press conference that’s held days before the Super Bowl. At some point in time, a football game became the only annual event that transcends race, religion, gender, or creed in this country, as “Super Bowl Sunday” is the…Read more...

Here’s a Super Bowl fact:Read more...

It’s not Brady. It’s not Elway or Rice or Montana or Aikman either.

De’Aaron Fox, following a 26-point, 11-assist performance in a loss to the Celts Wednesday night, said during his postgame Zoom conference that the NBA’s lust for an All-Star Game this season falls a bit shy of sagacious.Read more...

Believe it or not, there are actually players other than Patrick Mahomes and Tom Brady taking part in this Super Bowl. I know, I’m as shocked by this media revelation as you are. While those two deserve their headlines, and contribute largely to the plot of this Sunday’s theatre, they alone will not decide the…Read more...

The near eight-year cries for college football’s return to our video game consoles were answered earlier this week. EA Sports announced, initially in very few words, that college football was returning to the brand for a game to be made in the near future. Notably, EA Sports avoided placing the four letters ‘NCAA’…Read more...

There’s a lot to pick through in the rubble of Liverpool’s season at the moment. It’s a good thing they’ve left so much rubble to house all of it. A team that was top of the Premier League on New Year’s Day has landed back to Earth with such a thud over the past month that even Wile E. Coyote is tugging his collar…Read more...

Kansas City is back in the Super Bowl to defend its title, and we’ll soon have a sense of just where Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and company, fit into NFL history. But we don’t really have to wait until Sunday to start figuring it out.Read more...

It’s easy to eyeball the defending Eastern Conference champions through the prism of disappointment without absorbing the nuance plaguing their dispiriting season.Read more...

Doug Polk finished his heads-up “Grudge Match” vs. Daniel Negreanu in style, winning $250,000 in a roller-coaster six-hour session on Wednesday.

Wednesday night, as the Olympic Channel was showing last weekend’s women’s super-G from Garmisch Partenkirchen, Germany, the commercial breaks were the standard fare for a niche sports channel, targeting the key demographic of middle-aged men.Read more...

It’s been a rough week for Yoshiro Mori. After spouting sexist comments and igniting a media firestorm in Japan, the president of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee said he will not resign.

Byron Leftwich was an offensive genius before Tom Brady decided to go to Tampa Bay.Read more...

It’s hard to know why the NHL has had more postponements and players held out (90) than the NBA in its still-not-even-a-month-old season. Maybe it’s because of the nature of the sport — the benches, the contact, the more crowded dressing rooms, whatever. Because the NHL is basically mum on why exactly a player goes on…Read more...

Tom Brady has done thousands of press conferences in his lifetime. He has not, however, ever experienced one that went quite like his media availability today during Super Bowl week.Read more...

It’s finally back. Now, we don’t know when it’s officially coming back, but it’s coming…at some point.

People really like to post rankings, because they generate a lot of conversations and tend to rile people up with strong feelings about players or teams. “You have WHO ranked at No. 1? You have to be kidding. No way.” It’s a good time. In fact, I love posting rankings. I love sharing my opinions and providing the good…Read more...

There are 12 teams who have never won a Super Bowl — and four of them haven’t even been to the big game.Read more...

It should be no surprise to anyone when the NFL is accused of doing something racist. The league’s track record speaks for itself.

The Montreal Canadiens are the most important team in the NHL. If you don’t believe it, just ask them or any one of their fans. When scrolling through your NHL.TV or Center Ice package, you have to make sure to add 12 minutes to any scheduled start time for games in Montreal, thanks to whatever pregame ceremony…Read more...

Yoshiro Mori just keeps finding ways to be stupid, unpopular, or both.Read more...

For 17 years, EA Sports has simulated the Super Bowl, beginning in Madden 2004 — featuring the infamous Michael Vick and his 95 speed on the cover — in which the New England Patriots defeated the Carolina Panthers 32-29. Though Madden has only nailed the exact score in one instance — the Patriots slithering by the…Read more...

Gambling is a humbling-ass undertaking. Fred VanVleet was awful against the Orlando Magic two nights ago, finishing with nine points and five assists, shooting 4-for-12 in the process. Last night, also against the same Magic? No one saw 54 points, three steals, and three blocks (!!) on 17-of-23 shooting coming.…Read more...

We’ve reached that point of the year again when it’s acceptable to place bets on Gatorade colors and call yourself a “casual” gambler.

Most eyes were on Brooklyn again last night, as the Clippers, the hottest team in the league, were the guests of the NBA’s latest and most vibrant science experiment in the Brooklyn Nets. The Nets came out on top 124-120, with Kyrie Irving going for 39, James Harden merely “settling” for a triple-double and Kevin…Read more...

The January transfer window closed yesterday — sometimes it closes in February, sometimes it snows in April — and a plethora of American players left their MLS digs behind for European riches. Some will be back, some are real longshots, some have very bright futures. The fact that this has become something of a ritual…Read more...

The masses have been speculating that the end has to be close for the career of Tom Brady for several years. After all, the guy is 43 years old and now playing in a state where most people go to retire, so it seems fitting. Brady has previously said that he wants to play until he’s 45. People have also speculated that…Read more...

It’s Trash Talking Tuesday, and today I’m trashing the Los Angeles Rams for giving up a king’s ransom for quarterback Matt Stafford.Read more...

Ray Allen didn’t ask to be traded when it was clear he probably should’ve done so if he wanted to win. Not when the Milwaukee Bucks sent him to the Seattle Sonics in season seven, and not when the Sonics shipped him to the Boston Celtics before season 12.Read more...

Last month, a Kyodo News poll found that 80 percent of Japanese citizens favor canceling or postponing this year’s Olympic games. Today, Tokyo Olympic organizers vowed to hold the games in the summer.

The ones in the “in-crowd” have always known, but in a few weeks, the rest of the world will be introduced to the real.Read more...

If there was going to be a league that went full fuck-up, it was always going to be the NHL. It’s not clear yet if the league is now home to the first team-to-team transmission of COVID-19, but there are some blinking red lights for sure.

We know the storyline. Patrick Mahomes vs. Tom Brady for the Super Bowl, the GOAT vs the young phenom, the thinking man’s veteran vs. arguably the most gifted arm we’ve ever seen. The storyline that doesn’t get talked about enough, however, is the battle in the trenches. No quarterback can succeed without some…Read more...

In the biggest games of the year, it often takes the coaches with the gutsiest calls to win the game.

Talk about a double standard.

Four Atlanta Hawks fans got booted from their courtside seats on Monday night after trying to start beef with Lakers star LeBron James.Read more...

There are only six games tonight, but there’s gonna be a whole lotta non-defensive-ass basketball being played out there, with two games in particular that we’ll focus on here. The first is in Washington, and whew, boy, If you’re doing over/unders, I don’t need to tell you what to do. What’s bad for those who love…Read more...

While it’s far from the most important aspect of yet another abhorrent story about the hellscape sports can be for female journalists, there is only one organization that can completely smother the acquisition of perhaps the most joyous player in the league in Francisco Lindor. And that would be the New York Mets. And…Read more...

No, this isn’t a case to keep the Pro Bowl in a virtual setting forever. Hopefully, someday soon, we’ll get to travel normally so the players who’ve earned it could make the trip to Orlando. But the NFL Madden Stream worked, as far as quality content goes.

There’s an easy-to-reach joke when someone really old dies. “Oh he died years ago, he just fell down yesterday.” That’s basically how it feels with Dustin Pedroia announcing his retirement today. He’s only played nine games in the past three seasons, so his retirement basically announced him.Read more...

People who watch wrestling often argue over the legitimacy of the art form with friends who don’t watch. The skeptic will often point to the staged punches and kicks, ignoring the very real table bumps, glass spots, and other physical demands that most human beings aren’t cut out for. The wrestling fan typically…Read more...

“Stick to sports.”

Perhaps we should find comfort in the normality of it, given the angry seas that is this point in human history. Any recognizable port can feel like home right now, anything to lash the ship to feeling like a savior. And that’s as far as I can take my ship/seas metaphors. But here we are, and even in a shortened,…Read more...

Welcome to Deadspin’s IDIOT OF THE MONTH awards, a brand-new segment in which we list a series of stupid people and say caustic things about them. Hot off the heels of a fun, popular, and spirited 2020 IDIOT OF THE YEAR series, we have decided to give the people what they want.Read more...

Last week was rough in terms of daily fantasy, but we begin with a 10-game Monday slate on Day 1 of Black History Month, and it’s a snow day on the Northeast. Things are already looking up. We begin with the Greek Freak/Nigerian Nightmare up in Wisconsin.Read more...