Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

Karl-Anthony Towns has COVID-19.

An inevitable truth of every NFL offseason is the coaching carousel. Coaches are relieved of their duties after failed seasons – this year is no different. Before this week, there were seven head coaching positions available. Two have been filled: the Jaguars and the Jets have found their new coaches in Urban Meyer…Read more...

Do you find NHL helmet ads irritating? Do they cut you the wrong way? Leave you feeling sensitive about the intrusion of capitalism into sports?Read more...

Four of the top-10 players tonight are game-time decisions. You cautiously stay away after making your lineups too early, and then player X goes off. You forgot to check back before 7:30 p.m. to switch him in, and it was discovered that he’s actually playing. And your significant other wonders why you’re left staring…Read more...

The Divisional Round of the NFL Playoffs starts tomorrow, and man are there some amazing matchups all weekend long. I love this slate. In each game, there are game-breaking players capable of monster performances. The playoffs are where great players become legends, and I’m hoping for some truly legendary outing from…Read more...

TMZ reports that Lamar Odom, yes, that one, will compete in a … boxing match … on June 12:Read more...

Lots of NFL teams become a joke year after year. Hell, I’m from Chicago and a fan of one of the bigger ones. But only one has risen to the level of a recurring one on a beloved, network sitcom. It’s the most memorable thing about the Jacksonville Jaguars.Read more...

It’s time to get mad at your grandparents for throwing out their baseball cards.

Last month, Ian McCall told HBO’s Real Sports that his 17 years in mixed martial arts led him to a painkiller addiction. “I was medicated and so numbed out from such a young age, I turned into a monster,” he told correspondent David Scott.

It won’t come as much of a shock to anyone even vaguely familiar with Vince McMahon that he’s pretty much a shit-demon, albeit a shit-demon with billions of dollars. As we’ve learned from recent history, and much to our detriment, being a billionaire means never having to say you’re sorry, or even acknowledging why…Read more...

I’ve never smoked crack before, but the rush of an NBA transaction probably brings me closer to that feeling than the Houston Rockets were to making any of their 27 straight threes to end that infamous game 7. That James Harden trade … man, hopefully, we could actually get through this season.Read more...

This season was not going well for the Virginia women’s basketball team.

John Calipari is rolling down a slippery slope. On Wednesday, the championship coach, who has helped 35 players get drafted to the NBA in the last decade, criticized the timing of a protest led by his current players before their game against Florida on Jan. 9. Before tipoff against the Gators, Kentucky players…Read more...

Malcolm Brogdon and Domatas Sabonis have been a top-five NBA duo this season, and Caris LeVert is the perfect complement to the East’s sneakiest contender.Read more...

Right before Christmas, the Pro Fight League announced their second splashy signing of the Holiday Season. Weeks after inking a deal to break nine-time world boxing champion, Claressa Shields, into mixed martial arts, the promotion acquired former UFC Champion Anthony Pettis, who will begin competing in the PFL airing…Read more...

How ironic.

While the appeal is understandable, the 76ers are better off having not made the rumored blockbuster deal on offer to acquire James Harden.Read more...

The NHL was the last league to start up outside of a bubble last night, not that any of the other ones have particularly gone well. All of them, even MLS if you are so inclined, have had their schedules deformed and positive tests all over the place, yet just plowed through while claiming everything was working…Read more...

In John U. Bacon’s 2011 book, “Three and Out: Rich Rodriguez and the Michigan Wolverines in the Crucible of College Football,” there’s an ironic quote on page 34.

Houston, you don’t have a problem anymore. The trade happened; it finally happened.

The NBA landscape just changed wildly in the span of a few minutes, with a barrage of trades taking place that saw some players change multiple teams all at once. The key piece to note — James Harden, after requesting a trade and throwing a fit for several weeks, finally gets his wish. Harden has been traded to the…Read more...

Whoever is running the Las Vegas Raiders’ social media department probably needs to spend a little more time on quality control, because the Raiders Twitter account welcomed new Defensive Coordinator Gus Bradley with a Photoshopped picture of … Ken Whisenhunt.Read more...

Companies across the country are realizing that having had their money fund politicians who attempt to engage in a coup is bad for business, so for the past week, many have been cutting off their donations. Most notably, Hallmark asked lead insurrectionist senator Josh Hawley to return the company’s donations to him.

Way back in 2019, Twitter user @maplecocaine said that, every day, there is one main character on Twitter. Your goal, every day, is to NOT be that character. Enter Dawson Buchanan.

The Bears are going nowhere fast.

Meet Michael Leach, a former assistant to the head coach for the Chicago Bears who spent nearly a decade working in the NFL. And who, according to his LinkedIn page, is currently the Chief People, Diversity, & Inclusion Officer at Biden for President.

Even though it’s been 10 months now, WWE executives have done their best to never say the word “COVID.” The closest they’ve gotten is probably when they petitioned/bribed the state of Florida for an “essential business” designation so they could keep production going. Or maybe you heard the word “pandemic” when the…Read more...

The NHL realigned its divisions for the 2021 season, a move necessitated by teams’ inability to cross the Canadian border in the time of COVID-19. Generally, it wouldn’t make a ton of sense for Vancouver and Ottawa to be in the same division, but they’re both in Canada, so, fine, they’re in the North.Read more...

We’ll have to wait and see how he feels in March or so, but so far, Kevin Durant’s been an MVP candidate. Did you see him last night against the Denver Nuggets? And people think the Nets will drop off without Kyrie Irving. Pffft. The Slim Reaper won’t let that happen. Let’s stay in Brooklyn for the beginning of…Read more...

Kyrie Irving is tough to pin down, and not just when it comes to figuring out his whereabouts.

We move out West, which is probably the most top-heavy of the new-fangled, COVID-adjusted divisions this season. There are three genuine contenders here...and then a whole lot of trash. Colorado, Vegas, and St. Louis will feast on the chum on offer in this intra-division only schedule, and the race for the three of…Read more...

At its core, leadership is unfair. When things go well, leaders get all the praise. But, when things don’t, the burden is theirs alone to carry.

For the sake of this season, Florida is apparently central, and Dallas is central even though it’s west of St. Paul and St. Louis, which are both in the west this year. This is truly the season of people throwing ducks at balloons and nothing is the way it seems. Whatever the odd alignments, this division is setting…Read more...

Well, that didn’t take long.

Hanging with Drake in Toronto?Read more...

The NBA is implementing NO TOUCHING!

The vaccine rollout hasn’t exactly happened at warp speed. So far, nearly 9 million Americans have received a first dose of the COVID shot. If we want to move faster, we may need super-centers and round-the-clock immunizations to accommodate the hundreds of millions of Americans still waiting to be vaccinated.

The Seahawks have extended general manager John Schneider through the 2027 NFL Draft, which is making my eye twitch.Read more...

After seeing their team win their fifth national championship in the last decade, Alabama fans apparently weren’t interested in letting a teeny tiny pandemic stop them from celebrating in the streets really, really close together.Read more...

Gary Bettman is never going to be popular among fans. Not even really liked. Which is fine, it’s not really a commissioner’s job to be liked by fans, not anymore. And the one thing you have to give Bettman credit for is leaning into it the past few years. One can’t imagine Rob Manfred or Roger Goodell having a sense…Read more...

Fans of the Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers warned the Brooklyn Nets contingent that things would be abnormal.

No matter the circumstances, women always get ignored.

It’s Trash Talking Tuesday, and today I’m trashing the Pittsburgh Steelers for getting embarrassed by the Cleveland Browns in the playoffs.Read more...

The Houston Texans should trade quarterback Deshaun Watson.Read more...

The North division, aka the Canadian division, features some of the best offensive talents in the game: Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Auston Matthews, John Tavares, Elias Pettersson, and Johnny Gaudreau, among others, call this division home. None of these teams have won a Stanley Cup since 1993, and that’s not…Read more...

It has come to Bill Belichick’s attention that he will not be getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Thursday at the White House.Read more...

This division is loaded with veteran teams like Pittsburgh, Washington, and Boston that still expect to compete for the Stanley Cup, teams on the rise in the Islanders and Flyers, and teams bolstered by recent No. 1 overall picks like the Rangers, Devils and Sabres who are hoping to break through.

Sheldon Adelson, chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands casino group, and the largest individual donor to Donald Trump’s presidential campaigns, died on Monday night, according to a statement released by Las Vegas Sands.Read more...

We’re beginning to see actual cancellations, so bet carefully. FanDuel didn’t even list the Philadelphia 76ers versus Miami Heat game but fret not. Two of today’s choices come from that game, but alternatives will be provided for FD players. You’ll be missing out, though!