Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

One of the less glamorous parts of being a professional play-by-play commentator is being handed a cringy script and being told to act enthusiastic about a show you don’t watch or a product you don’t use just so you can appeal to your boss and finally get back to calling the game. It’s such a forced part of sports…Read more...

The split jersey look usually serves a purpose. It’s for parents with kids playing against each other in a nationally televised sporting event, or for a young woman who has to support both her brother and her new boyfriend who would go on to become her husband and an NFL bust.Read more...

These days, Randy Johnson is still combining his two favorite interests, owning a bird’s eye view of the world beneath him, and photography. As a 6-foot-10 Hall of Fame pitcher, he towered over the field as the tallest player in Major League Baseball History. He’s also probably one of the few aces who could have…Read more...

The Golden State Warriors like to act like they’re a buttoned-up, professional franchise that abstains from drama. The chemistry and coaching have been likened to the Tim Duncan Spurs or the peak “Onto Cleveland” Patriots. While they’ve had consistent success and won championships like those teams, saying the Warriors…Read more...

Having worrying autumn friendlies is apparently contagious in the US National team program.

Do you know where your punter is? In the case of 31 NFL teams this week, he’ll be at practice. The 4-1 New York Football Giants aren’t conducting drills from the same continent where starting punter Jamie Gillan is. After the Giants defeated the Packers three days ago in London, Gillan — nicknamed “the Scottish…Read more...

It’s October, so it’s Halloween season, but it also means the NBA is back. All the talk and some drama will be moved aside as teams return to the court, hoping to do what the Golden State Warriors did last season in raising the Larry O’Brien NBA Finals trophy.

Like a poorly thought-through movie-to-TV series, it appears the Marty McFly rankings are on life support. The actor I hired to play Michael J. Fox’s character is no Michael J. Fox, the de-aging for Christopher Lloyd is too expensive, and the DeLoreans keep breaking down. Never mind that these are the most “Back to…Read more...

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Penalties that turned all of social media into Atlanta Falcons fans and made the crowd at Arrowhead Stadium even angrier than when they booed Unity in 2020 are not new. It only feels like the illegal contact to/with-the-head penalties are a result of the NFL being forced to admit the long-term effects of concussions…Read more...

It used to be that a player would demand out of somewhere when the team he was on no longer — or never — did live up to his talent. It’s when he sought, and maybe deserved, teammates and a front office that matched his skills and ambition, which the current one couldn’t.Read more...

When you come at the Houston Astros, you’d best not miss.Read more...

Having a clutch kicker is a luxury that most NFL fans would die for. In today’s NFL, there’s really only one kicker that everybody trusts to get the job done when the game is on the line: Baltimore’s Justin Tucker. Sure, there have been years where guys like Adam Vinatieri, Harrison Butker, Stephen Gostkowski,…Read more...

Last month, the Washington Commanders assumed their designated position on the NFL’s porcelain throne, and are henceforth known as the Washington Commodes (they are playing like ass). The stench has intensified since then. Losing to the Detroit Lions in Week 2 set off an avalanche. Now trapped under a 1-4 record and…Read more...

Dear NFL GMs and owners, you may want to think twice about hiring a head coach straight outta the college ranks. While there have been success stories — Jimmy Johnson going from the U to Big D being the best example — that really hasn’t been the case in this millennium. Matt Rhule is the latest flop, as the Carolina…Read more...

For the average American, saying what Tommy Tuberville said last week would be career-ending.Read more...

OK I’ll say it, Josh McDaniels was right when he went for that 2-point conversion late in the game against the Kansas City Chiefs in their Week 5 Monday Night Football matchup.Read more...

This year was supposed to be Zion Williamson season. Not Zion Williamson’s season. Zion Williamson season in the same fashion that it’s duck or rabbit season. Prior to missing all of 2021-22 to rehab a foot injury, the discussion heading into the year was “Will Zion forgo his max rookie extension to sign with the…Read more...

Right at the top, I’ll admit this is all a forlorn hope. Whatever happens in the first season of baseball’s expanded playoffs isn’t going to cause too much of a ripple in how the sport looks and how teams are managed. I get that. But we can at least start here.Read more...

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If seeing is believing, then videos are undeniable facts that play on an infinite loop.Read more...

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It’s time to check in on the teams that can’t get out of their own way. The first few weeks of the 2022 NFL season have been somewhat unpredictable, but there are always a few teams we expect to disappoint their fan base. Now let’s get into the powerless ranking for Week 5.

Who had the better four-touchdown outburst, Travis Kelce or Taysom Hill? Kelce and Hill showed that efficient production trumps volume in wins. In the red zone, Kelce has a knack for getting open, and despite only gaining 25 yards on seven receptions, he maneuvered himself open for Mahomes on nearly every red zone…Read more...

It has become obvious that Triple H is going to get as much mileage as he can by reclaiming all that Vince McMahon tossed overboard. There’s certainly a lot of goodwill from fans to win by bringing back their favorites, and the whole business is about the buzz you can create with pops from big or shocking moments.…Read more...

Ignore the San Diego Padres all you want.Read more...

It was a great showcase for all the NFL can be on Monday in Kansas City. Even if you put aside the defiant and ignorant Chiefs fans doing the chop on Indigenous People’s Day — a truly lovely touch — or Troy Aikman insulting any woman who might be watching the broadcast, it was also an example of how the league’s refs…Read more...

Last season we did our weekly rookie quarterback tracker, but with only one taken in the first round of 2022, we’ve moved onto another highly-coveted position: Receiver. For 2022 we’ll keep track of all six first-round wide receivers and their progress throughout the year. Some of our first-round rookies are already…Read more...

The NHL season kicks off for real tomorrow night (the two appetizer games in Prague don’t count, especially because they involved the Sharks), or as it’s known for most of the hockey covering world, “Six months of how does this affect the Leafs?” Yep, the sport’s biggest soap opera, the question of whether or not the…Read more...

Victor Wembanyama is the evolution of basketball personified. But evolution requires a catalyst. Sure Wembanyama’s genes play a significant part, but decades earlier he could have been Frédéric Weis. Weis was the first French center whose name was seared into the memories of American basketball fans. But for all the…Read more...

The Raiders and Chiefs renew their rivalry on Monday Night Football to close out Week 5 of the NFL season. And there’s good news and bad news for the Raiders heading into this matchup. The bad news is that no one expects much out of Las Vegas in this game. That’s also the good news: the Raiders have nothing to lose…Read more...

There’s always an urge, and sometimes a directive from websites and Twitter and whatever else, to attach meaning or statements to any match or result. Sometimes, two teams just play each other and the score is the score and that’s your story. It’s not an overarching comment on systems, managers, or society as a whole.…Read more...

It’s been said that the greatest trick that’s ever been pulled off is when the devil convinced people he didn’t exist. That honor should belong to the editors at HBO, because Hard Knocks had y’all fooled.

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Another banner day for hockey, as Tampa Bay’s Ian Cole was accused of grooming a minor and sexual assault by an anonymous person on Twitter. The Lightning have suspended Cole pending their own investigation and one conducted by the NHL.

Going into the fourth quarter down 21-0 is not the best strategy.

Through five games, it is quite clear that the Baltimore Ravens do not have the best roster in the NFL. Their pass protection is not elite, their receiving corps is at best young and feisty, at worst inexperienced and lacking depth. They even had to sign Jason Pierre-Paul after the start of the regular season to try…Read more...

Perhaps that’s what will kill their fans most. Then again, Mets fans have never needed much prodding to tell the world how miserable it is to be a Mets fan. They’ll certainly have the ammo now.

Most people who pay close attention to the NFL knew that 2022 was going to be a down year for the NFC. The conference with Kyler Murray, Matthew Stafford, and the aging greats — Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady — as its best quarterbacks has a clear lower level of talent at the position than what is in the AFC with Patrick…Read more...

The Jets were keeping receipts. That’s what head coach Robert Saleh said, at least, after New York dropped its season opener, 24-9, to the Baltimore Ravens.

The 2022 season was supposed to be about closure. Saquon Barkley and Daniel Jones were the two talismans of the Dave Gettleman era who were on their way out. Instead, Barkley appears reenergized after missing countless starts over the past two seasons. Much to the chagrin of Giants fans, Brian Daboll has also found…Read more...

Saying the Rams have had a rough start to the season would be an understatement. Although they are 2-2, the offense has struggled and has become one-dimensional. It’s Cooper Kupp or bust and let the defense bail ‘em out if they can. Now the Dallas Cowboys are visiting in Week 5, bringing one of the best defenses in…Read more...

While my baseball fandom was thrown in the trash by the Ricketts family, that doesn’t mean the fires of distaste and hatred burn any less. Our passions and love can ebb and flow, but the force of our animus for former rivals always remains strong. Maybe you’re a Red Sox fan out there that can never get past the Mookie…Read more...

There wasn’t much surprising about the results from Saturday. Oklahoma continued its free fall, getting shut out by Texas, 49-0. Even though Jimbo Fisher gave Nick Saban a game in Bryce Young’s absence, the Crimson Tide pulled through. None of the top 10 lost despite Oklahoma State playing with its food for four…Read more...

It takes a lot for the sporting public to notice a Saturday highlight other than a football one in early October. It has to be especially good on a weekend when Alabama staves off an upset, but my god what the Seattle Mariners are doing is beyond good.Read more...

Tom Brady is right.

It was dubbed the most anticipated college football game of the season. The narrative of a College Football Playoff-ready Texas A&M invading Tuscaloosa to truly see how strong its armor was against the impenetrable fortress of Bryant-Denny Stadium. Alabama held up its end of the bargain. The Crimson Tide are…Read more...

Bourbon Street in New Orleans exists in a loop. Every night the street clicks back into a state of debauchery, repeated with perverse precision. Lonely men drift in and out of red neon strip clubs holding cans of Natty Light. Police on horses stroll between sleeping bums, screaming preachers, pools of urine, and pizza…Read more...