Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

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The College Football Playoff is expanding, finally. After a decade of a four-team tournament to determine the FBS national champion, the field is tripling starting by the 2026 season. Per ESPN’s Pete Thamel, the CFP Board of Managers approved the addition of eight teams to the annual postseason clash on Friday. The…Read more...

Nick, stop pocket-watching.

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Whether it was Cooper Kupp in 2021, Josh Allen in 2020, or Marlon Humphrey in 2019, breakout players have always been difficult to predict, but not impossible. Solid underlying stats, good coaching, and an obvious opportunity for increased usage are the three main characteristics we need to look at in order to…Read more...

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AEW maven Tony Khan had his pre-All Out media call yesterday. These can be fascinating encounters, where he’s there basically to promote a show, and most of the people asking him questions are throwing hanging curveballs so he can do so. However, every so often someone asks him something that doesn’t keep his…Read more...

Well, look at the Cleveland Cavaliers.

In March, JuJu Smith-Schuster signed a one-year $10.75 million contract with the Kansas City Chiefs. Playing with Patrick Mahomes, this is his prove-it-or-lose- season. There are no more excuses if JuJu doesn’t play up to No. 1 receiver standards when the best young quarterback of this generation is throwing him…Read more...

The Los Angeles Angels should be appointment television viewing. Two of their players have won half of the American League MVP awards since 2014. The most recent winner of that award — Shohei Ohtani — is playing baseball in a way in which the NFL equivalent would be Patrick Mahomes putting up T.J. Watt’s sack numbers…Read more...

On Monday, the Jimmy Garoppolo saga in San Francisco took an unexpected turn. Rather than trading the two-time Super Bowl champ, as many people expected, the 49ers opted to keep Garoppolo around, restructuring his contract to make him the highest-paid backup in the NFL. For most people, this move would be…Read more...

The thing about the internet is it’s permanent. Scrub all you want, but no amount of skin grafts or laser removal is getting rid of that Kottonmouth Kings tattoo. While you can have an expert ink over it in hopes that no one notices, your asshole friends definitely have documented evidence of its existence that will…Read more...

I have a confession, and it’s one that usually shocks the people who know me. I have only ever seen two episodes of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia, and that number will never grow beyond that. If I wanted to feel like I got yelled at for half an hour, I’ll check in on my social media DMs that have been filtered out…Read more...

Look at Jake Paul stepping up his competition — in name recognition in the fight world at least.Read more...

Stephen A. Smith has lost his damn mind.

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“Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.” ― Mark Twain

Los Angeles is home to two football teams — the defending Super Bowl champions, and the team no one cares about.Read more...

It is obviously going to take a brave woman to stare down Serena Wiliams at Ashe Stadium, where 24,000 (minus the handful they have in their player’s box) will be backing the legend to keep her career alive for just a couple more days. It is perhaps the most unique advantage in tennis history, a wall of noise pointed…Read more...

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All of the delusional SoCal bros flooding Vegas with USC national championship bets would be better off taking that money and stapling it to bar walls or burying it. A title team constitutes more than Lincoln Riley and Caleb Williams as it takes pallets of talent to face down the Alabamas, Georgias, and Ohio States of…Read more...

The Heisman chase is officially underway, as sportsbooks have declared Ohio State quarterback CJ Stroud the early favorite. He’s not just a favorite though, he’s an abnormally huge favorite. According to OddsChecker US, Stroud is being given +200 odds (or a 33.3 percent chance) to win the Heisman. Those are the best…Read more...

NIL is sensible. It was ridiculous that “amateur” athletes were not allowed to accept anything of financial value for their athletic talents, except for the fees to attend the institution so that they can play on the team and be properly housed and nourished so they can play well.Read more...

The Carolina Panthers have the best chance of taking one of this year’s top 10 draft picks, translating that into a Super Bowl appearance the quickest in a similar journey to last season’s Bengals squad. The likeness is easy to spot. A major injury to a superstar, Joe Burrow, and Christian McCaffrey respectively,…Read more...

In basketball, a couple of never-ending debates will likely go unresolved.

It’s going to be a month of this. Aaron Judge has 50+ homers by Sept. 1, one of the very few to accomplish said feat. And with all baseball records, there are going to be self-appointed gatekeepers who have decided it is their purpose to keep the hordes at bay from sullying something sacred. There is no righteousness…Read more...

Nobody has gotten it wrong more than the New York Knicks.

LeBron is promoting the hell out of his newest passion project. It’s not a Spring Hill-Warner Bros. production, but it is the most personal aspect of his investment portfolio. For Sports Illustrated’s Daily Cover story on Tuesday, LeBron, flanked by his sons Bronny and Bryce, spoke to Chris Ballard, sounding more like…Read more...

The NFL Top 100 Players of 2022 list, a group compiled by the players themselves, included eight cornerbacks, who were ranked from 89th (Saints’ Marshon Lattimore) to ninth (Rams’ Jalen Ramsey). Every player mentioned is a tremendous talent, even Trevon Diggs (ranked 23rd). I just don’t think he’s worthy of top-100…Read more...

Baker Mayfield is at it again, running his mouth and talking trash. His latest comments were allegedly uttered to Buffalo Bills sideline reporter Cynthia Frelund.Read more...

The joke used to be that you were supposed to think of baseball to un-horny yourself. When you needed to prolong proceedings to a length of time that wouldn’t be embarrassing or possibly even to one acceptable to both (or more?) parties. Think of every third baseman in the National League in 1991 and you can stave off…Read more...

The Vikings are a good football team...on paper. Just looking at their roster, you’d think this team was a perennial playoff team with Super Bowl aspirations, if they could only get past those pesky Packers. They haven’t been that though. They haven’t won their division since 2017 and have reached the playoffs only…Read more...

Over the years, we’ve seen some popular NFL stars call it quits in a matter that felt abrupt and, for some, far too early. Watching women’s tennis superstar Serena Williams on her “farewell tour” reminded me of former football players who, had we known they were near the end, may have received some type of send-off…Read more...

What does Lamar Jackson want?

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The first full month of WWE under Paul “Triple H” Levesque’s thumb is about to wrap up, with all creative direction steering toward the company’s next big show “Clash at the Castle” taking place this weekend. Slowly but surely, changes are being made to the product, with most having a positive effect. The biggest…Read more...

The PGA Tour season is over, and the only PGA-sanctioned event left on the calendar is the President’s Cup, which Saudi Tour golfers are ineligible to play. Cam Smith won’t be included, despite qualifying for the international team, and neither will the other five golfers who announced their move a few days after the…Read more...

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Jimmy Garoppolo sticking around as the backup in the San Francisco 49ers quarterback after all the goodbyes since February is one of the offseason’s biggest shockers. It probably shouldn’t be. Jimmy G and the Niners re-committing to each other ends a summer of long, drawn-out farewell NFL episodes that went nowhere.

What do a former NFL punter and a Black female volleyball player at Duke have in common?

One of the great orators of our time, Eddie Izzard, once said of the French, “They’re a bit…fuckin’ French.” Perhaps there is no greater example than the French national team, and that covers both the men and the women.

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I rarely think about the parents when a player gets drafted or signed. We always see the tear-filled interviews, or the wild cheering after a first hit, and I genuinely believe that almost all parents are just genuinely filled with pride and joy and happiness when their children reach sport’s biggest stages. It’s been…Read more...

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Mike McDaniel’s pod of Dolphins has already made splashes. In its preseason finale, Miami dropped 48 on the Philadelphia Eagles and Tua Tagovailoa completed 6-of-7 passes for 121 yards and led three scoring drives.

The fake sports news on Twitter is getting a bit out of control. I’m aware that part of responsible internet usage requires users to vet sources. It’s not like people haven’t been getting burned by fake Woj and fake Schefter accounts for years, but handles like CockSources and Ballsack sports — while appealing to the…Read more...

One of the most fascinating things about MLS, as goofy as it can be, is watching it evolve into a different type of league every few years.

The NFL Top 100 players ranking, conducted by the players, is complete. For the fourth time in its history, Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr. comes in at No. 1. One team’s social media account immediately pounced with an objection to Brady being the best player in the league for 2022.