Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

We all knew it was coming, but seeing the Cubs put out a press release this morning saying Theo Epstein was stepping down from his role as omniscient leader and President of Baseball Ops was still jarring. For the past nine years, Cubs fans have attached to Epstein their wildest hopes and dreams. He was, the Cubs…Read more...

No, this isn’t going to happen. But can we argue that it should?Read more...

Five years ago, the Kansas City Royals were world champions. It was not a fluke or an accident, but the payoff for implementing a strategy that allowed them to compete despite not having the resources of the Yankees and Red Sox of the world.

Perhaps the news isn’t that Theo Epstein is resigning from his position of President of Baseball Operations of the Cubs, but that anyone is graciously stepping aside and handing power to the next person in line. Need more of that these days.Read more...

The fantasy playoffs are a few weeks away, which, quite frankly, is weird as hell. But, here we are. If you’re still in contention for a playoff spot, congratulations! You’ve managed to survive the weirdest, most tumultuous season in fantasy football history. Through game cancellations and last-second eligibility…Read more...

Portland, Oregon is a unique, special, weird, passionate, sleepy corner of our country. More famous for plaid shirts and craft beers than sports, that town has one lonely professional sport team to embrace, to which they have deeply enamored themselves. The Portland Trailblazers are woven into the fabric of that city,…Read more...

Houston deserves this crown.

It’s Trash Talking Tuesday and today, I’m trashing Tiger Woods for that embarrassing 12th hole in the final round of the Masters.Read more...

The timing is perfect.

Never mind that the Milwaukee Bucks are trading away draft picks in a plea for Giannis Antetokounmpo to stay, they’re also applying pressure to the rest of the Eastern Conference.

Whenever the NFL schedule is released, we Bears fans cringe whenever there’s a national game listed. Not because the Bears’ record over history on Sunday or Monday night is pretty porous, though that’s part of it. And it’s not the slagging we’ll be in for by national analysts. We’re numb to that by now. We’ve been…Read more...

Maybe having 10 months off from each other is exactly what the U.S. Men’s National Team and their fans needed. The last time we saw the national squad, they were hacking, gagging, and stumbling through the Gold Cup or attempting to play out from the back in another friendly with Mexico with truly dispiriting results.…Read more...

Having a future Hall-of-Fame quarterback on your team down the back stretch of a season where you’re fighting for playoff seeding is generally a good thing. Having said quarterback injured is definitely the opposite of a good thing. The Saints are facing that reality as Drew Brees is dealing with “multiple rib…Read more...

On Monday, we had our first official legitimate Woj Bomb of the transactional madness that is the forthcoming weeks of NBA reporting — both exact and erroneous.

In a 2020 Presidential election decided by uncomfortably slim margins in swings states, remember the number 40,000. That’s the approximate number of people who voted early at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia.

When USA Today drops an exclusive report on you, then you know it’s real. Just ask USA Gymnastics, Michigan State, and Larry Nassar.

It’s about that time once again.Read more...

The NHL knows that just about the only thing that will keep it culturally relevant is its jerseys. They’re fashionable to everyone, or can be, and every body type can wear one and look good. Football jerseys are boring, baseball jerseys only make sense at a baseball game (and not even really then, and if you’ve worn…Read more...

In a downpour on Sunday Night Football, the Patriots outlasted the Ravens. It was a much-needed win for New England who had been on a slide before these last two games that had many people questioning quarterback Cam Newton and Head Coach Bill Belichick.Read more...

Another week, another NFL Sunday is in the books.

Jim Harbaugh should be done at Michigan.

Week 10's matchup between the Fins and Chargers was highlighted by the two rookie quarterbacks squaring off against one another.Read more...

The optics of this NFL season have already been weird and an indictment of the decision to have a season at all. Whether it’s empty stands or, even worse, quarter-filled ones, something has been off about watching football all season. It’s a constant reminder just of where everything is, and how it shouldn’t be…Read more...

In the most unique Masters tournament of our lifetime, Xander Schauffele had 71 yards left into the 15th green during Thursday’s opening round. It was a delicate shot which called for Schauffele to carry the ball at least 70 yards due to the slope of the green that feeds directly into a pond that guards the hole. Any…Read more...

Cardinals receiver DeAndre Hopkins just put three Buffalo Bills defenders in a cradle with arguably one of the best game-winning catches in NFL history.

Why would you do it?

If you’re a basketball junkie like myself, then the NBA Draft is an annual can’t-miss event. The high school kids and foreign players you heard/read about, along with the players you watched in college, are days away from finding out where they’ll start their careers.

Gather round, this doesn’t happen often.

Cincinnati Bengals at Pittsburgh SteelersRead more...

Sometimes in life, things just go downhill.

Sergio Ramos might be the biggest villain in European soccer, but part of the reason he is that is he’s already won, and you know it. He’s got two European Championship medals, a World Cup, a murder of Champions League trophies, a handful of La Liga titles, and will go down as one of, if not the, best defenders in…Read more...

Tom Brady is having some kind of a rough couple of weeks.Read more...

This week on the Sunday Scaries, we’ve got the greatest hits featuring: the NFC East, the Jacksonville Jaguars and a deceptively good Chargers team? We’ll also cover an old NFL rivalry that is now dead.

Scotland’s men’s soccer team hasn’t been to a major tournament since the 1998 World Cup, where they finished last in group play. But that changed on Friday, when a penalty shootout win over Serbia secured a berth for Euro 2020, the continental championship that will be played next year as a result of this summer’s…Read more...

Sixers President Chris Heck placed a Joel Embiid-sized 17 sneaker in his mouth when he was talking up the Sixers new uniforms with the Uni Watch website.

Penn State was No. 7 in the preseason AP college football poll. That is not where the Nittany Lions will finish the year.Read more...

We are doomed as a society. There is no turning back. There is no shelter to run and hide. (Well, there is — it’s called your house — but seemingly millions of folks don’t want to stay there.) If anything, this pandemic has shown us that some people simply will not believe in science no matter what.Read more...

We’ve all seen it a thousand times: a baseball player tries to field a ball, but can’t catch it and it goes rolling on the outfield grass.Read more...

Earl Thomas is now a man without a job … or a wife.Read more...

That’s the comparison being drawn now, as CNN’s Jim Acosta reported Friday on a Trump adviser noting that the end of the president’s reign could parallel the Bad Boys walking off the court and refusing to shake hands with Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, who that year started the first of their two three-peats.

Kim Ng is going to be the face of the Marlins as the team’s new GM. She will be the point person for the club with agents, players, the media, other general managers and owners. With each interaction, she will be a reminder that excellence isn’t tied to gender.Read more...

Marjorie Taylor Greene, the QAnon lunatic who is on her way to Congress with a mutual admiration for Atlanta Dream co-owner and racist coup d’etat enthusiast Kelly Loeffler, already is showing just what a disaster she is going to be for everyone who comes within six feet of her.Read more...

Just like records are meant to be broken, walls placed around marginalized people will also come tumbling down.Read more...

I can’t believe I’m typing this, but the people of Alabama elected a college football coach as their next senator, Tommy Tuberville.Read more...

Black Waterproof 6" Boots | $210 | Timberland

While the NL Cy Young conjured thoughts about some of the things that are wrong with baseball (the warping of the game played by galactic assholes), there’s no reason to not feel good about both MVPs named yesterday.

There are ballers and then there are the big ballers.

On Wednesday, Trevor Bauer became the first Cincinnati Reds pitcher ever to win a Cy Young Award. That leaves only three teams in Major League Baseball that have never had one of their pitchers receive that honor, matching the three teams that have never had an MVP.Read more...

The 16th hole is always the one to watch at Augusta. This year, it’s already given us some gems.

Hear me out.Read more...