Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

3-0 would have worked too, kids.

Take a look at the current NFL standings, would you? How many teams are above .500 with less-than-optimal situations under center? The New York Jets, New England Patriots, and Tennessee Titans are all on the playoff bubble and have all either endured mediocre-to-poor quarterback play, and the Titans even have an out…Read more...

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Fans of the Denver Broncos went from reluctantly embracing #LetsRide in the early weeks of the season to forcing Russell Wilson to stop using, uttering, or even thinking about it by early October.

The Dallas Mavericks have limped out of the starting blocks in this marathon known as the NBA season to a 9-10 record after nearly one quarter of the year. Luka Dončić is off to another MVP-caliber tear, but he’ll still finish empty-handed without much team success. Coming off the team’s conference finals run last…Read more...

This should be easy, with the second word of this story being the most important: SHOULD. Even with the politics and affinity for the Southeastern Conference and other big-name schools, the College Football Playoff committee can’t mess this one up, right? There are only two scenarios that can unfold this week. All…Read more...

Monday night was bigger than a game between two bad teams. It was proof of how confusing the process is of becoming an NFL head coach.Read more...

The Steelers’ run game mainly saved Pittsburgh last night against the Indianapolis Colts on Monday Night Football. The Steelers have struggled on the ground for much of the last two seasons, but Pittsburgh pounded the ball against Indy all night for 172 yards.Read more...

It’s time to check in on the teams that can’t get out of their own way. We’re approaching the final quarter of the 2022 NFL season, and much of it has been unpredictable, but there are always a few teams we expect to disappoint their fanbases. Now let’s get into the powerless ranking for Week 12.

Watch out now.

It would be hard to convince everyone that USMNT manager Gregg Berhalter was preparing for exactly this, last spring. I would like to believe he was, just because I would like to believe fully in Berhalter. Maybe he sensed it was a possibility. Maybe it’s just a coincidence.Read more...

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Game of the day: Serbia 3 - 3 Cameroon

The Philadelphia Eagles have dominated the NFC over the first three months of the season en route to a league-best 10-1 start. Besides the game against Washington a couple of weeks ago, Philly has found a way to slither out with a win every time. They’ve already beaten two of the top three teams chasing them in the…Read more...

The first time I ever went to Mexico, my dad brought us to visit our grandparents, who were alive and living in San Benito, a Texas border town. In the early 90s, we crossed over to buy inexpensive medicine and trinkets from vendors. We had grown up poor, mostly living in trailer parks and spare rooms at aunt’s and…Read more...

According to the policy, Jerry Jones hasn’t done anything wrong. That’s because anti-Blackness is never a crime.

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You remember that silly cheer from high school, “Be aggressive, B.E. aggressive?” In football, that only applies to the players. Please defensive end, bull rush right through the offensive tackle’s heart. But for the coaches the rules are different.

The Green Bay Packers hung tough with the Philadelphia Eagles all night. They were overmatched and dealing with injuries but they put up a good fight — even when it appeared that game was over long before the final whistle.

The Philadelphia Eagles’ black alternates are stupid. There’s a lot that’s stupid about the Eagles, and I recognize the risk of making that statement when they’re 10-1 and their faithful lurk around every corner with a thought to share, but one cannot ignore the truth.Read more...

Apparently, Ja Rule was called for advice on how to set up a college basketball tournament, because just like Fyre Fest, this Thanksgiving tournament was not all what it was advertised to be.Read more...

There may have been more exciting games or more dramatic endings in this tournament, but there hasn’t been one with more intrigue combined with a higher quality of play than this one. Argentina was staring at the abyss, much like Germany was today, giving the game something of a snuff-film air, and yet they were…Read more...

Nothing but the worst should be expected from the Washington Commanders with whatever they do. Daniel Snyder’s organization has proven this true for quite a while now. Sunday morning, at FedEx Field, they just emphasized that sentiment when they unveiled a “tribute” to former safety Sean Taylor.Read more...

For those of us that had the initial burst of hope when Triple H took over creative for WWE, the status of the company after last night’s Survivor Series: War Games PPV PLE was about as sobering as seeing flashing lights in your rearview at 3 a.m. The company has one champ that puts on great matches… six times a year.…Read more...

It’ll be interesting to see if the day ever comes when the hiring of a new coach at Nebraska is met with a cavalier attitude. “Well, shit, why not him?” is only uttered when the university names a men’s basketball coach.Read more...

The annual pissing contest of the Big Ten’s only two good teams took place Saturday, and like last year, it was Michigan emphatically stomping Ohio State. Unlike a season ago, this was in Columbus, and despite what B1G commissioner Kevin Warren will tell you, this game was not an instant classic for anyone not wearing…Read more...

What psychopath called the long-awaited United States men’s national team’s Black Friday showdown against England a scoreless draw? I’ll have whatever you’re drinking. After gaining my bearings after that stiff cocktail, and realizing Matt Turner nor Jordan Pickford allowing a goal wasn’t just fallacy, it yielded a…Read more...

The small Middle Eastern country — known for its poor human rights record — is the World Cup host, but did Qatar actually WANT it to begin with? Whichever government officials were responsible for bringing the world’s biggest sporting event to their country must’ve wanted it enough to take the initiative, but the…Read more...

Almost a year ago, I contemplated the soul of Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau, searching for answers to his most pressing coaching quandaries. Humans are prone to making connections, comparing and contrasting, to make sense of the chaos around us. In the world of the NBA, Thibodeau shares much of the gray matter that…Read more...

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It’s rare to read scuttlebutt about which job a coach wants. The job market for unemployed coaches typically works the other way around. Jobs open up, a slew of coaching candidates cram into the interview lobby. Sean Payton is in a unique position where he can call the shots.Read more...

Game of the day: Japan 2 - Germany 1

Jets fans have not had a good week. As Al Michaels once so elegantly put it, “They’ve had a worse week than Harvey Weinstein.”Read more...

A couple’s ability to get along when they’re marooned away from home due to travel issues is an indication of the strength (or weakness) of their bond. External turmoil forges or breaks a relationship, and this hastily written analogy is where the Bills are at as a team and in real life.Read more...

It’s Thanksgiving day, so it’s time to watch the Dallas Cowboys in their yearly showcase. The fact that they’re winning and making a charge toward another postseason makes it even better. And this year’s Turkey Day game has higher stakes than this game has had in quite a while. This Thanksgiving day game has been…Read more...

Has there ever been a more irrelevant player to make more headlines than Patrick Beverley? The 11-year guard was up to the only tricks he knows again Tuesday night, getting ejected for having his teammate’s back by violently pushing Deandre Ayton from behind.Read more...

There are many reasons to be envious of fans with teams in contention for the College Football Playoff, but the most relevant to this weekend is the mental and physical energy expended to get to the end of the regular season tightrope will be enough to work off those Turkey Day calories. While the rest of us may watch…Read more...

Nearly 10 years after the ButtFumble, a next-generation Jets quarterback is fumbling his job away and coming across like a buttface in the process. There was no escape for the Jets quarterback on Sunday or afterward. Based on reports from Jets insiders such as Rich Cimini, the Jets’ fractured locker room is divided…Read more...

In the oxymoronic move of the month, the Las Vegas Raiders have filed for a new trademark that doesn’t exactly match their current situation. Darren Rovell tweeted about the trademark that is set to become a new slogan for the team. Win City — a play on the team’s location, Sin City —has been swooped up by the team…Read more...

If the playoffs were starting right now, the New England Patriots would be the AFC’s sixth seed. They’d get an opening-round matchup with the Tennessee Titans, followed by a likely road gig against the Kansas City Chiefs. It’s a tough path in the already daunting American Football Conference. That said, if any team is…Read more...

Who knows what team Odell Beckham Jr. will sign with. That being said, it’s obvious what team wants him the most.Read more...

It would appear that hockey has at least slithered to the level that public attention can get it to do the right thing a couple of days late. It’s just above barely nothing, but moving from nothing to a couple of inches above barely nothing is the lowest form of progress. But progress.Read more...

Saudi Arabia manager Herve Renard might be the most handsome manager at this tournament, and he certainly didn’t have a problem taking a page from another handsome manager, Jose Mourinho. If you recall the cold war that Barcelona and Real Madrid had when Mourinho was at the helm at the Bernabeu, the way they played…Read more...

As Saudi Arabia shocked the globe by defeating Lionel Messi and World Cup favorites Argentina on Tuesday, it provided the most recent example of a tremendous upset victory at the quadrennial showcase. Argentina was No. 3 in the FIFA rankings and Saudi Arabia was the second-lowest ranked team to play in Qatar at No.…Read more...

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Maybe one day Philadelphia sports fans will forgive Ben Simmons for not taking the court at all for the 76ers last season, not shooting in four consecutive fourth quarters, and the play in which he passed the ball to the only Sixer who was arguably a worse shooter than him instead of dunking on Trae Young.

The 2023 MLB Hall of Fame ballots were sent out yesterday.Read more...

Late Monday night, the sports director for WCBI News in Mississippi, Jon Sokoloff, detonated a grenade in the college football carousel by reporting that Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin would be accepting Auburn’s head coaching job. Sokoloff’s tweet specifically stated that Kiffin’s being named Auburn coach was imminent…Read more...

The Dallas Mavericks’ struggles this season are well-documented and likely won’t be put to rest anytime soon. Their All-World leader, Luka Dončić, is off to another hot start, but that’s only translated into a 9-7 record, and the team barely keeping their heads above water. While Dončić is playing at an MVP level,…Read more...