Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

Early this week, an independent investigation into player abuse in the National Women’s Soccer League exposed several failures by the NWSL and the United States Soccer Federation.

The next time a pundit says “Missing on such-and-such QB cost coach X his job” will be my next visit to the psych ward. You know why Spencer Rattler didn’t cost Lincoln Riley his job, and Paul Chryst couldn’t survive Graham Mertz? One looks at a chalkboard as a place to draw plays, and the other sees a canvas.Read more...

The great thing about America is that any citizen of a certain age can run for office. The bad thing about America is that any citizen of a certain age can run for office.Read more...

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Another Thursday Night Football game, another head injury. Last week, Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was slammed into the turf and diagnosed with a concussion. Last night’s third play from scrimmage saw Colts running back Nyheim Hines suffer a similarly unfortunate fate. Hines took a routine hit by NFL standards.…Read more...

A lot of the time, fans running onto the field of play provide a good laugh. Sometimes the courage to interrupt a live event and draw attention to themselves comes from what they believe is a noble cause, and other times it comes from libations. The stadium and the people at home laugh while security tries to run the…Read more...

The J-Lo and Josh Duhamel movie trailer that came on after this game ended was better than the game itself. I don’t even remember the title, but the sheer jubilation I received after I no longer had to watch that football game made that trailer all the more enjoyable. HOLY SMOKES! Both teams were allergic to the end…Read more...

Draymond Green hijacked internet headlines Wednesday evening following his fight with Jordan Poole, which spilled into Thursday with all the talk about why this fight occurred. Thursday morning, a Tweet was posted from the latest episode of LeBron James’ “The Shop,” which features Green commenting on which NBA teams…Read more...

The MLB playoffs begin today, and with that, eight teams will battle for the chance to compete against the Dodgers, Braves, Astros, and Yankees. Yikes! What an awful prize that is, am I right?

Jim Harbaugh and Jimbo Fisher are two identical strangers on similar paths. Both were top-notch quarterback gurus who haven’t been able to find a consistent spark behind center. This season, Texas A&M is on its second quarterback while Harbaugh has been deploying a platoon system featuring J.J. McCarthy and Cade…Read more...

Remember, Amazon pays $1 billion per season for this. That means that Thursday’s Colts-Broncos hobo ho-down cost Jeff Bezos somewhere around $62.5 million. In the words of Axl Rose, “You get what you pay for, and life is real high priced.”Read more...

We can probably say the honeymoon is over.

Week 5 of the NFL season is upon us, and the Indianapolis Colts and Denver Broncos get us started on Thursday Night Football. Entering the season, these teams were seen as prime contenders in the AFC, especially in their respective divisions. So far, it hasn’t been that good for either squad, which makes this game…Read more...

On the list of things that Draymond Green has instigated, punching Jordan Poole ranks, what, like high teens? Early 20s? We could write about Green every week if we wanted to. The guy not only makes headlines, he literally writes his own. So the news out of the Bay Area of this altercation isn’t really anything…Read more...

Week 5 of the College Football season brought chaos. Three matchups between unbeaten teams lived up to the hype, and left us with just 16 perfect teams.

Kyrie Irving’s antics are infuriating. But, so were Jim Brown’s. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar seems only to be irritated by one of them. And that’s the problem.

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Ever since the NFL listened to the Indianapolis Colts’ complaints about the contact from the New England Patriots’ defensive backs in the mid-aughts, it has felt like passing in the league went to a new level. No longer was a 25-touchdown season with a 60 percent completion percentage good enough. And 3,000 passing…Read more...

I have lamented how the last series of the MLB season didn’t contain much drama, which it’s supposed to. Sure, the Phillies clinched a playoff spot on Monday, and there was some seeding to sort out, but overall the last three games of the season passed by in a vacuum, kind of befitting the weekday nights the season is…Read more...

It’d been nearly 16 months since LA Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard played an NBA game before Tuesday night’s preseason win over the Portland Trail Blazers. Leonard finished with 11 points in 16 minutes but, more importantly, looked to be fully recovered from the torn ACL he suffered in game four of the 2021 Western…Read more...

ESPN does an outstanding job with its NBA coverage. The network has an army of insiders, reporters, analysts, a daily midday show, as well a stellar game broadcast quality that has long satiated this one high schooler who was not happy to see his beloved NBA on NBC gone forever.Read more...

There are many forms of cheaters in sports, and often the dumbest of them get the press because they’re as close to dumb criminals as one gets — and everybody loves a dumb criminal. The 2000 Spanish Paralympic basketball team that won gold despite only two of the 12 players actually having a mental disability?…Read more...

About a week ago, Jason and Travis Kelce were discussing goal-to-go short-yardage plays on their podcast, “New Heights.” Travis, a pass-catching tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs, seemed to think a pass play was the way to go. “I’m running some type of rollout,” said the younger brother. Jason, the Philadelphia…Read more...

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Several memorable plays were made during the San Francisco 49ers’ 24-9 victory against the Los Angeles Rams on Monday. There was Deebo Samuel’s back shoulder catch that he turned into a 50-plus yard touchdown, as well as Jeff Wilson Jr.’s touchdown run that first gave the 49ers the lead.Read more...

Sports fans can easily become spoiled when teams and players exhibit certain levels of excellence over an extended period. The Green Bay Packers and quarterback Aaron Rodgers are excellent examples of this, and the level of expectations he’s set over the years. Rodgers is a four-time league MVP and reigning…Read more...

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As the baseball season draws to a close today, one of the rites of this time is to look at numbers that pop off the screen. For most of the last month, that’s been Aaron Judge. Whether it’s the number of homers he hits — or more often, it’s simply the gap from him to the second-place homer total, which is Kyle…Read more...

The 2022 MLB season is coming to a close today and here at Deadspin, we decided that despite the fact that we will likely never, ever, get to actually vote on awards — let alone get credentials — we’d still offer up our take. It’s not like the infallible BBWAA has ever been wrong with its picks before...

Hockey Canada’s interim board chair, Andrea Skinner, sat before the Heritage Committee and took zero responsibility for anything that’s gone on under the HC tent. In fact, she tried to glorify Hockey Canada’s settlement with the woman who claimed to be gang-raped by members of the Canadian Junior team, saving the…Read more...

Look, normally in this space in the a.m., I’d have to talk about Hockey Canada’s chair pulling a “Not All Men!” act in front of the Canadian parliament. Or a couple of owners in NWSL relinquishing “day-to-day” operations of their teams, but not selling their teams and disappearing into the cave where they belong…Read more...

Mike Trout is the tree that falls in the forest every September. He might as well exist in the cold, vacuum of space. If there’s any evidence that sports are raw and unscripted, it’s Trout’s annual storyline. His slow fade from public consciousness as the playoffs creep closer is in stark contrast to the growing…Read more...

The wait is over.

For Herschel Walker’s Senate campaign, shit hitting the fan is the modus operandi. On Monday night, The Daily Beast published a bombshell report detailing an abortion the Georgia Senate candidate paid for in 2009. The woman, who reached out to The Daily Beast after hearing Herschel squawk about his anti-abortion…Read more...

While it was great to see Ja Morant taking off for a 360 dunk on Monday night, and Paolo Banchero throwing it down on two people, that was just preseason Memphis Grizzlies vs. Orlando Magic basketball. The NBA regular season doesn’t begin until Oct. 19. Until that day, any minutes fans see of their favorite players…Read more...

Twitter is a cesspool of insecurity. This is no brilliant revelation. Twitter has long been considered the trolliest of all social media platforms, promoting short, anonymous posts from anyone with internet service. It’s prime real estate for someone to spew vile filth with no repercussions. That’s what Twitter user…Read more...

The Dallas Cowboys are playing the best defensive football we’ve seen from them in quite some time. Last year the defense was good at creating turnovers, but this season they’re barely giving up anything to opposing offenses. Comparisons to past Cowboys defenses are beginning to emerge, and one person has even…Read more...

College football programs are racing to fire their coaches so they can perfect that desperate vibe in an attempt to attract a new hire. You know which desperate vibe I’m talking about. It’s the one that single people are allergic to, the one that says, “I’m lonely and have gone through way too much hand lotion in the…Read more...

FTR — Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler — are the best wrestlers in the world.Read more...

The anticipation has been simmering for weeks, bursting at the seams to see the record-breaking home run off the bat of Aaron Judge. The euphoric release from Yankees fans will be palpable if No. 62 occurs over the next 36 hours, cementing Judge’s place in baseball’s history with one stroke through the batter’s box.…Read more...

Robert Sarver is about to do something that wealthy white men do better than anyone else — fail up.

In the fall of 1994, Michael Jordan was still away from the NBA and the World Series was canceled. For a young Chicago Bulls and White Sox fan, there wasn’t much to look forward to in sports, especially with Horace Grant having just signed with the Orlando Magic in free agency.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. 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 off to the…Read more...

In the aftermath of Tua Tagovailoa’s frightening concussion on Thursday Night Football, the NFL has taken baby steps to prevent another woozy player from bypassing the concussion protocol. Tagovailoa’s hands and arms stuck in the fencing response was one of the most indelible images since Lawrence Taylor snapped Joe…Read more...

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 4.

MLB entered its last series of the season on Monday, and there wasn’t a game on the schedule worth watching. Wild-card seeding doesn’t really get the blood going, y’know.Read more...

Yesterday was just a banner day for the governing bodies of sports. We know that people in power will do just about anything to protect what little fiefdom they have. In the grand scheme of things, having a seat on the organization running whatever league or game is a pretty small fiefdom. But that doesn’t mean it…Read more...