Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

Slow starts, midseason swoons, and collapses are ways soccer clubs can blow a title race, but if you’re Man City, those don’t happen. Pep Guardiola’s team beat Chelsea for the second time Saturday, 1-0, and are now 13 points clear of the second place Blues and 14 points clear of third place Liverpool.

The best way to determine the best teams in any sport is to look at the standings, right? If they’ve been playing well, they’ll be near the top of the league. As Bill Parcells said, “You are what your record says you are.”Read more...

It was a good time the other night for Sacramento, where they don’t get to have a lot of basketball good times, to see future Hall of Famer Russell Westbrook come into town, shoot 2-for-14, and be lampooned on the scoreboard as the “Ice Cold Player Of The Game” while the arena DJ played Foreigner’s “Cold As Ice” after…Read more...

What should an All-Star Game be: an opportunity to see the best players all playing in the same game, or a celebration of the sport and league that brings fans together?Read more...

Perhaps LaMelo Ball wanted to get some of the ink that his brother Lonzo has been? The younger Ball made one of the plays of the year on Friday night, deflecting a pass and then racing up the court, where instead of going for an easy layup or throwing down a dunk, he weaved the ball between his legs, then passed to…Read more...

Speculation about Kirk Ferentz retiring from coaching has been going on since the Obama Administration, when Iowa inked its longtime head man to an extension through 2025. Even with the caveat that it was “a few years off,” we’ve seen ideas tossed out for who might eventually take the helm in Iowa City once Ferentz…Read more...

In my perusal of Wild-Card Weekend storylines to write about, I found the curse of Bo Jackson particularly interesting. If you’ve never heard of Bo Jackson then my god are you young, but if you’ve never heard of the Bo Jackson Curse then, like me, you’re new to this borderline contrived curse.

If the Cardinals had beaten the Lions, Arizona would be NFC West champs right now. Let me repeat that...IF THE CARDS HAD BEATEN THE 1-11-1 LIONS, THEY WOULD BE NFC WEST CHAMPS!

No-vax Djokovic is having a hell of a time trying to play in the Australian Open, a Grand Slam he has won a record nine times, because it turns out this pandemic is serious business. He had his visa revoked for a second time and faces deportation because he’s not vaccinated, according to ESPN. He’s expected to appeal,…Read more...

You had to be there – 2016, 2017, and 2018, I mean.Read more...

It’s easy to just want to blame Russell Westbrook.

It flew under the radar, which should be something the owners should notice, but MLB actually did make a proposal to the MLBPA yesterday, according to ESPN’s Jeff Passan and Jesse Rogers. It was their first negotiation about the core issues of this lockout now six weeks in, which shows you just how much urgency the…Read more...

After advancing to the Western Conference Finals for the first time last season, this year has been an up and down struggle for the Clippers with key players in and out of the lineup. Kawhi Leonard hasn’t played a game yet this season after tearing his ACL in the second round of the playoffs against Utah last year.…Read more...

There are non-quarterbacks who have had tremendous impacts on their teams in the NFL this season.

It’s probably too early to call it a new era, but with names like Rachel Balkovec and Genevieve Beacom making the headlines, America’s pastime is definitely due for a change-up. Earlier this week, Balkovec was hired as the new manager of the Yankees’ minor league affiliate the Tampa Tarpons. This hire made history, as…Read more...

The Pittsburgh Steelers are not going to win the Super Bowl.

There are a lot of things you see on the internet that you are immediately skeptical of, like “Cannabis compounds prevent the virus that causes COVID-19 from penetrating healthy human cells, according to a lab study.”

If you’ve been waiting your whole life to get a behind-the-scenes look at the riveting world of golf, your wait is over. Netflix has announced that they’ll be producing a PGA Tour docuseries in the style of the popular Formula One: Drive to Survive reality show that premiered in 2019.

What the Brooklyn Nets are doing is ridiculous.Read more...

January 10, 1982, is the day it all started. Most longtime Niners and Cowboys fans will point to this day as the start of a rivalry that lasted the better part of two decades. The 1981 NFC championship game at Candlestick Park between the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys was the beginning of an era and, in many…Read more...

Bears quarterback Justin Fields finished the regular season with a 2-8 record as the team’s starter. He threw 7 touchdowns and 10 interceptions, completing just 58.9 percent of his passes and averaging just 6.9 yards per attempt.Read more...

If the Portland Trail Blazers ever wondered what an unfortunate but well-timed injury looks like, Damian Lillard’s abdominal issue is it. The team announced Thursday that the All-NBA guard underwent surgery to repair it, and he will be reevaluated in six weeks, with a six-to-eight week timetable to return. Six weeks…Read more...

Edmonton Oilers owner Daryl Katz is a headline-chaser. He wants to win the press conference, get the attention, and that might be priority No. 1 for him most of the time. I mean, look at this fucking guy. This is someone who wants to be fawned over.

It’s not breaking news that things are not going well for Russell Westbrook with the Lakers, but things reached a particularly embarrassing point on Wednesday night as the Sacramento Kings’ game ops trolled the former MVP with an “Ice Cold Player Of The Game” scoreboard graphic, on a night when the nine-time All-Star…Read more...

As the University of Georgia celebrates its national championship, the program’s greatest player is in the news for being a dumbass. It’s been a helluva week for the Bulldogs.

I fear to guess the main question on the minds of Bills’ fans heading into Saturday night’s playoff game against the Patriots, but one of the recurring queries has to be, “Are you kidding me?” Not only do they have to face New England, the longtime rival who has owned them for the past couple of decades, with a coach…Read more...

Lonzo Ball finally seems to have found the right landing spot in Chicago after playing for two organizations in his first four years as a pro. Zo is living up to all four letters of his last name and balling out for a Bulls squad with the best record in the East. LeBron probably wishes he could get Ball back to the…Read more...

I’m as sick of Novak Djokovic as you are, and as my colleague Grace McDermott wrote yesterday, we’d stop writing about him if he’d stop making us.Read more...

A good portion of fans, most I would say, fail to recognize just how long the NBA season is. Goes for the NHL and MLB ones, too. It’s always hard to explain to a lot of them that there are nights in the middle, or maybe on the second of a back-to-back or the last of a four games in six nights, when players just can’t…Read more...

Camden Yards is an iconic ballpark. So iconic in fact that since its inception in 1992, barely any changes have been made to it. Well, something not so minor is coming to the Orioles’ home field in 2022, as the left field wall is not only going to be raised from 7 feet to 12 feet, but also pushed back up to 30 feet in…Read more...

It feels like such a long time ago that the Washington Wizards were in first place in the Eastern Conference, winning 13 of their first 20 games. Since Nov. 29, however, Washington has gone 8-13, dropping it all the way down to ninth place in the East at 21-20. Talk about a fall from grace.

There are currently nine NBA teams hovering around .500 and in or tied for the playoffs/play-in tourney. If that seems like an abnormally high number, that’s because it is, and the Mavs barely missed out on this list because they’re technically four games above .500.

There was a welcome sight at practice for the Green Bay Packers today.

It feels like such a long time ago that the Washington Wizards were in first place in the Eastern Conference, winning 13 of their first 20 games. Since Nov. 29, however, Washington has gone 8-13, dropping it all the way down to ninth place in the East at 21-20. Talk about a fall from grace.

The African Cup of Nations gets a rough ride from most of the soccer world, and it’s mostly because of its place in the calendar. It deprives several clubs in Europe of some of their best players for most of January every two years, which isn’t exactly met with acceptance and gratitude. So it can act as a launch point…Read more...

NFTs are the latest craze in the world of crypto. These digital pieces of artwork use blockchain technology to help everyday people like you and I invest in an online setting. Ever since NFTs became a big thing, several athletes, like Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes and Rob Gronkowski, and a host of others have come…Read more...

We’d stop writing about the guy if he stopped giving us fresh crap to write about.

Sadly, the, “You’re not winning this game,” term used to describe a transcendent performance from an athlete that just seems a Herculean or galactic level of defiance and denial has been co-opted by Bill Simmons. Which means it’s become as cartoonish as he has.Read more...

The 2022 Winter Olympics are almost here and that means everyone needs to bone up on their winter U.S. athlete checklist. Let’s see here. Lindsey Vonn retired, so she’s gone. Mikaela Shiffrin isn’t the new Vonn, she’s substantially better and will probably win a gold or two. Fan favorite Chloe Kim also is the favorite…Read more...

No one does “all over the map” quite like the NHL. And almost all of it is by accident, because there isn’t a guiding light to the league as to what it wants to be, or how it would get there if it did. Stuff just happens every day in this league, most of it makes you slap your forehead. Though sometimes it’s out of…Read more...

When Stephen Ross’ Miami Dolphins fired Brian Flores on Monday, it sent shockwaves around the NFL. For some reason, fans of all genders and races were stunned that Flores was unemployed as if Ross doesn’t have a long history of being a contradictory figure. This is the NFL, a place where Black coaches get treated…Read more...

The 2021-22 season has been less than stellar thus far for Anthony Davis and the Los Angeles Lakers, and much of that falls on the shoulders of the former No. 1 pick. This was supposed to be the year Davis took over as the Lakers’ best player, but that blueprint hasn’t worked out the way it was drawn up.Read more...

The world’s top-ranked woman in 500-meter speed skating is headed to the Olympics to represent America. Erin Jackson, 29, made history in 2018 as the first Black woman to make the U.S. Olympic team in long-track speed skating only four months after picking up the sport. She made history again in November as the first…Read more...

I don’t know if anyone knew this, but the 2021 season was a rough one for the Chicago Bears. They finished with their worst record since 2017. Of course playoff hopes being extinguished before the fire ever got to really burn will anger any fanbase, but it’s not like a double-digit loss season is unfamiliar territory…Read more...

Saturday night in Philadelphia, the NFL kicked off its latest Scorigami, as the Cowboys defeated the Eagles, 51-26, in a game that otherwise meant next to nothing as Dallas had already clinched the NFC East and the Birds had already locked up a wild-card spot.

If we’re midway through another NHL season or thereabouts, it must mean that Evander Kane has fucked up in some way.

Nick Saban has somehow made a remarkable transformation from one of the most hated men in American sports to a begrudgingly respected and liked — if perhaps not yet universally beloved — figure. How is it even possible to make that sort of shift while remaining the coach of a team that has kept on unapologetically…Read more...

Up until the final minute, last night’s college football national championship saw Alabama and Georgia within one score of one another for the entirety of the game. Even when Brock Bowers waltzed into the endzone with 3:33 left on the clock, the extra point only made it an eight-point game.

The biggest attraction in legitimate boxing, Canelo Alvarez, could be announcing his next major championship fight soon. The bout that seemed like a pipedream just a few short months ago, pitting Canelo against Jermall Charlo, now has the chance of coming to fruition by May. According to ESPN’s Mike Coppinger, the two…Read more...

If Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre performing doesn’t give you enough ’90s West Coast nostalgia during Super Bowl LVI, NBC Universal has you covered with the premiere of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air reboot, Bel-Air.