Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

Nikola Jokić, the 2020-21 NBA MVP, is one of the most enjoyable players in the league to watch, which naturally would make him one of the guys you’d most want to imitate.

Ohhh, the ever-evolving age of social media. There’s nothing like waking up in the morning, turning on your phone, only to see your mentions blowing up and your name being tossed around like a Caesar salad. At those moments, you have two options: Clap back, or let it ride.

The transfer window in soccer closed yesterday evening, and after Cristiano Ronaldo took his rape accusations to Manchester United, there weren’t too many surprises. Man City didn’t find the striker they were after, Chelsea added to an already ridiculous squad, blah blah blah. Perhaps everyone was just gobsmacked with…Read more...

The next disgruntled NBA star is always right around the corner.Read more...

It’s another month in human history, and you know what that means: people did idiotic things. Let’s investigate!Read more...

As the boxing world continues to recover from the latest low blow to the sport of pugilism, another potential celebrity boxing challenge has already been laid on the table.

Vaccinations were the news of the night, as they tend to be these days. But at least it was news on the side of people being rational about it to the people being irrational morons. That was something of a gear change from most of the time.

An MLB record was broken last night. Toronto Blue Jays’ southpaw Robbie Ray through a seven-inning gem last night (4 H, 1 BB, 2 ER, 10 K) en route to a victory over the Baltimore Orioles. He’s now recorded three straight games with double-digit strikeouts. That’s not the record though. Of all the great strikeout…Read more...

Mac Jones is now the man in New England.

The 2019 FIBA World Cup featured the infamous Gregg Popovich-led Team USA club that finished in seventh place shortly after losing to France in the quarterfinals, and then Serbia in the 5-8 seeding determination. Team USA eventually beat Poland in the seventh-place game, and this past summer, they avenged the France…Read more...

On Monday, the NFL announced that it was partnering with four sports-betting outlets in addition to the three sports gambling related partnerships already on the… books.

Jared Goff must have dreamed of being back in sunny southern California Sunday night and woke up Monday morning thinking he was still in Los Angeles playing for the Rams. Speaking with reporters Monday, the Detroit Lions QB sounds optimistic about the team’s chances this year. This is after the Lions finished 0-3 in…Read more...

Discussing the MVP race in the AL is the definition of wasting time these days. It’s going to be Shohei Ohtani’s award in a unanimous, what’re-you-new-around-here kind of vote. He’s simply done things for a full season never seen before, and when you do that, you win the MVP.Read more...

ESPN got catfished by a fake high school in Ohio. That sounds like the plot to an Adam Sandler movie, but it happened in real life. On Sunday, ESPN aired a Canton, Ohio, matchup between IMG Academy, one of the nation’s top high school football programs, and Bishop Sycamore. It was a seemingly normal matchup. The only…Read more...

Cam Newton chose not to get vaccinated. Bill Belichick chose to keep a quarterback room that was. Life is all about choices.Read more...

Matthew Adams is Australian, so maybe he just didn’t know that the image he used to celebrate leaving WWE, where he performed as Buddy Murphy, and becoming a free agent was…

It was less than two years ago, in a pre-COVID time, when Damian Lillard and Shaquille O’Neal were exchanging diss records at each other, and the rest of us witnessed it play out over the course of a week. Now, to be fair, the beef was “just for fun,” according to O’Neal at least, but it’s worth revisiting in the…Read more...

Andy Murray and Stefanos Tsitsipas had a first-round doozy on Monday, that saw Murray take a 1-0 and 2-1 sets lead on the Greek star, but Tsitsipas fought back in the fourth and fifth sets to save his blushes from a first-round exit and move on. It was after that fourth set that things got spicy.Read more...

It’s a Trash Talking Tuesday, and today I’m trashing the Mets for dissing their fans.Read more...

Perhaps my rabbit ears are up just a little too much for this sort of thing. Maybe it’s really none of my business what anyone does with their money. And yet I can’t help it, especially when it says something about the way the rich are covered in this country, not just in sports.

Former NFL quarterback Trent Dilfer is in hot water and trending on social media for all the wrong reasons. The Lipscomb Academy football coach lost his shit berating and putting his hands on one of his high school players on the sideline during a game. The incident was caught on video and has gone viral. Dilfer, the…Read more...

The 2021 preseason has ended, and the Dallas Cowboys did not win a single game. Going 0-4 in games that don’t count isn’t the worst thing in the world. Hell, it might actually be a good sign. In 2014 and 2018, the Cowboys lost all of their preseason games and managed to make the postseason both times. So, not all is…Read more...

The Carson Wentz story in Indianapolis just keeps getting more complicated as the season inches closer.

You’d think if you were going to take on the burden of bringing back a twice-accused rapist to your club, the hierarchy would have to be pretty sure that it would make a huge difference on the field. But you’re not the Glazer family, who are so desperate to get Manchester United fans to stop burning them in effigy for…Read more...

It’s nearly fall, which means it’s time for outlets that carry football games to dazzle us with their broadcast teams and assignments!Read more...

When we think of tough athletes, the mind immediately goes to football or hockey players. The NBA has had its share of tough guys down through the years, as well. Many of them would likely have been just as effective on the gridiron as they were on the hardwood.

The Miami Dolphins are fake allies.

You’ll have to excuse Cubs fans for having sports Stockholm Syndrome. They’ve been undercut, undersold, and sold out by ownership for really the past three or four seasons, and the final blow came on trade deadline day when any remnants of the 2016 World Series champs was burned to ash and micturated upon. So if…Read more...

Bill Belichick needs to make Cam Newton the starting quarterback to begin the season.

Carlos Correa, the Houston Astros shortstop who won a championship with the team in 2017 with the help of some extracurriculars, has announced that he will be leaving the team after this season.

This is what the Mets have always been.

Ravens running back J.K. Dobbins is now out for the season after suffering an ACL tear in the team’s final preseason game.

As the NBA offseason rolls on and we get closer to training camps and the preseason, some teams still aren’t finished filling out their rosters for the upcoming 2021-22 campaign.

I don’t know what the future holds for horse racing, or if there’s much of one to hold. It feels like it could be consigned to the past within the next decade. Or maybe sports gambling will revive interest as more tracks get their own sportsbook to go with the slots they needed years ago. Or maybe the public’s…Read more...

In the “WTF” moment of the weekend, the Philadelphia Eagles traded a conditional sixth-round draft pick to the Jacksonville Jaguars for quarterback Gardner Minshew. Yes, you read that correctly. The Eagles now have three quarterbacks on the roster, including starter Jalen Hurts and former Super Bowl MVP Joe Flacco.Read more...

Highlighting HBCUs was the perfect way to start the 2021 college football season and it should continue for years to come.

As I’ve said in the past, I’m still something of an MLS novice. This is the first season I’ve truly tried to work against my “europhile” ways and really get in up to the elbow in America’s domestic league.

Two years after the Montreal Canadiens tried to pry Sebastian Aho away from Carolina with an offer sheet, the Hurricanes have exacted their revenge, getting Jesperi Kotkaniemi to ink an offer sheet for one year and $6,100,015.

The Lakers are going to bring back Rajon Rondo, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the latest example of why the NBA’s salary cap is the only good salary cap in sports.

The Jaguars are not going to compete for a Super Bowl this year. They are not going to compete for a division title. They are not going to compete for a playoff spot. With that in mind, all that should matter in Urban Meyer’s first season as head coach, is developing his rookie quarterback, Trevor Lawrence. So, it…Read more...

As part of yesterday’s Lauri Markkanen deal, there were other players routed to different organizations who are also worth discussing.

There was a time when I used to mark the inevitable march of time by how long ago Pearl Jam’s album Ten came out. This started sometime in the late-1990s when my former high school classmate (who was the only person from high school I chose to stay in contact with — we both pretty much hated everyone else from our…Read more...

Fernando Tatís is going to win the National League MVP Award this year. That might sound obvious, but it’s something I feel needs to be stressed, because for some reason, half of all bets on the award’s winner are going to… Philadelphia’s Bryce Harper.Read more...

Lauri Markkanen is finally on the move, but not to a team really anyone expected.

Almost a month ago now, the Vegas Golden Knights shipped their Vezina-winning netminder, Marc-Andre Fleury off to Chicago to dump some salary. Fleury had been arguably Vegas’ best player since the franchise’s inception in 2016. He’s been without a doubt, the most beloved player as the face of the franchise.

On the one hand, a former Patriots quarterback and current in-game radio analyst weighing in on the current Patriots quarterback situation is a newsworthy and interesting sports item.Read more...

The perfect contract: You rarely get that in sports. Of course, we may revisit this down the line and think otherwise, but for now, for this moment in time, Julius Randle’s extension with the New York Knicks is perfect for business.

Nineteen years ago, Lisa Leslie made history at the Staples Center in Los Angeles when she became the first woman to dunk in a WNBA game. It was a moment. Back then, we weren’t used to seeing stuff like that.Read more...

The U.S. Open has a problem. The ATP has a problem. And neither is likely to do much about it. And no, it’s not the ranks of players pulling out of the tournament.Read more...

The Green Bay Packers had one hell of an offseason. To say it was drama-filled doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface. Even with all the tension during the offseason, the Packers are still a favorite in the NFC. Back-to-back NFC Championship Game appearances say they have a shot.