Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

Dreams are something J. Cole often raps about. It’s the name of his music label — Dreamville Records. But dreams aren’t promised. Sometimes one person’s dream can be another’s nightmare.

America, they here.Read more...

Federal bills aimed at NCAA reform just keep coming. This time, on Thursday morning, Senators Chris Murphy (D-CT) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced the first legislation specifically related to the collective bargaining rights of college athletes.

What happened last night to Russell Westbrook was unacceptable.

The salary cap, like it or not, is not going anywhere. With the intention of giving all teams a level playing field in free agency, roster construction, and the ability to retain/acquire talent, it has become an ideology synonymous with American professional sports. I mean, it’s kinda bullshit, but still… it’s good in…Read more...

Rob Manfred finally finished reading The Athletic’s report from February about Mickey Callaway’s sexual harassment. Or perhaps he clicked on the tube this week and caught Andrea Kremer’s HBO Real Sports piece on the sex harrassment women in sports media regularly receive that was partly based on The Athletic’s work.Read more...

Anytime we get keepers taking penalties, we should cherish it. The Europa League Final yesterday was mostly dogshit, as Manchester United couldn’t turn control of the ball for pretty much the entire second half result into a second, winning goal. By the time extra-time rolled around, they had punched themselves out,…Read more...

It was always going to be Joe West.Read more...

Aaron Rodgers is out here singing Taylor Swift’s the 1 on camera, yeah it might be wraps for the Packers.

Joe Burrow makes me want to run through a brick wall head first, and I’m not even a Bengals fan.

“Antonio Conte is getting that look in his eye! He motions to the crowd! Is it that time?! Are we gonna see it?! YES! Here it comes! No one has ever kicked out of it! It’s the CONTE TAIL LIGHTS!”Read more...

The New England Patriots have as much of a scandalous underbelly as any NFL organization, in no small part due to the example that is set from the top down. Prostitution, spying, cheating, altering games from the stadium to the ball itself — you name it, they’ve done it, or have at least been accused of it. Odds are,…Read more...

For most fan bases, if you become their villain, they’ll hate you forever. But for villains of the New York Knicks, you also might just get a documentary one day.Read more...

Unfortunately, injuries are a part of sports. We all know this. We see most of them on TV.

I don’t believe in the supernatural. There has not been anything I’ve experienced that couldn’t be explained naturally. I’ve always viewed magic, illusionism, and fortune-telling as impossible. That being said, I’m pretty sure NBCSN’s Dominic Moore is a wizard.

Why is everyone so quick to toss the Phoenix Suns out with the trash?

Welcome to the latest installment of “things are totally fine in Japan ahead of the Olympics.” Not.

DON’T DO IT!Read more...

Welcome to the Ladies Room - A Deadspin Sports Podcast.

TNT’s hockey coverage isn’t off to a great start.

Retiring jerseys is kinda a weird thing. Across all sports, each team has their own process. Some retire numbers liberally (ahem, ex-New York Yankees Nos. 1 through 10), and others have retired the numbers of seemingly unworthy players, like the Oklahoma City Thunder retiring… Nick Collison’s No. 4. Regardless, it’s…Read more...

Roll... Yoga mats!

I swear, the Tampa Bay Rays are the Rodney Dangerfield of Major League Baseball — they get no respect. And I don’t get it. I just don’t. What do the Rays have to do in order to earn some praise for what they’ve done? Win an AL pennant? Nope, not good enough. MLB gave the Rays just an 18.6 percent chance to make the…Read more...

The return of supporters to various terraces last week in the Premier League brought back some rites of soccer that we didn’t even realize how much we missed and cherished. The mocking of a shot well over or wide of the goal. The vitriol for a ref after a foul. The applause after a relatively simple header back to a…Read more...

If the Los Angeles Lakers are going to have any chance at repeating as NBA Champions, they can’t have Anthony Davis finishing games with Andrea Bargnani stat lines.Read more...

We’ve had two opposite responses this month to the phrase, “If you don’t learn from history, you’re doomed to repeat it.”Read more...

The NBA wants to have an in-season tournament, and a lot of the reaction to this idea is that it’s terrible, that it’s basketball trying to be soccer, that it’s a huge waste of time.

LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers looked sluggish and shell-shocked on Sunday. In their first-round matchup against the Phoenix Suns, after squeaking past the Golden State Warriors in the Play-In Tournament, the defending champs looked anything but title-contending.

Capturing the history of our country is key in discovering the true fabric of our nation.

Here’s another way to take a stand one year after George Floyd’s killing, NFL.

Less than eight months ago, Tyler Herro was being labeled the “next great shooting guard” in a league filled to the brim with high-end backcourt talent. Herro was set to help lead the Miami Heat on multiple deep playoff runs as part of the team’s new Big 3 — along with Jimmy Butler and Bam Adebayo. Herro was so highly…Read more...

There’s an old George Carlin bit — I guess they’re all old now (sigh) — about The Big Club. Still rings true today, even though it’s some 25 years old now or more. And while that “Big Club” may not be owned by China, it’s certainly still a slave to the money that China can provide them. Which is just another form of…Read more...

If you think the no-hitters are getting out of control in Major League Baseball, you ought to check out the high school scene in northern Connecticut.Read more...

In America, there are two types of racism. Type-A is often “tolerated.” It leads to microaggressions, redlining, gerrymandering, and voter suppression. These are the people that will donate money to just causes, but also get uncomfortable when their daughter brings a Black man home. Type-B, on the other hand, is in…Read more...

The reflex is to point and laugh at the Edmonton Oilers once again. It’s combined with frustration that the game’s best player is leashed to such a clown car of an organization, one of the most brilliant individual seasons going completely to waste. And if you’re a long-term hockey writer or analyst who spends your…Read more...

“Fucking Christ.”

It’s a Trash Talking Tuesday, and today I’m trashing USA Baseball.Read more...

The NBA is lost.

Interesting decision out of Portland. We talked about Olivia Moultrie’s case against the NWSL as she seeks to play professionally at 15 years old for Portland Thorns FC. The NWSL has an age minimum of 18, but that wasn’t collectively bargained, just something the league installed. Considering MLS allows teenagers to…Read more...

Aaron Rodgers emerged from the soundstage he built in his home to practice for his Jeopardy! audition last night. He was part of Kenny Mayne’s last Sportscenter on the WWL, which also commemorated the end of ESPN having anyone with an identifiable personality on their flagship show.

Former NFL tight end Greg Olsen, who had his best seasons with the Carolina Panthers, is going through every parent’s worst nightmare. In a distressing thread on Twitter, Olsen detailed the serious and difficult situation he, his wife Kara, and his son T.J. are facing.

For the first time this offseason, Deshaun Watson is doing the Houston Texans a favor, even if he doesn’t mean to. His motives on this, I’m sure, have nothing to do with what’s in the best interest of the team and are purely selfish, but still — in demanding a trade, Watson reportedly won’t show up to OTAs, which…Read more...

The pandemic Olympics continue to be one smooth operation.

What is Kemba Walker now?

The warping of European soccer and its priorities make judging Leicester City’s last week of the season decidedly foggy. Twenty years ago or so it would be easy. Win the FA Cup, finish fifth, that’s an unqualified success. But that’s not the world we live in anymore, and that’s what makes it so unclear.Read more...

Sports aren’t always a young person’s game.

Julio Jones may have just been ambushed with questions about his possible trade without knowing he was live on television. Shannon Sharpe called Julio Jones from his cell phone live on FS1’s “Undisputed” this morning. Without telling Jones they were live, he asked “do you want to go to the Cowboys, or do you want to…Read more...

In a sport as random and silly, and at times downright stupid, as hockey, it’s oxymoronic to try and weave some overarching narrative from a playoff exit. Games and series are decided on a few bounces and deflections most of the time. Change any one variable, and you can get a completely different result, and see a…Read more...

The opening weekend of the playoffs confirmed that the future of the NBA is in good hands. Young, playmaking guards highlighted the weekend and not only brought their game, but brought their attitude, disrespect, and pettiness as well.

Do you remember Monica Seles?