Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

It’s bad news in Ann Arbor. During his pro day yesterday, Michigan linebacker David Ojabo tore his Achilles tendon, an injury that is notoriously difficult to recover from. Ojabo had been rated as the top outside linebacker in his draft class and projected across the mock boards as a first-round pick. Today, the…Read more...

Montana State had a good season. The Bobcats were 14-6 in the Big Sky, finishing second in the league, and won the conference tournament without too much difficulty after regular-season champion Idaho State got knocked out in the quarterfinals.

After the wild and bracket-busting first day of men’s March Madness, Candace Parker saw the future on the postgame show. The future Hall of Famer said that after so many upsets on Thursday, coaches of higher-seeded teams would be able to point to that and get their squads focused on the challenge of the tournament.

One of the headline parts of the new Major League Baseball collective bargaining agreement was the “Steve Cohen Tax,” a new level of the not-a-salary-cap salary cap system designed to rein in the Mets’ billionaire owner.Read more...

Deshaun Watson is headed to Cleveland for five years and $230 million guaranteed — an NFL record — despite reports that the current Texans quarterback was not interested in joining the Browns franchise following talks earlier this week, per Adam Schefter. In return, Texans will receive ​​three first-round picks and…Read more...

Expected, disappointing. Two words that best describe my reaction to seeing the United States Men’s National Team’s roster for the final trio of octagonal World Cup Qualifying matches, beginning next week. Outside of the core, can’t-miss players and super-subs, which any soccer fan with a brain could’ve called into…Read more...

Lia Thomas became first known transgender athlete to win a Division I national championship in any sport after finishing the 500-yard freestyle for Penn. yesterday in four minutes and 33.24 seconds, defeating Virginia freshman Emma Weyant to take home the gold for the Quakers.Read more...

The regional sites worked out well for Monica Wright McCall. Western University and USC are on different sides of L.A., but she’s still at home. However, if she advances to the regional final, as expected, another hometown hero might be waiting for her, the trash-talkingest king of the Venice Beach courts Sidney…Read more...

Ah, March. Some might call it a month, but those of us who celebrate know it’s a state of mind. And after yesterday, March is unequivocally here.

It’s official: John Calipari can’t coach.

A once-promising season has turned into an injury-plagued campaign for the Golden State Warriors. The injury bug bit Golden State again Wednesday night in their 110-88 loss to Boston, when Steph Curry went down in the second quarter on a questionable play involving the Celtics’ Marcus Smart. Curry has been ruled out…Read more...

Rarely do you get the symmetry of a player playing his 1,000th game in the NHL, all with the same team, at home, while it also serves as their last game in that uniform before he’s traded to a contender. It’s hard to not see the diverging stories. A player giving his entire career to an organization, being good enough…Read more...

This region is a little more unconventional than the Venice Courts. There are old favorites like Tommy Sheppard, but also characters from anime, commercials, and a Ray Allen appearance that you might have forgotten about from the early 2000s.

Welcome to the first ever women’s March Madness!Read more...

The Dallas Mavericks have been balling lately and look to have finally found a reliable running mate for superstar Luka Dončić in the form of Spencer Dinwiddie.

My father used to talk about what it was like for him to watch things like Naked Gun or Monty Python, where it wasn’t just laughing at the jokes, but laughing at yourself for laughing at them, which only made you laugh even more than you already were.

The 2021-22 NBA season has been the seventh circle of hell for Russell Westbrook. Every week brings a new nadir.

If there’s one thing you can rely on with the Colts, it’s that they’ll have a high draft pick as their quarterback.

It’s not just about him. Yeshiva University’s Ryan Turell clearly gets that, much in the same vein as Brian Flores with his recent lawsuit against the NFL, trying to put a greater focus on equal treatment of minorities in the league knows it’s not just about him. Central to both is the overriding principle for…Read more...

Normally, a team five seasons out from its creation fighting for a playoff spot would be a mark of success. They’ve built and grown over four years, taken their lumps, accrued draft picks and developed their own, and were starting to see the first signs of something real. But nothing is normal about the Golden…Read more...

One of our country’s elite basketball players remains in a Russian prison, a country that’s showed no signs of deescalating its meaningless war against Ukraine and indirectly trying to provoke other countries into joining the conflict.Read more...

The Philadelphia 76ers held on Wednesday night, on the road, to defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers. It would be an impressive win against a playoff-bound team, except the Cavs were without their all-star center, Jarrett Allen, and the 76ers fouled Caris Levert on a layup with eight seconds left which put them in danger of…Read more...

I’ve never watched 90-Day Fiancé because I’d rather take an eyedropper full of corrosive acid to the iris, but I imagine Chelsea fans are awaiting the sale of their club with the same angst and uncertainty all these 90-Day Fiancé idiots have during their short courtship. (If that’s not how that show works, I will not…Read more...

The NFL doesn’t have a floor. There isn’t a low that this league and some of the people who cover it won’t stoop to. It’s the only way to explain the attention surrounding Deshaun Watson and where he will end up playing next season.Read more...

Rudy Gobert is one of the better defenders of his era and, depending on what region of the country you live in, could be one of the all-time greats on the defensive end of the court. He’s a three-time Defensive Player of the Year award winner (tied for second most all-time) and gets treated like a chump by many of his…Read more...

It’s basketball time folks. Ignore Tom Brady trying to own the spotlight on Selection Sunday and decipher Progressive Insurance sales representative Baker Mayfield’s social media post later, and give the hardwood the attention it deserves. It’s almost spring, hit the CBS music, pull Ernie, Kenny, and Chuck off the…Read more...

As infuriating, or disappointing, or occasionally exciting as baseball teams can be these days, you can generally figure out their direction and aims pretty quickly. As well as where they are on said arc. You don’t need a Watson to figure out what the Reds and A’s are doing. Nor do you for the Mets or Dodgers. The…Read more...

Ah, just what we needed right now — Herschel Walker coming out as the anti-science candidate. Maybe I was optimistically ignorant to think we’d left mainstream creationism in the twentieth century, but Walker, who has become a prominent conservative political figure in his state and is the leading Republican candidate…Read more...

The introduction of the modern seeding system to the NCAA Tournament in 1979 gave way to the age of upsets. Before long, the Cinderella moniker was attached to dozens of teams that played well beyond expectations. The immortal words of John Wooden, architect of college basketball’s transcendent dynasty, should…Read more...

The Browns QB might know something that we don’t (in fact, it’s safe to say that he probably knows a lot of things that we don’t), but his heartfelt letter to the city of Cleveland last night caused some confusion. In a notes app write-up posted to Twitter, Baker Mayfield thanked the city of Cleveland for embracing…Read more...

The NFL Rules Committee’s sluggish acceptance of progressive ideas is analogous to another legislative body in the United States. Someone presents a grand notion and five, 10 or 20 years later, some lawmaker digs it up and gets praised as a visionary.Read more...

You’re not supposed to miss a blister. You’re not supposed to get nostalgic about a paper cut on that webby part between your thumb and forefinger. You shouldn’t smile at stubbing your toe against the bed or couch that causes you to limp for an hour.

It’s not just that the Yankees haven’t won a World Series since 2009, although it can’t be repeated enough that the Yankees haven’t won a World Series since 2009.Read more...

It’s been more than five years since Colin Kaepernick has thrown a pass in an NFL game, but it doesn’t mean that he’s done throwing to NFL receivers.Read more...

If I told you Kyrie Irving was cooking on the court last night, you’d probably say, “OK, what’s new,” right? But Kyrie was on an entirely different level in Tuesday night’s 150-108 win against the Orlando Magic, going for 60 points in only 35 minutes of game action. Irving had 41 in the first half, and at one point, I…Read more...

For the best chance at a major upset in this year’s NCAA Tournament, look no further than the Peacocks hailing from Jersey City, New Jersey.

Players in Major League Baseball continue to show their ass, and it looks like their teams are growing weary of it. NYC mayor Eric Adams reiterated that there will be no exceptions in NYC’s restrictions for private employees, and it’s particularly a problem for the Yanks and Mets because those players will not be…Read more...

While MLB players were doing their best to put a shiny face on the new CBA as progress, before watching baseball act like baseball again unless you play for the Mets, their minor league counterparts did actually change the landscape a bit last night.

The new NFL year officially begins tomorrow at 4 p.m. EST, but free agency is already on and popping with many big moves, trades, and releases being confirmed. When you woke up this morning, you may have heard that the Dallas Cowboys had retained the services of defensive end Randy Gregory, agreeing to a long-term…Read more...

For those who thought Batman was a fictitious character, you might be wrong. Sure it’s overexaggerated with the billionaire in the Halloween costume, the humongous car with a turbo gear, and a utility belt full of non-lethal gadgets, but a citizen with no superpowers fighting crime, one of those exists — it’s UFC…Read more...

One of the great selling points for public money going being used to build a stadium is that, while the stadium itself will be used by teams owned by billionaires, there will be an economic impact to the surrounding community that makes the public investment worthwhile.

Tom Brady is back, and while that news has been the cause of some confusion and dismay for opposing fans and teams, it’s also given NFL Twitter some solid comedic content.

“Hey, yo.”

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Christian Dawkins is in federal prison. Will Wade is at home. This is a story about sports, money, college basketball, a corrupt justice system, and racism. It’s an American saga.Read more...

Over the years, we’ve seen some great runs during March Madness and some highly talented teams. But the most talented teams don’t always take it all the way to a national championship. Many have fallen short, and some didn’t even make it to the Final Four. Here we rank some of the best teams in NCAA history that…Read more...

As March Madness kicks off in a few days, the next class of NBA regulars will play in their final college games before transitioning into pre-draft prep, doing everything they can to hear their name called higher on June 23. Most of the top prospects for this summer’s draft will display their talents in the NCAA…Read more...

You know, just for a second there, I thought baseball might give everyone a little time to enjoy the lockout being over, to soak in the excitement of the anticipation of spring training games and the season that will start right on its heels. To feel the reflected heat of the Arizona and Florida sun as we tune in for…Read more...

In the previous decade, we could have asked this question about Aston Villa, West Ham, or Newcastle. All of those clubs are of the same size as Everton, all should be comfortably in the second tier of the Premier League behind the big six, if not breaking into the big six themselves. And yet, the latter three have all…Read more...

The Minnesota Timberwolves’ surge up the NBA standings has been a warm fire during another frigid winter. For the past decade, this has been an utterly moribund franchise. The time was nearing for Karl-Anthony Towns to begin asking for an escape hatch as his super-max contract approached its expiration date.Read more...