Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

As is always the case, every so often you look up and wonder, “Hey, how come I haven’t heard from the NHL in a while?” And the answer always comes back, “Oh right, because they’re galactically stupid.” And then you go on about your life. It’s good to have solid things to hold onto at this point in time, to make sure…Read more...

The NBA will not test its players for marijuana during the 2020-21 season, sources tell Ben Dowsett.

Few in the sports world have been as outspokenly MAGA as Lou Holtz. The former college coach and broadcaster endorsed Trump in 2016 and has been a vocal supporter ever since. Today, Holtz was rewarded with a trinket before the Trump presidency officially comes to an end.

In early July, ESPN unveiled their new radio line-up, and the show that garnered the most attention was Dan Le Batard’s. The simulcasted program, and ESPN’s most successful podcast for multiple years running, lost an hour on-air — going from 10 a.m.-1 p.m., to 10 a.m.-noon. Not long after, it was discovered that the…Read more...

We all know Steve Cohen has to do something.

The NBA City Edition uniforms for the 2020-21 season are all out, and you’ve got to give it up to the NBA for coming up with a way to introduce new alternate jerseys for every team, every year, and making it a point of interest rather than an extremely blatant cash grab. A lot of that has to do with the fact that…Read more...

Only when “The Wednesday Night Wars” end, if they’re even a thing, will we know which were the seminal moments, the turning points. It’s the kind of thing you need hindsight for. And with wrestling, any decision one week can be explained or reversed or changed the following week (or, if you’re Vince McMahon, in the…Read more...

As a fan of sports, this year has been very conflicting. If I can’t have sports in person, I at least want sports on my TV. I love sports. I love the competition, the craft, the unreal displays of athleticism, the feeling of belonging to something bigger… I love it all. That said, there’s a pandemic raging on in our…Read more...

The red carpet rolled out overnight for Anthony Davis, who re-signed with the reigning NBA champs LA Lakers for a whopping five-years, $190 million.

So, that Matt Patricia burner account is claiming that it isn’t Matt Patricia.

If you know a basketball fan from D.C. — not “ Washington” or its metropolitan area — and ask them about John Wall, you know their eyes will light up.Read more...

Ray Flores went on to the next question.

Against all odds, the Orioles managed not to finish last in the American League East this year, the first time that’s happened since Baltimore went to the 2016 wild-card game as an 89-win team.

As baseball’s non-tender deadline passed last night, it didn’t end up being the bloodbath that some had predicted, and indeed was expected. Fifty-nine players who could have been offered a contract weren’t, which is a slight rise from the 54 who found themselves in the same situation last year, when things were normal.

Russell Westbrook and John Wall will each have a new NBA home this season.

Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster just embarrassed Ravens defensive back Tramon Williams on national television.Read more...

I would love to put Cris Collinsworth’s latest gaffe in the long list of things that have sucked about 2020, but the truth is, women working in sports hear this kind of ignorant tripe all the time, even from men in our industry, no matter what year it is.Read more...

It’s long been a pillar of American society that there’s only justice for the rich, and everyone below the 1 percent will ultimately pay for their indiscretions and pleasures. Bob Kraft’s afternoon out at a Florida massage parlor is just a minor study in that, but puts it in clear relief.Read more...

Vanderbilt announced that they fired their head coach, Derek Mason, the day after he put Sarah Fuller, the first woman ever to play in a Power Five conference football game, on the field.Read more...

Rafer Johnson, one of the best athletes of his time, died Wednesday. He was 86.Read more...

Hours before the Ravens and Steelers are expected to kick off in a nearly unprecedented Wednesday afternoon NFL game due to COVID-19 outbreaks, news broke that Pittsburgh center Maurkice Pouncey was being placed on the COVID/Reserve list.

We’re rounding the corner to that time of year.Read more...

If on Nov. 18, 1994, someone had told you that Roy Jones Jr. would be fighting on Nov. 29, 2020, you would think some ridiculous mistake had been made.Read more...

Welcome to the first and hopefully last installment of the Wednesday Scaries. We’ll see how many more COVID bowls we get before the end of the season.Read more...

In 1979 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Pat Patterson became the first Intercontinental Champion in WWE (then WWF) history by unifying the WWF North American Championship and a South American Championship. He is credited with the creation of the Royal Rumble, where the first-ever was held in 1988, a match that has since…Read more...

The New York City Board of Elections certified its results on Tuesday, which means I now know that my vote really did count.Read more...

College basketball is going to be weird.

The U.S. Women’s national soccer team’s fight for equality got a boost yesterday when they and U.S. Soccer came to a settlement on all the issues that weren’t thrown out by the court back in the spring.Read more...

It’s of little question that Matt Patricia is a fraudulent, gaseous windbag (and allegedly a rapist!). He’s just another trinket to fall off the Belichick Anti-Giving Tree of coaches, which has swirled teams down the drain of death for a decade-plus. He took a playoff-caliber team under Jim Caldwell that had won nine…Read more...

It is one of the eternal fights in the world of soccer, pitting UEFA and the biggest clubs in Europe against each other every few years. The former attempts to thread the needle of appeasing the latter while also preventing them from running roughshod over the entire continent (or moreso than they already have), while…Read more...

Ughhhhhhhhhh!

Let me start out by saying I KNOW THIS WILL NOT BE A POPULAR OPINION.Read more...

Jerry Jones constantly proves that the depth of his idiocy will never be fully comprehended.

Every year, we overreact to 2-0 teams. And every year, a hot team in September cools off by December.Read more...

It’s Trash Talking Tuesday, and today I’m trashing the Bill Belichick coaching tree.Read more...

It almost never works.

Stanford University is in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, which means that the various Cardinal teams cannot play or practice on campus for the next three weeks, in accordance with the COVID restrictions that have resulted in the 49ers making a temporary move to Arizona.

The Eagles are a prime example of what happens when your organization is rooted in dysfunction.

Aren’t moms embarrassing? Like, they ask us questions about our underwear in front of the girl we like, they wipe food from our cheeks, and they just can’t seem to help themselves. Laura Lock, the mother of Denver Broncos quarterback Drew Lock is apparently no different, and also seems to think that her baby boy is…Read more...

Tony Romo is a sellout.Read more...

Lewis Hamilton, the LeBron James, Patrick Mahomes, and Amanda Nunes of Formula One auto racing, tested positive for COVID-19 and by putting his December in doubt, he may miss the rest of 2020. Because of his positive test, Hamilton is already guaranteed to miss the Sakhir Grand Prix this Saturday in Bahrain.…Read more...

As the NFL continues its choose-your-own-adventure method of trying to finish this season when scheduled as scheduled, in order to win some sort of imaginary trophy only it can picture, it’s playing hopscotch with the schedule. Barely 24 hours before the Ravens were scheduled to take on the Steelers, a game that’s…Read more...

Texans wide receiver Will Fuller V has been suspended for six games for violating the NFL’s performance-enhancing drug policy, according to his Instagram account.

So Mike Tyson smoked weed before his boxing match Saturday night.

It’s been sobering to know that Nike, along with many other major US companies, has used slave labor or sweatshop labor to manufacture products for decades. The practice has its own Wikipedia page, after all.Read more...

When Makur Maker, a five-star recruit and projected NBA Draft pick, announced that he was going to play college basketball this season at Howard University — an HBCU — people said a power shift was on the horizon, especially given the racial and social uprisings that have taken place in 2020.

LaMarcus Aldridge and DeMar DeRozan are still San Antonio Spurs. They probably shouldn’t be for the entire 2020-21 season, given that the Western Conference playoff outlook will likely exclude them. Last week, I wrote about a set of teams that should target Aldridge between now and the trade deadline, and if one’s…Read more...

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Uruguayan striker bursts onto the Premier League for a team in red that plays in the northwest of the country, gets in hot water for using the term “negrito,” claims it is a term of endearment where he’s from, and then might get suspended anyway while his club stands behind him.

It’s time once again to highlight the teams stinking up the joint every single week.

Update (5:04 PM): Out of sheer panic and ineptitude, the NFL has postponed Steelers-Ravens to Wednesday.Read more...