Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

Hockey Guys gonna Hockey Guy.Read more...

Sports and politics are two worlds that have always been intertwined. Moses Fleetwood Walker’s first game with the Toledo Blue Stockings pushed him to become the first Black player in Major League baseball — 63 years before Jackie Robinson — but that didn’t come without a hard-fought battle and push to get him on the…Read more...

Pelicans star guard Jrue Holiday and his wife, former U.S. women’s soccer standout Lauren Holiday, announced on Wednesday that they will be donating the remainder of his NBA salary for the season to multiple charities and Black-owned businesses across the country.

As the Elena Delle Donne fiasco continues, the Washington Mystics last night came in to save the day, at least so they thought. They announced that they had planned to pay Della Donne whether she played this season or not, as she’s coming off back surgery and is rehabbing at the moment. Which at first, might seem to…Read more...

The “MLS Is Back” tournament certainly has already taught us much about the world — or this country specifically. How greed and corporations can run roughshod over personal concerns, how clear logic will never apply in that process, and how the working stiffs don’t get much of a say. Also that Disney runs everything.…Read more...

Late Tuesday night, an anonymous party sent a Deadspin reporter four videos, which appeared to be a cell phone recording of a video feed, that shows ESPN’s Rachel Nichols, host of the afternoon NBA show The Jump, in a phone conversation with an unidentified man about personnel matters at the network.

If it hasn’t been any clearer before, the past few months have shown us that sports, politics, race and gender identity will always be intertwined, no matter how much we want to separate them.

Snitches get stitches, and nobody likes a rat.

Here’s where we left off in Florida, which is an awful place governed by morons:Read more...

After Kansas City Chiefs defensive tackle Chris Jones signed a huge, new contract on Tuesday, he went to social media with a message.

Baseball season is finally just about here. Well, on American soil that is, as this has already been the case in other parts of the world for weeks and months now.

The robots will eventually come to Major League Baseball. But maybe we should start to consider them immediately.

While the WNBA might lag behind in TV money or notoriety, it proved last night it doesn’t lag behind when it comes to being a callous jackwagon (yes, I’m from Chicago. Why do you ask?) The league’s panel of doctors denied two-time MVP Elena Delle Donne’s request to be excused from the WNBA’s bubble season on medical…Read more...

President Donald Trump made a fool of himself once again on Monday when he wrongly referred to the University of Alabama’s head football coach as “Lou Saban” multiple times.

Last night marked the five-year anniversary of WWE’s “Women’s Evolution,” the night they called up Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks and Charlotte to the main roster and decided they were going to completely alter their women’s division. It was the culmination of the #GiveDivasAChance movement, which had spawned in WWE’s NXT…Read more...

Today, I’m trashing Chiefs wide receiver Sammy Watkins for trying to justify taking a pay cut to stay with the defending champions by asking “how much (money) is enough?”Read more...

The NFL season is in serious jeopardy and a COVID-19 outbreak doesn’t have to be present within its personal circles for things to be doomed before they even get started.

Former major league pitcher Sergio Mitre was arrested on Monday for drug possession and is being investigated for the rape and murder of a two-year-old girl, according to a report from El Heraldo de Saltillo.Read more...

Sports are a product of a functioning society.

At a time of historic civic unrest and political polarization, the question of Native American mascots has returned to the mainstream. The Washington football team will change its racist name, but where do other teams with Native mascots stand?

Now that we live in a post-racist Washington NFL nickname world, the scrutiny on other teams, from professional to high school, using Native American imagery and names will only grow. There has yet to be any word from the Cleveland Indians after they said they were “reviewing” their name (and what’s to review when…Read more...

Across the continent today, NHL training camps are opening before the league’s restart on August 1 in Edmonton and Toronto. And considering the time and places we live, it’s going about as you’d expect.Read more...

Add Russell Westbrook to the list of NBA stars diagnosed with COVID-19.

If it’s felt like Manchester City are just an irresistible, and inevitable force, today will only underline that. Not only have they outscored their opposition since soccer returned 25-3, or won six of their eight games, or still have a very good chance at claiming three trophies this season (already won the League…Read more...

The National Office for Tuskegee Airmen Incorporated told Deadspin that the organization would be “honored” to work with the NFL franchise in Washington D.C. if it were to change the name of the organization to the Washington Red Tails.

LeBron James missed what should have been a layup.

Daniel Snyder once said he would NEVER (in all caps) change the racist name of his NFL franchise. Never just arrived.Read more...

Professional sports have been back for months.

With production shut down on everything in Hollywood these days, you might be worried that soon your entertainment options will run dry. Comedies you’ve come to count on to provide just enough giggles to get through this death march of a timeline might not be around. Don’t you worry, weary traveler, there’s always…Read more...

If Kelly Loeffler were a white man, she would have already been banned from the WNBA.

LeBron James, once famously told to “shut up and dribble” by condescending Fox News voice Laura Ingraham for speaking his mind on politics, has decided to send a message by not sending a message.

This is part of a series of stories celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Negro Leagues

On Tuesday, four weeks after testing positive for COVID-19, Phillies second baseman Scott Kingery talked to Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia. He wanted to let everyone know to take the virus seriously, that “it can creep up on you and get you pretty bad like it did with me.”Read more...

Carron Phillips was right: Jeffrey Lurie and the Eagles couldn’t cut DeSean Jackson.

Former college football coach Lou Holtz has become the latest individual to make ridiculously stupid comments about the return of college football during the coronavirus pandemic.

Major League Baseball’s plan to play a 60-game 2020 season is asking for trouble, as teams are going to be asked to fly from city to city, and coronavirus hotspot to coronavirus hotspot, multiple times a week for a two-month period.

Days before the entire sports world fully shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic, the leagues in North America put a major social distancing measure into place. Although that measure very much proved to be an attempt to shut the barn door after the horses were miles down the road, it was seen as a significant…Read more...

Adrian Wojnarowski dropped another Woj Bomb.

To the shock of absolutely no one, Joe West made a bad call.

This Tuesday, I’m trashing sports fans and those other TV/radio talking heads who question whether Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes is worth that record-setting, mega contract extension he just signed.Read more...

The lie that every league in the U.S. has sold, and not very well, is that it can return to action safely, even if in spaces where COVID-19 is raging. Even the leagues that are returning only in Florida, where they set records daily on new cases and the state government’s response is like trying to locate enough eye…Read more...

A WNBA league source told Deadspin that the league’s “bubble” at IMG Academy, designed to keep the coronavirus out, has failed to do the same with bed bugs.

Over the past few days, Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver, DeSean Jackson, has shared a string of anti-Semitic social media posts and praised anti-Semitic extremist Louis Farrakhan.

Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy was just the tip of the iceberg.Read more...

Everything about Barcelona the past decade and a half has been about pushing things until they break. Sometimes that’s good, as its dominance on the field has yielded an ungodly sum of league titles and four Champions’ League triumphs.

With Opening Day just weeks away, the number of players deciding to sit out the 2020 MLB season due to concerns over the coronavirus mounts. Here’s a running account of the players who have decided to opt-out.

Trump loves to criticize Black athletes. Scratch that. He needs to criticize Black athletes.Read more...

What we’ve learned so far about sports attempting to come back in the U.S. amongst a pandemic (and the balloon-handed handling of it) is that no model has proven safe. The “bubble” model didn’t protect MLS from having their Orlando bubble contaminated to the point that Dallas FC is being isolated there and teams are …Read more...

When last we left our intrepid MLB, it was crowing about getting guys into summer camp (sponsored by Camping World!) and making a naked bid to get Domino’s Pizza to sponsor their health “plan.”

The only thing Historically Black Colleges and Universities need more than a five-star basketball recruit like Makur Maker is cash.