Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

You can’t turn on a firehose of cash and expect it won’t change anything. And in the last 40 years, that’s just what has happened in college sports. Although it took far too long, the revenue has finally disrupted the system and who sports fans believe should benefit from it.

You know, back in the day, when things made sense and air was fresh and all french fries were crispy, when you hacked someone’s Twitter or Facebook or email, you did it for entertaining reasons. Remember the days of “Wetbutt” breaking Cubs trades (“Days Of Wetbutt” was an underrated Cinderella album)? Can we go back…Read more...

Roman’s got to go. Hand in your keys to the club before you do more damage to those who don’t deserve it. As it turns out, plenty of people who said politics had no place in sports really meant politics that they don’t agree with had no room at the table. Loud banishment of policy came at the intersection of Colin…Read more...

I’m going to start this by listing off a bunch of reasons why Darius Garland has been overlooked this season, not explain them, and then give you a bunch of his highlight reels because this piece is about Garland.Read more...

While the word “narrative” has become something of a cinder block sitting in the intestines of sports, sometimes you just can’t avoid how much it’s beating you over the head. Kylian Mbappé lining up against Real Madrid in the round of 16 in the Champions League was one of those times. Mbappé is still widely tipped to…Read more...

At this point, trying to parse out the details of the continued screaming-at-their-shoes negotiations between the MLB owners and players is akin to huffing the aura of those around you at the DMV at 4 p.m. You’re beyond caring what the minutiae is, you’re infuriated about what’s around you and whatever you’ve done or…Read more...

Is Stephen A. Smith and Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo screaming at each other on Wednesdays producing hot air at a speed so ferocious that it threatens to blow out the windows at ESPN’s Seaport Studios? Yes.

The Atlantic Coast Conference needs to suspend Syracuse’s Buddy Boeheim, the son of longtime Cuse head coach Jim Boeheim and the team’s leading scorer, for at least a game after he punched a Florida State player in the stomach during the second round of the conference tournament and didn’t even try to pretend it was…Read more...

The NFL landscape changed drastically Tuesday afternoon once the Russell Wilson to Denver news broke. Wilson and the Broncos swooped in just hours after the announcement of Aaron Rodgers’ new mega $200 million deal ($153 million guaranteed) and hijacked the headlines. In one moment, the balance of power shifted from…Read more...

For 50 years, NCAA Narcs were the equivalent of law enforcement locking up upstanding citizens for possession. Rather than actively fighting for the rights that they were forced to finally accept last year, their Infractions Committee doggedly pursued victimless crimes like Rick Majeris paying for pizza or Will Wade’s…Read more...

Von Miller is out here pulling a Drake and pinning for an ex on social media.

Ah, NCAA, you’ve done it again. You’ve stopped those evil teenagers from ruining everyone’s fun and destroying the integrity of the game! Let me check back on what those bad, bad Bellarmine were doing again…Read more...

A week and a half ago, I wrote a piece about where I believed all of the quarterbacks whirling around in the rumor mill would play next season. Only three have totally come to fruition thus far. Rodgers didn’t go to Denver. He stayed in Green Bay. Wilson didn’t stay in Seattle. He went to Denver. Wentz, however, did…Read more...

The concept of an international draft has become a big one in the collective bargaining talks between Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association, with the league reportedly trying to get a global entry system in place, in exchange for eliminating draft pick compensation for free agency.

On Monday, Atlanta Falcons’ wide receiver Calvin Ridley was suspended for the entirety of the 2022 season thanks to a five-day span in which he says he bet $1500 on NFL games.

The Wednesday-morning-blogger reason to have watched the Warriors clown the Clippers was for the Chris Haynes sideline reporter update on Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. The Yahoo Sports reporter said Leonard participated in an extended workout in front of media members for the first time since having surgery to repair…Read more...

On Tuesday night, Bryant men’s basketball team dismantled Wagner in the championship game of the Northeast Conference Tournament, sending the Bulldogs to their first NCAA Tournament in school history.

Throughout the years of covering Cuonzo Martin with my boots on the ground in Columbia, Missouri, musing to every whim of Mizzou athletics as the hometown daily newspaper’s sole beat reporter, I’ve learned a few things about the 50-year-old East St. Louis, Illinois native along the way.Read more...

As questions about the NFL futures of a couple of star quarterbacks have been answered, the public will get a much better idea about Deshaun Watson’s future very soon. Last year, 22 women accused Watson of sexual misconduct, and 10 of them made criminal accusations. Some of the women who made the criminal accusations…Read more...

Oh, what a day, what a day.Read more...

At the time of writing, there were actual negotiations going on between MLB owners and players ahead of yet another fake deadline the owners set up that they can’t actually enforce. By the time you read this there could be actual hope. Or yet another dive straight into the dirt. Just be warned.

Happy International Women’s Day!Read more...

The term “Big 3” gets tossed around like nothing nowadays. I mean, prior to the season, Nikola Jokić, Jamal Murray, and Michael Porter Jr. were being considered a “Big 3" by some outlets. To say any team in the NBA has a true “Big 3” is questionable, but in just six games with James Harden Philadelphia is making a…Read more...

The NFL has no chill.Read more...

Today’s NFL quarterback news is perhaps best told in a tale of two emojis on Jerry Jeudy’s Twitter.Read more...

Count me among those who enjoy a good soft opening. You get to check out the restaurant space, try a newly created menu, and judge the decor while waitstaff fumble over pronunciations and the back of the house yell at each other over ticket times. There are no real consequences because nothing is at stake; it’s a…Read more...

So, Aaron Rodgers duped us all into thinking he was done with Green Bay. Four years, $200 million (supposedly), and one fewer team questioning their future at the quarterback position. Denver has their whole situation figured out as well I guess. Russell Wilson? That’s a big get for a team in a division with Patrick…Read more...

Nikola Jokić and Joel Embiid showed on Monday night why they are the two front runners for MVP in the NBA. Embiid scored 43 points and tallied 14 rebounds and three blocks while leading the Philadelphia 76ers to an important 121-106 victory over the Chicago Bulls that vaulted them past the Milwaukee Bucks to second…Read more...

MLB’s new streaming deal with Apple is why the Major League Baseball Players Association needs to scrap its entire bargaining strategy and go for a salary cap.

The latest talk around the league has the Dallas Cowboys contemplating the release of veteran Pro Bowl wide receiver Amari Cooper. Just the thought s has Cowboys nation up in arms. Sending Cooper on his way would mean the Cowboys free themselves of a $20-million wide receiver.Read more...

For as much excitement as this batch of the USMNT has generated, most of that has been tempered by the fact that A) they’ve rarely actually played all that well together and B) they’ve rarely all been together and in anything near top form. There will be those, the most rose-colored glasses-adorned amongst us, who…Read more...

Aaron Rodgers’ mammoth four-year, $200 million deal, as reported by the NFL Network, that will presumably keep him happy in Green Bay for another four seasons, is the type of contract that one could say is contagious.

One byproduct of college basketball’s March Madness’ 68-team, single-elimination format is it provides an avenue for players from programs major and mid-major to upgrade their stature. When certain players get their opportunity, they unlock a level few mortals can reach and sustain for multiple weeks. It’s a test of…Read more...

Going out to dinner with Gregg Popovich is up there with golfing with Charles Barkley, gambling with Michael Jordan, watching football with John Madden, and talking shit with Gary Payton on the list of activities with sports figures that sound like fun. As awesome as good food and better wine with Coach Pop sounds, I…Read more...

The Texas Rattlesnake is likely lacing his boots up one more time. For the first time in 19 years, Stone Cold Steve Austin will hear glass shatter, walk out onto the entrance way to an ovation that would make Robert Plant jealous, and get his shtick to reverberate through a crowd like it’s 1998 for an official match,…Read more...

The NFL’s Underwear Olympics has always had a tangential connection to actual football. Bench press reps are the equivalent of Strong Man competitions, but until linemen are pulling trucks, they don’t move the needle. Besides, the best combine bench press numbers typically are posted by the lineman with the shortest…Read more...

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The first rule for any professional sports athlete is that you can’t bet on the games. Technically it’s called Rule 21 and you can find it hanging in every Big League clubhouse. Pete Rose would walk past it every day for decades as a player and manager, paying it no mind, so his lifetime ban is the proper punishment.…Read more...

Before Sunday, only 22 players had reached the 25,000-point milestone in the history of the NBA. Kevin Durant became the 23rd member of that club with a 37-point performance in a 126-120 loss to the Boston Celtics. Durant has long been viewed by most as one of the greatest scorers the league has seen. Some people…Read more...

It happened. In this new era of sports where gambling is not only more mainstream, but the leagues actually advertise the sports betting companies, a NFL player has been caught gambling on the NFL.

AEW has been such crazy fun and so ridiculous that it pretty much makes me a hypocrite on a weekly basis. I’ve said, on more than one occasion, that trying to compare AEW and WWE is pointless and a bit too cynical. They’re two different things, even if they’re in the same general industry. And yet you can’t help it,…Read more...

A lot happened this past weekend. So much that Duke fans cried and Duke haters laughed at the same time for about five minutes following Duke’s 94-81 loss in Mike Krzyzewski’s last game at Cameron Indoor Stadium, before LeBron James got to work scoring 56 points to help get the Los Angeles Lakers’ their first victory…Read more...

This morning, I woke up to the sight of a river of people, from the elderly down to the babies carried in their parents’ arms, trying to escape Ukraine. I watched my TV in horror as they slipped and slid uphill, some of them falling, wondering if they were going to get back up again. Behind them, a building was on…Read more...

At the end of Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s run as Manchester United, they got absolutely dog-walked by Liverpool and Manchester City at home. The combined score was 7-1, but no one would have been surprised had it ended up 17-0. Plenty will tell you it should have. Even for the notoriously directionless yet complacent United…Read more...

That saying about a change of scenery seems to have hit home for Dallas Mavericks guard Spencer Dinwiddie. Since Dinwiddie was traded to the Mavs last month, he’s looked like a new man and seems to fit in with this roster.

“Just watch how our squad comes out of this All-Star Break,” - Kyrie Irving

For the first time in 40 seasons, the Kentucky Wildcats emerged as champions of the SEC conference tournament. The Wildcats have been NCAA Tournament regulars, but Sunday’s final marks only their third conference regular season or tournament championship. The Wildcats’ conference championship wouldn’t have been…Read more...

We may not have this opportunity this year, but who hasn’t purchased a bleacher seat at a Major League Baseball game and then sometime after the third inning — or third beer, whichever comes first — tried to find a better view, or received some free concert tickets at their high school part-time job and moved down a…Read more...

Jan. 9 was the last time Draymond Green played for the Golden State Warriors this season. He had missed the previous two games, and took the court that day for a total of seven seconds just so he could be alongside Klay Thompson who played in his first game since the 2019 NBA Finals.