Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

On Thursday, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced that he was committing the world’s largest online retailer to meeting the terms of what he christened “The Climate Pledge.” Broadly outlined, signing the pledge, which Bezos hopes others will do as well, commits a company to meeting the emission reduction targets set forth…Read more...

If the catch of the year happens in a late September baseball game between the Orioles and Blue Jays that maybe a few hundred people on Earth watched live, is it still the catch of the year?

The Jaguars’ toilet party looks a little less toilety with the rise of Gardner Minshew, but Jalen Ramsey still wants out. Ramsey played and excelled in Thursday night’s 20-7 home win over Tennessee, which was and is expected to be his last game as a Jaguar after requesting a trade following a sideline confrontation…Read more...

When Law & Order: Special Victims Unit premiered on September 20, 1999, reviews took issue with the righteousness of its lead characters Olivia Benson (Mariska Hargitay) and Elliott Stabler (Christopher Meloni), and its dark subject matter. “I don’t think we need an entire show dedicated to the subject matter,” Rosie…Read more...

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Houston-Tulane was one of those college football matchups that, on paper, looked like its sole purpose was to serve more as gambling fodder than as a legitimate competition for each program. But, as often happens with these low-expectation games, it turned out to be quite entertaining with an ending that was pretty…Read more...

In a group chat that included his lawyer, and at least one close confidant, Antonio Brown sent threatening text messages to the artist who accused him of exposing his barely covered penis to her while she worked on a mural in his home, according to Sports Illustrated’s Robert Klemko. Brown’s messages included insults…Read more...

The legend of Jaguars quarterback Gardner Minshew II grew on Thursday against the Titans. No, it was not because of any particularly impressive play—though he certainly had a couple of those—but instead it’s because he’s already getting the kind of calls you’d expect a future Hall of Famer to receive in just his…Read more...

Former Michigan State staffer Curtis Blackwell said under oath that three football team staffers warned head coach Mark Dantonio about serious potential issues with four-star recruit Auston Robertson before the program signed him in 2016, according to multiple reports. In 2017, Robertson was charged with third-degree…Read more...

Anthony Rizzo was thought to be done for the regular season after he rolled his ankle on a divot while trying to field a bunt on Sunday against the Pirates. Shortly after the game, the Cubs announced he would have to wear a walking boot for the duration of his recovery. But Cubs fans were given a welcome surprise on…Read more...

The start of this NFL season has been frustrating for the Broncos, who dropped their Monday night opener in Oakland then lost to the Bears because of a soft roughing-the-passer penalty on Bradley Chubb. There are many culprits to blame for the team’s general malaise on offense, and one of them is starting left…Read more...

After the Clippers pulled off this NBA offseason’s most startling move by signing Kawhi Leonard and acquiring Paul George, it was tempting to view Leonard as some devious, silent puppet master.

At first glance, the Steelers’ decision this week to trade for Dolphins defensive back Minkah Fitzpatrick was a bit of a head-scratcher. Here was an 0-2 team whose franchise quarterback is now out for the season giving up a prime long-term asset—a 2020 first-round pick—in exchange for an immediate upgrade at a…Read more...

Sports radio station WJFK in D.C. reported today that Tony Wyllie has quit as Dan Snyder’s communications director to take a job with the Special Olympics. If any good PR came Snyder’s way during Wyllie’s nine-year run with Washington’s NFL team, it doesn’t come to mind. As for the gaffes on Wyllie’s watch, well, the …Read more...

Even leaving aside the headaches and nausea that are specific to the fans of the Jets and Giants, and the flu-like symptoms that universally apply to all AFC South games, watching the NFL does something to a person. You may sit down in front of a game as a normal human—again, not applicable to Jets or Giants fans—but…Read more...

Drew Magary’s Thursday Afternoon NFL Dick Joke Jamboroo runs every Thursday during the NFL season. Email Drew here. Buy his book here.

Mike Francesa has really stepped in it this time. The sleepy goofus had a standing weekly interview with New York Giants head coach Pat Shurmur every Monday on WFAN, but the relationship between grouchy radio host and grouchy organization has reached its breaking point. Shurmur said today he will no longer appear on…Read more...

Since 2017, eight women have gone to civil court and said they were sexually assaulted by the Wall Street financier Howard Rubin. One woman has since dropped her claim, but seven remain—six are suing as plaintiffs in one lawsuit in federal court, while another woman is suing on her own in state court, all in New York.…Read more...

New York Yankees pitcher Domingo Germán has been placed on paid administrative leave, MLB said in a statement this afternoon, as the league investigates the 27-year-old starter under their domestic violence policy. Germán’s leave could last up to seven days, after which, barring an extension, the commissioner can…Read more...

College football coaches tend to be graded on a steep and extremely generous curve when it comes to their personalities. How well they do or don’t do their jobs is easy enough to assess, because it creates a binary win/loss record that reflects the sum of the players they recruit and the assistants they hire and the…Read more...

Bruce Bochy nailed down his iconic 2,044th victory as a major-league manager Wednesday in Boston, because let’s face it, nothing says greatness quite like a large round number. And if 2,044 isn’t round enough for you, then your entire life has been a lie.Read more...

Andrew Yang has a dream. “I’d challenge Donald Trump to any physical or mental feat under the sun. I mean, gosh, what could that guy beat me at, being a slob?” the presidential candidate wondered last month. His eventual conclusion: “Something that involved, like, trying to keep something on the ground and having…Read more...

An Iranian woman recently died from from self-inflicted burns after she was arrested for trying to attend a soccer match in the country, and her death has brought renewed scrutiny to Iran’s law that bans women from entering soccer stadiums. FIFA, an organization always eager to do the bare minimum in pushing back…Read more...

On a sunny September Sunday in 1982, Mark Burchfield, a 20-year-old tobacco farmer from rural Kentucky, stood in Manhattan’s Central Park, getting ready to take the most important croquet shot of his life.

A Logitech Gold Box, Wayfair Clearance Sale, and 1-Year Costco Gold Star Membership lead off Thursday’s best deals from around the web.

Following his firing by Real Salt Lake over a homophobic tirade during a match in Mexico last month, former coach Mike Petke is now suing the club for $687,500 of lost salary (a season and a half’s worth). The lawsuit, filed in the Third Judicial District Court of Salt Lake County, alleges that the club tried to force…Read more...

Thirteen days, kiddos! That’s how long we have until the NHL season finally, finally kicks off with a heart-stopping season opener where the mighty Toronto Maple Leafs play host to ... *checks schedule* oh, um .... the Ottawa Senators. *Nervously maintains smile*Read more...

It’s been a difficult season for CC Sabathia, which he announced last winter would be his final one. He’s gone to the IL three separate times for his knee—no specific injury per se, just swelling and pain that made it impossible to pitch and necessitated time off. The Yankees knew that coming into the year, and were…Read more...

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Reds pitcher Amir Garrett, who led a valiant if poorly planned solo charge of the entire Pittsburgh Pirates organization back in July, seems to have put those salad days behind him.Read more...

On Tuesday, Canadian ice dancers and two-time Olympic gold medalists Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir officially announced their intentions to “step away” from ice dancing after their cross-Canada tour in October. Though they leave the sport perhaps the greatest ice dancing team of all time, their career was marred by…Read more...

This weekend, former Welsh rugby captain Gareth Thomas announced in a video posted on Twitter that he is HIV positive.Read more...

Top-level MMA can be an extremely technical sport, with fighters adjusting to their opponents’ habits every minute and doing their best to pick up on the smallest quirks in timing and technique. That said, it can also be a hilarious dumb-guy ballet, which brings us to UFC fighter Michel Pereira.

We see a lot of deals around the web over on Kinja Deals, but these were our ten favorites today.Read more...

The thing about reading a book is that it is absolutely, undeniably a sport. Not only does reading a book require endurance, concentration, and a good amount of practice, it is also occasionally competitive. For sure, working so hard to get AR points for reading The Golden Compass or some long doorstop of a book were…Read more...

One possible explanation for the existence of this Albany (Georgia) Herald column, in which Carlton Fletcher fields all the questions a “female person” might have watching her first baseball game, could be that it was accidentally sucked through a wormhole decades ago and finally reappeared on Sept. 7, 2019. That…Read more...

Hours after Pirates closer Felipe Vázquez was arrested yesterday in Pittsburgh on behalf of Lee County (Florida) authorities for a pair of child solicitation charges, he was also charged in Pennsylvania’s Westmoreland County with a slew of felonies that includes statutory sexual assault.Read more...

A 4-year-old gelding was euthanized at Santa Anita after breaking its pelvis during training, according to a statement released by the track’s owner, the Stronach Group. The horse, named Zeke, pulled up on the training track on Monday and was put down Tuesday. Per the statement:Read more...

Our old pal Tim Burke went and made a generator for that wonderfully incongruent graphic of Jets quarterback Sam Darnold that aired this week during ESPN’s Monday Night Football. Try it for yourself!

An ESPN article published this past May recounted a strange story: Lakers GM Rob Pelinka bizarrely claimed that Kobe Bryant was inspired by the depiction of the Joker in The Dark Knight, sought out and enjoyed dinner with Heath Ledger (who was dead), and then channeled that inspiration to drop 61 points on the Knicks…Read more...

On Friday, September 13, a truck bound for the Georgia-based tabletop and video game company Trivium Studios took a turn too sharply, spilling 216,000 gaming dice onto Interstate 75 in Atlanta in what could be the biggest unintentional dice roll ever.Read more...

About a week ago, Hamilton invited me to take part in a “yogurt-tasting” video in what I assumed to be a feeble attempt to expand his brand as a guy who consumes and blogs about yogurt. He said it was an “honor” to participate, which was a lie: If you contemplate any food long enough, especially a viscous, off-white…Read more...

There’s no good reason to consider Malcolm Gladwell a serious writer or thinker anymore, thanks in large part to the things Gladwell continues to write and think. Despite this, he was allowed to write a new book—if you want to know more about it, I suggest clicking on this review in The Atlantic and doing a Ctrl+F…Read more...

Zinedine Zidane must have known this time would be harder. The once-former, now-current Real Madrid manager stepped away from the club after winning the 2018 Champions League final—his and the club’s third in a row, and the team’s fourth in five years—just as Cristiano Ronaldo, the key to all that success, left for…Read more...

ESPN made some good TV this morning.Read more...

A Kyoku Daimyo 8” Damascus Chef’s Knife, a Surprise Sale at Kate Spade, and LEGO Saturn V Apollo lead off Wednesday’s best deals from around the web.Read more...

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Two seasons ago, the Winnipeg Jets were a dark horse Cup contender, and then, for a brief moment, actual Cup favorites, and playing like it. It didn’t happen for them, but they returned largely the same roster the next. 2018 was a step back, with a first-round playoff exit—though to the eventual champion Blues—but I…Read more...

The Yankees, who spent the first week of the season getting everybody hurt, and then a few months later, did it again just to set some all-time IL records, are getting healthy. Just in time for the playoffs, but also just in time to get injured again.