Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

Francisco Lindor is definitely telling a true story that half the Mets rushed up the tunnel from the dugout to see him and Jeff McNeil were arguing about whether there was a rat or a raccoon roaming the bowels of Citi Field.

The White Sox will not be adding Albert Pujols to their lineup, Chicago manager Tony La Russa said on Friday.

Sports people are weird — myself included. We love our stats and our oddities, and our trends and our records. Something that will speak to the hearts of sports fanatics everywhere is a lovely confluence of memorable events that all happened on this very day.Read more...

When you’re the Miami Heat or Boston Celtics, every game is a trap game for the rest of the season.

Over the past ten years, cornerback Richard Sherman has been one of the league’s top defenders, when healthy. During his career, the former Stanford wide receiver has earned five Pro Bowl nods, three First Team All-Pro selections, and a Super Bowl ring. He’s also become known as one of the biggest trash-talkers in the…Read more...

I don’t think anyone will argue that the NBA playoff intensity was alive and well in the bubble last year. There were fantastic games that came down to clutch moments, and there were underdog teams like Miami making a run all the way to the Finals. It was everything on the court you could hope for. Given the…Read more...

The league leader in heading to the locker room during games has to be either Anthony Davis or Kristaps Porzingis.

It’s easy to hate Jake Paul, whether it be for his early days posting cringeworthy troll vines, his questionable YouTube content, his sexual assault allegations from two different women, his toxic fanbase, his general “I’m better than you because I have lots of money,” attitude, or…. All Of The Above.

Count me out on the Olympics.

Early this week, Northwestern University announced the hiring of Mike Polisky as Athletic Director. To date, there has been no press conference, Polisky hasn’t spoken to the media, and Deadspin’s calls and emails to both the university and the athletic department, as well as Polisky himself, have gone largely…Read more...

There’s a brewing fight between the NFL and NFLPA, though that’s always kind of the case. The NFL and its owners, GMs, and coaches would like players to show up for voluntary workouts and minicamps soon. The players, citing the whole pandemic thing, think it’s perfectly fine if they continue to work out on their own…Read more...

It’s not like the Astros could have been surprised. And if they were, that’s on them. But then again, the Astros haven’t really stopped bitching since they got caught doing whatever it was they did for two or three years. They told you it wasn’t that big of a deal, after they told you that they didn’t do anything,…Read more...

A lot of people are aware of the fact that Justin Herbert is what we in the sports word like to call “good,” but it doesn’t seem like the brilliant start to his career is being talked about enough.

I should start all this with some boulder-sized caveats. Cody Rhodes is responsible for something a lot of us wrestling fans never thought we’d see, and that’s a genuine alternative to WWE on regular TV. Cody basically started AEW on a bar bet. He also is responsible for me becoming aware of companies and wrestling…Read more...

It’s too early to call this a rivalry, but hopefully, it’ll become one.Read more...

Albert Pujols’ lifetime numbers are utterly staggering. He has 667 home runs, that’s more than Willie Mays. 3,253 hits, more than all but 14 players, more than hitting machines like Rod Carew, Tony Gwynn and George Brett. More than some guy named Napoleon Lajoie, who played 120 fucking years ago and was so good that…Read more...

The Lions are somehow a comedy and tragedy at the same time. They’re like the Forrest Gump of NFL teams, if Forrest Gump didn’t entertain anyone. Despite several very talented players throughout their history, the Lions have never won a Super Bowl let alone played in one. Hell, they’ve only won one playoff game in the…Read more...

Georgia Governor Brian Kemp has once again proven his stupidity knows no bounds.

Citizens of Japan may not have quick access to a vaccine, but Olympians set to descend there in July will.

First-round players are great. We love them. They’re the highly-touted prospects that most fans heap entirely too much pressure on, with the fate of the franchise often falling on their shoulders. Teams are not strictly built in the first round, however. There were a number of rookies drafted in the later rounds that…Read more...

When Chelsea were struggling under Frank Lampard, I was one of many who wondered what exactly they could get out of N’Golo Kante at 30. It was fair to ruminate if he could be the one-man typhoon in the center of midfield that he had been for Premier League-winning sides at Leicester and Chelsea. It was said of that…Read more...

Well, this is one way to send someone a message before the playoffs.Read more...

Contrary to what LeBron James says, the NBA Play-In Tournament was a great idea. Because of the strange circumstances the NBA found itself in after COVID-19 wrecked 2020, the league had an opportunity to try out some goofy new ideas to make up for the fact that the fans were only getting a 72-game season. Now, with…Read more...

It’s funny how “forgetful” people can get. But that’s what’s so great about the Internet — it always remembers.

It’s time for Zion Williamson to show us he’s ready for the next step.

Last night, as the Boston Celtics led the Orlando Magic 117-86 with 5:20 to go, they summoned Tacko Fall to help “seal” the game. And 73 seconds later, he shook the shit out of fellow (but not nearly quite as tall) center Mo Bamba with the biggest Dream Shake we’ve ever seen.Read more...

Joc Pederson probably imagined this moment before. Down by one, two men on, extra innings at Wrigley against the old ballclub. The script was almost too good, and it was about to be finalized. All he had to do was mash a homer to win the game.

John Means pitched this season’s third no-hitter on Wednesday afternoon in Seattle, except it was really the fourth, as Major League Baseball keeps finding out that whatever oddities are available to be achieved, someone eventually will achieve them.

There’s plenty to say about the utter detritus that was the Capitals-Rangers Falls Count Anywhere affair on Wednesday night. But I’m tired of the whole thing, and we’ll save that for another spillage of my psychosis. I want to start with T.J. Oshie.

Is it bad when your manager doesn’t know the rules? If we try to be fair to Tony La Russa, this is the first season this ridiculous extra-innings rule was put in place with the NL not having a DH, and La Russa doesn’t manage an NL club.Read more...

I don’t want to really get into the Caps-Rangers stuff. It’s stupid and ugly and caveman and makes it hard to remember for someone like me why we even bother to watch the game in the first place.Read more...

The baseball world was all gaga over the seven-game rumble the Padres and Dodgers put together in the season’s opening weeks. The part of the story that got lost and ignored is that they’re currently 2nd and 3rd place teams. It seems while they were eyeballing each other, the San Francisco Giants went and stole their…Read more...

The amount of talent at point guard in the NBA right now is unprecedented. It seems like every team has a borderline All-Star bringing the ball up the court. Just think about it. How many guys in the league right now have earned an All-Star nod at the position? Eighteen. And that doesn’t include strong players like…Read more...

A legitimate Woj Bomb dropped last night.

The World Cup in Qatar is a little more than a year from now, and according to a poll from RunRepeat, 59 percent of respondents believe that the United States should boycott the event, with 61 percent saying that FIFA should move its quadrennial showcase out of the Middle East nation because of abuse of migrant…Read more...

Aaron Rodgers is an outdated cry-baby and the Packers front office is equally bad. Apparently, the Packers are yelling “that’s not fair” and saying other teams, including the San Francisco 49ers and Denver Broncos, “tampered” with Rodgers by letting him know that they were interested in trading for him. Who cares.

We’ve reached the point in our fight against COVID-19 where it’s almost becoming lucrative to get the vaccine.

As it always is, the NHL is in a mess of its own making. Rarely do you get a team decrying a league’s discipline system, at least not in hockey. Gary Bettman rarely tolerates stepping out of line like the Rangers did yesterday when the news broke that the Department of Player Safety doesn’t even want to mention Tom…Read more...

Take a bow, Browns fans. After years of torment, ridicule, bags over heads, a parade “celebrating” a winless campaign, and a Factory of Sadness, you have earned the right to be excited for this season, and the season after that, and the season after that. Yes, there was already excitement brewing in the air over…Read more...

With the NBA Playoffs looming later this month, and due to the perceived attainability of this year’s championship, there’s a growing list of people out there who could be held accountable for coming up short.

Joe Girardi will probably have to double, triple, maybe even quadruple check his lineup cards from here on out.

In a time in which we should be getting closer to college athletes making money off their name, image, and likeness (NIL), some folks are still fixated on the wrong things.

Every day it feels like we know less and less about Kawhi Leonard.

Welcome to the Ladies Room - A Deadspin Sports Podcast.

The best running back in the 2021 NFL Draft wasn’t Najee Harris. And it wasn’t Travis Etienne. It wasn’t a running back that played at Georgia, or Ohio State, or Alabama, or LSU. It wasn’t a running back that played in the national championship, or was recruited out of one of the hot-beds for high school talent backs…Read more...

The Houston Astros missed out on all the fun last year. They still might not get the full brunt of it this term. And by the time baseball stadiums are full again, which might not be until 2022, maybe it will have blown over to a degree.

Just give Budda Baker a three second head start and DK will catch him and win the race — I guarantee it.Read more...

In total, nine quarterbacks were taken in the NFL Draft. No quarterback is ever a sure thing, but in this talented group, the odds are very high that there will be a handful of difference makers that alter the league’s landscape. Out of these nine quarterbacks taken, all of whom went in the fourth round or earlier,…Read more...

It was hard to not notice the symbolism or statement about two teams in a Champions League final that are owned by entities so rich as to be unbothered by The Super League. PSG never joined, and Manchester City were the first ones out after joining with not much more than a shrug. But that’s to be studied at a…Read more...

Major League Baseball gets a lot of flack for its unwritten rules, inaction against cheaters, television blackouts, and inability to market top players. Yet, what MLB gets the most hate for is its unwillingness to change.