Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

Let’s quickly get out of the way that none of this means anything. The NBA’s regular season doesn’t start for another few weeks; any basketball these teams play before that is of zero consequence. OK, now: holy shit! Zion Williamson is a certified monster! After about a half-hour of careful inspection, I can safely…Read more...

The St. Louis Cardinals evened up their NLDS series against the Atlanta Braves Monday night, on a 10th-inning sacrifice fly to left field to score Kolten Wong. It was Molina’s second big feat of batsmanship of the game, and he was super-duper pumped to have driven in the winning run. So pumped, in fact, that he…Read more...

Seventeen-year-old Smash Ultimate prodigy Sota “Zackray” Okada clutched out his first No. 1 placement at a U.S. Smash tournament using—count ’em—six separate Smash fighters.

Let us now chronicle the rise and sort-of fall of British YouTuber and now-former national e-cycling champion Cameron Jeffers. Unfortunately, the nouns in this story do not become that much easier to understand as we proceed, but please bear with me.

Ahead of his radio program this afternoon, Stephen A. Smith clearly thought long and hard about Daryl Morey’s tweet supporting Hong Kong protestors, the ensuing controversy and Morey’s subsequent backtracking, and the large-scale implications of all of the above on relationships between China and U.S.-based…Read more...

In summary: On Friday night, Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted a fairly bland slogan-like expression of support—“Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong.”—for ongoing protests against the mainland Chinese government’s encroachment on the autonomy of Hong Kong. Because the Rockets are the second-most…Read more...

Two years ago on this very website, Dr. Patrick Wyman wrote about the single most important question facing the UFC: where is the next generation of stars? It’s been a rough search, but last weekend, I think we finally found a great candidate.

The NBA already knows the math. The NBA already knows that whatever price it may pay for aligning themselves with the Chinese government against one of its own teams’ employees—all because Rockets GM Daryl Morey tweeted out a show of support for protesters in Hong Kong—will be nothing compared to what they stood to…Read more...

There’s no need to go crazy and say that the Colts spent last night drawing up the blueprints for how to beat Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs, or that running the ball is suddenly the key to winning in the NFL. This was just one game, but it was fun as hell, and it’s worth spending some time today luxuriating in just…Read more...

Adam Silver has been credited for many things in his time fronting the money of the National Basketball Association, and even after you allow for the 30 percent reputational mark-up when compared with the other commissioners in North American sports, he’s done quite well. But now he is confronted by the…Read more...

At 11:56 p.m. on Sunday night, staffers at Sports Illustrated/Maven received an email titled “A Message from SI Leadership.” The email was an attempt to do some damage control in the wake of a story Deadspin published on Friday, which detailed how SI’s new owners plan to turn the prestigious magazine into a content…Read more...

The 25-year-old Red Wings winger Anthony Mantha has spent the past few seasons threatening to become a truly great goalscorer, and on Sunday night against the Stars, he announced himself with a spectacular performance befitting his high expectations. Mantha has been a solid 20-goal guy for the Wings over the past…Read more...

If you were to work backwards, you’d find it pretty difficult to understand what exactly Daryl Morey said, and who exactly was so offended by it.

After an embarrassing yet expected 33-7 “home” loss to the Patriots, after which everyone already knew head coach Jay Gruden would be fired ... Washington fired him. This being the Skins, though, they did it in the most disrespectful manner imaginable.

As far as pseudo-holidays go, Bidet Week may be my favorite. For the better part of the year, I’ve championed the purchase and subsequent use of bidets to the chagrin of my co-workers and loved ones.Read more...

For those who revel in the schadenfreude that the failures of Jon Gruden tend to provide, Sunday’s Bears-Raiders game was a big moment as it was the first time Khalil Mack would face off against his former team. Yet the narrative of the Mack trade constantly blowing up in Gruden’s face had to be put on hold, as the…Read more...

Shit sucks in Skins land these days, which is about as evergreen a statement as there is, but it sucks enough at this specific moment that everyone in the building is having a very bad time. The Skins were blown out at home by the Patriots on Sunday, 33–7, in front of a crowd that was overwhelmingly supporting the…Read more...

Bills Mafia made its way to Nashville on Sunday for their beloved Buffalo team’s game against the Tennessee Titans. Along with a plethora of alcohol, and well-worn Jim Kelly jerseys, the visiting fans also brought with them their desire to do the wildest shit possible during their tailgates. Here, this Bills fan stuck…Read more...

Last week, when Deshaun Watson answered a thoughtful post-game question with a hyper-detailed breakdown of Carolina’s defense, there was some confusion over whether he was showing up the reporter. Now that Watson has given a similarly thorough answer to a question following his dominant performance Sunday, we can…Read more...

Sunday’s edition of the Ravens-Steelers rivalry wasn’t exactly what people would call a “classic,” or “all that watchable.” As overtime approached, I personally wished for the sweet release of death to arrive before the end of the game did. Fortunately, it did not so I was able to witness Marlon Humphrey—the only…Read more...

Democratic presidential candidate and absolute spring chicken Joe Biden, who definitely has a very strong sense of what’s going on around him at all times and does not appreciate you constantly dabbing at his chin with a handkerchief, took some time out of his busy campaign schedule Sunday to wish Mystics superstar…Read more...

The Atlanta Braves are supposed to be discouraging the “tomahawk chop” celebration at home games. Or, anyway, that’s what commissioner Rob Manfred told the Washington Post back in February, that the Braves had “taken steps to take out” the chant. But they’re not discouraging it, not really—the Braves were still…Read more...

Mason Rudolph had to be helped off the field in the third quarter of the Steelers’ game against the Ravens on Sunday after being on the receiving end of a brutal hit from two Baltimore defenders. On a third down play, Rudolph scrambled out of the pocket as he looked for an open receiver. Right after he released the…Read more...

Folksy goofus Terry Bradshaw was doing a highlight read during halftime of the Vikings-Giants game when he managed to spill coffee all over the tablet of fellow host Curt Menefee, like a big clumsy boob.Read more...

Tampa Bay defensive back Carlton Davis was ejected from Sundays Bucs-Saints game after he launched himself helmet-first towards Saints tight end Jared Cook, and ultimately connected with the New Orleans player’s head. Davis was initially just flagged for unnecessary roughness, but was disqualified following a review…Read more...

Word started to spread during prime tailgate hours Sunday that the crowd for the afternoon Patriots-Skins game in Landover would be heavily tilted in favor of the road team. By now you don’t need to be told that this has long been a trend at the team’s dismal, far-flung mausoleum of a stadium, but the nadir of fan…Read more...

Right on cue, the quarterback that Jets coach Adam Gase only let have one full practice with the first team has already committed a laughable mistake. New York decided to go for it on a 4th-and-1 in the first quarter, but rather than running it with one of the league’s best running backs, the team decided to…Read more...

Markelle Fultz played basketball in an NBA uniform for the first time since last November on Saturday, in a preseason game between his Orlando Magic and the San Antonio Spurs. Fultz was inefficient, as you’d expect from a guy who hasn’t played in so long and is on a new team, but he flashed some tools. Here’s a nice…Read more...

Behold the coaching genius of Adam Gase, who was so confident that Sam Darnold would recover from mononucleosis at a rate faster than most doctors would recommend—and not say something like “I want to make sure that I’m safe out there and I’m not going to die”—that he just flat out ignored the actually healthy Luke…Read more...

The backlash in China to a tweet from Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey supporting Hong Kong protesters has accelerated over the weekend, now to include formal consequences. The Rockets, long one of the most popular NBA teams in China, are now seeing their foothold in the country swiftly eroded and…Read more...

During a timeout late in the third quarter Saturday, Oregon Ducks running back Cyrus Habibi-Likio had to act as a security guard for his team’s home stadium. An idiot had made his way onto the field and was casually jogging his way around, only speeding up to get away from stadium staff and police. Habibi-Likio…Read more...

For the first time since 1986, SMU football found itself ranked in the Top-25 AP poll, coming in at No. 24 after starting the season with a 5-0 record. That past season happened just before the NCAA hit the school with the death penalty after investigators discovered a slash fund dedicated to paying players and their…Read more...

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Former Dolphins offensive lineman Jonathan Martin will not face any jail time for the charges brought against him for threats he made on an Instagram post in February 2018. According to a report from Nancy Dillon of the New York Daily News, Martin was instead granted a mental health diversion program where he’ll be…Read more...

For a Power 5 team in a rut, playing Rutgers can have the equivalent effect of a hangover cure or some kind of miracle exfoliant. Michigan, following a wounding loss to Wisconsin, dismantled the Scarlet Knights so unsparingly last week that Rutgers fired their head coach and replaced him with, I think, the CEO of…Read more...

In the dying embers of the first quarter of Auburn-Florida, Gators quarterback Kyle Trask lost the football and it landed straight into the arms of 6-foot-5, 315 lb. defensive tackle Derrick Brown. It didn’t matter that he’s not the type of player whose body type screams “speedster.” Thanks to some helpful blocking…Read more...

Kent State’s Office of Compliance, Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action announced on Friday that it found no violation of Title IX, or evidence of any sort of gender bias, from the school when officials shut down a game of field hockey the school was hosting for the football team’s pregame fireworks, according to…Read more...

*Record scratch* *Freeze frame* Yup, that’s Oklahoma. So, you’re probably wondering how they ended up punting from fourth-and-goal at Kansas’s 44-yard line late in the second quarter of Saturday’s game. After a shaky first quarter, Jalen Hurts and the Sooners were working their way downfield, and lined up for…Read more...

Saturday’s junior middleweight title fight between two-time Olympic champion Claressa Shields and Ivana Habazin was cancelled after James Ali Bashir, Habazin’s veteran trainer, got sucker punched in the back of the head at the weigh-in. Bashir was knocked unconscious for about 20 minutes, according to ESPN, before he…Read more...

When the Kansas athletic department hired Snoop Dogg to perform at its annual “Late Night in the Phog” kickoff event for the school’s men’s and women’s basketball teams, they expected, as anyone does when hiring the artist behind “Gin and Juice,” some good, clean fun for the whole family. Imagine their shock, then,…Read more...

It would be nice, albeit utterly ridiculous, if the Washington Nationals decided to have Stephen Strasburg and Max Scherzer pitch every inning in the team’s series against the Dodgers, but considering how the two performed in Game 2 of the NLDS, fans would be forgiving for wanting something akin to that game plan…Read more...

Houston Rockets GM Daryl Morey tweeted an image that read “Fight for Freedom. Stand with Hong Kong” on Friday night, but deleted it after the team’s owner, billionaire Tilman Fertitta, publicly clarified that Morey was “NOT” speaking for the Rockets and that the organization was “NOT” political.Read more...

Videos featuring Washington football coach Jay Gruden out on the town smoking a cigarette of some kind, as well as spitting game at what appears to be a much younger woman, have been making the rounds online over the past day or so.

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The Trump administration has run roughshod over environmental laws in a rush to build an unnecessary border wall. And in footage that emerged on Friday, construction efforts are just running roughshod over the environment, period.

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

Bianca Andreescu, a 19-year-old apparently blessed with every tennis gift besides consistent health, has enjoyed one of the most surreal debuts in tennis history. Her season’s been so good that she can toss off a quote like “I kind of forgot how to lose” and no fair observer bats an eye. Consider a few gaudy measures…Read more...

Just about every time the Washington football team parts ways with an employee, the move occurs after a pattern of smears or innuendo that seems designed to tip everyone off that it’s coming. So it is now with head coach Jay Gruden. The Skins are going to shove Gruden into a volcano; at this point, it’s less a matter…Read more...

Now that Sports Illustrated’s three owners, Meredith Corp., Authentic Brands Group, and TheMaven, have completed the callous layoff of half of Sports Illustrated’s newsroom and finalized a deal that gives control of the publication to TheMaven, a wannabe tech company helmed by notorious scumbags Ross Levinsohn and…Read more...

Barring a disaster next week and beyond, everything in pro wrestling has changed. All Elite Wrestling, the biggest competitor to World Wrestling Entertainment’s stranglehold on the American and broader international pro wrestling scenes, made its television debut on Wednesday night, directly opposite WWE’s NXT. While…Read more...