Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

Creating a mascot for your international sporting event can be fraught with peril. Izzy, originally Whatizit, was the mascot of the 1996 Olympics and is still mocked today. London’s mascots for the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics were simply amorphous blobs. The 2006 World Cup, held in Germany, had a Jim Henson…Read more...

It was the Vogue profile of Pete Buttigieg that did me in. Early on, when the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana, first announced the formation of an exploratory committee and then formally tossed his hat in the ring for the presidential nomination, I dismissed him as a forgettable center-left Democrat in the…Read more...

Paleofuture Five Massive Screw-ups That Wouldn’t Have Happened If We All Just Used the Metric System | Kotaku Dr Disrespect Doesn’t Seem To Be Taking His Twitch Ban Very Seriously | Jalopnik Large-Scale Search Ends for Davey G. Johnson, Missing Car and Driver Journalist and Jalopnik Alum | Lifehacker Get a Free…Read more...

A J.Crew Factory sale, Diablo III: Eternal Edition, GoodThreads sale, and an Anker dash cam lead off a Tuesday’s best deals.Read more...

Every baseball fan who buys tickets in the outfield dreams of exactly one thing: catching a home run ball hit by Seattle Mariners catcher Tom Murphy. With that goal so close to his grasp in the fifth inning of Monday night’s Royals-Mariners game, it’s understandable that an overexcited Ichiro supporter would take some…Read more...

Let’s stipulate that the Jets had to trade Jacob Trouba. The 25-year-old defenseman had made it quite clear that he had no intentions of signing an extension in Winnipeg, and the Jets had no intention of paying what it would cost to keep Trouba when he becomes an unrestricted free agent next summer—likely somewhere…Read more...

There is a lengthy list of things that WWE is currently doing wrong, but its stewardship of developmental promotion NXT is not on it. The flagship is still bobbing around aimlessly, but the promotion WWE created as a sort of minor league currently stands as just about the most perfect iteration of big budget…Read more...

Turns out the solo dinger he smashed in the bottom of the third inning was not the coolest thing Matt Carpenter did against the Miami Marlins Monday night, not by a long shot. With two down in the bottom of the fifth inning, the Marlins shifted their defense to the right side to face Carpenter. Carpenter, a lefty, is…Read more...

The 2019 Stanley Cup champion St. Louis Blues held their victory parade Sunday, celebrating the franchise’s first ever title. As is usually the case with victory parades, this event featured blissed-out sports men consuming inadvisable quantities of alcohol. Some handled it better than others—Brett Hull invented a…Read more...

Not to dump on the Toronto Raptors’ parade, but it’d be awesome if Kawhi Leonard signed somewhere else this offseason, if only because it would solidify how badass this season’s accomplishment was. The dude had an acrimonious split from the Spurs, was traded to a team he “had no desire to play” for, then took them to…Read more...

Jalopnik I Slept on the Roof of a Honda Passport to Prove That Hotels Are for Suckers | Kotaku Why I Left Breath of the Wild Unfinished | io9 A Crew of VFX Artists Take on the CGI of the Star Wars Prequels | Skillet You Should Grill Whole Heads of Garlic This Summer | The Takeout Apple Jacks are garbage |Read more...

Nigeria were not eliminated from the World Cup on Monday afternoon, but their hopes of advancing to the knockout stages took a hit when, after a pair of VAR reviews, Wendie Renard knocked home a PK in the 79th minute to break a scoreless draw and give France a 1-0 win.Read more...

The ceremonies after today’s championship parade for the Toronto Raptors were halted this afternoon after reports of shots fired near Bay Street and Albert Street, at the southeast part of Nathan Phillips Square, where the rally was being held.

Control of Sports Illustrated’s media operations has changed hands once again, just three weeks after the now former SI owner Meredith Corp sold the magazine’s name and licensing rights to Authentic Brands Group. Per a press release posted by Meredith and sent out to SI staffers, Sports Illustrated’s print and digital…Read more...

Now that Lonzo Ball has been traded to the New Orleans Pelicans, LaVar Ball has reemerged from what was a pleasant absence to loudly boast about his son and be rude to female TV hosts. Today, he acted a little creepy toward Molly Qerim on First Take.

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This right here is why the National Hockey League doesn’t get it. Erik Karlsson just signed a record-setting eight-year deal worth more than $11 million per year with the San Jose Sharks without any fuss or muss. Deal framed, talked about, signed. Couldn’t be easier.

Tyson Fury won what was for all intents and purposes a fixed fight in his ESPN+ and Las Vegas debut on Saturday night, beating the technically “undefeated” but deeply non-threatening Tom Schwarz in a second-round TKO. Against a no-name boxer who’d never fought outside of Germany or the Czech Republic before, Fury’s…Read more...

Yesterday Gary Woodland and his MAGA-friendly spikes held off golfing Terminator Brooks Koepka and won the U.S. Open. It was a classic example of a formerly unknown player revealing himself as a bloodless, stress-proof killer over the course and spending four days fending off all comers for a first major win that will…Read more...

With the Warriors severely depleted heading into next season, it stands to reason that the Houston Rockets are as well-positioned as any other team to take advantage and end the Warriors’ five-year Finals run. After all, they’ve been the only Western Conference team to seriously push Golden State, and they have the…Read more...

The original North American Soccer League was a glorious, goofy experiment in American sports history. It burned white-hot during its brief 17 season existence; mostly thanks to the high-profile singings of legitimate soccer legends like Johan Cruyff, Franz Beckenbauer, George Best, and Pelé, but also because of the…Read more...

It’s hard to build a legend these days. Everything is immediate and documented, with video and photos accompanying just about anything notable, and plenty that’s less so. This nips myth in the bud. There is no longer the endless reshaping of narrative through an endless game of telephone among people who were there to…Read more...

A look at the awful children’s programming you’re forced to endure before you can finally kick the kids out of the TV room to watch sports for eight hours. Image by Jim Cooke.

On Thursday afternoon, WWE ambassador and creative team member Dana Warrior, tweeted a pro-LGBTQ+ pride message, stressing that she “believe[s] in equality, education, awareness, and this simple fact: love wins... Always!!” In and of themselves, the words would be fine, but because Warrior is best known as the widow…Read more...

A Cuisinart Gold Box, Nebula Capsule sale, Xbox One S bundles, and Walmart Groceries lead off a Monday’s best deals.Read more...

Forget the celebrations for a second. Sure, Carli Lloyd’s golf clap was a perfect response to last week’s anti-USWNT backlash, but it’s really the footnote from Sunday’s comprehensive 3-0 drubbing of Chile, particularly as it pertains to the United States’ chances of becoming the second team in Women’s World Cup…Read more...

Erik Karlsson’s first season in San Jose was a mixed bag. The superstar d-man put up 0.85 points per game, but he was hurt all year, and was in and out of the lineup late in the season, including in the playoffs. If the Sharks didn’t get the best display of exactly what their team looks like with him, they saw enough:

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The New York Yankees took another important step on their quest to assemble an all-beef lineup by trading for dinger-mashing DH Edwin Encarnacion over the weekend. Once Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton return to action, a lineup featuring those two, Gary Sanchez, Luke Voit, and Encarnacion is going to scare a lot of…Read more...

The first domino in a pivotal and unpredictable summer has fallen, with the Lakers trading for Anthony Davis for, basically, what they were offering six months ago. It’s a big deal and it reshapes the West and in light of Golden State’s disastrous Finals, makes the Lakers the favorites. For now. That could change in…Read more...

When an unverified Twitter account with the name TheRealOJ32 posted a video of the former, uhh, Bills running back announcing his entrance into the Twitter world, I’ll admit that I wasn’t 100% convinced that it was real. Even when I decided to quickly share it on this site, there was a small part of me that thought I…Read more...

Given the low expectations for Chile entering this tournament, and the eerily similar halftime score, it seemed like the USWNT was on pace to thrash yet another opponent in the group stages of the women’s World Cup. But, as outlined in Lauren Theisen’s tournament preview, the major difference between Thailand and…Read more...

The New York Yankees acquired American League home run leader Edwin Encarnación from the Seattle Mariners on Saturday for cash considerations and pitching prospect Juan Then, continuing the trend that the Lakers set a couple hours earlier of a historically hated franchise making a major roster improvement.

In the USWNT’s first game since dealing with the stupid controversy over how they celebrated the goals in their 13-0 rout over Thailand, the question on everyone’s mind was how the team would celebrate when they inevitably scored against an outmatched Chilean squad. That question was answered just 11 minutes into the…Read more...

Unlike the last notable heavyweight bout that featured one of the biggest names in the division, the no-name actually succumbed to the blows of the main event’s star attraction on Saturday when Tyson Fury took down Tom Schwarz by TKO in the second round.

An amazing deal on Bosch power tools, a $20 waterproof Bluetooth speaker from Anker, and a $5 beer glass that provides clean water to people in need lead off Sunday’s best deals from around the web. Happy Father’s Day, everyone!Read more...

The annual tradition of hockey players attempting to stretch the physical limits of their livers continued today in St. Louis with the Blues parading the Stanley Cup throughout the city amongst a raucous fan base. While there were plenty of clips of hockey players drinking the way hockey players tend to in these…Read more...

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My god, they did it. Those absolute madmen actually did it.

By now you’re probably aware that Ja Morant, one of the top players heading into this year’s NBA Draft, was not the most heralded prospect coming out of high school. Though he averaged 27 points, eight rebounds and eight assists through his junior and senior years, he wasn’t ranked on any recruiting sites and the only…Read more...

It took nearly two rounds of pure domination at the hands of former UFC champion Lyoto Machida for referee Todd Anderson to break up the fight between “The Dragon” and “The American Gangster,” Chael Sonnen.

ESPN reporter Israel Gutierrez earned his 141st win on Around the Horn on Friday, defeating Jorge Sedano in the showdown, 1-0. With the 30 seconds of Face Time, Gutierrez decided to focus on Saturday’s fight between Tyson Fury and Tom Schwarz. More specifically, he decided to touch on Fury’s homophobic beliefs and…Read more...

Nordstrom Rack’s Clear the Rack event, Original Penguin polos, and a sale on Marmot at Backcountry lead off Saturday’s best deals.

In the bottom of the seventh, Brewers pitcher Alex Claudio attempted to pick off Giants center fielder Kevin Pillar at first. As Claudio turned to make the throw, Pillar took off for second. Thanks to a lack of urgency from Milwaukee’s Jesus Aguilar, Pillar was able to beat the follow-up throw and successfully steal…Read more...

A group of spectators close to the 16th hole of Pebble Beach Golf Links were treated to a scary surprise on Friday when a runaway golf cart made its way straight into them. The vehicle became sentient when a box it was carrying fell from a stack in the back and landed directly on the accelerator shortly after a vendor…Read more...

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

After the St. Louis Blues won their first Stanley Cup on Wednesday night, fans celebrated on streets and in bars until the wee hours of the morning. The local news caught up with some of the yelling, cartwheeling, and sweaty revelers. One poor soul said he lost his wedding ring while high-fiving people. Enjoy the best…Read more...

I came within a bladed edge of red death when I went out for karaoke one night last winter, but I do not hold that against karaoke. Karaoke is good sloppy fun, and it gives me a chance to dazzle the world with my signature rendition of “Purple Rain.” Our own Samer Kalaf once led a singalong of “Smooth” that…Read more...

One thing that can be said about Drake that cannot be said about a disconcertingly large number of other famous people is that it is clear why he is famous. He has done actual things—performed some hugely popular songs about how disappointed he is in various exes; endorsed one of the better-liked lemon-lime soft…Read more...

Kawhi Leonard won his second career Finals MVP Thursday night, becoming the first player in NBA history to win one in each conference. The magnitude of what he personally accomplished likely will take some time to settle in: After missing a full season due to injury and forcing his way out of San Antonio, Kawhi joined…Read more...