Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

MLK Day is one of the few days a year on which a brand or institution is guaranteed to shame itself through a ham-fisted tribute to the civil rights hero. This year, I don’t think anyone is going to do a worse job than Florida State University, which sent out and then quickly deleted the tweet you see above.

Well, here’s the messiest moment of this Australian Open to date, tainting the end of a five-set epic. No. 23 seed Pablo Carreño Busta won two sets, then No. 8 seed Kei Nishikori won two sets, and then they played on to a fifth-set super-tiebreak, which goes to 10 points, win by two. Considering they’d been going at…Read more...

The Chicago Cubs held their annual fan convention over the weekend, and one of the festivities was former Cubs pitcher Ryan Dempster hosting a mock late night show with current Cubs players as his guests. This was a chance for players to “cut loose” and “show their real personalities,” and that led to Kris Bryant…Read more...

It’s the day after the conference championship games and it is unfortunately time to talk about the Eagles. This is because, according to a new report from Philly Voice, the Eagles really hate franchise quarterback Carson Wentz. But also, according to a few tweets from Wentz’s teammates, everyone loves him!

One of the weirdest things that happened during yesterday’s conference championship games was the disappearance of Rams star running back Todd Gurley. The franchise running back had a career-low five total touches from scrimmage, and spent most of the game standing on the sideline. His absence from the game was so…Read more...

Tony Romo’s ability to sit in the broadcast booth and accurately predict what’s about to happen on the field is something we’re all familiar with, but it was still hard not to impressed by the run he went on during the fourth quarter of the AFC Championship game, which earned him the nickname “Romostradamus” from…Read more...

NFL fans could not have asked for a better pair of conference championship games. The four best teams in the league had all advanced, and the two remaining games promised to feature beautiful, high-scoring football played by some of the best young and old players the league has to offer. We got some of that, but we…Read more...

Anker’s truly wireless headphones have always offered great value for the money, and now you can save for the first time on the company’s newest Soundcore Liberty Airs.Read more...

Postgame interviews with athletes on the field are almost always boring. The interviewer usually doesn’t ask anything of interest, the athlete on the other end of those questions is spent after playing a whole game and generally doesn’t have much to say anyway. Every once in a while something fun happens. Richard…Read more...

The Patriots beat the Chiefs 37-31 in an overtime instant classic at Kansas City, clinching the AFC title and a Super Bowl berth against the Rams. Tom Brady engineered long drives down the field at the end of regulation and in overtime—both of which ended with rushing touchdowns by Rex Burkhead.

Julian Edelman’s hands ruled the most consequential sequence so far in tonight’s AFC title game. First, down 17-14, the Chiefs punted to the Patriots receiver, who appeared to muff the punt and set Kansas City up for a prime scoring opportunity. It seemed like to me on the replay that he did touch the ball, or at…Read more...

It is absolutely rotten that the Saints’ season was ended at least in part by two blown pass interference calls, including an inexplicable one in the last two minutes. Rams corner Nickell Robey-Coleman, who smashed Saints receiver Tommylee Lewis in the head while the ball was in the air, said of the play: “Oh, hell…Read more...

Look: the officials didn’t make Drew Brees throw a horrific interception in overtime, and they didn’t make Rams kicker Greg Zuerlein nail a 57-yard game-winning field goal despite a low snap a few plays later. In fact, after a quarter and a half where the Saints jumped out to a 13-3 lead and the Rams seemed deeply…Read more...

The Saints have been force-feeding the ball to their Tebowian backup quarterback Taysom Hill in crucial situations, and head coach Sean Payton’s obsession with Hill paid off today in the third quarter against the Rams. Hill lined up wide on third and goal for a screen, and Drew Brees found one of his backups for a…Read more...

Yesterday it was reported that former pairs skater John Coughlin died by suicide a day after his interim suspension from SafeSport was announced, but there was no public comment about the nature of the allegations against him by either SafeSport or U.S. Figure Skating.

You’re not hearing things—it does sound like a whistle is blowing before every Rams offensive play in today’s NFC title game. That noise is very likely being made at least in part by a superfan named Leroy “Whistle Monsta” Mitchell, who’s been doing it at Saints home games for 22 years. The whistle is created just…Read more...

On the first drive of the Rams-Saints game, the broadcast booth at FOX sprung into action to prevent the youth of America from seeing something ugly on a football field: Michael Thomas’s ass.Read more...

Dating back a few years, the NFL has put microchips in players’ pads to track their movements in games. Since the beginning of the 2017 season, the company that sends you shit in the mail and provides the architecture for a lot of the internet has slapped its name on the statistics generated by those microchips. Some…Read more...

After beating No. 20 seed Grigor Dimitrov 7-5, 7-6 (6), 6-7 (1), 7-5 on Sunday, College Park, Md. native Frances Tiafoe celebrated advancing to his first Grand Slam quarterfinal the same way he did just one round earlier: ripping his shirt off, slapping his biceps and chest, and using all the energy he had left to…Read more...

Despite playing like total ass for almost the entirety of the evening, the Kings recovered from an 11-point deficit with 6:21 left in the fourth quarter to only be down one point against the Pistons on Saturday. With 3.4 seconds left in the game, Sacramento guard Bogdan Bogdanovic inbounded the ball to Buddy Hield,…Read more...

The scene is almost too perfect.Read more...

Greg Hardy’s UFC debut ended quite unceremoniously on Saturday night. With just over two-and-a-half minutes left in the second round, Hardy had defended a takedown from Allen Crowder and then got up while his opponent was still on one knee. The ex-NFL player saw an opening and illegally smashed his knee into Crowder’s…Read more...

1. Chiefs over Rams

Don’t cancel the barbecue just because it’s cold outside. This Tenergy Redigrill smokeless infrared grill creates 80% less smoke than a traditional grill, making it perfect for year-round indoor use. Today only, it’s on sale for $135, so grill masters should act quickly to add one to their kitchen.

Today only, Amazon’s offering big discounts on dozens of pieces of swimwear and accessories from Speedo. In addition on one-piece women’s suits and various swim shorts for men, you’ll find lots of goggles, a few shirts, and even hand paddles to help you swim faster.

Thunder-Sixers has become an inordinately frisky inter-conference rivalry. Last season’s two matchups were marked by relentless shit-talking and mockery on-court and online between Sixers center Joel Embiid and Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook. A lot of waving goodbye was involved. The teams played this…Read more...

John Coughlin, a two-time U.S. pairs champion, died Friday by suicide just days after U.S. Center for SafeSport and U.S. Figure Skating suspended him from the sport, according to multiple reports. He was 33.Read more...

The end of the Thunder-Sixers game was an amazing example of some back-and-forth bone-headedness that could only be accomplished with these underachieving franchises.

In the 93rd minute of the match between Charlton Athletic and Accrington Stanley, the linesman awarded a penalty to Charlton after a shot from midfielder Ben Reeves ricocheted off the hand of a defender in the penalty box. Karlan Grant calmly scored from the spot and the players were understandably jubilant over their…Read more...

Junior Mountaineers guard Jermaine Haley was not only perfect against Kansas on the stats sheet—he shot 5-for-5 from the field for 13 points—he was perfect when his team needed him most. Haley hit the go-ahead layup over tough a Jayhawks defense with less than 10 seconds remaining in regulation to give West Virginia a…Read more...

Prior to this season, Jake Layman’s career was mostly associated with a joke that he was on pace to be the greatest scorer in NBA history (per 36 minutes, after two games). Now, it’s more about what he’s actually been able to produce on the court within the confines of his real playing time. Thanks to a combination of…Read more...

Marshawn Lynch appeared as a guest on HBO’s Real Time With Bill Maher to talk about his entrepreneurship work in theory, but ended up discussing a whole other wide range of topics instead. He answered questions about topics like Colin Kaepernick not getting signed and smoking weed, and he also gave a compelling…Read more...

Whelp, that was fun while it lasted. The brief period where we could pretend to believe that other teams besides the Warriors had a chance at making a run for an NBA title is officially over after DeMarcus “Boogie” Cousins made his season debut for the Warriors on Friday against the Clippers in a 112-94 win.

KitchenAids are good for a lot more than mixing dough; you just need the right attachments. For just $75 on Amazon today (down from the typical $90+), you can get two essential accessories in one package: a shredder/slicer and a food grinder. The former can make quick work of splicing vegetables or grating cheese,…Read more...

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

Frances Tiafoe has already earned his place among the greats—in terms of tennis celebrations, that is. This is right on par with the sleeveless Nadal’s chugga-chugga-chugga juggernaut move. Tiafoe took a five-setter to make the fourth round of a major for the first time in his young life, so by all means, he can…Read more...

Since its inception in 2015, Football Leaks, a website that publishes documents obtained from the hacking of various powerful soccer clubs and organizations, has been the bane of European soccer. The website has helped surface scandals ranging from Cristiano Ronaldo’s rape case and Jose Mourinho’s tax evasion, to more…Read more...

Minnesota Wild defenseman Matt Dumba, a 24-year-old point producer who was shaping up to have a career-best year through his first 32 games of this season, instead hasn’t played for the Wild since a Dec. 15 contest against the Calgary Flames. That’s when Dumba had to leave the game after just one period with what…Read more...

WWE’s television programming has taken a sharp turn in the past week or so, or more precisely thrown it in reverse and slammed on the gas. The last time pro wrestling’s dominant promotion truly broke through to mainstream popularity was 20 years ago, and came largely on the back of vulgar, sexed-up mayhem. In that…Read more...

Harry Potter fans everywhere have a reason to be very excited this morning: J.K. Rowling took to Twitter today to reveal that every now and then, the Sorting Hat would arbitrarily sort a first-year Hogwarts student onto the New York Mets!Read more...

Hornets rookie Miles Bridges helped his team to a comfortable win over the Kings last night, with 15 points and some strong defense off the bench. Neither of those contributions, nice as they are, matter nearly as much as this absolute hammer he dropped as the shot clock was expiring in the first quarter.Read more...

The New England Patriots, the second playoff seed of their conference, are preparing for Sunday’s AFC title game against the Kansas City Chiefs by pushing the idea that no one believes in them, a team that’s been to eight straight AFC title games. You might be asking, Who are they actually calling out? Me. I’m the one…Read more...

Russell Westbrook scored 26 points in Oklahoma City’s loss to the Lakers on Thursday night, including the three clutch free throws that sent the game to overtime. Start there and work backwards across the box score, and you will go from feeling pretty good about Russ’s contributions—hey, 26 points, 13 assists, only 3…Read more...

Today the Daily Beast published a story titled “Is a Serial-Killer Gang Murdering Young Men Across the U.S.?” Boldly defying Betteridge’s Law, the report—written by crime reporter Nicole Weisensee Egan, who covered the Bill Cosby trial for the Beast—suggests that the answer to the question posed in the headline may…Read more...

Tomorrow night, the UFC will make its long-awaited debut on ESPN. The fight card is headlined by a flyweight title superfight between bantamweight champ T.J. Dillashaw and current flyweight belt-holder Henry Cejudo, a bout that will likely result in Dillashaw becoming the company’s latest double champion only for the …Read more...

A colossal milestone is about to be smashed in the world of billiards. Five-time world snooker champion Ronnie O’Sullivan, fresh off winning his 19th triple crown event at this year’s UK Championship, is on the verge of making 1000 century breaks in competition. He has three already in early UK Masters play, bringing…Read more...

Nick Saban treats nearly everyone in his life with maximum contempt at all times. His own fans, the media, the college football playoff scheduling committee—everyone is a target for the Alabama head coach when he’s in a pissy mood, which is about 99 percent of the time. Saban rules by fear, and that high-intensity…Read more...

Aryna Sabalenka has resting tigress face, and she is apt to pounce on any tennis ball that hasn’t been fired at her at bullet pace. The 20-year-old plays to kill, announcing her intentions with loud, flat force. She was the only player to give Naomi Osaka a good fight at the U.S. Open, she already picked up a title…Read more...

Nalgene bottles, Dagne Dover bags, and a Harmony Remote lead off Friday’s best deals.Read more...

Bruins winger Chris Wagner had an excellent game in Thursday’s 5-2 home win over the Blues, scoring the go-ahead goal on a pretty breakaway and assisting on another. But the fourth-liner’s not much of a scorer, so when St. Louis pulled its goalie and Wagner found himself in on an empty net with a good shot at the…Read more...