Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

Happy birthday to Marin Cilic, who turns 30 today, and thanks for making tennis history. As of Sept. 28, no men’s tennis player under the age of 30 has won a major. This has never occurred before in the sport. Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka, Juan Martin Del Potro, and now Cilic…Read more...

During Sunday’s Raiders-Dolphins game, as a replay sequence that included the above clip was shown to viewers, the CBS broadcast crew had the following conversation:Read more...

Daniel Cormier and Jon Jones have maintained one of the longest-lasting and most high-profile rivalries in the UFC. There have been press conference fights, insane amounts of shit-talking, the fights that Cormier never managed to win, and a slew of failed drug tests by Jones. But with Cormier becoming the heavyweight…Read more...

The fallout from the revelation that the Washington NFL team deployed its cheerleaders as escorts for sponsors and suite holders on a trip to Costa Rica in 2013, among other abuses, has finally produced some small progress in the way the team treats its cheerleaders. Thursday the team announced a number of changes to…Read more...

Wrigley Rat made his late-season case for NL MVP in Wednesday night’s game. Photographer Will Byington was filming as the tenacious, indefatigable little rodent tried repeatedly to make the leap from the fencing above the ivy to berm in center field.Read more...

The NFL revised the roughing the passer rule as a poorly thought out reaction to Aaron Rodgers’s broken collarbone last season, and so far it’s resulted in flags for a bunch of routine sacks and one season-ending injury for a defensive player. Aaron Donald, a neutron star who happens to play as a defensive lineman for…Read more...

Christine Blasey Ford ceased to exist the moment that Brett Kavanaugh began his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday afternoon. Despite hours spent answering questions with a kind of graciousness that was devastatingly familiar, despite the polite formalities of the process—“I thank you very…Read more...

Retired Canadian forward Gillian Apps, clearly still smarting over Team USA’s historic victory over Canada in the championship game at the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang, has figured out a way to get that gold medal back in Canadian hands—by marrying Team USA captain Meghan Duggan. Or maybe it’s just love. Either way:…Read more...

LSU junior forward Wayde Sims was shot near a neighboring university’s campus early Friday morning. The 20-year-old was taken to a local hospital where he died of his injuries, according to Baton Rouge Police.

It will probably not become part of NFL lore the way Ronnie Lott’s finger amputation did, but it’s certainly very, very gross: Vikings long snapper Kevin McDermott “lost the tip of his pinky” during Minnesota’s loss Thursday night to the all-powerful Rams, but somehow continued playing:Read more...

It’s both a truism and true that politics is about power, how it’s used and who it’s used against. But politics are also about the business of pain—about which individuals and which communities bear how much and at what cost, and so implicitly whose pain is worth more than others. Everyone lives in and with this…Read more...

Jalopnik These Are Ten Cars You Should Be Importing Now But Nobody Does | io9 Simon Kinberg Hints at an Intriguing Tone for the Gambit Movie | Kotaku Japanese Crime Recreated With CG, Hilarity Ensues | Lifehacker Microsoft Office 2019: Everything You Need to Know | The Takeout What’s the point of leaving the tail on…Read more...

TCL’s P and C-series TVs are noteworthy for offering Dolby Vision HDR for a fraction of the price of most competitors, and you can get last year’s 55" C-series set for $400 right now, the best price we’ve ever seen.

Brett Kavanaugh needed to project a certain type of masculinity on Thursday, so he talked about sports. He was captain of his high school varsity basketball team. He played football too, offense and defense. He lifted weights. He ran track. He supported other women playing sports. He’s coached his daughter’s youth…Read more...

For a team that reportedly doesn’t actually want to trade disgruntled star Jimmy Butler, the Minnesota Timberwolves sure seem intent on wasting everybody’s time. The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor reported that Minnesota asked for Ben Simmons from Philadelphia, which is not ever a thing that’s going to happen. As you might…Read more...

Adam Thielen got pretty well smashed on an incomplete pass from Kirk Cousins in the third quarter of Thursday night’s Vikings-Rams game. Thielen had the ball, but Cory Littleton’s forearm and then Cory Littleton’s knee crashed into Thielen’s head and jarred the ball loose, and Thielen seemed like he might be a little…Read more...

It was announced this week that Hannah Storm and Andrea Kremer would become the first duo of women to call an NFL game during tonight’s Thursday Night Football game between the Vikings and the Rams. Joe Buck and Troy Aikman would work the television broadcast, and Storm and Kremer would work the Amazon Prime streaming…Read more...

The Sacramento Kings invited magician Anna DeGuzman to media day this week to destroy the minds of various unsuspecting players. Friends, the tricks are good.Read more...

LeBron James left the Cleveland Cavaliers this summer. You may have heard. He is now a member of the Los Angeles Lakers. His minutes on the Cavaliers will be used by some combination of Cedi Osman, Rodney Hood, and I guess David Nwaba. Here is video evidence that Tristan Thompson somehow managed to miss all of that:

The 76ers provided an unexpected and troubling update on the condition of rookie Zhaire Smith Thursday afternoon. Smith apparently had a bad allergic reaction to food and required something called a thoracoscopy. Recovery from the procedure, presumably along with whatever required it in the first place, will keep…Read more...

Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh spoke many words at today’s confirmation hearings. Probably you know this already, but his opening statement, and the responses that followed, were an overlong fever dream, taking surreal detours into calendar hygiene, workouts with some now-legendary Tobin, his own principled…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.Read more...

This afternoon’s Yankees-Rays game in Tampa got out of hand early—it’s 11-1 right now—but the beef never sleeps. In the fifth, CC Sabathia hit Jake Bauers in the wrist. In the sixth, Andrew Kittredge threw up and behind Austin Romine, who exchanged words with catcher Jesus Sucre.Read more...

That all of this—the unalloyed and dovetailing lust for power of one white male sociopath and the aggregate of white men, the future of the highest judicial body in the country, that country’s total failure to assign any kind of consequence to sexual violence, America’s marrow-deep hatred and fear and distrust of…Read more...

Here’s a recent quote from the 2008 Rookie of the Year, 2014 MVP, and eight-time All-NBA selection, who has won the Finals MVP two years running, and who elected, on two separate instances, to sign with the Golden State Warriors: “You know they’re not going to give me anything.” When asked why he’s been treated this…Read more...

Instead of paying a speeding ticket like a normal person might, David Beckham opted to plead not guilty and take this thing to court. There, his slick lawyer—known by British media as “Mr. Loophole”—got him off on a technicality, the BBC reported.Read more...

Hartford, one of America’s shittiest cities, received more bad news today. The logo, music, and iconography of the Hartford Whalers—the scrappy lovable hockey team that Peter Karmanos uprooted in 1997 and moved to Raleigh, N.C.—have been officially appropriated by their successors, the Hurricanes.Read more...

Starting in 2019, HBO won’t be in the boxing business anymore. That’ll mean fights in the future will be up for grabs by a bevy of competing services.

In 2005, the Baltimore Orioles shocked the world with a 42-28 start, good enough to keep them in first place in the AL East into mid-summer. This was before Rafael Palmeiro, fresh off his 3000th hit, lied to Congress and tested positive for steroids; before ostensible ace Sidney Ponson was arrested for drunk driving…Read more...

The Tulane football program understands one thing about college sports very well: If you aren’t actually good, you can still get plenty of attention by having weird or funny uniforms. In 2016, the football program introduced the Angry Wave. I am pleased to report that the Angry Wave has grown both in size and anger…Read more...

The testimony of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford—who has accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault—has been riveting, emotionally wrenching, and above all else, eminently believable. The tactic chosen by Senate Republicans to cede their questioning of Ford to sex crimes prosecutor Rachel Mitchell has…Read more...

Build a stadium!, they say. It’ll pay for itself! It’ll spur economic development in the surrounding neighborhood! It never does. For every single city/county/state/province that falls for it, eventually there comes the moment when they have to admit they got bamboozled. It’s Manitoba’s turn now.Read more...

Remember that insane backheel goal Roma’s Javier Pastore scored about a month ago, how with one deft flick he reaffirmed his status as one of the most gifted players in the game after his long fallow period in Paris? Well, he did practically the exact same thing again yesterday against Frosinone:Read more...

Throughout Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s first round of questioning in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding her alleged sexual assault at the hands of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, one name has been brought up over and over again: Mark Judge—the man, Ford claims, who helped Kavanaugh sexually…Read more...

It’s cruel, in its way: a week after we intermittently entertained a crowd of friendly goofballs in Chicago in a live podcast that many are still calling “perfectly fine, all things considered,” Drew is once again in the same city as the rest of the Deadcast team. And yet, because of his important work on another…Read more...

Former 49ers safety Eric Reid has been an outspoken advocate for Colin Kaepernick, and previously joined Kaepernick in his protest against police brutality and systemic racism. Reid went into the offseason as a free agent, and despite being just 26 years old, the former Pro Bowler could not land a job with an NFL…Read more...

Today Rachel Mitchell, a career prosecutor who has worked in Maricopa County, Arizona, since 1993, is interviewing Christine Blasey Ford on behalf of the Republican Party. Since her role was first announced, Mitchell has been the subject of intense national scrutiny, though she has declined to speak publicly about her…Read more...

Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy, the “man” of Stillwater, joined UConn’s Randy Edsall as the latest football coach to throw a tantrum over the media doing its job this week.

A Tennessee high school’s athletic director was placed on leave after posting a video telling the student body to “blame the girls” for a dress code change that banned athletic shorts.Read more...

Kotaku “Video Games” Was On Jeopardy Tonight, And It Did Not Go Well | io9 Dark Phoenix’s First Breathtaking Trailer Has Arrived | Jalopnik The Cheap Kia Stingers Are Coming | Lifehacker What’s Coming and Going on Netflix in October 2018 | The Takeout 5 rules for better drinking at a beer bar |Read more...

Jacob deGrom’s sixth-inning strikeout of Ronald Acuna in his final start of the season on Wednesday night was a thing of beautiful chaos. After getting his first slider fouled off, deGrom’s second pitch, also a slider, gets the most halfheartedly sad whiff from Acuna, who’s clearly baffled and down 0-2. The young…Read more...

I don’t want to alarm anyone, but the following two things are true: The Colorado Rockies currently have a half-game lead in the NL West, and it’s largely because, for the first time ever, really, they have good starting pitching. One of those starters is German Marquez, and he was really damn good last night.

Flyers center Jori Lehterä was not at practice Wednesday, as news broke that he has been interviewed by police and named as a suspect in a cocaine ring in his native Finland. According to Finnish news service MTV, which first reported the story, Lehterä has denied involvement.

Veteran wideout Rishard Matthews, who led the Tennessee Titans’ WR corps in both catches and yards in each of the last two seasons, has been nearly invisible this year. He had missed some preseason time recovering from knee surgery, but he says he’s “100 percent healthy,” and it’s not like he’s been riding the bench.…Read more...

If you want an Instant Pot pressure cooker in time for Thanksgiving dinner prep (you do), the standard 6 qt. model is down to $80 right now ($20 less than usual), and the family-sized 8 qt. is down to $90, from its usual $140.

The Brewers beat the Cardinals Wednesday night in a tense 2–1 game. The result clinched at least a spot in the NL Wild Card game for the Brewers and for the Cubs, who sit at 92 wins apiece in the closest divisional race left in baseball. And there is one Cardinals rookie who is going to feel like absolute shit about…Read more...

There’s a reason the three contestants left the category until last.Read more...

White Sox pitcher Jace Fry got his first career start Wednesday, against the Indians. It wasn’t a real start—the White Sox tabbed this one as a bullpen game, and Fry only pitched one inning—but, hey, a career first! Meanwhile, while he and his teammates were out there getting pounded by the Indians, it appears that…Read more...

If you are someone who wants to pump your fist about Nike’s big endorsement deal with Colin Kaepernick, try this on: It is probably an encouraging sign of the times that Kaepernick’s demonstrations against police brutality and systemic racism have not made him toxic for marketing and public relations purposes, the way…Read more...