Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

With every passing year, the pressure on the Angels ratchets up just a little more as Mike Trout ages. It’s now common thought that the Angels have basically wasted the career of perhaps the best player of all time, and there’s a breaking point somewhere in the future but getting bigger on the horizon. Either Trout…Read more...

Professional sports is not the easiest way to earn a living. That was part of what Richard Jefferson was trying to get at during his viral rant after Adam Silver dained to consider the idea of shortening the NBA season. Jefferson was drafted in 2001 and to his credit, the first 10 seasons of his 17 in the NBA he…Read more...

Imagine if your lowest moment was so abysmal that people would want to build a statue to it? No, I’m not talking about the Southern part of the United States, I’m referring to Zinedine Zidane’s headbutt of Marco Materazzi in the 2006 World Cup Final that earned him a red card before France fell to Italy in penalties —…Read more...

Anyone remember the hot garbage fire that was the Olympic figure skating finals in February? For those who don’t, allow me to jog your memory — 15-year-old star Kamila Valieva, the center of a Russian Olympic Committee doping scandal, sobbing after falling twice as the pressure of the PED investigation got to her,…Read more...

Playing or singing the national anthem at a professional sporting event is an honor to several musicians. Not only is it an opportunity to showcase their tremendous talent, but it also provides validation to the artist, telling them, “Yes, your music is good. Would you do us the honor of starting our competition with…Read more...

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When Maya Angelou said, “When people show you who they are, believe them,” she was foreshadowing the actions of the NFL.Read more...

The Miami Heat had a great season that ended one missed Jimmy Butler three-point attempt short of their second trip to the NBA Finals in three years. Heat President Pat Riley addressed the media this week to close out the year, and addressed many concerns for the team moving forward. Two of the more attention-grabbing…Read more...

Those of you waiting for the Yankees to cool off might be in for a long summer of chafing, as the best team in baseball keeps churning along with the Dark Side theme, increasing in volume after every towering Aaron Judge home run. As we know, Palpatine is never truly dead, and as soon as you think the Sith have been…Read more...

This was bad baseball all around, except from home-plate umpire Jeff Head. Almost every bit of the most-important play from the final game of the College Park regional of the NCAA Baseball Tournament was absurd.Read more...

Just about everyone has a price tag. LIV Golf is trying to figure out what that price tag looks like for the biggest names in their sport. Greg Norman, the CEO of the new government-funded Saudi tour, claimed that LIV offered Tiger Woods a number in the “high nine figures” to come play for them, despite his various…Read more...

In every sport now, it seems one of the most fascinating things to watch is when an organization decides a particular roster has run its course. Thanks to salary caps everywhere (or just the totally not but really is a cap in baseball) there always comes a time when you have to pull that trigger as players age and get…Read more...

The Los Angeles Lakers and new coach Darvin Ham made a grave error on Monday.

We’ve heard for years now about how Jerry Jones would do anything to get one more Super Bowl win for his beloved Dallas Cowboys. But the further we get from the team’s last championship (1995-96 season), that feels less and less like reality. Jones had the opportunity during the offseason to sign Dallas native Von…Read more...

What does saving the Super Bowl and being arguably the best NFL player — certainly the best one not named Patrick Mahomes or Aaron Rodgers — get a person? Fortunately, for Aaron Donald and the Los Angeles Rams, not a contract dispute that lasts into training camp. There have been rumors of Donald retiring after 2021…Read more...

There’s not much more that Connor McDavid can do. For that matter, Leon Draisaitl should be attached to that lament permanently now, after he also averaged two points per game in the playoffs with maybe two functioning limbs. They’re the only players to average two points per game in the playoffs over more than one…Read more...

Obviously the new Chase Center is not going to be as loud as the roar in Oracle Arena the last time the Golden State Warriors were in the NBA Finals. Now that all of NBA media has noticed that fact after two games there, let’s try to move off of that point. The old arena is always louder, more fun, and it just makes…Read more...

Ohio’s ban on trans youth in sports is the epitome of the conservative culture war on the LGBTQ community. Their obsession has reached pathological levels. Last week, Ohio’s Republican-dominated House approved a bill requiring genital inspections to prevent transgender female athletes from competing in girls’ sports.Read more...

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It doesn’t feel right coming out of my lips, or out of my fingers as this case may be, but WWE ran a pretty enjoyable PPV Premium Live Event last night with Hell In A Cell. It didn’t hurt them to start it off with a 20+ minute, three-way banger between Asuka, Bianca Belair, and Becky Lynch, who are three of the best…Read more...

Let’s get this out of the way first. Any team that strolls into the NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors and doesn’t expect Draymond Green to pull Draymond Green antics isn’t prepared for the task at hand.

Jalen Rose is wrong.

The USMNT played two friiendlies this week, and in a normal year these would be the “World Cup Sendoff” games where the roster would basically be finalized. They would have been a lot more intensely watched by both Gregg Berhalter and fans alike, with the final cuts following soon after. The matches against Morocco…Read more...

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It almost feels too perfect. The scrawny, 7-foot, 195-pound sopping wet Chet Holmgren from Gonzaga playing for the Oklahoma City Thunder. It’s easy to imagine him sharing the court with Josh Giddey and Aleksej Pokusevski. Three caucasian dudes, all above 6-foot-8, and all with diverse skill sets and all skinnier than…Read more...

Speaking of political issues and sports, the protesting soccer team phenomena has spread north of the border. The Canadian men’s national team refused to take the field against Panama for a friendly on Sunday after a dispute with Canada soccer over how exactly the funds from their upcoming World Cup appearance will be…Read more...

Remember, not so long ago, that one of the reasons it was thought the Colorado Rockies couldn’t win is because the whole organization was dead set on being a weird religious cult? That’s quieted down in recent years, and it just turns out they’re more of a run of the mill, backward, nepotism lousy group of morons. But…Read more...

“In the next 15 or 20 years, I hope I’ll be the richest man in the world,” LeBron James said to Tim Withers of the Associated Press in 2005. “That’s one of my goals. I want to be a billionaire. I want to get to a position where generation on generation don’t have to worry about nothing. I don’t want family members…Read more...

Rafael Nadal’s dominance on clay courts is to be expected. When he enters Roland Garros, his path to the title is Jordanesque, Gretzky-like, Ruthian, or whichever GOAT athletes of the last century come to mind.

Long-time NFL quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick recently announced his retirement after 17 seasons in the league. Fitzpatrick became known more for his ability to obtain a new contract rather than his knack for tossing the old pigskin. Fitzmagic earned upwards of $82 million during his NFL career. One that many would say…Read more...

Most of the discussion about baseball this year has been about the baseball itself, or the lack of runs being scored. Rob Mains at BP expertly broke down just how big the offense problem in MLB these days, when you pull it out from under the shield of extra innings/Manfred Man. These discussions lead other ones on…Read more...

Before All Elite Wrestling World Champion CM Punk could address the Ontario, Cali., crowd during Friday night’s episode of Rampage, his eyes were bright red. As tears developed around his corneas, it was easy to know what was going through the Second City Saint’s mind. And he hadn’t opened his mouth.Read more...

In 2018, young Yankees were taking over AL Rookie of the Year ballots. New York’s third baseman Miguel Andújar and shortstop Gleyber Torres finished second and third respectively in rookie of the year voting, losing out to Angels’ two-way phenom Shohei Ohtani.Read more...

Oh, doesn’t it just give you so much faith in our country’s leadership and…nope, can’t even finish that sentence. In an apparent act of retaliation earlier this week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed $35 million in state funding that would have gone to a youth sports complex in the Tampa area that the team would also…Read more...

The New York Mets have the 10th-best team OPS in 2022 and they have scored the second-most runs per game. Most of that offensive success has come thanks to slugger Pete Alonso as well as resurgent seasons from utility man Jeff McNeil and shortstop Francisco Lindor (plus, Luis Guillorme to a lesser extent).Read more...

It’s official — 50 years after Notre Dame welcomed the first cadre of female undergraduate students to its campus in 1972, the university has officially changed the fight song, Victory March, to reflect the addition of women.

Baseball can’t go a week without someone saying something incredibly stupid.

The Los Angeles Dodgers are finally honoring Glenn Burke.

We’d seen this script before. Fans with any kind of decent memory recognized it. In the NBA Finals, as Golden State locked in and took a double-digit knockout lead. Turn off your TVs, the game is over. Or as the late-great Chick Hearn would say “The game’s in the refrigerator, the door’s closed, the light’s out, the…Read more...

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On yesterday’s date in 2002, the Michael Jordan of television series made its debut on premium cable. It didn’t have near the hype of Bobby Knight calling it the best basketball player of all time. In fact most people didn’t even watch it until years after the final episode aired. But The Wire would be a television…Read more...

On a night where suffocating defense was being celebrated across the sports spectrum thanks to the Celtics David Copperfield’ing the Warriors in the 4th quarter, the night’s other playoff action saw Nazem Kadri prove what a force he can be when he’s not letting his brain drip out of his ear.

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Heading into 2022, there are 14 teams whose biggest cap hit on offense is their quarterback. There are seven teams whose biggest cap hit on offense is an offensive lineman. Six teams are spending the most on a wide receiver. Three on a tight end (JAX, MIA, NE) and one on a running back (CIN). That makes 31 teams. The…Read more...

The call is coming from inside the house. Last night, the French Open’s first ever female director and former No. 1 player Amélie Mauresmo told the press that men’s tennis has “more appeal” than the women’s game right now, which was why 9 of the 10 primetime night sessions were scheduled for men’s matches. Only a…Read more...

Mike Trout being the worst commissioner in sports is not the development I expected from 2022. On the field, the Los Angeles Angels star is finally attaining similar levels of individual and team success. The Angels are competing for the American League Wild Card, their pitching is much-improved and he’s healthy after…Read more...

Although basketball is a team sport, there are multiple one-on-one matchups within a game. Michael Jordan is credited with ushering in the isolation style of hoops into the NBA during the 1980s and ’90s.

Patrick Mahomes may have lost The Match (not in small part due to Josh Allen’s self-described “garbage can” play) but he won over American hearts yesterday for being a true Golfer Of The People. As he was trash-talking not only his opponents but also his teammate, chugging back Coors Light after Coors Light, and…Read more...

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It doesn’t matter if you think it’s a work, or a shoot, or some combination of those words that tend to send wrestling fans into hysterics. What matters is MJF and AEW are the talk of the wrestling world. The business is about buzz, and well, a mile long swarm of bees wouldn’t produce this kind.