Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

It’s September. Kids are going back to school, football is back on the TV—it’s still too darn hot, but we can’t have everything—and baseball games are starting to really feel like they matter. The slog of the season pays off with this. There’s a sound a crowd makes that only really occurs this time of year, if the…Read more...

It might look like something Rey would wear while scouring for spare parts on Jakku, but this neck wrap is actually a travel pillow, and a great one at that.

Anker’s most impressive entry in the true wireless headphone market is on sale for the lowest price we’ve seen since they were on Kickstarter.

America is a country built on grotesque combinations of foodstuffs. I mean this literally: Did you know if you dig deep enough under the soil in Iowa, you’ll find that the earth’s mantle is actually an enormous, fossilized cheeseburger crust pizza from Pizza Hut? It’s true!Read more...

The Nationals beat the Cardinals by one run in extras on Labor Day. Who gives a shit, right? The Nationals are junk. The loss could matter to the Cardinals in their pursuit of an NL Wild Card, but that is not why we are here. We are here for this:Read more...

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former president of Iran and a man of many sports takes, has now come to the defense of Colin Kaepernick, the out-of-work quarterback.Read more...

CORRECTION (7:51 p.m.): Though the announcement of Edwards’s suspension was made after Harbaugh’s press conference, Pat Kenny of Big Ten Network tells Deadspin that Edwards was informed of his suspension Sunday, before Harbaugh made his comments, and that “Coach Harbaugh’s comments had no bearing on the decision…Read more...

The premise of this breathtakingly insane Politico article really is—swear to God—that Timothy McVeigh blew up the Alfred P. Murrah building in Oklahoma City because the Buffalo Bills couldn’t win a Super Bowl. The author attempts to say otherwise, but he also says this:Read more...

An erroneous piece of Halo lore began with a joke by the Twitter account dril, posted on May 11, 2017: “my main issue with ‘master chief fucks cortana’ is if you read the halo novels youd know the space suit automatically jacks master chief off.” By the next day, Halo fans had begun circulating a page purported to be…Read more...

Longtime Vikings trainer Fred Zamberletti died Sunday morning, at the age of 86. Zamberletti served in some capacity within the Vikings organization from 1961 to this year, holding down the job of senior consultant and team historian since 2002. Randy Moss, who started his Hall of Fame career with the Vikings and…Read more...

The Bills cleared out Tyrod Taylor this offseason, and passed along AJ McCarron to the Raiders after a less than stellar preseason. Why carry all these ho-hum quarterbacks around when the team has already identified their franchise quarterback, the golden-armed stud they selected with the seventh overall pick in the…Read more...

Well that happened fast. Just a week ago the Dodgers were in third place in the NL West, 4.5 games back of the Diamondbacks, and enduring all kinds of misery having to do with their season-long disappointment in close games. And here they are, on the first Monday of September, alone with the division lead after taking…Read more...

Update: In this case, you snooze you win! For today only, Amazon is running an even better deal than the Casper website on the Casper Essential mattress. The Queen is about $120 off the usual price.Read more...

A standout playoff performance from a former MVP in a do-or-die game isn’t exactly outside of the realm of normalcy—but it is if that player only has one knee at full strength.

LA Galaxy entered Rio Tinto Stadium on Saturday hoping to get a win and keep their playoff hopes alive against Real Salt Lake. However, any preparations the team made for this matchup went right out the window when a duck interrupted play in the 32nd minute.

Broncos GM John Elway’s reputation for assessing quarterback talent took another hit today when the team announced that they were cutting Paxton Lynch from their 53-man roster to make room for Kevin Hogan. Denver took Lynch in the first round of the 2016 NFL Draft with the 26th overall pick.

Serie A side Sampdoria kicked the dicks off their Napoli counterparts Sunday afternoon. They were already up 2–0 in the 75th minute when a free kick smashed off the Napoli line and eventually pinged over Bartosz Bereszyński, who sent a hard and low cross toward teammate Fabio Quagliarella. Have a look at how this…Read more...

A semi-trailer truck carrying a shipment of Axe Body Spray caught fire near Interstate 35 in Belton, Texas on Friday morning, resulting in cans of the deodorant exploding and spraying across the street.Read more...

ESPN sideline reporter Maria Taylor asked Alabama head coach and general grump Nick Saban to assess his quarterbacks’ performance after Alabama’s 51-14 blowout of Louisville Saturday night. It was a perfectly reasonable question, and Saban responded like she’d asked him to choose which of his children should be sent…Read more...

Antonio Gates’s fight against Father Time will go for another round as the 38-year-old tight end signed a one-year deal Sunday to return to the Los Angeles Chargers, for what will be his 16th season with the organization.

Elena Delle Donne is listed as a starter for the Washington Mystics in their do-or-die Game 4 semifinal matchup against the Atlanta Dream Sunday afternoon. I am sure you will join me in saying please don’t make me watch the video of her knee bending backwards like al dente linguine again.Read more...

When 18-year-old Brazilian forward Vinícius Júnior was signed to Real Madrid on a €45 million transfer this summer, there was probably some expectation on his end that his footballing life would change for the better.

Not everything dredged up in the big FBI investigation of recruiting violations in college basketball is worth the attention of federal law enforcement. An apparel company funneling actual money to elite players so they’ll play for elite basketball programs, for example, is a function of a blackmarket created by the…Read more...

Well, if the Raiders weren’t going to do it, another team would. After trading four draft picks for Khalil Mack, the Chicago Bears signed the 2016 Defensive Player of the Year to a six-year $141 million extension, making him the highest-paid defensive player in league history.

A strange thing happened in the eighth inning of Saturday night’s Cubs-Phillies game. Veteran umpire Joe West, working third base, noticed Phillies reliever Austin Davis pull a notecard out of his back pocket before pitching to Addison Russell, and decided he needed to know more, and brought the game to a halt.Read more...

Manchester United are not having a great season so far. They’ve managed to earn just three points in their first three games, manager José Mourinho is reaching a breaking point, and Graeme Souness is getting the dog whistle out early.

Kimi Raikkonen has not won a Grand Prix since the 2013 season-opening Australian round in his Lotus F1 Team E21. Today in Italy, after setting the fastest lap in Formula One history, it looked like he had a real chance to add to his victory total, but all of that was thrown away on a Ferrari tire choice gamble.…Read more...

Martavis Bryant’s career with the Oakland Raiders lasted all of four months before the team decided to cut him from the final roster.

The lowly San Diego Padres gave fans attending Saturday night’s game against the Rockies complimentary beach hats. Nice! The problem? Some of the packaging of the hats was discovered to contain an infestation of disgusting bugs:Read more...

Ole Miss beat up Texas Tech Saturday afternoon, eventually winning 47–27 behind 336 yards passing and a pair of touchdowns by senior quarterback Jordan Ta’amu. Having gotten that out of the way, let us gawk, slack-jawed, at this spectacular catch from Texas Tech sophomore receiver T.J. Vasher:Read more...

Here’s some happy news, especially for Tottenham fans and, uhh, the friends and family of members of South Korea’s national soccer team: Forward Son Heung-min, facing two years of compulsory service in the South Korean military, has earned an exemption via the only route available—a gold medal in this summer’s Asian…Read more...

For a brief moment after last month’s national championships, it seemed like things were getting better, if only slightly, for USA Gymnastics. We had the return of gymnastics juggernaut known as Simone Biles, who demonstrated that nine months of training is all she needs to become unstoppable in the sport once again.

The Los Angeles Lakers will reportedly buy out the remaining two years of the contract of Luol Deng, bringing to a close one of the great mistakes of the insane summer of 2016.Read more...

With All-Pro defensive end Khalil Mack headed to the Chicago Bears, the Raiders will turn to rookies P.J. Hall and Arden Key to step up along their defensive line. Key, in fact, is in line to nab Mack’s starting job. A promotion! So how is the rookie feeling about this latest roster development?Read more...

Jordan Zimmermann was working on a no-hitter in the bottom of the fifth inning Friday night when home plate umpire Nic Lentz gave him a strike against Gleyber Torres on a fastball that sure looked like it missed off the inside of the plate. Yankees manager Aaron Boone, who was apparently already displeased with…Read more...

Tony Romo advanced to the first stage of Web.com Tour qualifying on Friday, after shooting a 2-over 74 to finish tied for 37th at Lantana Golf Club near Dallas. The finish left Romo just one measly shot short of the cut, a devastatingly slim margin. But! Fortune turned Romo’s way when an opponent choked away an…Read more...

The Nationals traded lefty starter Gio Gonzalez to the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday, the last day that players can move between teams and remain eligible to play in the postseason. Gonzalez has been in Washington since 2012; during that time he’s gotten married, had a couple kids, and entrenched himself as a beloved,…Read more...

Race fans around the world were jumping to their feet and dropping jaws left and right during the final moments of qualifying for F1's Italian Grand Prix this Saturday morning. Yeah, that’s right: they just watched Kimi Raikkonen set the fastest lap ever in Formula One history.Read more...

The Khalil Mack extension saga in Oakland seems to have drawn to an unexpected close. Rather than reach an agreement with their all-world defensive end, the Raiders have reportedly agreed to trade him to the Chicago Bears.Read more...

The shower head that came preinstalled in your home or apartment is probably terrible, but if you don’t have the cash to upgrade it to a Delta In2ition, the Delta 75152 is a stunningly good option for just $17. That’s not an all-time low, but it is the best price we’ve seen since last year’s holiday season.

Wayward helicopters are probably very low on the list of things professional cyclists have to worry about, right down there with crashing in the finishing chute. However, a scatterbrained helicopter pilot managed to combine both at the Vuelta a España yesterday.

Okay. Okay. So. An ugly and kind of dumb but real thing that sometimes happens in the life of a more-or-less normal person is, you had the idea that you and your longtime pal Hubert were meeting up for Special Pal Beers together, like in old times, just the two old pals, but then you find out that your old pal also…Read more...

When I got Pepper Johnson on the phone, I had no idea what to expect. I sure as hell didn’t think we’d talk for four hours. But we did, and I still can’t believe it. I don’t think I’ve talked to anyone else for four consecutive hours in my life. But Pepper’s got stories.Read more...

After playing the first four years of his career on a shitty rookie contract, after two consecutive lengthy offseason holdouts, and after becoming the best defensive tackle in football, Aaron Donald has finally convinced the Rams to pay him.

It’s been a weird tournament so far for U.S. Open chair umpires. Less than a week into the tournament, chair umpires—whose goal is to be an unobtrusive as possible—have been directly responsible for launching two huge controversies: First, a chair ump needlessly penalized Alize Cornet for changing her shirt on court,…Read more...

Welcome to the Deadspin 25, a college football poll that strives to be more democratic and less useless than every other preseason poll. Leading up to the college football season kickoff, we will give you previews of the 25 teams that you, the readers, voted to be most worthy of writing about. Now, No. 2 Maryland.

Usain Bolt may have retired from track, but he hasn’t given up sports entirely. He is currently signed to a trial contract with the Central Coast Mariners, an Australia A-League team, trying to realize his dream of becoming a pro soccer player. He made his official debut in a preseason friendly last night, and…Read more...

Under Armour’s Outlet is already 40% off, but when you spend $50+ and use code WORKHARD or HUSTLE20, you’ll get an additional 20% off. Why are there two codes? Great question, but if one doesn’t work, you can try the other.

May 19, 1990 was WCW’s Capital Combat pay-per-view, and the event was promoted with an added bonus: RoboCop himself would be there. The tagline for the show was actually “Return of Robocop,” though RoboCop hadn’t really appeared in wrestling before. But RoboCop 2 opened a month later. The poster for the event even…Read more...