Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

On Saturday, two YouTubers stepped into the ring to settle their differences with their fists. The whole thing was an obvious farce, a phony showdown between two guys who weren’t even pro fighters. But for a large subset of YouTube fans, it felt very real.

Browns head coach Hue Jackson was asked Monday about some especially harsh comments defensive coordinator Gregg Williams made about an injury suffered by rookie Denzel Ward, who suffered back spasms after successfully tackling Eagles tight end Zach Ertz in a preseason game. Jackson does not seem real happy about…Read more...

Tottenham crushed Manchester United with a comprehensive 3-0 victory at Old Trafford this afternoon, handing the Red Devils their second loss out of the first three Premier League games. United manager Jose Mourinho—who’s coming off a tumultuous offseason and has a tendency to see his clubs implode in the third year…Read more...

Larry Nassar is 0 for 2 so far in appeals of his state and federal prison sentences. First, he lost his appeal of his federal sentence for child porn. And today, his appeal of his sentence in Ingham County, Mich., was denied by Judge Rosemarie Aquilina, the same judge his court-appointed attorneys unsuccessfully …Read more...

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

“VAR is a dogshit system that poorly solves the marginal problems it was invented to address by privileging a make-believe standard of perfection at the expense of vastly more important values,” certain wise commenters have remarked about the addition of video replay to soccer. “VAR runs the risk of killing the…Read more...

According to a report from PR Week, Baylor officials placed a mole within several support groups for sexual assault survivors as a way to control their messaging and keep the university from looking bad.

Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri really, really likes to smoke. So much so that he used to light up on the sideline and in the tunnel when he managed Napoli:Read more...

Top-ranked Alabama will kick off its season this Saturday against Louisville. With only five days before the first game of the year, the depth chart should be locked into place and everyone should know their roles as the Crimson Tide prepares to defend their national title. However, Nick Saban still has yet to…Read more...

After an extremely long and drawn-out negotiation process, the Giants have signed wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr.—who was entering the last year of his contract—to a pretty sweet long-term extension.Read more...

It’s not unprecedented for Marseille fans to seize the opportunity of the ceremonial kick-off to live out their dreams of scoring a goal, but this lad truly squeezed every last drop out of it with a goal, shirtless celebration, and slide.Read more...

Some people are fans of the Carolina Panthers. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the Carolina Panthers. This 2018 Deadspin NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read all the previews so far here.

Middleweight prospect Eryk Anders was the most heavily favored fighter on the UFC Lincoln card, yet he spent the majority of his match getting outworked by Tim Williams. Anders looked lackadaisical as he telegraphed all his setups, and he failed to truly land that meaty left hand. He’d done enough to probably get a…Read more...

The two victims in yesterday’s shooting at a Madden tournament in Jacksonville, Florida were Taylor Robertson and Eli Clayton, professional Madden players who had both found success playing EA’s football simulation game.

The U.S. Open starts today in Queens, N.Y. I’ve covered it for the last six years, usually every day for the entirety of the tournament. Here’s a guide to not having your U.S. Open experience be a sweaty hell.

True story: The NFL might have come up with a sensible fix for its much-maligned helmet rule, just in time for the start of the regular season.Read more...

I wore my Sunski Dipseas everyday for over a year and got compliments on them practically every time. Sunski sunglasses are lightweight, comfortable, scratch-resistant, and 25% off right now. Pick up a pair that you’ll actually enjoy wearing.Read more...

Barcelona played Real Valladolid on Saturday in a match remarkable not for any brilliant passages of play or spectacular goals, but instead for the atrocious state of Valladolid’s pitch, which looked more like a sand pit with a thin layer of grass sprinkled on top than a field of play befitting some of the world’s…Read more...

This season marks the 20th anniversary of the yellow first-down line, televised football’s single greatest innovation since instant replay. The yellow line has become invaluable, and more than that, has become a friend. And now apparently it’s not good enough anymore???Read more...

An increasingly prominent part of my life in 2018 is the urge to grab and cling onto anything that seems, even a little bit, like it might be the thing that Finally Defeats Donald Trump. No small portion of my day is spent managing my relationship to that urge, struggling against its downward pull, reminding myself…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. 6 Ohio State.Read more...

Glenn Greenwald telegraphed this one back in March:

Kotaku Mass Shooting At Madden Tournament In Florida [Updates: Three Confirmed Dead, Suspect Named] | io9 Wild Rumors About a Star Wars Star Joining The Batman | Jalopnik It Was Volkswagen That Wanted In on Tesla: Report | Lifehacker What’s Coming and Going From Netflix the Week of August 27, 2018 | The Takeout Ask…Read more...

Affordable furniture, streaming sticks, and your last chance to save 20% with Prime on preorder video games lead off Monday’s best deals from around the web.Read more...

Browns rookie cornerback Denzel Ward, who was taken with the No. 4 overall pick in this year’s draft, had to leave Friday’s preseason game against the Eagles with back spasms. According to Browns defensive coordinator Gregg Williams, Ward is to blame for the injury because he made a “stupid” tackle.

Bengals QB Andy Dalton broke the longest playoff drought in major American pro sports last season, and gave the Bills their first postseason appearance since 1999, with a last-minute TD pass to Tyler Boyd that beat the Ravens in a meaningless game for Cincinnati. And Buffalo hasn’t stopped loving him for it.Read more...

Tom Brady cut short his contractually obligated Monday morning interview with WEEI after repeated questions about Alex Guerrero, Brady’s “guru” and business partner, and his seemingly resumed close relationship with the Patriots. It’s the second time in a month Brady has walked out when Guerrero’s name comes up, so if…Read more...

I’ll tell you what, back-to-school furniture is a whole lot nicer looking today than it was when I was in college. This one-day sale on Amazon includes mid-century modern-styled furniture, plus several mattresses, on sale for shockingly low prices. That coffee table above is only $55, and the shelves are only $29,…Read more...

College football season is here. Kids are going back to school. It’s a time to celebrate the university that you (hopefully) enjoyed spending four years at with this NCAA hoodie. Support your school and keep warm during the impending months and get up to 50% off this classic sweatshirt.

It sickens me to acknowledge this, but the dreaded Cardinals made a very cool play in today’s game in Colorado. They loaded the bases with two down in the top of the first inning against Rockies starter Tyler Anderson, with Austin Gomber at the plate, and the speedy young Harrison Bader at second base. Anderson threw…Read more...

By my count, Eagles head coach Doug Pederson was asked five different times about the status of Carson Wentz in his Sunday afternoon press conference. The first was something like “has Carson been cleared for contact,” and from there the assorted reporters tried out a few promising variations.Read more...

The Milwaukee City Attorney—a man named Grant F. Langley—surprised the Mayor and anyone with even the vaguest sense of right and wrong when he filed a court document in Sterling Brown’s civil rights lawsuit Friday placing blame for police actions that led to the disciplining of 11 different officers squarely on…Read more...

Whether you’re packing for a weekend getaway or just schlepping smelly clothes to and from the gym, four different sizes of Nike Brazilia duffel bags are on sale today on Amazon.Read more...

Kendrys Morales clubbed the bejeezus out of a Vince Velasquez fastball Sunday afternoon, sending it into the stands in right field for his 21st dinger of the season. 21 is not a huge number, but here’s what’s wild: Morales has hit more than a third of those home runs in the last seven Blue Jays games.Read more...

A shooter opened fire today during a Madden NFL 19 tournament at the GLHF Game Bar in Jacksonville, FL. Three people are confirmed dead, including the suspected shooter, while a further 11 have been injured.

DeAndre Yedlin—just too old to be considered one of the American wonderkids, but still a promising youth—played a crucial role in Chelsea’s 2–1 victory over Newcastle Sunday, scoring the decisive goal in the 88th minute to punctuate a dominant Chelsea performance. Tragically, Yedlin plays for Newcastle.Read more...

Late in the first quarter of Saturday’s Dolphins-Ravens preseason tilt, Dolphins linebacker Kiko Alonso brought down Maxx Williams on a short completion on third-and-17, forcing the Ravens to bring on their field goal unit. Alonso kind of rolled off of Williams, then trotted over to the sideline. The Ravens sideline:Read more...

The power went out in the bottom of the 12th inning Saturday night at Dodgers Stadium, with Matt Kemp on second base and Justin Turner at the plate. For the second time this season an outage was attributed to “a disruption in the city’s power feed to the facility,” which is the same thing as saying that the power went…Read more...

The Benton Panthers and the Bryant Hornets held their annual Salt Bowl football game Saturday at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock, Arkansas. The game, which drew more than 38,000 fans on a steamy 92-degree day, was going along swimmingly—Bryant was leading 28-14 in the third quarter—when what sounded like gunshots…Read more...

One week after new president Jimmy Pitaro articulated his bold new vision for the future of ESPN—neuter it and lay submissively at the feet of Roger Goodell—comes a report that Jemele Hill will be leaving the company later this week:Read more...

John McCain is dead. How will he be remembered? How should he be remembered? These are two separate questions, which is fitting, because there were always two John McCains: the vision of a selfless, honorable statesman who wasn’t afraid to fight the establishment, and the one that the rest of us actually got, which…Read more...

Senator John McCain died Saturday, over a year after he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer. He was 81.

Flyers goalie Alex Lyon will apparently wear a mask commemorating goofy M. Night Shyamalan horror flick The Sixth Sense this upcoming season.Read more...

Donald Jackson, the Alabama-based attorney paid using athletic department funds to represent two players accused by a fellow student of sexual assault, ripped the Maryland athletic department Friday, describing it as “a dysfunctional viper pit” defined by “political gamesmanship, internal backbiting and administrative…Read more...

The annual National Federation of State High School Associations survey of high school athletics was released Friday. The good news is overall high school sports participation increased for the 29th consecutive year, led by an increase of more than 15,000 participants in girls’ sports. The, uh, also good news?…Read more...

Former Maryland athletic director Kevin Anderson took a beating this week from the university when it was revealed that athletic department funds were diverted to hire and retain a lawyer to represent two players accused of sexual misconduct in 2017. Now it appears that Anderson might’ve been a fall guy for the…Read more...

On Sunday, August 19, IndyCar driver Robert Wickens was airlifted from Pocono Raceway after a bad wreck that left him with orthopedic injuries, pulmonary contusions, and the need for multiple surgeries. I sat in the stands watching this happen. This is the second time in four years that I’ve seen a driver flown out…Read more...

Hot-shot heavyweight Efe Ajagba came into Friday night’s televised bout in Minneapolis a pristine 5–0 as a professional, with all five fights ending in knockouts, and four of those ending in the first round. He went to bed Friday night still undefeated, having notched his fifth first-round victory, but also with the…Read more...

That Ohio State football types are willing to bulldoze the most direct path to a resumption of business as usual should surprise exactly no one—by and large this is the approach that will most suit the kinds of all-in lunatics who throw Urban Meyer rallies and shit—but Meyer’s shameless “I’m just sorry we’re in this…Read more...

It’s not the most wide-ranging supplement sale Amazon’s ever run, but today’s Amazon Gold Box does include big savings on a handful of Vintage supplements from Old School Labs, some of which are actually Amazon’s top sellers in their respective categories. I can’t say I know much about these, but the reviews are…Read more...