Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

Yesterday, Iran put together a cheap little PR stunt in order to pretend the government cares about its wildly retrograde prohibition against women attending live soccer matches by allowing a handpicked selection of ladies to enter Azadi Stadium to watch a friendly match between Iran and Bolivia. However, Iranian…Read more...

Left-handed pitcher Wade Miley appeared to be the Brewers’ starter for Game 5 of the NLCS today. And technically, he was. But after Miley gave up a lead-off walk in the first, Brewers manager Craig Counsell immediately went out to the mound and gave Miley the hook, replacing him with the right-handed long reliever…Read more...

Six days ago, WWE was in an uncomfortable position regarding its upcoming Crown Jewel event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the second card in a 10-year contract with the kingdom believed to be worth $20–$50 million per show. Saudi Arabia’s brutal war of attrition in Yemen and, more recently, Turkey’s insistence that the…Read more...

Imagine you have have to go to the hospital for a bit of surgery. You leave your car safe and sound in its parking space, reasonably expecting it to be there when you get back. That wasn’t the case for a man only identified as “Mr. G,” whose BMW was mistakenly seized and crushed by his local government in a case of…Read more...

Andy Knox, a student at Da Vinci Charter Academy in California, told KRCA-TV how he came across the dead grandpa cookies. “Two weeks ago, I was just about to go into my sixth-period class, environmental science, and a girl who was also in the class stopped me and asked me if I wanted a cookie. And I knew her, so I…Read more...

In the second-pettiest looming controversy of this postseason, Houston had been accused by both the Indians and Red Sox of having a man working for the Astros standing in the camera well, using a cell phone camera to capture images of their dugouts. MLB has come out swiftly and strongly on the matter: It doesn’t care.

Kevin Durant and the Golden State Warriors yawned through their win in Wednesday’s season opener against the Thunder. Durant had 27 points, eight boards, and six assists, and he seemed to have a nice, chill time playing with his buddies after everyone received their championship rings. Fittingly, he celebrated with a…Read more...

A transcript to the best of our abilities, for the hearing impaired, can be found below:Read more...

Life came fast at Naomi Osaka. After she skipped the hype machine of the junior circuit, went pro, and won some local fame in Japan, Osaka won her first professional title of any kind at Indian Wells this year, and her second at (sheesh) the U.S. Open. Within days of hoisting that second trophy, she found herself on …Read more...

At a Sports Business Journal conference today, ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro— who said two months ago that ESPN’s future was in sticking to sports and kowtowing to the NFL’s interests—reiterated that ESPN was going to stay away from “pure politics.”Read more...

Rookie quarterback Josh Allen has an elbow injury, and bad quarterback Nathan Peterman shit his ass last Sunday, so the Bills will now turn to old quarterback Derek Anderson for their Week 7 game against the Colts.

An urban housing trend that has been growing for a while is now hitting prime time: “co-living,” a nice way of saying “dorms for adults living in major cities.” This is what housing policy failure in a free market looks like.Read more...

A full-strength Celtics team probably wants to run their offense something like this: Kyrie Irving penetrates or somehow initiates the action, then a Gordon Hayward–led cast of slashers takes advantage of whatever chaos Irving stirs up to knock down an open jumper or exploit a mismatch. However, the Celtics are…Read more...

Nobody wants to schlep to the gym in the dead of winter, but you can work out nearly every muscle group in your body at home with this $117 Weider gym. It uses your own body weight for resistance, but optional bands can add up to 50 pounds of force to your workouts. But the best part of using a home gym? You get to…Read more...

As soon as they’d had a chance to mop the sweat or rinse the vomit out of their mouth, the top finishers of the Chicago Marathon stiffly climbed to the stage in the media center to answer reporters’ questions that generally elicited thanks to the Chicago Marathon for putting on such a great race and magnanimous credit…Read more...

From the moment each team arrived in L.A., it was clear that nobody who actually lived there gave a shit about the Rams or Chargers. Both teams have struggled mightily to sell out their stadiums, and the fans who do show up tend to be fans of the opposing squads. It’s not all that surprising then to see something like…Read more...

In last month’s antitrust case in Oakland challenging the artificial caps on athlete compensation, the NCAA’s defense included the restatement of an imaginary economic principle that is fundamental to its existence: College athletes shouldn’t make money, the NCAA argued, because if players were paid above some magical…Read more...

Jimmy Butler went about trying to launch himself off the team he no longer wants to play for about as loudly and obnoxiously as possible. There was the trade demand, followed by the staged and vindictive practice, followed by post-practice shit-talking on national TV. Despite all that, the Minnesota Timberwolves are…Read more...

You’ve probably heard a lot about CBD oil lately, and its ability to relieve everything from pain to anxiety to acne. If you want to try it out yourself, Groupon’s discounting CBD-infused gummies right now, starting at $21 for a small jar with 250mg of CBD, ranging up to $54 for 1,000mg.

Dear lord, Jaylen Brown is unwell in the best possible way. Every neuron in his big smart brain must have been hollering at him not to do what he did. Joel Embiid made opponents shoot 12 percent worse at the rim last season. He has made a living by—among many other things—scaring opponents out of exactly this kind of…Read more...

Spicy times in the wee hours! A lengthy and bizarre Game 4 ended in the 13th with, of course, a Manny Machado slide. That’s not the close call the Brewers are thinking about, though.

Earther Scientists Discover a Weird Noise Coming From Antarctic Ice Shelf | Jalopnik Boeing 737 Flies Through Brick Wall, Smashes Tower on Takeoff, Keeps On Flying | Kotaku Soulcalibur VI Is A Fresh Reboot Of Its Eternally Retold Tale | Lifehacker I’m Anne Brock, Master Distiller at Bombay Sapphire, and This Is How I…Read more...

Well what do you know, it turns out that world-class asshole Sergio Ramos was actually innocent of this one incident of assholery against Raheem Sterling in Monday’s Spain-England match.Read more...

Amazon’s latest private label product line is...

A lot of records are flukes. But some records, like, say, the one we’re going to start talking about in the next sentence, really do tell you everything you need to know about a player and his team, and about how it’s kind of a shame that that player is on that team. Last night, the Edmonton Oilers scored their very…Read more...

Swiffer makes an air purifier to keep dust off your furniture, which is a brilliant bit of marketing on their part, but it actually has solid reviews, and looks way nicer than just about every other air purifier out there.

The Dodgers scored a run in the first inning of tonight’s NLCS Game 4, and then the Brewers matched them with a run in the fifth, sending starter Rich Hill to go terrorize some Halloween treats in the dugout. And then, in a bizarre occurrence only rarely seen at a baseball game, a temporary black hole swallowed up…Read more...

Manny Machado is back in the postseason spotlight for the wrong reasons. In the bottom of the 10th, the Dodger hit a grounder to shortstop for what should have been a routine out at first. Machado decided to break the routine by kicking Brewers infielder Jesús Aguilar in the ankle after he was called out.

The Dodgers are currently trying to knot up this series against the Brewers at two games apiece in extra innings, and Cody Bellinger is doing everything in his power to make sure his team comes away with the win. In the top of the 10th, Lorenzo Cain looked like he got a leadoff hit off of Los Angeles pitcher Kenley…Read more...

The Washington Wizards announced Tuesday that Washington Mystics guard Kristi Toliver would join the team’s staff as an assistant coach for player development.

Major League Baseball is internally handling an incident from Game 1 of the American League Championship Series involving suspicious activity by a Houston Astros employee at Fenway Park, according to Alex Speier of The Boston Globe. According to the league’s investigation, the Astros employee engaged in shady behavior…Read more...

Dodgers starter Rich Hill pitched well in Game 4 of the NLCS tonight, but he couldn’t quite hold on to L.A.’s slim 1-0 lead, which came early off a Brian Dozier RBI single. In the fifth inning, his final frame of the game, Hill gave up a base hit to Orlando Arcia (of course), and then surrendered a pinch-hit double…Read more...

Well hello there, fellow basketball enthusiast! It’s that time again: Time for the NBA season to have begun literally over two hours ago, when the Celtics and Sixers tipped off in Boston. There could be no better time than this to look ahead to what the 2018-19 season has in store for us, except maybe Christmas.Read more...

The Dallas Stars have had a less-than-ideal start to their week, falling 4-1 to the lowly Ottawa Senators on Monday and then getting their asses beat by the undefeated New Jersey Devils on Tuesday. With his team down 3-0 in the third period, Stars star Jamie Benn was a little bit peeved. Young Devils winger Miles…Read more...

Heading into Game 3 of the ALCS, Astros reliever Roberto Osuna hadn’t pitched in 10 days, since Houston’s Game 2 win against Cleveland. He probably wishes he hadn’t pitched today, either.Read more...

Barcelona have decided to reduce the presence of former players Ronaldinho and Rivaldo at club-related activities—like legends games and sponsorship events—after the two Brazilians announced their support for Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right presidential candidate in Brazil.

Astros starter Dallas Keuchel got bailed out of a jam in spectacular fashion by his tiny left fielder, Tony Kemp, in the third inning of this afternoon’s ALCS Game 3. With the Red Sox already winning 2-1, and with runners on first and second with two down, Steve Pearce blasted a deep ball all the way back into left.Read more...

The Raiders were soundly defeated this Sunday, like most Sundays, and in today’s press conference head coach Jon Gruden looked like his team played. He used to get excited about play-action passes to the fullback and pool noodles. Now he’s visorless and haggard as he announces to the assembled press that the 1-5…Read more...

Louisville sophomore tight end Kemari Averett was suspended from the team today after being arrested and charged with first-degree wanton endangerment and fourth-degree assault. Averett is accused of grabbing his girlfriend’s hair, putting a gun to her head, and threatening to kill her because he thought she had…Read more...

Well, that was fast. Just five days—and two of those days were weekend days—after her appointment as interim president and CEO of USA Gymnastics was announced, Mary Bono, a former Republican congresswoman from California, has announced she’s resigning from the post.

I am so very tired.

Starting tonight, and running through the end of the month, all four major North American pro sports leagues will be playing real, actual, meaningful games. This is too much sports! No one can possibly have time to watch that much sports, let alone read about all of it, or, damn it, to write about all of it. I have a…Read more...

Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic has a lengthy report today on the status of the University of Maryland’s ongoing investigation into suspended head coach D.J. Durkin, his toxic football program, and the death of Jordan McNair. That investigation should reportedly be wrapping up soon, and despite all the nasty details…Read more...

Ohio State defensive end Nick Bosa, a junior who could possibly go number one in next year’s NFL draft, is leaving school to focus on rehabbing an injured core muscle, OSU announced today.Read more...

It’s 9:05 a.m. While my friends and pretty much everyone my own age are getting settled behind desks and spreadsheets and scheduling the day’s meetings, I’m surrounded by senior citizens, about to make the first shot of my pro season. It’s already 90 degrees and my bald head is pouring sweat into my eyes. Taking a…Read more...

Bill O’Brien is a head coach who specializes in offense. In his two seasons at Penn State, he made the most of Matt McGloin and turned Christian Hackenberg into a competent quarterback. He even fooled the Jets into using a second-round pick on the latter. Before that, O’Brien had a role in the Patriots’ offense,…Read more...

Today, we’re talking about pajamas, Nathan Peterman, liquor runs, and more.

The Miles City Unified School District in Montana has denied that it had any knowledge of sexual abuse carried out by James “Doc” Jensen, who was an athletic trainer at a Custer County high school from the early 1970s through 1998. The denial was in response to a lawsuit filed against the school district on behalf of…Read more...

Two 35-year-old low-level professional tennis players you’ve never heard of, Ukrainian twins Gleb and Vadim Alekseenko, have been banned for life and fined $250,000 each, after being found guilty of match-fixing over an eight-month period in 2015 and 2016, the Tennis Integrity Unit said in a statement today. The…Read more...

USWNT forward Sydney Leroux Dwyer said Monday that she was away from the NWSL’s Orlando Pride for most of August because she had suffered a miscarriage. She revealed that the “undisclosed illness” which kept her from playing was in fact the loss of a pregnancy.Read more...