Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

Saúl “Canelo” Álvarez may be the world’s most popular boxer, and yet he has a problem: He lacks credibility among the sport’s largest fan bases, Mexicans and, increasingly, Mexican-Americans. Questions about Álvarez’s boxing skill extend beyond these two groups, but since he is Mexican, attempting to understand why he…Read more...

Fans in Houston watching last night’s Texans-Bengals game on KPRC missed its wacky final play—one punctuated by local hero J.J. Watt demolishing a poor offensive lineman—because the NBC station cut off the end of the broadcast in a rush to report the game’s not-yet-final score.Read more...

“All the stuff I’ve done in my career,” Don Ohlmeyer once told an ESPN interviewer, “and that’s what I’m going to be remembered for. It serves me right.”

All along it’s been clear that NHL players wouldn’t take part in the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and all along, Alexander Ovechkin insisted that he’d play for Russia, no matter what the NHL said. But in a statement released by the Capitals today, Ovechkin admitted that it just won’t be possible.

io9 Our First Look at a Fiery New Foe From Thor: Ragnarok | Jalopnik Check Out This Dealership’s Insane ‘Reconditioning Fee’ On A Used Volkswagen Golf R | Steamed 15 Hours In, Divinity: Original Sin 2 Is Brilliant | The A.V. Club What pop culture did you eventually come around on? | Two Cents The Latest News on the…Read more...

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski is reporting that a new NBA draft lottery system is one step closer to becoming a reality. According to Woj, the league’s competition committee has recommended a reform proposal that was created by the NBA, and the league’s board of governors will now vote on the proposal on Sept. 28.

With their 13-9 loss to the Texans last night, the Bengals have achieved some ignominious ineffectuality marks. They’re the first NFL team to play their first two games at home and fail to score a touchdown since 1939. This is also the first time Cincinnati has gone two straight games without finding the end zone…Read more...

I completely understand why American broadcasters generally won’t show fans who run onto the field in the middle of a game. You don’t want to reward them with attention (even though, based on nothing, I think most of them do it because they’re drunk and stupid, not because they want their friends watching at home to…Read more...

A spectacularly silly baserunning blunder is not necessarily the most Metsy way to get mathematically eliminated from postseason contention—it’s no “entire pitching staff mysteriously bursts into flames all at once” or anything—but it’s pretty damn close! And it’s how the Mets were eliminated tonight, falling to 63-83…Read more...

Tonight’s Thursday Night Football game between the Texans and Bengals was, with a few exceptions, your typical awful weeknight NFL action. The Aussie rules-style final play, and its equally down-under level game-ending tackle by J.J. Watt, though, deserved our closer attention.Read more...

Like they have in every game for more than three weeks now, Cleveland won tonight. With an extra-innings walk-off victory, they became the first team to win 22 consecutive games in more than a century.Read more...

New Mexico quarterback Lamar Jordan had to be helped off the field tonight against Boise State, after taking a horrific hit from defensive tackle Chase Hatada. Jordan was taken out of the game—stumbling off the field and struggling to walk on his own—and replaced by backup Coltin Gerhart. Meanwhile, a penalty was…Read more...

Mike Fiers had a really bad first inning yesterday against the Angels—five runs allowed, including a two-run shot from Luis Valbuena, who had the audacity to get a little excited and flip his bat. This did not please Fiers. He expressed this displeasure by throwing at Valbuena’s head. That backfired for Fiers…Read more...

After being told that he could not play on the Youngstown State football team this season, Ma’lik Richmond—who was found guilty of rape in juvenile court as a high schooler in the 2013 Steubenville, Ohio, case—is suing the university.Read more...

We haven’t heard from world-class shitbag Floyd Mayweather Jr. that much since he beat Conor McGregor in an extravagant fake boxing match and thank God, because he’s an evil moron. His latest extended interview with Hollywood Unlocked does a lot to cement that notion, and if you want to hear about what he “looks for…Read more...

Thank you for your continued support of Deadspin. Miss you, Grant.Read more...

A Lions fan who recently posted a Snapchat video of two black fans who sat for the national anthem during the Lions’ home opener with the caption “ignorant niggers” has relinquished his season tickets, per the Detroit News.Read more...

Though ESPN anchor Jemele Hill received a lot of shit for her correct diagnosis of Donald Trump, she appeared on Wednesday’s SportsCenter with Michael Smith as usual. Later in the night, she and the network issued statements to give the notion that they were on good terms. But a new report suggests there was a huge…Read more...

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The Los Angeles Times published a pretty tragic profile of LenDale White, catching up with everything that’s happened to the former USC star running back since he left college.Read more...

When Rachael Denhollander reached out to the Indianapolis Star last summer to tell them about the sexual abuse she said she endured at the hands of former USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University physician Larry Nassar, she had modest expectations.

Christ, man. This almost feels like the moment where Arsenal’s continually escalating woes cease being hilarious and start being actively depressing. Almost, that is.

Now that true dumb fuck Sarah Sanders has chimed in on Jemele Hill on behalf of the White House and demanded her ouster, we are about to enter a new and insufferable acceleration of a “scandal” that involves one sportscaster daring to state the obvious. Already, Hill has tweeted out an apology that ESPN “accepted,”…Read more...

One of Ireland’s top racing greyhounds, Clonbrien Hero, has tested positive for benzoylecgonine, the main metabolite of cocaine, according to a review by the Irish Greyhound Board. The board has opted to withhold some prize money and titles from the dog, which recently won €30,000 after a first-place finish at the…Read more...

In the most predictable turn of events ever, those estimated 20,000 loud and rowdy Köln fans that traveled to London for today’s Europa League match against Arsenal have gone from being endearingly unruly to actively dangerous—so much so that the match has been delayed for security concerns.Read more...

Barely a month ago, it seemed that the Twins’ front office had given up on a playoff run this season. Pitcher Jaime Garcia, picked up in late July as the team was losing ground in the division race, was traded to the Yankees after making just one start. Closer Brandon Kintzler was also dealt to the Nationals right at…Read more...

This much is true: Rafael Nadal won the U.S. Open, and he’s playing exemplary tennis. In the present, soft field, the tennis is so good that it brought Nadal back to world No. 1 for the first time in four years, with two slams, two masters, and a 56-9 record. But all the hyperbole does make one wonder.

Drew Magary’s Thursday Afternoon NFL Dick Joke Jamboroo runs every Thursday during the NFL season. Email Drew here. Buy his book here.

On July 29, Jon Jones completed his long redemption arc by knocking out Daniel Cormier with a vicious head kick in the third round, winning the UFC light heavyweight belt back in the process. On Sept. 13, Cormier was reinstated as champ after a second test confirmed that Jones had tested positive for a banned anabolic…Read more...

So there’s never going to be a Hüsker Dü reunion after all. Grant Hart is dead.

Alexi Lalas barred up the entire USMNT on TV this past weekend, which was great and deserved and frankly overdue. Lalas’s brief rant included clear shots at a number of national teamers, but his barbs aimed at Michael Bradley and Christian Pulisic were arguably the most pointed. Bradley and Pulisic have responded, and…Read more...

Isaiah Wright and Camion Patrick were arrested this week in connection with the death of Caleb Thomas Radford, who was stabbed to death on July 25 in Alcoa, Tennessee. Patrick was arrested in Bloomington, Indiana by IU campus police and will be extradited to Blount County soon, while his younger brother Wright was…Read more...

Shit sucks, right now. Pretty much all of the news is so bad that it’s almost, but not, funny. You can’t even fall back on sports right now! This week I am conducting myself on the internet like a wayward pedestrian forced to traverse Murder Alley, neck stiff, the plane of my face at a perfect right angle to the…Read more...

If reliability is something you crave in a pair of shoes (if it isn’t, you may need to reconsider), I bet you have Cole Haan in your closet. And if you’re looking for a new pair but don’t want to spend the normal asking price, Nordstrom Rack is having a huge sale on everything Cole Haan. Men’s and women’s styles, plus …Read more...

Earlier this week Deadspin published a story about how SB Nation team sites’ traffic accounts for the vast majority of the network’s total traffic, even though the people who staff these sites are primarily paid low monthly stipends or nothing at all. The story detailed, among other things, how a Vox media…Read more...

ESPN’s initial approach to handling SportsCenter host Jemele Hill’s remarks on Donald Trump was supposed to placate both sides, and ended up placating neither. Then the White House called describing the president accurately a “fireable offense.” The network tried a second take Wednesday night, which isn’t much better.

Hot, steamy Europa League action kicks off this afternoon, and the formerly great Premier League club Arsenal’s first opponent will be the German Bundesliga’s FC Koln, whose fans took an approximately 600 kilometer trip on a Thursday in order to completely overtake the streets of London. These incredibly enthusiastic…Read more...

Taro Daniel, last seen taking one set off eventual U.S. Open champion Rafael Nadal, had a 7-5, 7-5 win over Renzo Olivo yesterday at the Szczecin Challenger. Good luck pronouncing the name of that Polish town, or returning this serve Olivo attempted at 5-5 in the second set:

Pro Football Focus has consistently ranked Lions guard T.J. Lang as one of the best offensive linemen in football. This doesn’t seem to have curried any favor with Lang, who went on 97.1 The Ticket yesterday and called the site “absolute garbage.”

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. 10 Maryland.Read more...

DOSS’s Bluetooth Speakers, SodaStream, and Thermos Gold Box kick off today’s top deals.

Against truly stiff competition, Tom Savage took home our Bad QB Performance of the Week award for Week 1. It looks like he will not get to defend his title; it’s being reported, though not confirmed by the team, that Deshaun Watson will get the start for the Texans against Cincinnati tonight.

This Amazon Gold Box is ostensibly meant as a back-to-school Thermos sale, but several items in there could appeal to adults who want to pack lunch for work.

Some people can’t live without their coffee, but for me, it’s fizzy water. Today only in Amazon’s Gold Box, you can get a SodaStream Genesis from Amazon for $59, complete with a small starter CO2 canister, and a mail-in rebate for a free full-sized starter canister, and two carbonating bottles (worth nearly $20 by…Read more...

Sources on social media are reporting that Grant Hart, a singer, drummer, and songwriter who helped define the sound of alternative rock with his work in legendary post-hardcore band Hüsker Dü, has died. Hart was 56; Variety reports that he had been suffering from cancer.Read more...

Rhys Hoskins now has 33 major-league games under his belt—more than 140 plate appearances—which means that Rhys Hoskins has had a little time to back away from his freakishly hot start and begin looking more like the ordinary prospect people thought he was. But he hasn’t.Read more...

Young Brewers outfielder Brett Maverick Phillips, best known for his wonderful laugh, started a brilliant unorthodox double play in Milwaukee tonight. Phillips’s powerful right arm took away a sacrifice fly and protected an early lead against the Pirates.Read more...

A banner reading “Racism Is As American As Baseball” was briefly unfurled over the Green Monster between the top and bottom of the fourth inning of the A’s-Red Sox game at Fenway Park tonight.Read more...