Today is the start of Players’ Weekend, a new MLB initiative designed to let players have a little bit of fun and express themselves in a league that so often tries to stifle those things. Players have picked nicknames to display on the back of their jersey—for one weekend, baseball will be graced by the likes of…Read more...

Chris Sale’s night in Cleveland on Thursday was shockingly bad by the Cy Young frontrunner’s 2017 standards, but unsurprising given what the Indians have done to Sale in his career. In an eventual 13-6 loss for the Red Sox, Sale gave up six earned runs (seven total) on seven hits and three walks. It was his shortest…Read more...

Sage Steele, the newly minted morning SportsCenter anchor and woman who complained about being inconvenienced at an airport because people were protesting an unconstitutional Muslim ban that ripped apart families and detained old people and toddlers for hours, doesn’t want to talk about Colin Kaepernick’s anthem…Read more...

When the Eagles pulled Carson Wentz in last night’s preseason game, Philly fans did what they do best: Booed. It wasn’t anything in particular against the team’s current backup, Matt McGloin. Fans just wanted to see Wentz.

Denver police are investigating an incident involving cheerleaders at East High School being forced to participate in painful and possibly abusive practice routines. 9 News was sent a series of videos in which cheerleaders on the East High team are forced into a split position while screaming in pain. This is not how…Read more...

The complete Battlestar Galactica Blu-ray, the all-powerful Logitech Harmony Hub, and several Labor Day apparel sales lead off Friday’s best deals from around the web.Read more...

Alarming news from the north.Read more...

Everything about the leadup to Conor McGregor’s matchup with Floyd Mayweather this Saturday has been absurd. We had McGregor in a suit adorned with “Fuck You” in a vertical pinstripe pattern; dollar bills raining down from the heavens; confrontations between McGregor’s and Mayweather’s enormous security guards; and…Read more...

Yesterday saw the weirdest and most interesting game of the season, a 10-6 Tigers win over the Yankees that saw eight ejections, four batters hit by pitches, three bench clearings, and a whole bunch of legitimate punches.

$70 for a Logitech Harmony remote is a great deal on its face, but the real reason to buy this model is the included Harmony Home Hub.

Update: Sold out. If you missed it, I recommend you check out the reader-favorite RTIC 30 Soft Pack, which should perform similarly.Read more...

It takes a lot to humble José Altuve. (Jokes about his height accomplish nothing here.) After a red-hot July that launched him into this year’s MVP conversation, he’s in the middle of his best season yet. But here is Altuve not only humbled, but humbled with buckled knees as a very scary Stephen Strasburg curveball…Read more...

Those who chose to spend their Thursday night “enjoying” the delight of a newly unretired Jay Cutler got more than they bargained for—the actual delight, however fleeting, of a squirrel prancing across the field. Behold:Read more...

The Chargers have parted ways with equipment manager Bob Wick this week after 38 years with the organization, including a personal move last month to follow the team from San Diego to Los Angeles. The Chargers did not give a reason for the firing to several local reporters.Read more...

Lest you think that parkour died with its viral videos back in 2014, rest assured—parkour is alive and thriving and definitely its own sport that is not gymnastics, thanks much!Read more...

Thank you for your continued support of Deadspin. Power pop lives on, y’all.Read more...

On July 16, a Dallas DJ was punched in the face at Clutch, a local bar, and early reports said that Ezekiel Elliott was a part of the investigation. A TMZ report later suggested that at least two people saw the Cowboys running back throw the punch. But whoever it was that talked to TMZ, they weren’t talking on the…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. 18 Ohio.Read more...

As fun as it is to watch anonymous featherweights mash each other’s faces, the UFC only works when it has stars to sell the public. Brock Lesnar sold pay-per-views. So did Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva. Fighters’ peaks are short, since their trade involves repeated blunt-force trauma, but as long as the UFC…Read more...

We’ve seen before just how versatile lower league soccer players have to be in order to keep their clubs functioning and their fans informed. Just this weekend, we saw another example when a Baldock Town player continued in the proud tradition of Sleaford Town’s Harrison Allen by dutifully tweeting updates about his…Read more...

Oh man, this is some way to introduce yourself to your new fans. In only his second appearance for Everton, Gylfi Sigurdsson has just scored this insane blast from the middle of the park against Hajduk Split in a Europa League qualifying match:Read more...

Most baseball fights are a bunch of meaningless posturing, but Yankees catcher Austin Romine and Tigers DH Miguel Cabrera exchanged actual punches and rolled around in the dirt during today’s game in Detroit.

League Two English soccer club Stevenage FC said earlier this week they are investigating allegations that women were “asked to lift their tops up to show their bras to female stewards upon entry to The Lamex Stadium.”Read more...

This is going to come as a shock, but the Mets dealt with some terrible luck today.Read more...

Some people are fans of the Detroit Lions. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the Detroit Lions. This 2017 Deadspin NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read all the previews so far here.Read more...

The following is excerpted from the team chapters of the always-excellent Football Outsiders Almanac. Buy it here as a PDF, or here in print.

It was all fun and games when a cat ran onto the field during a St. Louis Cardinals game earlier this month. An employee wrangled him, the cat bit him, and Yadier Molina hit a grand slam on the next pitch. Rally cat!Read more...

Brent Minor, executive director of Team DC—an organization that promotes LGBT sports participation in the Washington area—remembers feeling pessimistic about the first-ever Washington Nationals Night Out. It was 2005, and his organization “totally emptied [its] treasury” to buy 200 tickets for LGBT fans.

With the final teams determined yesterday in the play-in round, UEFA wasted no time picking the matchups for the true beginning of the Champions League.

Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles, who at one point had some people convinced that he would be a good, has done just about everything possible to lose his starting job this summer. His preseason contributions have been a series of sad and bewildering lowlights, he’s been quietly cursed by at least one receiver during…Read more...

Jim Harbaugh is confirmed to be coaching a football team up in Ann Arbor, but right now, that’s about all he’ll tell you. While it seems safe to assume that his football team is, in fact, made up of currently eligible football players, the most recent official roster out of Michigan is still from 2016.Read more...

When Zlatan Ibrahimovic suffered a nasty-looking season-ending knee injury in April, and Manchester United declined to extend his contract in June, it seemed like it was finally time for the 35-year-old star to make his long-rumored move to MLS. LA Galaxy? New York Red Bulls? Nope.Read more...

On Monday night, I walked into FirstEnergy Stadium having absolutely no clue what was going to happen during the national anthem. When it began, I saw a group of Browns players kneeling and was proud. A few moments later, I noticed that No. 87—my husband, Seth—was among them, and I was even prouder.Read more...

Two-time Olympic silver medalist Jack Bobridge was arrested in Perth yesterday and charged by Australian police with moving “significant quantities” of MDMA around Perth. He allegedy spent most of the summer selling pills in and around North Perth. As Perth Now reported, police have been investigating a drug ring for…Read more...

Kotaku H3H3 Productions Wins Lawsuit Filed By YouTuber They Made Fun Of | io9 The Current State of DC Superhero Movies | Jalopnik Jeep Is The Only Way Fiat Chrysler Can Take Over The World | Lifehacker What to Say When You Don’t Have a Good Answer in an Interview |Read more...

The Phillies have not been good this season. They have the worst record in baseball this year, three games back of the White Sox. This would be the second time in three years that the Phillies ended up with the worst record in baseball, giving fans bad flashbacks to the late-90s Phillies.Read more...

Barcelona should be one of the most prestigious and respected institutions in world sports. This hallowed club should be capable of attracting and retaining the absolute best soccer players around the globe, operating with a dignity and professionalism befitting such a revered club in an era that in large part will…Read more...

Folks, college football is BACK this Saturday. True, the college season starts with its usual slate of underwhelming matchups featuring ninth-place Mountain West teams, but still: FOOTBALL! I think this calls for a celebration, don’t you? In fact, I think this calls for a roast of every despicable, corrupt team ready…Read more...

One of the best things about baseball is that every game brings the chance to see something that has never happened before during the 100-plus years that the game has been played professionally in this country. This also means that each game brings a chance to see a player get tortured in new and inventive ways.

With this one-day Amazon sale on Kershaw Link knives, you can be one of those people that’s randomly carrying a knife whenever something needs cutting. Those people are respected by all.

It sometimes feels almost cruel that the brilliance of Mike Trout is so often wasted on moments and games that seem wholly irrelevant, which is why it’s such a joy to finally see an at least semi-competitive Angels team in a season that’s shaping up as Trout’s best yet. (Time spent on the disabled list be damned.)…Read more...

Descent Into Maddeness is a mini-series that follows football neophyte William Hughes as he attempts to understand the video game institution of Madden NFL. Every other week, William will dig into a different mode from the series’ latest iteration, Madden NFL 18, all in an effort to appreciate this chart-topping…Read more...

At 6'3" and 250 pounds, Brewers first baseman Jesús Aguilar is a pretty big guy. As a direct result of this, just as you might suspect, he wears some pretty big pants. Here he is, wearing said big pants:Read more...

Relentlessly positive UFC golden boy Sage Northcutt has had a rough time of it lately, what with losing two of his last three and having had his most recently scheduled bout called off due to injuries to him and his opponent. Earlier tonight, though, Twitter user Zombie Prophet revealed a discovery suggesting that the…Read more...

The NWHL has scaled back the responsibilities of their hockey operations interns after the women’s hockey community criticized them for the fact that the positions—which were not initially described as paid—read more like the work of several full-time front office jobs than a single part-time gig.Read more...

Since making his weird and improbable return to major league baseball at age 35 in the second half of 2015, Rich Hill has been almost singularly enjoyable to watch when he’s a) in a groove and b) without a blister. He hasn’t had many outings like that lately, but when he has them, his curveball is breathtaking, he’s…Read more...

ESPN president John Skipper sent a memo to staff today in response to the public relations fiasco that has unfurled in the wake of the network’s decision to move broadcaster Robert Lee off the University of Virginia’s home opener. Per Skipper’s account of things, the switch wasn’t made out of fear that viewers might…Read more...

Today, for the first time since September 20, 2015, Zach Britton headed to the mound with a save on the line and blew it. After 60 consecutive saves, the Baltimore closer’s run is finally over—though you’d be forgiven for assuming it had ended earlier this year, in an injury-plagued season that’s seen him pitching…Read more...

Thank you for your continued support of Deadspin. Stay cool.Read more...