Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

As noted by ESPN, Business Insider, Sports Illustrated, CBS Sports, SB Nation, the New York Daily News, TMZ Sports, Yahoo Sports, Fansided, For The Win, and Bleacher Report, among others, the Better Business Bureau has awarded LaVar Ball’s Big Baller Brand an F for poor customer service. LaVar Ball, as you might have…Read more...

A year and change into his first term in office, it’s still honestly kind of hard to tell why Donald Trump ran for president. At this point, we know enough about him to assume both 1) that it had nothing to do with any of the reasons he offered on the campaign trail and 2) that it’s probably something exponentially…Read more...

Gizmodo VR Takes the Next Step Forward with the Vive Pro and Vive Wireless Adaptor | Lifehacker Why You Should Switch From Google Chrome to Firefox | Kotaku My PC Building Adventure, Part Two: Something Went Horribly Wrong | The Takeout Standing ovation for man using his KFC bucket as a soda cup | Jalopnik Did Ford…Read more...

The NFL and NFLPA are reportedly investigating the circumstances surrounding that massive hit to the brain Cam Newton took in the fourth quarter of yesterday’s loss to New Orleans. Newton was slow to get up after it happened. He fell to the ground as he left the field. He was tested for a concussion on the…Read more...

José Mourinho and Antonio Conte do not like each other. You might have picked up on this fact over the past week or so, seeing as the two managers have been openly slamming each other in the media like a couple rappers going verse-for-verse in a freestyle battle. The resulting insults have been as petty as they are…Read more...

Saints defensive lineman Cameron Jordan wrapped up a 31-26 win over the Panthers Sunday, dooming a last-gasp Carolina drive by rushing through two blockers and forcing Cam Newton to take a crucial intentional grounding penalty. Jordan kicked ass and talked a lot shit about the man who was supposed to be in charge of…Read more...

It’s time for everyone’s favorite tradition: the CPU vs CPU simulation of tonight’s national championship game, using the original Tecmo Super Bowl on NES with fully-updated rosters. CLICK THROUGH TO WATCH:Read more...

As fits a government that could already boast a head of the Department of Energy who wants to do away with the Department of Energy and a secretary of education who favors homeschooling over public schools, a guy renowned for desecrating park lands will now be running the National Park Service. P. Daniel Smith, who…Read more...

Sports Illustrated’s website is a modern marvel, in that it seems to drive people away from the good work that’s squished between various modules and distractions. The site is so bad that Sports Illustrated’s biggest name, Peter King, now tweets out an alternate version of a hyperlink to pieces on his own website. In…Read more...

Update: The big 24-ounce bags are sold out.Read more...

Bills fans celebrated their team’s (short-lived) playoff run by traveling to Jacksonville in droves, laying waste to any table-like structure in their path, reportedly starting a garbage fire, drinking local bars dry, and generally behaving as expected. Jaguars fans also got to toast to their first home playoff game…Read more...

The defining experience of watching Nick Kyrgios play tennis is waiting for his Moment—the bad line call, or double-fault, or unseen internal implosion that irrevocably derails a fine match. In that sense, and in that sense only, his first tournament of the year would have left you twiddling your thumbs. Or clapping…Read more...

This essay was originally published in the Threepenny Review (1994), is featured in Sante’s anthology, Kill All Your Darlings, and appears here with the author’s permission.Read more...

If you have been paying literally any attention to the news over the last day or the last week or really the last many years, you are well aware that Donald Trump is profoundly stupid and/or mentally ill and/or suffering from (not even early-onset, but just regular-old-onset, he’s 71 years old) dementia. From all…Read more...

More often than is smart, I find myself at a bar and desperately in need of sustenance with dwindling options. Maybe you’re an idiot like me, or maybe you work nights at a bar or restaurant and need to eat something satisfying that won’t knock you on your ass mid-shift. And when you ask a server if they’ll make you a…Read more...

The United States’ defensive midfielder of the future will not be Jonathan González. A few days after reports surfaced that Mexico would be mounting a serious effort to flip the 18-year-old midfielder, he’s apparently made up his mind and will leave the USMNT behind to play for El Tri. Univision Deportes first…Read more...

Houston police said Courtney Roland, a reporter who covers Texas A&M football for Rivals.com, was found unharmed underneath an overpass in the Galleria area this morning after she was reported missing Saturday.

Last Wednesday, in North Carolina’s game against Florida State, Joel Berry tried to argue with official Ted Valentine about a non-foul call after he was held while trying to catch a pass. It didn’t go well, which is to say that it didn’t happen at all. Valentine just turned his back on the Tar Heels’ senior guard, and…Read more...

One of the most intriguing subplots to the NBA season has been finding out about Jahlil Okafor’s taste in movies. Okay, maybe not the most intriguing, or even intriguing at all, but… just stay with me here.Read more...

It only took one half of one Lakers season for LaVar Ball to do what he does best—try to undermine the coaching staff of one of his son’s teams. His inability to let anyone other than himself be in charge of any team with any of his sons on it has already derailed a high school team, UCLA, and Vytautas Prienai, so it…Read more...

Tampa Bay Lightning defenseman Dan Girardi suffered a brutal injury in the second period of the team’s 5-2 win against the Red Wings Sunday night. As Detroit’s Martin Frk fired a one-timer from the faceoff circle, Girardi went down on one knee to try and block it from close range. Frk’s shot hit Girardi right in the…Read more...

Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle, who is also the president of the NBA’s Coaches Association, is fed up with ESPN giving crazy sports dad LaVar Ball so much space to express himself. Everyone is tired of LaVar Ball because he’s annoying and stupid, but Carlisle’s reasons for being angry are not good.

The Lakers got to end their nine-game losing streak Sunday night by treating the Hawks like the punching bags they are, but the longer-term and more important story in Los Angeles is the Ball family’s undermining of head coach Luke Walton. First, during the losing streak, LaVar said from all the way in Lithuiania that…Read more...

From the first forward pass a PSG player hits in this clip, the ball travels from the doorstep of the Parisian goal down the entire length of the pitch and into Rennes’s net in about 15 seconds. The move involves only 11 touches of the ball, six of which are either first-touch passes or a shot. It is a staggering…Read more...

I flagged this yesterday in the hopes there’d be some larger context to use it today, but after the Saints’ 31-26 win over the Panthers, there’s really not. Which is fine! It’s fine to look at a cool throw for its own sake. This is a cannon.

The Panthers were eliminated from the playoffs yesterday, meaning that owner Jerry Richardson’s active stewardship of the team has all but come to an end. Last month, Richardson put the team up for sale after it was revealed that he’d been accused of multiple instances of sexual harassment and racist behavior. Still,…Read more...

The injury that kept Kawhi Leonard out of last night’s Spurs-Blazers game is a “partial tear” in his left shoulder, according to coach Gregg Popovich.

Well, well, well. Well, well, well. Looks like the whole damn world has “cat scratch fever” now (NFL). But where were ya—back in the day?????Read more...

Jaguars defensive end Yannick Ngakoue accused Bills guard Richie Incognito of using racial slurs during Sunday’s 10-3 Jacksonville win:

io9 Chris Hemsworth on the Uncertain Future of Star Trek 4 | Jalopnik The List Of America’s Worst-Selling Cars Of 2017 Is Sad On Multiple Levels | The A.V. Club R.I.P. astronaut John Young, the first man to get yelled at for smuggling a sandwich into space | Kotaku Why Katana Are So Polished And Shiny | Lifehacker …Read more...

Cameron Jordan—pro bowler, first-team all-pro, serious candidate for defensive player of the year—loves shit-talking the Panthers. The DE has had ample opportunity, with the Saints beating Carolina three times this season, including Sunday’s 31-26 playoff win. He’s gone back and forth with Cam Newton all season, and…Read more...

The Saints beat the Panthers for the third time this season, 31-26, to advance to the next round of the playoffs. And after some truly ugly play from the QBs in the early Bills-Jaguars game, Drew Brees put on a show and served as the antidote. On 23-of-33 passing, Brees had an extremely efficient 376 yards to go with…Read more...

Panthers QB Cam Newton took a head-on collision from David Onyemata while trying to avoid a sack in the fourth quarter of his game against the Saints. The hit looked painful on its own, but what’s especially concerning is what happened after. Newton initially tried to leave the field, but couldn’t make it all the way…Read more...

Keita Bates-Diop had a national coming out party and Ohio State basketball got its biggest win in years as the Buckeyes absolutely trashed number-one Michigan State in Columbus this afternoon, 80-64. With this loss, the Spartans become yet another powerhouse team to lose to an unheralded opponent early in conference …Read more...

In an electric atmosphere featuring two fanbases desperate for success, Bills-Jaguars was perhaps the most interesting playoff match-up of Wild Card weekend. Then, not long into the game, we all realized what we were in for: a freaking playoff game between the Bills and the Jaguars. The Jags won 10-3, in what was at…Read more...

You’ve probably seen the clip of Phil Mickelson hitting one of his famous flop shots over a terrified Dave Pelz, stationed not more than three or four feet from the point of contact. That’s about as bitchin’ as golf stunts get, and it is definitely not something you should ever try with anyone you especially care…Read more...

The Bills suffered a scary injury to their No. 1 quarterback while on their last-chance drive to keep their season going against the Jaguars. As Tyrod Taylor scrambled to try and convert on a third down with his team down seven, he was grabbed and slammed to the ground head-first by Jaguars defensive end Dante Fowler.…Read more...

As expected and possibly intended, Lonzo Ball, stateside, is having to answer for his dad’s commentary on the fit of Luke Walton as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. Here we have the young man trying to navigate his way through this trial with as many clichés and platitudes as possible:Read more...

Draymond Green picked up his 11th technical foul of the season during Saturday’s win over the Los Angeles Clippers, bringing him within five techs of an automatic one-game suspension. Afterward, he told Anthony Slater of The Athletic that the current state of NBA officiating is “ruining the game”:Read more...

SAN JOSE, Calif.—Less than twelve hours after the men’s competition at the 2018 U.S. Figure Skating Championships was over, the president of U.S. Figure Skating, Sam Auxier announced the three members of the 2018 Olympic team at a press conference at the SAP Center. The three man team is Nathan Chen, Adam Rippon, and…Read more...

Giannis Antetokounmpo put up another absurd Greek Freak line Saturday night in a Bucks road victory over the Wizards: 34 points on 17 shots, 12 rebounds, 7 assists, a couple steals, and a block. That’s the third time this season he’s put up at least 34 points on better than 70 percent shooting, and his physical…Read more...

Nottingham Forest’s Eric Lichaj has spent the vast majority of his career in the second tier of English soccer and the fringes of the USMNT. But in the first half of his team’s FA Cup match against Arsenal, Lichaj looked like a savior. The 29-year-old American defender scored both of his team’s goals to put Forest out…Read more...

Blake Martinez of the Green Bay Packers not only tied for leading the NFL in tackles this season, but also finds some time to play Dota 2 on the side. Though he currently plays under “Packernation50,” Martinez told the story of his induction to the cult of Dota at yesterday’s Captains Draft 4.0 tournament—including…Read more...

NFL referee Jeff Triplette, famous for blinding Orlando Brown and bungling a 2013 replay review badly enough to trigger changes to the NFL’s replay system, was part of the officiating crew for Saturday’s AFC Wild Card game, a sloppily officiated game that drew harsh criticism from former officiating head Mike Pereira.…Read more...

In a metaphorical sense, Barcelona are almost always playing above their competition. But today against Levante, Lionel Messi and Jordi Alba combined for some play that was literally untouchable. Their give-and-go was almost as suited to volleyball as it was to a soccer pitch, and it was good for Messi’s 365th La Liga…Read more...

LaVar Ball, right now, is probably most associated with overheated popup retail openings and the bizarre basketball odyssey of his two younger sons. He’s a reality TV star and a famous Famous Person, and part of his job as a person who is famous for being famous is to say outlandish things in order to draw attention,…Read more...

SAN JOSE, Calif.—Ross Miner had the crowd at the SAP Center on their feet at the end of his long program at the 2018 National Figure Skating Championships. The 26-year-old Boston native had performed to a medley of Queen songs and landed a clean quadruple salchow jump (and several other jumps, too).

Tonight’s Bucks-Wizards game is a tight one, but Milwaukee is finishing it out without guard Matthew Dellavedova after the Australian earned a flagrant 2 ejection for demolishing Bradley Beal. He is fortunate the official punishment is all that he suffered.

It’s our favorite genre of local news screwups!Read more...

May we all be this excited someday:Read more...