and Page 248 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Stephen A. Smith has all the juice at ESPN
Sports media members are no more forthcoming with their career deals than the players whom we cover, and many times even less so. We are far more replaceable than people who are 6-foot-8 with 35-inch vertical leaps. Therefore most of us wait until the press release comes out before making any public...
The voice of Buffalo Rick Jeanneret dies at 81
It’s mostly baseball announcers who become synonymous with a team and a city. They’re on the radio or TV every day for six months, so they can become more a part of a fan’s life than a good portion of the family. Whether that will happen again, with so many broadcasters now so polished, clean, rehea...
Another day, another fight at Dallas Cowboys camp
It’s that time of year when the NFL is back, and teams have reported to training camp while the preseason gets underway. This is also the time when four out of five analysts will attempt to sell you on the Dallas Cowboys’ chances of winning the Super Bowl. Most fans who have paid attention to the NF...
Who will New York Yankees GM Brian Cashman scapegoat next?
Atlanta has been a menace to New Yorkers of late. First, they dribbled the New York Mets all over Citi Field. Off the diamond, their District Attorney pinched Rudy Guiliani and Donald Trump in a RICO case, then the Braves continued their streak by lopping off the Bronx Bombers heads in three consecu...
Coach Prime is indispensable, according to Coach Prime
Welcome to Deadspin’s The Sports Nihilist, where all is for naught and we are but accidental jolts of electrified meat stuck to the surface of a rock in an indifferent universe. Fuck you....
Russell Wilson, Dak Prescott, and the NFL players facing a make-or-break year
One thing we love about the NFL is all the storylines that carry over from one season to the next and those that are created during the offseason. Whether we’re asking if this is the year Dak Prescott finally gets Dallas over the hump or if Jordan Love has what it takes to make Green Bay forget abou...
Bill Belichick is up to his same old tricks, and they may not be good enough anymore
The Ezekiel Elliott signing was a solid move by Bill Belichick. Elliott may no longer be the athlete who cleared opposing defenders the way that he cleared high hurdles as a high school track and field star, but he is still a football player who can contribute to a winning team. Any extra depth is w...
Vlatko Andonovski was bad at a very tough job
If one didn’t want to kick dirt on Vlatko Andonovski as he recedes from the USWNT manager job, and kicking dirt is kind of what we do around here, it would be wise to point out the size of the task he was faced with. He took over a team that had won two World Cups on the spin, so there was really no...
Northwestern football coach David Braun seems to think it’s a real challenge to not haze
At some point in the near future, football coaches are going to have to be relabeled into their own scientific category. It’s a real question if they’ve been human, or homo sapien, for a long time. Northwestern’s David Braun is only just the latest to prove it. ...
Sage Steele and Michele Tafoya: A match made in delusion
So how does one become an official member of the “Coalition of Courage,” Michele Tafoya? Is there a fee? Do you hold meetings? Is there a secret intake process that has been passed down through the decades? Or does one simply have to take a decorated career in an industry that becomes more difficult...
Victor Conte: Players are still doping and the leagues know it
There is a warped irony in the timing between Netflix’s new sports-doping documentary, Untold: Hall of Shame, and the most recent suspension of a professional athlete for violating a league’s performance-enhancing drug policy....
Ja’Marr Chase’s Mount Rushmore is a little different than most
Ja’Marr Chase was recently asked to list his top wide receivers of all time in the form of Mount Rushmore, and he went in a different direction than you’d probably expect. He listed a couple of regulars we usually see on these rankings, then Chase went into left field on one of his choices. Chase mi...
To understand the RICO allegations against Team Trump, look to FIFA
After four indictments, the mental gymnastics required to equivocate for Trump requires advanced parkour skills. As of now, the former president faces 91 charges — between Miami, New York, Washington D.C., and Atlanta — which are enough to fill out an entire regional tournament bracket. It can be da...
Women’s World Cup Day 23: It’s (probably) coming home to England
Sam Kerr got her first start of the World Cup. Possibly the best striker on Earth still wasn’t fully fit, but the Chelsea starlet at 80 percent is better than most in prime form. The Australian juggernaut scored one of the best goals of the tournament in the 63rd minute with her club teammate, Milli...
The continuing adventures of Angel Hernandez, Leo Messi is doing that thing again, and charter flights in women’s sports rears its ugly head
If you haven’t been following the touring artist exhibition that is Angel Hernandez attempting to call balls and strikes, or simply trying to disprove the utility of rules and conventions in society at all, in various Major League parks this summer, you’re missing one of the truly great examples of ...
Is this finally the year for the New York Jets?
As Aaron Rodgers steps into the Showtime spotlight of the Big Apple, he will have to do his best Magic Johnson impersonation to get the most out of his many talented options. Rodgers has two of his trusted pass catchers from Green Bay by his side in Allen Lazard and Randall Cobb, as well as a rising...
Do you know just how bad the Colorado Rockies have been?
It’s a baseball axiom that the Colorado Rockies are clueless, helpless, directionless. They don’t have any stars, they don’t have any prospects, and they don’t have any idea how to get or produce either. Their ballpark presents a unique set of problems, but the Rockies are certainly not the organiza...
Does it matter that 3 of the AP top 5 teams haven’t named a starting QB?
AP’s college football top 25 poll debuted Monday, and there aren’t too many surprises. Texas (11) is overrated as usual, but everything else appears to be above board. The typical formula for misguided hype includes some combination of a new coach, unproven quarterback, prestigious program, schedule...
After the ESPN shakeup, we still have Hubie Brown to keep teaching us basketball
Following its highest-rated NBA Playoff in two decades, ESPN decided to take a hatchet to its game coverage of the league. Gone from the network entirely are Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy. Replacing them on the No. 1 commentator team alongside Mike Breen are Doris Burke and Doc Rivers. Ryan Ruocco...
Don’t be cowards, Notre Dame. Save the Pac-12
Amid various upheavals and tectonic conference shifts, one of the nation’s most prominent college football brands has maintained its neutrality. Notre Dame is the Joel Osteen of college athletics as a football megachurch without a conference denomination. Notre Dame basketball is the garnish, but fo...