as Page 544 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Baseball arbitration is even dumber than you think
The idea of arbitration for determining a baseball player’s salary has never sat right with anyone, other than maybe the front offices that get to save a few hundred grand here and there. There was a time when a few scribes would keep a scoreboard, and some still do. But the concept of two sides try...

It's too soon to call San Francisco 49ers QB Trey Lance a bust
Before I get started, I want to make something clear. Trey Lance’s injury history is something that cannot be understated. He needs to stay healthy, and if he can’t, he shouldn’t be considered a franchise-caliber quarterback. This isn’t about his history of serious ouchies and boo-boos sidelining hi...

Ex-Gators QB Anthony Richardson deserves all the pre-draft hype he's getting
It seems like with every mock draft, pundits’ opinions of certain prospects change. For practically the entirety of the 2022 NFL and college football seasons, the consensus top-three quarterbacks in the 2023 class were Alabama’s Bryce Young, Kentucky’s Will Levis, and Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud. Flori...

Darvin Ham says Lakers' goal is playoffs — but the team faces a post-All-Star break gaunlet
The Los Angeles Lakers are entering a critical time in their schedule after the All-Star break. With just 23 games remaining in the regular season, the Lakers are five games under .500 (27-32) and have a seven-game stretch where they’ll play all Western Conference foes, starting with the Golden Stat...

JJ Redick is taking the path less interesting
I never thought I’d say, “You know what, maybe J.J. Redick doesn’t suck,” but he’s surprisingly insightful in his post-playing career gig at ESPN. The former Blue Devil understands how the current iteration of the game is played as well as any analyst for the network and takes a refreshing approach ...

These are Derek Carr's post-Raiders options
Derek Carr may not be a superstar, but several quarterback-needy teams are interested in his services....

The NBA has a ratings problem — Exhibit A: The All-Star Game
There was a time during the midst of 2020 in which Adam Silver and the NBA owned the world. The combination of an amazing All-Star Game in Chicago with a new dramatic ending, the sad and tragic death of Kobe Bryant, and the league’s decision to shut things down — becoming the first warning that this...

ESPN’s top draft analyst is mocking mock drafts by anointing Bronny James as a future top-10 pick
There’s no high school basketball LeaguePass — yet. Aside from the Bronny James hypebeast machine, the top prospects in the upcoming draft are previewed to the general public through the diligent scouting done by professional analysts or scouts who scour camps, national showcases, and high school gy...

Mallory Swanson can win the World Cup on her own, and she may have to
It is certainly a wonderful place to be, and a comment on what the USWNT has built over generations, that they can win three straight games over three decent-to-good teams in the SheBelieves Cup, conceding only one goal, and the overriding emotion is still more apprehensive than swagger. That is the...

These are the most obnoxious fan bases in sports (and pop culture)
The easiest way to protect yourself from outside criticism is to critique others. Negativity begets negativity, and I don’t even know where this is going because I’m here to tell you about insufferable fan bases....

The rest of the world is finally ready to admit that Dallas' Zeke Elliott is running on fumes
Bob Sturm of The Athletic explains in a recent piece that scouts are whispering that Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott is done — without actually saying it. “He has very little left in his legs, and the word is out.” So, in other words, scouts are noticing what most of the football world h...

Billie Jean King reminds us how far women's sports have come — even if the progress has been slow
Billie Jean King and Ilana Kloss both spoke at Seton Hall University last week. The discussion kept coming back to money — from the one dollar that started the WTA Tour back in 1970, to the $50 million to buy a National Women’s Soccer League team, to the ratings for live women’s sports that keep goi...

If Chris Paul, Suns can’t win a championship with Kevin Durant, it’s time to drop the 'Point God' moniker
Once the Phoenix Suns pulled off the blockbuster trade of the year for Kevin Durant, many pundits began to pencil them in as the Western Conference representative in the NBA Finals. Looking at their core of Devin Booker, Chris Paul, DeAndre Ayton, plus Durant, it’s easy to see why they’d be catapult...

Some MLB owners are ready to pick a fight with other MLB owners that they’ll take out on the players and fans
For as much worship as billionaires seem to get around here, and the runway they receive to shape our society to benefit them more and more, they are a cranky bunch. There’s always more money to be made, money they’ll never know what to do with, there’s always someone else to fuck over, and as it se...

Nate McMillan was a <i>Major Payne</i> to Trae Young, so who should be the Hawks' next coach?
Nearly two years to the day the Atlanta Hawks fired Lloyd Pierce, his replacement Nate McMillan met the same fate. We knew his coaching position was terminal two months ago when an argument between McMillan and Young spilled out into the public sphere. And while Young’s poor relationship with McMcMi...
![Well, Daniel Jones got his money — and the Giants tagged Saquon Barkley [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/9d0eae856a99abe1dc162d3e2dbf03fd.jpg)
Well, Daniel Jones got his money — and the Giants tagged Saquon Barkley [Updated]
New York Giants quarterback Daniel Jones wanted to get paid and he did —handsomely. Big Blue gave the 25-year-old signal-caller a four-year, $160 million extension, while also placing the franchise tag on RB Saquon Barkley, according to reports....
