bestof Page 1 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
![How America’s Favorite Sports Betting Expert Turned A Sucker’s Game Into An Industry [UPDATED]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/qmyidkcgpbtupn5f3ijy.png)
How America’s Favorite Sports Betting Expert Turned A Sucker’s Game Into An Industry [UPDATED]
Update (January 16, 2019): In June 2017, RJ Bell and Pregame filed a defamation lawsuit over this article. The parties agreed to settle the case and, as part of that agreement, Deadspin is providing a link to Bell’s response to the allegations in the article: RJ Bell’s Response to This Article. Dead...
The First Three <i>Rocky</i> Movies Were Nothing But White Wish Fulfillment
This piece originally appeared in the August, 1982 issue of Film Comment. It is reprinted here with permission. ...
The Storm Inside Reggie Jackson
This piece was first published in the July, 1977 issue of Esquire. It is reprinted here with permission. Also be sure to check out the other Jackson profile, written the same year, that we republished in March....
When Ken Stabler Was A Country-Music Lyric Come To Life
This article was originally published in the September 1980 issue of Inside Sports and appears here with permission....
The Greatest Hurdler In The World Makes His Escape From Perfection
This piece originally appeared in the June, 1988 issue of Esquire, and is featured in the essential new anthology, Great Men Die Twice: The Selected Works of Mark Kram....
When Baseball's Most Famous Druggie Tried To Save The Yankees' Addict
This story appeared in the April 8, 1990 edition of The National Sports Daily. It is reprinted here with the author’s permission....
When Harry Caray Was A Rebel With A Microphone
This piece was originally published in the October, 1968 issue of Sports Illustrated. It is reprinted here with permission from Cope's family....
The Day A Shit-Talking Reggie Jackson Tore Apart The Yankees
This story was originally published in the June, 1977 issue of Sport. It also appears in the collection Renegades. It is republished here with permission, and includes a postscript from the author....
The Slow Destruction Of Pete Reiser, The Greatest Player Who Never Was
The following piece was originally published in the March, 1958 issue of True, and is excerpted from The Top of His Game, a collection of W.C. Heinz's best sportswriting. It is reprinted here with permission from Gayl Heinz....
When Muhammad Ali Was A Has-Been
The following is excerpted from Writers' Fighters and Other Sweet Scientists, a compilation of boxing columns by John Schulian, who wrote for the Chicago Daily News and Chicago Sun-Times. The excerpt contains 12 columns about Muhammad Ali that were written during the twilight of the champion's ca...
"It's Okay If You're A Machine": Inside Hubie Brown's Brutal Philosophy
This piece was originally published in the Dec. 9, 1979 issue of the Atlanta Journal & Constitution Magazine. It is reprinted here with permission, and is followed by an afterward from the author....
Idol Makers: How Steve And Ed Sabol Turned NFL Films Into An Empire
Originally published in the Sept. 1996 issue of Philadelphia Magazine, and reprinted here with the author's permission....
Buster Douglas Shocked The World, And Then He Got Fat And Happy
25 years ago today, Buster Douglas shocked the world and knocked out Mike Tyson, becoming the heavyweight champion of the world. This profile appeared in Sports Illustrated three years later, after Douglas had lost his title to Evander Holyfield. It has been reprinted here with the author's permis...
The Relentless Scrimmage In Dean Smith
This piece originally appeared in the March 1982 issue of Inside Sports. It is reprinted here with the author's permission....
How Archie Moore Fought Forever And Became Boxing's Folk Hero
This piece was originally published in the New Yorker on Nov. 11, 1961. It is reprinted here with permission....
The Ex-Con Who Turned His Life Around, And The NBA Star Who Killed Him
This piece was originally published in the August 2002 edition of GQ. A postscript from the author follows....
"That Joke Has Everything": David Letterman, Before <i>Late Night</i>
In December 1981, a month before Late Night With David Letterman debuted on NBC, Peter W. Kaplan profiled the young comedian, and heir-apparent to Johnny Carson, for Esquire. The story is reprinted here with permission....
My Life In The Locker Room: A Female Sportswriter Remembers The Dicks
Originally published June 4, 1992, in the Dallas Observer. Reprinted here with permission from the author, who has also provided an afterword about the response to her story....
The Fight: Patterson Vs. Liston
Originally published in the February 1963 issue of Nugget, "The Fight: Patterson vs. Liston" also appears in At the Fights: American Writers on Boxing, edited by George Kimball and John Schulian and published in hardcover, paperback, and as an e-book by The Library of America. You can also find it...
Jim Brown Won't Let Just Anybody In
Originally published in the Sept. 30, 1981, edition of Inside Sports. Reprinted here with the author's permission. Photos by Barbra Walz....