bobcostas Page 1 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Let's have some fun with who could replace Rob Manfred as MLB commissioner
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred has announced his retirement, calling it once his contract expires at the end of the 2029 season. There are many people who are perfectly qualified to take over for him, so here are our top 10 choices for the next commish. ...
The ending of HBO’s ‘Real Sports’ is bad for the world
It’s always been called the idiot box. But, this year, networks and viewers took sports television to a new low where common sense wasn’t required. It’s been a hard watch....
<i>Winning Time</i> is the latest casualty of David Zaslav’s sports media bloodbath at WBD
On Monday, the guillotine hovering over HBO’s Winning Time finally dropped when the series joined a growing collection of shows canceled by the network. Declining ratings and criticism from its stars, who insisted that Adam McKay’s Lakers series based on Jeff Pearlman’s biographical account, turned ...
Where are all the women in NFL studios?
This hasn’t been a great weekend for women in sports. Disgraced Baylor coach Art Briles somehow made his way onto the field of an Oklahoma game to celebrate a win with his son-in-law, Sooners’ offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby. Lebby then had the nerve to get indignant when asked why Briles was on th...
Skip Bayless’ new <i>Undisputed</i> co-hosts mean more ex-athletes replacing journalists
Screaming and arguing are in. Context and nuance are out. And over at FS1, the decibel levels just got louder, while the conversations just got dumber....
Dan Le Batard was right — ‘Embrace Debate’ has destroyed sports television
Too much of anything is bad for you. Excessive amounts can be catastrophic. Dan Le Batard hinted at this a few months ago. And after the reported cancellation of Bomani Jones’ Game Theory on HBO, it’s become quite clear — “embrace debate” killed sports television shows. ...
Like 'thug' and 'woke' — 'classless' is the new way to call Black people the N-word
All season long, Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark dominated women’s college basketball. It was a prayer answered when the basketball gods gave us Iowa and LSU in the national championship game during a record-breaking Final Four. But instead of the focus being on LSU’s hot shooting or Iowa’s second-hal...
Give me 'Roundball Rock' or give me death
Professional sports leagues are the big winners of the streaming wars because live sports seem to be the only thing that still moves the ratings needle. As long as the production value remains intact, the “boom-goes-the-dynamite” guy isn’t announcing, and the stream actually streams, I could care le...
Let's remember (forget?) the worst Super Bowl halftime shows
When you think of the Super Bowl Halftime Show, the names that come to mind are the biggest stars and best performers in the music industry. It didn’t used to be that glamorous, though. ...
With offense winning titles in other sports, playoff baseball is still about pitching
The Dodgers, Braves, and Yankees combined to win 311 regular season games over the course of the regular season, but the playoffs have been a beautiful disaster so far. Mid-’90s alternative rock references notwithstanding, all three clubs received first-round byes, and only New York isn’t on the bri...
TBS sets new standard for cringiest promo of all time during Game 1 of the ALDS
One of the less glamorous parts of being a professional play-by-play commentator is being handed a cringy script and being told to act enthusiastic about a show you don’t watch or a product you don’t use just so you can appeal to your boss and finally get back to calling the game. It’s such a forced...
The NBA and ESPN keep searching, but will never find their Roundball Rock
ESPN does an outstanding job with its NBA coverage. The network has an army of insiders, reporters, analysts, a daily midday show, as well a stellar game broadcast quality that has long satiated this one high schooler who was not happy to see his beloved NBA on NBC gone forever....
The sports figures we've lost in 2022
Here’s a look at the athletes and sports figures we’ve lost in 2022....
Vin Scully was the voice of baseball
When you think about baseball, who do you think of? Maybe a favorite pitcher or hitter, maybe your favorite team’s all-time greatest manager. For me, it’s Vin Scully. It has been for a long, long time. Growing up I always wanted to be a baseball announcer, and even before I knew what made great play...
Fighting is condoned, even celebrated in baseball and hockey, but not in basketball and football — you know why
Has anyone checked on Amy Schumer?...
Steph-mania has seeped into the WNBA
If it were not already apparent that Steph Curry is the popular kid who dictates whether 10th graders one- or two-strap their backpacks, fans needn’t look no further than the WNBA for proof. I debated if Sabrina Ionescu hitting a game-clinching 3 and striking the Steph “night night” pose against the...
The NBA is foolishly applying outdated sensibilities into its fresh product
Woop!-woop! That’s the sound of da (NBA image) police....
No one asked for a Joe Paterno retrospective on his ‘legacy’
“We have never covered up things around here. We just didn’t have problems.”...
IDIOT OF THE YEAR #10: Thom Brennaman — and there’s a deep drive by Castellanos
Welcome to Deadspin’s IDIOT OF THE YEAR festivities! Nos. 50 through 11 are available for your enjoyment here. And our top 10 thus far:...
Beware of the racially coded language that will be used when discussing Isaiah Stewart and LeBron James
Seventeen years and two days after one of the most historic events in NBA history took place in Auburn Hills, Mich., an updated version almost occurred involving the same fanbase and team — wearing the same uniforms — on Sunday night, as we were this close from having “Malice at the Palace 2.0" on o...