cia Page 182 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Malcolm Gladwell Goes On Bill Simmons's Podcast, Delivers Sweaty Monologue On Nigerian Basketball Superiority
Malcolm Gladwell appeared on Bill Simmons’s podcast today to advance the claim that Nigerians would be the best possible basketball team composed of members of any one race. He began by arguing that being Nigerian depended on the player’s parents’ country of origin, and then kept building from there...

Lions Loss Leaves Kelly Stafford Defending Her Husband And Matt Patricia Struggling For Answers
The Detroit Lions are not the worst team in the NFL. Their 3-5 record has them out of the playoff picture but also out of the league’s subbasement. Their point differential, while not very good at -30, is a mere fifth-worst in the NFC, and it’s far more respectable than Buffalo’s -145 or Oakland’s -...

Coach Who Always Looks Like A Pile Of Dirty Laundry Scolds Reporter For Slouching
Lions head coach Matt Patricia got testy with a reporter in today’s presser after being asked a question about how trading Golden Tate made the franchise better. The inquiry apparently didn’t bug him so much as the posture of the person asking it....

The NFL Actually Fired An Official
Outside of the confusion about roughing-the-passer calls (which falls as much on the diktat from New York as on those tasked with enforcing it), it feels like NFL officiating has generally been pretty good this year—that is to say, it’s been largely unnoticeable. Which made this blatantly missed fal...

NBA Admits Refs Were Suckered By Joel Embiid's Theatrics
Joel Embiid got Andre Drummond ejected during the final minute of regulation in Tuesday night’s eventual overtime Pistons win, by throwing himself on the floor like a big old goof after incidental contact with Drummond’s hand. The two behemoths have spent the hours since chirping at each other throu...

Michigan State's First Score Comes From "Philly Special"-Type Play
Michigan State showed a national audience on Saturday that their in-state rivals, Michigan, were doing something else the Sunday of this year’s Super Bowl. On a 2nd-and-goal situation on the four-yard line, the Spartans ran their version of the famous “Philly Special” trick play to put up their firs...

Orlando Arcia Is Hilarious
It was amusing when Brewers shortstop Orlando Arcia, one of the very worst regular-season hitters in the league and a guy Milwaukee sent to the minors multiple times in 2018, guided them to a Game 163 victory over the Cubs with four hits. What he’s done since then is downright hysterical....

Report: Untrained Pac-12 Exec Was Allowed To Reverse Controversial Targeting Penalty
According to internal documents obtained by Yahoo Sports’ Pete Thamel, a Pac-12 executive who is not a trained official put his thumb on the scale and personally overruled what should have been a targeting penalty. On the final play of the third quarter of Washington State’s Sep. 21 loss to USC, WSU...

Steve Kerr Says "I Don't Want To Be Here," Gets Ejected, Waves Goodbye
The Warriors left Klay Thompson and Draymond Green out of Monday’s preseason game against the Suns. Who cares! No team maybe ever has had any less use for the preseason than the 2018-2019 Golden State Warriors. Steve Kerr knows this. Watch him thank the referees for hitting him with technical fouls ...
![Refs Flag Excessive Celebration After Drew Brees Breaks All-Time Passing Yardage Mark [UPDATE]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/yizri5bpsorpbvjzxwqt.gif)
Refs Flag Excessive Celebration After Drew Brees Breaks All-Time Passing Yardage Mark [UPDATE]
Drew Brees came into Monday night’s home game against Washington needing 201 yards to break Peyton Manning’s career passing yardage record of 71,940* yards. He could’ve dinked and dunked his way to the record, but fuck that—in the second quarter, with his team already up 20–6, Brees unloaded a long ...

Orlando Arcia Came Out Of Nowhere To Help The Brewers Win The NL Central
Of all the regular players on the Milwaukee Brewers, shortstop Orlando Arcia is almost undeniably the worst. With an on-base percentage of .260, a weakling slugging percentage of .299, and multiple demotions to the minors in 2018, it’s honestly a wonder that this guy even managed to get the start in...

The NFL Re-Emphasizes Its Emphasis On A Rule No One Understands
During Sunday’s Raiders-Dolphins game, as a replay sequence that included the above clip was shown to viewers, the CBS broadcast crew had the following conversation:...

Improbable Series Of Fuck-Ups Clinches Playoff Berths For Brewers And Cubs
The Brewers beat the Cardinals Wednesday night in a tense 2–1 game. The result clinched at least a spot in the NL Wild Card game for the Brewers and for the Cubs, who sit at 92 wins apiece in the closest divisional race left in baseball. And there is one Cardinals rookie who is going to feel like ab...

Casual Cruelty
Cruelty is so often casual, and crueler for it. On Monday, the New York Times reported that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh used his high school yearbook page to drop an inside joke, naming a female student in a way meant to imply that she had been a sexual conquest for him and his football te...

Can Matt Patricia Break The Belichick Curse?<em></em>
Many of the modern NFL’s legendary coaches have impressive coaching trees. Hefty branches that bore much fruit. Assistants that became successful head coaches and who then mentored younger coaches to do the same. Bill Walsh coached Dennis Green, who coached Brian Billick, who coached Jack Del Rio, w...

Angels' Francisco Arcia Makes Baseball History In Demoralizing Ass-Whupping
History was made in Thursday afternoon’s Angels-Athletics game. Surprisingly, it was not made by the Athletics, who beat the absolute shit out of the Angels by the football score of 21–3. No, it was made by Francisco Arcia of the Angels, who became the first MLB player ever to pitch, catch, and smo...

Antonio Brown Apologizes For Threatening To Slug ESPN Writer Over Unflattering Profile
Last week Jesse Washington of The Undefeated published a story about Antonio Brown of the Steelers. It’s at once an especially 2018 kind of profile—the word “Instagram” appears 24 times, there are another three “’Grams,” and a further seven embedded Instagram posts—and a weirdly dissonant, pearl-cl...

Maybe Change Is A Bad Thing?
It was a bad week to be an NFL coach making his debut on their new team. After Jon Gruden’s Raiders decided to allow the Rams to score 23 straight points on their way to a 33-13 loss, new coaches ended the first week of the regular season a combined 0-7, breaking a 17-year NFL record....

Appalachian State Fans Boo Referee After He Pronounces It “Appa-Lay-Shun”
There’s one way to identify yourself as an outsider to residents of Appalachia: Pronounce it “Appa-lay-shun.” That got one college football referee in trouble on Saturday....

Reports: LeSean McCoy Is Unlikely To Be Charged, Coincidentally In Time For You To Root For Him Today
Buffalo Bills running back LeSean McCoy is unlikely to faces charges stemming from his alleged role in a home invasion and robbery in July that put his ex-girlfriend, Delicia Cordon, in the hospital, according to reports this morning from Adam Schefter and Ian Rapoport....