controversies Page 1 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
What matters most about Rudy Gobert’s money signs is he meant it
Renowned aggravator Rudy Gobert pissed off another group of people Friday night, and though getting T’d up isn’t newsworthy in itself, it’s what the Frenchman did to earn a technical that’s interesting. In the closing seconds of the Cleveland-Minnesota game with his team ahead by a point, the Timber...
Increasing the NFL season to 18 games is a terrible idea
An 18-game NFL regular season has been looming over the league at least since it was clear that the 2011 lockout was an inevitability. What the league wants, the league — more specifically the team owners — usually gets. The revenue split used to be 50/50 with the players, but now a greater share ha...
Dejounte Murray hurt an NBA ref's delicate feelings; wound up with a T
Atlanta Hawks guard Dejounte Murray found out the hard way Saturday night about getting on an official’s bad side. During Atlanta’s 114-102 loss to the Brooklyn Nets, Murray was given a technical foul during a timeout while sitting on the sideline. Apparently, NBA referees have resorted to handing o...
Non-working showers, tiny locker rooms, and having to play for Josh McDaniels: NFLPA releases team report cards
If the NFL Players Association’s annual team report card, which is voted on by the players from each franchise, is any indication, playing for Cincinnati Bengals’ owner Mike Brown is only a few steps divorced from suiting up for fictional Cleveland MLB owner Rachel Phelps — complete with non-working...
Roger Goodell wants NFL players to have a ‘voice’ in volatile Election Year. Don’t believe him
In football, the line of scrimmage is where the “rubber meets the road.” In politics, it occurs inside the voting booth. Roger Goodell’s recent comments on politics and sports are proof that the league could be on the verge of repeating the same mistakes it did during the Colin Kaepernick era, as th...
Monty Williams is absolutely right about bad officials missing obvious calls
Detroit Pistons head coach Monty Williams was furious following Monday night’s 113-111 loss to the Knicks. The officiating crew for the game missed a blatant foul with 8.6 seconds remaining in the game following a Pistons steal while Detroit led by one. The missed call was so bad that the most novic...
Is Bill Belichick’s gap year a post-dated suspension for Spygate?
The New England Patriots dynasty ended when Tom Brady left for Tampa Bay, but now it’s officially over as the Pats’ run is getting The Last Dance treatment. Yes, only a season past Bill Belichick’s departure, Apple+ has a nine-parter called The Dynasty coming out whenever. What they won’t tell you i...
Deshaun Watson may have to testify in sexual misconduct suit
After three years of pending lawsuits against dozens of women, Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson may be forced to testify once again in one of the last remaining sexual misconduct cases against him. ...
The Super Bowl has become a great concert that features a football game
Usher, Beyonce, Jay-Z, Taylor Swift, Ice Spice, Post Malone, Andra Day, Reba McEntire, Alicia Keys, H.E.R., Lil Jon, Ludacris, Jermaine Dupri, and will.i.am all performed or were at the same party on a Sunday night in Las Vegas. Super Bowl LVIII was part football game, part music festival. And over ...
Young artists should study Usher’s Super Bowl performance
I was a little nervous at the start of the Usher performance. The field at Super Bowl LVII had been criticized, and the one at this year’s game took out Dre Greenlaw in the first half while he was simply trying to run out onto the field. Fortunately, Usher’s lower extremities held up as he glided ac...
Late-stage capitalism has made the Super Bowl too expensive even for the millionaires
Unfettered capitalism is putting some restraints on the top one percent enjoying one of its biggest parties of the year. With the Super Bowl in Las Vegas, luxury suites have reached the highest of high-roller prices. These seven-figure suites are out of the price range for even some of the biggest s...
Roger Goodell gets exposed again at the Super Bowl
They got rid of Jim Trotter. They moved the Commissioner’s annual Super Bowl press conference to Monday — and made it invite-only. They thought they did everything they could to protect Roger Goodell. They thought wrong. ...
I rewatched the Nipplegate halftime show for the first time in 20 years and it was magnificent
You — yes, I am talking to you — are getting old. I might have pointed at my own face in the mirror and said that when Xwitter informed me that Thursday was the 20th anniversary of the infamous Nipplegate halftime show. ...
Roger Goodell's solution to NFL concussion issue: Bury head firmly in sand
The NFL seems to be stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to player health and safety. ...
A playoff game for the top pick in the NFL Draft sounds good — until you remember that human beings would be participating in it
Professional athletes play sports for two reasons: They play to make money and to win games. There is no other incentive necessary, or that would even work, to get the maximum effort out of players. And what would certainly be a terrible idea, is adding a “playoff game,” in which the result is the w...
Bill Belichick tried to eff around without a first-class Tom Brady clone and found out
From the beginning, Bill Belichick flaunted the egalitarian team culture he sought to establish in New England. Before they took the field for Super Bowl XXXVI, the St. Louis Rams’ Show on Turf offensive starters followed tradition by exiting the dimly lit tunnel one by one by one into the spotlight...
Sure, Bill Belichick was a great coach, but he was also a jerk
Yes, we get it. Bill Belichick is arguably the greatest coach in NFL history. He’s also one of the sport’s biggest jerks. ...
This week in the NFL: Pledge allegiance or go cry in the corner
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....
Baltimore Ravens to honor RB who assaulted fiancee in elevator
Ray Rice, the former NFL running back whose career ended after he assaulted his then-fiancee — the charges were dropped — will be honored by his former team Sunday....
It's been 17 years since Carmelo Anthony punched Mardy Collins
It is the 17th anniversary of one of the last big brawls the NBA has seen. It’s so infamous it even has its own Wikipedia page....