culture Page 4 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Shohei Ohtani signing affects more than his new team
As the sweepstakes for Shohei Ohtani is starting to dwindle as the decision comes closer, there are a few things that are certain with his new contract. It will be the biggest in American sports history, the team that signs him gets the best player in the world on their roster, and reporters who cov...
The dog whistles around Jalen Hurts are subtle, yet deafening
It’s not just what you say, it’s also about what you don’t say — and how you say it. Right now, there are some peculiar things being uttered about Jalen Hurts, and it would be easier if those people would just . . . say it....
Spongebob to co-host Nickelodeon's Super Bowl LVIII broadcast
The folks that gifted us Slimed Mike McCarthy, Patrick Star’s commentary of a Russell Wilson interception, and the Mitchell Trubisky NVP are coming back for the Super Bowl....
Stephen A. Smith wants to be ESPN's biggest earner
Stephen A. Smith’s future at ESPN could be up in 18 months if the money isn’t right....
The new Barry Sanders documentary has brought out the love. And some hate
Barry Sanders is one of the greatest players to ever step onto a football field, so when he abruptly retired following the 1998, season it left everyone stunned. One individual who calls Sanders the GOAT RB is Grammy award-winning rapper Eminem. Growing up around Detroit during the Sanders era of do...
Sports Illustrated has become its own Sidd Finch in the age of AI-Generated journalism
The rapid integration of artificial intelligence into every corridor of society has created a surreal state of journalism in 2023. In its infancy, everyone is feeling around in the dark, stumbling over AI-generated content. A bevy of outlets, this site included, have dabbled in AI-generated content....
Deadspin Dead Ringers: Professional athletes and their celebrity doppelgängers
We’ve all heard of doppelgängers — people who aren’t related but look like one another. There’s a whole subreddit dedicated to finding lookalikes. There was a Saturday Night Live short on the subject. But have you ever looked at one of your favorite athletes, or a player on your favorite team and no...
Yes Charissa, sideline reporters are journalists
Last week, Charissa Thompson opened her yap on the podcast Pardon My Take and, for reasons still largely not understood by the rest of us, thought it was super-cute to admit that she has, in the past, made up sideline reports. How adorable!...
The real culprit in this Charissa Thompson mess is podcasts
This Charissa Thompson backlash, justified as it is, misses the bigger point, and if I may add 2 cents to the towering pile, it’s this: Podcasts are dumb. After two years of aggregating sports personalities saying stupid stuff, there’s more idiotic news made on podcasts than on social media at this ...
Michigan TV network fires sports director for Mel Tucker ‘analysis’ that read more like PR work
Last Thursday, sports reporter Audrey Dahlgren had a very bad day, by journalistic standards. After attorneys for Mel Tucker, the recently fired head football coach at Michigan State, released 98 pages worth of text messages sent by Brenda Tracy — an anti-rape advocate who filed a Title IX complaint...
Pat McAfee needs to be held accountable for his hypocrisy
During his weekly appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, vocal anti-vaxxer Aaron Rodgers took a shot at Travis Kelce for appearing in a PSA encouraging people to get both their COVID boosters and flu shots, referring to him as “Mr. Pfizer.” ...
NBC tried to ride the Swift-Kelce wave Sunday night. It ended badly
I’ve had little to no problem with the coverage of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. ...
Boog just brought up ayahuasca on the <i>Toy Story</i> broadcast
If you’ve been online at all during the past 48 hours, you’ve heard about ESPN’s Toy Story broadcast. Here’s how Disney (ESPN’s parent company) described the AI-generated animation:...
Taylor Swift-Travis Kelce and other high profile athlete-celebrity romances that make you go, 'Hmmm'
Even if you’re famous, having someone to cuddle with at night is still a priority. It’s harder in the public eye to keep who your bedmate is on the down low, and in some cases, wondering how these pairs came together is more interesting than their relationship itself. Have we seen a more notorious a...
Sorry, Mark Cuban, but you need to calm down
I guess you saw those numbers, Mark Cuban. ...
Travis Kelce breaks down his Taylor Swift-centric Sunday. Was it enchanting to meet her?
Travis Kelce brought this on himself and he knows that. That was his insistence, at least, on the podcast he hosts with his brother. On this week’s episode of New Heights, Jason Kelce and the most-talked-about bachelor in America dove deep into how the Kansas City Chiefs tight end went from a Hall o...
Magic Johnson and the Showtime Lakers not liking HBO’s <i>Winning Time</i> is what made it so good
On Oct. 1, 2006, Marlo Stanfield infamously told a security guard at a grocery store on Monroe Street in Baltimore, Maryland, “You want it to be one way. But it’s the other way.” Who would have known that 17 years later, the words from one of the most important characters from HBO’s best show — The ...
<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 ...