draft Page 23 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The NFL combine isn’t intrusive enough
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. Fuck you....

Reimagining the NFL Combine
Just like your local jungle gym, the NFL Combine hasn’t been modernized in decades. They’re still using the same stale gym equipment and drills Al Bundy practiced with at Polk High School to measure the relative strength and athleticism of NFL prospects. It’s past due time for the NFL combine to und...

Here are the most likely suitors for the Chicago Bears' No. 1 overall pick
The NFL belongs to the Chicago Bears for the next two months, regardless of whatever revelation Aaron Rodgers has. They have pocket aces, the Big Joker, Draw Four, whatever your card game of choice is, the Bears have the best hand — the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft. It appears likely that the...

Ex-Gators QB Anthony Richardson deserves all the pre-draft hype he's getting
It seems like with every mock draft, pundits’ opinions of certain prospects change. For practically the entirety of the 2022 NFL and college football seasons, the consensus top-three quarterbacks in the 2023 class were Alabama’s Bryce Young, Kentucky’s Will Levis, and Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud. Flori...

These are Derek Carr's post-Raiders options
Derek Carr may not be a superstar, but several quarterback-needy teams are interested in his services....

ESPN’s top draft analyst is mocking mock drafts by anointing Bronny James as a future top-10 pick
There’s no high school basketball LeaguePass — yet. Aside from the Bronny James hypebeast machine, the top prospects in the upcoming draft are previewed to the general public through the diligent scouting done by professional analysts or scouts who scour camps, national showcases, and high school gy...

These are the most obnoxious fan bases in sports (and pop culture)
The easiest way to protect yourself from outside criticism is to critique others. Negativity begets negativity, and I don’t even know where this is going because I’m here to tell you about insufferable fan bases....

Maybe blowing it up is the right call
About six weeks ago, I came here to lament how whenever one thing went wrong for a team, in any sport these days, the immediate call from fans and media alike was to simply blow things up. We have become so attuned to teams either being contenders or driving themselves into the dirt to start over th...

Are the Dallas Cowboys really America's Team or just popular with gamblers?
A new study by Ohio Sports Betting researched the most popular NFL teams in the country by state. The Dallas Cowboys won by a whopping margin as the overwhelming team of choice in 15 states. This study was based on Google search data collected over the last 12 months. The Cowboys ran away with the c...

We'll be inundated with gambling <i>and</i> beer ads during Super Bowl LVII
While the Super Bowl matchup this time is one of the more fascinating in recent history — two Black starting QBs (Jalen Hurts and Patrick Mahomes), the Kansas City Chiefs attempting to cement their modern dynasty, what Philadelphia Eagles fans will eat and climb on this time — we know that the ads ...

NFL salary cap is going up, but remember who gets most of the profits in sports
For 93.75 percent of NFL teams their season is over. Those 80,000-seat stadiums will be largely empty until Taylor Swift’s tour makes its visit. The team facility, however, that’s a different story. It will be buzzing with activity between now and September, as NFL franchises look to improve....

Serie A has another massive financial scandal on its hands
Maybe you were a wee lad or lass all the way back in…2006? Is that what it says here? OK. Well maybe you were just in high school or college then, and that was the last big Serie A scandal, known as “Calciopoli,” which saw Juventus punted to Serie B and other clubs docked points and money. That was ...

Will Dearica Hamby’s accusations force the WNBA to finally deal with its mommy issues?
The Las Vegas Aces kicked off the WNBA free agency negotiation period on Saturday, Jan. 21, by kicking Dearica Hamby from the sidewalks of Sin City to the curbs of the City of Angels. Neither “The Heave,” which made Hamby into both a fan favorite and a household name among league aficionados, nor he...

Patrick Mahomes keeps raising the bar by which he’s measured
Even on one leg Patrick Mahomes is better than Trevor Lawrence on his favorite day. If you weren’t aware, Lawrence had never lost on a Saturday until yesterday, when the Kansas City Chiefs outlasted the Jacksonville Jaguars, 27-20. In a game that was supposedly predetermined, postseason football hap...
![Keep an eye on these 23 breakout stars in 2023: Part 2 [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/e08bdbb97c11892cea1c15abaa73e766.jpg)
Keep an eye on these 23 breakout stars in 2023: Part 2 [Updated]
We’ve already brought you the first 13 figures on this list. Check out the rest below....

One of these things is not like the others
The downfall of Zach Wilson in 2022 coincided with the rise of Justin Fields. For every errant throw from Wilson, there is an impressive Fields pass or explosive run, and that disparity has many people looking back to the 2021 draft and wondering “How in the world did Fields go from the consensus No...

Bettors backing 3-win Bears over 1-loss Eagles… am I getting that right?
The Chicago Bears are coming off a bye week. That is pretty much the only advantage they have over the Philadelphia Eagles this weekend. Still, despite the obvious disparity in talent between the two squads, bettors seem inclined to reach for the stars, just as they did with the Texans over the Cowb...