ESPN Page 17 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The Arizona Cardinals are trying, but they just can’t avoid bad news this offseason
Just as the future was beginning to look bright for the Arizona Cardinals, it has been looking rough since Week 14. They led not only the NFC West, but the entire conference for much of the season. Then No. 1 wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins went down with a torn MCL in a home loss to a division rival,...

Let he who is without sin cast the hottest take
The NBA hasn’t had a real (or uncovered) gambling scandal since booking games became legal in more than select locations. Unless you count Scott Foster’s streak of holding down playoff teams that employ Chris Paul — which is currently at 14 games after the Suns’ loss to New Orleans in Game 2 on Tues...

NBA Playoff ratings were on fire opening weekend, but that’s not the only way to define the league’s success
Television ratings are one of the most archaic ways to measure what people care about. We’re more than 20 years into the new millennium. Who has time to be held to a live television schedule? I remember as a child watching an episode of Home Improvement when Tim “The Toolman” Taylor was trying to av...

Tom Brady ESPN exclusive provides zero answers
OK, seriously — does Tom Brady have dirt on someone at ESPN? Does ESPN have a large chunk of its investments tied up in Brady? Wait — actually, yeah, they do. That should explain the PR puff piece they just put out on the Bucs QB a week after the news broke that Brady had planned to become a part-ow...

George Karl has a history of making a punching bag of DeMarcus Cousins and Black players
Behind closed doors, George Karl probably calls successful Black people “uppity.”...

Can we please get an LS-U <em>30 for 30</em> already?
It’s hard to quantify what makes a thing charismatic. I recently went to New Orleans for the first time, and before I arrived, I was a little skeptical because often when people can’t shut up about how great something is, the expectation is set so high that anything but perfection is going to be a l...

Civil servant Kyrie Irving probably shouldn’t Google ‘Nets owner-China ties’
Two of the people not quoted in ESPN’s nearly flawless piece about Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai’s problematic ties to China — including a business under the umbrella of his company developing facial recognition software that may or may not have been equipped with an “Uyghur alarm” to alert police of...

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.”...
![It's CJ McCollum's moment now: Paul George out [UPDATED]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/8d247f9aab987ffa757f9f5429d7b167.jpg)
It's CJ McCollum's moment now: Paul George out [UPDATED]
This story has been updated....

Baker Mayfield is doing himself no favors with this woe-is-me act
Baker Mayfield hasn’t done himself any favors since learning of his official demise in Cleveland after the Browns traded for his replacement, DeShaun Watson. The 22 civil cases for sexual misconduct still pending for Watson weren’t enough to scare the Browns away, which meant the end of Mayfield’s c...

The XFL having more Black coaches than the NFL is why Brian Flores is suing the league
No one knows how long this iteration of the XFL will last, but the league has already proven that NFL owners are liars....

Hey, Steve Sarkisian, admitting Texas has a problem is the first step to recovery
As a journalist, I’m always skeptical when someone isn’t allowed to talk. So when I read that Texas senior defensive lineman Moro Ojomo is taking a Steve Sarkisian-enforced break from talking to reporters “for a while” after criticizing the Longhorn’s culture, my immediate reaction was to question w...

Frank Vogel found out he got fired via Woj’s tweet and Adam Schefter reduced Dwayne Haskins’ life to his NFL career — ESPN spent $80 million on the duo
You get what you pay for. And the “worldwide leader in sports” just spent close to $100 million on two men that took Ricky Bobby’s father’s words a little too seriously. ...

Dwayne Haskins, 24, dies after getting hit by car
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Dwayne Haskins died Saturday morning in South Florida after being hit by a car, weeks shy of turning 25. The former Ohio State star was drafted No. 15 overall by the Washington Commanders in the 2019 NFL Draft before his current role in Pittsburgh....

Mark Emmert embarrasses himself yet again
2022 really hasn’t been Mark Emmert’s year. ...

IDIOT OF THE MONTH: Cleveland Browns stand out among crowded March pack
Welcome to Deadspin’s IDIOT OF THE MONTH, where we laugh at people and organizations around the sports world because otherwise we would cry. An honorable mention for March goes out to none other than You, the reader! That’s right — You, most dearest sports media consumer, honestly believed your Marc...
![Spring is in the air, so of course Mets fans have bad news [UPDATED]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/2438bbb460694b8924e530450dc2f2cf.jpg)
Spring is in the air, so of course Mets fans have bad news [UPDATED]
UPDATE: ESPN’s Jeff Passan tweeted at 4 p.m. EST that Jacob deGrom would miss Opening Day and be shut down for a month and that the timetable for his return was unclear....

ESPN’s NBA “retro-cast” sounds like a pretty cool idea
ESPN’s is set to test a new idea on ESPN 2 with an NBA “retro-cast” that will roll out on April 6 during the New York Knicks vs. Brooklyn Nets game at Madison Square Garden....

Evan Mobley has been great all season, but he’s been outplayed by Scottie Barnes for Rookie of the Year
The NBA Rookie of the Year vote has gotten even more complicated. Yesterday, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Evan Mobley sprained his left ankle and is out for the next three games. This comes at an especially difficult time for the Cleveland Cavaliers, who have lost four of their last five ...

Check out some of the excerpts from Deshaun Watson’s deposition
Earlier this week, TMZ posted a story with video footage from FOX 8 in Cleveland that featured excerpts from two of Deshaun Watson’s depositions in multiple civil lawsuits filed against him for sexual assault and inappropriate conduct by more than 20 women No matter how you feel about the Browns’ ne...