f Page 393 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

NFL scriptwriters couldn’t have penned a better ending to the regular season than Bills-Dolphins
Give the NFL credit. The league obviously hired writers from disparate backgrounds to arrange the season’s plotlines. On Sunday, the Week 18 finale will climax with an end-of-season clash of genres between the Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins, who couldn’t be more different. The Dolphins even have a...

NCAA-ESPN's new broadcast deal is great for women's sports
The NCAA and ESPN agreed to an eight-year, $115 million annual deal to broadcast 40 different championships including the women’s college basketball tournament....

Trevor Bauer wants back in the majors, but does MLB want him?
Toxic ex-MLB pitcher Trevor Bauer — who sued Deadspin and lost — is hoping to find another gig in the majors....

Darvin Ham is not the reason the Lakers are losing
News flash: The Miami Heat are a better coached team than the Los Angeles Lakers. It showed in the fourth quarter of their Wednesday night matchup. Erik Spoelstra has been with the Heat organization since 1995 — its head coach since 2008. Following nine seasons as an NBA player, Darvin Ham was an as...

Stephen A. Smith weighs in on Pat McAfee and, as usual, gets it wrong
Last time I checked, Stephen A. Smith, a man who epitomizes the “embrace really loud debate” and who, just this week, had a man sniffing a female colleague’s shoe on his show, has decided to speak for journalism....

Sorry, but I’m contractually obligated not to take it easy on Rory McIlroy
Golf is so much more fun when the players are petty. From Ryder Cup shenanigans to guys getting pissed about the pace of play, the game is infinitely more entertaining when there’s a clearly defined heel who fans can collectively hate. That’s why the past year-plus of golf was great television. ...

The NBA's participation policy wasn't meant for guys like Dorian Finney-Smith
The NBA likely implemented its player participation policy — read: anti-load management protocol — so that fans wouldn’t attend games only to see LeBron James and Anthony Davis, or Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, in street clothes. ...

Atlanta and the Dodgers have opted for playoff-only starters
While Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery still wait for their free-agent payday, two powerhouses that were also in need of starting pitching have chosen other routes. Oh, the Dodgers did splash free-agent cash, it was just for one pitcher who’s never pitched in the majors (Yoshinubu Yamamoto) and one...

Darvin Ham could be scapegoat for Lakers' woes
The Los Angeles Lakers are in the midst of a slump and it looks like the team’s woes will be pinned on Darvin Ham. ...

From Jerry Richardson to Dave Tepper, the Carolina Panthers have written the manual on trash owners
Three million dollars (total) in fines. Two atrocious owners. One franchise. The Carolina Panthers are a mess....

Bill Belichick can go quietly — or go kicking and screaming
Nobody leaves a job with quite as much oomph as Bill Belichick. Twenty-four years ago this week, Belichick handed a note with a scribbled message signaling to New York Jets officials at a press conference, stepped to the podium, and delivered his infamous remarks. ...
![Wander Franco released, still under investigation for alleged sexual relationship with minor [Update]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/389d8a3e9adf5fb5a9a635d8f88137ec.jpg)
Wander Franco released, still under investigation for alleged sexual relationship with minor [Update]
Updated Jan. 5: Wander Franco was granted conditional release on Friday but remains under investigation for his alleged relationship with a 14-year-old girl and giving her mom a car and hush money for her consent. ...

Wanna watch a smart woman totally body two stupid hockey men?
There is a segment of hockey fans that have always wanted to watch the bubble of hockey men discussing hockey things get totally pierced by even just the smallest bit of logic. For that is the true enemy of most things that have been hockey ethos. So a hearty thank you to Jennifer Botterill, who dur...

Katt Williams channels his inner <i>Last Dance</i> Scottie Pippen on Shannon Sharpe's podcast
Katt Williams had some pissed-off at The Last Dance type of energy during his appearance on Shannon Sharpe’s Club Shay Shay podcast. Before the episode had been entirely uploaded, clips of him skewering Steve Harvey, Cedric the Entertainer, and Rickey Smiley were going viral on social media....

Why has MLB free agency ground to a halt?
We were told that once Shohei Ohtani signed, or promised to the Dodgers that he can take all his money after the ocean reclaims Los Angeles as a whole, the rest of the free agents would start to fly off the shelves. It’s now Jan. 3, spring training is about six weeks away, and most of the free agent...

Want to reduce college football Bowl opt-outs? Pay the players
The bowl opt-outs are a letdown, but we all saw what happened to Jaylon Smith. During the 2016 Fiesta Bowl — which was not a playoff game — his leg was mangled. A projected top-five pick fell to the second round. Since then, many star players have made the intelligent business decision to not play i...
![Fire at Tyreek Hill's house caused by child playing with lighter: Investigators [Update]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/d03ac1bdc9ff186ddc11f06b6d952aea.png)
Fire at Tyreek Hill's house caused by child playing with lighter: Investigators [Update]
Updated Jan. 9: The Jan. 3 fire at Tyreek Hill’s house — caused by two children playing with a lighter they thought was a toy — caused $2.3 million in damages, according to the incident report obtained by TMZ Sports. ...

Luke Littler: 16-year-old dart prodigy, or Robin Williams from <em>Jack</em>?
The darts world is abuzz over Luke Littler, a 16-year-old prodigy on the verge of winning the World Dart Championship. The Englishman burst onto the scene in this tournament, going from relative unknown to the sport’s Bobby Fischer (minus the racism and genius though I’m not sure those two can be tr...
![Aubrey Huff returns to being sexist after DM exposed [Update]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/5498badee65fe774f538c60b6486ee84.jpg)
Aubrey Huff returns to being sexist after DM exposed [Update]
Updated Jan. 5: Aubrey Huff’s X/Twitter hiatus was short-lived, as the ex-MLB player and problematic poster reactivated his account and proceeded to be predictably sexist, and offensive....
