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Opening Night Overreaction: Mike Evans is officially washed
Last night, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Dallas Cowboys kicked off the 2021-22 NFL season. What was supposed to be a blowout in many fans’ eyes, turned into an absolute thriller that had two lead changes in the final two minutes, as well as a classic Tom Brady last-minute comeback drive to lead to a...

NFL getting in bed with sports gambling is not a good idea
Tony Dungy is standing on moral ground. The NFL is standing on legal ground. But in the end, the players could wind up on shaky ground....

The call that wasn’t last night, and the impact sports gambling and fantasy are having
Ever since sports gambling has become widely legal, and more teams and leagues sign their own deals with online sports betting companies, there’s been a fear from some corners of the sporting press about the effect it will have....

Don’t be shocked if Dallas comes away with the win tonight
Before I start, I just want to say that I totally believe Tampa Bay will win this game, but should Dallas pull off the upset, I wouldn’t be that surprised. The more I look at this game, the more I see factors pointing in favor of the Cowboys....

Next stop on the Le’Veon Bell traveling road show: Baltimore
The dreaded injury bug is already affecting NFL teams, and the season is just ready to get underway this week. The Baltimore Ravens are one of these injury-stricken teams that must now look to waiver wires and other means to fill out their roster. In need of help in the backfield after losing J.K. D...

Can anyone other than Derrick Henry rush for 2,000 yards this season?
The 2,000-yard rusher club is one of the most exclusive among all American professional sports. Derrick Henry became the eighth member of this prestigious club last year, rushing for 2,027. The last player to achieve this feat before Henry was Adrian Peterson in 2012. Peterson owns the second greate...

We need some of what Tony Romo’s smoking
As the resident Dallas Cowboys fan at Deadspin, I’m as big a fan of Tony Romo as anyone. But Romo’s latest assertion finally has me questioning his judgment the way many fans did during his time as Cowboys quarterback....

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times
At halftime last night, you could forgive any USMNT fan for thinking they had never left 1997. I know I did. Here we all were, too late on a school night, watching a US team getting paddled in Central America with the crowd going nuts and the American manager looking utterly clueless and his players...

2021 NFL Preview - NFC West: Stacked division gets tougher with additions like Stafford and Watt
The NFC West will come down to quarterback play and which defensive unit can get to the quarterback more often this season....

Ja’ Marr Chase says catching an NFL football is… different
Bengals rookie wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase had some interesting comments earlier this week that helped explain his preseason struggles....

2021 NFL Preview - 2021 NFL Preview - NFC South: Darnold, Winston, Ryan, and some old guy in Tampa
We could sit here all day and discuss how the Bucs are poised for another title run since they didn’t lose a single one of their starters during the offseason, or about how the Falcons should’ve drafted Justin Fields to be the heir apparent to Matty Ice despite how great Kyle Pitts can be. However, ...

Deadspin’s NFL gambling guide/futures bets to make for 2021 season
Wow, is it really that time of year already?...

2021 NFL Preview - NFC North: A dramedy of errors
If you’re the kind of person who enters into the NFL season looking for drama, welcome to the NFC North....

2021 NFL Preview - NFC East: Who will emerge as ‘unbreakable’ from this train wreck?
Welcome to the NFC East — home to the teams that engender the most yelling on Twitter and, not unrelated to that, where the entire division last season finished a combined 17 games under .500....

NHL players in the Olympics has always been better in theory than practice
Late last week, one of hockey’s more annoying fights seemed to have reached yet another conclusion, when the NHL, the NHLPA, and the IIHF reached an agreement on sending NHL players to the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. As with everything these days, it’s COVID-dependent, but the NHL schedule has ...

Josh Allen is ready to take over the league
There is a new sheriff in town, ready to dominate the AFC East for the next decade, and his name is Josh Allen. For a long time, the Buffalo Bills were the doormat of the division, only to be outdone by the New York Jets most years. But even the lowly Jets managed to play in back-to-back AFC champio...

Clinton Portis broke the law — but it doesn’t mean he was wrong
On rare occasions, it’s possible to be both the culprit and the victim. And in the case of Clinton Portis and the other 14 players who allegedly defrauded the NFL of millions, that seems to be it....

Ben Wallace is the perfect embodiment of his era
Look at a photo of Rudy Gobert in any game. Typically, he’ll be wearing the same knee sleeves with padding that most other players do, maybe an arm-sleeve or two, and that’s probably it. Let’s not make this about Gobert, though — let’s take another center: Nikola Jokić. Usually, it’s just leg sleeve...

Zeke’s gotta prove he’s not washed
This is the most important season of Ezekiel Elliott’s career....

2021 NFL Preview - AFC West: The Chiefs got better and will still rule this division and the conference
Like it or not, this is still Kansas City’s division to lose. It’s not very often we can look at a team that went to the Super Bowl two years in a row and go “Wow! They really improved this offseason.” Yet, that’s exactly what the Chiefs did. The biggest problem for the Chiefs in the Super Bowl was ...