football Page 249 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Clemson Doomed Themselves By Giving Up Too Many Big Plays
On most plays during the national championship game, it seemed that the outcome favored Clemson. Their defensive line sacked Alabama QB Jake Coker five times and harried him endlessly, while Clemson QB Deshaun Watson frequently had all day to stand in the pocket. Besides a 50-yard TD scamper (we’ll ...

Vontaze Burfict Suspended Three Games For "Repeated Violations Of Safety-Related Playing Rules"
Cincinnati linebacker Vontaze Burfict, whose late head shot on Antonio Brown helped lead to a game-winning field goal for the Steelers, has been suspended for the first three games of next season by the NFL. Here’s the NFL’s release (emphasis theirs): ...

<i>Star Wars</i>-Inspired Patriots Hype Video Doesn't Even Make Sense
Get ready for the “sports highlights mashed up with Star Wars: The Force Awakens” genre to become a ubiquitous internet thing. Let us hope the other entries are better than this one....

Fred Smoot: The Sex Boat Wasn't Even That Cool
Former NFL cornerback Fred Smoot did a Reddit AMA today, and finally declared that he is tired of one of the funniest stories in sports history, the Minnesota Vikings Sex Boat scandal. Before getting to the questions, Smoot had a request:...

The Browns Just Put Baseball Guy Paul DePodesta In Charge Of The Team
The Browns are really on one right now. Just a few days removed from chucking head coach Mike Pettine and GM Ray Farmer, the team has hired Paul DePodesta to be its ... top executive? Per a gibberish-laden press release (“DePodesta will be responsible for assessing and implementing best practices an...

Report: Johnny Manziel Partied In Vegas With A Fake Wig And Mustache
Somehow, some way, we still don’t know if Johnny Manziel was partying in Las Vegas Saturday night, fewer than 24 hours before the Browns ended their season with a loss to the Steelers. To recap: USA Today has multiple named witnesses—including Phoenix Suns head coach Jeff Hornacek’s brother John—who...

Colts Won't Chuck Pagano, After All
It was just last Thursday when ESPN reported the Indianapolis Colts were going to fire head coach Chuck Pagano after Sunday’s game. Other plugged in reporters assumed this was going to happen, and began looking at who would replace Pagano. So imagine everybody’s surprise when the Colts announced tha...

How Are You Supposed To Fire Coaches These Days?
The San Francisco 49ers fired head coach Jim Tomsula yesterday, a couple of hours after wrapping up a 5-11 season. His players found out about the firing in a text from owner Jed York. ...

More Evidence That Tom Brady Is A Fancy Dog
We have previously put forward the theory that Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is in fact a fancy dog. For those of you who scoffed at our perfectly sound reasoning, I present more irrefutable evidence that Tom Brady is indeed a dog, and a fancy one at that....

Cam Newton Snatches Bucs Jersey From Fan, Tumbles, Smiles
Has anyone in the NFL had more fun than Cam Newton this season?...

Nobody Cares If You Lie
Will Leitch, senior writer at Sports On Earth, culture writer for Bloomberg Politics, contributing editor at New York magazine, film critic for The New Republic and founder of Deadspin, is doing his yearly fill-in for Drew Magary on today’s Thursday Afternoon NFL Dick Joke Jamboroo. (Here is 2011’s ...

Louisville's James Burgess Ejected 11 Seconds Into Music City Bowl For Targeting
Louisville senior linebacker James Burgess was ejected just 11 seconds into the final game of his career, after officials ruled this hit on Texas A&M receiver Damion Ratley constituted targeting. The NCAA rule book defines ejection-worthy targeting as:...

College Athletic Departments Blow Millions On Fancy Stickers
The cooked books of big-time athletic departments show that schools barely break even at best on their athletics budgets. This is often used as evidence that paying athletes is untenable. What it conveniently glosses over is the unbelievable amount of already-existing money being more or less set on...

The Eagles Sure Seem To Have Hated Playing For Chip Kelly
There’s no shortage of reasons explaining the Philadelphia Eagles’ decision to fire Chip Kelly, but here’s a simple one: It appears that his players did not like playing for him....

What Do The Eagles Do Now?
On its face, the Eagles’ decision to dump head coach Chip Kelly after two good seasons and a bad one makes little sense. A good coach is one of the hardest things to find in the NFL, and it’s usually a bad idea to get rid of a coach after just one down year. That logic doesn’t really follow in Kelly...

Peter King: "I Am Obviously A Rube"
He’s probably talking about the Chip Kelly firing, but may be talking about Skyline chili. Seems accurate either way....
![Eagles Fire Chip Kelly [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/okoyugeid3mznuvh7bzk.jpg)
Eagles Fire Chip Kelly [Updated]
The Philadelphia Eagles have “released” head coach Chip Kelly, according to a statement the team made tonight. The full statement reads:...

Rams Defensive End William Hayes Is A Dinosaur Truther
ESPN’s Nick Wagoner has a fun story about Rams defensive end William Hayes, who is presented as the team’s resident merry prankster. The highlight of the story is when Hayes shares his thoughts on dinosaurs:...

How Did Brandon McManus Shank That Kick So Badly?
It’s a good thing Broncos kicker Brandon McManus got the chance the redeem himself with a 37-yard winner in overtime, because if his last appearance on the field had been the incomprehensibly shanked attempt that would have won the game at the end of regulation, he’d probably be locked in Peyton Man...

The Replay Booth Probably Did Not Assist Ed Hochuli On Late Facemask Call
For a moment during the third quarter of tonight’s Monday Night Football contest, it seemed that we had yet another refereeing controversy on our hands. As Broncos DE Malik Jackson sacked Bengals quarterback AJ McCarron, he grabbed McCarron’s facemask. But despite McCarron pleading for the call as h...