illbe Page 15 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Which team would most benefit from adding Julio Jones?
Quintorris Lopez Jones — more commonly known as Julio Jones — has been an Atlanta Falcon his entire Hall of Fame career. But with new weapons in town, team money problems, and 32 candles on his birthday cake this year, Jones and the Falcons may be parting ways before the start of 2021....

Let's predict each NFL team's win-loss record!
The NFL season is still four months away, but with the draft, the schedule release, and most of free agency in the rear-view mirror, it’s time to start looking forward to a season with lots of storylines to follow, more games than ever before, and fewer preseason games than ever before (three is sti...

Surprises, smiles, and shiny shoes: An NFL Draft Round One recap
Night one was super fun. I’m so glad that we’re done speculating about where all the top prospects are going to go, and now can begin looking at actual fit and actual expectations. I was sitting at home looking like Joe Rogan in response to George Masvidal’s flying knee. There’s plenty to break down...

Mac Jones is the ultimate ‘Patriots QB’
If you’re a Patriots fan like me, you know that the NFL Draft is about two words when it comes to this team: trade back. It’s how Bill Belichick has built the league’s greatest contemporary franchise. Giving up fewer picks in earlier rounds for more picks later....

Ravens-Chiefs Orlando Brown trade could work brilliantly for both teams
Two of the best teams in the AFC just made a trade with one another that was absolutely brilliant for both teams. The Chiefs, who watched the best quarterback in the NFL run for his life in the Super Bowl, acquired Pro-Bowl offensive tackle Orlando Brown from the Baltimore Ravens. The two teams also...

Roger Goodell is still bad at his job, any fool could print money for the NFL with gambling deals
Pump the brakes on all the praise for NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell....

Which team played the villain role best?
With the Houston Astros now wearing the crown as the most hated team in professional sports — as indicated by the chorus of boos and piercing screams of “CHEATER!” that rang through the Oakland Coliseum (whatever ridiculous name it has today) last night on Opening Day (ahh… welcome back baseball, an...

The NFL is hell-bent on returning to normal, starting with a live draft in scenic Cleveland
We’re kinda sorta trending towards normalcy, and the NFL Draft on April 29 in Cleveland will lean into that, consequences be damned. The NFL announced today in a press release that the draft will be live, in person, with actual live people, including commissioner Roger Goodell, prospects, and fans. ...

Bill Belichick is your drunk friend at the NFL fantasy draft, hoarding the tight ends
Remember that article I wrote yesterday about Jonnu Smith signing with the Patriots, and how Bill Belichick finally had an athletic tight end to build his offense around again? Well, good ol’ Bill woke up this morning and chose violence, asking himself, “What’s better than one tight end? Two tight e...

Jonnu Smith is a solid, Gronk-esque addition for the Patriots
The Patriots were lost in the dark in the first year of their post-Brady era. The Cam Newton experiment didn’t work, in part because of his battle with COVID, and the roster proved to have incredibly uninspiring weapons to work with. In atypical fashion, Bill Belichick has stormed into the free agen...

Sleep on Cam Newton at your own peril — Belichick is no dope, and Pats are far from irrelevant
Small sample sizes are perilous for any kind of analysis, but sometimes, it’s all you have to go on....

Tom Izzo, Michigan State cross advertising rubicon in a banner week for the NCAA
In the same week that the NCAA disclosed that they don’t really have a plan if anything goes sideways at their Indiana NCAA Tournament, and Les Miles and Jeff Long showed what kind of people are really in charge, Michigan State may have taken the cake. That is, if the cake were sponsored by Betty Cr...

Let's predict where this batch of high-profile quarterbacks will end up next year
We are in the throes of NFL speculation season. So much so that, as I’m writing, I feel as though it’s entirely possible I will have to scrap this entire article because Russell Wilson may have been traded to the Bears. Seriously – Chicago Bears Reddit is literally tracking a private jet flight from...

Deadspin Wayback Machine: A look back at some of sports’ great relics
One of the great things about sports is the comfort that they provide. While the world is always changing, sometimes at a pace that’s hard to process, sports are largely static. If you watch a football game from 50 years ago, there certainly are differences in strategy and the size and speed of the ...

Revisiting the 15 bizarre Super Bowl prop bets from last week
Last week, Deadspin published it’s 15 bizarre Super Bowl Prop bets to bank on. Today we want to figure out how we did....

These teams have never been to a Super Bowl, but how close did they get?
There are 12 teams who have never won a Super Bowl — and four of them haven’t even been to the big game....

Bill Belichick backpedaled into right decision on top of a soapbox he’s never used
It has come to Bill Belichick’s attention that he will not be getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Thursday at the White House....
![Bill Belichick has some integrity, turns down Trump’s Medal of Freedom [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/ydzh8w5at6msazqn6kf5.jpg)
Bill Belichick has some integrity, turns down Trump’s Medal of Freedom [Updated]
Updated on Jan. 11, 2021 at 7:45 p.m. EST: Several hours after posting this column, Bill Belichick released a statement saying he will not accept the Medal of Freedom offered by Donald Trump. You can read Belichick’s statement in the tweet below from ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Beneath that is our origina...

Patriots are on to losing, and Bill Belichick has no idea how to do that anymore
Bill Belichick is very good at winning. It’s essentially all he’s done over the past two decades with the Patriots. Now that Brady has left town and the Patriots aren’t winning, Belichick is in unfamiliar — and uncomfortable — territory....

Last time Patriots missed playoffs, Flo Rida and T-Pain were rapping about Apple Bottom Jeans
The Patriots have officially been eliminated from playoff contention after a loss to Miami on Sunday. ...