it Page 402 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Shannon Sharpe, Memphis Grizzlies nearly scuffle at halftime: 'They didn't want this smoke'
The Memphis Grizzlies have always exuded extreme black Air Force energy. It’s one thing for their trash talk to agitate LeBron. However, their penchant for trash talk nearly approached Malice at the Palace levels on Friday night before halftime of a Friday night ESPN matchup against the Los Angeles ...

Will this year's MVP also win the Super Bowl?
Patrick Mahomes. Joe Burrow. Jalen Hurts. Josh Allen. One of these four quarterbacks has a chance to do something that hasn’t been done in 23 years — win the MVP and the Super Bowl in the same year....

It's not cheating if everyone's doing it, right?
With Divisional Weekend right around the corner, it’s easy for fans to look for any reason to believe their adversaries should be disqualified. What better way to advance than by default, am I right? Recently, Philadelphia Eagles kicker Jake Elliott — and the entire Eagles’ special teams unit for th...

The 8 remaining NFL playoff teams ranked
We’re down to the final eight. No one would’ve picked some of the teams still playing to be here at the beginning of the season, while others were givens. Yet, all are three wins away from winning the Super Bowl. The defending champions never looked the part and the defending runners-up are still pa...

Jim Harbaugh just had a cookie, he doesn't need another one
There’s a difference between “working at the pleasure” of your alma mater and holding it hostage, and Jim Harbaugh is slowly creeping toward the latter. The University of Michigan coach made an overt pass at the Vikings opening a year ago at this time, and spent parts of this offseason chatting with...

It would be cool if some of the Jacksonville Jaguars kneeled in protest of Ron DeSantis’ recent actions
When the Jaguars take on the Kansas City Chiefs on Saturday at Arrowhead Stadium, it will be Jacksonville’s first time playing in the Divisional Round since 2017 — which is also the last time the Jags made the playoffs. 2017 is coincidentally the same year in which members of the team kneeled agains...

What does You Can Play actually do?
The thing that organizations like the Philadelphia Flyers, or the NHL, or the You Can Play Project, is that the stories they hope will just go away never do in the timeframe they’re counting on. They continue to fester, and everyone’s inaction on it only prolongs this. The Flyers and their coach, Jo...

’90s rules, agency wars, and other ideas for an NBA midseason tournament
I know I’m not the only one rolling my eyes at the NBA trying to come up with a midseason tournament format worthy of getting players to compete at the highest level. This is going to be like summer camp for teams once they’re eliminated, and if I was in the league, I’d think about throwing a contes...

There may be no saving Everton now
Perhaps the most damning thing you can say about Everton FC is that most fans probably didn’t know the Premier League had financial fair play rules. It is hard to remember any other club that has come within a mile of being in violation of these rules that no one knows, and seem pretty nebulous when...

NCAA to Congress: Stop us before we NIL again
The NCAA needs a reality check. This week the vanishingly relevant college athletics institution has once again asked Congress to help it stabilize the college sports system, but unless Hunter Biden is suiting up at linebacker for LSU next season, it’ll be hard to motivate the people in charge to fa...

NFL Network graphic insinuating Brock Purdy is smarter than Dak Prescott is a bad look
I understand that the content must be constantly shoveled into the furnace known as the 24-hour news cycle. That’s a lot of wood to keep on fire, especially when dealing with live television. All of that being said, what NFL Total Access did in comparing Dak Prescott to Brock Purdy looked disrespect...

Raise your hand if you want a Denver Nuggets-Memphis Grizzlies Western Conference Finals
If you directly asked the NBA powers how they would feel about a Memphis Grizzlies-Denver Nuggets matchup in the Western Conference Finals, I think they’d offer a “We’d love that.” However, if you asked the same people the same question in an anonymous poll, I’m pretty sure the responses would be so...

Does LaMelo Ball’s tortuous season have a light at the end of the tunnel?
LaMelo Ball’s lost season was cursed before it even began. On Wednesday night, the Charlotte Hornets guard sprained his ankle after teammate P.J. Washington landed on it during a rare win over the Houston Rockets. Entering the night, Houston was the only team in the league with a more hopeless recor...

If you can't beat 'em, hurt 'em?
Anytime the Dallas Cowboys and San Francisco 49ers get together, it’s a big deal for both franchises and the fan bases. But one radio host for 105.3 The Fan in Dallas chose to make it a little too personal by wishing injury on an opposing player. One of the hosts for “GBag Nation,” The Fan’s afterno...
![Women are no safer in sports than anywhere else [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/b8f7a42c70560a7509955ad0bf3d3876.jpg)
Women are no safer in sports than anywhere else [Updated]
Last week, LSU was forced to beef up security around their gymnastics team, after fans of Olivia “Livvy” Dunne showed up at a meet the TikTok star was attending and disrupted the routines of fellow competitors. A video of a crush of young men, waiting for Dunne outside the competition, chanting her ...

Bills vs. Bengals: A rematch from a night none of us will ever forget
It’ll be the elephant in the room only as long as the Bills and Bengals choose it to be. The coaches and their 53-man rosters have prepared, traveled, and mentally dialed themselves in to face one another before. It’s a little hard to believe that Buffalo safety Damar Hamlin went into cardiac arrest...

America owes Max Kellerman a collective apology over his Tom Brady 'cliff theory'
In the Summer of 2016, Max Kellerman predicted that Tom Brady’s skill would fall off a cliff. “Tom Brady’s just about done. It could be his next game he plays, it could be a year from now, but he is going to fall off a cliff. Tom Brady is going to be a bum in short order.”...
![Ed Reed, Bethune-Cookman split — no more celebrity football coaches at HBCUs [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/d6fc743081eda781c014447f243a40e5.jpg)
Ed Reed, Bethune-Cookman split — no more celebrity football coaches at HBCUs [Updated]
In less than a month as the new head football coach at Bethune-Cookman University — a Historically Black College & University (HBCU) — Ed Reed has already unsurprisingly proven why he never should have been hired. Over the weekend, the College and Pro Football Hall of Famer took to social media to r...

How enticing are each of the offensive coordinator openings?
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers fired offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich. Leftwich just finished up his fourth season as Tampa’s OC, having reached the playoffs each of the last three seasons — or every season with Tom Brady at quarterback. However, despite the playoff berth, 2022 was hard to watch. The ...
