ja Page 123 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

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...

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...

Maybe Byron Leftwich should have taken that Jacksonville Jaguars' job
Not long ago, former NFL QB Byron Leftwich was a hot-shot coaching candidate du jour. Last offseason, the moribund Jacksonville Jaguars — the team that drafted him — in particular, were ready to go all in on Leftwich as their next head coach....

Brett Maher won't miss his kicks this Sunday
Dallas Cowboys kicker Brett “The Triple Threat” Maher was anything but automatic during PATs during last Monday’s Wild Card Round victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. That was the first Cowboys’ playoff road win since 1992, but Maher certainly didn’t help. He went 1-for-5 on PAT attempts, with zer...

’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...

The Sports Nihilist: Anything but a Dallas-Philadelphia NFC title game
It’s odd how many NFL teams I hate despite not technically having an NFL team I root for. And I don’t feel like I’m in the minority on that either. Not the teamless fan part. The “I hate all of these teams” part. I refused to watch Patriots-Philadelphia Eagles and Patriots-Rams Round Two Super Bowls...

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...
![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 ...
![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 ...

The backlash against Tony Dungy has been a long time coming
It hasn’t been a great week for NBC Sports football analyst Tony Dungy. He made up one-half of perhaps the most low-energy broadcast team we’ve ever heard on Saturday night (along with Al Michaels, and has been getting flack for it ever since. Dungy has also been getting roasted, and rightly so, by ...
![Jaden Rashada was sold a false bill of goods, and Florida suffered for it [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/45261e413f4deddb7858fc8cfac6a14c.jpg)
Jaden Rashada was sold a false bill of goods, and Florida suffered for it [Updated]
It’s always funny to me when a sportswriter says LeBron James or Steph Curry would be worth double or triple on the free market. While that may be true, that’s not reality. The salary cap is the reality, and they’ll have to accept the $40 million salary they’re currently earning. The same goes for F...

Here are our NHL midseason awards
Handing out awards in the middle of the season is always a little silly, because just about anyone can spasm 40 games of brilliance. But hey, we’re here to be silly! So it feels like a great time to go over the first half of the NHL season and see who is the leader in the clubhouse for the baubles h...
![LIV Golf secures TV deal with the CW because that’s what it’s come to [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/893e770a49bf9a7193aef3ab95eb5754.jpg)
LIV Golf secures TV deal with the CW because that’s what it’s come to [Updated]
The LIV Golf tour may finally have a broadcast partner, and it’s every bit as bootleg as you’d imagine for a league that stays putting the cart before the horse. According to reports, the Saudi-funded golf league is nearing a deal with the CW. Yes, that’s right. The network that brought you The Flas...

The case for trading LeBron James for Evan Mobley
I’ve seen kiddie pools deeper than the unseasoned jambalaya VP Rob Pelinka has assembled for the Lakers around LeBron James. As a consequence, James’ enduring existence on a sub-.500 borderline playoff squad has created a rift where trade speculation festers and boils. During a recent appearance on ...

The best NBA games to watch this week
Of course, a single game does not impact a team’s overall record the same way that it does an NFL team. In the NBA, teams play multiple games per week. That is not changing anytime soon, especially with the Golden State Warriors needing to host as many events as possible in their palatial $1.4 billi...
![Jay Briscoe, indy wrestling legend, dead at 38 [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/0cc585ef8fb2dceb088cb500046ab8cd.png)
Jay Briscoe, indy wrestling legend, dead at 38 [Updated]
One-half of the best professional wrestling tag team of all-time to never get a chance in a major promotion died Tuesday night. Jay Briscoe was involved in a fatal car crash in Laurel, Delaware. Briscoe, whose real name was Jamin Pugh, was 38....

PFF's highest-graded Pittsburgh Steeler on offense was Mitch Trubisky — but they won't tell you that
As a former employee of Pro Football Focus, I can confidently tell you that the rating system the company built its reputation on is utter hogwash. I want to be clear, PFF is an incredible company that provides great analysis through articles, and advanced stats that only they keep track of, but the...
