layoffs Page 48 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The XFL Was Mostly Irrelevant, But Don't Celebrate Its Failure
For many football fans, the resurgence of the XFL was simply a way to get their weekend fix of America’s “new pastime.” ...

The New NFL Playoff System Looks More Fair, But Is It?
As under the radar as the NFL can be (so not much at all), the owners voted to approve an expansion of the playoffs yesterday from 12 to 14 teams. The reasons for this are obvious to everyone. Two more additional playoff games are two more programming slots TV networks get to bid over, and there’s a...

It Took A Global Pandemic, But The Opportunity Is Here To Fix MLS' Dreadful Playoff System
When talking about MLS, it always feels necessary to proclaim your position and biases from the outset. Generally, any fight about the structure or workings of the domestic soccer league starts a food-fight of varying grossness, so it’s a good idea to stake out your position clearly so you know whic...

Screw It. Now That Coronavirus Has Ruined Everything, Let's Expand All Playoffs To Include Every Single Freakin' Team.
It was Major League Baseball that got the conversation started about expanding playoffs, and the NFL got on board when it included additional wild-card teams in its proposed collective bargaining agreement. At the time, it seemed for all the world like a stupid cash grab that would dilute the specia...

Highly Desired Talent Squandered In Crucial Moment, Wastes No Time Thinking About Future
The Washington Nationals won the World Series, which feels like an insane thing to write. (Be happy for them at your own discretion.) But let’s talk about Gerrit Cole. The Astros pitcher, one of the best in baseball, was nowhere to be found as Houston lost Game 7, 6-2. Manager A.J. Hinch revealed th...

Candies To Stress Eat While You Watch The World Series Game Tonight, Ranked
This World Series is depressing as hell, just like many other things that are happening right now and which we have no control over. Neither the Houston Astros nor the Washington Nationals (my team) have managed to win a home game. At Game 3, people were literally crying as we left the stadium, whic...

Astros One Win Away After Taking Game 5 Of World Series
The last baseball game of 2019 played in D.C. ended with a thud....

Donald Trump Gets Boos, “Lock Him Up” Chants At World Series Game 5
For once, Donald Trump got booed by a bunch of people in red hats....

Max Scherzer Can't Go Tonight, So The Nationals Are Turning To, Um, Joe Ross?
What was going to be a marquee Game 5 pitching rematch on Sunday night between the Astros’ Gerrit Cole and the Nationals’ Max Scherzer has taken a bizarre left turn, as Scherzer won’t be healthy enough to get on the mound for Washington. In a shock announcement this afternoon, manager Davey Martinez...

Alex Bregman Let Out All His Frustration With One Booming Swing
It seems likely that nobody in the World Series was more pissed off than Astros third baseman Alex Bregman heading into Game 4. The ’Stros’ top hitter in the regular season was only 1-for-13 in the first three games of the Fall Classic. His lone positive contribution was a meaningless dinger in a 12...

Don't Make Me Root For These Creatures To Be Happy
I am never going to forgive the Houston Astros. Not because they’ve dropped two straight at home to the Washington Nationals in this year’s World Series, although that was pretty grotesque. (They gave up a crucial home run to Kurt Suzuki, who is 129 years old.) No, it’s because their idiot assistant...

Victorious LAFC Coach Bob Bradley Storms Off In Response To Softball Question
LAFC beat Zlatan Ibrahimović and LA Galaxy 5–3 in Thursday night’s El Tráfico, beating their rivals for the first time ever, bouncing them from the MLS playoffs, and advancing to the club’s first Western Conference final. LAFC star Carlos Vela figured prominently, scoring a pair of first-half goals ...

Astros GM Jeff Luhnow Keeps Digging And Digging
Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow came before assembled members of the press Thursday evening in D.C., to face the music for now-fired assistant GM Brandon Taubman’s locker room taunts directed at three women reporters after his team’s ALCS-clinching victory, and for the Astros publicly and falsely...
![Astros Fire Brandon Taubman, Now Need To Fire Whoever Smeared Stephanie Apstein [Update]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/ujsruq4h4guxhyzk2i3w.png)
Astros Fire Brandon Taubman, Now Need To Fire Whoever Smeared Stephanie Apstein [Update]
The Houston Astros have fired assistant GM Brandon Taubman for conduct that “does not reflect the values” of the organization, according to a team statement released on Thursday. ...

Yu Darvish Waited Over A Year To Get Justin Verlander Back For A Joke
While chasing down a slow grounder in Game 2 of the World Series, Astros pitcher Justin Verlander fell on his butt as he threw the ball off his shin. Nobody was hurt; it was just a nice blooper....

Alex Bregman Was So Close To Stopping Everything
It’s obviously hyperbole to say that a misplay on a tough grounder lost the Astros Game 2 of the World Series. But that six-run seventh inning from the Nationals that broke the 2-2 tie and led them to a 12-3 win was such an intense morale-sapper—for both the Houston team and the formerly rowdy crowd...

Hug Stephen Strasburg More. Continue Hugging Him.
Stephen Strasburg continued his great postseason run last night by throwing six solid innings in Game 2 of the World Series, during which he allowed just two earned runs and struck out seven. You know what that means, don’t you? He got a big hug for his troubles....

After Game 2 Pounding, The Astros Are Up To Their Necks In Doo Doo
The Astros are in big trouble. They lost Game 1 Tuesday night when the Nationals touched up the best pitcher in baseball for five runs, and came into Game 2 needing to scratch out some offense against a rolling Stephen Strasburg in order to salvage a split at home. They got off to a good start on th...

Patrick Corbin Was The Only Choice
Dave Martinez knew it. He knew it by the fourth, when the Astros worked Max Scherzer for 27 pitches, pushing his pitch count on the night to an unsustainable 96 through four, but also he knew it on Monday, when the Nationals manager declined to name a starting pitcher for Game 3 despite having a cle...
