leaf Page 3 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Mel Kiper Jr. whiffed on Will Levis
Overreaching on quarterbacks has become a yearly tradition. Mitch Trubisky is going to work out! Carson Wentz will be healthy! Peyton Manning and Ryan Leaf? Same thing! And this year, the projection for former Kentucky quarterback Will Levis was way off, with no one being more wrong about the mayonn...
The Maple Leafs won the game they should have lost, which they never do
It’s almost always futile to look for “signs” or “omens” in playoff hockey. The next bounce off someone’s ass doesn’t really care what happened before, and apparently, this season, neither will the next call the ref misses but still manages to leave your D-man maimed, and the opposing forward an ope...
It’s never enough for Rob Manfred and his greedy pig bosses
You’d think after negotiating a CBA, before which Rob Manfred got to live out his lifelong dream of canceling baseball games, where the owners got a new level of luxury tax penalties, didn’t really have to pay younger players all that much more than the pennies they already were, and certainly didn’...
The beginning of the end starts for the Toronto Maple Leafs tonight
In the latest exhibit that the hockey gods come with a wicked sense of humor, the Toronto Maple Leafs are now tied for the longest streak of making the playoffs in the league. Thanks to the Washington Capitals, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Nashville Predators all heading for the cottage of the damned th...
Brian Burke is the biggest fraud in the NHL
Before we pivot later today to the NHL Playoffs, we can kick a little more dirt on the regular season, and specifically, the Pittsburgh Penguins. After missing the playoffs for the first time since before the Obama administration, the Penguins fired GM Ron Hextall — rumored to be an inside agent sen...
Toronto sports, man
On one level, I get it. I bet Toronto is a lot like Chicago. Whenever the first warm stretch hits, you’re looking for any excuse to be outside. And most likely drunk as shit when you are. Usually that streak doesn’t hit until somewhere around Memorial Day, so to get it in April feels like you’re ste...
Let’s find a way the Boston Bruins might lose in the playoffs, if there is one
While Gary Bettman might not think there’s anything wrong with the current playoff system (he’s wrong!), it is pretty clear that this set-up has robbed March and the first half of April of most of its drama. We’re basically down to seeing whether a wheezing Penguins team (whoops!) can keep their lun...
Did Ryan Leaf just offer the best explanation for Russell Wilson's precipitous decline?
One of the biggest mysteries from the 2022 NFL season was “What the hell happened to Russell Wilson?” This was a conundrum that not even the Scooby Doo gang could solve. Danger-Russ was supposed to help the Denver Broncos compete with the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers in the AFC West, ...
![Raptors apologize for ruining Women's History Month on March 1 [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/c8e91904f496217a2163b0d96ced3eff.png)
Raptors apologize for ruining Women's History Month on March 1 [Updated]
Women’s history month is already off to a cringeworthy start in the NBA, with the Toronto Raptors paying tribute (their version of one) to women all over the world. Growing up a huge pro wrestling fan, I’ve seen some bad scripts in my day, but this one takes the cake. Whoever wrote this script needs...
The Toronto Maple Leafs load up for their first-round exit
The Atlantic Division in the NHL was already a hell gauntlet. With the Boston Bruins suddenly turning into a team of frost giants that can skate (then again, it’s probably likely frost giants could always skate, given the conditions in the Jotunheim), it’s only become more so. It’s just three teams ...
Washington Commanders: QB1 — A New Hope
If only Washington could’ve seen its quarterback calamity coming. In early March when the Commanders struck a deal with the Colts to acquire Carson Wentz to be its next starting QB, it was correctly seen as kicking the can down the road. It was even more obvious when the season opener rolled around ...
Even Ryan Leaf has Jets jokes for ‘Mormon Ryan Leaf’
Jets fans have not had a good week. As Al Michaels once so elegantly put it, “They’ve had a worse week than Harvey Weinstein.” ...
Maple Leafs have no bottom
I am as guilty as anyone else of turning the NHL into “How The Maple Leafs Turn.”You spend enough time commenting on how everyone’s always commenting on the Leafs, and well, you’re then part of the problem. But every time the Leafs do something, it’s generally causing some sort of ripple given their...
Carson Wentz, the best a man (Ron Rivera) can get
As the now-Commanders acquired Carson Wentz to be its next quarterback after three decades of unsuccessful options — none lasting more than three seasons as Washington’s primary starter — the fan base just sighed. Wentz was never going to be the guy. He looks like Peyton Manning and Ryan Leaf on bac...
The Maple Leafs are going to try again with Matt Murray and that’s great for the rest of us
The NHL season kicks off for real tomorrow night (the two appetizer games in Prague don’t count, especially because they involved the Sharks), or as it’s known for most of the hockey covering world, “Six months of how does this affect the Leafs?” Yep, the sport’s biggest soap opera, the question of ...
Hey, ho, Jack Del Rio’s got to go!
Jackass, I mean Jack Del Rio’s latest bout of idiocy was provoked by actually coaching football. That’s instead of shooting his mouth off about minimizing an insurrection....
I guess I can kiss Nazem Kadri’s ass now
The redemption narrative is the easy one. Everyone loves it, and it usually writes itself, which is why writers will flock to it at every opportunity (especially hockey writers who by the time the Stanley Cup Final is over are barely sober enough to find their hotel room key), and it feels good to a...
The JaMarcus Russell story is much more complicated than you think
JaMarcus Russell really does feel like one word. That’s the way that it goes for athletes like him, Tony Mandrich, Ryan Leaf, Anthony Bennett, and Trent Richardson. The reason for that, only one word comes to mind at the thought of them: Bust....
Oilers enjoy the sounds of silence at expense of Calgary crowd
It’s tempting to try to glean some kind of lesson from big games. We all try to do it, all the time, just as fans. The playoffs are not all that different from the final few episodes of a prestige television series’ season. You know there’s not much left, and you’re looking for any clues you can get...
