mad Page 13 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

World Series X-Factors: Who needs to step up for Houston Astros, Philadelphia Phillies to win the title?
The World Series kicks off tomorrow night between two teams with wildly different expectations heading into the postseason. On one hand, the Astros were the top seed in the American League. Houston reached the World Series in three of the last five seasons and reached the ALCS in all five. Everyone ...

If ya can't beat 'em, hire 'em
If you can’t beat ‘em, hire the manager that beat you. Yeah! That’s the phrase. At least it is for the Texas Rangers, who successfully courted Bruce Bochy out of three-year retirement to become their new manager. Bochy is best known to Texas as the mafioso who picked them apart in the 2010 World Ser...

Deadspin's NBA awards predictions
Perhaps it’s the COVID fatigue, partisan politics, or the malaise of a slumping economy, but this off-season has felt like forever. With elections ramping up in November, we need the NBA back to distract us from our country headed toward political chaos. Both sides of the aisle have become insuffera...

MJF is going to bring AEW back to what it does best
Though he’d probably never admit it, and what pisses him off most is that MJF knows it (MJF’s whole character is knowing the things you don’t want to talk about), Tony Khan would tell you with no one else around that MJF is absolutely the heart of AEW. It’s why he brought him back after he completel...

Here are our early season NFL award winners
We’re through a third of the NFL season as we head into Week 7, and there have been plenty of ups and downs thus far in 2022. While we’ve seen plenty of bad football (looking at you, Carolina, and Las Vegas), the season hasn’t been devoid of top-tier play from perennial stars, breakouts, and many ot...

Real Madrid are young and dynamic and it’s annoying
Last season, as Real Madrid went on their bloodless procession to both La Liga and Champions League title, those of us who aren’t decked out in white could console ourselves in the fact that sometimes, there are things you just can’t help. Their league triumph was due to the fact that Barcelona had ...

Brady knows best: NFL chock full of bad football
Tom Brady is right....

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar should be upset with Kyrie Irving — but where was this energy for Jim Brown?
Kyrie Irving’s antics are infuriating. But, so were Jim Brown’s. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar seems only to be irritated by one of them. And that’s the problem....

Antonio Inoki leaves behind a legacy that rivals any in combat sports
There’s not an athlete in combat-sports history with a bigger influence than Antonio Inoki. How many other professional wrestlers have a common opponent in Superman? Inoki is one degree of separation from Clark Kent because of his 1976 fight against Muhammad Ali, then the WBC and WBA heavyweight cha...

Best non-MVP seasons in MLB history
The MVP Award is the pinnacle of baseball. Anybody who wins that award has cemented themselves in the annals of baseball history, and while one win doesn’t guarantee enshrinement in Cooperstown, it’s still one of the highest honors a baseball player can ever receive. The only bad thing about the awa...

MJF is stealing the AEW title tonight at Grand Slam, isn’t he?
There’s a pretty famous clip of Kevin Owens, back in his indie days as Kevin Steen and in the original “Kevin Steen Show,” where he tells a hilarious story about playing with his wrestling toys. I won’t spoil it for you, watch this until the end:...

Many want Shohei Ohtani to be the best player ever, but this season belongs to Aaron Judge
The Shohei Ohtani love has officially gone off the rails....

These 5 NFL teams have high expectations but could just as easily be disappointments
The NFL season is finally here, and as usual, there’s lots of optimism and expectations surrounding specific teams. Of the teams with high expectations (playoff push or better), a few have just as good a chance of disappointing their fan base as they do of meeting or exceeding set expectations....

Preseason NFL Powerless Ranking: Here's the bottom of the barrel
It’s football season again and this time of year most sites give you their weekly power rankings. But here at Deadspin, we go against the grain, so once again we’re bringing you our Powerless Rankings for 2022. This season we’ve even got a season preview of the teams you can expect to be pulling up ...

It’s make or break time for JuJu Smith-Schuster
In March, JuJu Smith-Schuster signed a one-year $10.75 million contract with the Kansas City Chiefs. Playing with Patrick Mahomes, this is his prove-it-or-lose- season. There are no more excuses if JuJu doesn’t play up to No. 1 receiver standards when the best young quarterback of this generation is...

Jake Paul’s next match is against a legend — whose glory days are well behind him
Look at Jake Paul stepping up his competition — in name recognition in the fight world at least....

Knicks can’t ever seem to get it right
Nobody has gotten it wrong more than the New York Knicks....

The Oregon Ducks’ biggest pro sports star of this century is… Justin Herbert?
Since 2000, the Oregon Ducks football team has reached double-digit wins 12 times. That’s more than a lot of schools in that span, including college football programs laden with tradition like Michigan (eight seasons), Florida (nine), Notre Dame (nine), and USC (11). There have been many unforgettab...

Novak Djokovic is stopping Novak Djokovic from playing in the U.S. Open
Update (8/25/22): It ain’t happening, chief....