mat Page 22 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
When did the NBA playoffs become the NHL playoffs?
The first round of the NBA playoffs usually isn’t all that good, which doesn’t stop people from complaining about it. The difference between the top seeds and lower seeds is large enough that those series should result in nothing more than dress rehearsals for the true powers and the later rounds. W...
US Soccer might have actually made a good decision
There is always a suspicion that US Soccer has fucked up. They’re too insular, too greedy, too cheap, and too weird to ever get out of their own way. Even when it looks like they’re taking a step forward, they’ll find a way to sabotage it. The Berhalter-Reyna mess is perhaps the perfect example of j...
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...
Breaking the jaw, breaking the jaw
Boxing is a shell of its former self. Under the right circumstances, it can break through sports purgatory and be genuinely exciting. Enter two undefeated fighters in Gervonta Davis and Ryan Garcia, with one of the duo no longer having an unblemished record after this weekend’s catchweight bout. Bey...
Just two breaks are all it takes
With all apologies to Dua Lipa, it takes more than one kiss (I feel like if I met Dua Lipa I’d have an overwhelming urge to apologize for a lot of things, BUT THAT’S NOT WHY YOU CALLED). ...
NFL owner is not terrible, for once
More of this, please. Someone in power using their platform for good and to benefit others. New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft led a march to honor victims and survivors of the Holocaust in Poland on Tuesday. In the Kraft-led group that participated in the 35th International March of the Living...
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...
Chinese Basketball Association’s extreme punishment for tanking is what the NBA needs
If the NBA wants to look into discouraging teams from strategic tanking, they should borrow from the Chinese Basketball Association’s playbook. In the basketball exchange program, the rest of the world learned the game from watching the NBA, American hoopers integrated the Euro step into their skill...
You can’t lose the Draymond flips his wig game
We’ve known this isn’t a vintage Golden State Warriors team. They kept turning into the Dallas Mavericks/wildebeests whenever on the road, they had to reshuffle the roster halfway through the season, their defense has consistently been of Cottonelle strength. It wasn’t so much that they were assurin...
The NHL Playoffs Attention Meter
It’s that time again. When the loudest and most obnoxious guy in the bar tells you it’s the best time in sports, the NHL Playoffs. There will be a few tweets coming across your timeline that say something that has some combination of puking and snorting coke together, and they’re likely about watchi...
How every NFL team should draft, but won't because GMs are dumb
The NFL Draft is arguably the second-biggest event on the league calendar behind the Super Bowl. Every team participates and shapes its roster for the next season. And every franchise will go into the month of May thinking it has made the right moves to get closer to a championship. But of course, o...
These NFL players have the best nicknames
Sweetness. The Refrigerator. Broadway Joe. Over the years, the NFL has seen some great players step onto the field, and some of them have garnered nicknames that fit them to a tee. A good or great nickname should explain something about the person it’s attached to. Something about their personality,...
Jeff Hardy and Darby Allin blur the lines for AEW, but not in a good way
The idea that the wrestling world and the real world are separate entities has generally been urinated on in recent times. With wrestlers and companies using social media to forward storylines and feuds, as well as the “dirt sheets” moving into their own industry with fans gobbling up whatever backs...
The Sports Emmys are lacking, so Deadspin is here to pick up the slack
A problem with the Sports Emmys is there simply aren’t enough categories for individuals. Most awards are for shows, segments, reports, documentaries, etc. Only a handful acknowledge the on-air personalities, so those who care about bringing home some hardware are in for an uphill battle....
No one wants to get their teeth kicked through their skull by the Bruins
If the NHL ever considered instituting its own play-in tournament, and they have, and last night’s Lakers-Timberwolves what-have-ya wasn’t enough to dissuade them, then the Islanders and Penguins have recently showed the league that were they forced to waylay into each other in a single-elimination ...
The Calgary Flames were undone by a gimmick
While sneaking into the bottom rung of the playoffs is something to be eschewed in the NBA given that it rarely leads anywhere, there’s still a perception in the NHL that all you have to do is “get in.” The NHL has dined out for decades on the idea that the playoffs set everything anew, and that one...
At Princeton, a turnaround one man saw coming
“I was born delusional,” said Chris Ayres, Princeton’s head wrestling coach, earlier this year. “But I think — I really do — that delusion is a good thing.” He just proved his point. At Tulsa, Oklahoma’s NCAA wrestling tournament last month, Ayres pulled off one of the least likely turnarounds colle...
Previously out of work Frank Lampard is back at Chelsea for the interim
Chelsea FC have literally been the definition of average in the Premier League this season. For a club that was crowned European champions less than two years ago, being considered average at anything might as well be worse than relegation. The Blues have close to the same number of wins, draws and ...
We created a 64-topic bracket only for you to vote for Michael Jordan for 3 weeks
Folks, we spent a lot of time on this Great Debates bracket. Did anyone ask for a bracket of 64 different regularly debated topics? No. Do we at Deadspin get paid to produce content? According to my direct deposit alerts, yes. Of course, no one wants to hear complaints about sports writing, but it’s...