mat Page 23 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

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...

John Elway parts with Broncos, gets out before draft history sinks in
John Elway’s tenure with the Denver Broncos was mercifully sent to the glue factory Wednesday, and he can now add “consultant” alongside “general manager” and “Super Bowl-winning quarterback” to the list of roles he formerly occupied for the organization. Thankfully for Donkos fans, Elway got out be...

Did Donald Trump hijack John Carlos and Tommie Smith’s raised fist?
In 1968, John Carlos and Tommie Smith risked it all at the Summer Olympic Games in Mexico City as they stood on the podium with their fists raised high. On Tuesday, a twice-impeached former President who has been harassing and harming Black people for decades from the Central Park/Exonerated Five to...

Bill Belichick is reportedly shopping Mac Jones because he's still pissed at the QB
Bill Belichick must have forgotten that he is not the only football luminary who has been Mac Jones’ head coach. Jones played college football for Nick Saban — arguably Belichick’s greatest student. Remember, “One band, one sound,” from the movie Drumline? That line is Alabama football. Every person...

Former USFL owner indicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records
Former President Donald Trump surrendered to New York authorities ahead of his arraignment Tuesday on charges related to alleged hush money payments made to Stormy Daniels. Obviously, it’s a fairly massive deal… unless you live in New York. This is literally just another Tuesday for them, and defini...

The new NBA CBA does nothing for the entertainment value of the game
The NBA this season is arguably more competitive than it has ever been. The Western Conference is up for grabs and the Eastern Conference has three heavyweights at the top, each capable of knocking out the other with a mighty blow. While there is no single dominant roster that the rest of the league...

Amateur sports at higher education American institutions are dead
On Wednesday, the performative set of elected officials who gather in Washington D.C. to raise money and occasionally draft legislation held a meeting to discuss the future of Name, Image and Likeness....

How every MLB division will shake out
Welcome to Opening Day! It was a long, cold winter, but Spring is, at last, officially upon us. Sure, the ivy at Wrigley might be sparse and brown, and your favorite broadcaster might be wearing Gore-Tex for the next few weeks, but baseball is back. As Bart Giamatti once said, “It breaks your heart....