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IDIOT OF THE YEAR 2022: The complete rankings
Happy new year and welcome to the grand finale of Deadspin’s IDIOT OF THE YEAR festivities — here’s hoping 2023 will be better. It probably won’t....

IDIOT OF THE YEAR: The standings so far
Merry Christmas and welcome to Deadspin’s IDIOT OF THE YEAR party! As we gear up for the unveiling of our top 10 next week, here are the first 40 dummies on our list. Enjoy....

IDIOT OF THE YEAR: The countdown begins as we look back ruefully on 2022
Dearest reader! We meet again. It is that time of the year again… uh, namely, the end of the year, when we at Deadspin are proud to present our globally acclaimed celebration of stupidity, IDIOT OF THE YEAR! We’ll be with you over the next few weeks as we count down the haughtiest, most hypocritical...

World Cup Diary Day 18: Croatia, Argentina advance in penalty kicks
As extra time started, neither Brazil nor Croatia showed any urgency. The weight of a FIFA World Cup quarterfinal entering the additional 30 minutes-plus after going scoreless in the contest’s original time could’ve been swapped for the rhythm of a Tuesday exhibition. World Cups are how every countr...

Tom Thibodeau, Tony Soprano, and the New York Knicks
Almost a year ago, I contemplated the soul of Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau, searching for answers to his most pressing coaching quandaries. Humans are prone to making connections, comparing and contrasting, to make sense of the chaos around us. In the world of the NBA, Thibodeau shares much of th...

Maybe Jimmy G throwing touchdown passes is part of a winning formula
It has been a while since Jimmy Garoppolo threw four touchdown passes in a single game. The last time was Dec. 8, 2019. That day, Garoppolo went toe to toe with Drew Brees, and won 48-46 at the Superdome. That was the game that changed the minds of many who did not believe that Garoppolo could lead ...

It’s too early for the Blue Jays to be panicking
It’s hard to not see the Toronto Blue Jays sitting in the catbird seat. It doesn’t feel like the Yankees are exactly poised to hold onto their seat atop the AL East, even if Aaron Judge returns. They don’t have the potential for growth that the Jays do, given the youth of their roster. Bo Bichette, ...

UNSUNG GENIUS: Dissecting Dusty Baker's bullpen brilliance for his sabermetric critics
Dusty Baker “ought to be part of the conversation around MLB’s best-ever managers,” concluded Neil Paine from FiveThirtyEight after studying the most overachieving managers, and “shouldn’t need a ring to validate his career.” Agreed. Let’s go further....

Drew Brees can teach Kyrie Irving something about apologies
In the aftermath of Kanye West’s antisemitic rants, Kyrie Irving did what instigators do. He got busy pouring gasoline on flaming hot tensions, then pretended to be an innocent bystander when the lights came on. Basic home training dictates Irving should have apologized profusely on day one just to ...

Parents of Michigan player want charges brought for tunnel fight
The family of Gemon Green, one of the Michigan players caught up in a brutal assault by Michigan State players in the tunnel following Michigan’s 29-7 win over the Spartans on Saturday, say they want to see opposing players face criminal charges. Green and teammate Ja’Den McBurrows both sustained in...

The Second Coming of Dennis Smith Jr.
Maybe all he needed was to come home. Smith is from Fayetteville, North Carolina, and is now playing with the Charlotte Hornets, just a mere three hours from his hometown. The Hornets are Smith’s fifth team in six seasons. Last year, he split time between three teams, including the Hornets. So why h...

There are 10 unbreakable NFL records
Nowadays, in the NFL, it feels like there’s a record broken every week in almost every game. Once the league moved to an 18-game schedule, certain records — such as most catches by a rookie, or a team’s single-season mark — have been surpassed. But then there are those feats that have — and will — s...

Mullett Arena is somehow dumber than you’d imagine something called Mullett Arena could be
I’m one of many hockey observers that Coyotes fans, whoever they may be, claim to have an agenda at all times against the Yotes. And on some level, it’s fair, because it is hypocritical to talk often at length about the place teams have for fans in their lives and the public trust that they really a...

The USWNT winning their World Cup group would go a long way
It shouldn’t matter which team completes Group E of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup. Anything less than a first-place finish in the quartet for the United States women’s national team will be a tremendous disappointment. It doesn’t matter that fellow global power the Netherlands is also in the group...

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...

With offense winning titles in other sports, playoff baseball is still about pitching
The Dodgers, Braves, and Yankees combined to win 311 regular season games over the course of the regular season, but the playoffs have been a beautiful disaster so far. Mid-’90s alternative rock references notwithstanding, all three clubs received first-round byes, and only New York isn’t on the bri...

MLB Wild Card Series predictions: Rays-Guardians, Mariners-Blue Jays, Phillies-Cardinals, Padres-Mets
The MLB playoffs begin today, and with that, eight teams will battle for the chance to compete against the Dodgers, Braves, Astros, and Yankees. Yikes! What an awful prize that is, am I 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...

Nathaniel Hackett and Josh McDaniels are helping Brian Flores’ case
If Brian Flores, Duce Staley, Eric Bienemy and Byron Leftwich were all in a group chat, I’d pay good money to read the things they’d probably say about how horrific Denver Broncos head coach Nathaniel Hackett and Las Vegas Raiders head coach Josh McDaniels have been this season....