ned Page 18 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The boys of… spring? Full-season baseball back in Brooklyn for the first time since 1957
Tuesday was a big night for the Brooklyn Cyclones, as they played their first home game in more than 600 days, celebrated their 2019 New York-Penn League championship, and, after 20 years as a short-season affiliate of the Mets, brought full-season baseball back to Brooklyn. The Cyclones’ 4-3 loss t...

LeBron cements the continued existence of a game he hates
Look, the Play-in Tournament is stupid. Everyone pretty much knows it. The players certainly hate it, and even the ones who get to participate in it probably don’t like it much more. It’s manufactured drama. We’ve had 72 games this year, and in normal times we’ll have 82, and if you’re not in playof...

France gets even scarier with return of Karim Benzema, also more blackmail-y
With club seasons stumbling to their final weekend, and the normal curtain-closer Champions League Final now less than two weeks away, attention and anticipation starts to turn to the postponed European Championships, which are still called “Euro 2020” even though it’s 2021. And also seems to be los...

After 28 years, hockey finally corrects its Habs-Leafs mistake
The NHL has been through so many realignments that sometimes you wonder if it shouldn’t just do a random draw before every season (actually, that’s not a terrible idea). It’s when you get to the real aims of past realignments that things get more interesting. ...

Why won’t Northwestern talk about their new AD?
Early this week, Northwestern University announced the hiring of Mike Polisky as Athletic Director. To date, there has been no press conference, Polisky hasn’t spoken to the media, and Deadspin’s calls and emails to both the university and the athletic department, as well as Polisky himself, have go...

Tom Brady says Julian Edelman didn’t retire, 'He’s just scared to tell Bill he wants to come to Tampa'
Ah, now that makes sense....

Mac Jones is the ultimate ‘Patriots QB’
If you’re a Patriots fan like me, you know that the NFL Draft is about two words when it comes to this team: trade back. It’s how Bill Belichick has built the league’s greatest contemporary franchise. Giving up fewer picks in earlier rounds for more picks later....

Please, for the love of all that is good, don’t let this DFA be the end of the ageless Óliver Pérez’s career
People have said, “Wow, I can’t believe Óliver Pérez is still pitching,” for what has felt like every year for the past decade. ...

Why players and coaches love Cam Newton, but Patriots fans don’t
There is a deep Cam Newton divide in New England....

When it comes to star athletes and sexual assault, don’t listen to the guys with an agenda
It was 8 years ago now that I wrote about my own sexual assault for a site I had only recently starting reading, called Deadspin. My purpose in writing it wasn’t to gain sympathy, or to “play the victim card” — the go-to insult a certain segment of Twitter pulls out every time a woman shares any kin...

Mocking the Mock Draft: First-round scenarios sure to piss everyone off
You all have seen more mock drafts than you can count by now. I get it. I promise you, though, you have not and will not see another that resembles this in any way. With the NFL Draft finally, mercifully starting soon, let’s have a little fun and create the most chaotic mock draft we can think of. M...

I know better, but I’m falling for the Canes again
One of the ripple effects of Moneyball, at least one that isn’t primed to destroy a sport from the inside, is that a lot of fans have that one team — the team whose games you watch most outside your own team’s on whatever streaming service you have. The team you’re convinced is doing things in a mor...

Jackie Robinson would be condemning police terror and white America were he alive today
Yesterday was April 15th, Jackie Robinson Day, baseball’s annual event of empty tributes to cover up the fact that 90 percent of teams refuse to hire Black or Hispanic executives or managers despite Jackie’s dying wishes. ...

Taking a look at QB-heavy draft classes, and why the best isn't always the guy who goes highest
In a quarterback league, this year’s NFL Draft looks like one of the most quarterback-rich talent pools in history. We know that Trevor Lawrence will be the No. 1 pick for the Jaguars, and after him, it’s likely that the Jets and 49ers will select signal callers, making this the first draft with qua...

Julian Edelman for the Hall of Fame? Please stop
Somewhere, sometime recently in sports, we went off track, down a bad road....
![If Julian Edelman plays next year, you can probably guess where he’ll end up [UPDATE: HE RETIRED]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/l8aeapdvklrxmxj6a3er.jpg)
If Julian Edelman plays next year, you can probably guess where he’ll end up [UPDATE: HE RETIRED]
Update (5:48 p.m. Eastern): So, like, I saw this going differently in my head. Which is fine, it’s fine. Edelman announced on Twitter, roughly thirty minutes after I wrote this, that he is retiring from football. So we probably won’t be seeing him in Tampa next year, but hey. Gronk came back after a...

Rougned Odor must shave glorious beard thanks to Yankees’ dumb-ass facial hair policy
Because he’s been traded to the New York Yankees, Rougned Odor has to adopt the identity of a “clean-cut” American baseball player due to a policy that’s 48 years old....

‘Oh-fer’ Evan Fournier is already making history as a Boston Celtic
We’ve heard about that damn trade exception for months....

Every scuff you take, every smudge you make, MLB will be watching you
It’s been the dirty little secret in baseball for years. Pitchers were doing something to baseballs to increase spin, which either helped with velocity or movement or both. This has been a factor in the far bigger problem than shifts for baseball, i.e. the inability for anyone to make regular contac...

With LeBron and LaMelo out, it was a bad weekend for stars in the NBA
If the NBA is purely for TV ratings these days, and it kind of has to be thanks to very limited or no crowds, then Adam Silver probably poured himself a stiff drink on Sunday night....