nf Page 337 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Jim Caldwell is laughing at the Lions
Regret can be a heavy burden to carry, especially when the weight on your back is due to your incompetence....

Deadspin’s Championship Sunday ATS picks you can bank on
The NFL insisted on playing football for a season and now we get more chalk. So if it’s “normalcy” you seek in 2021, rejoice, you’ll see a lot of familiar faces today....

Texans continue streak of idiotic decisions with Josh McCown head coaching idea
With quarterback Deshaun Watson specifically asking that the Texans to interview top-tier candidates like Robert Saleh and Eric Bieniemy, the Texans, according to the NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo, apparently are considering naming *checks notes* Josh McCown head coach. ...

From White House visits to NCAA reform, what should sports expect from a Joe Biden administration?
President Biden doesn’t seem to care about sports as much as his predecessor, and that’s probably a good thing....

Chiefs survive Mahomes injury, Brady heads to another conference championship
The Divisional Round is over, and for the 14th time, Tom Brady is on his way to a conference championship game. Brady and Aaron Rodgers will meet in the NFC Championship Game, while Josh Allen will square off with reigning Super Bowl Patrick Mahomes, as long as he’s healthy....

Just change this stupid end zone fumble rule already
I hate bad rules in sports. I hate them even more when they cost teams a game. I hate them even more when it potentially costs a team a playoff win. The Browns were the subject of my least favorite rule in sports – the shitty end zone fumble touchback thingy....

Liverpool, Manchester United draw to leave door open for Manchester City
Perhaps no match felt weirder without fans than the biggest rivalry in English football. Usually the atmosphere for a Liverpool-Man United match can be described as overly passionate, vitriolic, psychotic, poisonous, and/or blood-thirsty. Without the 55,000 baying until their lungs shriveled and fil...

Joe Ricketts, the man who burned down a newsroom for trying to unionize, is at it again
Joe Ricketts, actual owner of the Chicago Cubs and producer of a special class of doofus-progeny, wants to get back into the news game. You can look forward to any personality that attains any popularity on this network to be shipped off as soon as they ask for a raise, replaced by a college sophomo...

It's been a while since we've talked about Buffalo in the context of a Super Bowl run
In one week, the Bills will be in the AFC title game for the first time in 27 years, when, perhaps in a bit of foreshadowing — depending on the outcome of Sunday’s divisional playoff — Buffalo hammered Kansas City, 30-13, to advance to Super Bowl XXVIII....

NFL Divisional Round historical oddities: Brady vs. Brees, young coaches & an AFC/NFC experience chasm
The NFL Playoffs are wonderfully bizarre this year, and I love it. As the divisional round of the NFL Playoffs kicks off later this afternoon, there are some fascinating storylines to watch – some of them can be beautifully illustrated with numbers. I previously did a breakdown of the matchups, as w...

San Francisco Giants owner called out for financing seditionists & traitors feigns outrage
Renel Brooks-Moon is the public address announcer for the San Francisco Giants. She was only the second woman to get that job in Major League Baseball when she took over for the first, Sherry Davis, in 2000. She’s also one of the few Black public address announcers in MLB....

Lamar Odom boxing is even sadder and more dangerous than you think
TMZ reports that Lamar Odom, yes, that one, will compete in a … boxing match … on June 12:...

MLB’s sudden political awakening is transparent nonsense
Companies across the country are realizing that having had their money fund politicians who attempt to engage in a coup is bad for business, so for the past week, many have been cutting off their donations. Most notably, Hallmark asked lead insurrectionist senator Josh Hawley to return the company’s...

Bill Belichick backpedaled into right decision on top of a soapbox he’s never used
It has come to Bill Belichick’s attention that he will not be getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Thursday at the White House....

Alabama provides yet another COVID-era chalk title
With the added obstacle of a pandemic, you’d think we would be ripe for surprises. The greater protocols, disrupted or interrupted preparation schedules, the increased pressure based on not really being able to do anything else (not to mention the mental strain), the shortened seasons increasing the...
![Bill Belichick has some integrity, turns down Trump’s Medal of Freedom [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/ydzh8w5at6msazqn6kf5.jpg)
Bill Belichick has some integrity, turns down Trump’s Medal of Freedom [Updated]
Updated on Jan. 11, 2021 at 7:45 p.m. EST: Several hours after posting this column, Bill Belichick released a statement saying he will not accept the Medal of Freedom offered by Donald Trump. You can read Belichick’s statement in the tweet below from ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Beneath that is our origina...

Have we seen the end of Big Ben? QB at a crossroads at the confluence
It was not a festival of football yesterday. The Titans and Ravens were at least passionate and close, though at times it resembled two old rhinos fighting for hours at the zoo because they were bored. You might have thought after watching Mitch Trubisky and the Bears that offensive football couldn’...

Deadspin’s 2021 NFL Wild Card picks you can bank on: Day 2
It’s day two of the NFL triple header. Have you left your couch? No. Do you have your bets in order? Probably not....

Taylor Heinicke was a revelation, but we’re not rooting for him again
Taylor Heinicke started at quarterback for the Washington Football Team when Alex Smith was unable to go, and the 27-year-old from Old Dominion, who less than a year ago was the backup for the St. Louis Battlehawks of the XFL was incredible. Too good to be true, really....

Deadspin’s 2021 NFL Wild Card picks you can bank on: Day 1
Are you ready for some self-imposed quarantine football? You have two straight days of NFL triple headers. Stop pretending you’ll leave the couch....