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The NBA 'superstar' landscape has shifted
There is no greater conduit for NBA hyperbole than the conversation around “superstars.” To have a rational, substantive debate, there must first be basic groundwork for what constitutes superstar status. First, the bad news: former Finals MVPs Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, LeBron James and Kawhi Leona...

The Ravens are the best team left in the playoffs. And it's not even close
There were some tense moments for most of the favorites in the Divisional Round. The current NFL darling Detroit Lions almost let the game slip away on Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The San Francisco 49ers are fortunate that Jordan Love forgot how to throw a football in the fourth quarter...

Jordan Love’s best and worst were on display this postseason
No matter how Jordan Love’s season ended, it was an unmitigated success. He put himself in a position to secure a bag from Green Bay this offseason, obliterated the Dallas Cowboys with a 3-touchdown performance in his playoff debut, and was an all-around feel-good story despite the unhappy ending. B...

The 49ers can’t play like they did against the Packers and expect to win a Super Bowl
The San Francisco 49ers advanced to their fourth NFC championship game in five years after escaping a Green Bay Packers onslaught, 24-21. While they are the favorites to represent the NFC in Super Bowl LVIII in Las Vegas, it’s clearly going to take a herculean effort by Christian McCaffrey to carry ...

Eastern Conference is a mess; Bruins don't need centers?; Sam Reinhart makes history
We’re halfway through the NHL season, which is now meant as a device to make everyone look stupid. Or really, to make me look stupid, which isn’t all that hard, because I’m stupid. After 41 games, we should have an idea of who is what and who’s going where. But in the Eastern Conference, we really d...

This year’s Australian Open is drunk
The Australian Open is already kind of geared for weirdos, at least on these shores, given that you have to sacrifice sleep and any usefulness the next day to enjoy it. But this year’s edition has been off the rails, making it even more worth it for those of us who are prepared to throw ourselves of...

Bill Belichick could sure use Tom Brady’s advice finding a final stop
The path back to winning for Bill Belichick is as easy as parroting Tom Brady’s search for a contending roster following his departure from the New England Patriots. Like Brady at 42, the 71-year-old Belichick doesn’t have too many of his best years left either, which is why the QB targeted Tampa Ba...

Deandre Ayton’s ice capades the latest embarrassment in Portland’s rebuild
The NBA trade market is open for business and one team in particular would like you to know that it is jarringly open to offers. The Portland Trail Blazers might not have issued a news release saying as much, yet when your starting center misses a game due to too much ice, the telltale signs of rebu...

In college coaching, it’s better to have a <i>Succession</i> plan than deal with a surprise retirement
So much about sports is often about who’s next. But ironically, over the last few years, we’ve seen how multiple team’s inability to look to the future in one certain area has hurt more than it’s helped. From Nick Saban and Jay Wright to what Tom Izzo has recently shared, it’s clear that focusing on...

Can the Bruins win without any centers?
The Boston Bruins are the perfect team in the NHL to have the eternal-long fatalism vs. determinism debate. They sit atop the Atlantic Division and Eastern Conference once again, just as they did last year. Just as last year, David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand are two of the best players in the league...

Is Pat McAfee doing some kind of bizarre performance art?
A week after Pat McAfee failed spectacularly in his quest to “CHECK!” noted anti-vaxxer and conspiracy theorist Aaron Rodgers, announced that “Aaron Rodgers Tuesdays” were done for the year, and then had Rodgers back on the show the very next day, I have begun to ask myself if what McAfee is doing i...

2023 NFL postseason interceptions leaders
See how Patrick Mahomes, Justin Jefferson, and other top NFL players performed this season — check out more Deadspin NFL Stats below:...

In honor of Martin Luther King Day, here are some of the best HBCU athletes to make it in the pros
We’ve already highlighted some of the famous Black celebrities who are HBCU alumni, but what about the athletes?...

Does Kalen DeBoer know what he’s getting into at Alabama?
It’d be interesting to see how many Alabama fans knew the name Kalen DeBoer before this season. Hell, I’d love to see the numbers a month and a half ago. It took all of two days for the Crimson Tide to find a replacement for Nick Saban, which feels fast, but with players diving into the transfer poo...

Maple Leafs have unexpected problem; Winnipeg surprises everyone; Hockey players & psychologists?
It’s hard to be an afterthought for an NHL team in Canada, and yet it kind of feels like the Winnipeg Jets are one. They’re not grouped with either of the other blocks. They aren’t near Toronto or Montreal in the Atlantic Division, and even the Ottawa Senators get more shine from being caught betwee...

Kim Mulkey & LSU's diversity flap; Who's on NBA trade block?; Steve Kerr is wrong about Draymond Green
Kim Mulkey has consistently shown us where she stands on social matters. She leans to The Right, which is her right. But when 83 percent of your team are women of color, it’s on you to answer for how your employer’s decisions will affect them. - Carron J. Phillips Read More...

These are the biggest flops of the 2023 NFL season
The NFL is a small-sample league. Before you can even blink, 18 games have flown by and we’re left trying to make sense of everything that happened. It means that luck can play a massive part in whether a team succeeds or fails, with a few bounces of the ball defining the entire story for an entire ...

Here's to Golden State learning to age gracefully
Golden State is probably permanently entrenched as a middle-of-the-pack team. There are no renovating crumbling support beams around their Big 3 pillars because they are the source of deterioration. All they can do now is continue their reign as the most well-adjusted teammates ever cobbled together...

On Pete Carroll and how to be a great coach without being a jerk
Not many football coaches can dominate both college and the NFL. Jimmy Johnson was able to do so, but also ran so hot that it burned his relationship with Jerry Jones and he eventually burned out of coaching entirely after a few seasons with the Miami Dolphins. Pete Carroll has spent much of the las...

Hockey players need therapists, too
The National Hockey League Player Association is launching a mental health initiative called First Line, which will educate players about depression, anxiety, substance use, and self-harm. ...