off Page 210 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Martavis Bryant Buttcatch Vindicates League That Still Doesn't Know What A Catch Is
Martavis Bryant’s buttcatch is one of this season’s most spectacular plays, but we’ll forgive you if you missed it due to falling asleep or having any of a hundred better things to be doing at 10:15 on a Saturday night. This being the NFL, we fully expected officials to declare it incomplete. How ha...
Nobody Did Anything Right On This Play
The Steelers extended their lead over Cincinnati with William Gay’s fumble recovery (until they didn’t, after replay revealed the officials missed a down by contact) and the Steelers’ celebration drew a flag (which the official whiffed on trying to throw) and Jim Nantz declared it a touchdown (for t...
Jeremy Maclin And J.J. Watt Both Leave Game With Injuries On The Same Play
J.J. Watt, who’d just spent a little bit on the sideline right before this play nursing a groin injury, had to stop his rush halfway through due to a flare up. Right after he went down, Chiefs lineman Eric Fisher got a cheap shot in on the neck of a defenseless Watt. Watt went into the locker room, ...
Chiefs Open NFL Playoffs With 106-Yard Knile Davis Kickoff Return
The Houston Texans’ plan to leverage home field advantage and an at-times terrifying defense fell through when they allowed Kansas City’s Knile Davis to return the game’s opening kickoff 106 yards for a score. ESPN Deportes’s Álvaro Martín captured the shock almost as well as the vacuum-like sound o...
College Basketball Team Loses After Being Assessed Technical Foul For Celebrating Game-Winner
A desperation three-pointer by Sioux Falls’s Taylor Varsho gave the Cougars a 59-58 win over Division II rival Winona State—a team that had previously beaten them by 39 points—until officials assessed Sioux Falls a technical foul for celebrating the buzzer-beater that, replay showed, left less than ...
The College Football Playoff's Idiotic Scheduling Is Screwing Over ESPN
ESPN, just like everyone else, knew the TV ratings for this year’s College Football Playoff semifinal games would be down from last year’s. But ESPN was still way too optimistic—the games didn’t come close to the numbers they promised advertisers, and now ESPN owes tens of millions of dollars in fre...
Marvin Lewis Is Probably Boned (Again)
The Bengals looked like they’d nab a first-round bye in the playoffs, until Andy Dalton broke his thumb. Cincinnati finished with a 12-4 record and the third seed. The team hoped that Dalton could come back for the postseason, but today, the quarterback was officially ruled out for Saturday’s game....
Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens Not Elected To Baseball Hall Of Fame
The greatest hitter and pitcher of their generation were once again shut out of Cooperstown, thanks to the petty, sanctimonious, grudge-holding members of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. Mike Piazza and Ken Griffey Jr. did make it in, though, and they were pretty great ballplayers....
Here Is A "Loop Video" Of Ken Griffey Jr.'s Perfect Swing For The Hall Of Fame Voter Who Wanted One
MLB.com baseball writer Marty Noble has turned in his Baseball Hall of Fame ballot, and from the deep pool of eligible candidates, he has selected just Ken Griffey Jr. and Jeff Kent. The ballot is ridiculous on its face. Besides the obvious shoo-in Griffey, Noble includes only Kent (and not any of t...
Bucs' Mike Evans Ejected For "Disrespectfully Addressing An Official"
This NFL season has been a cornucopia of myriad interesting officiating calls, and Tampa Bay receiver Mike Evans decided to finish the regular season with dessert by getting ejected for disrespecting an official:...
Troll King Joey Crawford Is Retiring
Nobody could make himself part of the game like Joey Crawford. Inevitably, he’ll ref a few games per year where tension builds between teams and rather than let it progress to a boiling point, Crawford will instead make himself the protagonist and overreact, usually with an extra technical or ejecti...
![Reports: ESPN College Football Playoff Game Ratings Went Into Toilet [UPDATES]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/kmb10u6hurewxtk5ofve.jpg)
Reports: ESPN College Football Playoff Game Ratings Went Into Toilet [UPDATES]
Three months of annoying, Kimmel-led promos and awkward corporate tie-ins weren’t enough to keep ESPN’s college football playoff semifinal TV ratings from plummeting on a New Year’s Eve, the traditions of which have never featured watching college football at home....
This Has Been Your 2015
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Cyrus Jones Takes Punt 57 Yards, Extends Alabama Lead To 24-0
Alabama’s Cyrus Jones increased an already big Crimson Tide lead to 24 with this 57-yard punt return. Above is the ESPN Deportes call; here’s how it sounded on Alabama’s Crimson Tide Sports Network:...
Mark Dantonio Doesn't Have Time For Your Stupid Questions
Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio wasn’t about to suffer multiple questions from ESPN’s Heather Cox before tonight’s Cotton Bowl playoff matchup against Alabama, so the Michigan State head coach went full Popovich and walked away. Maybe he heard about this....
ESPN Promo For Cotton Bowl Semifinal Features Michigan, Not Michigan State
ESPN has gone all-in on its Latin American programming strategy, with today’s college football semifinals airing on ESPN Deportes, a Deportes simulcast on ESPN2, and on the main ESPN in Mexico. Unfortunately, some confusion still reigns as you can see in this promo that ran on Deportes (and ESPN2) d...
Clemson Fake Punt Sets Up Go-Ahead Touchdown
Clemson punter Andy Teasdall connected with Christian Wilkins for 31 yards and a first down as Dabo Swinney used some trickery to get the Tigers inside Oklahoma’s 15-yard line. Two plays later, Deshaun Watson found the end zone to put Clemson up 10-7 in today’s first college football playoff semifin...
Even Disney Jr. Can't Escape The College Football Playoff Cross-Branding
We noted last night that ESPN corporate parent Disney shoved a bunch of hilariously bad references to the college football playoff games on New Year’s Eve into yesterday’s episode of General Hospital. Commenter JortReform noted that even Disney Jr. had been running tie-in promos, and we caught one o...
Disney Inundates <i>General Hospital</i> Episode With References To New Year's Eve College Football Playoff Games
ESPN says it isn’t worried about viewership for tomorrow’s college football playoff games on New Year’s Eve, but the degree to which TV viewers have been choked to death by promos for the two games—which were played on New Year’s Day last year—has left many never wanting to hear “Auld Lang Syne” eve...