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The Sports Nihilist: Anything but a Dallas-Philadelphia NFC title game
It’s odd how many NFL teams I hate despite not technically having an NFL team I root for. And I don’t feel like I’m in the minority on that either. Not the teamless fan part. The “I hate all of these teams” part. I refused to watch Patriots-Philadelphia Eagles and Patriots-Rams Round Two Super Bowls...

Does LaMelo Ball’s tortuous season have a light at the end of the tunnel?
LaMelo Ball’s lost season was cursed before it even began. On Wednesday night, the Charlotte Hornets guard sprained his ankle after teammate P.J. Washington landed on it during a rare win over the Houston Rockets. Entering the night, Houston was the only team in the league with a more hopeless recor...
![Women are no safer in sports than anywhere else [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/b8f7a42c70560a7509955ad0bf3d3876.jpg)
Women are no safer in sports than anywhere else [Updated]
Last week, LSU was forced to beef up security around their gymnastics team, after fans of Olivia “Livvy” Dunne showed up at a meet the TikTok star was attending and disrupted the routines of fellow competitors. A video of a crush of young men, waiting for Dunne outside the competition, chanting her ...

How enticing are each of the offensive coordinator openings?
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers fired offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich. Leftwich just finished up his fourth season as Tampa’s OC, having reached the playoffs each of the last three seasons — or every season with Tom Brady at quarterback. However, despite the playoff berth, 2022 was hard to watch. The ...

PSA for NFL teams picking a QB: Get a good coach first
For all of the teams vying for one of the top three quarterbacks in the 2023 NFL Draft — or pretty much any organization in search of a new option under center — the most important factor is the coach. That’s an obvious statement, and one I felt dumb writing, but count me among the many who thought ...

Injuries to Russell Gage, Damar Hamlin on Monday Night Football are why the NFL needs guaranteed contracts
When Tampa Bay wide receiver Russell Gage went down late in the fourth quarter of the Buccaneers’ Wild Card matchup with the Dallas Cowboys, everybody in the stadium and everyone watching on television held their breaths — again. For the second consecutive broadcast, Joe Buck and Troy Aikman were ca...

UFC's Dana White is already back to his usual antics
It didn’t take long for Dana White to get back to business as usual....

Could the Minnesota Vikings be in for a Giant upset?
I’ll be upset if there are no upsets during Wild Card Weekend, which kicks off today. That upset may not happen in the Seattle Seahawks and San Francisco 49ers game, and perhaps not with the Los Angeles Chargers-Jacksonville Jaguars. But bettors seem convinced that the biggest upset of the week will...

Bettors are hoping to ride the hot hand
The San Francisco 49ers have a long road ahead of them if they want to win their first Super Bowl since 1995. Not necessarily because they’re going to face a lot of strong competition — the NFC is rather weak this year — but because they have to win four straight games with 2022's Mr. Irrelevant und...

Umpires will definitely handle being challenged well
Automatic strike zones, or ABS, or Robo-umps, have been the Valhalla for a certain section of baseball fans (one I happen to be a part of). Watching Angel Hernandez or Doug Eddings try and guess where the strike zone is today and then acting like the world’s biggest ass-boil when anyone points out t...

Apple’s MLS channel begins to take shape, we’re just not sure what shape
The MLS season always comes out of the weeds in a surprise fashion, mostly due to its placing its start right when the business end of the European season begins (Champions League knockout rounds, closing stages of domestic seasons, etc.). It’s only 44 days until MLS starts its season, and though th...

The Odell Beckham plane footage — like the wide receiver — is a non-starter
We now have video evidence of why no NFL teams were willing to sign Odell Beckham Jr. to a late-season contract. Dallas, New York, Los Angeles, etc. all passed on the mercurial wide receiver. What team would ever sign him after such deplorable behavior? Being removed from a plane crosses the line of...

The sports figures we lost in 2023
Here is where we look at some of the athletes and sports figures we’ve lost in 2023. That list includes football legends Jim Brown, and Dick Butkus, basketball HoFer Willis Reed, former men’s college basketball coach Bob Knight, hockey Hall of Famer Bobby Hull, Heisman Trophy-winning running back Ch...

'Stephen A. Shaq' debuted on the NBA on TNT
Shaquille O’Neal is one of the most dominant NBA players to step on the hardwood. A four-time champion, three-time Finals MVP, and regular season MVP, Shaq is in many people’s top 10 all-time. The big Shaqtus is also known for being a total goofball. O’Neal was in quite the joking mood Tuesday night...

Cardinals WR DeAndre Hopkins wants out of the desert
Unlike Davante Adams, DeAndre Hopkins has had enough. Following a tumultuous year on the Arizona Cardinals that he’d probably prefer to expunge from his record, Hopkins wants a fresh start. This offseason, Arizona’s All-Pro is expected to demand a trade out of the undetermined level of Hell that has...

Yes, the Chicago Bears should upgrade… the coaching staff
The Chicago Bears have an opportunity to make the king of all shrewd football decisions this offseason, and I’m not talking about replacing Justin Fields. No, no, no. What I’m offering is much more… drastic. Chicago is as well positioned as any rebuilding team, and there’s one coach who’s basically ...

Brady vs. the 'Boys
The Dallas Cowboys ended the 2022 regular season the same way it began — with a loss. After dropping their Week 18 matchup to the Washington Commanders, the Cowboys get a rematch with the team who gave them a Week 1 thrashing — the Tampa Bay Buccaneers led by Tom Brady aka Father Time. The 45-year-o...

Every team in the NFL playoffs, ranked
Aaron Rodgers couldn’t beat the Detroit Lions. Who’d have thought I’d be uttering that statement at the beginning of the season? And with that loss, the NFL playoffs are set. Throughout the regular season, we laughed, cried, held our heads in shock, and Tom Brady endured his first losing season as a...

Someone save Davante Adams from himself
Davante Adams has always been the anti-diva receiver. His contract dispute with the Green Bay Packers was relatively low-key, and he’s rarely spoken negatively of his ex-franchise. Adams’ reunion with his college quarterback Derek Carr ended in a powder keg. While speculation about Carr’s future and...

Everything we know about the NFL's alleged 'five-minute warmup' decision
The severity of Buffalo safety Damar Hamlin’s injury was apparent quickly. The details of the 24-year-old needing to be resuscitated on the Paycor Stadium turf in Cincinnati weren’t widely known until about an hour later, around the same time the NFL officially decided to suspend Monday’s all-import...