ow Page 244 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Bowl games are now more like the preseason than the postseason
Everything they’ve done all season has led up to this game: The [insert sponsor] Bowl. These teams worked all season long so that they could get six wins and the opportunity to play in the postseason. At least that’s what bowl games are supposed to be: The culmination of the season. But if anything ...

The Big Lead’s ‘2022 Sports Media Awards’ were given to a bunch of white dudes
The same people keep picking the same people because they only surround themselves with the same people....

Tyreek Hill is complaining about lack of targets in K.C.? Is there no way to make receivers happy nowadays?
Since Patrick Mahomes took over as the quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs in 2018, Tyreek Hill is fourth in the NFL in targets, behind only Davante Adams, Stefon Diggs, and former teammate Travis Kelce. Yet despite this hefty usage in the Chiefs’ offense, Hill wanted more....

Leave it to the Raiders to exploit the rules
A week ago on Thursday Night Football, the NFL world paid witness to a pretty odd kickoff strategy from the Las Vegas Raiders during their game against the Los Angeles Rams. After the first drive of the game resulted in a Raiders touchdown, kicker Daniel Carlson had to boot the ball away, but he did...

TNF: The Seahawks are in the playoff hunt, who woulda thunk it?
Week 15 kicks off with an NFC West rivalry between the San Francisco 49ers and the Seattle Seahawks. It’s been a while since a Niners-Seahawks game this late in the season had playoff ramifications for both teams....
![Told ya: Chris Beard will likely coach again — this time at Ole Miss [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/d7ccd4138fe04126c116525cc00f9178.jpg)
Told ya: Chris Beard will likely coach again — this time at Ole Miss [Updated]
Updated March 8: Chris Beard is emerging as the front-runner for the men’s basketball head coaching job at Ole Miss, according to ESPN, citing sources. Beard was fired from his position at the University of Texas following a Dec. 12, 2022 arrest....

The disastrous Russell Wilson still has more MVP bets than Patrick Mahomes... what?!
Russell Wilson has been arguably the biggest disappointment of the 2022 NFL season, and that’s saying a lot considering the Los Angeles Rams are fresh off a Super Bowl and currently hold a top-five draft pick. Wilson was brought to the Mile High City in exchange for a king’s ransom, but he was worth...

If Joel Embiid thinks Philly fans want him traded, he’s on the wrong Reddit threads
I don’t know who incepted Joel Embiid, but someone got him to question Philly fans’ faith in him. The All-NBA center has been strangely disconnected this season. The team is lifeless, and you wouldn’t suspect that Embiid leads the league in scoring if he didn’t pop up on the ticker with a 40- or 50-...
![Mike Leach, renaissance man [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/7769d662c8b0822220e88909069f3194.jpg)
Mike Leach, renaissance man [Updated]
Former Texas Tech head football coach Mike Leach will be posthumously inducted into the school’s Hall of Honor, along with his former QB Kliff Kingsbury. Leach won 84 games during his tenure, which lasted from 2000-09....

Which NBA title contender will Jae Crowder join?
Championship NBA teams have always revolved around star players, but the glue guys/role players make it possible for franchises to become title contenders. There are stars all over the Association, but only those with the best supporting casts can make deep runs into the postseason year after year. ...

It was a great day for the best to ever do it
If part of the reason you watch sports is to see things that will live forever, then Tuesday was a day for you....

An 1800s outfielder is baseball’s most searched athlete… in Delaware
I spend a lot of time on Baseball-Reference. Apart from it being my job to do research and correctly relay player statistics to you, the readers, I enjoy looking back at old names from the late-90s and 2000s to see if they were as good as I remember them in my head. Casey Blake? Better than I rememb...

Sports writers aren't going to lose their jobs to AI just yet
Technology is terrifying. That’s why I still do all my research via newspaper and all my math by abacus. However, when I heard about an AI that could write professional-level essays and news articles with ease, my curiosity got the better of me. I’d been hearing about it everywhere. Some of my favor...

Culture isn’t going to fix the Miami Heat’s offense
When trying to illustrate how much a team is struggling, one of sportswriters’ favorite go-to’s is, “If the season ended today…” As in, “If the season ended today, the Miami Heat would need to win two play-in games only to face the team that beat them in 2022 in the first round.”...

Longtime college football coach Mike Leach dies at 61
College football’s most-beloved pirate, Mike Leach, died Monday night at age 61 following complications from a heart condition. Leach was a longtime high-level-conference head coach, starting with 10 seasons at Texas Tech, and eight at the helm of Washington State, before spending his last three at ...

The New England Patriots won, but their problems remain the same
It’s easy to laugh when your team is up by two touchdowns. Jokes and giggles are plentiful when the Colt McCoy-led Arizona Cardinals — Kyler Murray left the game after suffering a non-contact injury — turn the ball over on consecutive possessions, the first of which was converted for a touchdown....

The MVP race is a 2-man cage match
The MVP discussion has been whittled down to an A and B conversation between Patrick Mahomes and Jalen Hurts. Joe Burrow is eavesdropping, but in the final quarter of the season, he is on the outside looking in. As things currently stand, Mahomes occupies the B slot in this race as Hurts is edging o...

Dak Prescott hushed his detractors with final drive against Texans
The Dak Prescott discourse has become one of the most polarizing in the NFL. He’s not an MVP-caliber quarterback, but he’s been a steady hand for seven seasons. He has a higher career passer rating than Tony Romo and led explosive offenses, but Prescott’s leap to top-5 quarterback never came, and no...

Week 14 NFL Takeaways: Byemaggedon Part II, Ugly Wins Attack
There were a handful of upsets in Week 14, but for the most part, chalk held up. The teams that were expected to win, and also contend in the playoffs, held serve during the final week of byes in the 2022 season....

Don’t expect Odell Beckham Jr. on a roster tomorrow or the next day, but next month is a different story
The free agency of Odell Beckham Jr. began with the energy of a 10-figure lottery jackpot. Fox Sports’ Jay Glazer reported in early November that Beckham would soon be fully cleared to play, and also that he expected there to be a bidding war for his services....