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![Checking in on the top high school recruits ahead of National Signing Day [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/26f088e4fbbfe211ed1b32c2d6ee6c82.jpg)
Checking in on the top high school recruits ahead of National Signing Day [Updated]
Only four unsigned top 100 college football recruits remain on the approach to National Signing Day — Early Signing Day. From that select group, Nyckoles Harbor, the No. 1 athlete in the Class of 2023 out of Washington D.C.’s Archbishop Carroll, is the highest-rated uncommitted recruit left roaming ...

Did the Bengals really get screwed by the refs in the AFC Championship game?
There was no way Sunday’s duo of conference championship games was going to end without a smattering of controversy. It’s just how the NFL works. In high-pressure situations, flaws in the system of rules the league have procured come to the surface with every action having dream-realizing consequenc...

For once, the NFL being America’s most popular sport worked to the NBA’s advantage
The officiating crew from that Saturday night Los Angeles Lakers-Boston Celtics matchup was let off the hook by the NFL playoffs. Chris Jones disrupted the Cincinnati Bengals far more than any mistakes from the officials on Sunday night, but any added difficulty is always burdensome when dealing wit...

WWE hits the right notes, even if it can’t play the song
You’d be forgiven if you thought that WWE falls into its best long-term storytelling by accident, including in last night’s Royal Rumble. It’s so fixated on providing “moments,” where the crowd pops to a riotous level and (these days) social media starts spinning and buzzing like a slot machine. Wha...

The Indianapolis Colts community rallies to be rid of Jeff Saturday
I like to say that we over here at Deadspin started the unofficial petition to prevent Jeff Saturday from becoming the next full-time head coach of the Indianapolis Colts. The backlash to Saturday getting the nod over many qualified candidates who have —get this — coached football before, was so lar...

2023 Baseball Hall of Fame voting results fallout
Unlike most sports’ Hall of Fame votes nowadays, the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame voting process has been the subject of much analysis, scrutiny, and often ridicule in recent years. There isn’t another major sport with so much elitism that all-time great players aren’t offered immortality via ...

Ed Reed’s temper tantrums won’t fix Bethune-Cookman’s issues
Over the last few weeks, the situation concerning Ed Reed’s short tenure as the head football coach at Bethune-Cookman University has transcended discussions amongst those in Daytona Beach, Florida, the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC), and Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs), ...

Is it the coach or the team?
Determining an NFL head coach’s value is difficult as hell. Sometimes it’s easy, like with the Jacksonville Jaguars and Urban Meyer, or the New York Giants and Brian Daboll. But most of the time, figuring out how much of a team’s success is based more on the coach or the talent on their roster is an...

Sami Zayn must win the Royal Rumble
WWE kicks its Wrestlemania season into fifth gear this week with Saturday night’s Royal Rumble. Even those who have soured on the product New York has been putting out come back in for the Rumble — for the most part — due to its uniqueness and penchant for surprises, and setting up what the build to...

Top 5 non-QB playmakers remaining in the NFL playoffs
We’re down to the final four teams remaining in the NFL playoffs. One of these teams will make history by winning LVII. All these teams have numerous playmakers, but like anything else, there are always a few who stand out above the rest. So, we’ll rank the top five non-QB playmakers remaining in th...

The remaining four NFL playoff teams — ranked
We’re down to four and they were arguably the NFL’s four best teams all season long — the Bengals, 49ers, Eagles, and Chiefs. For all the offseason shuffling of quarterbacks and coaches, three of the four teams from last year’s conference championship weekend, with the lone exception being the team ...

America owes Max Kellerman a collective apology over his Tom Brady 'cliff theory'
In the Summer of 2016, Max Kellerman predicted that Tom Brady’s skill would fall off a cliff. “Tom Brady’s just about done. It could be his next game he plays, it could be a year from now, but he is going to fall off a cliff. Tom Brady is going to be a bum in short order.”...

Once again, we’re left to ask the big question about Rafael Nadal
No one gets the Pete Sampras, except for Pete Sampras, obviously. It’s so rare to see a tennis player walk off the court for the final time having just won a Grand Slam, still capable of more but sated with what was already accomplished and unable to ignore the poetry of that particular signoff. The...

The backlash against Tony Dungy has been a long time coming
It hasn’t been a great week for NBC Sports football analyst Tony Dungy. He made up one-half of perhaps the most low-energy broadcast team we’ve ever heard on Saturday night (along with Al Michaels, and has been getting flack for it ever since. Dungy has also been getting roasted, and rightly so, by ...

Who gets 'the yips' and why?
Monday night, Dallas Cowboys’ kicker Brett Maher, a man who has made more 60-yard field goals than anyone in NFL history, went one for five on extra points. Because Tampa Bay basically had their asses handed to them by Dallas, (despite the ESPN crew’s insistence that “you can never count Tom Brady o...

Did Robert Griffin III subtweet Michael Vick?
I can’t confirm that Robert Griffin III took a shot at Michael Vick Saturday on Twitter. But the fact that Griffin tweeted out a paraphrased version of what Vick said on Fox NFL Kickoff, it’s not farfetched to believe that those comments didn’t sit right with RGIII....

Washington Commanders: QB1 — A New Hope
If only Washington could’ve seen its quarterback calamity coming. In early March when the Commanders struck a deal with the Colts to acquire Carson Wentz to be its next starting QB, it was correctly seen as kicking the can down the road. It was even more obvious when the season opener rolled around ...

NFL Playoffs: The 2 NFC teams on upset alert are overshadowing the 1 that’s not
There’s been a ton of chatter this week about who’s on upset alert, and most of that talk has surrounded two NFC teams prone to losing in the most extravagant ways possible when it comes to the playoffs. The Dallas Cowboys and the Minnesota Vikings are 2.5- and 3-point favorites, respectively, in ma...

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...

If you thought Washington Football Team was creative, you'll like what the Miami Heat's venue will now be called
The relationship between the Miami Heat and failed crypto company FTX is closer to over, as the latter asked a bankruptcy judge to end its sponsorship of the NBA franchise’s arena. FTX filed for bankruptcy in November, and its CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried — who is charged with fraud, money laundering, and...