si Page 182 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The Lionel Messi train keeps rolling, and the Reds certainly don’t need pitching
It is a little annoying to keep seeing “Messi dominates MLS” headlines since his arrival because technically Lionel Messi hasn’t played an MLS match yet. The league is currently on pause for the first-ever Leagues Cup with Liga MX teams, a different competition. That doesn’t mean Messi and Inter Mia...
![Disney-sponsored Orlando Magic say $50k donation to Ron DeSantis' PAC came before presidential bid [Update]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/b3603fb90aecd1832bb1a38e66b05618.jpg)
Disney-sponsored Orlando Magic say $50k donation to Ron DeSantis' PAC came before presidential bid [Update]
Disney and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis have been engaged in a blood feud for more than a year. On Tuesday DeSantis’ self-appointed governing board of the Walt Disney World district in Orlando dismantled all of the diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in it. In February, Disney decided to canc...

And on the seventh day, Jonathan Isaac created sneakers
Business is about seeing the marketplace before the consumer knows they need it, and then capitalizing. I’m actually pretty certain that’s why it’s called capitalism. Sure, I didn’t go to business school, I don’t have an MBA, but you know who else didn’t go to business school? LeBron James, Tracy Mc...

Playing football at Northwestern University haunts me to this day: Ex-Wildcat lineman
Ramon Diaz hasn’t watched a football game in more than 10 years, since he abruptly left Northwestern University’s football team in 2008. Wednesday morning, standing in a room of reporters, Diaz, a former offensive lineman, detailed why he didn’t return for his fifth season, why he snuck into the loc...

Not all of Dan Campbell’s motivational tactics are permissible
It appears that Dan Campbell did not take in all of the lessons from the early COVID pandemic classic, The Tiger King. What made the documentary a seminal pop culture moment is that there was nothing else to watch in late March 2020, and characters who were so boorish, and ostentatious that they mad...

IDIOT OF THE MONTH: Everyone is dumb and/or evil
Welcome to Deadspin’s IDIOT OF THE MONTH! Ugh!...

Deadspin Investigation: Another Brandeis basketball coach accused of racial animus toward Black players
Five years after a Deadspin investigation prompted Brandeis University to fire its men’s basketball coach following allegations of blatant racism, the school finds itself once again facing allegations of racism, and unequal treatment, this time in its women’s basketball program....

World Cup Day 12: Speed kills, and so does a lack of it
We had our clash of teams that have looked most dominant so far, and we can pare that list down to “one team that’s looked dominant so far.” And in something of a surprise, Canada got their leaden asses booted back to the Great White North. Let’s get in. ...

The new brass in Washington use 'Redskins' instead of 'Commanders' — nothing has changed in D.C.
The Washington Ni**ers would cause a riot. The Washington K*kes would lead to lawsuits. The Washington Sp*cs would be deemed repulsive. And the Washington H*nkies would have a certain group of white people ready to storm something else in the Nation’s Capital. But for the new owners in D.C., using “...

World Cup Diary Day 11: Give them an inch…
We’ve gotten to the business end of the Group Stage, with Group A finishing up their schedule and sending a host home before the knockouts for the first time. But that was overshadowed by possibly the biggest upset of the tournament so far that blows up the draw a bit. Let’s run it through....

NBA doing everything it can to marginally disrupt player empowerment
The NBA league office prolonged the current stalemate between the Portland Trail Blazers and Miami Heat over a deal for Damian Lillard. A memo was circulated to all 30 franchises Friday saying that any player, or agent, who makes public comments about an unwillingness to “fully perform the services ...

Where did the American heavyweight boxing champions go?
Errol Spence and Terence Crawford’s highly-anticipated welterweight Fight of the Year doubles as a ring showdown for the pound-for-pound crown that boxing aficionados have been counting down to for years....

This is what an Ohio pro sports renaissance looks like: Joe Burrow carted off the field
At some point on Thursday, before seeing the news that Joe Burrow was carted off the practice field, I was running over some story ideas in my head as one does in late July when very few sports are in season. The half-baked concept I was playing around with was: Are we in the middle of an Ohio pro s...

NBA needs to up the ante with its international game slate
What happens when a seventh seed and a 13th seed meet on a basketball court in a country that doesn’t have an NBA franchise? Who knows, but we’re going to find out....

The Oakland A’s might not even be the worst team this year, let alone all time
Coming into the 2023 season, many thought that the Oakland A’s had the potential to be not just the worst team in baseball this year, but the worst of all time....

Playoff expansion in MLB, NBA has led to neither buying nor selling
I come to you today with a philosophical query: Is it better to have more and tighter playoff races, or a more active trade deadline? In previous MLB seasons, the Los Angeles Angels would already be looking ahead to next year. They’re five games out of what would’ve been the last play-in game spot u...

World Cup Day 8: The Aussies step in it
This tournament started with how every organizer wishes it would, with both hosts getting wins to up the energy and buzz around the whole thing. World Cups and big tournaments are just better when the hosts are relevant and getting the home fans excited. But now both Australia and New Zealand are up...

Running backs meet as changes to the franchise tag are long overdue
Disgruntled NFL tailbacks are on the counteroffensive against unfavorable market forces and a collective bargaining agreement that leaves them with few options have spent the last few days discussing their current predicament amongst one another and appear to have emerged from their Zoom meeting wit...

Choosing Orlando for the Pro Bowl exemplifies the NFL’s wishy-washy stance on racial, social issues
There’s nothing more infuriating than a fake ally. And no one is a better model of that than the NFL....

Lionel Messi’s quick start for Inter Miami has MLS’ detractors quiet
The shouts about Major League Soccer at large from other parts of the sports world get repetitive. Stating it’s a retirement league was always a jaded view. Perhaps it was the league with the most publicity that was willing to take big names past their prime. And while a lack of promotion and relega...