smith Page 6 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Ranking the final 4 teams in NFL playoffs
The stage is set. Four teams remain. Aside from some gut-wrenching, soul-crushing losses by the Buffalo Bills and Dallas Cowboys, these are pretty much the teams we expected to make it this far. ...

Black coaches must recognize when they are Rooney Rule pawns
Are you helping yourself or are you helping them? That’s what every Black man in the NFL must ask themselves before accepting an interview for a head coaching position. The answer to the question is a personal one that affects many — just look at David Shaw....

Dan Quinn, Jim Harbaugh and all of the NFL coaching, exec hires
With interviews entering late rounds and the new league year inching closer, we are finally seeing some of the coaching and front-office vacancies around the league get filled. To check out every opening around the league, check out our firings list. Tap in for all the latest head coach, coordinator...

Luka Doncic and each NBA team's leading single-game scorer
Update: Luka Doncic is the latest NBA star to drop 70+ points this season. It topped his Dallas Mavericks single-game record of 60, set in 2022. ...

Buccaneers have tough decisions to make on Baker Mayfield, Mike Evans
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ surprising season is finally over, but now they’ve got some huge decisions to make. Primarily about the futures of Baker Mayfield and Mike Evans in Tampa. Both would like to stay, and with Evans being homegrown, he’ll likely have some influence on the team when it comes to ...

Baker Mayfield and Jared Goff joined some elite company
After the Wild Card Round of the NFL playoffs, Baker Mayfield and Jared Goff have etched their names in history, joining a short list of quarterbacks to win a postseason game with two different teams....

Kliff Kingsbury could be calling Chicago home real soon
Somebody once said, “Don’t call it a comeback, I’ve been here for years.” But in the case of former Arizona Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury, his potential return to the NFL might be an unexpected return soon. As reported by Adam Schefter on Thursday, the Chicago Bears are interested in Kingsbur...

The NFL buying ESPN is the final frontier in the effort to kill sports journalism
Last week, my colleague Sean Beckwith wrote about the NFL possibly buying a stake in ESPN, and the potential for the self-proclaimed Worldwide Leader in Sports to become nothing more than the PR arm of the most popular league in America (at least, more than it already is). Yesterday, over at The Nat...

Final 2023 NFL defensive leaders
The 2023 NFL regular season is over, and the league’s defensive leaders have been decided....

Pascal Siakam makes the Pacers good at what they’re bad at, excellent at what they do best
The calendar has not yet reached February, but the Indiana Pacers have decided to kick the trade deadline into high gear. The No. 6 seed in the Eastern Conference made a win-now move with darkhorse MVP candidate Tyrese Haliburton currently sidelined with a hamstring injury. Per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnaro...

Dan Quinn went from top coaching candidate to consolation prize overnight
This time last year Dallas Cowboys defensive coordinator Dan Quinn was the talk of the town and the hottest potential head-coaching candidate in the NFL. One road trip around the sun later and Quinn is almost an afterthought on the minds of teams needing new coaches. With names like Jim Harbaugh and...

Aaron Rodgers and Pat McAfee are proof that ESPN only wanted Black talent to ‘stick to sports’
“It’s not what you say, but how you say it,” is a wise adage. But at ESPN, it’s always felt like who said it was more important than what was said. Aaron Rodgers and Pat McAfee haven’t been sticking to sports for a while now, which was, and still is, a privilege that former and current Black employe...

2023 NFL postseason sacks leaders
See how Patrick Mahomes, Justin Jefferson, and other top NFL players performed this season — check out more Deadspin NFL Stats below:...

2023 NFL postseason tackles leaders
See how Patrick Mahomes, Justin Jefferson, and other top NFL players performed this season — check out more Deadspin NFL Stats below:...

They thought Matt Patricia was an answer
When you’re turning to Matt Patricia, it’s obvious you’re out of answers. You may not even know the questions....

These are the WNBA's top 10 free agents
WNBA’s free agency started this week, and while players can’t sign until Feb. 1, teams are allowed to be in conversation with them. Here are the top 10 players who are eligible free agents and some scenarios around what would happen if they re-sign or go somewhere else....

NFL teams ripe for an upset; Aaron Rodgers is still a dolt; So is Jameis Winston; All the coaches & GMs who got axed
After 18 weeks of grueling NFL action, we’ve made it to Wild-Card Weekend and the first round of the postseason. We often hear the term “must-win” during the regular season, but once a team makes it this deep into January, every game is truly a must-win scenario. Like any other week, there’s always ...

A Chiefs-Eric Bieniemy reunion could be on the horizon if Kansas City falters
Sometimes certain pairings in life become so successful that they are forever tied at the hip in the minds of the masses. In sports, we see it all the time, no matter how the relationship ends. Tom Brady and Bill Belichick will always be tied to one another just like Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson, a...

These are the biggest flops of the 2023 NFL season
The NFL is a small-sample league. Before you can even blink, 18 games have flown by and we’re left trying to make sense of everything that happened. It means that luck can play a massive part in whether a team succeeds or fails, with a few bounces of the ball defining the entire story for an entire ...

ESPN earned 30+ Emmys using fake names for on-air talent
Updated Jan. 12: According to a report by the New York Post, ESPN’s former senior vice president of production Lee Fitting’s dismissal was directly tied to the fake-name Emmy scheme....