smith Page 9 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Cam Newton doesn't understand what 'game manager' actually means
Cam Newton has earned the right to stake his claim for the Content Clickbait King throne. He was a former MVP, Heisman Trophy winner, national champion and Super Bowl competitor. Newton recently caught a wave of backlash for classifying Brock Purdy, Dak Prescott, Jared Goff and Tua Tagovailoa as gam...

The NFL has an offensive line problem — and help is not on the way
The league has an offensive line problem, according to longtime lineman Andrew Whitworth. ...

The Bucks-Pacers rivalry is now spectacular. Thank you, NBA's In-Season Tournament
The NBA’s inaugural In-Season Tournament has been worth it for all involved. For the Los Angeles Lakers, many men who could use a $500,000 direct deposit got it. Tyrese Haliburton emerged from the tourney as the newest NBA superstar. Also, a real inter-division rivalry is budding. The Indiana Pacers...

Patrick Mahomes is entering his Donovan McNabb era
The Kansas City Chiefs can point to a myriad of issues behind their offensive struggles, including Matt Nagy’s playcalling, but their rapid disarmament over the last two years has hit them where it hurts. If you’re searching for a culprit for Kansas City’s offensive demise and fall from the top 10 i...

Ranking the NBA's rookie class so far (And No. 1 is not who you think it is)
With all the hyperbole around Victor Wembanyama being the next generational talent, it’s fair no one expected competition against him winning Rookie of the Year Award. But after sitting all last season due to an early leg injury — Chet Holmgren has beaten the injury-prone allegations to emerge as th...

It's still hard to trust the Dallas Cowboys
The Dallas Cowboys finally showed up and not only beat, but dominated, a top-tier opponent on Sunday night in Week 14. Big D put a certified beatdown on Philadelphia, 33-13, in a game the Cowboys controlled from start to finish. Dak Prescott and the Cowboys took all the doubt and threw it back in th...

Suddenly, the Lions, Eagles and Chiefs are staring at the panic button
There are four weeks remaining in the NFL regular season. I know what many of you are thinking: “Damn, I have to buy Christmas presents already. Maybe I shouldn’t have spent that weekend in Vegas at the end of the summer.” Credit cards are about to be burning the next couple of weeks, but this time ...

Here's every NFL quarterback to start a game so far this season
Update: It’s the final week of the NFL regular season and even more backups will get starts as teams who’ve locked up playoff spots rest their normal QB1s....

Giannis and Zion sure sounded like they, too, didn’t take the In-Season Tournament seriously
The biggest questions facing the NBA’s In-Season Tournament were: Would people care? Would fans care? Would players care? Because if no one cares, then we’re back to square one of the Association’s conundrum and watching effortless (not the good kind) December basketball. ...

Give us more Charles Barkley insulting Stephen A. Smith
ESPN and TNT have combined their coverage of the NBA’s In-Season Tournament, and as always, Charles Barkley kept things interesting....

Since 2013, 45 percent of Heisman finalists have been QBs of color. That’s progress
You know progress is taking place when things that used to be groundbreaking become the norm. Thankfully, it’s been a long time since Andre Ware was the only one....

Stephen A. Smith wants to be ESPN's biggest earner
Stephen A. Smith’s future at ESPN could be up in 18 months if the money isn’t right....

CC Sabathia, ex-MLBers to play in revived Negro League East-West All-Star Game
The National Baseball Hall of Fame is set to revive the Negro League’s East-West All-Star game with a legends exhibition in Cooperstown, New York next May. ...

Week 13 NFL Takeaways: A Byemaggedon Sunday still had lots of spice
There is no committee in the NFL that votes on the best team. In the pros, every result actually does matter. To qualify for the NFL’s 14 playoff spots, teams either have to finish atop a division or win enough games to get in as a wild card. While every game counts, there are some, even on the regu...

The case <i>against</i> Deion Sanders as Sportsperson of the Year
We are on the brink of our last full college football Saturday slate before bowl season. So, it’s apropos that Deion Sanders’ overhype earned him Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year. After announcing Sanders as the recipient of the honor, Sports Illustrated is dodging tomatoes from the Int...

IDIOT OF THE MONTH: Defending Trevor Bauer is never a good look
Hello there, esteemed reader, and welcome to Deadspin’s IDIOT OF THE MONTH, the world-renowned series in which we mostly just make fun of Aaron Rodgers every few weeks. (Hi, Tom Laforgia!)...

We've seen Klay Thompson overcome the whispers that he's washed
The Golden State Warriors should be reeling after squandering a 24-point lead against the Sacramento Kings in their NBA In-Season Tournament’s group stage exit. Yet, they’re oddly sanguine about backsliding below .500 since they launched out of the regular season gates to a 6-2 start. Klay Thompson ...

The contrived vilification of Malika Andrews has reached a tipping point
There’s no such thing as a good echo chamber. Eventually, bad narratives begin bouncing around, spreading and taking root at a cellular level. ...

The new Barry Sanders documentary has brought out the love. And some hate
Barry Sanders is one of the greatest players to ever step onto a football field, so when he abruptly retired following the 1998, season it left everyone stunned. One individual who calls Sanders the GOAT RB is Grammy award-winning rapper Eminem. Growing up around Detroit during the Sanders era of do...

Today’s NFL is mediocre, Tom Brady? How about the AFC East throughout your career?
Finally, someone out there has the guts to stand up to Tom Brady. Yes he has six championship rings and is the only player in NFL history to reach 600 career touchdown passes. However, that doesn’t make him infallible. After all, his 2007 New England Patriots did pull a 2015-16 Golden State Warriors...