usc Page 5 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Come home, Kevin Durant
The NBA’s greatest epics have been built around a meteoric star crash landing in a small market, galvanizing the city around their greatness in hopes of delivering glory. Think LeBron James in Cleveland, Dirk Nowitzki in Dallas, Tim Duncan in San Antonio, Isiah Thomas in Detroit, Hakeem Olajuwon in ...

Yes, Bills Mafia is the best fanbase and it’s not even close
I love the San Francisco 49ers. I grew up in the Bay Area, and instead of cheering for my father’s favorite team — the then-Oakland Raiders — in Super Bowl XXXVII. I cheered for the Bucs, a team I had zero affiliation with just because I didn’t want to see San Francisco’s cross-town rival win a chip...

A College Football Playoff bid is on the line for USC the next three weeks
It’s the penultimate week of college football’s regular season, and I’ll give you four guesses as to which conference has the most ranked teams. I’d like to thank SEC fans for their quick response, but nope, it’s not them. Big Ten fans aren’t even chiming in because one of their two divisions doesn’...

If athletes are going to take a stand on social issues, they can't also ignore Kyrie Irving, antisemitism
It was one of the rare beautiful things about 2020. It’s a shame it took an event as obviously evil as George Floyd’s murder while in Minneapolis police custody to be the catalyst for such touching moments. Seeing the groundswell of support for the Black Lives Matter movement in the aftermath, and t...
![Kyrie Irving finally apologizes after Brooklyn Nets suspend him, ADL rejects donations [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/c0ecae0e1c3fd4083af8f69d6f87494c.jpg)
Kyrie Irving finally apologizes after Brooklyn Nets suspend him, ADL rejects donations [Updated]
The most important part of the Brooklyn Nets and Kyrie Irving’s joint announcement that they’ll partner with the Anti-Defamation League to pledge $1 million total to organizations that fight intolerance was what wasn’t there — an apology. The self-enlightened guard feeling remorseful for his actions...

Just in time for Halloween, these are the scariest athletes of all time
In order to make money as a professional athlete, a person’s body must be able to defeat another person with a body that has gone through the same rigorous training. All of these people would be intimidating to those of us just trying to consistently get to the health club three days per week....

France may be without their spine at the World Cup, and they won’t be alone
Crowbarring a World Cup into the middle of the club season in winter was always a dumb idea, probably equal to the idea that the tournament ever could have been held in the summer in Qatar, which is what the country and FIFA were originally selling when they awarded it to Qatar (and it was literally...

Catching up with the soap opera drama of the NBA
The NBA is one of the longest-running unscripted nighttime soaps on television. Even outside of tip-offs and the final buzzer, its headliners are some of the most accessible figures in professional sports. The rosters are smaller, their faces aren’t obstructed, their games air nightly for at least h...

The AP poll really needs to start taking strength of schedule into consideration more
The USC Trojans came into this season with very high expectations, and that’s saying a lot considering their a historic program whose fans expect nothing short of a Pac-12 title and a top-10 postseason finish every year. The additions of head coach Lincoln Riley and quarterback Caleb Williams had So...

TMZ is the king of breaking the sports world’s most damning news
If seeing is believing, then videos are undeniable facts that play on an infinite loop....

The Pelicans have finally taken flight
Bourbon Street in New Orleans exists in a loop. Every night the street clicks back into a state of debauchery, repeated with perverse precision. Lonely men drift in and out of red neon strip clubs holding cans of Natty Light. Police on horses stroll between sleeping bums, screaming preachers, pools ...
![YouTubers test anal bead chess conspiracy [Update]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/7e05e58ca509d81dcd881a7f407cb2ff.jpg)
YouTubers test anal bead chess conspiracy [Update]
Updated Nov. 15, 2023: British YouTubers Josh & Archie tested the conspiracy theory that Hans Niemann could have cheated and used an “adult toy” to beat Magnus Carlsen....

Magnus Carlsen officially accuses Hans Niemann of cheating
It’s been a few weeks since 19-year-old Hans Niemann shocked the chess world by taking down the world’s highest-rated player, Magnus Carlsen, at the Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis. After his stunning defeat, Carlsen withdrew from the tournament, and tweeted out this video....

College football's Marty McFly Rankings Week 3: And then there was one team from Florida left
Merriam-Webster has four different entries for “back,” but none of them apply to college football teams. So it’s left up to people like me to determine what “back” actually is. Being back to Miami is not the same as being back to Washington. Also, can you get back if you never technically got anywhe...

Auburn vs. Mizzou: The hot seat will get even hotter for the losing coach
Auburn head coach Bryan Harsin and Missouri head coach Eli Drinkwitz are on a collision course, pushing their Southeastern Conference squads into the most important game of their respective coaching careers. The former mentor and pupil have yet to partake in a battle of wits as head coaches. Missour...

Chess and vibrating anal beads?
It’s been a little over a week since 19-year-old chess prodigy Hans Niemann shocked the world at the Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis, taking down the top-rated player in the world, Magnus Carlsen, 31. Here’s a short recap of the fallout:...

Drew Brees can’t cut it as a broadcaster or a doctor
Even though fans decided en masse that they did not want to hear Drew Brees’ football observations on television, there are still a lot of people still wearing their No. 9 New Orleans Saints jersey that wants to know his thoughts as he watches football over the weekend....

How do you cheat in live chess?
Magnus Carlsen achieved the rank of chess grandmaster — the highest rank achievable in chess — at the age of 13 years old. The 31-year-old Norwegian mastermind is a five-time World Chess Champion and widely regarded as the best chess player in the world. He rarely loses, and that made his loss in th...

There’s been an overcorrection on the Eagles
It’s impossible to walk by a game of oversized Jenga at the bar and not look at the teetering stack of blocks. There’s something about how it sways before inevitably crashing down into wreckage that’s enthralling. It’s how I feel when I look at the Eagles’ bandwagon growing like a neglected yard....