Month: October 2024

Are we still waiting for Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson to show up? 

We’re entering Year 3 since the Browns’ infamous heel turn, signing Watson to a bonkers deal amid his sexual misconduct cases in 2022. He’s played a grand total of 12 games for Cleveland and has hurt its chances as much as helped them in those outings.

The Browns aren’t ready to cut bait on Watson (nor can they, really), with the QB showing just enough glimpses of his old form to keep Cleveland on the hook. It tries to jump-start his career by hiring new offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey, who will utilize Watson’s mobility with plenty of RPO and movement behind the line.

Oddsmakers aren’t as optimistic about Watson or the Browns, for…

Without the Covid-19 pandemic, Saturday 16 May would have seen the final matches of the German football league’s 57th season: a day of passion and noise, tears of joy from the champions and despair from fans of relegated teams. Instead, the restart of the Bundesliga after a nine-week break was a strangely clinical affair, which is more likely to be remembered for unfamiliar hygiene routines, an eerie atmosphere inside the stadiums and awkward elbow bumps.

Haaland leads the way as Dortmund win by a distance on Bundesliga returnRead more

For the restart to go ahead, the 36 clubs in the first and second division had to abide by a strict code of regulations drawn up by the German football association. No more than a total of 300 people were all…

Antoine Griezmann has rejoined Atlético Madrid in a shock move from Barcelona on a season’s loan with an obligation for the transfer to become permanent for €40m (£34.4m).

The France international left Atlético for Barcelona in a €120m deal in 2019 but has failed to live up to expectations. He has scored 22 goals in 74 La Liga games for the Catalan club.

Chelsea close in on deal for Atlético’s Saúl but face Koundé disappointmentRead more

A swap involving João Felix had been mooted but Barcelona instead signed Luuk de Jong from Sevilla on a season’s loan with the option of a permanent transfer. Griezmann spent five successful seasons at Atlético after joining from Real Sociedad, his goals return mark…

Naples has been preparing the party for months: streets festooned with banners as blue as the sky above the Tyrrhenian Sea. Even in Italy’s most superstitious city, they cannot pretend to believe that another team will pip them to the Serie A title. Coming out of this season’s final international break, Napoli were 19 points clear of second place with 11 games left to play.

Day by day, more decorations are added: a fresh mural of a tricolore badge celebrating this third Scudetto or cardboard cutouts of players in the Spanish Quarter. Across the city, locals will tell you they are only just getting started. Yet there was no party atmosphere inside their own stadium as Napoli welcomed Milan on Sunday night.

Bayern Munich back on top as …

In June 2009, South Korea had qualified for the World Cup by the time Iran came to Seoul (and produced that protest) but Park Ji-sung’s late strike secured a 1-1 draw. It was a goal more celebrated by the North Korea players watching in their hotel in Riyadh before their game with Saudi Arabia.

“Park Ji-sung gave us the best-ever assist,” the DPRK striker Jong Tae-se told me in an interview with the Guardian a few months later. “He gave us a great chance. It was so exciting. We knew that we only needed a draw and I had faith that we could do the job in Saudi Arabia.” It ended 0-0 and North Korea made it to South Africa and as well as the delight in Pyongyang, there was happiness in Seoul.

It ended a qualif…

The Jets are finding out quickly that every game isn’t going to be like Week 1, where they were gifted a win by Josh Allen, and the Buffalo Bills. Life without Aaron Rodgers will be just like it was before he arrived. All this talk about rolling with Zach Wilson already looks like a huge mistake. It’s easy to see that the Jets aren’t going to be as good as they hoped, minus A-Rod. What Mike Greenberg suggests probably needs to happen soon. Since head coach Robert Saleh and the Jets apparently aren’t interested in any free-agent options, maybe trading for a quarterback is the answer. Although that’s how they acquired Rodgers, something must be done in a hurry. You can’t live off a good defense alone in the NFL anymore. Those days are gone when it comes to contending. At thi…

Out of all the jamokes currently attending the Guns ’N Camo sleepaway camp in a remote and unspectacular administrative building in Oregon, the guy in the video above might be the jamokiest. Click play, and you’ll see Jon Ritzheimer tearfully inform his children that he won’t be home for awhile because, “Your daddy swore an oath. He swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution.” Christ, what a knob. Don’t you wish someone would come up with an effective way to repeatedly shame this dillweed on the internet? Thankfully, Mountain Goats frontman John Darnielle has come up with such a method, and it’s taking off. #DaddySworeAnOath is the meme we need right now:
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Some people are fans of the Arizona Cardinals. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the Arizona Cardinals. This 2017 Deadspin NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read all the previews so far here. Your team: Arizona Cardinals. Your 2016 record: 7-8-1. Perhaps you remember this team helping push the Jimmy Garoppolo hype train out of the station in Week 1, or the extremely predictable sixth career nosedive of Carson Palmer, or David Johnson nearly getting his knee detonated in the final game, or the sudden and baffling implosion of this team’s fabled receiving corps, with Michael Floyd getting an ugly DUI and J.J. Nelson dropping every pass and John Brown apparently running off a cliff face. But come on now. You’re not here for any of that shit. You’re here t…