When we weren’t busy watching sports contests, we watched some things. Here are the best things we saw this year. Don’t Breathe Don’t Breathe boasts an absolutely perfect concept. Three young burglars break into an old blind man’s house and the tables are turned almost immediately. He locks them in, presents a proficiency with weapons and a secret he’ll kill to protect, and then hits the lights. If all horror movies are on some level about the fear of the dark, this is the purest distillation of horror. You are trapped in the dark, you cannot leave, and you cannot see—and you’re trapped with something that can. The execution is flawed. There is a second-act twist which introduces unnecessary, discomfiting overtones to the film even as it removes any sympathy viewers might s…
Coming October 8 is The Best American Sports Writing 2013 Edited by J.R. Moehringer. Check out the table of contents over at series editor Glenn Stout's site. Looks to be another sure shot to this great long-running series. …
Some people are fans of the Cincinnati Bengals. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the Cincinnati Bengals. This 2012 Deadspin NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read the other Why Your Team Sucks 2012 previews here. 1. Coach for life. The Bengals quietly gave head coach Marvin Lewis a two-year extension two weeks ago. Normally, a contract extension means nothing in the coaching world, since shitty coaches with contract extensions get fired all the time (Brad Childress being a prime recent example). But that's not the case when you're dealing with Bengals owner Mike Brown. Mike Brown would rather watch his own children die than eat a contract, and so you Bengals fans are in for at least three more years of Lewis, a coach who is exceedingly professional y…
The Olympics begin in August, and they're in China, so, you know, it should be a rather fascinating world event, if you're into fascinating world events. And we are proud to welcome back our Deadspin Beijing Bureau, our own trio of correspondents living in China and reporting on everything they see, Olympics related and otherwise. Deadspin's Beijing Bureau is manned by three college buddies who "studied" abroad together in Shanghai — one of whom is from Iowa — and now shadily classify themselves as freelance writers. The country has foolishly allowed them to return, and while they work and travel around China during the next year they'll be checking in periodically with dispatches about the Middle Kingdom's utter ridiculousness, hopefully preparing …
data-mm-id=”_e9lbse48u”>Patrick Mahomes is the new torchbearer of the NFL. He solidified his status with an exclamation mark in the AFC Championship Game. The explosive, Super Bowl-advancing win follows a historic comeback against the Texans and adds another chapter to his prolific two-year start. Mahomes' success and numbers so far co-sign with the eye test. He's quickly become the most impactful, uncontainable player in sports. Thus the conversation is no longer is someone better than Mahomes, but can anyone challenge him moving forward? Clay Travis initiated the topic by agreeing with most people that Mahomes is the new Tom Brady. Travis added the difference is, right now, there isn't a viable option to be his Peyton Manning.The upper echelon of greats were significa…
data-mm-id=”_ttd2vwlk5″>An interesting trend I've noticed among the dozen or so Patriots fans I know is their unabashed love for Tom Brady even in the face of his departure from New England. Ask any of them what they think of TB12 today and they'll give you as flattering an answer as they would have after he led them to their sixth Super Bowl. This isn't the norm for every fan base and their former hero. When Brett Favre left for the Vikings, Packers fans were ready to crucify the man who brought them their first Super Bowl since 1967. Of course, it's apples and oranges, not only because Brady accomplished more than Favre, but also because he didn't leave for a rival. Still, I don't think we've ever seen a fan base stay so in love with a player who ju…
data-mm-id=”_qi80k61fm”>The Pac-12 is planning a loan program that would allow each of the conference's member schools to receive up to $83 million. The loans, which could total nearly a billion dollars, would be available in the event that the college football season is canceled. Here's what an anonymous source told the Mercury News: ““The conference is trying to be nimble and give schools some options’’”If you can get approval on a 10-year loan for $83 million, that means the bank is supposed to believe you can pay them back like $10 million a year every year for the next decade. I don't know what the exact payments would look like, but they would be massive and are great proof of what big business college football is. With that kind of money you could buy a jet …
data-mm-id=”_iyrn4g88v”>As a head coach, Adam Gase is little better than a walking corpse at this point. No one expects him to remain with the New York Jets after this season. Chief among the reasons for his impending firing has been his inability to develop young quarterback Sam Darnold. Gase admitted as much on Thursday, as the entire sports world nodded in agreement. Gase said part of the reason he went to New York was to help develop Darnold and said he's failed to do so:Revealing quote from Gase on Darnold: “I came here to help him, help him develop his career, and we haven’t been able to do that. That’s why every game is so important. Keep trying to help him grow …” #Jets— Rich Cimini (@RichCimini) December 3, 2020More Gase on Darnold: “We need to do things wel…
data-mm-id=”_4kef4fhx4″>The Boston Celtics currently trail the Philadelphia 76ers 3-2 in the Eastern Conference semifinals and haven't looked great in the series. Elimination short of the NBA Finals would qualify as a disappointment after Boston lost the title series last season. Colin Cowherd thinks it's time for the Celtics to shake up the roster and trade Jaylen Brown. Bill Simmons absolutely hates the proposed deal.On Wednesday's episode of The Herd, Cowherd claimed the Celtics needed to make major changes and get rid of Brown to do so. His idea was to trade the two-time All-Star to the Golden State Warriors in exchange for Andrew Wiggins and Jordan Poole. That would give star Jayson Tatum some help defensively on the wing with Wiggins, and scoring punch with Poole. …