There’s a distinct difference between being a top-ranked prospect and an impact rookie.Take a peek at the top two picks in the 2023 NFL Draft as Exhibit A. Bryce Young was almost universally framed as the top quarterback in the draft. Carolina pushed its chips to the middle of the table, acquired the No. 1 pick from the Bears and hitched its nearly empty wagon to the former Heisman Trophy winner out of Alabama. No. 2 pick C.J. Stroud went from Ohio State to Houston to NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year in a scheme that emphasized strengths and offered superior skill-position talent. While offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik was a critical asset for Stroud, the underappreciated element in his success was the superior offensive line to the group that tried – and largely failed – to pro…

While every World Cup is unique in its own way, and this one especially, there are certain happenings you can count on. They come about every tournament. The pressure, the coverage, the overall oeuvre of the whole thing just drives people into the same patterns. Over the next month, you can look for just about any and all of these to happen at some point. The press conference meltdown The only distinction here is whether it’s a player or a manager. Sometimes it’s a striker who has misfired in the first two games. Sometimes it’s the captain who’s tired of eating all the shit between his manager and his teammates. Sometimes it’s a manager who knows he’s about to hit the unemployment line in the next few days. Either way, there will be a press conference where the first question…

Amelia Molitor was just another college student at Oklahoma—until Sooners running back Joe Mixon punched her in the face at sub shop Pickleman’s Gourmet Café *, fracturing multiple bones in her face and requiring surgery that left her jaw wired shut. Afterward, she told the Oklahoman that she worried about retaliation from fans. “That’s my big fear (the fans),” Molitor said at the time. “I’ve been told to stay off of social media to avoid (OU fans) coming after me on there.” Nearly two years later, Molitor talked to the paper again and gave an interview that largely proves her own fears came true. She deleted her Twitter and Facebook accounts. A mug shot from a previous misdemeanor drug arrest got passed around the Internet, while Mixon’s lawyer tried to turn her pa…

Some people are fans of the Miami Dolphins. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the Miami Dolphins. This 2016 Deadspin NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read all the previews so far here. And buy Drew’s new book here. Your team: Miami Dolphins: Your 2015 record: 6-10, including a 1-3 start that prompted the firing of Joe Philbin and the glorious ascendancy of this man… God bless you, Weight Room Tomsula. Dan Campbell started off his reign in Miami by having players do the Oklahoma Drill. I wonder if fatigue could have been a factor in them dropping seven of their last 10. ONLY GOD CAN KNOW. One amusing NFL tradition is when a horrible team’s season is over and the interim guy gets a token interview for the permanent job. I guarantee you that Campbell…

Some people are fans of the Tennessee Titans. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the Tennessee Titans. This 2013 Deadspin NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read all the 2013 NFL previews so far right here. Your team: Tennessee Titans Your 2012 record: 6-10. 6-10 might be the worst record for your team to end up with (not mathematically speaking, of course). Going 6-10 means you're bad, but you're not the WORST. Going 6-10 means you don't get the top draft pick, and the people in charge of the shitstorm can sometimes escape with their jobs intact. And so here are the Titans, a year after going 6-10, still looking awfully 6-10ish. Your coach: Mike Munchak. To refresh your memory, here's Peter King talking about how Mike Munchak got his …

On Oct. 9, Dolpins offensive line coach Chris Foerster resigned after a video showing him snorting lines of cocaine was released by Las Vegas model Kijuana Nige. After releasing the video, Nige talked to the press, saying that “a point had to be proven” about white privilege. Since then, all has been quiet until yesterday, when Foerster opened up to NFL.com’s Tom Pelissero about his issues with substance abuse and his efforts towards recovery. Foerster says he has had alcohol issues for around 30 years, though he didn’t start doing cocaine until 2015, when he was with the 49ers, which “put the accelerator on” his addiction troubles. He found Nige in a “back page ad” in California in September when the Dolphins were in California, and the two proceeded to go on a eight-…

data-mm-id=”_5wsp4kzao”>The legends of Albert Belle are vast and unbecoming. There was the time he threatened to kill trick-or-treaters as he ran them off his lawn in a car. Or the time a teammate turned down the temperature in the clubhouse and Belle, who liked a sub-60 temperature, stood up, turned it back down and then smashed the thermometer with his bat. And most famously, he cursed out Hannah Storm and other reporters before Game 3 of the 1995 World Series. But on this day in 1996, Belle took it a step further with the media, hitting a photographer with a baseball. The legend goes that Sports Illustrated was writing a feature on Belle, who told SI writer Michael Babberger that "Sports Illustrated can kiss my black ass." Even though Babberger didn't get an interview…

data-mm-id=”_w4xo3ee2l”>Jim Rome and Jim Everett combined to create one of the most memorable moments in ESPN history 26 years ago today. Rome, who still a widely syndicated sports talk radio host, was hosting Talk2 on ESPN2. If you don't remember that show, that's OK. Talk2 ran from 1993 to 1998, but the show's Wikipedia entry exists only to mention the Rome – Everett confrontation. With good reason.April 6, 1994: Jim Everett goes after Jim Rome on ESPN2’s Talk 2 show (which was televised live). pic.twitter.com/DGKDiBgkbR— This Day In Sports Clips (@TDISportsClips) April 6, 2020Jim Everett appeared on the show thinking he would be interviewed by Roy Firestone, but was instead greeted by Rome, who had been calling him "Chris" for years. The reason? Everett,…

data-mm-id=”_5tmqulz6b”>There are a lot of talented reporters who break big stories in the NFL, but the two who break the most news, and usually the most important, are Ian Rapoport and Adam Schefter of the NFL Network and ESPN, respectively. Like high-profile professional athletes, these two are friends off the field and rivals on it, working tirelessly to beat the competition and report the next big piece of NFL news. But what if they went the athletic route and competed in a series of one-on-one competitions like route running? Who would win? Rapoport was asked a similar question in an AMA on Bleacher Report and offered the following response. “”I do my exercise on the Peloton, so I don’t know about sprints…I was a HS wrestler. If we wrestled, I think I’d have a good job. Now if w…

data-mm-id=”_9744b1hun”>The Golden State Warriors lost Klay Thompson to a torn right Achilles tendon on Wednesday and have been forced to remake their roster without him. On Thursday they agreed to a deal that will bring in Kelly Oubre from the Oklahoma City Thunder. While adding Oubre's skill will help Golden State, the franchise's luxury tax bill will explode as a result. The Golden State Warriors are finalizing a trade to acquire Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kelly Oubre, Jr., for a 2021 protected first-round pick, sources tell ESPN.— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) November 20, 2020The Warriors already have a luxury tax bill of $66 million, but adding Oubre would increase that exponentially. He's set to make $14.4 million during the 2020-21 season and due to the way …