Olympic men’s curling begins Wednesday morning (Tuesday evening in North America) with Team USA playing the host South Korea and defending gold medal-winner Canada vs. Italy at 7:05 p.m. ET. The top four teams after the 10-team round-robin will advance to a playoff. NBC Sports will be streaming every game online live. It’s going to be a magical two weeks. With that in mind, here’s a preview of each team from Deadspin curling correspondent Matt Sussman and British Columbia-based curler and comedian John Cullen. GIF via [object Object] Canada The team: Kevin Koe (skip), Marc Kennedy, Brent Laing, Ben Hebert, Scott Pfeifer How they got here: Won the Canadian trials in December on a last-shot draw. What they’ve done so far: Canadian and world champs in 2016, and Canadian runner-u…
Welcome to Deadspin’s irregular pro wrestling column, in which Tom Breihan and Ernest Wilkins will comb through the past month or so of superkicks, lariats, and 450 splashes in search of the greatest things that this most American of artforms has given us. Tom Breihan: Is John Cena having the best year of his career? For plenty of wrestling fans, Cena was something like a necessary evil for so long: WWE’s unstoppable virtuous good guy who never loses and who manages to make persistence seem like the corniest thing ever. He’s had plenty of great moments in the past decade-plus, of course. His 2011 Money in the Bank match with CM Punk is the closest thing we’ve got to a canonical classic this decade, and I’m still pissed at myself for not seeing it in person when I could’ve. An…
According to a report in the Chicago Tribune, Selig intends to call it quits after the 2012 season. If an official portrait is ever commissioned, I would suggest using the above photo. It seems…oddly fitting. [ Chicago Tribune] …
The body of former World Wrestling Entertainment star Shad Gaspard was found on Venice Beach early Wednesday morning, police said. He had been caught in a rip current last weekend while saving the life of his 10-year-old son, Aryeh. He was 39. The lifeguard on duty tried to deliver a “buoy-like device” to help bring the swimmers to shore. However, the waves were too strong and the boy couldn’t secure it. Knowing the lifeguard had an impossible decision to save Gaspard or his son, Gaspard made the choice for him. ”Take my son,” Gaspard said, according to Kenichi Haskett, who ESPN reports had debriefed the lifeguard. Aryeh was saved, as were several other swimmers. According to authorities, Gaspard was about 50 yards away from the shore when a lifeguard last saw him. As th…
data-mm-id=”_xmcglb3ed”>Make all the excuses you want for him. Contort reality in the direction most favorable to your plea for patience. But as a prominent internet troll says: "facts don't care about your feelings."And here are the facts.Jim Harbaugh is 0-5 against Ohio State during his tenure in Ann Arbor. The Michigan Wolverines have won nothing of any importance. They are clearly improved from the Brady Hoke-Rich Rodriguez years but are much closer to Lloyd Carr mediocrity than a national contender. The media-appointed savior of Michigan football has not brought the program even to the brink of salvation. The gulf between where the Wolverines are and the promised land is as wide as the talent disparity with the Buckeyes. Harbaugh has created headlines and buzz. He h…
data-mm-id=”_zngycjhu3″>Season Records: Koster 62-53; Giuffra 56-50; McKeone 55-60; Phillips 53-62Michigan (-8.5) at IndianaKoster: Sandwiched in between two rivalry games, this has all the makings of a trap game. The Hoosiers gave Penn State all it could handle in Happy Valley and can do some impressive things on both sides of the ball. Jim Harbaugh will have his team focused mentally and will get the victory, but it won't come easy. Indiana finds the backdoor here in the final seconds. Michigan 34, Indiana 27Giuffra: Indiana went toe-to-toe with Penn State last week, proving it's no longer a Big Ten pushover. But against Michigan’s improving squad, which is gearing up for its showdown with Ohio State next week, the Hoosiers will have more problems than answers. Michigan 3…
data-mm-id=”_evq62lhs3″>Jose Altuve did not want his teammates to rip off his jersey following a walk-off homer in last year's ALCS. Altuve making sure he keeps that jersey on (via r/nyyankees) pic.twitter.com/OO32FVFxTi— Kenny Ducey (@KennyDucey) January 16, 2020The very shy former MVP was apparently concerned people, including his wife, would see an in-progress tattoo. A bad one. It was an explanation met with shakers full of salt as allegations raged that Altuve and other Houston Astros hitters wore buzzers, a claim that was vehemently denied. Internet sleuths dug up this picture of Altuve from two-plus months' previous and no tattoo is present, which doesn't really prove anything but fueled even more fire. This ain’t adding up. I was told that Jose Altuve had a t…
data-mm-id=”_q4c5094nu”>Reports have already emerged detailing the NFL's contingency plans should the coronavirus pandemic continues to impact everyone's lives come fall. Today, ESPN's Jeremy Fowler reported that, unlike MLB and the NBA, the NFL will not consider putting teams into a centralized location to play games, commonly referred to as the "biodome" option: “One option not on the table, a source told ESPN, is gathering players at a centralized location to execute a season. The NBA and Major League Baseball have discussed playing at a neutral site such as Walt Disney World, Las Vegas or Arizona, but the NFL doesn’t plan to do that.”- Jeremy Fowler, ESPN Major League Baseball was blasted for their consideration of putting every team and player in Arizona …
data-mm-id=”_at2ecy4rs”>Jaylen Brown might be the most important person in the NBA right now. Brown, just 23, was already vice president of the NBA Players Association, but now, with America on the edge of who knows what, Brown is emerging as a civic leader. Here's what Brown wrote in The Guardian on April 19th. "Just" 30,000 people had died from COVID-19 when this was published. We crossed the 100,000 death milestone last week. “Misinformation is at a peak, and I can feel the collective restlessness increase as the days pass. You are not alone. It seems like the people responsible for conveying information all have different messages with separate agendas. From our local media to our governing officials all the way up to the man in the suit. In this most dire of times, …
data-mm-id=”_8hkg283hh”>Putting real world problems aside for a moment, it has been a very bad eight months for fans of the Boston Red Sox. Contract negotiations with the greatest home-grown talent they produced in decades deteriorated to the point where a trade felt inevitable. After months of waiting with sick stomachs, a deal was made, and the Red Sox received a paltry haul for Mookie Betts, one of the five best players in baseball. There were some legitimate arguments made about the value of paying any individual between $300 and $400 million for the next decade, but at its heart it was a cost-saving move made by an ownership group that has its fingers in dozens of pots around the world, including running Premier League side Liverpool. The following months did not improve matters. …