NBA free agency has dawned. Ask conventional wisdom, though, and she’d just as soon tell anyone dreaming of big movement this offseason to hit the snooze button again.Whether Malik Monk (Sacramento) and Pascal Siakam (Indiana) set a trend by re-signing with their teams early in free agency remains to be seen.Still, the landscape is surely altered because teams can negotiate with their players one day after the NBA Finals conclude. There are also various wrinkles to the league salary cap. Second apron, anyone?In any event, big names abound. The following players are available, by definition: Let’s take a look at some headliners.LeBron James, Los Angeles LakersDoes James want to take his talents elsewhere this summer? He can do so by opting out of a $51 million player option in Los Ange…

When Robert Griffin III busted his ankle early in Washington's Week 2 game against the Jaguars, the team turned to backup Kirk Cousins to run the offense, again, and damn, he filled in nicely, again. The offense came alive, and Washington came away with a decisive 41-10 victory. RG3's return is still up in the air—definitely not for a few weeks, likely a lot longer than that—but in the meantime, just how good is Cousins? With Griffin's injury coming so early, Cousins played virtually the entire game. He hit the ground running, ripping up Jacksonville on just his second play. Washington went empty backfield, and fullback Darrel Young lined up as an outside wide receiver:
Cousins dropped back without any trouble, the line held, and he threw an accurate ball right…

Some people are fans of the Cincinnati Bengals. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the Cincinnati Bengals. This 2019 Deadspin NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read all the previews so far here. Your team: [Terry Bradshaw voice] THE BINGLES (That joke courtesy of an old chestnut from The Mighty MJD) Your 2018 record: 6-10. This after a 4-1 start. The Bengals finished behind Cleveland in the division, which no one had done since 2010. Do I even need to tell you which team that finished behind the Browns that year? Reader, I do not. You can sense the truth rustling in your soul. If the Browns can’t fuck something up, the Bengals will step in to finish the job. Only the Raiders and Bucs gave up more points than the Bengals last season, but those two don’t co…

When we weren’t busy watching sports contests, we listened to some stuff. Here are the best things we heard this year. Metallica, Hardwired… to Self-Destruct I won’t claim that Metallica’s embarrassingly titled Hardwired… to Self-Destruct, was anywhere close to the best album of the year, or even my favorite, but it was 100 percent the album that made me the happiest to realize did not suck. This is the way of things for a Metallica fan these days: Wait ages for an album and pray it’s not humiliating to the band and to the listener, because that’s the impression you’re all stuck with for a long time, not knowing if there’ll be another one. Let me tell you that Hardwired is objectively good. Not “good for a bunch of 50-year-olds,” not “good compared to Lulu,” bu…

We've finally wrapped up our 2013 Why Your Team Sucks series. Below are links to all 32 of this year's entries, just in case you missed any. NFC NFC East: Dallas Cowboys | Washington Redksins | Philadelphia Eagles | New York Giants NFC West: San Francisco 49ers | Seattle Seahawks | St. Louis Rams | Arizona Cardinals NFC North: Green Bay Packers | Minnesota Vikings | Chicago Bears | Detroit Lions NFC South: New Orleans Saints | Atlanta Falcons | Carolina Panthers | Tampa Bay Buccaneers AFC AFC East: New York Jets | Buffalo Bills | Miami Dolphins | New England Patriots AFC West: Denver Broncos | Kansas City Chiefs | Oakland Raiders | San Diego Chargers AFC North: Baltimore Ravens | Pittsburgh Steelers | Cleveland Browns | Cincinnati Bengals AFC…

Some people are fans of the Carolina Panthers. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the Carolina Panthers. This 2012 Deadspin NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read the other Why Your Team Sucks 2012 previews here. 1. Congratulations to Ryan Kalil for jinxing the shit out of his own team. There are few more tiresome storylines in sports than "X athlete guarantees a victory," because every athlete thinks they're going to win every game, and that's the way athletes SHOULD think. It's not controversial to declare your certainty of success. It means you're just as blindly arrogant as the douche in the other locker room. HOWEVAH, there's a marked difference between expressing that kind of thing off the cuff and taking out a full page …

The Smoking Gun has published the October 2006 email conversations between Roger Clemens and his trainer, Brian McNamee, on the heels of the erroneous Jason Grimsley affidavit report by the LA Times. The exchanges both show that the love between these two partners in ass-injecting infamy is boundless — and that Roger Clemens is a brilliant wordsmith. Also, ironically, McNamee bristles at Clemens' "rat" insinuation and proves his loyalty to his former superstar client by letting him know that he "will hop on a plane, find you, and slap you very hard" if Clemens even worries about his trainer turncoating. Oh, and Clemens calls the writer of the LA Times piece a "dushbag" and signs all of his e-mails "22." The correspondence was included as …

data-mm-id=”_8wi3wcfm4″>It’s true. You can’t spell elite without Eli. But while Eli Manning was never truly an elite quarterback — despite his claim in 2012 that he was, which led to the elite-Eli saying — he was one of the most impactful quarterbacks in NFL history and, save for Tom Brady, the most impactful of this generation.Now, in full transparency, I am a Giants fan. But this goes beyond fandom. Manning is unquestionably the greatest quarterback in his franchise’s history. He threw two of the most important passes in Super Bowl history. He beat the best quarterback in NFL history, the best coach in NFL history and the greatest dynasty in NFL history in the Super Bowl. Twice. He even derailed a perfect 18-0 season.No quarterback, not even Tom Brady, can say that. No quarte…

data-mm-id=”_57anwop7a”>As the 2020 NFL Draft approaches rumors are starting to swirl concerning certain teams' preferences for players. One such rumor is the Miami Dolphins now preferring Oregon quarterback Justin Herbert over Alabama's Tua Tagovailoa. That one seems like a complete smokescreen to fool anyone who thinks the Dolphins want Tagovailoa. For months, everyone in the industry has heard the Dolphins wanted Tagovailoa and they were hoping to land him with the fifth pick in this year's draft, or through a trade up. Within the last week, that's changed. Now we're hearing the Dolphins are favoring Herbert. The sudden switch has all the makings of a classic draft smokescreen. I'm not here to say Herbert doesn't have potential. He's a 6-foot-…

data-mm-id=”_9f062npz8″>The week after Dak Prescott suffered a devastating season-ending ankle injury, the Cowboys set the groundwork for contentious contract negotiations. It appears they haven't backed off their hardball stance. According to Ian Rapoport, the Cowboys remain resolute in keeping Prescott around for at least another year and are willing to slap the franchise tag on him for a second straight season to ensure he doesn't go anywhere in free agency. While the Cowboys will also try and negotiate a long-term deal with Prescott, as they did last offseason, the threat of them placing the franchise tag on him a second time is a clear negotiation tactic to encourage the quarterback to take the deal they're offering and concede points on the deal he wants. Prescott …