After a successful debut on Football Night in America, Steve Kornacki will return to the NFL playoff Big Board for the remainder of the season for NBC. He won’t be needed for over at the political desk for any recounts or vote tallies. Instead, we’ll get to see the man in khakis tell us how the New England Patriots, Arizona Cardinals, and other bubble teams can make the playoffs for four more weeks. He won’t be tallying suburban exit numbers in Atlanta or discussing the importance of Maricopa County. No. He’ll be on TV tonight to talk about another 2020 logjam… the NFL playoff picture. Yes, it’s that time of year again. Late enough in the season to start talking about the playoffs, but early enough for virtually every team to have a path to the postseason. Is there a way fo…

HARRY’S GAME

Back in a previous life, when The Fiver occasionally draped itself in suit and tie in order to take up someone’s valuable desk space in an office far away, we received an almighty rollicking from The Man for rolling up to work straight from a transatlantic holiday in jeans and trainers. It was past midday, which aggravated things further. What we’re saying is: let he or she who has not erred on the back of a soothing summer break cast the first stone. We did at least show up, mind – unlike Harry Kane, who didn’t stop at dressing down on what was supposed to be his first day back at Spurs: he put in a no-show, so everyone else pulled up their chairs as the transfer saga we all knew was coming cranked i…

There were no guarantees when Ange Postecoglou was named as the 21st permanent manager of Celtic in June 2021, and precious little indication that 20 months later he would be lifting his third trophy, with his side nine points clear atop the Scottish Premiership and on the way to consecutive league crowns.

Back then the former Socceroos coach’s resume placed him amongst Asia’s best, with credentials that gave a strong sign he knew his way around a football field, even if he was an outsider who had never coached in Europe. Postecoglou also possessed an unwavering sense of internal belief that his vision and principles would help him succeed in the role.

Celtic’s Kyogo Furuhashi lands double to sink Rangers in League Cup finalRead mor…

How firm is the executive support?

After deciding in the summer not to sack Erik ten Hag and extending his contract to 2026, the Sir Jim Ratcliffe-led football department would appear a touch silly if he were removed six Premier League matches into the season. So, the stance at the club the morning after the 3-0 humiliation by Tottenham at Old Trafford on Sunday was a resolve to remain serene while acknowledging the defeat, and its manner, as anathema to the excellence pursued by Ratcliffe, his chief executive, Omar Berrada, and the sporting director, Dan Ashworth. Ten league outings may seem a more prudent test of Ten Hag and his piloting of the squad but lose at Porto, on Thursday in the Europa Le…

Portugal’s headed home looking happy. The flight back to Lisbon should be filled with post-elimination joy and realizations of long-term progress knowing how they held the former undisputed world champions in check. And that’s all you need to know about how the United States women’s national team performed in its final Group E match, a scoreless draw. It advanced the Americans into the Round of 16 as the runners-up, setting up a likely collision course with Sweden, and with the form both teams have shown as of late, that’ll be the World Cup swan song for the Stars and Stripes. For those who didn’t get up in the middle of the night to watch the game, more zest would’ve been displayed drinking coffee from the couch than the United States showed for most of the game. Most unin…

While the Vegas Golden Knights’ roster already leaked out earlier over the course of the afternoon, the NHL Awards gave the league a platform to (very, very gradually and awkwardly) announce the results of the team’s expansion draft. Of course, this roster will likely see some changes pretty quickly. The Knights can’t trade any of these guys until Thursday, and they’ve likely selected at least a few players with the intention of sending them elsewhere for a better return. There aren’t any major surprises here. Pittsburgh Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury will be the team’s most recognizable name, while the Blues’ David Perron and the Predators’ James Neal will give the team some goal-scoring experience if they stick around. The rest of the squad is mainly built ou…

At some point around the time Dwyane Wade was impaled, for the second time, on a doddering walkabout turnover in the paint, the wider basketball-viewing world realized that Dwyane Wade has been dead all this time, and was only now being told. But Wade was far from the only Heat carcass to wash up these Finals. Here's how bad it was: Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh combined to post a game score of 18.5 (7.9 and 10.6, respectively). In 2007, when LeBron and the Cavs were swept by the Spurs, Drew Gooden and Boobie Gibson combined for 17.5. This is not flattering company, obviously. If you expand to the teams' top seven non-LeBron rotational players, the '07 Cavs actually pull ahead, with a combined Game Score of 42.2 to the '14 Heat's 36.2. (The average cumulative gam…

It's time to start the Greatest World Series Matchup Ever Imagined. Unless you hate the Yankees. Or the Phillies. Or Derek Jeter. Or if you're from Cleveland. But everyone else is going to love it. There's no point in previews or predictions at this stage (I think there will be at least four games … and three groin pulls) so just go ahead and open thread your brains out below. Angry rants and trash talk are more than welcome, but anyone who says "an A-bomb from A-Rod!" is automatically banned. Now go get some. [Photo: Getty] * * * * * Barry P. will have some other nonsense for you later. Thank you for your continued support of the Deadspin Dream Factory. …

As everyone already knows, if there's one thing football players love as much as gangbanging young women and crashing high-powered cars, it's eating Nando's. What might not be as well known is, for as much as they bang on about their Portuguese roots in their official blurb, Nando's is actually a South African brand. Maybe the England squad didn't have to ship over 24 bottles of peri-peri sauce after all. Anyway, the popular chicken restaurant has just released a series of (apparently typically) raunchy telly adverts in SA, aimed at World Cup tourists. Playing on the international media's scaremongering approach to this year's hosts, the boobalicious ad aims to reassure everyone that, despite the Daily Mail's protestations, the world's …

data-mm-id=”_te63ksztw”>At least Michael Jordan had a bit of an excuse. It's been a tough week for Stephen Curry. His Golden State Warriors have yet to debut during the NBA's opening week festivities, but the talk show circuit has not been kind at all. Earlier this week, the legendary Jordan remarked that Curry was "not a Hall of Famer" in an interview with NBC's Today. While it's possible Jordan was speaking in a literal sense, Kevin Durant didn't do much to help out his former teammate in the news cycle. Speaking with NBA alums Darius Miles and Quentin Richardson on the Knucklehead podcast, hosted by The Players' Tribune, Durant was asked which of his former teammates would make up the perfect starting five. There was one notable omission. KD n…