Defector

Welcome back to Minor Dilemmas, where a member of Defector's Parents Council will answer your questions on surviving family life.

The U.S.

The Drake Maye Crisis, now seven weeks long stretching back to last season's playoffs, shows no signs of abating.

Looking at the raw numbers from 2026, the Chicago White Sox's stable of pitchers ultimately hover around league average, so I guess I can't start by saying something that feels emotionally true to me, which is "The Sox are going to try to be the first team

“Here are the main things you need to know about the Resident Evil games,” I explained to my friend Liz over the nonsense of the Digger trailer.

After Friday's unofficial reports that Manchester City had been found guilty on almost all of the 115 charges of financial rule breaching, it was only a matter of time before the true breadth of those breaches came to light.

Every manager understands the prime directive of postseason baseball, which is, "Whatever you do, it's wrong.

What does the perfect Indiana Fever game look like?

Let me take you Behind the Blog™ for a moment.

Time for your weekly edition of the Defector Funbag.

For nearly six years, I have been fascinated by the case of the Spine Collector.

I can’t think of a time in my life when the idea of a Muslim terrorist was not the most acceptable societal enemy.

For a guy who has spent most of his career as a backup, Case Keenum suddenly has a decent collection of signature wins.

In each week of the NFL season so far, Houston Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shaair has worn eye black that bears the name of a Palestinian child slain during Israel's genocide in Gaza.

Does it still feel a little too early for hockey?

It was many WNBA news cycles ago—but not that many human years ago!

Inside the hundred-meter mark, after 273.3 kilometers of racing, Brandon McNulty looked back one last time to see the pack behind him sprinting it out for silver.

Call ‘em the Badwill Games.

You ever need something so badly it scares you to say it aloud, just because the universe might smell that stench of desperation about you and smite your ass back into the existential garbage time you deserve?

Progress in the NFL is not linear, past success doesn't guarantee future success, regression to the mean is normal and expected—all of the cliches in the world can't possibly rationalize whatever the hell is happening to Drake Maye and the New England Pat…

It's time to wrap up the month with a challenging themeless.

Pitchers are a kooky breed: superstitious, hypercompetitive, quite often a little bit nuts.

It is October-y enough to be October, even though October is still days away, which means it's time to find out how many of you weirdos can hold a grudge that isn't yours to hold.

Hello!

The phrase "road playoff game" can have a variety of meanings depending on the circumstances, and the one that Paige Bueckers and her Dallas Wings teammates stepped into Sunday night was about as daunting as they come.

The 2026 WNBA playoffs begin on Sunday, following the league’s longest-ever regular season, one in which it felt like any team could win on any given night.

There are certain early-season losses, even hefty ones, that you can write off.

The Jockey Club, the leading sanctioning body in what’s left of the sport of horse racing in the U.S., sent out a clear message Wednesday to anybody thinking of naming their horse after Hitler: Don’t name your horse after Hitler.

Brown County Circuit Judge Marc Hammer ended his temporary seal Thursday on records in Josh Jacobs's domestic-violence criminal case.

The person in the photo above is not a strange wanderer whose arrival at the local inn coincided with that of a growing pestilence.

The second project is probably always the hardest.

The NFL schedule is not likely to renew the fading historical rivalry between the Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks.

Drew Magary’s Thursday Afternoon NFL Dick Joke Jamboroo runs every Thursday at Defector during the NFL season.

The 2026 NWSL season has provided some astonishingly fun soccer, and many off-field successes too: The league has boasted some record attendances, salaries, and goal-scoring this year, not to mention a few signings from at least a couple of the big Europe…

A week ago, we explained in scabrous detail the multiplicity of shortcomings of the American League by focusing on the Central division and blaming it at least indirectly on the Pope's inability to close.

When we set out to do a supersized season of Normal Gossip, it was all tee-hee, ha ha, look at all these funny goofs we have!

Barstool Sports podcaster Ryen Russillo has an urgent message for you: He will be dead in 72 hours unless $12 million is wired to the following bank acc—sorry, my mistake.

Welcome back to Minor Dilemmas, where a member of Defector's Parents Council will answer your questions on surviving family life.

In the grand scheme of things, Week 1 of the NFL season means nothing.

The Protect College Sports Act passed another procedural vote in the Senate yesterday, by a 70-21 margin.

Ireland and Israel are, at least for now, set for some really weird soccer matches.

Sisi is a Volvo Ocean 65 racing sailboat.

A baseball season is very long and offers plenty of time for everyone involved to forget the stuff they would rather forget.

If José Mourinho bringing a printout of questionable fouls from the Madrid derby to a press conference was an objectively funny maneuver from the Special One, the resulting fallout is bewildering, convoluted, and a little bit pathetic from everyone involv…

Time for your weekly edition of the Defector Funbag.

This week on the show, Harry and I were joined by returning champion Eamon Whalen.

Adam Wingard opens his new movie, Onslaught, with a brainrot history of the military industrial complex, a slipshod compilation of combat footage, political speechmaking, and behind-the-headlines conspiracizing that (semi-)convincingly situates the origins

The Detroit Tigers announced Monday that their ballpark will henceforth and forever, or until the naming-rights deal runs out or some more banks merge, be known as Fifth Third Park.

When I called up my grandfather Irwin Miller last fall, I asked him if he felt his age.

This past weekend, Ed Sheeran performed his first concert since decrepit Patriots owner Robert Kraft stuck his hand up the singer's ass and made him respect Israel.