Tom Ley

The World Cup kicked ass, as it almost always does, but Sunday's final between Spain and Argentina was a well-timed reminder that the game is not always as beautiful as it has been over the last month.

Well, well, well, would you look at that. We have a fancy new website.

Credit to The Athletic for crafting the most haunting lede of 2026. Monday’s article about the Eagles head coach begins with a single, chilling sentence: “Nick Sirianni discovered ChatGPT this offseason.” The mind reels. More and more of what sucks about modern life is the result of a certain kind of person becoming overly enamored…

ESPN staff was hit by another round of layoffs this week, which in some sense barely registers as news given that the network is stuck in a constant state of downsizing. This round of cuts was notable, however, due to some of the recognizable names that were let go: Karl Ravech, David Lloyd, Stephania Bell,…

The Minnesota Lynx are comfy. They woke up Wednesday morning at the top of the WNBA standings with a 21-6 record, the league's best net rating, and a bespectacled point guard who has become the coolest player in the league halfway through her first season. These are the sort of circumstances that allow for an organization to be extremely chill in coming up with a plan for reintegrating a four-time All-WNBA superstar back into the starting lineup.

Let's acknowledge that there is no conversation to be had about who the best player in baseball is, so long as Shohei Ohtani is drawing breath and applying his skills as a two-way player. The gavel has long been banged on that issue. But there's a lot of baseball being played, and a lot of cool guys doing the playing, and one of those guys is Pete Crow-Armstrong, who in an Ohtani-less universe is the best player in baseball.

UNC football general manager Mike Lombardi has been placed on paid administrative leave, according to a statement released by the school this morning.

Listen to enough sports podcasts, and eventually you will hear someone spit the name of every podcaster's greatest enemy: The aggregators.

On Tuesday night, a small group of weirdos held an anti-trans rally outside of the Seattle Storm's home arena. The occasion for their gathering was a game against the Indiana Fever and bench player Sophie Cunningham, who had recently participated in an ESPN profile where she said she wants to "protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn't have to go against biological men."

Some people are fans of the New Orleans Saints. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the New Orleans Saints. This 2026 Defector NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read all the previews so far here