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Kyle Shanahan And The 49ers Are Not Entitled To Anyone’s Trust
Well, that mystery has been solved. Kyle Shanahan was fishing around for his dropped phone while driving at 20 miles per hour when he crossed into the other lane and hit a car. There. Everyone satisfied? Great. Show yourselves out, and have a nice day. Well, no. Of course not. Shanahan, the coach and chief architect of the San Francisco 49ers, has been and remains off work for an extended period of time because of the crash that neither he nor the officials and general population of Palo Al...
Gianni Infantino Is Putting The World Cup Up For Sale
The recently concluded World Cup was the shining example of FIFA president Gianni Infantino's particular brand of evil. It was nakedly greedy , nakedly corrupt , nakedly ugly , and also totally awesome . Infantino's bet was that he could openly screw everyone— fans , teams , referees , ear-havers , even the sport itself —and could still get away with it simply because soccer is too good. As expected, he was proven right. And unsurprisingly, he's already trying to push things even further. O...
Why Your Team Sucks 2026: New York Giants
Some people are fans of the New York Giants. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the New York Giants. This 2026 Defector NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read all the previews so far here . Your team: WHAT’S IN THE TENT?! I BET THERE’S FREE CANDY IN THERE! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1fJjaYNclo
The Mind Of Kyle Kuzma Is Expanding At An Alarming Rate
I think it would be really fascinating to know Kyle Kuzma. The man loves to stride confidently right up to the very threshold of insight... Let’s be real…the CBA makes sure owners, PE funds and outside investors can eat off NBA team equity, but the players driving the ratings and the merch are treated like short‑term contractors. [...] ...only to suddenly throw a complicated mixtape-style stepback move and fire up an airball.
Live, Laugh, Like And Subscribe
When you turn your personal life into your business, the lines between boyfriend and coworker can start getting fuzzy pretty fast. How do you handle conflict with your coworker if you know their flossing habits? When things begin to fall apart with a boyfriend, what’s a microinfluencer girlboss with a pair of non-refundable plane tickets supposed to do? Life decisions like these call for expert analysis, which is why we called back the Scam Goddess herself, Laci Mosley. https://youtu....
There’s Big News In Necks
If you are anything like me, you probably have a neck—a neck you take for granted. Maybe you do not think often about having a neck, given said neck's relatively unobtrusive placement below your head and out of your line of sight. Maybe you are trying to look at your neck right now, pressing your chin against your neck, which remains obscured below your chin, which you also can't see. And yet your ability to even attempt to see your neck is made possible by your neck. Neckless animals such as ...
I Rode The Tour de France Cauliflower
Patrick has spent the last three weeks following the Tour de France with our friends from Escape Collective. This post was originally published on Escape Collective on July 27. Defector readers can now get a six-month free trial of Escape Collective, with ad-free and independent coverage that goes beyond the Tour de France. Claim the offer here . There was a point there, about three hours into a five-hour drive in 105 degree heat on the back of an enormous cauliflower, where it started g...
If The Podcaster Desires To Defeat The Aggregator, He Must Look Inward
Listen to enough sports podcasts, and eventually you will hear someone spit the name of every podcaster's greatest enemy: the aggregators. Oh, how the fellas who talk about sports into a mic for a living love to complain about the aggregators. Don't aggregate this! yelps Zach Lowe, before sharing a mild opinion about the Toronto Raptors. Listen up, aggregators, I am not reporting this , groans Bill Simmons, before guessing where LeBron James might sign. I need to be careful here, because of th...
In A Summer Of Superstar Movement, Steph Curry Is Conspicuously At Home
Now that LeBron James has found his newest version of joy with the Fanatics 76ers and the nation has finished chewing over all the ramifications thereof, be they ridiculous and absurd or merely improbable and stupid, the discourse cries out for a new main character in the hired-and-fired/signed-and-resigned marketplace. And there is only one name left that anyone finds appealingly rumormongerable: Stephen Curry. As in: "Why didn't the Warriors get LeBron to help Steph win that last ring?" O...
Will People Ever Stop Attending Sporting Events?
Time for your weekly edition of the Defector Funbag. Got something on your mind? Email the Funbag . You can also read Drew over at SFGATE , and buy Drew’s books while you’re at it . Today, we're talking about crabs, eating butter by itself, living near a McStadium, and more. PROGRAMMING NOTE: I'm currently locked into my Why Your Team Sucks duties, so you're getting a somewhat truncated bag today, plus a guest host in this space next week. Be sure to email them here with your deepest, darke...
Italian National Team Plans, Then Cancels Its Andrea Pirlo Party
Andrea Pirlo is one of the greatest Italian soccer players of all time. His résumé as a player is impeccable. He won six Serie A titles, two Champions Leagues, and most crucially, the 2006 World Cup. His evolution from a classic trequartista , attacking-style player into one of the defining deep-lying playmakers of his era spoke to both his talent and his tactical intelligence. In every sense of the word, he is an Italian legend. But not even Pirlo is immune from the humiliation vortex that ha...
Is The Right’s Next Project Make Women’s Sports Girly Again?
Within a few weeks of the country's highest court giving states permission to ban trans girls from nearly all school sports, the influential right-wing think tank The Heritage Foundation made clear its newest target: the rest of girls and women's sports. Specifically, as laid out in a lengthy position paper, Heritage believes that women's sports are, in general, not womanly enough. What do they want? The paper, authored by Boise State professor Scott Yenor —who once called career-oriented w...
Why Your Team Sucks 2026: Tennessee Titans
Some people are fans of the Tennessee Titans. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the Tennessee Titans. This 2026 Defector NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read all the previews so far here . Your Team: The Tennessee Titans. Your 2025 record: 3-14, after going 3-14, after going 6-11, after going 7-10. This makes them the worst team in football over the last four years. None of it is a fluke, either, as they also have the second-worst point differential in that...
Squirrel Leads Detroit Grounds Crew On Merry Chase
On Monday the visiting Baltimore Orioles beat the Detroit Tigers by a score of something to something. This is not important. What is important is that there was a squirrel. With a squirrel's innate mischievousness and ability to completely derail whatever else is going on, the Detroit squirrel spent a couple of innings exploring increasingly precarious locations around the diamond, before a phalanx of grounds crew members and one visiting outfielder were dispatched to remove it from the pr...
Eventually Everyone Will Be Called A Terrorist
Secretary of State Marco Rubio convened representatives from 66 different nations on July 16 for a “ministerial meeting” on the resurgence of “political terrorism.” The White House described the summit as the launch of “an unprecedented global offensive against the transnational threat of Radical Left terrorism.” This historic occasion took the form of Rubio, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent taking turns as they said Nazi shit for an hour. ...
LeBron James Should Just Take The Train To His New Job
LeBron James is coming to Philadelphia , a fact anyone who lives in Philly would have learned from interacting with strangers on the street, no matter their interest in basketball. This is salient because, according to ESPN's Brian Windhorst , James will not be among the ranks of those living in Philly. Instead, he will be living in New York City and commuting to Philly, potentially via helicopter. This is a forgivable error if one has never lived along the Northeast Corridor and experience...
Eric Bieniemy’s Son Arrested, Charged With Mother’s Shooting
Mia Bieniemy, the wife of Kansas City offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy, was hospitalized after being shot Sunday night. The couple's son, Elijah Zion Bieniemy, 27, was arrested after the shooting and charged with malicious wounding, using a firearm in a felony, and discharging a firearm inside a home, according to law enforcement. The shooting happened in Ashburn, Va., a few miles away from the Washington Commanders practice facility. Eric Bieniemy served as Washington's offensive coordi...
I Need Jacob Misiorowski To Please Be Careful!
I have become an anxious mother, and I have adopted Jacob Misiorowski as my son. I don’t know how this happened, and I would like it to stop, because it’s taking a toll on me. Life used to be so simple. I used to watch his outings with a detached amazement. Back when I had a normal relationship to his pitching prowess, Misiorowski had already thrown 79 of the 100 highest-velocity pitches since tracking began. As of Sunday night, he holds all 100 spots. Now he is my son, and let me be the first...
From Baby Trans To Headlining Act
One of the great joys of friendship is getting to see your friends evolve into the person they were meant to be all along. In our 10 years of friendship, I've gotten to watch Jazmine Green reinvent herself a few times, including the development and eventual birth of her alter ego, CMD+Jazmine. In the latest Try Hard episode, I'm talking to Jazmine about how going to all-day raves in Brooklyn helped unlock parts of her physicality as she was transitioning, and how all of that culminated in t...
Why Your Team Sucks 2026: Arizona Cardinals
Some people are fans of the Arizona Cardinals. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the Arizona Cardinals. This 2026 Defector NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read all the previews so far here . Your team: “Oh my goodness.” https://twitter.com/NFLFrance/status/1974969244019491007
After 75 Years Of Losing, Mayo Shocked The World And Shook A Stadium
DUBLIN — Misery loves company, but ecstasy attracts it. And so it was that Irish football fans by the tens of thousands shed happy tears together inside Croke Park on Sunday during the All-Ireland Final, as historically downtrodden Mayo vanquished both mighty Kerry, 1-20 to 1-17, and oh-so-many demons. It’s impossible to make up for 75 years of pain and suffering caused by all the brutal championship-game losses in one afternoon, but the outpouring of joy among Mayo players and the green-and-r...
Munetaka Murakami Hit Two Homers For His Parents And They Still Prefer Their Dogs
It is an unfamiliar pleasure of this Chicago White Sox season that, in the two months when big slugger Munetaka Murakami did not hit a home run for them, the team improved from 3.5 games back in the AL Central, to first in their division with a 1.5-game lead. But you know what's even cooler than winning games? Winning games in blowout fashion when big slugger Munetaka Murakami smashes two dingers on his very own bobblehead day. The Sox had lost their first two in a weekend series against th...
The Crossword, July 27: Way Downtown (Themeless)
It's time to wrap up the month with a challenging themeless. Keep an eye out for tricky clues and fun wordplay. This puzzle was constructed by Jack Hatchett , and edited by Hoang-Kim Vu. Jack is a Washington Wizards fan who, for the first time in 10 years, is excited to watch his favorite team play a game of basketball. In addition to crosswords, he enjoys playing ultimate, golfing, and cycling. Defector crosswords, launched in partnership with our friends at AVCX , run every Monday. If y...
UNC Places Mike Lombardi On Administrative Leave
UNC football general manager Mike Lombardi has been placed on paid administrative leave, according to a statement released by the school Monday morning. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has placed Michael Lombardi, general manager for the Carolina football program, on paid administrative leave, effective immediately. As is standard procedure with personnel matters, leadership, staff, and student-athletes are prohibited from addressing this topic further, and has no ref...
Some More Stuff I Saw At The Tour de France
VARIOUS CITIES AND TOWNS, France — The Tour de France is over. I hope you enjoyed my 16 dispatches from France, on topics such as the race's impossible future , how cycling solved sleep , the unforgiving life of a photographer , France's vibrant unc ecosystem , and the chaotic frenzy of Alpe d'Huez. It was a privilege to be able to cover all three weeks of the race, and we couldn't do it without your support, so thank you. This is the final dispatch before I go sit in the ocean for a week an...
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