Defector
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Tiny Flame Of Joy Extinguished In Sacramento
The Sacramento Kings’ preseason hope—a comeback for Ben Simmons—ends abruptly after Simmons tears his right Achilles in a practice, ruling him out for the 2026‑27 season. After a year away from basketball, during which he focused on recovery, sport fishing, and mental health, Simmons signed a veteran‑minimum deal with the Kings, a team projected to win just 21.7 games. His return was hailed as a “night and day” improvement, but the injury dashes any optimism for the franchise’s struggling roster.
It Took A Lot Of Underachieving To Get Miami At No. 1
College football’s opening Blood Week sees eight ranked teams fall, but the headline comes from Miami’s dramatic win over unranked Florida State. After a high‑scoring duel, the Hurricanes edge the Seminoles 43‑35 in double overtime, aided by two nullified FSU Hail Mary attempts — one for holding, the other ruled an interception after a disputed dual‑possession. The game highlights Miami’s high‑powered offense despite a supposedly top‑tier defense, setting the stage for their climb to the No. 1 ranking.
Jalen Hurts Is Out For The Season, And The Eagles Have A Lot Of Questions To Answer [Update]
Jalen Hurts is sidelined for the rest of the season after doctors discover a blood clot in his leg, a condition first disclosed on Oct. 15 and confirmed by an IR move two days later. An official statement from his agent Nicole Lynn and the Philadelphia Eagles on Oct. 19 details the severity of the issue, which emerged during the team's Oct. 11 trip to London for the Jaguars matchup. Hurts' abrupt exit raises major questions for the Eagles' offense and playoff prospects as they search for a replacement quarterback.
Rolling Snakes Reinvent The Wheel
A recent Current Biology paper reveals that the dwarf reed snake escapes predators by forming a hoop‑like shape and literally rolling away—a stark contrast to the classic ball‑rolling of roly‑polies, pangolins, hedgehogs, and even the Venezuelan pebble toad. The article explores this unique locomotion, comparing it to other animal rolling strategies and asking whether a rolling snake is more unsettling than a slithering one.
Nobody’s Having More Fun Than Sebastian Fundora
Sebastian Fundora, the 6‑ft‑5½‑in WBC super welterweight champion, retains his title with a dramatic post‑bell knockout of challenger Ermal Hadribeaj in Las Vegas on Oct. 19, 2026. After a gritty 12‑round battle, Fundora lands a lightning‑fast right as the final bell sounds, prompting referee Thomas Taylor to start a 10‑count. Despite Hadribeaj rising before the count ends, Taylor stops the fight under the Unified Rules, declaring a KO. The decision sparks protest from ringside legends Terence Crawford and Tim Bradley, who argue Hadribeaj deserved a decision loss.
The Crossword, Oct. 19: The Swing Of Things
Defector’s “The Crossword, Oct. 19: The Swing Of Things” spotlights this week’s Monday puzzle, crafted by data‑scientist and USTA league tennis player Enrique Henestroza Anguiano and stay‑at‑home dad Matthew Stock, with editing by Hoang‑Kim Vu. Both constructors bring unique sports passions—tennis, fútbol, and frisbee—to the grid. The post invites readers to try the crossword and offers guidelines for submitting future puzzles, underscoring the ongoing partnership with AVCX.
There’s A Difference Between Honoring A Dead Artist And Exploiting One
A new posthumous Eva Cassidy collection, Jazzed, arrives just weeks before the singer’s 30th death anniversary, sparking debate over whether the label is honoring or exploiting her legacy. Cassidy, a D.C. favorite who self‑financed her only solo album Live at Blues Alley (1996), gained global fame after her 1996 death from melanoma, thanks to viral covers like “Over the Rainbow” and Michelle Kwan’s 2002 Olympic routine to “Fields of Gold.” The article critiques the shift from curating her work to altering it, questioning the ethics of releasing more engineered versions of her unreleased material.
Jaguars Junction: Week 6
In this week‑6 installment, the author recounts a tongue‑in‑cheek “bit” performed during the Jacksonville Jaguars’ London showdown with the Philadelphia Eagles. The piece imagines a stereotypical, boorish Philadelphian demanding a “meat sandwich” while a polished Jacksonville fan, clad in a Savile Row suit, delivers cultured remarks about the East India Company. The humor hinges on contrasting the two cities’ fans as uncouth versus urbane, setting up a comedic narrative that frames the game’s international backdrop.
The Chargers Can Fire Mike McDaniel, But Then What?
The Chargers’ 0-6 start in 2026 has sparked calls to fire offensive coordinator Mike McDaniel, but the article argues firing him won’t solve deeper issues. After two 11‑win seasons under Jim Harbaugh ended in wild‑card losses, McDaniel replaced Greg Roman hoping to unlock Justin Herbert’s talent. Instead, the team averages just 15 points, has been held under 300 yards in half its games, and Herbert leads the league with eight interceptions while enduring 21 sacks. The piece questions whether a coaching change can revive a struggling offense or if the problems run beyond the play‑calling staff.
Good Art Is Worth Waiting For
Halfway through A24’s new film *You Can See Everything* starring Nathan Fielder and directed by Lance Oppenheim, a vivid memory sequence unfolds: Fielder stands in a San Diego ocean‑front house, gazing at crashing waves, while a flashback shows two strangers—a blonde woman and a brunette man—joyfully splashing in the icy sea. Their unmistakable camaraderie adds a poignant, visual layer to the movie’s narrative.
In Game 1, The Dream And The Valkyries Tried To See How Gross They Could Get
SAN FRANCISCO — Technically, every basketball game is zero-sum. An offensive rebound is a missed defensive rebound; a basket scored is a basket conceded. But you never feel that fact more acutely than in a game between the Atlanta Dream and the Golden State Valkyries, two teams built to chase the same advantages. The Valkyries' 68-64 win in the first game of the WNBA Finals on Saturday afternoon set up the central tension of this series: It isn’t really possible for Atlanta and Golden State t...
What’s The Point Of All These Reviews?
Nobody got laid at BYU last night, but it looked like a fun party all the same. The eighth-ranked Cougars hosted the No. 2 Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the big primetime slot Saturday, and they stayed undefeated by squeaking out a 28-24 win. There was some fourth-quarter distress when BYU threw an interception just after surrendering their lead. But quarterback Bear Bachmeier—who wears No. 47 because he says he embodies a "fullback mentality" —took advantage of an Irish three-and-out to pilot ...
La Liga President Says Real Madrid Is Moving Like Joseph Goebbels
It was clear that the relationship between Real Madrid and La Liga president Javier Tebas was heading toward disaster when the two parties started bickering in the press less than a month ago , but we've now reached the stage where one is earnestly comparing the behavior of the other to an infamous Nazi. After Jose Mourinho printed out images of perceived missed calls from the Madrid derby, Tebas blasted Real Madrid for what he felt was a bit of image manipulation, calling the club out for ...
The CFP Is Expanding For The Same Reason The PCSA Is Gaining Momentum
ESPN is reporting that ESPN and the College Football Playoff are close to a deal to expand the playoff field to 24 teams in 2027. This news arrives merely two years after the field already expanded from four teams to 12. Not only was this expansion inevitable, but it is unlikely to be the last we see. For now, we are on the cusp of a 24-team playoff, which comes as ESPN and the CFP have been negotiating a big new deal for the network to continue broadcasting the games. According to ESPN's r...
Do Not Rage At Your Most Online Fans
Welcome to the Defector College Football Watch Guide , where Israel Daramola and Ray Ratto will tell you which of the weekend’s college football games are worth giving a crap about. Ray: It's been a tough year for Texas A&M and head coach Mike Elko, who celebrated the Aggies' 27-6 loss to Missouri last Saturday by calling the team's leading social media outlet a "cesspool" and, two days later, apologized for calling the team's leading social media outlet a "cesspool." Elko also said that h...
Smart Can Win
And so ends the Los Angeles Dodgers' reign as baseball's most overwhelming boogeyman. The poster kids for the omnipotence of money, the belief that having the best player means being the best team, the power of the big market over all it surveys—all of that feels less important at this moment than the ability to do the things the Milwaukee Brewers do better than anyone else. The same old song has been replaced, for the moment, by this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Xzmeye6MaY Yes, m...
The Not-So-Great Defector Bake Off Exults, Eventually, In The Freedom Of Audience Choice Week
Welcome back to The Not-So-Great Defector Bake Off , where Kelsey and Chris attempt to complete the technical challenges from the newest season of The Great British Bake Off in their own home kitchens, with the same time parameters as the professional-grade bakers competing on the show. It's nice having Nigella Lawson in the tent. She is cheerful and radiates serenity, and she takes those big glorious bites. She makes you want to bake and to eat. She even makes you want to share the thin...
What Is The Mob Movie Donald Trump Saw With A Gangster Named “Alan Jones” In It?
The model of Donald Trump currently on display is fussy and sour, poached to glossy and unappetizing gumminess in his own luxurious bathwater; he is also, to all appearances, miserable. It is hard to say whether the adoration of his admirers or the revulsion of a large and growing portion of the American populace has been worse for him in that regard, but neither seems to have done him much good. The Trump currently maundering and free-associating through 110-minute performances at various ...
The Secret History Of Dodger Stadium’s Mysterious Concrete Murals
L.A. Material is an independent news organization aimed at filling some holes in the Los Angeles news landscape and making that fascinating, fragmented city more legible. You can learn more, and subscribe, at lamaterial.com . This story originally ran at the site on Sept. 30 . I had been going to Dodger Stadium with my dad for about 30 years before he pointed them out to me. “See that?” he asked, gesturing toward two rectangular panels of concrete on a far wall of the main seating structure...
It’s Jake Bauerses All The Way Down
After a flyout and a strikeout in his first two attempts, Jake Bauers's third time facing Blake Snell in Wednesday's Game 3 of the National League Championship Series went like this: Bauers took a slider down the middle of the plate for strike one. He took two non-competitive pitches down low to make the count 2-1. He foul-tipped a changeup, and then, sitting on two strikes, four pitches into his at-bat, he decided that he simply would not strike out again. So Bauers fouled off a slider in ...
The World’s Only WNBA Finals Preview, With Maitreyi Anantharaman And Maya Goldberg-Safir
This week on Nothing But Respect , Harry and I had on our two favorite WNBA writers to talk about the Golden State Valkyries' forthcoming championship. Both Maitreyi Anantharaman, whom you all know from her work here , and Maya Goldberg-Safir, whom you also know from her work here and should know from her work at Rough Notes , know ball and will be covering the series between the Valks and the Atlanta Dream. We spent a solid hour talking about the series and the path the two teams took to get ...
Making A Great Fantasy Map Is An Art, And Ross Douthat Sucks At It
Ross Douthat has a fantasy novel for young adult readers: The Falcon's Children , the first in what reportedly will be a trilogy from the respectability-conservatism peddler, who left his sinecure as a columnist at the New York Times earlier this year so that he could lower television's aggregate charisma level by 944 percent as a correspondent for Bari Weiss's 60 Minutes . That is virtually all I will ever know about The Falcon's Children , and I beseech you, tender reader, to follow my examp...
Would You Rather Have Sex Or Live Forever?
Hydras, the tiny freshwater invertebrates that resemble tentacular palm trees, are often considered immortal. They fasten themselves to rocks with their sticky foot, stretch out their tube-shaped body, and unfurl the stinging tentacles that halo their mouth to catch prey that passes by, an activity they can do ad infinitum if given the right conditions. Although they can be felled by predators or disease in the wild, in the lab, the little animals seem resilient to anything. If you cut off the...
Michael Porter Jr. Again Stands Athwart History, Saying “Damn, That’s Crazy”
It is late August, the waning days of a long summer. Though the oppressive heat still imposes itself on you, the days are shortening noticeably, the faint whisper of a chill in the air perceptible in the stiller moments of deep night. Soon there will be red leaves, sweaters onto shoulders, and NBA basketball. You both anticipate and fear the turnover of the seasons, though it feels abstract—that is, until your phone lights up. Someone has sent you an Instagram link to a clip from Michael Po...
What Makes A Good Critic?
Drew Magary’s Thursday Afternoon NFL Dick Joke Jamboroo runs every Thursday at Defector during the NFL season. Got something you wanna contribute? Email the Roo . You can also read Drew over at SFGATE , and buy Drew’s books while you’re at it . “Everyone’s a critic” has been a lament my entire life, but the advent of the internet rendered it literally true. Anyone can review anything online, from new albums to tubes of toothpaste. But just because you can review something doesn’t mean you’...
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