Introducing The Unnamed Temporary Sports Blog Dot Com (From Dashlane)

January 30, 2020 2:24 PM

Sports (and other things) website Deadspin may be dead, the victim of private equity fuckery, but it's spirit (as well as the work of its writers) will live on temporarily for Super Bowl weekend thanks to a pop up blog.

Already, we have Tom Ley discussing the concept, with some biting black humor on it all:

Who will be posting blogs on this site?

All of your favorite sports bloggers. Well, maybe not all of them, but at least the ones who are currently unemployed due to their recent decision to detonate their own careers. We’re all feeling great and ready to blog.

Also, if you're looking for more work from the old Deadspin crew, check out the UnDeadspin Twitter feed.

posted by NoxAeternum (22 comments total)

Looks like this list will have to be updated. This one is already better than Deadspin, given that it seems to be herb-free, and hasn't yet destroyed dozens of careers.

(I went with "Let's Remember a Sports Blog" for a FPP title, but you beat me by two minutes.)
posted by tonycpsu at 2:30 PM on January 30, 2020 [2 favorites]

Trying not to hyperventilate. Deadspin was my very favorite website (sorry, Metafilter!).
posted by look busy at 2:35 PM on January 30, 2020 [1 favorite]

I read all the comments and at this point, at least, I felt no need to lie down and was not nauseous. Good job!
posted by Bella Donna at 2:46 PM on January 30, 2020

What is dead may never die!
posted by Carillon at 2:51 PM on January 30, 2020 [4 favorites]

And don't forget that at least the FunBag has moved over to Vice for the moment - https://www.vice.com/en_us/contributor/drew-magary
posted by drewbage1847 at 3:00 PM on January 30, 2020 [3 favorites]

HOLY SHIT!

I had to do a Google Image Search for all my Andy Ried as Kool-Aid Man breaking through a wall needs, I mused to my wife that if Deadspin was around it'd be front and centre all week. Do not disappoint crew.
posted by Keith Talent at 3:05 PM on January 30, 2020

I see they're keeping the infuriating house style of calling a post a "blog.

But otherwise good news, thanks!
posted by Chrysostom at 3:10 PM on January 30, 2020 [5 favorites]

I see they're keeping the infuriating house style of calling a post a "blog.

It's not Deadspin if they aren't intentionally irritating somebody.
posted by East14thTaco at 3:30 PM on January 30, 2020 [6 favorites]

As I understand it, the upcoming Super Bowl will be the first to feature political advertising - a Trump ad, of course, given Fox - and if they can get away with it, that will be only the beginning of what football fans will be subjected to since the election will be in November at the height of the NFL and college seasons, and many white football fans are part of Trump's base.

I was surprised at the assassination of Deadspin (how else would you put it?) because it was so popular and celebrated for its quality to boot, but maybe I shouldn't have been.

Is it too much to wonder whether getting rid of Deadspin was an early move in a campaign to mute the backlash against an attempt to recruit football fandom into the far right the way it has been in Britain?
posted by jamjam at 3:32 PM on January 30, 2020 [9 favorites]

There's going to be a Democratic ad, too (Bloomberg ).

Campaigns don't normally advertise during the Super Bowl because it's incredibly expensive and months away from the general election.
posted by Chrysostom at 4:25 PM on January 30, 2020 [5 favorites]

Candidates have run Super Bowl ads in particular states before, just not nationwide (and advocacy groups have run ads nationwide, I believe).

As Chrysostom said, general election ads 9 months before the election don't make sense usually. But running a primary ad in Iowa or NH during the Super Bowl, OTOH, would make a lot more sense.
posted by thefoxgod at 6:29 PM on January 30, 2020

Is it too much to wonder whether getting rid of Deadspin was an early move in a campaign to mute the backlash against an attempt to recruit football fandom into the far right the way it has been in Britain?

Have you missed the part where they have been flying military jets over every open air stadium during the national anthem and constantly feteing soldiers since the post 9/11 transition to forever war? The NFL long ago took an overt political stance. They are not exactly subtle about this.
posted by srboisvert at 6:52 PM on January 30, 2020 [14 favorites]

There have been some fun posts on the blog so far, but this WaPo piece from former Deadspin managing editor Samer Kalaf is the kind of stuff that pushed Deadspin from "fun read" to "must read" territory for me.
posted by tonycpsu at 9:01 AM on January 31, 2020 [3 favorites]

Barry recounts the stories they missed over the past three months.
posted by NoxAeternum at 10:28 AM on January 31, 2020

Is it me or is it horrible on mobile?
posted by reiichiroh at 5:16 PM on January 31, 2020

And we even got an Up All Night post (fittingly set to "The Boys Are Back In Town".)
posted by NoxAeternum at 5:53 PM on January 31, 2020

Is it too much to wonder whether getting rid of Deadspin was an early move in a campaign to mute the backlash against an attempt to recruit football fandom into the far right the way it has been in Britain?

Nah. They're already there, as mentioned up thread. Proof: when they felt they needed to choose between Trump and the NFL, they chose Trump.
posted by PMdixon at 7:21 AM on February 1, 2020

I was thinking about putting together a FPP about what's been going on over at The Ringer, where many writers are very nervous about the possibility of their jobs disappearing in a Pivot to Audio, but since Ringer CEO Bill Simmons is sequestered in an underground bunker somewhere, I didn't feel like there was enough news to warrant a post.

Thankfully, UTSBDC's Tom Ley is on the case:

Some Advice For Bill Simmons, Mogul-To-Mogul

About two weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal reported that music streaming titan Spotify is interested in purchasing The Ringer, which boasts a highly successful podcast network in addition to its sports and pop culture website. Given that Spotify has previously shown itself to be exclusively interested in music streaming and podcasting, Ringer employees were understandably concerned about what such a sale could mean for the fate of the company's non-podcast endeavors. Naturally, The Ringer Union reached out to CEO and founder Bill Simmons, seeking some clarity or assurances from their leader. Let's see how that's going: [...]

As someone with two entire days experience running a wildly successful media startup, I hate to see a solid editorial operation such as The Ringer's hamstrung by confusion and miscommunication. With that in mind, I'd like to offer some advice to Simmons, a fellow media disruptor, on how to handle this dicey situation.

(Bill, if you don't buy my management credentials, please know that I am of the opinion that Robert De Niro's performance in Ronin is sneaky-underrated, and may even have a place in the Pantheon Of All-Time De Niro Performances. We speak the same language.)

The first thing that Simmons will want to do is open his fucking email account. [...]

The next step is a little tricky: Once Simmons has accessed his email account, he'll want to compose a new email. [...]

Once Simmons has an email draft open, he'll need to decide who he wants to send his message to. [...]

After addressing his message to the proper mailing list, Simmons will be left with just one final step. This is by far the most important part of the process. What he'll need to do is send his employees a fucking email.

Hopefully this helps!

posted by tonycpsu at 8:51 AM on February 1, 2020

Unnamed Temporary Sports Blog Dot Com was a good website.
posted by tonycpsu at 8:58 PM on February 2, 2020

What I'll miss most is the photography.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 2:26 PM on February 3, 2020 [2 favorites]

.

for UTSBDC
posted by a non mouse, a cow herd at 7:45 PM on February 5, 2020

Maybe it will return next Super Bowl!
posted by Chrysostom at 10:02 PM on February 5, 2020