# After walking out on Deadspin last year, journalists make their own sports & culture website called "Defector"



## wolfpac92 (Jul 28, 2020)

After Quitting Deadspin in Protest, They’re Starting a New Site
					

The journalists who took part in a staff rebellion last year are starting Defector Media, a company with a podcast and a website dedicated to sports and culture.




					www.nytimes.com
				












						Deadspin Staffers Who Quit Start Defector - The New York Times
					

archived 28 Jul 2020 16:37:39 UTC




					archive.md
				



*After Quitting Deadspin in Protest, They’re Starting a New Site*

The journalists who took part in a staff rebellion last year are starting Defector Media, a company with a podcast and a website dedicated to sports and culture.







> One of the biggest staff rebellions in online media took place last year, when all of the journalists working at the irreverent, sports-centric website Deadspin resigned in protest after clashing with their bosses.
> 
> Now Deadspin’s former writers and editors — 18 of the roughly 20 who quit last year — have reunited to start a digital media company, Defector Media, that they will own and operate themselves.
> 
> ...











						Defector
					

Defector




					defector.com


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## Ineedahero (Jul 28, 2020)

> Defector staff members said they did not expect the kind of growth coveted by the venture capitalists who have increasingly dominated online journalism. Rather, they said, they hoped to be able to pay themselves competitive salaries while developing a sustainable media business that produces content they are interested in.
> “It would be cool to show that this could be successful,” said Samer Kalaf, a former Deadspin managing editor who has joined Defector. “If we tried it and it doesn’t work, at least we can say we tried it.”


Good on the author of this article for knowing to finish it with a good joke.


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## Judge Holden (Jul 28, 2020)

Should have called it "_Defecator_" because of how full of shit these fucking people are


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## The Real SVP (Jul 28, 2020)

These people do not look like I'd expect sports journalists to look like. Thinking about it... They did not write like, or even what, I would expect sports journalist to write, either.


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## Meat Target (Jul 28, 2020)

Why didn't they just learn to code?


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## Dom Cruise (Jul 28, 2020)

What a bunch of fags, lol.


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## Angeru (Jul 28, 2020)

But... why should we care?


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## Return of the Freaker (Jul 28, 2020)

Judge Holden said:


> Should have called it "_Defecator_" because of how full of shit these fucking people are


I think _Defective _would've been better


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## whatever I feel like (Jul 28, 2020)

It used to be that defector was a negative word...


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## Happy Fish (Jul 28, 2020)

Meat Target said:


> Why didn't they just learn to code?


I mean they did manage to shit their website onto the internet, so there is that. All the same this will go about as well as an imageboard splintering.


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## TowinKarz (Jul 28, 2020)

I'm sure at least 1 out of every 10 articles they write won't be about jamming stuff up your butt.....


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## wolfpac92 (Jul 28, 2020)

Added a link to their site in the OP. My favorite part is their subscription tiers. Honestly this site has the potential to be a hilarious trainwreck


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## Salubrious (Jul 28, 2020)

Is this a "we didn't get fired; we quit" deal?

I'm pretty sure most of these people were fired.


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## From The Uncanny Valley (Jul 28, 2020)

They should call it _*Deflector*_ because...you know.


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## Cilleystring (Jul 28, 2020)

Return of the Freaker said:


> I think _Defective _would've been better


Or Detractors


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## Return of the Freaker (Jul 28, 2020)

wolfpac92 said:


> Added a link to their site in the OP. My favorite part is their subscription tiers. Honestly this site has the potential to be a hilarious trainwreck
> 
> View attachment 1480368


I'm not paying $25k yearly to get a signed photo of soyboy micropeen.


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## wolfpac92 (Jul 28, 2020)

Return of the Freaker said:


> I'm not paying $25k yearly to get a signed photo of soyboy micropeen.


I'm not paying 25k a year for fucking anything


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## Harvey Danger (Jul 28, 2020)

I remember this story.  Writers for a sports website who thought they were _too talented_ to stick to writing about sports.  Beanie Man covered it at the time.






Here's the despotic, tyrannical edict the new owners issued to the poor enslaved journalists a year ago:



> "To create as much great sports journalism as we can requires a 100% focus of our resources on sports.  And it will be the sole focus.  Deadspin will write only about sports and that which is relevant to sports in some way."
> 
> "...where such [non-sports] subjects touch on sports, they are fair game for Deadspin.  Where they do not, they are not. We have plenty of other sites that write about politics, pop culture, the arts, and the rest, and they're the appropriate place for such work."



History's greatest monster right there.  Really worth quitting your job over.

So, is the new site for sports fans or not?



> While the people who left Deadspin plan to write on sports for the new site, they will be free to go off-topic when the mood strikes them.



In other words, you have no clue what you're paying $8/mo to get.  And since it's staffed by the people who explicitly said the above sports-only restriction was too terrible, you know you're getting the flakiest of the bunch.



> Defector’s founders said the company had no outside investors, and each employee has taken a stake of roughly 5 percent in the venture... The 19 staff members will be paid as the money comes in, and they can vote out the editor in chief with a two-thirds majority. They will also own their own intellectual property, meaning they will get the money if Hollywood shows an interest in their work for Defector.



Notice how nothing in this article promotes anything about the content or the value for the customers, it's entirely about how great things will be for the writers themselves?

These people just wanted a company that caters to them, not to their fans.


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## Return of the Freaker (Jul 28, 2020)

wolfpac92 said:


> I'm not paying 25k a year for fucking anything


You wouldn't even pay 25k a year for jersh to feed you? Gay.


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## CDWLTY (Jul 28, 2020)

wolfpac92 said:


> Added a link to their site in the OP. My favorite part is their subscription tiers. Honestly this site has the potential to be a hilarious trainwreck
> 
> View attachment 1480368


At those prices they'd better send me an editor to use as a live-in pet toilet for a year.


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## Meat Target (Jul 28, 2020)

Harvey Danger said:


> I remember this story.  Writers for a sports website who thought they were _too talented_ to stick to writing about sports.  Beanie Man covered it at the time.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


>Beanieman mentions it's related to Gawker
The same Brave Intrepid Journalists who own pillars of Journalism like Kotaku


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## wolfpac92 (Jul 28, 2020)

Harvey Danger said:


> These people just wanted a company that caters to them, not to their fans.


The devil is in the details. I'm not sure how common a practice this is but why do you need to pay for commenting privileges? Honestly the site just seems like it's intended to be a "journalist empowerment" project with little concern or respect for its readers. The only people who are going to pay for commenting privileges are those who would reinforce the opinions of the writers. It's going to look like a massive hugbox there


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## Ledian (Jul 28, 2020)

wolfpac92 said:


> The devil is in the details. I'm not sure how common a practice this is but why do you need to pay for commenting privileges? Honestly the site just seems like it's intended to be a "journalist empowerment" project with little concern or respect for its readers. The only people who are going to pay for commenting privileges are those who would reinforce the opinions of the writers. It's going to look like a massive hugbox there
> View attachment 1480408


That's a hefty subscription to something that just started up and will totally work to bring in a crowd because we all know socjus types just love to spend money.


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## From The Uncanny Valley (Jul 28, 2020)

KiwiLedian said:


> That's a hefty subscription to something that just started up and will totally work to bring in a crowd because we all know socjus types just love to spend money.



^their OWN money.


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## kcbbq (Jul 28, 2020)

Haha $8 to listen to a podcast by people so shitty they couldn't even make it at gawker.


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## TerminalTryHard (Jul 28, 2020)

> The 19 staff members will be paid as the money comes in, and they can vote out the editor in chief with a two-thirds majority. They will also own their own intellectual *property, meaning they will get the money if Hollywood shows an interest in their work for Defector. *



Jesus Christ that's not even optimistic that's straight up delusional narcissism.


Community watch thread when?


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## FaramirG (Jul 28, 2020)

I don't understand how gawker/deadspin writers could look at apolitical internet/podcasters like PitchingNinja, Jomboy, and FoolishBB, who are all just nerdy baseball fans with too much time on their hands, and somehow think "the reason we're getting cut is because of politics". The reason is that there are dudes out there willing to do this shit for free, at huge personal cost to themselves (Jomboy literally lived in his mom's basement until a year ago when his youtube channel blew up), who don't also offer retarded pseudo-intellectual political takes because they know that's not their lane. They're getting massively outplayed by random fans with just the barest amount of free time on their hands and rather than admit that they're lazy gossip rags they have to act like there's some kind of agenda against them. Jomboy, FoolishBB, Ninja, Giraffeneck, etc., it's all just random baseball fans with a passion. The official ESPN/FOX accounts hate that because anything not sanctioned by the National Football League is heresy in their eyes.


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## reptile baht spaniard rid (Jul 28, 2020)

Pay-for-clickbait.

this dog king

er

this is going to work well. So well.


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## Foxxo (Jul 28, 2020)

They still give a shit about this? They should've just joined Buzzfeed, or another news site that has a brand people can remember for more than two minutes.


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## TowinKarz (Jul 28, 2020)

@FaramirG 

It's interesting how, if you want decent sports analysis today, the best place to get it is from a fan-run livesteam , and not the major networks.

Tune in to some guy in his basement who has diligently crunched the numbers and made some decent speculations about how this season will play out? Or tune into ESPN and listen to Jemelle Hill berate you for being racist if you like the old white guy sport of baseball, and then talk about LeBron James being the best for the 34th straight day? 

Hummm, which to watch which to watch? What a tough choice.....    is it any wonder the media HATES independent content creators?   Billions spent and they can't outcompete a guy who doesn't even wear a necktie....


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## WonderWino (Jul 28, 2020)

Meat Target said:


> Why didn't they just learn to code?



That would require some degree of intelligence, competency and capacity for logical thinking



> The 19 staff members will be paid as the money comes in, and they can vote out the editor in chief with a two-thirds majority



LOL oh yeah this will totally end well. These idiots haven't the slightest idea how to run a business. Reminds of people who think they can start a game studio and pay people in a percentage of future sales or 'shares of the company' and essentially get developers to work for free



			
				wolfpac92 said:
			
		

> The devil is in the details. I'm not sure how common a practice this is but why do you need to pay for commenting privileges?



I'd laugh my ass off if they ended up trying to censor those comments to shut people up they don't like and got sued for it leading to a shitshow and a public embarrassment. After all they're literally paying specifically for that as stated in the tier information, so theres a contractual obligation there.


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## Horus (Jul 28, 2020)

WonderWino said:


> That would require some degree of intelligence, competency and capacity for logical thinking
> 
> 
> 
> ...


It would be funny if that guy from Barstool sports paid the $25k a year donation, then trolled the fuck out of them at every chance.


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## Tim Buckley (Jul 28, 2020)

This dumpster fire has potential, I'm grabbing the popcorn.


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## Salubrious (Jul 28, 2020)

Horus said:


> It would be funny if that guy from Barstool sports paid the $25k a year donation, then trolled the fuck out of them at every chance.


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## 2021Murder (Jul 28, 2020)

wolfpac92 said:


> The devil is in the details. I'm not sure how common a practice this is but why do you need to pay for commenting privileges? Honestly the site just seems like it's intended to be a "journalist empowerment" project with little concern or respect for its readers. The only people who are going to pay for commenting privileges are those who would reinforce the opinions of the writers. It's going to look like a massive hugbox there
> View attachment 1480408


This is so fucking dumb. Thank god this is every writers side gig because its pretty clearly not going to do well. Everyone in journalism is doing the route podcasts did with patreon 5 years ago. The difference here is that they want to pay 25 people from this (20 writers plus the 5 fuckers who will be running the actual website) and the cost is way too high. $100 to view and comment is crazy high, podcast networks with actual famous people charge that much. This is a bunch of d-listers. 

Plus the sites i know that charge similar to be in a hugbox usually only cover costs of bandwidth, so these people shouldn't expect to be paid. And i dont think these writers who are used to making close to 6 figures because theyre in the guild are going to have enough motivation to keep with the site for free for so long. 

At least the other sites i know that did similar basically only hired amateurs/people willing to work for peanuts. They were willing to be paid close to nothing because thats all they knew. Its a lot harder to go from 100k to 0 and the time commitment is going to outweigh the cost for them.

Honestly these dumb fucks should have started this in march, they could use their unemployment checks as a cushion and consider the rest of this year a test run. 

I just dont see the enthusiasm lasting 5 years on, even 5 months will be a stretch. At maximum they're getting paid 50 cents per subscriber. Theyre relying on their big new york liberal upperclass fanbase to shill out that 1k and 25k a year but i doubt there will be as many out there as they expect.


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## FaramirG (Jul 28, 2020)

TowinKarz said:


> @FaramirG
> 
> It's interesting how, if you want decent sports analysis today, the best place to get it is from a fan-run livesteam , and not the major networks.
> 
> ...


Agreed. The frustrating thing is that the fan-run livestreams are often wildly more entertaining than the networks who are supposedly prioritizing entertainment above all else. They're just genuinely bad at their jobs, and the "white guy" rep they've given baseball is wildly out of touch with reality. Baseball is the most diverse sport in America, the only sport that accurately reflects America's demographics: 65% non-hispanic white, 20% hispanic of different races (ranging from pale white like Arenado/Inciarte to pitch black like Acuna/Albies), 10% non-hispanic black, 5% asian, and yet it's somehow considered a white sport. Makes me wonder where the hell America's sports media is at, that an ethnic group that comprises 13% of the population making roughly 20% of a league's population is considered under-representation.

A huge part of the problem, and something that ESPN and Fox refuse to address, is that black superstars like David Ortiz, Pedro Martinez, Francisco Lindor, Ronald Acuna, etc.. are not considered black by the white academic establishment or by non-latino black americans, purely because of their ancestry, even though they're all much darker-skinned than your average NBA player. They keep banging on about a lack of black representation in baseball when there's plenty of representation. It's just not DeAndre Washington black representation. And admitting that is just something that they're not capable of. I'm probably getting way off on a tangent here but it genuinely pisses me off when people say baseball doesn't have enough black players and when even baseball fans agree with this, when so many of the top up-and-coming players are black, but they have names like Carlos or Miguel instead of D'Brickashaw or L'Marcus which suddenly makes their skin color irrelevant. Attached a pic of Ronald Acuna in case you don't follow baseball. He's considered one of the most exciting young players in the game. He is also, somehow, not considered black, because his native language is Spanish, even though the dude is darker than Obama.


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## Iron Hamster (Jul 28, 2020)

Cilleystring said:


> Or Detractors


You think they troll tip DSP?


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## Reverend (Jul 28, 2020)

Drew McGrary's "This is why your team sucks" is sorely missed this year. It was a staple of my reason to read that god awful shit site.


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## 2021Murder (Jul 28, 2020)

Also to get back the sort of salary they were making back during the deadspin days they need 150k subscribers, which is 5x more than the closet thing i can find to their "vox+sports" style paid content mill. And mind you they're charging 2x as much as similar sites, so theyre even more likely to not succeed in this venture. Honestly i cant even name more than like 5 sites that charge more than $90+ a year outside of porn. And those 5 are netflix,hbo,amazon, etc. You know sites that has stuff people want to watch and people audiencces want to see.

How is a niche sports+liberal snark site really going to say its worth as much as Netflix or hbomax.


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## Celebrate Nite (Jul 28, 2020)

To this day I still don't get how Journalists still think they are worth a damn when some schmuck on YouTube can do their job 10x better for free/less of the price these guys are asking.


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## GHTD (Jul 28, 2020)

Defector sounds like some shitty site Andrew Torba would make as a spinoff for Gab. Probably because it reminds me of Gab's Brave fork, Dissenter.

Terrible name.


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## Super-Chevy454 (Jul 29, 2020)

To find a very dumb name like Defector these nuts had probably smoked weed, they should complain for the bad quality of the weed to find a lousy name like that.


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## Mikoyan (Jul 29, 2020)

Horus said:


> It would be funny if that guy from Barstool sports paid the $25k a year donation, then trolled the fuck out of them at every chance.



I'm pretty sure that is _exactly why_ you have to talk to them to do that level.


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## BooneHelm (Jul 29, 2020)

You got to love how all the SJW types have to run out and make their own company only to have their hand out begging for money.  

What can they really offer me that I can't see anywhere else?  



wolfpac92 said:


> It's going to look like a massive hugbox there
> View attachment 1480408



This one make me chuckle.  "Commenting privileges"  But what happens when I use the word faggot or anything the least bit problematic?  They'll ban me and keep the money of course.


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## Next Task (Jul 29, 2020)

Judge Holden said:


> Should have called it "_Defecator_" because of how full of shit these fucking people are


It's funny, because Defector is actually an appropriate name for this site that will be a massive failure. Because the name only makes sense if you know the background of the site - which is nearly nobody outside their too-online 'journalist' circle-jerk. And also, their only selling point is that background - rather than, say, their content. 

So the name perfectly encapsulates how this site is intended to be read only by their Twitter followers, but they expect to be paid a wage by an audience they don't give a shit about writing for.

My estimate is a full site implosion in 12 - 18 months, including a very fun list of every principle from this article that they threw out the window in a desperate attempt to turn a profit. And a likely scathing article two years after that dissecting exactly how it all failed, who got accused of sexual improprieties, and how badly it was all run.


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## Xarpho (Jul 30, 2020)

This is probably the worst time to start an overpriced "sports journalism" website. Corona-chan has shut down the economy and crippled sports, limiting both expendable money and the games in general, and with NFL et. al. kowtowing to activist anti-American, pro-woke bullshit, the whole industry is chasing off its core demographic.

It won't work though, even if they _were_ writing good, non-woke articles (ha!), it's not worth whatever they're charging.


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## heyitsmike (Aug 3, 2020)

wolfpac92 said:


> Added a link to their site in the OP. My favorite part is their subscription tiers. Honestly this site has the potential to be a hilarious trainwreck
> 
> View attachment 1480368


This is gonna be the journalism version of CHAZ:

"Running a city company is easy!"
*one week later*
"Umm, guys, there's a problem. We're all out of food money..."



wolfpac92 said:


> The devil is in the details. I'm not sure how common a practice this is but why do you need to pay for commenting privileges? Honestly the site just seems like it's intended to be a "journalist empowerment" project with little concern or respect for its readers. The only people who are going to pay for commenting privileges are those who would reinforce the opinions of the writers. It's going to look like a massive hugbox there
> View attachment 1480408


That hugbox problem already existed. On the Gawker sites only approved comments showed up. If a staff member approved your account, your comments were "ungreyed" and were visible by default. Otherwise they were not displayed unless the reader specifically chose to view unapproved comments.

And your comments could be dismissed and made completely invisible if you replied to any approved account. So it's basically the system they already had.

After I deleted my Reddit account I trolled there for a while. And by troll I mean merely disrupt their echo chambers. Eventually I got tired of my comments going missing and my accounts getting shadowbanned.

And now here I am at Kiwi Farms.



Horus said:


> It would be funny if that guy from Barstool sports paid the $25k a year donation, then trolled the fuck out of them at every chance.


Granted, I don't really remember much of Trump's antics in the late 80s and early 90s, but when I look at Dave Portnoy I feel like I'm looking at a young Donald Trump. He's more like Trump than Trump Jr.

In thirty years if the radical left rears its ugly head again Dave Portnoy will be the one the GOP base calls on.


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## Xolanite (Aug 3, 2020)

These people are just one scandal away from working at Walmart.


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## Immortal Technique (Aug 5, 2020)

They're charging more than The Athletic.   A brand new, no name site is charging more than, probably, the most respectable source of sports news. They have a little army of reporters that actually go to the games, talk to the players, _actually_ have inside sources and provide the best personal coverage if you just want to follow your favorite team.


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## WarJams (Aug 5, 2020)

Oh boy, I love social experiments when I don't have to pay for them.


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## 2021Murder (Aug 24, 2020)

great news everyone! this site is already at 15k subscribed and it hasn't even launched yet! these writers are making 10% of what they did last year. how long before people start selling off their stakes and chosing to work literally anywhere else?


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## 2021Murder (Sep 25, 2020)

Ill admit i didnt realize they could do it. But its apparently officially at profitability. They Can afford obnoxious 6 figure salaries for everyone. Fucking hell, 3 million dollars to tell people vaush level commentary on sports. Could you imagine if this site got even 2% of that?


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## Jones McCann (Sep 26, 2020)

All these great stories and more..



Spoiler



















Things we actually like, aka definitely not sports.


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## Super-Chevy454 (Sep 26, 2020)

JonesMcCannister said:


> All these great stories and more..
> 
> 
> 
> ...



That's for sure, at this rate they want to compete against the National Enquirer or even the Weekly World News.


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## Wilhelm Bittrich (Sep 28, 2020)

Took a look at the soccer section of this site and tbh, their takes at soccer are mediocre run-of-the-mill shit. 
I can read better shit at the Daily Mail's sport section and that really says something.


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