As England lost a narrow, nervy Women’s World Cup final, the BBC and ITV – without even a Lionesses goal to describe, let alone a chance to show them becoming world champions – were left playing a tight game with few opportunities to show any presenting or commentating flair. In the end, with its greater experience and depth of talent – as well as some curious tactical decisions from ITV – the Beeb edged it.

ITV started bullishly, opening its coverage 20 minutes before its rival and showcasing its pitchside dream team of analysts: Emma Hayes, Jill Scott and the tireless women’s football advocate Ian Wright, chatting to Katie Shanahan. Once their first segment had finished, however, the weakness in the way ITV had set up became cl…

UPDATE: We have compiled all 50 items into one handy list, for your reading convenience. It is available here. Welcome to Deadspin’s IDIOT OF THE YEAR awards! Our expert team has worked tirelessly to bring you this annual list of the sports and sports-adjacent figures who most intensely made us wish we had been shaken as infants. Within these rankings you will find all manner of dunces, dumbfucks, douchebags, and doofs. Each of these archetypes exist under the tentpole of idiocy, but they are not quite the same thing. So, before we begin our show, let’s explore the phenomenon a bit. What is an idiot? Is there any point to nailing down an objective definition, or can one only know it when they see it, like pornography? Can it be achieved in one grand flourish, or is it the sum of a…

From $1,000 copies of the Constitution to $75 guacamole bowls to “Grillary Clinton” aprons, the world of presidential campaign merchandise is a strange one, and nowhere is that clearer than on the internet, where some of our illustrious candidates have launched merch stores that come in every degree of corny. Before you peruse our highly scientific ranking of these amazing webpages, let us have a moment of silence for Scott Walker’s former campaign store, where you could pay $300 for a copy of his book about destroying unions. 10. [object Object] For someone who seems to be running just to further his personal brand of being completely intolerable, Huckabee stumbles hard in the branding department. He’s still trotting out his 2008 slogan (“I Like Mike”), he’s got an imme…

With no true No. 1 wide receiver on the roster, some might have anticipated a more abrasive posture from quarterback Josh Allen as the Bills open offseason workouts. But as the Bills transform the roster, Allen said he's accepting the unspoken challenge of becoming a better leader. "It's definitely hard to part ways with a guy that's been very instrumental in our success the last four years," Allen said Thursday of reporting to work without wide receiver Stefon Diggs in tow. "We made a lot of changes this offseason. We lost a lot of veteran leadership — Stef being one of them. Going into Year 7 now, it just kind of is what it is. I don't get paid to make changes on the team. I get paid to be the best quarterback I can be and try to lead the guys o…