Tag: Deadspin

Deadspin wants Notre Dame to save Pac-12 by joining it

Dumb idea.

Much has been made over the past few weeks about the likely demise of the Pac-12. With only four schools currently slated to be members in 2024, the conference’s future doesn’t look good. Or does it?

DJ Dunson of Deadspin has decided that Notre Dame needs to be the savior of the remaining programs. California, Stanford, Oregon State and Washington State apparently have become important enough to Notre Dame that it needs to upend its entire future for the sake of these particular teams. Here’s the idea in full:

“The ACC’s ham-handed attempts to scoop up Stanford and Cal were reportedly at the behest of Notre Dame looking out for their natural rivals. For now, that quid pro quo is on life support. Props to them for making an effort to rescue the eggheads in Palo Alto from a sinking ship, but you know what would help?

Why not join a conference that is seeking a media rights deal and join the Pac-12? The Pac-12 appears to DOA, but what does Touchdown Jesus represent if not the resurrection? It’s not a super-conference, but a mini-conference is a solid middle ground.”

No. No. Notre Dame does not owe anyone anything, least of all a group of teams they have very little history with except for the Cardinal. And the beauty of independence is that you can have this attitude and not worry at all about the shifting conferences around you.

Thanks for the offer, but if the day were to come that the Irish absolutely had to join a conference, the other side of the country is the last place they would consider. The aforementioned schools will just to find another way to sustain themselves.

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Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Everything we know about Defector, a new sports blog from former staffers of Deadspin

Previous writers of the Deadspin sports blog, who quit en masse last year, are back with a new, self-owned website.

On Tuesday a new sports blog popped up on the internet, one created by a familiar cast of characters: The site is called Defector, and it is made up of former writers and editors of Deadspin, including Drew Magary, Diana Moskovitz, David Roth, and Ray Ratto.

These are many of the same writers and editors who quit Deadspin en masse after multiple clashes with new management at G/O Media, clashes that led to the resignation of one top editor — Megan Greenwell — and the firing of the site’s interim editor, Barry Petchesky.

Defector will be owned by the 19 employees of the company, who each have a roughly 5% share. For initial investment, they are relying on reader support — with the site’s launch, the staff have invited readers to subscribe at different tiers ranging from $8 a month and up, with discounts for annual subscriptions.

The site’s new editor-in-chief will be Tom Ley, and the business side will be run by longtime reader (and former Bain & Company employee) Jasper Wang. Both Ley and Wang can be voted out of their roles with a 2/3 staff vote.

FTW had an email exchange with Defector staffer Luis Paez-Pumar about the site’s genesis.

Paez-Pumar said that the discussions began in earnest about forming a new site “since the week we quit, really,” which was back in November of 2019. “To make it happen,” he continued, “we needed first to figure out if we wanted to do something together, what that would look like, and then eventually how it would operate. So, the discussions around worker-owned vs. investments took some time, but we decided this was the best and most righteous way for us.”

When asked about the content on the new site, Paez-Pumar said that “it should feel like home” for readers of the old Deadspin, but he also said that independence will allow for greater creativity: “I think having the freedom to experiment is what will be most exciting for us and for readers.”

It should be stated: Deadspin still exists. It was relaunched in early 2020 with an entirely new staff, and has struggled to capture the original audience or spirit of the site since. Awful Announcing reported that Deadspin’s traffic cratered when the staff quit in November, and has struggled to rebound since the re-launch.

When asked how he thought the current Deadspin staffers would react to the news that Defector was launching, Paez-Pumar responded: “I don’t care, really.”

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