Tom Ley
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Co-founder, Defector Media. tom@defector.com
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Articles by Tom Ley
The Chargers Can Fire Mike McDaniel, But Then What?
It's funny, in hindsight, that the first two seasons of Jim Harbaugh's Chargers tenure were considered disappointments. The team won 11 games in each of those seasons and made the playoffs, but two dispiriting losses in the wild-card round produced a feeling that the Chargers were doing themselves a disservice by not striving for more. So out went Greg Roman, the only offensive coordinator Jim Harbaugh had ever worked with in the pros, and in came Mike McDaniel to rebuild the offense.
Brian Flores’s Racial Discrimination Lawsuit Reveals Racist Recruiting Memo
5 hours ago NFL Defense Rankings Week 6: Vikings No. 1, But Which Defenses Are Overrated? YouTube • 5h Are the Minnesota Vikings already the NFL's best defense by a wide margin, or can another team challenge Brian Flores' unit? Our Week 6 NFL defense rankings put Minnesota alone in S tier, while several expected contenders face tougher evaluations. Hosted by PFN's Jacob Infante and Max Chadwick, this full NFL defensive tier list ranks all 32 teams after five games.
Brian Flores’s Racial Discrimination Lawsuit Reveals Racist Recruiting Memo
A memo prepared for the Las Vegas Raiders by the recruiting firm Korn Ferry was entered as an exhibit in Vikings defensive coordinator Brian Flores's ongoing racial discrimination lawsuit against the NFL and multiple teams. The memo was unsealed by the court yesterday, giving the public a rare look at how coaching candidates are evaluated by teams. As it turns out, this particular evaluation was pretty racist.
Christine Brennan Has Not Fully Lost It, According To Christine Brennan In Two Baffling Phone Calls
This past Friday, Christine Brennan asked to speak with an editor at Defector. The USA Today columnist's request was somewhat expected, since Giri Nathan had written about her in an article published two days earlier, the piece critical of her fixation with measuring the WNBA's success through the singular metric of Caitlin Clark.
What Kind Of Villain Will Manchester City Be?
The lead-up to Sunday's game between Liverpool and Manchester City could not have felt more strange. Here were the two teams that have defined approximately the last decade of the Premier League, who have been each other's fiercest rivals while setting new standards for excellence on the pitch, meeting in a meaningless game.
An Antitrust Expert Makes The Comprehensive Case Against The Protect College Sports Act
Marc Edelman has spent much of the last two decades fighting to help college athletes get fairly compensated for their labor. A lawyer who is currently a tenured professor at Baruch College, Edelman has been writing about the NCAA's violations of antitrust law since 2002. In 2023, he advised both the states of Ohio and New York in their antitrust cases against the NCAA.
Somebody Fucked Up
We are zooming ahead to the very end of Wednesday night's semifinal game between the New York Liberty and Atlanta Dream, which the Dream won in overtime, 101-98, to take a 2-0 series lead. After Angel Reese hit two free throws to put the Dream up by three, the Liberty had one more chance to engineer a potential game-tying shot with four seconds to play. This is what they came up with: An astute observer may notice the little orange tick under the words "New York" on ESPN's box score.
Jackson Chourio Was Nails
Mason Miller wasn't looking like himself by the time Jacskon Chourio stepped to the plate in the bottom of the ninth of Game 2 of the NLDS. After making quick work of three Brewers hitters in the bottom of the eighth inning, Miller was trusted to go back out there for the ninth and protect the Padres' 3-2 lead. It was only the third time all season he'd been called on to pitch six outs, and by the time he'd recorded two outs in the ninth he'd also issued three walks.
The Fever Are Good Enough To Get Under Your Skin
What does the perfect Indiana Fever game look like? Corner any member of the organization to demand an answer to that question, and they would probably describe something like Tuesday's 99-89 victory over the Las Vegas Aces.
Case Keenum Made For Great TV
For a guy who has spent most of his career as a backup, Case Keenum suddenly has a decent collection of signature wins. OK, maybe "collection" isn't quite right, but as we sit here this morning we can say for sure that the man has at least two. There is of course the Minneapolis Miracle, and now there is the, uh, Midway Masterclass?
Programming Notes
Hello! Prepare to receive precious information. The information is arriving now. This week, the Defector staff will once again be convening in a top-secret and possibly flooded location to conduct our annual meetings and continue charting the future of the company. The only reason you need to know this is because we will be blogging a little less than usual this week—the meetings take up a lot of our time—but we will not be abandoning you.
Ballhalla Got The Playoff Christening It Deserved
The phrase "road playoff game" can have a variety of meanings depending on the circumstances, and the one that Paige Bueckers and her Dallas Wings teammates stepped into on Sunday night was about as daunting as they come. They had to enter Ballhalla, home to the WNBA's loudest fanbase, and take on the two-seeded Golden State Valkyries, owners of the league's most ferocious defense. No thanks. "Home playoff game" can have different meanings, too, as last year's Valkyries might tell you.
Ballhalla Got The Playoff Christening It Deserved
SEC 3 hours ago College football Power Rankings: What we've learned about top teams ESPN • 3h Texas has two wins over ranked competition. But they came by narrow margins in which its offense struggled for long stretches.
Manchester City Found Guilty Of More Than 100 Financial Rule Breaches
Remember when the Premier League charged Manchester City with over 100 instances of financial maneuvering which ran afoul of league rules? It's possible you've forgotten all about that, since the league's investigation began all the way back in 2019, and the charges were announced in 2023. The long timeline here is owed to City's continued refusal to cooperate with the Premier League and the efforts of their expensive legal teams.
The Packers Are All Fucked Up
There are certain early-season losses, even hefty ones, that you can write off. Especially if they happen overseas or on a Thursday night, where good teams can be afflicted by all sorts of rest/recovery issues that throw them off-balance. But man, if you are a Green Bay Packers fan, I'm not sure how you even begin to cope with what happened last night.
It Sucks To Be Alex Bregman Right Now
The person in the photo above is not a strange wanderer whose arrival at the local inn coincided with that of a growing pestilence. That is Chicago Cubs third baseman Alex Bregman, photographed in the dugout two nights ago. Bregman looks like that because he was struck by a foul ball while standing in the on-deck circle during last Sunday's game against the Reds. He suffered multiple facial fractures, which is obvious by the look of him.
It Sucks To Be Alex Bregman Right Now
Now Here are our picks for Week 3 in the NFL. The season rolls on to Week 3 and it’s unclear how much more we’ve learned about any of these teams. While the NFL is always unpredictable, this season feels especially chaotic with key injuries happening early, wild upsets reigning supreme, and Tyler Shough …
Ryen Russillo Hawks Troughs Of Sodium In Grim Video
Barstool Sports podcaster Ryen Russillo has an urgent message for you: He will be dead in 72 hours unless $12 million is wired to the following bank acc—sorry, my mistake. I just assumed that's what he was going to say based on the haunting thumbnail on this video. Now that I've played it, I see that Russillo is simply interested in selling you some appallingly lit food. Football is back and every tailgate needs a game plan.
The Protect College Sports Act Reveals The Dark Heart Of Management
The Protect College Sports Act passed another procedural vote in the Senate yesterday, by a 70-21 margin. It will clear a few more procedural steps this week before going up for a final vote, at which point it is expected to pass and be sent to the House. In the meantime, it continues to mutate into a worse and more exploitative version of itself. More than 35 amendments were added to the PCSA yesterday, and one in particular stands out.
The Gambling Companies Need Their Customers’ Misery
Over the weekend, The New York Times published an investigation into DraftKings. The upshot of the investigation is that this obviously exploitative and profit-driven company exploits its customers in the pursuit of profit in all the ways that you might have feared.
The Lions’ Defense Is Dyin’ Out There
There are few scenarios for a struggling and injury-riddled defense more nightmarish than the one the Detroit Lions' unit had to face on Thursday night. Just four days after suffering through a 31-30 overtime win over the Saints, during which they were on the field for a grueling 90 snaps, they found themselves in Buffalo, dealing with Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills in their home opener. And oh yeah, Kerby Joseph and Brian Branch are both still on the PUP list.
There’s Always More Angry Problem Gamblers Where Those Came From
This week, five sports leagues (MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, and MLS) and their associated players' unions sent letters to gambling regulators in 35 states requesting that something be done to curtail the increasing amount of harassment athletes are facing from angry gamblers. Their proposal: Give teams and players a way to report harassing behavior directly to regulators, and then have the offending bettors banned from placing future bets.
Arch Manning, Room Full Of Dipshits, Snicker About AI Video Of Steve Sarkisian Slapping Holly Rowe
Fair warning: This is a short blog post in which you are going to encounter exhausting behavior from some fellas who will leave you pining for the restoration of our culture's sense of shame. Texas beat Ohio State in dramatic fashion on Saturday night, and Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian was all jacked up after the final whistle.
The Jets May Want To Reconsider Being “AI-First”
What does it mean for an NFL team to be "AI-first?" It's a question that football fans have been pondering ever since New York Jets Chief Analytics and Data Officer Iwao Fusillo revealed in May that the organization would be striving to "to think AI-first." It was hard to detect the influence of AI in the Jets' 23-10 win over the Titans in Week 1, but maybe that's just because the paltry competition didn't require unleashing the awesome power of Microsoft Copilot on the gridiron.
The Protect College Sports Act Finally Has Its Suitably Off-Putting Mascot
College football fans who tuned into ESPN's College GameDay this Saturday were forced to encounter the alarming visage of Texas Senator Ted Cruz. To make matter worse, he monopolized nearly 10 minutes of air time in order to stump for the Protect College Sports Act (PCSA), a bill that is like a lot of things Ted Cruz stumps for, in that it is explicitly designed to make workers' lives worse.
The Rams Play In Australia In Two Days And They Haven’t Left Yet
Before the NFL season kicks off this weekend, it will kick off Wednesday night with a primetime game between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks. And then on Thursday night it will kick off again, with a game between the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Rams, except that game will actually be happening on Friday morning, on account of it being played in Melbourne, Australia.
Mike Lombardi’s Gone And UNC Smells Rotten
It's been more than a month since UNC general manager Mike Lombardi was placed on administrative leave, and now he's gone for good. Lombardi and the school announced on Thursday that he is stepping down from his role. According to reporting from WRAL and ESPN, Lombardi's resignation may be just the beginning of the ugliness for North Carolina.
The Funniest Emails From The Kawhi Leonard Investigation Are Also The Most Clarifying
“A fight is gonna happen between the Clippers and the NBA” – Brian Windhorst predicts the worst possible outcome of the Clippers saga For the Clippers, there is no point in fighting back. In October of last year, the NBA officially launched an investigation into the Los Angeles …
The Funniest Emails From The Kawhi Leonard Investigation Are Also The Most Clarifying
The 35-page report released on Wednesday by the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, which contains a great deal of evidence that Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers circumvented the NBA's salary-cap rules, makes for some surprisingly fun reading.
Bill Simmons Is De-Apexing
It's been an eventful year for Ringer founder and podcast host Bill Simmons. He ended 2025 and began 2026 at a peak in popularity, thanks to his performance on a podcast titled "Bill’s 50 Most Rewatchable Movies of the 21st Century," which earned him the kind of crossover appeal he's rarely enjoyed. Just before that, he signed a deal to have to have several Ringer podcasts licensed to Netflix. Then he got to tell the world about how the Jaylen Brown trade happened during his colonoscopy.
Daejon Love Will Go Down As A Scammer For The Ages
Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the arrests of two men in Portland, Oregon. A 35-year-old man named Daejon Love and an 18-year-old man named Taylor Jamie Chan were charged with wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Those charges stem from Love and Chan running an alleged scam operation that involved defrauding various women through Love (unconvincingly) pretending to be a wide receiver for the San Francisco 49ers.
Daejon Love Will Go Down As A Scammer For The Ages
2 hours ago “It was all just incredibly embarrassing for all of these guys, but that was how too much of corporate America reacted to Trump’s second term.” MS NOW’s Jen Psaki called out corporate America, and “Silicon Valley tech titans” in particular, for cozying up to Donald Trump at the start of his second …
It’s No Longer Reds Week
Bang! Reds Week is over. Thank you for joining us. I hope you had at least half as much fun reading this week's collection blogs as we did writing them. You can catch up on anything you missed here.
Soraya Roberts Was A Great Critic And A Great Hang
A not-insignificant part of my job is fielding phone calls from freelance writers who have questions. The questions can vary—Have you heard of any job openings? Are you interested in this pitch? An editor at another publication is trying to screw me, what should I do? Can you help me get a credential to this event?—but they all flow from the same problem, which is that carving out a career as a freelancer in this industry is basically impossible.
Marge Schott Was A Five-Tool Bigot Who Would Have Thrived In Any Era
Brady Singer might not recognize an opponent he dominated earlier in the season when he gets the ball for the visiting Cincinnati Reds against the …
Marge Schott Was A Five-Tool Bigot Who Would Have Thrived In Any Era
It's nearly impossible to relay a single fact about former Cincinnati Reds owner Marge Schott that does not stop an unfamiliar recipient dead in their tracks.
It's Reds Week | Defector
Gaze into the eyes of Comrade Redlegs, and let the truth of the situation wash over you: It's Reds Week. That's right. You may have survived Senators Week, Rays Week, Wings Week, and Bills Week—but do you have what it takes to journey with us into our latest theme week? Over the next five days, we will find out. Let us go forward together, or perish. Reds Week begins now.
Seattle Times Dipshit Quits Because His Editors Were Smart Enough To Spike His Stupid Columns
People sometimes wonder what editors do. It's a fair question to ask, given how difficult it is to read a column or blog post and be able to discern exactly how much influence an editor did or did not have over the final product. It's easy to assume that editors don't do much at all, actually, and just skim a hardworking writer's drafts before publication.
We’re Still Looking For Someone Who Can Guard Olivia Miles
Olivia Miles made her first bucket of Wednesday night's game against the Golden State Valkyries early in the first quarter. It was a pull-up jumper from the left elbow, and the broadcast camera zoomed in on her face as she backpedaled down the court. After a moment of thought, she said something to herself: "They can't fucking guard me." Perhaps it was a needed reminder.
We’re Still Looking For Someone Who Can Guard Olivia Miles
PGA Tour 2 hours ago 'If someone is willing to pay': Rory McIlroy defends skyrocketing prize money GOLF Magazine - By: Kevin Cunningham • 2h Rory McIlroy was on fire in his press conference ahead of the 2026 BMW Championship, even by normal Rory McIlroy standards.
Atlanta Dream And WNBA Embrace Anti-Trans Losers
Some transphobic dickheads were again wearing XX-XY shirts at Sunday's game between the Indiana Fever and Atlanta Dream. Everyone knows what the XX-XY shirt—a truly ugly piece of merchandise made by a brand that raises money for organizations that seek to strip trans people of their rights—means when worn in public. It tells everyone that the person wearing it sees trans people not as human beings, but as targets whose very existence must be protested.
Atlanta Dream And WNBA Embrace Anti-Trans Losers
4 hours ago There’s still more than a month left in the 2026 regular season for the WNBA, but it’s never too early to start thinking about next year. Organizations like the Seattle Storm and Connecticut Sun — which will move to Houston in 2027 — are likely thinking about the future as they have been eliminated …
Angel Reese’s Game Is Too Weird Not To Appreciate
Social media is a terrible place to learn about anything, but there is perhaps no phrase more ill-suited for the Twitter or YouTube search bar than "Angel Reese." The reasons for this are obvious and not worth getting into here—there are a bunch of racist losers on there who have made Reese a target in their increasingly toxic culture war—but even under better circumstances Reese's game would be a tough fit for 15-second, vertical video highlights.
Angel Reese’s Game Is Too Weird Not To Appreciate
8 hours ago A North Carolina man has been charged with first-degree murder after a woman was found stabbed to death inside her Raleigh home. The victim was identified as Sheremy Gwenette Dillard, 57, a high school basketball coach and teacher. Police later arrested her boyfriend, Rickey Harper, 60, in Plymouth …
More Like Edlose Diaz
It is hard to keep track of the number of free-agent signings and trades made by the Dodgers that have allegedly broken baseball. When Tarik Skubal lands in the dugout at the trade deadline and starts the freakout all over again, it's easy to move on from the last set of acquisitions that was raising qualms and inviting guffaws. But let the record show, before it's too late, that Edwin Diaz was at one point one of those baseball-breaking signings.
Jayden Daniels Won’t Tolerate Some Scrub Wearing The Same Number He Did On His Journey To The ReliaQuest Bowl
Quick, what number did Jayden Daniels wear when he was at LSU? If you had to think about that for even a second, you might want to lock your doors. Because it's very possible that someone from Daniels's inner circle is on the way to your house to kick your ass. I issue this warning because over the last few days we have discovered that the No. 5 jersey is extremely important to Daniels, or at least it is to someone who spends time handling his affairs.
Transactions, August 10
Defector is proud to announce the addition of a new guy. Timothy Faust has joined us as our Director of Revenue. You might know Tim as a previous Defector contributor and the author of a legendary blog post, but in this role he will be entirely focused on data, revenue projections, and all sorts of other things that go into a spreadsheet. He's bringing a wealth of experience to the job, across a somewhat astonishing number of industries.
Why Your Team Sucks 2026: Atlanta Falcons
Some people are fans of the Atlanta Falcons. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the Atlanta Falcons. This 2026 Defector NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read all the previews so far here. Your team: Atlanta Falcons Your 2025 record: 8-9, which is less of a win-loss record than it is a manifestation of the spirit of mediocrity that inhabits this franchise.
Chelsea Gray Punished Caitlin Clark’s Mistakes
It is a funny twist of fate that the Indiana Fever have become such an engine for maddening WNBA storylines that have little or nothing to do with their actual on-court performances, because those performances are crazy-making enough on their own. Are the Fever a great team capable of melting any opponent in front of them, or a bunch of chumps who can't defend the paint to save their lives?
LIV Golf Claims It Will Be Rescued From The Toilet Any Day Now
When we last checked in with LIV Golf, the breakaway golf league nobody ever watched or cared about, it was ready to be flushed from our lives once and for all. After losing its financial backing from Saudi Arabia, the tour started to come apart. Events were cancelled, players made plans to scramble back to the PGA Tour, a lawsuit claiming unpaid invoices hit, and the Asian Tour ended its partnership.
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