2025-12-30 22:01:49
This is what the Defector staff enjoyed eating in 2025.
2025-12-30 03:34:48
The Colts did it. After beginning the season with a record of 8–2, Indianapolis has now been eliminated from the playoffs. It's a pretty exclusive circle of hell, where they've landed: Since 1990, when the NFL playoffs expanded to 12 teams, only three teams have missed the field after such a strong start, and it certainly goes without saying that the Colts are the first to manage this fall since the playoffs expanded further, to 14 teams, in 2020. Fate pulled some incredible horseshit to produce this outcome, without even getting into Indianapolis's miserable quarterback situation: The Colts' ongoing losing streak, run to six games after Sunday's 23–17 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, coincides with a combined 15 consecutive wins (!) by the two teams now ahead of them in the AFC South. The universe wanted to be absolutely clear about this: The Colts could not be allowed to carry so much as a vague waft of relevance into the new year.
One fellow who is not going to let this wretched and historic collapse ruin his good time is old man Philip Rivers. "Other than us not winning," said an upbeat Rivers after his team's latest loss, "it's been an absolute blast for three weeks." Included in that "blast" was Rivers tossing a horrible fourth-quarter interception Sunday that eventually set up Jacksonville's go-ahead field goal. The pick cannot really be described as any very serious form of "backbreaking," for the simple reason that the Colts were officially eliminated from playoff contention Saturday, when the Houston Texans beat the Chargers in Los Angeles. That Rivers, who was already old by professional-athlete standards when he retired way back in 2021, was even out there Sunday, slinging it around for the no-hope Colts, is a kind of personal moral victory. "It's been absolutely awesome," insisted Rivers Sunday afternoon. I'm not sure the satisfaction and delight are quite shared by those teammates of his who were around before the beginning of this hateful second-half swoon.
2025-12-30 03:26:50
When news broke this weekend that an elusive, endangered wildcat was spotted in Thailand for the first time in three decades, I rejoiced, obviously. What wonderful news that the flat-headed cat, which is estimated to have a wild population of just 2,500 in Southeast Asia, had not gone extinct in Thailand. The wildcat's presence was confirmed by remote camera traps, which recorded the cats 13 times in 2024 and 16 times in 2025, in the swampy peat forests of the Princess Sirindhorn Wildlife Sanctuary. What an abundance of flat-headed cats where there formerly appeared to be no flat-headed cats at all! What joyous news to close out the year!
And then I saw a better photo of the flat-headed cat, and my mood soured. The head of this cat did not seem so flat to me.
2025-12-30 02:58:25
This is not the Brock Purdy you think you know. The Brock Purdy you know is a featureless, personality-deficient cipher, and entirely a creation of Kyle Shanahan's everything-but-the-quarterback football philosophy. That there might also be another Brock Purdy in there is fun to think about, if that's what you're into, but in terms of Shanahan's scheme and the 49ers' broader designs, it is not really relevant.
But the scrambling, gambling quarterback who led the team to a 42-38 victory on Sunday is also Brock Purdy, as easily dismissible as you might think he is otherwise. Purdy is the ideal quarterback for Shanahan's teams, in that he is rarely required to be the hero in every win, and always required not to be the reason for a loss; a quarterback can make a nice living and win a lot of games playing like that, although it is also a sure ticket to Jared Goff-level uncoolness. Shanahan believes in the running game and defense as the building blocks of team success, and quarterback is merely an adjunct therein. Plus, Purdy looks like a guy who works the customer service desk at the auto parts store, and sounds like the next-door neighbor who helps you get your kid's ball out of the tree. His next interesting quote will give him an even one.
2025-12-30 01:11:01
These are the best days of Macklin Celebrini's life—not just so far, but likely forever. The world is all possibilities, without the vaulted ceilings of reality or the low chandeliers of expectations. In hockey terms, he is Auston Matthews without the crushing burdens of being a Toronto Maple Leaf.
He is not new to you, constant readers. He is currently on a seven-game scoring bender—five goals and nine assists in those games—and at the I'll-need-to-see-your-ID-son age of 19, his consistent persistence and occasional genius puts him on a list of teenagers who averaged more than a point per game, a list with wall-to-wall Hall of Famers. And not just outer-hedge Hall of Famers, but the Hall of Fame of Hall of Famers, like Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Dale Hawerchuk, and Steve Yzerman, and active A-listers like Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid, and Steven Stamkos.
2025-12-30 00:29:04
Maybe you've heard this one before: The Pittsburgh Steelers lost a game they were highly favored to win, against one of the dregs of the NFL, blowing their chance to clinch the AFC North title. Now, whether or not the Steelers make the playoffs will come down to their Week 18 game against the Ravens.
It was all set up for the Steelers on Sunday. They faced a Cleveland Browns team that was 3-12 coming into the game and quarterbacked by Shedeur Sanders, who currently doesn't seem capable of throwing for more than 200 yards. Without DK Metcalf, suspended after hitting a fan last week in Detroit, the Steelers seemed resigned to scoring fewer than 20 points, which they did, losing 13-6. Pittsburgh's offensive gameplan was so anemic and confounding that Myles Garrett is out here proposing a theory about the Steelers caring more about preventing him from getting the single-season sack record than they did winning the game.
