COURCHEVEL, France — Lunch: indisputably one of the top-three meals of the day, but at the Tour de France, not always something the intrepid reporter can afford to prioritize. Most days involve some degree of frantic scurrying between the start and finish, hitting the road e...

It's just a lot to walk around with. You still have to walk around, naturally, there's stuff that needs doing and nothing is really gained by sitting around thinking about how stupid and crooked and venal everything is, and about the confluence of cultural forces conspiring to make it all dumber and nastier and worse, or about the erosion of the institutions and mores that ideally would stem that degradation. And yet, if you're the someone who thinks about that sort of thing—and if you are aware of it, it does tend to clatter around in your brain even if just as highly intrusive background noise—you can't just not think about it. The challenge, if you are aiming to remain sane, is in how you spin it.

Five former NHL players and members of Hockey Canada's 2018 World Juniors championship team were found not guilty of sexual assault in a London, Ontario, courtroom Thursday, with the presiding judge stating, "I do not find the evidence of [the accuser] to be either credible or reliable." Dillon Dubé, Cal Foote, Michael McLeod, Alex Formenton, and Carter Hart had been accused of assaulting a 20-year-old woman in a hotel room while celebrating their tournament win on June 18, 2018.

"Having found that I cannot rely upon the evidence from [the accuser] and considering the evidence in this trial as a whole, I conclude that the Crown cannot meet its onus on any of the counts before me," Justice Maria Carroccia said.

Some people are fans of the New York Giants. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the New York Giants. This 2025 Defector NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read all the previews so far here.

Your team: New York Giants.

It's exceedingly rare to see a side enter an international tournament and manage to play its best, most aesthetically pleasing soccer for the entire month-long affair. It does happen—the Spanish men absolutely steamrolled Euro 2012, and the USWNT did the same at the 2019 World Cup—but more often than not, exhaustion, nerves, and tough matchups will force a team to win ugly on the way to the trophy. In Wednesday's Euro 2025 semifinal against Germany, Spain won ugly, as ugly as I've seen during the team's ongoing run of dominance, though La Roja did manage to sneak some real transcendence into a long and draining night in Zurich.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Q3G9BW0Ba0

Welcome to Ask The Book Doctor, a recurring series about books and reading them.

It can be nice to have a solid brand. For example, I always order the same drinks at the bar, so if I am running late, and I ask someone to order for me, I always get what I want, because I always want the same thing. But because I am consistent, people sometimes freak out when I choose something else. A week or so ago, I ordered a different drink at the bar, and everyone acted like I had two heads! The expectations people have of what I like, then, are determining the kinds of recommendations and information people give to me. No one told me the fancy little whiskey cocktail was so good, because no one thought I would want it!

Pat McAfee ended his daily ESPN show on Wednesday by finally addressing the role he played in ruining a college student's reputation. To nobody's surprise, he was extremely annoying about it.

Back in February, McAfee used his show to amplify a rumor about Ole Miss student Mary Kate Cornett having an affair with her boyfriend's dad. The rumor had already gone viral on social media, with Cornett's name attached, and McAfee's decision to discuss it on air—during an interview with NFL insider Adam Schefter, of all people—made things much worse for her. Cornett's phone number was posted online, her mother's house was swatted, and she received so many threats that she had to switch to online courses and move into emergency housing.

On May 21, Defector's Ray Ratto informed you that it was time to start the "Rich Hill is BACK" countdown. A little over three months later, on July 23, I am happy to inform you that the Rich Hill is BACK countdown has officially ended, because Rich Hill is BACK, and this time with the Kansas City Royals!

Since signing his Minor League deal, the 45-year-old Hill has put up a 5.22 ERA over 11 starts in the minors. Two of those starts came at the Rookie ball level—where, according to Baseball-Reference, he is 23.9 years older than the weighted average age of players in Rookie ball—while the remaining nine came in Triple-A, where he is a mere 17.5 years older than the average. While the ERA is less than ideal, Hill averaged a little less than six strikeouts per start.

GENEVA — If it weren’t for the crystal-blue lake and rugged mountains that sandwich the city, I’d have thought I was in London. In the 36 hours before England’s Women’s Euro semifinal match against Italy, downtown Geneva was crawling with English accents and white kits with leonine crests. The only thing more prevalent than England fans was the ample signage around the city promoting the tournament.

As I walked around, I began to wonder if, come match time, the stadium would be a sea of white, with nary an Italian fan in sight. I kept an eagle eye out for blue Italy jerseys, and found only enough to count on one hand. In fact, I spotted more German and Spanish kits than those for the Azzurre, and that semifinal is across the country. Even on game day, as I merged into the mass of fans streaming into the stadium, only specks of blue shone through the white.

Some people are fans of the Cleveland Browns. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the Cleveland Browns. This 2025 Defector NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read all the previews so far here.

Your team: Cleveland Browns.

Tuesday night brought another rough loss for the Los Angeles Dodgers—one of a whopping 43 they've already suffered so far this year. Facing the Minnesota Twins at home, the defending champions got absolutely blown out of the ballpark in a three-run loss. Surely no team has e...

As the NFL's loudest, goofiest, and by far richest general manager, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones is always positioned for the camera, any camera. His singular and long-running M.O.—the tough-talking soft touch in contract negotiations—has always been a comedic staple. It...

No record ever spoke to me more than Southern Rock Opera by the Drive-By Truckers. It’s a concept album released in 2001 that has lots of songs about growing up in the South in the late '70s and not having much going on besides power drinking and rock and roll. That record could be my life. And of all the period-piece vignettes, none hit me where I live more than a verse in "Let There Be Rock" where frontman Patterson Hood bragged about a concert the rock gods blessed upon him back in the day: “I sure saw Ozzy Osbourne,” Hood warbled, “with Randy Rhoads in ‘82 right before that plane crash.”

Well, me too: On February 24, 1982, I caught Ozzy’s Diary of a Madman tour when it stopped in Lubbock, Texas. Ozzy wielded an oversized crucifix while doddering around a stage that had been tarted up to look like a medieval castle. Headbangers heaven.

MONT VENTOUX, France — "I had goosebumps in the moment, it was so incredible," Soudal-QuickStep team photographer Wout Beel said the morning of Stage 17. "I am getting goosebumps again just talking about it, look!" he said, showing me his arm. It's true, he was. One day earl...

What money are WNBA players owed? The league’s biggest names got people asking this question Saturday night, when they all wore “Pay Us What You Owe Us” warmup T-shirts before the All-Star Game in Indianapolis. Two days earlier, the players and the league met for their first...

Imagine it is December 1970. "I Think I Love You" by the Partridge Family was just atop the charts. Billboard would soon name "Bridge Over Troubled Water" the most popular song of the year. If you listen to music, that's mostly what you are hearing: flowery pop or earnest folk. Then, you go to a show, and you see this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3b6SGoN6dA&ab_channel=BlackSabbath

Time for your weekly edition of the Defector Funbag. Got something on your mind? Email the Funbag. And buy Drew’s book, The Night The Lights Went Out, while you’re at it. Today, we're talking about cleaning up before dying, ketchup, being a new stepdaddy, and more.

Sorry for the abbreviated bag today, but Why Your Team Sucks has begun and I need to stay on point for it. But don’t worry, the bag will return to its normal length soon enough.

On autobiographies of trans female sexuality

The advent of the ghost runner made it possible to score a run in baseball without ever getting on base: In extra innings now, a bunt and a sac fly will do the trick. To truncate years-old discourse, this is a clear affront to the principles of baseball. What the Philadelphi...

VAISON-LA-ROMAINE, France — On the morning of Stage 15 of the Tour de France, I was strolling the paddock with a colleague when we happened upon the fan who'd had her cardboard signed turned into jersey fluff by Julian Alaphilippe on the top of the Tourmalet. Clara came from...

Craig Finn is the poet laureate of people who just can’t make it work. His songs are full of burnouts and failures, hard-drinkers and rough-sleepers, the lagging and the left behind. Their successes evaporate, and their mistakes linger. The narrator of “God in Chicago” has t...

Some people are fans of the Tennessee Titans. But many, many more people are NOT fans of the Tennessee Titans. This 2025 Defector NFL team preview is for those in the latter group. Read all the previews so far here.

Your team: The Tennessee Titans, who are currently attempting to prevent the Houston Texans from using Houston Oilers blue. Jesus Christ Titans, just go back to being the Oilers already. The Houston Oilers’ signature accomplishment, blowing a 35-3 lead in a playoff game, is still a better legacy than anything the “Titans” have “accomplished” in their quarter century-plus as an ongoing NFL concern. The only time the outside world pays attention to these slobs is when Tennessee wears Oilers throwbacks, and you know why? Because it helps them forget that the Titans exist. I’d rather wear a dead skin mask than a Titans jersey.

Once upon a time, the world heavyweight champ was the most famous man on Earth. But other than hardcore fight fans, nobody can even pick Oleksandr Usyk out of a lineup. And he’s held the belt for nearly four years. But the spotlight could soon shine on the 38-year-old Ukrain...

For a moment, it almost looked like the current president of our kleptocracy was veering toward a good deed. Fortunately for every American who knows better than to ever get their hopes up regarding this kind of thing, he caught himself and swiftly tied that deed to something retrograde, smallminded, and cheap.

First, Old Squatty said he would interject himself into the potential Washington area football stadium, and do so in a way that was unkind to the owners of the local football factory. As with everything else Trump does or says, it was inevitable that there would be a catch, or just an angle for graft. But in the broadest strokes, it could almost have passed for some fiscal responsibility from the least responsible rich guy of them all.

After Marcus Walden was called up by the Toronto Blue Jays in early 2014, nearly seven years after being drafted by the club, everything went more or less as you might expect for a big league promotion. For Father’s Day, Walden gifted his dad the first jersey he ever wore on...

MONTPELLIER, France — Fifteen stages and two rest days into the Tour de France, the talk of the press room is not Tadej Pogacar rampaging towards his fourth yellow jersey, brave Kevin Vauquelin trying for an unlikely top-five finish, or Jonas Vingegaard's absurd time-trial h...

Donald Trump was good friends with the notorious sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein for many years, the New York Times reported over the weekend, a friendship that included Trump hosting Epstein at "raucous parties with cheerleaders and models." The Times wrote that one "woman has said that Mr. Trump groped her when Mr. Epstein brought her to Trump Tower in Manhattan to meet him." Also: "Another accuser recalled being eyed by Mr. Trump during a brief encounter in Mr. Epstein’s office, and claimed that Mr. Epstein had told Mr. Trump at the time that 'she’s not for you.'"

Furthermore, the Times wrote:

The thing that the New York Yankees are doing is not sign-stealing. For one thing, it is entirely independent of the communications of their opponents, which raises it entirely above the board, according to both the rules and the traditions of baseball. For another, professi...

CARCASSONNE, France — It is hard to know what is going on in the Tour de France, even if your job is to work on the Tour de France. The end of every stage includes a familiar ritual, with team employees and journalists gathering around phones and tablets, squinting into the ...

Have you been counting down the days until our Monday crossword? This week’s puzzle was constructed by Daniel Hrynick and edited by Hoang-Kim Vu. Dan lives in Winnipeg, where he works as a laborer for Public Works. A commenter on his previous puzzle mentioned that they were disappointed that the clue for MOOG referenced the synthesizers and not Andy Moog. That comment was on his mind when he clued 1-Across in this puzzle.

Defector crosswords, launched in partnership with our friends at AVCX, run every Monday. If you’re interested in submitting a puzzle to us, you can read our guidelines HERE. Note that our submissions are closed through July 31.