Almost three months to the day since Deadspin was obliterated by its clueless owners, the site is back — if only for a tantalizingly short while. There’s a new Deadspin up for your reading pleasure at UnnamedTemporarySportsBlog.com; the occasion is the Super Bowl, which means the site’s lifespan is unfortunately just this weekend.
If you’re not familiar with the demise of the old Deadspin, here’s a quick recap. Last April, noted venture capitalist Jim “Herb” Spanfeller purchased the site and its sisters in the former Gizmodo Media Group. He spent six months making questionable business decisions and butting heads with the site’s editors.
By late October, in a move inspired by spite, political differences, and more spite, Spanfeller ordered the staff to “stick to sports,” meaning they could no longer write about anything that was not 100% sport-, athlete-, and / or ball-related. When Editor in Chief Barry Petchesky did not do so, he was fired. This prompted the resignation of every single other Deadspin employee. The site hasn’t posted a new article since November 4th. It gets no links in this article.
So, that was the deal with the old Deadspin, which had been a delightful, original, and profitable page, one that employed dozens of writers with their own loyal followings. And that is why news of the new Deadspin is so exciting. Per *that* site’s introductory page, the UnnamedTemporarySportsBlog “will be publishing blogs for your reading pleasure” from January 31 through February 2.
Who, you ask, will write those blogs? “All of your favorite sports bloggers. Well, maybe not all of them, but at least the ones who are currently unemployed due to their recent decision to detonate their own careers.” (The Daily Beast has since reported that, in addition to former managing editor Tom Ley (who wrote the intro post above), “several of the site’s former writers and editors, including Barry Petchesky, David Roth, and Drew Magary will blog for the site.”) And the whole thing is being sponsored by password encryption company Dashlane, about which I know nothing but for which I now have a healthy appreciation.
The only downside to the new Deadspin is that it will “vanish” at some foggy point between the end of the Super Bowl and daybreak on Monday, February 3rd. One can only hope that, at the moment of termination, every still-unemployed former Deadspin writer will receive a miraculous job offer. Or that Dashlane will be blown away by the weekend’s traffic and hire everyone back for Deadspin 2.0.
Either way: Deadspin is mostly back for a minute, there’s already a new Drew Magary column up, and it’s impossible for this year’s Super Bowl not to be more entertaining than last year. Get to clicking!
(Photo credit: New Deadspin via UnnamedTemporarySportsBlog.com)
John Sharp is Starcasm’s chief editorial correspondent-at-large. Tips: E-mail john@starcasm.net or Twitter @john_starcasm.