Young Chiefs Fan’s Lawsuit Against Left-Wing Outlet Can Move Forward After ‘Blackface’ Smear

A Delaware judge ruled earlier this week that the defamation lawsuit against left-wing sports and culture website Deadpan will be allowed to move forward.

In November of last year, the outlet generated controversy after one of their writers, Carron J. Phillips, accused a nine-year-old Kansas City Chiefs fan of racism  for wearing a Native American headdress and face paint to a game at Arrowhead Stadium. The article, which was initially titled, “The NFL needs to speak out against the Kansas City Chiefs fan in Black face, Native headdress,” included several pictures of the young fan and made a number of accusations.

“It takes a lot to disrespect two groups of people at once. But on Sunday afternoon in Las Vegas, a Kansas City Chiefs fan found a way to hate Black people and the Native Americans at the same time,” Phillips wrote. He also attacked the boy’s family, while the article only showed the side of the young fan’s face that was painted black while ignoring the other half, which was painted red.

A judge has ruled that a young Kansas City Chiefs fan’s lawsuit against Deadspin can move forward after the leftist sports outlet falsely accused the child of wearing “blackface.”
Deadspin has been desperately trying to get the lawsuit from the Armenta family thrown out of court. pic.twitter.com/Q6l5vSpkFH

— TheTexasOne (@TexasRepublic71) October 9, 2024

The outlet has since added an editor’s note to the story claiming that the author’s intention was to put pressure on the NFL despite the author’s choice to spotlight the nine-year-old.

“We regret any suggestion that we were attacking the fan or his family. To that end, our story was updated on Dec. 7 to remove any photos, tweets, links, or otherwise identifying information about the fan. We have also revised the headline to better reflect the substance of the story,” the note continues.

In February, Raul and Shannon Armenta, parents of the then-nine-year-old Holden, filed a defamation lawsuit against Deadspin. The outlet motioned to dismiss the suit, though on Monday, Superior Court Judge Sean Lugg allowed the lawsuit to go forward. The judge agreed that Deadspin had posted “provable false assertions” that were presented as facts, not opinions.

“Deadspin published an image of a child displaying his passionate fandom as a backdrop for its critique of the NFL’s diversity efforts and, in its description of the child, crossed the fine line protecting its speech from defamation claims,” the judge wrote.

Lugg also refused to dismiss the lawsuit on the basis that it should have been filed in Armenta’s home state of California, rather than Delaware, where Deadspin’s parent company G/O Media resides. G/O Media later sold Deadspin to Lineup Publishing one month after the lawsuit was filed,” Fox News noted.

In addition to the editor’s note, Deadspin has since changed the headline to “The NFL Must Ban Native Headdress And Culturally Insensitive Face Paint in the Stands (UPDATED).”