As 2025 was coming to a close, along with the Chiefs season as they finished out with a losing record, there was another Chiefs-related event that went unnoticed. I’m not finding anyone talking about this, at least. And a Google search brings up nothing. And I decided to go looking into the case after being reminded of it recently.
First, let’s rewind to the tail end of 2023. Deadspin published an article by Carron J. Phillips in which he singled out a 9 year-old Chiefs fan with some rather disgusting statements against him and his parents. In response, the family of the 9 year-old filed a lawsuit against Deadspin’s then-parent company, G/O Media, in Delaware, the State where G/O is incorporated.
Not long after the lawsuit was filed, Deadspin was sold off to Lineup Media and their entire staff laid off.
In 2024, G/O tried a bit of a last-ditch effort to quash the lawsuit. And in October 2024, they were slapped down, with the Court saying that the Deadspin article made “provably false assertions of fact”. After that ruling, I said this on a private Facebook post:
Deadspin’s new parent company just needs to settle this. The only thing continuing to fight this lawsuit will do is just cost them more. Talk with the family, come up with a number, create a college and trust fund for the kid, give a heavy donation to the Tribe the kid and his father’s family belongs to, and just end it…
The case is N24C-02-051 – Raul Armenta, Jr., v. G/O Media – filed in the Delaware Superior Court for Newcastle County. After the Court ruled against G/O, the case proceeded to discovery starting later in October 2024. And per typical with discovery in a civil case, motions flew back and forth into August 2025. Then… they kind of stopped.
The last motion in August 2025 was directed at G/O media to “compel G.O Media to produce financial documents, improperly withheld documents, and social media messages”. Opposition to that motion was filed a month later.
Then the docket went quiet.
November 13, 2025, a little over a year since the Court slapped down G/O media, another docket entry. A “confidential petition for approval”. So I guess that “motion to compel” told G/O they were… screwed, and they spent the next couple months negotiating behind the scenes on a settlement.
Which would be approved on December 16, with the case officially dismissed with prejudice on January 6, 2026, with the final order of dismissal filed on January 8.
So one of the most egregious defamation cases in modern journalistic practice was very recently settled out of Court on undisclosed terms. And it really should’ve ended at the end of 2024 and not been dragged out another year.
