The tension between NFL owners and running backs is continuing to escalate. In the latest development, Jonathan Taylor and the Indianapolis Colts have come to a stalemate, with Taylor reportedly requesting a trade following a meeting with Colts owner Jim Irsay. Irsay has been vocal about not wanting to extend Taylor’s contract, which ends after this season…and about paying running backs in general. Irsay’s stance follows a recent trend among NFL executives: devaluing the running back position, s...
Aug 01, 2023•29 min
Every football season in San Francisco brings fans another chance to lose their minds over who is starting under center. QB1 for the Niners has become a gig that no one can seem to hold onto for more than a season or two: from Jimmy Garoppolo to Trey Lance, back to Jimmy Garoppolo, and then to Brock Purdy – it seems like you never know who’s going to be in the pocket for the 49ers. We’re not calling it a curse, or even a controversy, but it has been unpredictable. So today, Nick Wagoner takes us...
Jul 31, 2023•30 min
The Baltimore Orioles have the best record in the entire American League. Yes, you read that correctly. When you think of the best team in the AL East, you might think of the New York Yankees, or Boston Red Sox, or even the Tampa Bay Rays in recent years. But this year it’s the O’s who stand head and shoulders above the rest. The same team who lost 110 games two seasons ago is now led by two of the most exciting prospects in baseball in Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson…and they’ll be taking ...
Jul 28, 2023•35 min
Journeymen quarterbacks don’t typically merit long, in-depth profiles from national reporters, nor, for that matter, from this show. But very little about Gardner Minshew is typical. With his handle-bar mustache, emotions all over his sleeves, and propensity to fashion unexpected magic off the bench, Minshew has become a walking NFL meme –– the internet always eager for another round of Minshew Mania. So today, ESPN’s Ryan Hockensmith tells us about his lunch with Minshew, which unearthed even m...
Jul 27, 2023•31 min
Training camp is officially underway and the dawn of a new NFL season is upon us. But with a new season, there are new questions: Who will live up to their expectations? Who will disappoint? Who will rise out of nowhere? And for some people around the league, the stakes are even higher. Can Miami Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa return to his elite form? How will Kirk Cousins cement his legacy with the Minnesota Vikings? Will the Dallas Cowboys keep winning when head coach Mike McCarthy assumes playca...
Jul 26, 2023•29 min
For more than 150 years, Northwestern University has been known more for its academics than its prowess on the gridiron. The type of school that seems like the last place you would expect to find a scandal involving hazing and abuse in its football program. But over the last couple weeks, a growing list of accusations and alleged victims has come forward. Pat Fitzgerald, the Wildcats’ long time head coach and a decorated former player himself, has been fired, and the university is facing multipl...
Jul 25, 2023•33 min
The SEC sparks the conversation around college football at the start of seemingly every season: and it’s usually SEC teams we’re talking about at the end of the season, too. And after an offseason dominated by off the field tragedy at Georgia, violations at Tennessee, and the impending addition of both Texas and Oklahoma to the most powerful conference in college sports, 2023 promises to be no different. Ryan McGee was at the Grand Hyatt in downtown Nashville for SEC Media Days, so he stopped by...
Jul 24, 2023•36 min
Throughout human history, the allure of rare and mysterious artifacts has always summoned our bravest and most intrepid explorers to scour the ends of the earth. The Ark of the Covenant. The Holy Grail. And now, the Dallas Mavericks Barbie. The ultra-rare Mavs Barbie, the product of a late 90’s collaboration between Mattel and the NBA, has given collectors everywhere headaches for years as the missing piece to their Barbie collections. She is so hard to find, in fact, that some collectors have e...
Jul 21, 2023•39 min
Washington D.C. football fans rejoice: Today, NFL owners are expected to ratify the sale of the Commanders, ending Daniel Snyder’s tenure as owner. After nearly a quarter century of mediocrity, marked by scandal, accusation, ineptitude, and toxicity, an ownership group led by Josh Harris will take the reins. So today, as Washington fans prepare to meet the new boss – whom they’re praying is anything but the same as the old boss – ESPN’s John Keim tells us how it all went so wrong during the Snyd...
Jul 20, 2023•32 min
When you think of the most recognizable players in the NBA, forward Bruce Brown wouldn’t be very high on the list. We’re not even sure he’d crack the top 50. But after having a breakout postseason in 2022-23 and winning a title with the Denver Nuggets, Brown was considered one of the most coveted free agents among teams with championship aspirations…which ultimately led to his two-year, $45 million contract with the Indiana Pacers. Even then, understanding his value is a lot more complicated tha...
Jul 19, 2023•25 min
You aren’t nuts, we did just do a Shohei Ohtani episode two weeks ago. But when you’re dealing with MLB’s brightest star, a unicorn who can blow you away from the pitcher’s mound and then blow you out from the batter’s box, every day is something brand new. So, do a piece on Ohtani one day, and just a few hours after it’s published, he might have another historic moment. ESPN’s Tim Keown took a different approach. He hung around the Los Angeles Angels’ clubhouse for an entire week, bookended by ...
Jul 18, 2023•32 min
The United States Women’s National Soccer Team has established themselves as one of the most dominant powerhouses in sports - ever. In the eight Women’s World Cups played, USA has won four of them, reached the semifinals each tournament, and has never finished lower than third place. As this edition of the team takes the field for the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, we’ll see the familiar faces of Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan, Julie Ertz, Rose Lavelle, and Kristie Mewis among others –...
Jul 17, 2023•25 min
Lionel Messi, the best soccer player of the 21st century, perhaps of all time, is coming to America. And yes, Pele decamped to New York to join the Cosmos nearly half a century ago… and David Beckham bent the soccer universe by joining the LA Galaxy in 2007. But THIS is different…this is quite possibly even bigger. So today, ahead of Messi’s official debut for Inter Miami in MLS, ESPN’s Luis Miguel Echegaray tells us what it all means…and why Miami, specifically, is the perfect landing spot for ...
Jul 14, 2023•31 min
Six months ago, ESPN’s Liz Merrill introduced us to the mystery of Chiefsaholic, the Kansas City Chiefs superfan who lived a lavish lifestyle, but also had been arrested for robbing an Oklahoma bank in December. So much has happened since we told that story: while awaiting his next court date, Chiefsaholic, whose real name is Xavier Babudar, reportedly cut off his ankle monitor, threw it in the woods, and skipped town. A manhunt spanning across multiple states ensued and finally came to an end l...
Jul 13, 2023•45 min
It’s been 21 months since then-Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden announced his resignation. Gruden had faced mounting criticism after the Wall Street Journal and New York Times obtained emails he had written between 2011 and 2018, while Gruden was working at ESPN. Several messages contained racist, homophobic, and misogynistic language directed towards several people, including NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith. The scandal ended Gruden’s coaching ...
Jul 12, 2023•33 min
When former national champion college basketball coach and ESPN analyst Jim Valvano accepted the Arthur Ashe Courage Award for his battle with cancer at the first ESPY Awards, no one was sure if he would have the strength to even take the stage. What followed was a rousing 11-minute long call to action that spurred a new chapter in the fight against cancer. Michael O’Connor, director of the SC Featured special, The Speech, shares the details of Jimmy V’s life that became encapsulated in one incr...
Jul 11, 2023•30 min
When you think of historically bad professional sports teams, there are the 1962 Mets, the 1976 Buccaneers. More recently, you’ve got the 2008 Detroit Lions or the 2017 Cleveland Browns or even this year’s Oakland Athletics…and then, there are the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers. The storied franchise that had recently parted with Wilt Chamberlain and three other Hall of Famers, and hired their new coach from a classified ad in the Philadelphia Inquirer. This was a team that had three separate 13-gam...
Jul 10, 2023•25 min
The Negro Leagues’ biggest star, pitcher Satchel Paige, made his MLB debut 75 years ago this Sunday when he took the mound for the Cleveland Indians. Paige is a figure who at times feels more myth, more legend than man: his fastball was supposedly clocked at 105 mph, he estimated that he threw more than 50 no-hitters throughout his career, and he claimed to have had such a command of the baseball that he could allegedly work both corners of a chewing gum wrapper…and even his age itself is a hotl...
Jul 07, 2023•48 min
At this point, we’ve run out of superlatives to describe Shohei Ohtani. He’s not just doing things that nobody has seen in a century, he’s doing things that nobody has ever seen. In the month of June alone, Ohtani hit 15 home runs and drove in 29 RBI, while averaging .394, all while pitching over 30 innings, with 37 strikeouts along the way. And it all has us wondering, was that the best month from an individual player in MLB history? So we called up Jeff Passan to get the definitive answer. Lea...
Jul 06, 2023•27 min
When you think of a top baseball prospect, or really any prospect in modern sports, you probably think of the kid who’s specialized from an early age and spent countless hours with personal coaches and trainers to perfect their craft…and then, there’s Arjun Nimmala. Nimmala grew up playing cricket on his family trips to India, but those skills have translated pretty well to the baseball diamond…and have made the 17 year old a likely high first round pick in Sunday’s MLB Draft. So today, Kiley Mc...
Jul 05, 2023•26 min
The story of Barry Bremen, a.k.a. “The Great Imposter” was already sufficiently ridiculous. Bremen was an average, suburban dad, husband, and insurance salesman who’d risen to national fame by sneaking into major sporting events. But in 2019, nearly a decade after Barry Bremen’s death, his family received a mysterious letter that changed everything. The Barry Bremen legacy was bigger and more profound than any of them had ever realized. In an encore of one of our favorite episodes, Jeremy Schapp...
Jul 04, 2023•41 min
It’s a story so wild we couldn’t fit it into one podcast. If you’re of a certain age, you probably remember Barry Bremen. In the late 70’s, Barry was best known for dressing up as pro athletes and sneaking into televised sporting events…including the 1979 MLB All-Star Game in Seattle, where he was berated by an unamused Tommy Lasorda. And while his “Great Imposter” persona brought him fame, an appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, and more adventures, Barry was also a totally normal...
Jul 03, 2023•50 min
Novak Djokovic is a man on a mission heading into next week’s Wimbledon: following wins at the Australian and French Opens this year, Djokovic is at the top of his game and looks nearly unstoppable. Will #1 seed Carlos Alcaraz or Daniil Medvedev be up to the challenge? On the women’s side, Poland’s Iga Swiatek is ranked #1, but she’ll face tough competition from Aryna Sabalenka and last year’s champion Elena Rybakina. Could Americans Jess Pegula and Coco Gauff make a serious run? Patrick McEnroe...
Jun 30, 2023•30 min
It’s not exactly a hot take to say Steph Curry and Klay Thompson are the greatest shooting backcourt in NBA history. And today, their shot-making ability of a different kind will be on display, as they go head-to-head against Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce in The Match, a nationally televised charity golf event. But when it comes to sharpshooters hitting the links, the Splash Brothers are just the tip of the iceberg. Baxter Holmes spent months speaking to some of the best three-point shooters ...
Jun 29, 2023•24 min
Elly De La Cruz just might be the most exciting player in baseball, and he hasn’t even been in the Major Leagues for a full month yet. While his performance has been turning heads, it’s his unique combination of power and speed that has infused the Cincinnati Reds with an energy that the city hasn’t seen in a long time. So today, Jeff Passan brings us the story of De La Cruz, tells us how real the hype is, and explains how he’s giving Reds fans something they haven’t had in more than a decade: h...
Jun 28, 2023•29 min
The NBA offseason is underway, with several big names already tied into upcoming trades. The next step is free agency, which officially begins on Friday. Bradley Beal, Chris Paul, Kristaps Porzingis, Kyrie Irving, Marcus Smart and James Harden are all in the news, as are the annual “will Damian Lillard leave Portland” questions. So today, Brian Windhorst unpacks the moves we’ve already seen, and breaks out his crystal ball to take a look at what’s to come, once free agency officially begins. Lea...
Jun 27, 2023•32 min
The US Women's National Team opens training camp today in preparation for next month’s World Cup hosted by Australia and New Zealand. The goal for team USA? Nothing less than a three-peat. The roster returns some of the biggest names in soccer…like Megan Rapinoe, Julie Ertz, and Alex Morgan…but also features 14 players making their World Cup debuts. So today ESPN reporter Charlotte Gibson tells the story of one of those new faces, 21-year-old Trinity Rodman. Trinity is the daughter of basketball...
Jun 26, 2023•39 min
Frederic Weis was supposed to be Victor Wembanyama before Victor Wembanyama. The 7’2 Frenchman was drafted by the Knicks in the first round of the 1999 NBA Draft, and was thought to be the next great European star to crossover to the States. But one year later, in the Olympics, Weis would be on the receiving end of one of the most memorable dunks ever, when Vince Carter literally dunked over him. The narrative around Weis began to shift – suddenly he was too soft for the NBA, and he would never ...
Jun 23, 2023•43 min
The way NBA prospects get to the league looks nothing like it used to. We’ve been importing future MVPs from overseas for years now: that’s the story of Victor Wembanyama, tonight’s projected No. 1 pick. And we’ve watched the G League become the NBA’s own minor league system. That’s the story of Scoot Henderson, projected to go either No. 2 or No. 3. But the story of Amen and Ausar Thompson — who could maybe round out the top five in tonight’s NBA Draft — is something very different. Israel Guti...
Jun 22, 2023•37 min
Class is officially in session at Tight End University. Think of an offseason trade event, featuring the best tight ends in the NFL. It’s happening right now in Nashville for the third year in a row, and it’s the brainchild of San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle. So today, NFL reporter Turron Davenport gives us a crash course on his experience at TEU…and breaks down how the position is changing the league. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Jun 21, 2023•22 min
