The Chicago Bears are facing a critical decision as the NFL off-season kicks into gear. Do they stick with their incumbent quarterback, Justin Fields, who the Bears have spent a couple of seasons surrounding with talent. Or, do they draft Caleb Williams with the first pick of the 2024 NFL Draft, a player that some see as a generational prospect. It’s not as simple a decision as it might seem from the outside, especially when you look at how little Fields had around him early in his career, and h...
Mar 05, 2024•30 min
March is a month synonymous with college basketball. The NCAA Tournament is just a few weeks away, but with the Super Bowl, the NBA, Spring Training, and the stars of women’s college basketball shining a spotlight on the sport like never before, it’s been a difficult men’s season to get a firm grasp on. ESPN Senior Basketball Reporter Myron Medcalf explains how schools are looking to draw fans in during a period of declining attendance, and then explains how the men’s side is facing more trouble...
Mar 04, 2024•28 min
Long before stealing scenes, as Ashtray, in HBO’s hit drama “Euphoria”, Javon Walton was making waves as a young boxing prodigy. And this weekend, he goes back to his roots…. heading to Puerto Rico to make his global professional boxing debut, alongside Jake Paul and featherweight champion Amanda Serrano. So today, ESPN staff writer Marc Raimondi explores the potential of Javon “Wanna” Walton in the ring, and tells us why this fresh-faced 17 year old appears ready to conquer the fight game. Lear...
Mar 01, 2024•23 min
All eyes are on the circuit as the Bahrain Grand Prix gets set to kick off Formula 1’s 2024 season this Saturday, on ESPN. It's not just the sexy cars and extreme speed driving the growth of the planet’s fastest sport, there's plenty of drama to go around as well. Today ESPN F1 editor Laurence Edmundson takes us through Lewis Hamilton’s bombshell decision to leave Mercedes, where he's been for more than a decade, at the end of 2024, to fulfill a childhood dream and drive for Ferrari, who haven't...
Feb 29, 2024•30 min
Tonight, the Clippers and Lakers will play for the final time as co-tenants of Crypto.com arena, as Clippers owner Steve Ballmer is set to open the team’s shiny new arena next fall. It’s a big moment for the team as they continue to seek a path out of the Lakers shadow. But on the court, that emergence may be even closer. After a disastrous start to the James Harden era in November, the Clippers went on an 8-game win streak in December, have won nearly 70% of their games since, and now have the ...
Feb 28, 2024•26 min
The second half of the NBA season is underway, and the MVP picture is starting to take focus. ESPN NBA writer Tim Bontemps conducts several straw polls every season, getting input from 100 media members across the country to get a sense of where the race sits at various points on the calendar. And with Joel Embiid ineligible for the award due to injury, Bontemps walks us through who the front runners are, and tells us what to make of the recent international flavor of the NBA’s most prestigious ...
Feb 27, 2024•28 min
As ESPN MLB Insider Jeff Passan tells us, spring training should be about hope and new beginnings. Relaying the smell of freshly cut grass, enjoying the Florida or Arizona sunlight, hearing the crack of the bat and the slap of the leather. But for Major League Baseball, there are still a number of issues that have caught people’s attention, and none of them relate to position battles, or players making debuts with new teams. The Athletics are still trying to find their way to Las Vegas, and with...
Feb 26, 2024•30 min
There are more household names in women’s basketball than ever before, and another star is shooting her way to the top of the list. USC’s freshman phenom JuJu Watkins has been turning heads since the moment the season tipped off, dropping 32 points in her first collegiate game to upset current No. 2 Ohio State. And since then, she hasn’t let up, posting 30 or more points in 9 other games, culminating in a 51-point explosion in another upset over Stanford. So as the No. 7 Trojans stare down two t...
Feb 23, 2024•26 min
It’s been a long time since the New York Knicks have been one of the NBA’s premier franchises. And even names like Pat Riley, Patrick Ewing, and Allan Houston, weren’t able to deliver a championship to New York City’s rabid basketball fans. But according to writer, host, and displaced New Yorker Jason Concepcion, that all may be starting to change. After decades of being the joke in many basketball circles, this Knicks team is suddenly loaded with talent and depth, and being run as competently a...
Feb 22, 2024•30 min
Despite huge expectations and two of the top five players in the world the Edmonton Oilers got off to a disastrous start, finding themselves near the bottom of the standings. But after a coaching change, suddenly they started winning … and winning … and winning. So today, our NHL expert Emily Kaplan explains how the Oilers found their way – and gauges whether they’re ready to get where they always intended to be. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Feb 21, 2024•21 min
In 1994, Steve McNair turned in one of the greatest seasons in college football history. He put his alma mater Alcorn State on the map, and finished third in the Heisman Trophy race. But nearly 30 years later, players at historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) face a difficult path to the NFL. Jay “Sky” Walker, one of the great quarterbacks in black college football history, and a contemporary of McNair, helps us remember that amazing performance. And then explains how the HBCU Lega...
Feb 20, 2024•34 min
The 2023 NBA All-Star Game marked a new low for the event. A lack of effort (and defense) from the players prompted “Team LeBron” head coach Michael Malone to call it “the worst basketball game ever played.” And after years of declining competitive spirt, the contest saw its lowest television ratings on record. So today, our NBA oracle Brian Windhorst explains what’s gone wrong, why the players no longer care to win this thing, and why it will be a hard problem to fix. Learn more about your ad c...
Feb 16, 2024•24 min
NASCAR season is back, America. And it's time to tune in or, well … you’ll be missing out. Because where else in the sports world are you going to find drama, crashes, hugs, fights, confetti cannons, fireworks, oh and not to mention, Michael Jordan. And all of this is happening at 200 miles per hour. So today, just ahead of the 2024 Daytona 500 – and the start of the NASCAR season – our resident motorsport savant Ryan McGee enlightens everyone on everything we are missing and why you should tune...
Feb 15, 2024•28 min
The puck dropped on the inaugural season of the Professional Women’s Hockey League, or PWHL, in January 2024, and fans have been excited so far. The nascent league has attracted eyes, and dazzled with its play, while big names like Hilary Knight, Marie-Philip Poulin, Alex Carpenter and Natalie Spooner have packed fans into arenas, proving that there’s room in North America for women to take the ice. But this is the fourth swing at establishing a professional women’s league since 2007, leaving so...
Feb 14, 2024•34 min
Everyone hopes that the NBA Trade Deadline is filled with thermonuclear Woj Bombs that stop us in our tracks. But this year it all ended with a whimper. Still, there were enough players on the move and that leads us to ask some questions: What happens next? What do you do with your family, your pets … and most importantly, your sneakers? As the NBA is past the midpoint of the season, with trades that did and didn't happen, the big question circling around is what’s next? Are there new title cont...
Feb 13, 2024•29 min
It’s official. The Kansas City Chiefs are the NFL’s newest dynasty following their 25-22 overtime win over the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl LVIII. Becoming the first repeat champions in the NFL since the 2003-2004 New England Patriots. That’s three titles, and three Super Bowl MVP awards for Patrick Mahomes. And if the most flawed team of the Mahomes-Andy Reid era Chiefs can bring home a ring, what does that mean for the future? ESPN Senior NFL writer Jason Reid joins us from the press box ...
Feb 12, 2024•26 min
Are you Ready for It? We should have known all along that the Travis Kelce - Taylor Swift romance was destined for the Super Bowl stage. And while many can’t wait to see how it all plays out, others are just asking Is It Over Now? Through it all, as the gossip columns, social media Swiftie commentary, and song lyric puns add up, diehard football fans are wondering if this will damage the game’s Reputation. So today, sports writer Louisa Thomas helps us understand why so many people are so angry ...
Feb 09, 2024•29 min
Super Bowl LVIII kicks off in just a few days, marking the first time in history that the NFL’s biggest game will be played in Las Vegas. It’s a Super Bowl rematch, as the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs face off for the second time in less than five years, with the Lombardi Trophy on the line. But these aren’t the same teams now, and in some ways roles have switched. It’s the Chiefs who have featured the fierce defense lately, while the 49ers offense has paced the NFL basically all s...
Feb 08, 2024•29 min
San Francisco 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan is one of the best and brightest minds in the NFL. He’s overseen great success in the past five years, leading the 49ers to four NFC Championship Games, three divisional titles, and two Super Bowl appearances, one in 2019 in Super Bowl LIV and this year's Super Bowl LVIII. But as he prepares to face a familiar foe on Sunday, the same Kansas City Chiefs team that beat him in Super Bowl LIV, the question is can he close out the game and finally claim a ...
Feb 07, 2024•30 min
Frank Gore Sr. ran for exactly 16,000 yards in his prolific 16 year career in the NFL. Most likely, that longevity and endurance will never be replicated again, meaning Gore is more than worthy of the title, “The Last Running Back”. As the running backs' role in the NFL has dramatically shifted over the years, the Frank Gore archetype is fading into history. With his son Frank Gore Jr.’s impending selection in this year's NFL draft, has the game changed too much for him to pass down everything h...
Feb 06, 2024•32 min
There were two big questions about the Kansas City Chiefs throughout much of the 2023 NFL season. What was wrong with their offense? And was 2023 going to be a lost year? Now, with Super Bowl LVIII less than a week away, Andy Reid, Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce, and company, are poised to face the San Francisco 49ers, in what will be the Chiefs fourth Super Bowl appearance in five years. ESPN’s Adam Teicher has been covering the Chiefs from inside the locker room for more than a decade, and he’s...
Feb 05, 2024•29 min
In 2003, a team of marketers for the city of Las Vegas were ready to debut their soon-to-be iconic “What Happens Here, Stays Here” advertising campaign. And they turned to a natural platform for the launch — the Super Bowl. But the NFL, seeking to distance itself from the capital of and only legal outlet for sports betting, said no way. Fast forward 21 years and sports betting is legal in 38 states, the NFL has countless partnerships with sports books, and the Super Bowl is coming to Vegas. So h...
Feb 02, 2024•26 min
ESPN NHL reporter Kristen Shilton explains how in the summer of 2018, members of Canada’s gold medal winning Junior Hockey team were in London Ontario, being celebrated as heroes for winning that year’s World Junior Ice Hockey Championships. But after a night of heavy drinking by some, then, underaged players on the team, sexual assault allegations emerged, allegations that would quickly be dismissed by the London Police Service. Over the last week, more than five years after the night in questi...
Feb 01, 2024•37 min
ESPN NBA writer Jamal Collier has been following the Milwaukee Bucks all season long. Today he explains to us how Adrian Griffin’s tenure with the team ended after only 43-games. With transcendent stars Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard on their roster, the Bucks entered the season with sky-high expectations. A 30-13 record had them near the top of the Eastern Conference. But cracks were forming both on and off the court. Collier takes us inside the Bucks organization to pinpoint the mome...
Jan 31, 2024•27 min
There’s one phrase in the NBA that reflects as crying wolf; The Knicks are back. Different shades of mediocrity have inhabited Madison Square Garden over the last 20-plus years, but this time it may actually be different. Led by emerging NBA superstar point guard Jalen Brunson, the Knicks are the team that no one wants to play. Following the addition of OG Anunoby, the Knicks look as good as they have in years, but will the shoulder injury of Julius Randle put their playoff hopes in jeopardy? Ch...
Jan 30, 2024•27 min
All that’s left is Super Bowl LVIII. The San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs will meet in a rematch of Super Bowl LIV at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on February 11th. The Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes proved that they were not, in fact, dead - as much of the media tried to pronounce them throughout the season. As they went into Baltimore and bottled up Lamar Jackson and the Ravens all afternoon. Meanwhile, in the NFC Championship, the 49ers were down 17 to the Lions at halftime, before th...
Jan 29, 2024•27 min
The Detroit Lions are usually considered one of the most hapless franchises in the NFL. They have never been to a Super Bowl, and are preparing to make just their second trip to the NFC Championship in the Super Bowl era. But most of that history predates their current head coach, Dan Campbell. He’s led an overhaul over his first three seasons that have the Lions on the cusp of their first Super Bowl appearance, and it’s safe to say that he’s got everyone in the Lions’ wake fired up. Televised t...
Jan 26, 2024•30 min
It’s time to get ready for championship Sunday in the NFL. In Baltimore, the Ravens host the Kansas City Chiefs, in the first playoff ever matchup between Patrick Mahomes and Lamar Jackson, with a trip to Super Bowl LVIII on the line. Charm City hasn’t hosted the AFC Championship game since the Baltimore Colts beat the Oakland Raiders in 1971, the first season of the NFL/AFL merger! Meanwhile out west at Levi’s Stadium, the San Francisco 49ers have to be feeling all the pressure as they host a D...
Jan 25, 2024•32 min
NBA fans have had Wednesday’s matchup between the Spurs and Thunder circled on the calendar for months. Because when rookies Victor Wembanyama and Chet Holmgren face off in San Antonio, it will be the latest battle of what is expected to be a long and historic rivalry. And thanks to the likes of Nikola Jokic, Joel Embiid and Karl Anthony Towns, it’s all happening in an era where the big man has been reinvigorated. So today, ESPN’s Brian Windorst takes us from Holmgren’s Minnehaha High School all...
Jan 24, 2024•28 min
It’s been a season of scrutiny for the LSU women’s basketball team. First, the NCAA Division I reigning champions lost their season opener to the Colorado Buffaloes. Then, their most famous player, Angel Reese, mysteriously didn’t play for four games in November, igniting much speculation among fans and media. But under Kim Mulkey’s leadership, they’ve come back strong, earning an 18-2 record and a No. 9 ranking. Now comes their biggest test versus undefeated, number-one-ranked South Carolina on...
Jan 23, 2024•28 min
