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Fellow SportsBallers,

Happy Thursday. This week, we had a coach resign from the NHL before ever hitting the ice, continued success for Colorado 🏈, baseball updates, and a deep dive into how a team even makes the MLB playoffs. This is a sports-heavy installment so we’ll provide some quick pop culture/sports crossovers first to wet the beak.

• The Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift dating rumor was confirmed by Travis’ brother Jason 🏈 (also an NFL player) on his podcast last week.

• It was also rumored that Kim Kardashian is “hanging out” with Odell Beckham Jr. (OBJ) 🏈. OBJ is most famous for this catch in 2015.

• Alix Earle ⭐️ went on her first podcast ever, making a splash in the TikTok world as she joined Call Her Daddy Wednesday. Alix is seeing an NFL player currently and she dove into how she doesn’t really care for sports at all… Future SportsBall reader?

• That $80 million dollar jet went missing in North Carolina, prompting jokes about how it was the second most expensive Jet to go missing behind Aaron Rodgers 🏈 this month.

We have a pretty long read this week but bear with us, there’s some good info to catch up on!

🏆 Athlete of the Week: Dan Campbell’s heart

This may be a bit of a stretch as it’s outside of a week and also a coach but bear with us. Dan Campbell coaches the Detroit Lions 🏈 and is known most for his extremely emotional speeches to his team and during press conferences. How does one get that emotional and care that much about his team you ask?

Well, every morning Dan puts his life on the line with his Starbucks order. He pushes his body to the limits by downing two Venti coffees with 2 espresso shots each; qualifying Dan’s heart as a hall-of-fame athlete in my book. Maybe the best we’ve ever seen.

⏮ This Past Week

A little privacy, please

The NHL 🏒 season is starting on October 7th and this week we have our first coach resignation due to problematic player treatment.

Mike Babcock, the coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets was hired just 3 months ago after Columbus finished another disappointing 2022 season. The team had just fired their previous coach and brought Babcock in to turn around the team culture. Sounds like a fresh start right?

Well in an “effort to get to know the team” before the season started, it was reported last week that Mike brought players into his office and had them hand over their phones so he could scroll through them, dissecting their camera roll to see “what kind of person they were”. There were even reports that he had players airplay their phone screens onto a projector in team meetings as he directed them through photos and messages. That’s like your boss having you share your phone screen on the company all hands as he navigated through all the nooks and crannies…

This story broke on the popular hockey podcast Spittin Chiclets and prompted a team investigation, leading to Babcock resigning before coaching a single game.

Maybe just a coffee chat next time?

The playoff push

Last week we talked about the 6 MLB ⚾️ teams on the cusp of the playoffs and the important games coming up for them all. Let’s check on how they all did:

Beyond these teams fighting for a playoff spot, 6 teams have already clinched their position in the playoffs. The Tampa Bay Rays, Baltimore Orioles, Minnesota Twins, Atlanta Braves, Milwaukee Brewers, and Los Angeles Dodgers have all confirmed their place which leaves 6 more open spots to be taken.

America’s team continues to win

The University of Colorado 🏈 football team again was the biggest story in college football — maybe even all of sports — this week. Their game on Saturday was the most-watched college game of the season and the 5th most watched college game in history.

As we discussed in the last SportsBall, Colorado was playing their in-state rival Colorado State. They were the heavy favorite going into the game but quickly found themselves losing until late in the fourth quarter. In the game's last drive, they mounted a comeback to send it to overtime and eventually win, led by a huge performance from the coach’s son Shedeur Sanders. Per usual, there was plenty of drama with coach Deion Sanders and his opponents this week you can find below.

As long as Colorado continues to win, we will continue to cover it as it’s truly taken over the sports world at this point. Their game this weekend will be the largest test yet for the Buffaloes as they face off against the #10 Oregon Ducks in Eugene.

The walkout

Shohei Ohtani ⚾️ is the best baseball player the world has seen since the early 1900s. 99.9% of the time in baseball, a player is either a position player who hits and plays the field — or a pitcher. Shohei does both extremely well which makes him a baseball unicorn we’ve never seen before. You could maybe compare it to Bradley Cooper ⭐️ being an incredible actor and also being a great singer for his role in A Star is Born. Pro tip: listen to the soundtrack on your next flight if you want to get in your feels.

Unfortunately, Shohei is on a very bad team, the Los Angeles Angels, who have had another disappointing season. Remarkably, his contract is expiring this year and he will be entering free agency where he will likely be given the largest contract in baseball history by a new team — something we’ll watch closely this offseason.

Worth noting that a bit of drama clouded the superstar this last week. Recently, Shohei’s season came to an end with an oblique injury and it dawned on everyone that he likely played his last game for the Angels. Before all this was confirmed, it was reported that Shohei had gone to the stadium, cleared out his locker, and flown back to his home in Japan, suggesting he was fed up with the team and couldn’t wait to get on the road and prep for a new life somewhere else. Sure, people in the Angels organization have refuted this story saying it was a big nothing-burger but here at SportsBall, we’re not buying it. Free Shohei!

Quarterback Carrie?

Ranked list of legendary intro songs: Game of Thrones, White Lotus, Stranger Things, Sunday Night Football. Every Sunday night before the primetime NFL 🏈game we get to hear Carrie Underwood belt out “Waiting all day for Sunday Night”. For many, it signifies the end of 12 hours of watching football but it’s a pretty catchy standalone tune as well.

Since 2013 Carrie has been the face of the final weekend football game and we recently heard rumors that she makes $1 MILLION PER WEEK singing the intro song. For context, that’s more than the season’s salary for roughly a third of the quarterbacks playing in the NFL today. Rockstar.

If you wanted to see every iteration of her intro song from 2013-2021 you’re in luck! Here’s a 15-minute compilation.

⏭ This Next Week

Saturday will be a humungous college football 🏈 day as there are 6 games that feature Top 25 matchups ranging from 12:30 PM to 9 PM. If you remember last week we talked about how Top 25 matchups are normally the best games to watch. The games are listed below, but you already knew Colorado vs. Oregon was slated to have record-breaking viewership since you read this newsletter. Look at you go!

• No. 10 Oregon vs. No. 19 Colorado | 12:30 PM PST

• No. 11 Utah vs. No. 22 UCLA | 12:30 PM PST

• No. 13 Alabama vs. No. 15 Ole Miss | 12:30 PM PST

• No. 14 Oregon State at No. 21 Washington State | 4 PM PST

• No. 6 Ohio State at No. 9 Notre Dame | 4:30 PM PST

• No. 7 Penn State vs. No. 24 Iowa | 4:30 PM PST

With 10 games left in the MLB season, the only interesting race for the playoffs is between the Mariners, Rangers, and Astros for the American League West and Wild Card (will explain that later). What makes it more exciting is that the Mariners and Rangers play 7 of those games against each other, a true head-to-head battle for who will have a chance to move on. Tune in over the next two weeks to follow along!

And for another installment of the top 3 NFL games to watch based solely on how I feel when I look at the weekend slate.

• Buffalo Bills vs. Washington Commanders | Sunday 10 AM PST

• Philadelphia Eagles vs. Tampa Bay Buccaneers | Monday 4 PM PST

• Atlanta Falcons vs. Detroit Lions | Sunday 10 AM PST

💡 Learning Module: How does a team make the MLB ⚾️ playoffs?

The more we talk about “making the playoffs”, the more we realize it may be confusing how the regular season transitions into playoffs in the MLB ⚾️. Below you can find a simplified Path to the Playoffs that also mostly applies to the NFL (the NBA and NHL are slightly different). Follow along here and you’ll be saying things like “hope the Diamondbacks can secure that third wild card spot” in no time:

So some homework for all the readers — find your favorite team, figure out what division and conference/league they’re in, and check if they’re on track to make the playoffs coming up in a couple of weeks. If you feel like it. 💅

🧭 Season Tracker

The playoff race is coming down to the wire in the MLB ⚾️ — see the Last Week section for an update on teams fighting for a spot. In the next two weeks, we will be doing an NHL 🏒 preview to get everyone ready for the season. Hockey is my favorite sport to watch so fortunately or unfortunately for you all, there will be consistent updates and learning for the NHL in the next few months!

Have a fantastic week and watch some sports!

— Claire and Riley