There is a charm to a local sports broadcast. Sports is about energy, and passion, and a way to draw that out of fans is with the MCs of the event.

While the local broadcast team is clearly biased, it’s more MSNBC than Fox News. Their job is not to paint themselves in the team colors and lead “de-fense” chants, but they do service the fans who tuned in to watch the local team do battle. So when something is amiss, the local sports broadcaster is there to feel it with the viewer.

On Wednesday night, Grizzlies broadcasters Pete Pranica and Brevin Knight voiced the incredulity of basketball fans from eastern Arkansas to Northern Mississippi during the Memphis Grizzlies’ 124-122 overtime win against the San Antonio Spurs.

With 19.7 seconds remaining in overtime, the Grizzlies held a 123-118 lead when Jakob Poeltl secured a rebound. The Spurs began to run, but the clock didn’t. It stayed at 19.7 when the Spurs scored. It didn’t start again until the confused Grizzlies attempted to inbound the ball and it was stolen by Jeremy Sochan and their lead was down to one point.

It was at this moment that Pranica and Knight put on a performance that would make Ken “Hawk” Harrelson and Tommy Heinson look on in awe. Pranica yelled nothing for the entire untimed possession except for repeating, “The clock didn’t start!… The clock didn’t start!” The two were so furious at the referees that, at one point, they stopped broadcasting. After the turnover and score, the referees stopped play, and came by the scorer’s table to try and sort out what happened.

Then, when the referees were huddled, Pranica and Knight removed their headsets (shout out to the production team for getting this live on camera) and explained to the zebras what happened. The referees were in eye-to-eye contact with a local broadcast team, listening to them like they were the replay officials in Secaucus, N.J. Knight was so frustrated that he didn’t put his headset back on for almost a full minute, as he stared at the referees so hard that it looked like he was trying to make them levitate with his mind.

Eventually, the Spurs kept the points but it was determined that there should be 9.3 seconds remaining in the game. The Grizzlies would go on to win, so Ja Morant was able to get a laugh out of the situation when he saw the clip of the broadcasters’ interaction with the referees.

If I was a Grizzlies fan, that is the energy I need from my broadcast team. Even though I’m not a Grizzlies fan, Pranica and Knight’s reaction still made the viewing experience exponentially more entertaining. Go ahead, rip off the headsets. I don’t need you talking to me right now, there’s no action. Get those people with the whistles to properly officiate the game.

Raw emotion, that’s why sports make the big bucks.

Jeff Van Gundy might have gone on a rant about how he’s been upset with timekeeping in the NBA since he was an assistant with the New York Knicks if he was on the broadcast, but it wouldn’t have been as relatable. He’s constantly riled up. It’s something to wait for when he’s calling a game, and those rants are one reason why he’s on ESPN’s top NBA broadcast team.

Pranica and Knight acted as if someone had taken their headsets and ran off with them. They were equal parts startled and incensed, and it came across on the broadcast. A perfect reaction to such an unusual occurrence.

This a great example of why the local broadcaster is vital. Sometimes you just need someone — using work-appropriate language of course — to yell at an entire metropolitan area about what you just did at your TV.

OK, I’m stretching to get a Rush reference into these. But the heart wants what it wants.

It’s a whole new world for Argentina coming into this World Cup. Certainly in Russia in 2018, and to an extent in Brazil in 2014, the noise around the Albiceleste coming into the tournament was to sort of wonder how they could surround Lionel Messi with such an underwhelming collection of the bewildered and slow. Of course, in 2014, Messi dragged them to the final, but he needed four goals in just the group stage, including a last-minute winner against Iran. They needed extra time to get past Switzerland in the second round, basically hung on to beat Belgium after scoring in the eighth minute, and squeaked through on penalties over The Netherlands in one of the worst matches ever played. And had Gonzalo Higuain been able to locate his ass with one hand and a GPS, Argentina probably would have won the final. But an impressive team, it was not.

2018 was even worse, where they barely scraped out of the group, and though they threw something of a scare into France taking a 2-1 lead, they mostly got thwacked thereafter (2.2 – 0.8 in xG). Looking at the lineup that day, only Angel Di Maria could claim to be anywhere near world-class level, as Javier Mascherano by that point was using a walker to get around the pitch. Even the 2014 team only had Di Maria, a still clinging to his prime Mascherano, and arguably Pablo Zabaleta. The urge is to put Higuain on the list, except when he was putting on an Argentina shirt he reverted to being Alvaro Morata or something. And his costing Messi three major trophies with their country with some hilarious misses backs that up. You know it’s bad when you get a dedicated YouTube video of your failures.

This time around, Argentina are being mentioned as the second or third favorite with France and Brazil. Some of that is based on their Copa America victory last year. And they did that in a variety of ways. They utterly clubbed Ecuador in the quarters, and did the same against Colombia in the semis but were the victims of David Ospina’s latest wonderwall for his country and needed penalties. Against Brazil at The Maracana, they were able to score in the first half and then smother the hosts pretty effectively (0.7 xG while trailing for most of the match for Brazil) to win Messi his first major trophy for Argentina.

They’ve gone on to lace through qualifying after that, with only draws against Paraguay and Brazil at home a blemish, as well as a last-day draw against Ecuador that didn’t really mean anything to them. In fact, Argentina haven’t lost in a very long time, with a 35-match unbeaten run heading into this tournament. That’s a little hard to judge fully, as they’ve only been able to play non-European teams for the most part thanks to the Nations League and the marathon South American qualifying process. However, when they got a look at Italy in the Finalissima last June, they kicked their dicks right into the dirt to the tune of a 3-0 win.

It’s not just the results, but that Argentina just has a way better squad this time around. Maybe there’s still a dearth of players in Messi’s class, even in his 35-year-old stage, but forward Latauro Martinez probably can claim to be. Argentina have mostly played some form of the 4-3-3 that Messi used at Barca to become an unholy force, though he’s bounced from playing from the right and as a straight No. 10 behind two forwards. Papu Gomes has usually been on the other side of Messi and Martinez. Or it could be Man City’s hot young thing Julian Alvarez. There are options.

And there are even more in midfield, where Giovanni Lo Celso or Alexis Mac Allister or Rodrigo De Paul or Leandro Paredes live. Not only do all of these guys provide a fair amount of steel in midfield and can basically turn every lead into a mountain to climb for opponents, but all can do enough running and work to make up for the fact that without the ball, Messi isn’t going to do much moving at all. This is a bonus of the other forwards Argentina use as well. Manager Lionel Scaloni has cracked the code on this.

The draw is pretty kind as well. This is just above a nothing group, especially if Mexico carries their form from qualifying into this. There’s a potential banana skin with Denmark in the round of 16, though that could turn out to be France if they get a little silly in the group. The quarters could see a wonky Dutch side (it’s hard to see Senegal getting there without Sadio Mane) or England if they don’t win their group or some such. They’ll duck Brazil and probably France, and no one else should make them quake.

It feels like it’s set up for them, and the only pothole is if Martinez pulls a Higuain, or Messi just can’t quite conjure something at a pivotal moment thanks to his advancing years. Seeing as how he’s barely had to break a sweat with PSG all season, that doesn’t seem likely. It’s all systems go here.

They’ll have that soft landing in the group stage partially because this is one of the stinkier Mexico squads to show up for a World Cup. While they’re still on a quest for “quinto partido,” the land beyond the Round of 16 that they’ve never reached since the tourney incorporated that, this one might want to concentrate more on getting out of the group. Poland will at least feature Robert Lewandowski and Piotr Zieliński, two players better than anything Mexico has. There was a time when Raúl Jiménez would have been one of the more feared strikers in this tournament, but he’s barely getting on the field for Wolves these days and hasn’t been the same (understandably) since he suffered a skull fracture. His health may keep him off the squad altogether. Things got even worse for them when Jesús Corona was ruled out with an ankle injury. Chucky Lozano is going to have to carry almost all the water up front here.

Where the midfield isn’t old it’s unproven and lacking ideas. Mexico can have a ton of the ball and go nowhere with it, which looked pretty obvious in its four games with the US and Canada in qualifying, none of which they won. It also feels like they’re on the verge of firing Tata Martino as manager every five minutes. Maybe they pull it all together now that the big tournament is here, but it feels more like this is the final push for a total disaster. And no, even if they manage to get out of this group, there will be no fifth game waiting behind a date with France or Denmark.

Poland come into this like they do every tournament, hoping that Lewandowski and Zieliński can somehow do it all by themselves. Zieliński is at least playing for the world’s most fun team in Napoli right now and quite well, in fact. If we have to talk ourselves into Jesus Ferreira being up for this, then Poland is absolutely able to do so with Karol Świderski who banged in 10 goals for Charlotte in MLS to go with his five during qualifying. Still, Poland got a free pass in the qualifying playoffs when Russia was tossed out, meaning they only had to play one game to Sweden’s two last spring and it showed. Their match with Mexico could prove pivotal.

Saudi Arabia will have an advantage in that most of their team plays for one club in the country, Al Hilal, so they’ll have a baseline of chemistry and familiarity that a lot of other teams won’t. You saw how easily they were able to frustrate the U.S. in a friendly, and it’s not hard to see them doing the same to Mexico or Poland which lack firepower. Could easily make things interesting going down to the last day.

Manager most likely to get red-carded: Has to be Martino, who will see his firing behind every call that doesn’t go Mexico’s way. Should things go sideways he may just get an early start on his exit.

Best jerseys: Argentina might have the classic look, but have to say Mexico’s are pretty boss, especially the away ones.

Schedule:

Tuesday, Nov. 22 — Argentina v. Saudi Arabia (5 a.m. EST), Mexico v. Poland (11 a.m. EST)

Saturday, Nov. 26 — Poland v. Saudi Arabia (8 a.m. EST), Argentina v. Mexico (2 p.m. EST)

Wednesday, Nov. 30 — Argentina v. Poland, Mexico v. Saudi Arabia (both at 2 p.m. EST)

In the inherently violent contact sport of football, there’s only so much that can be done to make the game safe. Ensuring the safety of its players should be the No. 1 concern for any football league, especially the NFL. Over the past decade, the league’s favorite slogan has been “player safety.”

They’ve done a better job of protecting players in certain phases of the game, like eliminating many big hits like the ones that were once featured on ESPN’s “Jacked Up” segment. The NFL has done everything short of placing red practice jerseys on quarterbacks to protect their headliners from unnecessary harm. Even with specific provisions in place, it is still football, and players will get hurt.

While head trauma is one of the biggest concerns in the game, lower extremity injuries are also common. We often see players get hurt by planting awkwardly with no one within five yards of them. These injuries usually happen in stadiums with artificial turf. Green Bay Packers veteran linebacker De’Vondre Campbell recently posted on Instagram about how dangerous playing on artificial turf can be.

“This is two weeks in a row we’ve had players get injured on turf fields. I think it’s time y’all take some of the money y’all make off us and invest in grass fields for every team around the league. The turf is literally like concrete it has no give when you plant @NFL”

Campbell illustrates a great point. Why are NFL teams still playing on fake grass in 2022? If the league cares so much about the safety of players, you’d think they would’ve done away with turf years ago. Or maybe the NFL only cares about injuries that could land them in court, like concussions.

For the NFL and its team’s owners, it’s all about cost-cutting where they can to maximize profitability. Remember that the NFL is a business. Artificial turf is easier and cheaper to keep up than natural grass. The game moves faster on turf, but if it’s detrimental to player safety, it isn’t worth it.

Fourteen NFL stadiums still have turf, which accounts for 16 teams across the league playing home games on the artificial surface. The Chargers and Rams share SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif., while the Giants and Jets play at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. A study by University Hospitals Sports Medicine Institute found that athletes are more likely to suffer an injury on artificial turf than on grass.

“They found athletes were 58 percent more likely to sustain an injury during athletic activity on artificial turf. Injury rates were significantly higher for football,” the sports medicine institute stated. “Lower extremity, upper extremity, and torso injuries were also found to occur with a higher incidence on artificial turf.”

In 2020, NFLPA President JC Trotter, a retired center who played for the Packers and the Cleveland Browns, wrote a letter discussing the grass/turf debate.

In short, NFL clubs should proactively change all field surfaces to natural grass.The NFL is a machine that chews players up and spits ‘em out when they are finished sucking the life out of them. Yes, many are paid handsomely, but if you’re not a coveted star QB, you’re easily expendable no matter how much talent you possess or how many touchdowns you’ve scored. If you blow out a knee, it’s always “next man up.” There used to be a saying that you couldn’t lose your job due to injury.

That’s one of the biggest lies ever told in football. Guys lose their starting spots frequently because they got hurt, and the replacement came in and played well above their pay grade. In what’s become the most infamous case of this, Tom Brady replaced Drew Bledsoe for the Patriots in 2001, and the rest is history. Kurt Warner also began a run for the St. Louis Rams that landed him in the Hall of Fame after relieving Trent Green, who’d been injured in a preseason game.

So, it’s not rare that players get hurt and never get their jobs back. If it happens to football players at the most coveted position, then everyone else is more than fair game. We’ve known how lousy turf fields are and how much players hated them for decades. The fake surfaces today are a little better than in the 1990s, but we still hear complaints about how counterintuitive it is to be playing on turf knowing the risks.

Most players probably smirk when they see these campaigns the NFL runs about making the game safer. And to the league’s credit, they have made changes to do just that. But it shouldn’t take litigation for them to care. That seems to be the only thing that gets the ball rolling for them to pay attention. The NFL had information on concussions for years before they were forced to publicly acknowledge this as a real threat to the game.

Nobody would argue that knees, ankles, and feet injuries are as severe as repeated blows to the head. But if you claim your players’ health is a top priority, why not go the extra mile to ensure they can play as long as possible? Artificial turf has been a nuisance to athletes for years, and the NFL should try listening to its most valuable asset sometimes instead of continually looking in the other direction. That is, until it lands them in court.

We’re constantly bombarded with data about how much these organizations are worth and how much money the league brings in, which are billions each year. Spending extra money to help cut down on some injuries due to horrible playing surfaces won’t send the NFL and its owners to the poor house anytime soon.

Projected 2023 Payroll: Not nearly enough

Notable Free Agents: Willson Contreras (pictured above), Drew Smyly

Could they use Aaron Judge?: Absofuckinglutely, but the Ricketts would worry about the damage to the buildings they own across the street.

What could they use other than Judge: Other than a change of ownership that’s not coming, they could use acting like the only big market team in the division. The Cubs should lord over this division financially, which means they should lord over it in the standings too given what’s already here.

The Cubbies definitely need a No. 1 starter, especially considering that it’s hard to know what they might get from Kyle Hendricks now that he missed a large chunk of the end of last season with shoulder problems. And given his repertoire and stuff, even though he expertly toed the line on his margin of error, it was still Wallenda thin. Justin Steele was a nice surprise last year, and we assume Marcus Stroman will still pitch in between the days he’s running errands for Kyrie Irving, but both are mid-rotation guys rather than the top. Seeing as how the Ricketts family would treat any eight- or 10-year deal like its own personal tax hike, a two- or three-year deal for just a lot of money for a deGrom or Verlander to bridge the gap to whatever creature the Cubs’ overhyped Pitch Lab produces that can take the reins after that would seem to make a lot of sense. Or they could package a collection of their supposedly much-respected prospect group for Shohei Ohtani. Instead, they’ll do what they did last year, and probably sign a guy off the B-List, or try and shroud that cheaper avenue by getting the spicy Japanese import in Kodai Senga who throws 123 MPH but also can’t find the plate.

From the clue package to both performances on Wednesday night’s edition of FOX ratings juggernaut The Masked Singer, anyone who’s a fan of the inaugural All Elite Wrestling world champion knows his signature growl and tone. Chris Jericho is the only current wrestler on American television to sing his own entrance theme. Wrestling fans hear the notes Jericho can hit on a weekly basis. So when the feminine pink dinosaur in a wedding dress opened its mouth, connecting the dots to Jericho was much easier than mastering his 1,004 holds.

Despite an uncanny resemblance to the child of Dennis Rodman and the girl dragon from “Shrek” who falls in love with Eddie Murphy’s Donkey, Jericho’s clue package included a deeper male voice with a British accent, which wasn’t bad by itself. However, faking accents has become somewhat of a regular occurrence in “The Masked Singer” universe. Jericho’s rendition of “Shut Up and Dance” by WALK THE MOON won him the episode and he wasn’t unmasked despite stiff competition from George Foreman and musician George Clinton. He’s the lead singer and co-founder of the rock group Fozzy. Jericho’s been on large stages for more than 30 years. Wednesday’s airing was second nature.

It’s not shocking that Jericho outsang Foreman, as his expertise is in boxing and selling portable grills. But out-performing Clinton? The leader of Parliament-Funkadelic? That’s actually impressive. Jericho will be back next week to face two new singers under the costumes of “Avocado” and “Snowstorm” with the goal of making the show’s semifinals, where Harp, who is likely Amber Riley, and the Lambs, who are pop group Wilson Phillips, have already advanced.

The Golden State Warriors are far from the only team in the NBA that’s surprisingly struggling. Hell, there are surprises all over the league. The Utah Jazz gutted their team and have the best record in the Western Conference.

What’s most puzzling about the Warriors’ struggles is why. This was a team that was supposed to be among the deepest in the NBA. Sure Otto Porter, Gary Payton II, and Nemanja Bjelica are gone, but that was supposed to clear space for Jonathan Kuminga, Moses Moody, and a healthy James Wiseman to pick up the slack.

Through 11 games the Warriors are 4-7, and they are not getting enough from their bench outside of Jordan Poole. It has resulted in various players getting hit with the dreaded DNP-Coach’s Decision. Wiseman and the recently signed JaMychal Green have one and Kuminga has three. There have been games where Moody has played 24 minutes and others where he has played eight. Kuminga’s minutes have no consistency. One of the few players whose minutes have held steady is Ty Jerome who is almost always on the court for 12-15.

Not even one-quarter of the season has been completed so there is plenty of time for improvement. However, in order for that to happen, head coach Steve Kerr is going to have to settle on a rotation, and stop giving so many players so many minutes.

There are 13 Warriors who have played in at least eight games this season. Of that 13, 12 are averaging at least 14 minutes per game. Only Wiseman is playing less than that, and he’s averaging 13.8. This a clear sign that the Warriors’ staff still is not quite sure what to do with their roster.

Other top NBA teams with championship hopes are not dishing out significant minutes to nearly the entire roster. On the Milwaukee Bucks, only nine players are averaging 14 or more minutes per game. The Boston Celtics only have eight players averaging that many minutes. A team with similar minute distribution to the Warriors that also plays in the Western Conference is the Phoenix Suns. They have 10 players who are on the court for more than 14 minutes a game and one playing 13.9 minutes — but it stops there. The Suns’ players who average the 12th and 13th most minutes are at eight and 5.1 per game respectively.

With Donte DiVincenzo now healthy, that’s a 14th player in the Warriors’ rotation. The political way to handle the Warriors’ situation would be to blend the old with the new off of the bench. Make sure both sides are represented on a team that is, in the near future, going to have to rely on either young talent currently on the roster, or find more of it from elsewhere.

It’s hard to keep a focus on developing young talent on a championship team. The youngsters shouldn’t be immune from getting put on the bench for poor or dispirited play, but they do need the freedom to play through mistakes. Patience is what allowed the current Warriors’ core of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green to develop into their best NBA selves. They were given the space to grow into who they are now, but they were drafted by a franchise that hadn’t won an NBA Championship since 1975.

These days the Warriors are in the Los Angeles Lakers, New York Yankees/Los Angeles Dodgers/Dallas Cowboys group when it comes to relevance in American professional sports. Their ticket prices reflect that.

Now that the Warriors, once an amusing NBA franchise, are now a crown jewel, do they have time to devote to developing the promising youngsters, or would they be better off delaying that in pursuit of a fifth championship in nine seasons? That question doesn’t have to be answered today, but it needs to be soon. If they get too far into this season without making a firm decision on how minutes will be allocated, the Warriors will end up setting their franchise back both in the now and in the long run.

With so much election news flying off the shelves, you might have missed this stunner out of California as voters rejected two propositions that would have brought sports betting to the state.

You can’t watch a sports highlight without tripping over a casino ad, but here is one of the largest states in the nation turning down a potential $4 billion annually in revenue. And despite an estimated $400-$600 million spent trying to get the voters to go for it.

It was confusing, because California has been so open to new ideas and rights in this vein. California has legalized cannabis, and was the first state to pass Name, Image and Likeness legislation for college players. And California hosts 21 professional sports teams, more than any other state.

Thirty-six states either have or will soon have active sports betting markets, but those don’t include California, Texas, or Florida — three huge states with pro teams.

Many states are actively building their own sports betting markets, but Californians rejected both the proposition supported by industry, and another supported by the local Native American tribal nations who run casinos in the state.

“It was not surprising, but I think there’s still some real conflict with what voters want to see in this space,” said Devon Corneal, the assistant dean for gaming, hospitality, and sports law at Seton Hall University’s School of Law. “Big picture, there are still three of the largest markets that are up for grabs.”

(Full disclosure, I also work at Seton Hall University as the executive director of the Center for Sports Media.)

Prop 27 was advanced by national sports betting firms like DraftKings, but faced opposition from Native American tribes who currently operate gaming facilities. Prop 26 was the alternative proposed by those tribes, but it was opposed by other interests. NPR has the official returns, as 70.4 percent voted no for Prop 26, and 83.3 percent voted no for Prop 27.

Attorney Daniel Wallach, the founder of Wallach Legal, a firm that specializes in sports betting issues, noted that this was the first failure for sports betting propositions, which have passed in South Dakota, Maryland, Louisiana, and Colorado. “It had a perfect batting average,” he said, “maybe not enough at-bats.”

In California, the online market was the prize, Wallach noted. Casino operators figured that if they don’t access online sports betting in the state, it could erode revenues from people heading into brick-and-mortar outfits on tribal lands.

Without agreement from tribes and national operators, there isn’t a clear path forward in California at the moment, Wallach said, but if they could find some way, which might include a revenue-sharing framework, then there may be a way to go through the legislature. Voters have been saturated with advertising, and that makes another ballot initiative tough.

“It would be a risky endeavor to go back to the voters in 2024,” said Wallach, whose consistently excellent Conduct Detrimental podcast has discussed even further.

America has a long and fraught history with gambling. Corneal points out that despite George Washington’s misgivings about the practice, the Revolutionary War was funded by a lottery authorized by the Continental Congress in 1776.

The Puritans considered gambling a distraction from more productive pursuits, and the US has been engaged in a tug-of-war between personal liberties and temperance. What is better for the soul, pleasure, or mastery of one’s baser instincts?

Turns out, the answer is money.

American history also plays a role here because the states have been allowed to negotiate with tribes to allow betting on their lands. Now those tribes have an economic interest in what happens in the space. This opinion piece from San Jose State Professor Kerri J. Molloy in the LA Times explains how California’s relationship with different tribal nations, and the relationships between those tribes depending on status, would be affected by allowing outside sports betting firms to operate in the online marketplace.

It is a complicated issue, and Republicans and Democrats in California were united in opposing industry-funded Prop 27.

But maybe not because they all oppose sports betting itself, and there is too much money at stake for the issue to go away. The half a billion estimated spent to promote those propositions was a down payment on a potential sports betting boom.

So back to the drawing board. California, Texas, and Florida are more puzzles to solve than they are abandoned territories. But with all that money on the line, don’t wager against sports betting.

Any coach hired by U.S. Soccer, at least for the men’s side (though Vlatko Andonovski isn’t winning many fans these days either), is never going to have 100 percent buy-in. They just haven’t gotten it totally right in… well, ever? Berhalter being related to an exec at the time of his hiring didn’t help. U.S. Soccer being a mess at the time (and still is) helped less. And there’s always going to be a raised eyebrow with an MLS-trained coach taking the reins.

Not that some of the criticisms of Berhalter weren’t valid. Every coach has “his guys,” so he’s no different in that. Not every fan will agree with those guys. He’s been pretty rigid with how he wants the team to play, which is good and bad. As I’ve beaten into the ground, international soccer just doesn’t leave a lot of time to develop an intricate system or a ton of options. But there are small variances that Berhalter could go to when Plan A hasn’t worked in the past.

After the latest set of friendlies, which did not go well, the air raid sirens going off about Berhalter being too married to too many of “his guys” were blaring loudly.

Those should be quiet now.

Berhalter went off the board for a few of his picks for the final 26 that will head to Qatar. No one saw goalkeeper Zack Steffen being dropped entirely. But as Berhalter said himself, he gave Steffen a ton of runway to grab the starting keeper role with both hands and he never quite did. And Matt Turner is just the better keeper right now. And given the U.S.’s schedule, Turner’s shot-stopping is just the more valuable asset. The U.S. won’t need a keeper that can dish out dimes against Wales and Iran. When the U.S. has the ball, there won’t be a Welsh or Iranian player within a local call of the keeper. England will press, but that match is something of a free hit for the USMNT. Their progress will almost certainly be decided in their first and third contests.

No one saw Shaq Moore making the team, as Berhalter just didn’t see that Erik Palmer-Brown or Mark McKenzie were worthy of this level. Why force them onto the roster? Moore at least was a plus player during the 2021 Gold Cup run.

Many had been frustrated that Tim Ream didn’t get a call-up in September even after starting the season excellently for Fulham in the Premier League. It felt like Berhalter had decided Ream just wasn’t one of his guys. But he wasn’t so rigid that he couldn’t see what was right in front of him, and that’s Ream is probably in the best form of any central defender for the Yanks. If not him, it’s Cameron Carter-Vickers.

The other questions were at forward, where Berhalter can never win given the panic among the fanbase that quite simply, there is no perfect option. There might not even be a good one. But Josh Sargent was allowed to play his way back into the fold. Ricardo Pepi’s goals in Holland mean just about the same as Haji Wright’s in Turkey. That’s a coin flip, and Haji is the better frame for when it’s time to just pump balls into the box. Berhalter probably appreciated that he called Wright out in the press in June after his one appearance for the team, and then Wright has responded so far with his club team.

Yeah, there’s still Jordan Morris, who won out over Paul Arriola. But what either’s role would be for this tournament, coming on late, running hard a lot, and trying to cause chaos, Morris is probably actually better suited for. He’s just not suited for having the ball at his feet. If the U.S. gets to a point where they’re counting on Morris to save them, a lot of other things will have gone wrong.

Yeah, he might still start Aaron Long over Carter-Vickers or Ream. Yeah, Gio Reyna should start in midfield over Brendan Aaronson if McKennie is going to be replaced as the most advanced in there. Sargent should probably start over Ferreira. But then again, if Gregg has shown flexibility on his squad, maybe he can with his lineup. Stranger things and all that.

Whatever Berhalter’s legacy will be, it lies in wait for 11 days. If there was a worry he was too rigid, those concerns should be fading. The real stuff starts now.

This is so wrong

Most hockey fans hate coaching challenges after goals. It’s easy to see why. They take too long, they wipe out goals, and usually, the decision is over a fraction of an inch. Them’s the rules of course, and you can’t eliminate the blatant offsides that are missed without also including the minuscule ones as well. Just how this works, as frustrating as it can be.

But when it destroys a work of art like this:

You can understand the forsaking of the lord and cursing his name that ensues. I am pro replay, and pro getting the call right. But watching this display of audacity and bravado erased from history… it’s harder to stick to that principle. Which I suppose is the real test of a principle.

Scott Boras Barf Day

It was Scott Boras Day at MLB’s GM Meetings yesterday. So make sure your breakfast is fully digested, otherwise, you’ll be encountering it again soon as it charges toward the exit of your mouth in complete disgust.

Do we think he charges his clients extra for this? Does he get into negotiations like this? Does he say this to GMs? I certainly hope so.

Prior to the season, the NFL world was conflicted on Miami Dolphins starting quarterback Tua Tagovailoa’s viability as a franchise quarterback. Even after his six-touchdown performance in Week 2, the world was still divided. Maybe it was just a fluke game. Hell, even I pointed out that bad quarterbacks have had games of that magnitude before. I was skeptical, but now that we are more than halfway through the NFL season, Tua has shown more than enough to prove that he’s not only a franchise quarterback in the NFL, but perhaps good enough to compete with the best in the league for years to come.

I could start this argument with Tua’s MVP odds, talking about how he went from long shot to top-five in the league behind only Lamar Jackson, Jalen Hurts, Patrick Mahomes, and Josh Allen. That’s weak though. We’ve seen Jared Goff, Carson Wentz, and Derek Carr have near-MVP seasons before. One good season does not guarantee future NFL success.

A much better determinator would be his analytics, and by golly, Tua’s advanced stats don’t just jump off the page, they grab you by the ears and scream profanities at you until you can’t deny Tua’s greatness anymore.

Let’s start with Defense-Adjusted Value Over Average (DVOA), a percentage measurement of a quarterback’s efficiency over an average quarterback. Tua’s is insane. He leads the league in that category. The second-highest mark belongs to Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes. His DVOA checks in at 25.2 percent. Third, is San Francisco’s Jimmy Garoppolo — probably didn’t expect him; I’ll touch more on his presence here in a moment — with 25.1 percent. Fourth is Philly’s Jalen Hurts at 19.9 percent. With those figures in mind, what could you possibly assume Tagovailoa’s figure is, hmm? Maybe high-20s, low-30s perhaps? Maybe he blows everyone out of the water and hits us with a 40 percent DVOA. That would be something, right? Well, Tua’s DVOA currently sits at 51 percent, more than double Mahomes’ figure.

Now, that’s impressive, but while I’m writing this, I’m already sensing the doubts some of you readers may have. “Well, if Jimmy G is there, clearly something is wrong with this statistic.”

That’s a fair assessment, and the stat isn’t perfect. No stat is. Any quarterback who falls high on this list can attribute some of their success in this category to their head coach. After all, a quarterback’s efficiency can be heavily limited by a lack of creativity from the coaching staff. That’s probably the main reason Garoppolo comes in so high. Shanahan is heralded as a great offensive mind, and Garoppolo never has to throw the ball much under his watch. With Dolphins’ head coach Mike McDaniel being a student of Shanahan, it only makes sense that both teams’ quarterbacks would be high up on the DVOA leaderboards. So, now you’re probably thinking: “Well, clearly it’s all McDaniel’s system then, just like how Shanahan’s system elevates Garoppolo.” Sure, that’s part of it, but if Tua was as bad as some people would make you believe, his DVOA would be much closer to Garoppolo’s than it actually is, not two times higher.

Now let’s move to Yards Above Replacement (YAR). Think of this statistic like WAR in baseball, a cumulative figure that attempts to crunch a player’s value into a singular number, or in this case, yardage total. It’s a cumulative stat meaning that the more pass attempts a player has, the more likely they are to have a higher figure. Tua is second in the NFL with 888 YAR, four fewer than the league leader Mahomes (892). Tua has missed 2.5 games.

Of course, those numbers change when we look at Defense-Adjusted Yards Above Replacement (DYAR), which takes into account the quality of defense that each quarterback has played against. In that statistic, which is also cumulative, Tagovailoa leads the NFL, and it’s not all that close. His DYAR figure (909) is 48 points higher than Mahomes’ (861). The only quarterbacks to have a higher DYAR through nine games than Tua this year are 2004 Peyton Manning (MVP), 2006 Peyton Manning (third in MVP voting), and 2007 Tom Brady (MVP). That’s elite company, and once again, Tua has missed 2.5 games. I just want to reiterate that.

Even in regard to more traditional stats, Tua stands high above his competition. He’s first in the NFL in yards per attempt, first in average net yards per attempt, first in touchdown percentage, and first in QBR (purely a measurement of a quarterback’s play; Garoppolo ranks 23rd in that category by the way, just in case you weren’t convinced that McDaniel was covering Tua’s flaws). Those are numbers you can’t ignore, and if Tua hadn’t missed time with a concussion, he’d undoubtedly be the MVP frontrunner in my eyes.

I’ve seen a few comparisons between this Dolphins team and the 2016 Atlanta Falcons. That offense was so efficient and well-designed that dump-offs would routinely turn into 20-plus yard gains. And yes, there are bound to be similarities since Kyle Shanahan was that team’s OC and, like I said earlier, McDaniel is a Shanahan prodigy. So, I get the concerns surrounding Tua’s staying power post-2022 considering how Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan quickly fell off after winning the MVP in 2016. However, if Shanahan had remained in Atlanta, there’s reason to believe Father Time would’ve slowed down trying to catch up to Matty Ice. Tagovailoa is currently under contract through 2023 and given his rapport with McDaniel as well as receivers Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle, the Dolphins would be stupid not to extend him. McDaniel is currently locked up through 2025. It’s a match made in heaven and as long as they stick together, I’ve seen no reason why Tua can’t be considered elite in the very near future.