If there were American coaches who were hoping that Jesse Marsch could be the first through the wall as a Yank managing in the big five leagues in Europe, they might be discussing a retreat right now.

Marsch’s Leeds United lost again on Sunday, 3-2 to Fulham, their eighth straight game without a win and their fourth straight loss.

Generally, when the fans start singing about wanting your exit and longing for the guy who came before you, there’s no way back. The atmosphere becomes poisonous and spreads to the players, if it hasn’t already. And those fans aren’t going to be placated by what the stat sheets say.

Because those stat sheets say that Marsch’s Leeds aren’t as bad as the results and the standings say. Except that’s the ultimate ammunition for the “Watch the game, nerd!” crowd. But it’s true. Leeds’ expected-goal difference for the season is ninth-best in the league, which is in direct opposition to their 18th place standing right now. Only once in their last four losses have they not gotten the better of the xG in the match. On Sunday, they had way more of the ball (58 percent to 42 for Fulham), more shots, more passes. Same story the week before, and the same story the week before that. Leeds are doing the things before the things that matter quite well.

Except… the things that matter. Leeds can’t finish, and Leeds can’t defend. Watch Fulham’s goals on Sunday and it looks like they’re playing against crash-test dummies. Look at how easy all this was before Willian had a tap-in:

And Leeds didn’t do much to address this half of the field in the summer. They brought in Tyler Adams and Marc Roca to protect the backline in midfield, and those two have been fine to good, but the actual defense wasn’t addressed. That trench you built in front of the castle walls is nice and all, but matters a lot less if the walls have giant holes in it. Robin Koch and Liam Cooper have been the most commonly used central defensive pairing, and Leeds’s shots per game and shots on target against per game are middle of the pack in the league. Still, no central defenders were added in the transfer market.

Where the problem might really lie, defensively, is that Marsch’s keeper sucks mondo ass. Illan Meslier gave up seven more goals than his post-shot expected goals said he should have last season, and he’s already at -2.9 barely a quarter into this season. He doesn’t make any big save Leeds needs to turn a match. That -2.9 mark is third-worst in the league.

The problem of “finish” is just as acute at the other end of the field. Again, Leeds’ rank in shots and shots on target per match are in the top half of the league. But they can’t get anything to touch twine. The attack was basically hinging on the very rickety legs of Patrick Bamford. Bamford only played in nine games last season because of injury, and while his 17 goals from the previous season suggest he can be a linchpin striker, it’s still only one season of proof.

Luis Sinisterra was brought in during the summer, but his biggest tally was 12 goals in the Dutch Eredivisie, where you get 10 goals for spelling your name correctly (Jozy Altidore will agree). Brendan Aaronson was another to support the attack, but Aaronson doesn’t score all that much, and his contributions are more through energy and causing chaos with his running than genuine inspiration.

Well, Bamford hasn’t been able to locate which way he’s facing so far this season in nine appearances, and there’s no one else stepping up. He’s had a couple one-on-ones the past two matches that would have swung this for Leeds and blew them both. He’s just out of sorts, and his lack of pace has always been something of an issue. Leeds needed a Bamford-insurance plan in their transfer dealings, and they didn’t get one.

But that’s too easy to absolve Marsch. Here’s a problem: They surrendered two goals after the 74th minute against Fulham. They gave up goals in the last 10 minutes of the first half against both Leiceister and Arsenal. They gave up a winner in the 76th minute to Palace before that. Marsch’s team just runs out of gas thanks to his high-intensity style.

And teams have worked it out. They slow things down for a while, play around Leeds’ press for half-an-hour or so, let them punch themselves out, and then profit. And Leeds don’t have much punch to come back. They had one shot on target in the last 15 minutes on Sunday. One shot on target in the last 20 against Leicester. Two shots in the last 15 against Arsenal, and all of these while trailing. Marsch hasn’t really shown a Plan B when his “get the fucking thing up the fucking field fucking quick” main tactic doesn’t work.

The longing for Marcelo Bielsa by the Leeds fans isn’t fair. Leeds definitely would have been relegated if Bielsa had stayed, as they were getting utterly throttled week in and week out. But that’s the gig at Elland Road, considering Bielsa was the guy to get them up and keep them there for a season. And Marsch’s humble-guy-act-as-long-as-the-cameras-are-on act wasn’t going to win too many people over. The huddle on the field after his first match, his touchline antics, his habit of inspirational quotes all give a very big, “LOOK WHAT I’M DOING!” feel. It’s going to lessen his runway.

The schedule will as well. They go to Liverpool and Spurs before the World Cup break, and also host a buoyant Bournemouth, too. Fans may accept a loss at Anfield, but should they not beat a recently promoted side at home no matter current form, and that could be curtains. If it isn’t, Leeds face a gauntlet of City and Newcastle right out of the World Cup break. It might get worse before it gets better.

Marsch’s ways didn’t work at Leipzig because he wanted to run a Red Bull system for a team that wasn’t really constructed. Now he wants to run a Red Bull system in a league that is almost certainly too punishing to survive in doing so. At the end of the day, Marsch’s bonafides are two league titles with the richest club in Austria that’s continued to win that league without him. If a beachhead for American managers was going to be established in Europe, maybe Marsch wasn’t the guy to do it. No matter what the analytics say.

Don’t be fooled by the 49ers’ Week 7, 44-23 loss to the Chiefs. San Francisco is good, and they’re only going to get better as the season moves along. Kansas City has rolled over many teams similarly during Patrick Mahomes’ tenure. Remember, there isn’t a Chiefs equivalent in the NFC. The Niners possess the formula to be the most dangerous team no one wants to face heading into the NFC playoffs come January.

Oh, how soon we forget. It was just last year when San Francisco was in the same position. They were 3-4 after seven games following a butt-kicking at home against Indianapolis, 30-18. The 49ers went on to win eight of their last 11 games to close the season at 10-7. They used that momentum and made a run to the NFC Championship game, where they lost to the Rams, 20-17.

This loss to Kansas City is a setback, but the Niners will be fine. Once Elijah Mitchell returns from an MCL sprain (he could return by early November), they’ll have a three-man rotation in the backfield. If there’s one aspect of football Kyle Shanahan loves more than any other, it’s the running game. As the season progresses, newly acquired Christian McCaffrey will become more comfortable in this offense, making them the most dynamic in the NFC.

The 49ers rotation at running back will be great for McCaffrey, who’s been injury prone over the past couple of years. From 2017-2019 McCaffrey didn’t miss one game for the Carolina Panthers. In his last two full seasons as a Panther, McCaffrey only played in 10 of 33 possible regular season games. So, not being forced to carry the entire offensive load in San Francisco should be a huge benefit.

In his first game as a Niner, McCaffrey showed glimpses of what to expect once he’s up to speed in Shanahan’s offense. He played just 22 offensive snaps (28 percent) but rushed for 4.8 yards per carry and had two catches for 24 yards. McCaffrey was traded less than 72 hours before this game kicked off Sunday. It was amazing that he even suited up for this one. This offense could look completely different in a few weeks, with McCaffrey, Mitchell, and Jeff Wilson Jr. running and catching the ball out of the backfield.

San Francisco’s defense took a hit Sunday as they came into the game as one of the better defenses in the NFL and ranked top five in many categories. Although the 49ers did give up a brutal 44 points to Mahomes and the Chiefs, they’re still giving up just 19 points per game on average for the season. That still ranks in the league’s top 10 for points allowed. They gave up 529 yards to the Chiefs and still rank No. 7 in that category and third in average yards allowed per game. San Francisco merely ran into a better team that wears you down with a great offensive scheme, quarterback, and all the ways they can beat a defense.

Luckily, the NFC doesn’t have a team anywhere near the Chiefs or Buffalo Bills, for that matter. The Philadelphia Eagles are the team to watch in the NFC right now, and that’s it. The Giants are playing great, but no one trusts them with Daniel Jones leading the team, and then there’s the Dallas Cowboys. The NFC East has been much better than advertised, but the Eagles are the only real threat to the Niners advancing in the postseason. And they might even be fools gold by the time January rolls around based on their schedule.

So, San Francisco looks like they’ll be in pretty good shape once they get some key guys back from injury and McCaffrey is fully acclimated. They might only win nine games, but that should be enough in the NFC to make the tournament. With so much parity, there could be an 8-9 team to make it in the NFC. Currently, 12 of the 16 NFC teams hold a record of 3-4 or better, and if the Bears beat the Patriots on Monday Night Football, that’ll make 13. The NFC playoff race will undoubtedly come down to a few games in Week 18.

These Niners will be in the thick of that race, and don’t be surprised when they’re “upsetting” your favorite team. I’m looking at you, Eagles. Once Shanahan gets his guys on track, they’ll be the scariest team entering the playoffs. You can count on that.

There’s still that Jimmy Garoppolo issue they’ve had for a while now, but they’ve clearly overcome his shortcomings before, and with the supporting cast around him, they can do it again.

As the target of a chorus of boos, fuck yous and a barrage of middle fingers, Republican Senator Ted Cruz somehow managed to outshine the Houston Astros as the most detested figure in New York.

Cruz drawing fire away from an Astros squad that was exposed for cheating the Yankees out of the 2019 AL pennant is on brand. When Senator Cruz is not spreading misinformation, supporting coups, peacing out for Cancun when his state is in utter chaos, and continuing his campaign to remain the most hated man in Congress, his hobbies include rooting for cheaters (The Astros, not the Yankees).

On Sunday night, the Senator from Texas took his head-ass up to Yankee Stadium for Game 4 of the ALCS series between the Houston Astros and New York Yankees, sitting behind home plate. During the course of the game, Cruz received a steady dose of those “New York values” he’s belittled in the past.

Here are some of the highlights from one New York legend.

• “Remember when Trump called your wife ugly!! And then you nominated him!”
• “You fucking piece of shit!”
• “Remember when those insurrectionists wanted to murder you!!”
• “Get the fuck out of New York!!”
• “Eat my dick you asshole!!”

Cruz, who seemed to convince himself that the jeers were cheers, more like Bronx Cheers, much like he convinced himself 45 won the electoral college, appeared to egg disapproving Yankees fans on by smirking and giving the thumbs up toward the boo-birds. It’s not out of character for Cruz. The cretin has been so detestable his adult life that condemnation bounces off of his armadillo-thick skin.

There are a multitude of reasons for New Yorkers to despise Cruz. But especially in New York City. During a 2016 Republican Primary debate, Cruz clumsily disparaged New York with comments that made him the bane of the city’s five boroughs.

“There are many, many wonderful, wonderful working men and women in the state of New York, but everyone understands that the values in New York City are socially liberal or pro-abortion or pro- gay-marriage, [and] focus around money and the media,” Cruz said in 2016.

His tasteless remarks even set up a lob to Trump for a soundbite that delivered one of the few humanizing seconds of his political existence, which compelled New Yorkers to double down on their loathing of Cruz.

Ultimately, it’s probably best for the country that the Astros won this outright or else Cruz would have rallied a vote to award a victory to the Astros anyway. Yankees fans are an obnoxious group of frontrunners, but they redeemed themselves for one night. On the plus side, now that the Yankees’ playoff run has come to an unceremonious end, its fans get to awaken to a 5-2 Jets squad and the 6-1 Giants.

For sure, all the Bryce Harper bashers are in hiding today.

It wasn’t long ago that he was ridiculed and downplayed after he bolted the Washington Nationals as a free agent, only to see his former team win the World Series the next season without him.

The cry was: “Who needs Harper?” “Good riddance” was thrown around a lot when talking about the slugger.

Man, those Negative Nellies could have not been more wrong.

He was a star from Day 1, when we saw all the videos of him launching monster home runs on YouTube.

He was supposed to be the next face of MLB. Yes, must-see TV.

And while we’ve seen Harper do incredible feats in his career already, Sunday was what we’ve all been waiting for. Harper’s two-run homer in the bottom of the eighth inning gave his Phillies the lead en route to a 4-3 victory over the San Diego Padres in Game 5 in Philly.

Harper’s blast sent the Phillies — who were the National League’s lowest-seeded team in the postseason — to the World Series for the first time since 2009. The city is electric and buzzing.

No one expected the Phils to get here. After all, the season started so poorly that manager Joe Girardi was canned after a 22-29 start.

Almost never does a team make such a dramatic move during the season and reach the postseason. In fact, the Phillies became just the seventh team to do so. Now, they have a chance to win a World Series, the franchise’s third (1980 & 2008).

And the biggest reason why it’s within their grasp is Harper, who finished the NLCS with eight hits, five RBI and two homers. He was named the NLCS MVP.

That’s what the face of a franchise does, if he’s truly that.

That’s why the Phillies gave him that 13-year, $330 million contract. They wanted him to lead their franchise to the World Series.

At the time of the signing, many thought the Phillies were crazy, and that it wouldn’t pay off for them. And there were doubts about Harper’s ability to lead the way. Peeps were wrong. Dead wrong.

Being big in big moments is the only way you truly validate your career.

All the personal accomplishments are nice — Harper won the NL MVP in 2021, his second (he won in 2015 as well) — but winning on the big stage and delivering in the clutch can’t be beat.

Enter Mike Trout.

The man is a great baseball player and has all the tools. Many think he’s the best all-around player ever. And all the stat geeks have numbers to back up this claim.

But he will never truly be seen that way by the masses because he hasn’t won a thing. In fact, his team has never even won a playoff game in his career, let alone a playoff series.

We’ve never seen Trout come through in a big spot with the season on the line.

To be honest, most of his numbers are hollow. Most of the time, his only meaningful at-bats come in April and May. Normally, the Los Angeles Angels enter August out of playoff contention, and he’s just playing out the string.

Sure, you still have to go out and compete.

But there’s a difference in playing and competing when the result of the game hangs in the balance.

That’s why Harper’s blast was so huge, meaningful.

Had the Phillies lost Game 5 at home with a chance to clinch, who knows what could have happened.

His team would have had to go back to San Diego and try to close it out there. The Los Angeles Dodgers, who had the best record in baseball, didn’t make it out of there alive.

Same goes for teams that met Harper’s Phils. In this postseason, Harper has five homers, is batting .419 with a 1.351 OPS. His bat enabled the Phillies to beat the St. Louis Cardinals, the reigning World Champion Atlanta Braves and now the Padres.

“No matter who was on the mound, No. 3 is made for that type of a moment,” said Phillies first baseman Rhys Hoskins about Harper. “And he did it again. None of us were surprised.”

And those who were are in hiding today. They won’t be watching the World Series. They don’t want to see Harper in a place they were convinced he’d never get to.

Seven weeks into the 2022 season, Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady are Thelma and Louisa’ing it over the cliff. The 3-4 Bucs’ and 3-4 Packers’ anemic offenses are the weak links being carried by their defenses, as their venerable future Hall of Fame quarterbacks are throwing away winnable games. At this point in 2021, the Bucs were averaging 31.4 points per game. In Brady’s age-45 season, Tampa’s offense has plummeted to 27th in the NFL averaging 16.7 points per game. The Packers were a top-10 scoring offense in 2021, but that was before losing Davante Adams to the Las Vegas Raiders.

For the second consecutive week, Tampa Bay failed to produce a single touchdown. Against a Christian McCaffrey-less Carolina, the Bucs mustered only three points. Mike Evans dropped a moonball from Brady that would have been Tampa Bay’s only touchdown of the day, and later said that his clumsiness sucked the life out of the team. However, this didn’t begin against Carolina.

At least Brady got outplayed by an XFL cult favorite in P.J. Walker. Being outdueled by an XFL Legend is a little more respectable. Don’t roll your eyes. Walker was the shit in the XFL. Rodgers was beaten and outplayed by Taylor Heinicke, an XFL backup who never saw the field and the third-best quarterback on their roster behind rookie Sam Howell.

In a loss to the Commanders, Rodgers continued his streak of playing like fertilizer. The situation is bleak. Rodgers’ 228 passing yards per game ranks 23rd-best in the entire league, he has yet to have a 300-yard game this season and he has not thrown more than two touchdown passes in any single game. Rodgers’ top receivers are half his age and struggling to get on the same page with their QB, and Green Bay is on pace to finish without a 1000-yard receiver for the first time since 2017 when Rodgers spent nine weeks healing a broken collarbone.

Brady and Rodgers’ come-of-old-age seasons were a long time coming. They’ve become senescent caretakers of drowsy offensive attacks that need a LifeAlert. Statistically, Rodgers and Brady don’t look awful. Combined they’ve thrown 19 touchdowns to four interceptions.For instance, Patrick Mahomes has thrown 20 touchdowns on his own. The efficiency is there, however, the explosive passing plays over 40-yards have vanished.

 Brady’s 2.7 percent touchdown rate (touchdowns per passing attempts) is the lowest of his career. Both Brady and Rodgers’ downfield passing numbers have fallen off a cliff. Rodgers is among the league leaders in completions thrown behind the line of scrimmage, but his passing woes were more predictable. Brady lost his BFF Gronk and O.J. Howard, but he returns a healthy Mike Evans and a semi-healthy Chris Godwin.

Both quarterbacks lead bottom-10 scoring offenses, and although neither is playing as poorly as Russell Wilson and the NFL’s worst-scoring offense, they seem significantly unhappier. Russ might be weird as hell, but he’s content.

Brady is clearly enduring an intense year off the field, which is leaking onto the field. He’s been granted numerous practices off, skipped Saturday walkthroughs, and destroyed several tablets. He’s 45 going on his Terrible 2s. And yet, time hasn’t run out, yet. There are nine games to go. It wouldn’t be shocking for these two savvy elders to wipe off the cobwebs and string together a strong second half. At the deadline, the Packers should be proactive in acquiring a No. 1 receiver at the trade deadline. Julio Jones could finally touch the field long enough to get in sync with Brady.

You would have thought by now that we would have learned not to close the casket on Rodgers or Brady before the death certificate is official. Just poke ’em with a stick first. Brady was supposed to be done in by Jimmy G a decade ago, and Rodgers has demonstrated his resilience before.

Given Rodgers’ and Brady’s histories, it’s not over until they’re mathematically eliminated from the postseason. That’s never happened for Brady who has made the postseason every season he’s made it through as a starter. However, the stars may be aligning to present us with our first Brady-Rodgers free postseason since 2008.

The arrangement of their NFC South comp would make it unlikely that the Bucs won’t win the division, but Atlanta’s lackluster roster shouldn’t be tied with Tampa Bay for the division lead seven games in. Rodgers is more comfortable missing the postseason, having done so in 2018 and 2017. And yet, he’s probably fortunate he didn’t follow Nathaniel Hackett to Denver.

Rodgers and Brady are slumping, but not slumped over… yet. However, at their age, and given the composition of their rosters, this season was championship-or-bust. While Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen have the league in their vice grips, Brady and Rodgers are as far from resembling Super Bowl contenders as they are from their athletic primes.

It’s not usually supposed to work like this in baseball. The quirk, some would say the beauty, of the game is that the big at-bats can fall to anyone. They don’t always fall to a team’s star player, and in fact they rarely do. Opponents spell out a strategy most of the time to make sure they don’t.

And it’s not that Bryce Harper needed this series to cement just how good he is, or how important he is to the Phillies. Even before he broke his thumb, he and all his supporters, could have easily stated that the Phitins wouldn’t have made the playoffs without him. And they wouldn’t. He was that good. Which is what the Phillies paid for, which is what their agreement promised.

Yet, when a team makes a free agent signing like Harper, or a trade like the one for Juan Soto that San Diego pulled the trigger on before the trade deadline this season, Sunday is the kind of day they dream of. Inside they’re not sure it’ll happen, perhaps even doubtful that they would get such a singular moment. You sign Bryce Harper for what you get over six months, year-after-year, and you sit back in November or December, look at the stats, and marvel at what he gave you. It’s hard to notice them in the middle of the season, or just how much they mean, as they accumulate. But there’s always that inextinguishable hope that it will all come to a head at some point in the fall. That baseball for once might just act like basketball.

But goddamn, isn’t it sweet to see something like the bottom of the 8th in Game 5 of the NLCS? A pristine moment that should make the fanbases, and especially the front offices and owners, of just about every other MLB team save three or four riddled with jealousy and anger, because any team could have had him. All he would have cost is money. All he did cost was money, and the Phillies were the one that paid for it.

And their fans get a memory that they will have forever. Even if they get pasted by the Astros in the World Series (and my hunch is they probably will, but baseball could still very easily baseball), Phillies fans will talk about Harper’s homer over beer and barbecues and at the end of wedding receptions and wakes and with their kids or neighbors or the weirdo on the SEPTA for the rest of their lives. Isn’t that the fucking point? Isn’t that why we do this? For memories and things that bring us together and something to share with the most random people we can think of? Fuck, I remember Brent Sutter’s goal against the Red Wings in Game 4 in 1992 of the Norris Division Finals and that was 30 fucking years ago and the Hawks got absolutely smashed in the Final that year and I don’t really care. It’s why we’re here.

Imagine what the moment could have meant in Pittsburgh or Kansas City or Milwaukee or either side of Chicago or Arizona. We could do this forever. That’s all those fans what, and any of those teams could have provided it. Instead they all chose to hang on to money their owners will never notice. That’s what baseball has come to mean, but it doesn’t mean that to us.

There will be multiple front offices that use the Phillies as an example of “all you have to do is get in.” But that’s not really what they are. They signed Harper and Castellanos and Schwarber and Wheeler. They probably thought they would run with the Mets and Braves all season. They certainly wanted to.

Even if the regular season turns into a six month mosey waiting for the playoffs, and even if the playoffs become devalued in a way as more of us see them for what they are, it won’t dim moments like Harper’s homer. It’s sad that teams have used a World Series championship as a license to burn it down and simply watch the TV checks roll in.

The Cubs, the Royals, the Nationals, the latest Red Sox champion, all used a World Series title to justify their profiteering ways that came after. It’s almost as if creating those memories for their fans was a nuisance best to be gotten out of the way to get down to the real business.

The Phillies let the 2008 team run as far as they could, even with those around screaming it was time to give up. They tried a rebuild, it didn’t work, so they went another way instead of trying a whole new batch of schoolchildren via trade and drafts that might… might work in 2028. And they’ve already been rewarded. This is how it’s supposed to be.

Sign big players, let your fans dream. Sometimes, they actually come true.

Won and Dunn

I’d remarked on the stark difference between MLS’s regular season and playoffs, and how gratifying it is to see dramatic moments in the rare games that matter in the league. That is not only exclusive to them, as NWSL’s regular season can seem a bit pointless with their playoff system as well. Which also means their playoffs can produce grounding moments too:

There are so many layers to this, beyond sending the Thorns to the NWSL final. Dunn had only returned from maternity leave at the tail end of the season. Portland has pretty much been the epicenter of the outing of all the issues that NWSL and its players have gone through for its entire existence, its fans the most vocal about seeing change within the team they love. When Dunn crashed home this fairytale, the catharsis is palpable. Again, look at the undulation amongst the crowd that becomes one upon sight of this goal. It’s rare to see that in NWSL, and perhaps only possible in Portland, home to the sport’s most passionate fanbase. Which makes it heartbreaking that some of the league’s greatest crimes took place there. But this is moving on, in the most emphatic style.

Should have stayed home  

Finally, it gives me a chuckle that this is what Tom Brady chose. He only retired and came back so he would watch the adulation flow to him twice in the offseason. He had to huff all the praise as he left, and then realized he felt like nothing without it and it would go away if he wasn’t playing anymore. He’s only here to serve himself, and he’s serving himself a big steaming turd as the Bucks stumble to a nondescript if not outright bad season. He did this to himself, it’s going to cost him so much more than the physical toll, and all because he just had to hear everyone talk about him some more. This is the only thing we’ll ever get over Tom Brady, so drink it in.

During NBA Commish Adam Silver’s apology tour session with beleaguered Phoenix Suns employees this weekend, he was confronted with another concern. In addition to apologizing for suspended team Governor Robert Sarver and his decades of misconduct, Silver was also besieged by a flood of questions about the problem of tanking (cue eye-rolling).

This season, teams improving their position to draft the generational talent that is Victor Wembanyama are being cast as mortal sinners by holier-than-thou large market franchises. That attitude is a tradition as old as the modern draft. Unsurprisingly, Silver agreed, referring to rampant tanking as a serious issue that the league has put teams on notice about. Reportedly, Silver also pushed back against the idea of implementing relegation as a punishment, which is a departure from the usual invocation of European soccer as the deus ex machina for the league’s woes.

When the NBA has a problem, they look to Europe more than any other league. Need a solution for waning interest in the middle third of the season? Europe’s football cup model has the answer. Need to put out an ad for an exciting young phenom to fill the void LeBron will leave behind? Look to France.

If the NBA ever wanted to consider relegation, that ship sailed long ago. The league mismanaged that possibility in the mid-70s when they failed to forecast the long-term business sense of keeping the ABA around as a B-League instead of folding the franchises they didn’t absorb. Instead of the Pittsburgh Condors and Virginia Squires vying for promotion into the NBA, we’re stuck with the Magic velcroing themselves to the NBA floor.

The impending Tank Wars have consumed the attention of the NBA community at the onset of the season. Silver has depicted “tanking” as an offense against paying consumers. For most fans, it’s more hype than an actual problem. If Silver’s meeting had taken place in Indiana, Oklahoma City, or Orlando, fugazi concerns over tanking wouldn’t even be on their radar. As obnoxious as tanking is to large-market teams, it’s definitely not one worth upending the NBA’s entire model over.

The dog-eat-dog NBA hierarchy always creates haves and have-nots. Typically those have-nots are the small-market franchises in locations that struggle to attract first-class free-agent talent. It’s not a coincidence, we’ve never seen a small market dynasty. Instead, these franchises have to target phenoms who they can control for the first six to seven years of their careers before free agency.

Expecting losing teams to keep bad contracts on the payroll instead of whisking them away for economical, developing talent makes the Knicks seem logical. Is that really a world where NBA fans want to live in? Think the San Antonio Spurs regret shelving a recovering David Robinson in the latter half of the ‘97 season so they could draft Tim Duncan?

Instead of a young core featuring Jabari Smith, Tati Eason, Jalen Green, Alperen Sengun, and Kevin Porter Jr., the Houston Rockets could have dumped Harden for a fringe All-Star like DeMar DeRozan, whose coattails they could have ridden to a 35-win season. The Rockets have embraced a youth movement. Following six consecutive winning seasons in which they struggled to breach the Western Conference Finals, Danny Ainge’s Utah Jazz have been derided as tankers for trading their grumpy centerpieces for a swath of picks and young talent. As of Sunday, they’re 2-0.

Stars on championship-contending teams like Golden State’s Splash Brothers or Kawhi Leonard on the Clippers are more likely to rest than the best player on a bottom-five team. Very few franchises purposely spend multiple years scraping the bottom of the barrel like the cellar dwellers like Oklahoma City, which resides in the NBA’s third-smallest market, has done for the third consecutive season.

Since trading Chris Paul in 2020 and stripping their roster down to its studs, the Thunder have accrued a 46-98 record, and with their No. 2 overall pick out for his entire rookie season, the Thunder roster is essentially last season’s 24-58 roster preserved in amber. But realistically, how many teams have adopted that super tank strategy over a stretch of multiple seasons?

The Orlando Magic aren’t tanking. Jonathan Isaac, their 6-11 wing who was last windmilling opposing shooters’ attempts at a prolific rate, hasn’t played in two years while he’s been busy promoting his brand on Fox News. Jalen Suggs, the heady point guard the Magic thought would serve as an uplifting force, bricked the way through his rookie season, shooting 36 percent from the field as a rookie and an egregiously bad 21 percent from 3. Paolo Banchero, the No. 1 pick in the most recent draft has performed like the Rookie of the Year frontrunner, but his exploits haven’t translated to wins — yet.

What exactly are the Magic supposed to do? In an ideal offseason, Orlando could have sold Bradley Beal on their upside and the joys of living near Disney World as a father of three. Small-market teams can’t reload. It’s almost a necessity for them to rebuild from scratch. If the feisty 2019 Clippers or the overachieving pre-KD/Kyrie Nets, who went 42-40 with Jarrett Allen, and Caris Levert weren’t in Brooklyn or L.A., they would have tanked long ago.

Besides, the obvious problem of there being no viable second-tier league for teams it sends mixed messages for relegation to even emerge from the Commish’s lips while rumors of expansion swell. Excessive tanking is more perception than reality. 

The Denver Broncos have decided to deactivate Russell Wilson for their Week 7 matchup against the New York Jets due to a hamstring injury, and it could be the best move they’ve made all season. After a 2-4 start to the year, Wilson hasn’t nearly been the guy the Broncos thought they were trading for on the field.

While DangeRuss’ Subway commercials are bad, they pale in comparison to his performance through six games. Wilson has posted the worst completion percentage of his career, hitting targets at just 56.6 percent this season. Wilson’s QBR is the lowest it’s ever been at 35.7, and the same goes for his passer rating, which is down to 83.4. No wonder Subway discontinued Wilson’s signature sandwich. Who in the hell wants to eat that after the way he’s played?

No one is ever happy about a player missing games because of injury, especially when it’s the starting QB, but this might be the best option for all involved in this decision to shut the nine-time Pro Bowler down for a while. In fact, the Broncos should strongly consider sitting Wilson out until he’s completely healthy. However long that takes is how Denver should be approaching this situation.

It’s not like Wilson’s added much to the offense the way he’s played thus far. Following Denver’s Week 4 loss to division rival Las Vegas, ESPN reported that Wilson suffered a partially torn lat on his throwing arm. You might think that’s a convenient excuse for a bad start, but it would explain a lot.

Nothing seems to be working for the Broncos on offense this year. Early on, first-year head coach Nathaniel Hackett received much of the blame. Hackett was taken to task after taking the ball out of Wilson’s hands on a critical fourth down in favor of a Brandon McManus 64-yard field goal attempt. McManus missed the field goal causing Denver to lose the season opener in Seattle, 16-16.

However, the spotlight has been placed on Wilson’s lack of production over the past few games. With what he’s done so far, Russ isn’t winning over many people in Denver. It even seems like teammates are beginning to look at Wilson with an air of skepticism. Running back Melvin Gordon was captured on the sideline during a game this year, giving Wilson a mean side eye as he walked past.

Hamstring injuries can be tough to gauge and tricky. If not given the proper time to heal, they can linger and take much longer than expected. Now you add an injury to Wilson’s throwing arm, and we’re talking about him potentially missing a significant amount of time. Honestly, that’s probably the best scenario, considering how bad this trade has been for Denver and Wilson.

Sit him out as long as it takes for him to get back to optimal health. That doesn’t need to be 100 percent because no football player is ever completely free of injury, but he might need to stay out until he begins to resemble the old Russell Wilson. If that means he’s out until late in the season or even the rest of the year, that’s what needs to happen. The Broncos are going nowhere fast, and Wilson isn’t helping matters by playing hurt. Like his well-manicured persona, Wilson’s legacy has also taken a hit with back-to-back rough seasons. While his last year in Seattle wasn’t as bad, it wasn’t great either, as Wilson ended his tenure as Seahawks QB at 6-8.

Denver’s already signed Wilson to a long-term deal, so they’re tied to Wilson for the foreseeable future. If the Broncos lose their Week 7 game against the Jets, they’ll be 2-5 in the AFC West. With the way Wilson’s played, they aren’t digging themselves out of that hole, no matter how good the defense plays. This season is already a wash, and it’s time to look ahead and worry about protecting their investment in Wilson.

Crowbarring a World Cup into the middle of the club season in winter was always a dumb idea, probably equal to the idea that the tournament ever could have been held in the summer in Qatar, which is what the country and FIFA were originally selling when they awarded it to Qatar (and it was literally for sale). Actually though, that idea contained the fantasy of floating air conditioning devices over the stadiums, so I guess that idea was dumber.

Anyway, the mutation of pretty much every domestic club season, as well as the tighter window that the World Cup will now be played in, has just made for a very awkward season that will only get more and more odd-looking and feeling from here on out and for the months after the trophy is hoisted in Doha. And of course, there’s the whole “thousands of migrant workers have died” so a few unfathomably rich oil execs can be even more rich,” thing, as well as basically sanctioning the anti-woman, anti-LGBTQ+ policies of the Qatari government. Compared on that scale, a few players missing the tournament through injury seems a bit peanut-like.

But that’s our charge today, and yesterday France watched between their fingers as yet another player who would start in the middle of the field for them looked to have put himself out of the tournament. Raphael Varane pulled up against Chelsea and was reduced to tears as he realized what he thought the severity of the injury was and that it would mean he would miss the World Cup. Reports today are more hopeful that he might only miss most of the group stage, but that’s still less than ideal. Especially for a French team that is definitely going to be without N’Golo Kante and Paul Pogba, the control center of the team that won the last edition of this tournament (though they were also there when most of the nation of France and good portion of his teammates blamed Pogba for their exit from Euro 2020).

Losing a starting central defender that goes behind them would have been a lot for France, even if they’re maybe one of three or four international sides that has so much talent they might have been able to stem the tide. France could probably just turn to the Real Madrid duo of Aurélien Tchouaméni and Eduardo Camavinga and feel pretty ok, but clearly their depth will be tested. Even if Varane makes it back, he won’t have played in a month and will have a balky hamstring, which puts a lot of pressure on say William Saliba or Dayot Upamecano, two players who are unquestionably gifted but also untested at the highest level.

But France are hardly alone. Just in the past few weeks, Portugal lost Diogo Jota, usually a nailed-on starter in their forward line. England could and probably will be without the right side of their defense in Reece James and Kyle Walker. Argentina could be missing Pablo Dybala and Angel Di Maria, at least for part of the tournament for the latter. Gini Wijnaldum broke his leg and won’t show up for the Netherlands. Mexico will go without Jesus Corona. Senegal won’t have Bouna Sarr. This list could go on, and there’s still a month of leagues trying to cram in as many games as they can before the extended break for this list to get a lot longer. The schedule is punishing and quite frankly, unfair to the players.

That’s not to say injuries aren’t a part of every World Cup. Tired players in April and May after a full-season’s worth of miles on the odometer pull up or have something go “twang!” all the time, and the usual three weeks to a month between the end of the season and when a World Cup would usually start isn’t enough to save them. One can recall a devastated Mo Salah during the Champions League final in 2018 after Sergio Ramos nearly succeeded in tearing his arm off, as he realized he might miss out on Egypt’s stay in Russia (he missed the first two games). But those three weeks do provide far more of a buffer than the seven days or so of this tournament.

More importantly, those three weeks do give players far more time for smaller injuries and fatigue to clear up, though the overall toll of a nine-month season still weighs pretty heavily on them during any summer tournament. But those players that have just a small calf problem or are just a little heavy in the legs get enough time to see those go away before a big tournament. For this one, whatever caused a player to be brought off in the 65th minute away to Wolves or Getafe one weekend will still be very much there when they suit up a week later for their country. And given that the tournament is being crunched itself, and the group stage will basically be eight or nine days long for most teams instead of 10 or 12, those injuries are only going to get worse. Which means depth will be tested even more than usual, which is why a team like France would be sweating pretty heavily over the Varane news.

So not only do we have all the above-mentioned issues with this Qatar World Cup, but we might get something of a bog-monster of a tournament, depending on how healthy anyone and everyone can stay. It might not be a test of who has the best team or the most cohesive plan but simply who can remain upright. And of course, whatever happens in Qatar for these players will have immediate effects for their clubs right on the back of the World Cup, where normally there would be a month or six weeks before a club season would start.

Seems like a great plan all around to do it this way. 

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney’s gridiron shakeup, 49 months old exactly on Saturday, further cemented the Tigers’ spot among college football’s elite. One of the highest-rated collegiate prospects of all-time, then-true freshman Trevor Lawrence, replaced Kelly Bryant as the team’s starting quarterback after splitting playing time in the first four games of the season. Bryant never played another second for Clemson after the switch was made, and transferred to Missouri in the first offseason where the transfer portal ran rampant on college football. Lawrence led Clemson to a national championship and rarely lost in college under center.

Did we see deja vu on Saturday in South Carolina? After DJ Uiagalelei’s stronghold on the Clemson starting job since Lawrence’s departure to the NFL, he was benched by Swinney on Saturday in favor of Cade Klubnik, another true freshman who was the top quarterback prospect in his recruiting class. After Uiagalelei was intercepted twice and fumbled the ball to Syracuse for a 90-yard scoop and score, his back-up reignited Clemson’s offense with three scoring drives to survive the Orange and keep control of its path to the College Football Playoff. Swinney was asked about a permanent switch behind center moments after the final whistle: “DJ is our quarterback. Ain’t no question about that.”

Are you sure Dabo? It’s later in the season than when the Bryant-to-Lawrence switch happened, with Clemson having played double the amount of games with Uiagalelei starting (eight) this season, compared to Bryant’s four in 2018. Receivers and the offensive line work with all quarterbacks during the week, so it’s not exactly like you’d be starting over by making the switch to Klubnik. Uiagalelei is much more experienced at the college level and Lawrence had a play-now aura to a level no one else has seen in the sport. Klubnik might be an NFL-caliber quarterback one day, but the can’t-miss potential isn’t at the same level of the current Jacksonville Jaguars starter.

After losing in the CFP semifinals (quarterbacked by Bryant) in 2017, Clemson felt like it was on a redemption tour of sorts for a program where anything less than a national-championship appearance seems inadequate. The Tigers’ last appearance in a title game was against Joe Burrow. In the two years since, they were outclassed by Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl and relegated to the Cheez-It Bowl, defeating Iowa State by a touchdown and ending the season with an underwhelming 10 wins. A banner year for most college football programs. Sighs and groans in the Palmetto State.

By controlling its own destiny to a CFP return, four November games separate Clemson from an ACC Championship Game appearance. All of them are winnable games against programs not on the Tigers’ level, including two conference clashes. Notre Dame, Miami, and Louisville are all trending down. In-state rival South Carolina is on the rise, but has dozens of steps to go to catch big brother Dabo. A win, likely against North Carolina, would send Clemson to the CFP. There’s just one problem with that scenario. It’s getting smashed right now in the last four. The Tigers survived at home against a Syracuse team that was lucky to be No. 14 in the country. In reality, the Orange are nowhere close to a top-20 team. Give me a majority of the SEC over ‘Cuse head-to-head.

If Clemson plays like it did Saturday, Alabama, Ohio State, Georgia, or Tennessee would smash it. The Tigers’ have one of the most talented defensive lines in the country and are a great team. They’re joking to think they have a chance at a national championship right now. That’s why a switch at quarterback might be the right move. Clemson are sitting ducks in the CFP semifinals to superior teams, much in the same way Cincinnati and Michigan were one year ago. We’ll see how fast Swinney retracts his comments about Uiagalelei being QB1. At the first sign of further adversity, he wouldn’t hesitate to pull the trigger again.