In its heyday, College GameDay was the de facto No. 2 studio show behind Inside the NBA. Pregame shows are notorious for filling the air time with a panel of experts struggling to find opportunities to make points or move the conversation into a meaningful discussion. I challenge you to watch the Sunday NFL shows on ESPN, CBS, Fox, or the NFL Network for more than 15 minutes without audibly screaming, “Oh my god, who the fuck cares?!” 17 times.

The reason college pregame shows work so well is the pageantry, the atmosphere, the marching band, and a few thousand college students who woke up, swigged some Rumplemintz as a substitute for mouthwash, and made their way over to the set to warm up their vocal chords for the real thing. You don’t have to watch every second of the three hour program to enjoy the show, you can turn it on as background noise while you make coffee or eat breakfast, and check in when something fun is going on.

Lately, that’s just the final 10 minutes when the crew picks the games and Lee Corso dons the headgear. Over the past few years, with Chris Fowler moving on and Corso’s, to put it nicely, inconsistent health, the show hasn’t exactly fallen off, but it has become a little vulnerable to would-be usurpers.

Gene Wojciechowski’s heartstring-pulling features still reinforce my cynicism the way Tom Rinaldi used to. Rece Davis isn’t quite Fowler, which is fine because that’s a lofty standard to aspire to, but he’s polished and has a good rapport with the 17 people they parade on the set.

Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff is the most notable pregame show making a bid for GameDay’s spot, and it even adopted the traveling circus template that Fowler, Corso, and Herbstreit perfected. The Fox guys do a serviceable job — the Urban Meyer rehire notwithstanding — and at least lit a fire under ESPN to step up its game(day). However, unless Meyer starts throwing back a few scotches between commercial breaks, they don’t have a Corso.

Gameday’s main attraction, or at least antagonist, has always been Corso, and he has been absent or sparsely used lately. It’s increasingly tough to sit through him trying to hear what the guest picker is saying, or barely getting out the “No so fast my friend” rebuke to the rotating celebrity.

Enter Pat McAFee. The former NFL punter has somehow parlayed a stint in comedy and his relationship with Peyton Manning into a credible media career and a permanent spot on the show. Since leaving Barfstool, he has grown his brand as Aaron Rodgers’ mouthpiece. Anytime the aspiring monk wants to air a grievance about the Packers or vaccine requirements, he hops on the Pat McAfee Show. The host also has an on-again, off-again relationship with the WWE that I’m not knowledgeable enough to comment on. So, seeing as I have no interest in and/or abhor all four of those things — Rodgers, wrestling, Barfstool, and Manning — my reaction to him showing up on the GameDay set was extremely skeptical.

Regardless of how it ended, working for a company that’s at the forefront of the fight on cancel culture like it’s not misogyny’s response to the #MeToo movement lops you in with a repugnant crowd, and amplifying the claims of the NFL’s biggest anti-vaxxer — who’s on your show in a hoodie decrying cancel culture — makes my brain bleed. Throw in the tank tops and a schtick that doesn’t stop, and the intolerableness is too much. It’s too much.

Why couldn’t ESPN find another former college football-only star to try? Eventually, one will pop. Desmond Howard’s laugh is infectious as Fran Drescher’s, David Pollack is oozing so much masculinity the EPA has declared it toxic, but Kirk Herbstreit is still the perfect straight guy to the rest of the antics.

Yet, I’m starting to come around to McAfee. When they ask him to do something — whether it’s a gimmick, talking football, or interacting with a guest — he puts forth maximum effort. You can tell he actually watches the games and loves the sport.

He helped Manning direct the Tennessee band for “Rocky Top” and backflipped/belly flopped off a houseboat into the Tennessee River wearing orange-and-white checkered overalls and a matching bucket hat. He hypes the fans as well as he plays the heel, and I’ve rarely seen a member of the crew openly antagonize the crowd like he did when he howled for NC State while in Clemson for their matchup a fews weeks ago.

My normal reaction when some jackass shows off his oversized belt buckles is an exaggerated “This fucking guy.” I mean, I still say that when McAfee flashes his chrome plate for the camera, as you know some ESPN producer is screaming to avoid a closeup of his crotch, but it’s less of a “This fucking guy” with a thumb point, and more of a “This fucking guy” with a stifled laugh.

While I’m guessing he’s been vetted enough by the Mothership to be cleared of cancelable offenses from his previous work, I’m not a convert and have zero interest in his show outside of the occasional aggregate-able interview. He’s on record saying his mom would beat his ass if he ever did anything to disrespect a woman, and that’s commendable. It’d be nice if his reason for respecting women wasn’t fear of physical violence, but at this point in society, taking what you can get will have to do.

College GameDay is at its best with an over-the-top personality, and McAfee certainly is that. The show is the soundtrack to a lot of fans’ Saturday mornings, and the headgear selections are part of college football’s tradition. McAfee is vying to become a part of that fabric in an increasingly unforgiving landscape that his former employer and QB buddy actively taunt.

Will ESPN retire the headgear when Corso does? Or will McAfee take over the duties? Will he even last that long? I have no clue. He currently resides under the guilty pleasure umbrella because he’s reviving a show that I love.

Be that as it mat, the chances of him getting caught up in some dumb shit and getting canned are as good as the odds that he successfully replaces Corso as GameDay’s resident court jester. 

It’s not underground baseball science to say that home runs are the determining factor this time of year. Everyone has known it, and yet every so often someone tries to fool themselves into thinking that there can be another way. Generally, it’s someone clinging to the past, “the way baseball used to be” or some other such garbage. But there isn’t. With the pitching as good as it is, you have to hit the ball out of the damn park to get anywhere. Hit homers, win prizes.

The Astros-Mariners series basically became about three home runs, all hit by the Astros. The Rhys Hoskins home run in Game 3 against the Braves pretty much flipped the series. That’s how these things work.

Cleveland tried to make a big deal about how much contact they’ve made during this season. It came from other media people as well, that a team could be successful by doing something other than hitting for power. It’s been a forlorn hope both inside and outside baseball. That’s why Rob Manfred neutered the baseballs, after all. It’s why they’re banning the shift, in the hope that hitters may try and dial it back and just settle for singles again.

But it’s all horseshit. Cleveland didn’t have a plan to just be a slappy, contact-heavy, tilt-the-BABIP-in-our-favor way. They have to be that way because their owners won’t pay for anyone who can hit the ball all that hard. They’ve needed a whole new outfield for years, which they only started doing from within in the middle of this season. They were a team built on a shoestring budget simply because they just happened to make a lot of contact. Houston makes a lot of contact, too. Just way more of it is loud, which is why they’re still playing. Which is why they’re always playing at this time of year.

And it wasn’t good contact for the Guardians. The Cleveland offense wasn’t good this season. Fifteenth in runs, 16th in wRC+ at 99, meaning a tick below average. They got to the playoffs because the only other two teams in their division that were actively trying were either dumb or injured or both — and they also pitch and field extremely well. Their offense was not a feature, it was a bug.

They were lucky to find a team in the Wild Card Round that also couldn’t score in the Tampa Bays — no coincidence they’re another team that won’t pay anyone — but Cleveland is going home now because they couldn’t score. It was cute that they could fashion a couple of railles late in Games 2 and 3, but that’s all it was. They scored 17 runs in seven games of the postseason. They got to hang around because their pitching is that good, and they’re that good at developing pitching.

The Yankees hit homers. They hit one in the first last night thanks to Giancarlo Stanton to basically end the game. They hit two in Game 1, which is how you score against a staff like Cleveland’s. There isn’t room for a string of singles for more than a game at a time.

The Phillies and Padres hurled their best starters at each other later in the day. Both Yu Darvish and Zack Wheeler were magnificent. Neither was going to give up a string of hits. The Phillies hit two homers, including one that should have counted for like six runs. You know it’s a tear in the time/space continuum when the pitcher doesn’t even bother to turn around. If Darvish had seen where it went he might have retired.

Hit the ball out of the damn park. It’s not hard. You can have your slapped singles and seeing-eye singles. Winners go ahead and turn the ball to plasma. Phone call over.

Shimmy and ache

There probably isn’t a better metaphor for James Harden right now than…

There was a time when you were this guy, James. And you can still flash that being that guy. But when it comes down to it, you’re the guy chucking up the airball when it comes time to really be that guy again. 

It’s easily forgotten that NBA is actually an acronym that stands for National Basketball Association. For a casual observer that follows the league’s personalities and news breakers on social media, the league can be viewed as a multiplatform action/drama that sparks the audience’s adrenaline with the dunks and game-winners, but the juicy storylines are what keep people glued to all their devices for updates.

I, like many others, love following a player who is disgruntled for whatever reason to find out which franchise they end up with by the trade deadline, and watching them as well as coaches and executives try and dismiss reports because of course no person is named “sources.”

All of the drama off the court is high entertainment, but so is the basketball. Talent in the NBA is at the highest level it has ever been. The G-League is a real source for players, as well as every corner of planet Earth.

Competition for the top-six seed in both conferences will be fierce, as there are no stars with preseason injuries — i.e. a slight ACL tear and a foot injury — that will keep them out of the season opener and end up keeping them out for the whole year.

All of this healthy talent, and young players rapidly improving, should result in one of the best MVP races in recent memory. However, remember that the race is a marathon and not a sprint. Appreciate the journey without trying to predict the results after every mile.

Players are going to have epic peaks, and level out as the 82 games play out. While I encourage people to appreciate the basketball, preseason predictions, however, are fun, and gambling is more open than ever. So here is the case for MVP for some of the gambling favorites, along with who I believe will be the 2022-23 NBA MVP.

Luka Dončić

No matter what sportsbook you look at — DraftKings, Caesars, FanDuel — he is, for the second straight year, the favorite to win the award.

Dončić will certainly have the most opportunity to go after the MVP. The Dallas Mavericks’ other ball handlers are Spencer Dinwiddie and Frank Nitilikina — both of whom come off of the bench. It’s highly likely that Dončić leads the NBA in usage rate for the third consecutive season, and the Mavericks do have an outside shot at one of the top seeds in the Western Conference, with the Golden State Warriors aging and no clarity as to whether whatever internal problems tripped up the Phoenix Suns in the playoffs have been fixed.

He lost the award in the first two months of last season when he and the Mavericks struggled. Then when Dončić returned from injury at the start of the new year, he and his team surged as the star guard averaged 30.1 points, 9.7 rebounds, and 8.8 assists per game on 46.2/36.6/75.9 shooting splits, and the Mavericks went on to win more than 50 games for the first time since their 2011 championship. If keeps it up all season, he may never leave the board as the betting favorite.

Zion Williamson

For those who may still doubt the talent of Williamson, just know that money has been pouring in for him to win the NBA MVP since July. That’s before he showed up to the New Orleans Pelicans Media Day built like an outside linebacker, revealing that he’s being musically powered by the Notorious B.I.G.

He’s still a long shot, but for those looking at a chance at a couple of grand, feel free to put $100 on Williamson at +2500. The last time he was healthy he was the most efficient paint scorer in the NBA, averaging 27 points per game on 61.1 percent from the field, and the last time the Pelicans were on the floor without him they gave the No. 1 seed Suns all that they could handle.

If these young, talented, athletic, and confident Pelicans jump to a top-two seed, and Williamson is the hottest show in the NBA by scoring at will and still showing off his playmaking chops, he’ll have enough hype to carry him to the MVP

Nikola Jokić

He is the best player statistically in the NBA for the last two seasons, and it hasn’t been close. Last season he led the league in PER, Win Shares, Offensive Win Shares, Win Shares per 48 minutes, Box Plus/Minus, Offensive Box Plus/Minus, Defensive Box Plus/Minus, Value Over Replacement Player, and also total defensive rebounds just for the heck of it.

Jokić carried a Denver Nuggets’ roster held together with spit and glue to a 48-34 record. Not only did the Nuggets make the playoffs, but they also avoided the Play-In Tournament, all while Jeff Green played the fifth most minutes on the team.

Jamal Murray has spent a year and a half recovering from his ACL surgery, and should be ready to bring back the most devastating pick-and-roll attack in the game. Michael Porter Jr. is reported to be healthy, but his back might as well serve as a giant question mark on his whole career. If the Nuggets’ best players stay healthy, they earn a No. 1 seed, and Jokić again leads the NBA in every advanced metric, the MVP voters will have to do what they haven’t since Larry Bird — award a player the MVP for the third consecutive season.

Giannis Antetokounmpo

The case for Giannis — pain. Pain that he will bring to the whole NBA this season after the Milwaukee Bucks’ disappointing championship defense. Only Bobby Portis made it to 70 total games played for the Bucks last season, as injuries and pacing after being forced to return to action 90 days after a full 82-game plus championship season resulted in them only winning 51 games.

While the Bucks finished the season as the third seed in the Eastern Conference with only three more wins than the Nuggets, when Antetokounmpo was on the court, it was becoming clear that he was the best player in the NBA. A two-way force not seen since Miami Heat-era LeBron James.

Then came the playoffs, and in two rounds he completely separated himself from the rest of the league. He did what he wanted, when he wanted, and if Khris Middleton doesn’t get hurt in the first round, or Jayson Tatum saves the Celtics’ season in Milwaukee, they win back-to-back titles. If the Bucks get back to the top of the East, and Antetokounmpo continues his warpath from the playoffs, he can snatch a third MVP.

Joel Embiid

My pick for MVP.

The Philadelphia 76ers were a toddler who should’ve used the bathroom after a fast food lunch on a road trip, but didn’t, and then has an accident 30 miles from the next rest stop kind of a mess in 2021-22. It started in the 2021 playoffs, and carried over because they delayed fixing the biggest problem that after that loss to the Atlanta Hawks: Ben Simmons could never put on a 76ers uniform again.

Daryl Morey hung on to acquire James Harden at the trade deadline, who was nowhere close to the steadying lead-guard force that he was for the Brooklyn Nets the previous season, or the unstoppable force that he was at the top of the key for Morey’s Houston Rockets the previous decade. Harden was slow, his jump shot off, and still a liability on defense. Not the best return for repetitively punching your players in the stomach by holding onto Simmons for so long.

However, through all of that, Joel Embiid had the best season of his career. He played by far the most games he ever has — 68 — and led the NBA in scoring with 30.6 points per game on 49.9/37.1/81.4 shooting splits as a 7-foot-2 tank. He did all of this while being a dominant defensive player.

He had every right to say “I wonder what else I have to do to win it.” He also legitimately lost to Jokić. The 76ers won three more total games than the Nuggets did, and Jokić played in six more individually. For all of the 76ers drama, Jokić would’ve given a pinkie toe to have Tobias Harris, Tyrese Maxey, and Harden as teammates. And again, Jokić’s advanced metric domination was otherworldly.

This season though, can belong to Embiid. The 76ers shored up the rotation by adding P.J. Tucker and DeAnthony Melton. Maxey should continue to ascend after the huge jump he took last season, and Harden appears to be more focused than he has ever been. A performance close to last season’s, and a top-two, maybe even top-three finish in the East as long as they win at least 55 games — the award will go to him. It’s his turn.

They say, “out of sight, out of mind.” Thankfully, that hasn’t been the case for Brittney Griner, largely due to her wife and the women of the WNBA.

But now it’s time for reinforcements.

With the 76ers and Celtics tipping the season off on Tuesday night in Boston — followed by the Lakers traveling to San Francisco for the Warriors’ ring ceremony — it’s the perfect storm for some of the biggest names in a global game to start a season-long petition for Griner’s freedom. And since this is a league in which playoff games were boycotted in “The Bubble” as players frequently discussed Breonna Taylor, it doesn’t feel like too much of an ask for NBA players to be more vocal about bringing Griner home.

“She’s very afraid about being left and forgotten in Russia, or just completely used to the point of her detriment,” Brittney’s wife Cherelle told CBS Mornings earlier this month.

“Like, y’all don’t see the need to get me back home? Am I just nothing?” Cherelle quoted Griner as saying, in addition to her wife feeling “like my life just doesn’t matter.”

On Sunday, it was reported that Griner’s release is a low priority for the Russians.

“In this tense situation, I think that he (Biden) is thinking first and foremost about the upcoming midterm elections,” USA Today reported Yury Ushakov — a former Russian ambassador to the United States — said on state-run TV program Moscow. Kremlin. Putin.” “He keeps emphasizing the need to bring (Griner) back home … however, it’s not the main issue that we are concerned about.”

According to Griner’s lawyer, she’s struggling with her emotions as she’s only being allowed outside once a day and shares her small cell with two other people. She’s been in custody since February.

“She is not yet absolutely convinced that America will be able to take her home,” her attorney Alexandr D. Boykov told The New York Times. “She is very worried about what the price of that will be, and she is afraid that she will have to serve the whole sentence here in Russia.”

Griner understands who she is, and that’s a triple minority as a Black gay woman — which has always been a recipe for America not making you a priority, let alone a country run by someone like Putin.

“If it was LeBron, he’d be home, right?” Phoenix Mercury head coach Vanessa Nygaard asked in July. “It’s a statement about the value of women. It’s a statement about the value of a Black person. It’s a statement about the value of a gay person. All of those things. We know it, and so that’s what hurts a little more.”

This is why the work of the women in the WNBA has been so important in keeping Griner’s name at the forefront of discussions. It’s why it was so beautiful to see July’s WNBA All-Star Game serve as a tribute to one of the league’s all-time greats. The warmups had her name and number on the back, as she was also named an honorary starter.

“It’s a family,” said Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammond. “Not only has the WNBA and its players, but also the NBA, bringing a national light to it only helps maybe put some pressure on the Russian government to do the right thing and let her go.

“It’s time for her to come back.”

Next week, Griner’s appeal of her nine-year prison sentence for drug possession will take place on Oct. 25. Between the opening night of the 2022-2023 NBA season — which falls on her 32nd birthday — and then, at least 51 games will have been played, giving the men of the NBA 50-plus opportunities to show America, Russia, and the world that Brittany Griner’s Black life matters. Posting a hashtag is the easy part. Now is the time for action beyond having Twitter fingers.

The sky is falling in Carolina as this team continues to implode after losing to the L.A. Rams on Sunday. With Baker Mayfield out and Sam Darnold on injured reserve, QB duties fell to P.J. Walker and Jacob Eason. Both players saw time and passed for a combined 119 yards. That wasn’t even the worst part of the loss, as wide receiver Robbie Anderson got himself ejected by interim head coach Steve Wilks after getting into a shouting match with Carolina’s wide receiver’s coach.

On Monday, the Panthers wasted little time parting ways with Anderson trading him to the Arizona Cardinals for multiple late-round draft picks, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Anderson had been unhappy with the team, so this wasn’t unexpected, but the sideline incident with the coach probably sped up the process.

Carolina is the first team in the league to record five losses and its top two QBs are out of action. The Panthers front office appears to be throwing in the towel and will likely take a QB in next year’s draft. Nothing seems to be going right for the Panthers, who are even open to trading star running back Christian McCaffrey at this point.

In back-to-back weeks Carolina has fired its coach and traded away one of its best young talents on offense. Another rebuild looks to be on the way.

Cooper Rush’s fairy tale story ground to a halt Sunday Night, minus the Hollywood ending. In this rivalry game, the Philadelphia Eagles took care of the Dallas Cowboys, 26-17, and exposed Rush as the undrafted backup quarterback he’s always been.

Looks like Rush’s wife, Lauryn, chose the wrong game to attend.

Midnight struck, and Cooper’s ride turned back into a pumpkin right before our eyes, after everyone looked to push him ahead of Dak Prescott. For as good as Rush had been in his previous four games this season, he was even worse against the Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field Sunday night.

Before facing the Eagles, Rush had not thrown an interception this year, and had just one in five career starts. Philly picked Rush off three times in this game and forced the Central Michigan product into arrant throws and bad reads all night. The undrafted free agent recorded more incomplete passes than he completed hitting just 47 percent for the game. It wasn’t Rush’s night, and his lapse couldn’t have come at a better time for Cowboys fans with Prescott on the mend. The QB controversy Jerry Jones once spoke of is now completely thrown out the window.

Even former Cowboys wide receiver Dez Bryant can admit Prescott is still the rightful owner of the QB1 spot in Big D. Prescott and Bryant aren’t exactly what you’d call best friends by any means, as they never seemed to quite get on the same page early in Dak’s career. The former No. 88 even had a well-publicized Twitter feud with Dak’s brother Tad that’s likely still lingering in the background.

The key takeaway here is precisely what Dez points out in his Tweet. The Cowboys starting QB job was, is, and will be Prescott’s well into the future. We can’t discount the stability that Rush brought in Prescott’s absence, but there was never a real chance for Cooper to remain “the guy” once Dak was healthy enough to return.

Right now, it looks like Prescott’s return could happen next week (Week 7) in Dallas against the Detroit Lions. That’s a much better game to come back to than against the Eagles because No. 4 will be rusty. He’s coming back from a busted thumb on his throwing hand. Just because team doctors say he’s healthy enough to play (if they clear him) doesn’t mean he’s 100 percent healthy.

“That’s my plan,” Prescott said after the Cowboys’ 26-17 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday night. “Obviously, got to see the doc, but, yeah, that’s kind of my plan.”

Miami Dolphins doctors told Tua Tagovailoa he could stay in a game after suffering what looked like a head injury, then cleared him to play again less than a week later. Of course, the injuries of Prescott and Tagovailoa are much different, but the fact remains that team doctors aren’t always operating with the player’s best interests in mind.

Dallas’ schedule sets up nicely over the next few games and should give Dak enough time to work his way back into a good groove. After the Lions in Week 7, the Cowboys welcome the Bears to Big D, then go on the road to play the Packers and Vikings. If the start of the season for Green Bay is any indication, that should be a win for Dallas, but then again, we know how so-called “guaranteed” wins often turn out for this franchise.

However you choose to view it, Prescott is the man in Dallas and will be for years to come. Like many, I’ve never been the biggest believer in Prescott when it comes to leading the Cowboys back to the Super Bowl, but he’s undoubtedly the best option at QB on Jones’ roster.

Last season, as Real Madrid went on their bloodless procession to both La Liga and Champions League title, those of us who aren’t decked out in white could console ourselves in the fact that sometimes, there are things you just can’t help. Their league triumph was due to the fact that Barcelona had become the biggest basketcase in the soccer world, and there are no other contenders in Spain. Their march to yet another Champions League trophy was due to the dark arts and spells only they can cast, because they are Real Madrid.

Madrid exist to win. While Barcelona in the past or Man City now run over anything with an identifiable style, changing how the game is played the world over and how we view it, Madrid are the Lannisters. They show you how the world as it really is. None of the style or character or tenets really matter if you still win in the end. None of Madrid’s Champions League triumphs in the past decade or La Liga titles can be attached to a particular ethos or method. They win because they’re Madrid, and because they’re Madrid they win. It’s not much more complicated than that. You can have your statements on the sport or your game-altering tactics or your name that echoes in history, they’ll just take the trophies, thanks. They have great players who are buoyed to perform in the biggest moments basically because they put on that jersey. Detailed tactics, nuanced instructions? Fuck that, they’ll just score more goals or give up less or whatever means yet another win. Ends, not means.

Except this time around, Madrid are pretty exciting and dynamic, instead of just the monolith that keeps moving forward due to its own momentum. Which sucks.

Madrid hosted Barcelona yesterday, and though the stats and analytics will tell you that Barca actually had the better of this one, with the better chances, more shots, and far more of the ball (2.16-1.14 in xG to Barca), it never actually felt like Barcelona would win or even come close to doing so. It’s very Madrid to say the other team can rack up the figment numbers, and they’ll just take the only one that matters.

Madrid’s opening goal was pretty much the story of their two seasons, even though Barca remains only three points behind Madrid after yesterday’s loss. Whenever Barca come up against a quality team, their defense can be completely firebombed. And there are few if any teams more electrifying teams in space than Madrid. In the 12th minute, the Barca midfield was too far upfield, the defensive line was about as organized as kindergarten recess, which left Toni Kroos all the time in the world to send Vinicius Jr. through. And once Vinicius Jr. is through on goal, no one’s catching him.

Vinicius surprisingly missed this chance, but in Barca’s scramble to recover, it left Karim Benzema – who is mere minutes away from winning the Ballon D’or at the time of writing – a neighborhood of space to slot home the rebound.

23 minutes later, here’s Barca getting passed into oblivion before Fede Valverde had a farm of territory to launch a groin-grabbingly thunderous shot into the corner.

From there, Barca would huff and puff, but it always felt like Madrid had them at arm’s length, and were basically playing with their food. Barcelona pulled one back late in the game, which meant as soon as Madrid tried again they earned a penalty to ice it.

This is Madrid now. Instead of old heads doing it from memory like last year, when Luka Modrić and Toni Kroos and Casemiro and Benzema went full reunion tour, this is now Vincius Jr.’s, Valverde’s, and Auréllien Tchouaméni’s team. It’s Rodrygo’s team. It’d Éder Militão’s team. All under 25, all looking to make the next generation of Madrid arrive today.

Vinicius Junior we’ve know about for a while now, an absolute terror on the left side of their attack who is playing like he might keep the Ballon D’or in Madrid next year. Which makes Kylian Mbappé’s reported desire to flee to Madrid all the more hilarious, because it’s very debatable whether Madrid would be better off slotting him ahead of Vinicius Jr.

This year’s revelation, though it started last season, is the Uruguayan Valverde on the right side. He has four goals and an assist in just seven starts so far this season in the league, and though he nominally starts on the right side of the front three, his actual position most times feels like it’s “everywhere.” He pops up all over the field, and yesterday frequently was an additional right back to keep Ousmane Dembele quiet. Benzema has missed a chunk of this season through injury, which didn’t matter much as Rodrygo poured in four goals in five starts in his absence and formed an amoeba-on-speed front line with Valverde and Vinicius that took any form at high speed.

Tchouaméni was so good so quickly at the base of midfield that Madrid felt comfortable punting Casemiro to Manchester, even though he’d been the linchpin for five Champions League winning teams. When Kroos or Modrić need a rest, Eduardo Camavinga is around. Militão has become the pivot point for the defense for both Madrid and Brazil.

And the old heads are still around when needed. This is the rare case of a club being able to pair one iteration of a great team to the next with a seamless transition, every position being handed off when the time is right while conserving the declining tanks of the older players.

Madrid clearly will take more than small pleasure in capping off a horrific week for Barcelona, which basically crashed out of the Champions League, the money from which it desperately needed to justify its scoop and toss financial plan from this summer. There is probably a really good team within the Barcelona squad, but it was asking the world for neophyte manager Xavi to be able to unearth it in mere weeks with so much on the line. After he’d already kind of done so at the end of last season with a whole different group of players. Without the cash from the knockout rounds of the Champions League coming, Barca could really be anything come March or April.

No matter what Barca does, no matter what anyone else does, there will be Madrid. Because they’re Madrid. Whether they’re just there or are galvanizing as they are now, they’re there. It’s their thing.