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🚨 Headlines
🎾 Last two standing: While you were sleeping, Madison Keys beat Iga Świątek in an electric third-set tiebreak and Aryna Sabalenka beat Paula Badosa to reach the Australian Open final.
🏈 Jets hire Glenn: In 1994, the Jets drafted Aaron Glenn with the 12th overall pick. 31 years later, they’ve hired him as their new head coach after a successful stint as Lions DC.
🏀 SGA’s first 50-piece: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored a career-high 54 points in OKC’s win over the Jazz for the first 50-point game of his career.
🏈 CFP viewership: 22 million people watched Monday’s CFP title game. That’s down from last year (25 million) but still makes it the most-watched non-NFL sporting event over the past year.
⚽️ City’s nightmare continues: Manchester City gave up four unanswered goals in a 4-2 loss to PSG, and now the struggling English giants must win next week to avoid elimination from the Champions League.
🏈 Win the turnover battle, win the game
Historically, NFL teams that win the turnover battle win the game roughly 70% of the time. But recently, in the postseason, those teams have been nearly unbeatable.
By the numbers: Teams are 7-0 in these playoffs when winning the turnover battle, and they’re 22-1 in the last 23 games. That lone exception came last year when the Chiefs, who turned it over just once, beat the Bills.
The Final Four: Kansas City, Buffalo, Philadelphia and Washington have combined for 15 takeaways against zero turnovers so far this postseason, mastering the art of taking care of the ball — and stealing it back.
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The Bills committed just eight turnovers during the regular season (tied for the fewest ever) and haven’t lost the turnover battle in 21 consecutive games, the longest streak since at least 1960.
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The Chiefs have gone eight straight games without a turnover, the longest streak of the Super Bowl era. Their last one? Against the Bills in Week 11, when they lost their first game of the season.
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The Eagles and Commanders have both recorded 6+ takeaways and zero turnovers through their first two playoff games. Only two other teams have ever done that, and they both went on to win the Super Bowl (1998 Broncos, 2004 Patriots).
QBs lead the way: Josh Allen (0.9% interception rate), Jalen Hurts (1%) and Patrick Mahomes (1.1%) have three of the four lowest interception rates in playoff history (min. 200 attempts), and Jayden Daniels might just be the best rookie ever.
⚾️ Baseball’s new Evil Empire
The Dodgers have flexed their might this offseason as baseball’s new Evil Empire, fortifying what was already a superteam and solidifying themselves as the overwhelming favorites to repeat as champions.
The latest: Los Angeles added Japanese wunderkind Rōki Sasaki ($6.5 million signing bonus) and All-Star closer Tanner Scott (4 years, $72 million) over the weekend, securing the top starter and reliever on the market.
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Those were just the latest deals in a busy offseason during which they’ve also signed two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell (5 years, $182 million), extended last year’s NLCS MVP Tommy Edman (5 years, $74 million) and re-signed slugger Teoscar Hernández (3 years, $66 million).
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Combine that with the fact that $700 million man Shohei Ohtani will return to the mound this year, and it’s easy to see why the other 29 teams and their fans are a bit disheartened heading into 2025.
“From an entertainment perspective, it’s underwhelming, dispiriting. The rich are getting even richer, the strong even stronger. Chavez Ravine, it seems, is hogging all the hardball joy.”
By the numbers: The Dodgers have dished out $478.5 million this offseason, more than $200 million more than any other team besides the Mets, whose league-leading sum ($972 million) went mostly to Juan Soto ($765 million).
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L.A.’s 2025 luxury tax payroll ($372.2 million) is by far the highest of any team. But even that number belies how much their roster actually costs due to their unprecedented use of deferrals, which allow them to spend freely while incurring smaller penalties.
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The Dodgers have a staggering $1.38 billion in deferred money on their active contracts. The Mets and Red Sox are the only other teams to even top $50 million, notes the L.A. Times.
Competitive imbalance? Whether or not you think MLB’s salary system is broken, you have to admit that what the Dodgers are doing at least feels antithetical to fostering competition. Their $1 billion of deferred cash is worth as much as the entire Marlins franchise!
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That said, they’re operating well within the rules and aren’t the first franchise to outspend their foes to this degree.
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In fact, exactly two decades ago, the payroll gap between the Yankees (the old Evil Empire) and the rest of the league was even bigger.
Bottom line: The Dodgers have built a juggernaut on paper, and they’re huge World Series favorites. But instead of crowning them before the season even begins, consider this: No team has won back-to-back World Series in a quarter-century, and just two reigning champs in that time have even made it back to the Fall Classic the following year.
🇺🇸 Photos across America
Orlando — The USMNT cruised to a 3-0 win over Costa Rica in their second straight friendly without Europe-based players.
Aspen, Colorado — The 2025 X Games begin today at Buttermilk Ski Resort.
Lake Forest, Illinois — Is Ben Johnson about to wake a “sleeping giant” in Chicago? The Bears’ new head coach has a vision, and it starts with Caleb Williams.
La Jolla, California — Ludvig Åberg (-9) is the clubhouse leader after Round 1 of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.
📈 Sport on the rise: Women’s wrestling
Women’s wrestling has been approved as the NCAA’s 91st championship sport. The first championship will be held in 2026, and will feature athletes from all three divisions.
Fully emerged: Women’s wrestling had previously been designated as an “emerging sport,” part of a NCAA program established in 1994. Six of those sports (all women’s) have now been elevated to championship status:
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Rowing (1996)
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Ice hockey (2000)
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Water polo (2000)
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Bowling (2003)
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Beach volleyball (2015)
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Wrestling (2025)
Sport on the rise: Women’s wrestling is America’s fastest-growing high school sport. Participation numbers have quintupled over the past decade, and they shot up 60% last year alone to over 50,000 girls nationwide.
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Team USA has won four women’s wrestling gold medals in each of the last two Olympics, and few athletes were more dominant in Paris than phenom Amit Elor.
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Iowa junior Kennedy Blades took home silver this past summer and will now get the chance to compete for an NCAA title as a senior next season.
The last word, courtesy of Jackie Paquette, the first female executive at the National Wrestling Coaches Association (via AP):
“When women first had a chance to participate in sports in an organized fashion, it was in sports that were considered feminine. It was tennis, it was golf, it was swimming. Wrestling is the opposite of that in a sense, so it has been hard for some to accept women in that form. But we are finding out now that the world is changing.”
📺 Watchlist: NBA in Paris
The NBA returns to Paris this afternoon (2pm ET, NBA) for the league’s fourth game in the French capital, as the Pacers face the Spurs in a homecoming game for Victor Wembanyama.
Pregame reading: Why NBA games on European soil are so important, especially when Victor Wembanyama is involved (Morten Stig Jensen, Yahoo Sports)
More to watch:
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🎾 Australian Open: No. 2 Alexander Zverev vs. No. 7 Novak Djokovic (10:30pm, ESPN); No. 1 Jannik Sinner vs. No. 21 Ben Shelton (3:30am, ESPN) … Men’s semifinals.
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🏀 NBA: Heat at Bucks (7:30pm, TNT); Celtics at Lakers (10pm, TNT)
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🏀 NCAAW: No. 8 Maryland at No. 12 Ohio State (6pm, BTN); No. 1 UCLA* at Rutgers (7pm, FS1); No. 17 Tennessee at No. 7 Texas (9pm, SEC)
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🏀 NCAAM: Wichita State at No. 24 Memphis (7pm, ESPN2); Maryland at No. 17 Illinois (9pm, FS1); San Francisco at Saint Mary’s (9pm, CBSSN)
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⛳️ PGA: Farmers Insurance Open (11:45am, ESPN+; 3pm, Golf)
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⛷️ X Games: Day 1 (7pm, Roku)
*Best start ever: UCLA is off to a program-record 18-0 start, and the Bruins are one of just two undefeated teams left in the nation (No. 5 LSU, 20-0).
🎾 Tennis trivia
Aryna Sabalenka is one win away from her third straight Australian Open singles title.
Question: Who was the last woman to do that?
Hint: 1997-99.
Answer at the bottom.
🏀 Birthday baller
Caitlin Clark turned 23 on Wednesday, and she celebrated by going 50-for-54 from three.
Trivia answer: Martina Hingis
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