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🎤 QUICK START ✍️

🎥 Happy Gilmore 2 was released by Netflix and the movie actually didn’t desecrate the legacy of the original, which is a big win!

🏈 Aaron Rodgers took the high road (for once) in responding to criticism from Terry Bradshaw over his signing with the Steelers.

🏈 Big Ten coaches and officials are in favor of scrapping preseason polls in their entirety, which would certainly dent the SEC’s hypothetical advantage every season.

🚨LEADING OFF 🚨

College football needs Deion Sanders

Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders has been a gift to college football ever since he first took the sidelines. But throughout the summer there have been worrying signs that Primetime has been battling through some serious health issues. After missing most of spring football, Sanders resisted inquiries into his health earlier this month at Big 12 media days.

But the public will finally get answers on Monday at 11 a.m. MT when Sanders holds a press conference with both his personal medical team and representatives from Colorado’s Anschutz Medical Center.

The fact that Sanders will have both personal and university doctors present at a press conference just a month before the season begins is a worrying sign. And while we are all hoping to hear good news regarding the personal health of Deion Sanders, nobody can say for sure what will happen. Earlier this summer, USA Today reported that Sanders was dealing with an “unspecified health issue.”

Sanders has had as transformational an impact on college football as anyone who has graced the sport in recent memory. His Hall of Fame resume, larger than life personality, and coaching skills put a 1-win Colorado team on the map instantly. The Colorado story electrified the nation in year one of Sanders in Boulder and delivered a Heisman Trophy for Travis Hunter in year two.

And in an age where so much of the college football world swings on the axis of power between the SEC and the Big Ten, it’s refreshing (and healthy for the sport) that there is at least one team outside the duopoly that draws eyeballs. And if there’s one thing we know about Deion Sanders, it’s that he draws eyeballs. In fact, it’s worth arguing that Deion Sanders is the single biggest ratings draw in all of college football in 2025.

And if his first year brought more hype than substance, last year showed that the Buffaloes could play consistent winning football. If Sanders was to miss any time, it wouldn’t only be a sad day for Colorado football. It would be for all of college football.

📣 SOCIAL EXPERIMENT 🌟

At the Baseball Hall of Fame, Ichiro Suzuki had an all-timer of an acceptance speech including a shoutout to the voter that kept him from being a unanimous selection.

Greg Olsen and Luke Kuechly do not sound like your everyday, run-of-the-mill middle school football coaches.

Athletics broadcaster Chris Caray unfortunately lost this Lawrence Butler home run in the lights in Houston and delivered a call that will not go down alongside “The Giants win the pennant!” in baseball history books. At least he was a good sport about it with broadcast partner Dallas Braden afterwards.

💬_{AROUND AA} 💬

🏈 Ryan Clark moved quickly to make peace with Cam Newton and not have a repeat of his extended social media feud with Robert Griffin III.

📺 Bomani Jones went on a deep dive with Howard Bryant to talk about how the way ESPN has changed covering sports has had a particular impact on baseball.

🏈 ESPN anchor (and former Chicago reporter) Shae Peppler Cornett apologized to Bears fans when she filed a report from Green Bay wearing Packers gear.

🏈 Skip Bayless is open to the Washington Commanders returning to their controversial former nickname on just one condition.

🔥THE CLOSER🔥

Sayonara Sweet Science

Once upon a time, boxing was one of the biggest, most popular, most mainstream sports there was. But it’s not the 1970s anymore and Muhammad Ali and Howard Cosell are not walking through that door anytime soon.

And this weekend, boxing (very quietly) reached a milestone, or perhaps more fittingly, a point of no return. As first reported by Sportico’s Jason Clinkscales, this weekend’s final Top Rank card on ESPN means that no linear network has a rights deal with the sweet science. But it’s not just cable or network television. Even the iconic boxing franchises on HBO and Showtime no longer exist.

Top boxers used to be cultural phenomenons. Now the most famous fighter is YouTuber Jake Paul and the most watched cards are filled with content creators, not lineal champions. How many sports fans actually know who Oleksandr Usyk is? Five percent? One percent? Is even that drastically overstating it?

There’s still nothing in sports that quite matches the feel of a big title fight, but given just how far boxing is from the national consciousness, it’s fair to ask when we will every truly experience it again.