A handful of Week 1 results set the stage for what should be an epic season of college football. A few other programs leaned on FCS opponents to hit the turbo button on hype and expectations.
Week 2 offers the chance for teams to either change or fortify those narratives against stiffer competition, featuring in-state battles, rekindled rivalries, upset specials and a top-10 tilt in The Big House.
Honorable Mention: BYU at SMU (Friday), No. 23 Georgia Tech at Syracuse, Baylor at No. 11 Utah, South Carolina at Kentucky, Michigan State at Maryland, No. 19 Kansas at Illinois, Oregon State at San Diego State.
(All point spreads come from BetMGM; click here for live odds. All kickoff times are Eastern and on Saturday unless otherwise noted.)
Before someone jumps in the comments complaining about the big point spread, remember that this same matchup last season — when the Tide limped to a 17-3 win in Tampa and the sky was falling for Bama fans — was a 34.5-point spread. I’m not suggesting there will be a repeat of that in Tuscaloosa, but this game can be viewed through the lens of all that has changed for the Tide since the previous meeting, when quarterback Jalen Milroe got benched and people openly wondered whether Nick Saban was washed.
Now Milroe is a Heisman contender and Saban (very much NOT washed) is sitting next to Pat McAfee on Saturday mornings. Credit to USF as well. The program has made significant strides under second-year coach coach Alex Golesh and has a dynamic quarterback of its own in Byrum Brown. I’ll be tuning in to see how Milroe and the Kalen DeBoer-led Crimson Tide fare against the Bulls a year later.
It’s the I-35 Rivalry between two of the top Group of 5 contenders. Both are coming off underwhelming Week 1 victories but were picked second in their respective preseason conference polls, with a chance to nab that G5 College Football Playoff spot if the rest of the season goes their way. Texas State, led by coach GJ Kinne and quarterback Jordan McCloud, was my preseason Playoff sleeper pick out of the Sun Belt, but the Bobcats will need a win over Jeff Traylor and the Roadrunners, who have ambitions of their own in the AAC and have won five straight in the rivalry. If those stakes aren’t enough, Kinne played quarterback for Traylor as a high-school senior — and their bond runs even deeper than that.
Line: Texas State -1.5
8. No. 17 Kansas State (1-0) at Tulane (1-0), Noon, ESPN
K-State made easy work of an FCS opponent last week while flashing its run-game potency, racking up 283 yards at 9.1 yards a pop. And after a couple of ACC favorites face-planted out of the starting blocks, the path to two Big 12 programs making the 12-team Playoff field seems much wider, which absolutely benefits the Wildcats. But going on the road to face Tulane is a tougher task after the Green Wave dominated its own FCS opponent with a strong debut by redshirt freshman quarterback Darian Mensah. Reminder: Tulane upset K-State in Manhattan two years ago, a Wildcat team that went on to win the Big 12.
Line: Kansas State -9.5
7. Appalachian State (1-0) at No. 25 Clemson (0-1), 8 p.m., ACC Network
Are the Tigers on upset alert? I’m not ready to predict this one either, but App State does have a history of taking down the big boys, most recently sixth-ranked Texas A&M on the road in 2022. The Mountaineers were preseason favorites in the Sun Belt and looked solid in their Week 1 win, with QB Joey Aguilar throwing for 326 yards and two touchdowns. Meanwhile, Clemson’s rough showing against Georgia — and the subsequent anti-Dabo discourse — makes the Tigers a must-watch against any opponent with a pulse. App State certainly qualifies.
Line: Clemson -17.5
The Pokes took care of business against an admirable South Dakota State side — as a top-20 team should — and running back Ollie Gordon II picked up where he left off in 2023 with 126 rushing yards and three touchdowns. Can Oklahoma State show the same promise against an SEC opponent? Any talk of Sam Pittman’s hot seat got back-burnered after Arkansas’ 70-0 shutout in Week 1, and Boise State transfer QB Taylen Green looked good in his Razorbacks debut. But this showdown in Stillwater — reviving a regional rivalry that’s been dormant since 1980 — should offer a clearer sense of what to expect from both teams.
Line: Oklahoma State -7.5
5. Colorado (1-0) at Nebraska (1-0), 7:30 p.m., NBC
Another renewed rivalry, this one from the old Big 12 (and Big Eight) days, now featuring a Big 12 team once again. Travis Hunter caught three touchdowns, Shedeur Sanders threw for 445 yards and Coach Prime made his usual postgame headlines after Colorado pulled out a win over North Dakota State last week. But the most anticipated aspect of this game might be Nebraska true freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola. The five-star recruit fueled the hype by going 19-for-27 for 238 yards and two touchdowns in the Cornhuskers’ 40-7 win over UTEP. Now he faces a Buffs’ defense that gave up 449 yards to NDSU, and is at the helm of a Nebraska team that will be looking to avenge last year’s 36-14 loss in Boulder.
Line: Nebraska -7.5
4. Boise State (1-0) at No. 7 Oregon (1-0), 10 p.m., Peacock
The jury is still out on the Ducks, who dropped from No. 3 to No. 7 in the AP Poll after an uninspiring 24-14 win over FCS Idaho last weekend, a game in which Oregon was favored by 49.5 points. The Ducks completely dominated the box score, including 380 passing yards from quarterback Dillon Gabriel on 41 of 49 completions. But a missed field goal, fumble and a couple of failed fourth-down attempts kept the game close and dolloped some skepticism onto Oregon. Boise State won a 56-45 shootout with Georgia Southern that featured 1,112 yards of combined offense, including 267 rushing yards and six touchdowns for Broncos stud running back Ashton Jeanty (who yours truly just happened to select in The Athletic’s Heisman draft). If the Ducks get their act together, I’d bet the over (61.5 points) in this one.
For those tuning into the Duke’s Mayo Classic, add Vols quarterback Nico Iamaleava to the list of much-hyped players who backed it up in Week 1. The redshirt freshman went 22-of-28 passing for 314 yards and three touchdowns in a blowout win over Chattanooga, gassing up the Knoxville faithful. Tennessee finished with 718 yards of total offense. Coastal Carolina transfer QB Grayson McCall looked pretty good in his NC State debut as well, but the Wolfpack struggled with Western Carolina and were trailing entering the fourth quarter before scoring 21 unanswered. NC State won’t have that same luxury against what has the early makings of another high-octane Tennessee offense.
Line: Tennessee -7.5
2. Iowa State (1-0) at No. 21 Iowa (1-0), 3:30 p.m., CBS
The Cy-Hawk series hasn’t been high-scoring lately, and that will probably be the case again, despite the Hawkeyesputting up 40 in the first game under new offensive coordinator Tim Lester. The over/under is 35.5, and the last Cy-Hawk matchup to surpass 45 combined points was Iowa’s 44-41 overtime win in 2017. But it should be another high-stakes slugfest between intrastate rivals with dark-horse Playoff hopes. The Cyclones had a workmanlike win over North Dakota but will need to be better running the ball against an Iowa defense that allowed only 189 total yards to Illinois State. Hawkeyes coach Kirk Ferentz is back on the sideline after a one-game suspension. Iowa has won seven of the past eight over Iowa State.
Line: Iowa -3
1. No. 3 Texas (1-0) at No. 10 Michigan (1-0), Noon, Fox
“Big Noon Kickoff” heads to Ann Arbor for a blue-blooded heavyweight clash. Michigan let Fresno State crawl within six points in the fourth quarter before slamming the door shut, but it will need to get much more from a new-look offense that failed to top 300 yards and scored only two of the team’s three touchdowns. Starting quarterback Davis Warren struggled, and running back Donovan Edwards never got revved up. The Wolverines will have to figure things out against a Texas squad that blanked Colorado State 52-0, including 260 yards and three touchdowns from Fansville’s own Deputy Quinn Ewers. The Longhorns went on the road for a massive Week 2 win over Alabama last year on their way to the Playoff. Michigan gets a chance to prove just how stout its national title defense can be.
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — The images of that night in Cincinnati were seared into our consciousness. The world, riveted, sat and stared at their televisions as it transpired and consumed the coverage for several days after.
That seemed like a lifetime ago for the rest of us. But for Damar Hamlin, it was his life. In some very literal ways, it became another life. He died on national television and was brought back.
“I think about it all the time,” Hamlin said. “As much as the world experienced it, it happened to me.”
At some point, we moved on to other events and games and storylines. Buffalo Bills fans could stop worrying about Hamlin’s health and fixate on owning the Miami Dolphins, hating the Kansas City Chiefs, fighting online about whether Josh Allen deserved the MVP or is overrated, gushing over Dalton Kincaid and Keon Coleman — any number of topics du jour.
Sure, we would check in with Hamlin to celebrate various markers in his return from a freak cardiac arrest while making a routine tackle against the Cincinnati Bengals on “Monday Night Football.” Returning to practice. Putting on the pads again. Taking that first hit. Playing a preseason game. Making his first live-action tackle. We’d note how Hamlin handled it and then move on. He was OK.
Hamlin, meanwhile, has been living a new life.
“I’m blessed for many reasons,” he said, “and I have a second chance at doing things the right way in all areas of my life.”
But a big part of Hamlin’s journey was returning to the man and football player he used to be.
For the first time since that excruciating night 20 months ago, Hamlin will be a starting safety Sunday, when the Bills open their season against the Arizona Cardinals in Highmark Stadium.
“What an accomplishment,” Bills coach Sean McDermott said during a reflective moment Wednesday morning. “Just as big as him not only deciding to go back to football, but full-contact, NFL football. It’s a physical game for anyone, let alone a young man who went through what he went through.
“I can’t even imagine, and I don’t think many can, what he went through to get to where he is.”
GO DEEPER
Taron Johnson soars for Bills after injuries and a benching nearly derailed him
What occurred in Cincinnati was so shocking and disturbing that, as NFL executives and officials debated whether to resume the anticipated Bills-Bengals showdown, McDermott had already made up his mind not to coach. He wasn’t going back to the sideline. He handed the job to defensive coordinator and assistant head coach Leslie Frazier and informed Bengals coach Zac Taylor.
McDermott was going to the hospital to be with Hamlin, game or no game.
“There were no real questions asked,” McDermott said. “I repeated myself so Leslie and Zac knew that what they thought they heard is what I was really saying because it’s not normal.”
The Bills stood with Hamlin throughout his comeback. He wasn’t good enough to get a uniform most weeks, but he remained on the 53-man roster.
Purely on paper, he was a 2023 fringe player. He was a healthy scratch for all but five games. He started zero. Hamlin played only 17 defensive snaps, making two tackles all season. Those are the stats of a player who usually gets waived or dropped to the practice squad a time or two.
Damar Hamlin remained a positive presence in the locker room even when he wasn’t playing. (Shawn Dowd / USA Today)
McDermott got emotional when asked about the power of Hamlin’s example even in street clothes on the gameday sideline.
“When you talk about an asterisk year, put two asterisks by this one because where do you find that in the player’s or head coach’s or organizational handbook?” McDermott said.
“Totally understanding the decisions made in the 11th hour, when you’re cutting the roster down, yeah, it would have been unpopular (to release Hamlin). Having said that, you always have to do what’s in the best interests of the team. I can tell you, he earned it. Whether he was the first guy in the boat or the last guy in the boat really doesn’t matter. Watching his trajectory from that time to now, very impressive.”
So 2023 essentially was an investment in Hamlin and the organization, a development year for what we see today. Hamlin could have walked away from football, probably with some kind of lifetime ambassador role within the Bills front office, but he remained patient while testing himself. The Bills allowed him the space and time.
Long snapper Reid Ferguson saw Hamlin’s evolution on a daily basis. They have adjoining locker stalls and talk often.
“He was a light in the room, always bringing the good energy,” said Ferguson, the longest-tenured Bills player. “That’s what we were looking for from him.
“Maybe the second half of last year, we were seeing Damar as Damar — at least I was. It was taking those steps on a daily basis, getting back to the guy before the Cincinnati game. I don’t believe that night is what he wanted as his identity. He worked through it, first pads practice, making the team, all those steps and hurdles he had to get through.”
GO DEEPER
How Joe Brady’s inclusive Friday meetings made Bills players take ownership of offense
The Bills were uncertain, rightfully so, about Hamlin filling the void left by the departure of longtime safety tandem Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde. Even with the development year, Hamlin was like an early astronaut. Who knows what will happen to him or what his body and mind can handle?
They signed free agent Mike Edwards, who won Super Bowls with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Chiefs, drafted Utah safety Cole Bishop in the second round, added 15th-year veteran Kareem Jackson in training camp and kept the door open for Hyde to return instead of retire.
Edwards struggled with a hamstring injury and Bishop hurt his arm. Jackson, at 36, didn’t add significant on-field stability, but was signed to the practice squad.
Hamlin this summer looked more like the player you would have expected last year if he hadn’t gone into cardiac arrest and had his world upended. He played like a young defensive back, building off a competent, 13-start season. That’s the work he laid down in 2022.
“I thank everybody in this entire building from the top down for supporting me and giving me the space to allow me to heal and have my process exactly how I needed it to go,” Hamlin said.
“It truly propelled me into allowing myself to be free this season. Last season was primarily just about healing and making myself do the hard stuff, thrusting myself into things that were uncomfortable, that made me fearful or gave me anxiety. But I was doing the hard stuff last year to make it easier this year.”
Last year, as the rest of the world moved on from Hamlin aside from the occasional check-in, he kept his mind focused on the day-to-day process, the here-and-now grind. Hamlin couldn’t just forget the cardiac arrest and the subsequent coma and burst back onto the field to assume the same professional place he was in during pregame warmups in Cincinnati.
Hamlin likes to post sticky notes around his bathroom, motivational reminders of what’s important so that, when he starts his day, he can absorb a thought or two. A favorite saying he mentioned Wednesday while talking with reporters was “Consistency is the true mark of greatness.”
“I reflect back on the whole process and me not knowing if I would even be able to play again, sitting in the uncertainty,” Hamlin said. “It was really eating at me because football is truly my passion. It’s the thing that I’ve always been obsessed with my entire life
“It all goes to the power of being process-oriented and taking things one day at a time and accepting where you are each step in the process. It truly allows you to conquer anything that you’re facing.”
Across the chest of his black hoodie were two more words: “Don’t Quit.”
Editor’s note: This is an updated version of an article to reflect Alex Morgan’s retirement announcement on Sept. 5, 2024. The story was first published on Aug. 1, 2024.
Alex Morgan was inescapable this summer, but not because she went to the Olympics. Whether it’s Coca-Cola commercials or Reese’s Instagram ads, she was on every screen and every device. Sponsors made these deals expecting Morgan to be on the U.S. women’s national team roster for the Paris Games. But when head coach Emma Hayes announced her team in June, the unthinkable happened: no Morgan.
It was a surprise and yet it wasn’t.
Morgan has played for the United States in every major tournament they’ve participated in since 2011. She has won the World Cup twice, worn Olympic gold and bronze medals, and with 123 goals, is eighth on the women’s all-time international goals scored list. She is also on the downslope of her career, having long ago left behind the “baby horse” moniker fondly bestowed on her by senior teammates and becoming the senior teammate herself.
“Putting a squad together, you’re always going to disappoint someone,” said Hayes during a podcast taping for “The Women’s Game” with Sam Mewis. “I think when it comes to Alex, first of all, there’s no easy way to give someone crap news…. The human piece for me is around the delivery of that (news). But also accepting that no matter the situation, there’s always gonna be somebody who doesn’t like the decision.”
Emotionally, it’s always jarring to see a great generational player sunsetted by a coach. The name “Alex Morgan” has been synonymous with the USWNT for over a decade. But logistically and tactically, there was certainly an argument for leaving the 35-year-old Morgan and taking a newer generation of scoring talent, one that is still bolstered by veteran presence from Crystal Dunn, Lindsey Horan, Lynn Williams and Rose Lavelle.
The end of Morgan’s time with the U.S. was writing on the wall when Hayes first left her off the W Gold Cup roster in February. Morgan was only called in after Chelsea forward Mia Fishel tore her ACL in training. It’s hard not to assign symbolism to the image of Morgan in a differently-numbered jersey, sporting a No 7 in place of her iconic No 13 due to CONCACAF rules about wearing the same number as the player you replace. After 14 years in the No 13 jersey, the number is almost as much a part of her brand as her actual play on the field.
Morgan scored two goals in that tournament, one of them a penalty. It was her first goal in 10 international games, covering more than a year. On Thursday, she announced she was retiring from the sport and expecting her second child. Her final game will take place on Sunday against North Carolina Courage in the NWSL.
Her on-field role has increasingly become as much about the damage she can absorb as she pulls attention away from other players as it is about scoring. That defensive attention is a hallmark of the respect she has still accorded, the danger she still presents in front of goal. But it’s no longer consistent, varied or efficient enough to justify a spot on the toughest international roster to make, at least not in Hayes’ mind.
Still, in the face of declining stats, there was always the argument for Morgan’s presence as a veteran and a leader. She was, until recently, co-captain with Lindsey Horan, someone whose voice carried authority with both teammates and fans. When midfielder Korbin Albert’s anti-LGBTQ social media posts began circulating widely, Morgan was out in front of the cameras with Horan at her side, reading a prepared team statement about maintaining a respectful space and speaking internally to Albert. It was unquestionably a captain’s job, intercepting scrutiny on behalf of the team, the kind of thankless task that comes with the armband.
Horan has taken leadership lessons from Morgan, too, while she’s still learning on the job as the new, and only, team captain.
“Experiencing a World Cup with Alex was crucial for that experience,” Horan said in New York before leaving for France.
Horan credits Morgan for helping her take on the role of captain (Brad Smith, Getty Images)
Before Horan, Morgan and Megan Rapinoe were co-captains. The two arranged team dinners before camps so the players could bond and have a night out.
“There are things that exist (that) leaders and veterans on this team have been doing for many years and it’s kind of been passed down,” said defender Naomi Girma, who said that in this iteration of the USWNT, Emily Sonnett and Lavelle arranged the latest team dinner in New York. “Everyone is so special in their own way, so there’s never going to be another one of an Alex or Pinoe.”
Sonnet, who was on the 2019 and 2023 World Cup teams with Morgan and Rapinoe, said the players often do things they think the two former leaders would have done.
“Alex is an incredible leader and she’s been on this team for so many years,” said Sonnett. “Leaders like Lindsey, Mal (Swanson), Rose, they’re definitely remembering things that Alex, Pinoe, who aren’t on this roster, what they would be doing because we’ve just been around them for so many years.”
Alongside her teammates, Morgan was part of historic collective bargaining agreement negotiations that helped pave the way for the USWNT as it exists today, with not just better money and working conditions, but also benefits like parental leave and short-term disability.
She’s spoken up about LGBTQ+ rights, including supporting trans children in sports, and followed Rapinoe in 2020 in kneeling during the national anthem to protest anti-Black police brutality and racism. When she was on loan at Tottenham Hotspur in 2020, she saw the women’s senior team training at an inferior facility and convinced the club to allow the women to use the same new training facility as the men. When Sara Björk Gunnarsdóttir sued her own club Lyon for withholding her salary when she got pregnant, Morgan again advocated for the standards clubs should provide for parents.
Through Sara’s story, I feel compelled to express how at the very least a team can support their player that’s a mom. 1. Providing their own hotel room on away trips(yes we usually have roommates 2. Providing a hotel room for nanny/caregiver 3. Providing seats on the…
And she feels compelled to speak up as one of, if not the most visible, players wherever she goes, publicly stating she was disappointed to hear about allegations of harassment against Wave president Jill Ellis, writing on X: “It’s important to me that we are creating that environment for both players AND staff throughout the entire organization.”
Morgan’s advocacy for various causes could have backfired in terms of her marketability. But it hasn’t. She is as potent a brand as ever, landing on Forbes’ highest-paid female athletes list in 2023 with endorsements estimated around $7million. In 2021, she founded TOGETHXR, a media and commerce company, alongside Chloe Kim, Simone Manuel and Sue Bird. Her hustle is admirable to the point of pathos. During one scene in Netflix’s “Under Pressure” documentary, she comforts daughter Charlie while Charlie cries for attention in the midst of Morgan opening a soccer store — a reminder of Morgan, the mother.
But the reality of being a woman in professional soccer is that no one, not even Morgan, is going to make enough money to retire without careful, calculated investment and branding. Similarly high-profile men’s players can set themselves up nearly off pure performance. Any man knocking in the kinds of numbers that Morgan has produced in her career will make millions from his salary alone, let alone endorsements.
Morgan has advocated for parental rights at club and national level (Brad Smith, Getty Images)
But Morgan has had to cash in on her clutch, once-in-a-lifetime talent while also leveraging her privileges: she is white, straight and femme-presenting. That makes her a more palatable brand to both businesses and audiences in a country that has a well-documented history of racism, misogyny, and transphobia towards athletes outside of a stereotypical presentation of femininity, athletes like Rapinoe, Serena Williams, Katie Ledecky, Brittney Griner, Simone Biles, and Sha’Carri Richardson. The space Morgan is afforded to speak out and speak up is accordingly bigger compared to Dunn or even Rapinoe, whose outspokenness has incurred criticism that she has weathered through her own unique levels of “not giving a f***.”
Morgan has admirably walked the line between performance and brand, outspokenness and marketability. She’s presented herself as player, mom and advocate while also guarding her private self.
With someone as famous as Morgan, who partially built her reputation on being a role model, and partially was assigned the responsibility through social expectation of women in sports, there is a natural desire to want to know that authentic, private self. One aspect of her smart marketing has been to give enough of a glimpse into that private life — like the aforementioned scene with Charlie — while maintaining a fairly strict boundary between herself and the public.
Her social media posts about her family are warm and personable but don’t give away any more than Morgan wants to give away. She’s funny and charming on camera and doesn’t mind speaking candidly on social justice topics, but these moments are curated, usually with time to plan ahead. You won’t see the minutiae of her day, the gossip she shares with friends or disagreements with family. Like any athlete, Morgan has a right to privacy and to decide how and when she wants to dole out any piece of herself. And her ability to pick the right how and when has served her well.
Who’s next?
Walking down the street and asking someone to name a women’s soccer player, you might get a mix of Morgan, Mia Hamm, Marta, perhaps Wambach.
In this next era of women’s soccer, is it even harder to climb to generational megastar who carries “only name I know” status? While the women’s game is growing ever more popular, it’s also becoming more competitive and therefore more difficult to separate yourself from the pack. Racking up Morgan-level stats feels harder to reach, although certainly not impossible.
There are a few American contenders for the crown, based on the performance-personality axes of measurement that Morgan has played so well: that front three of Rodman, Smith, and Swanson.
Swanson, Smith and Rodman have emerged as a scoring trio at the Paris Games. (Photo by Brad Smith, Getty Images).
The trio has already built a strong fanbase, both individually and as a group, over the past few years and will only gain more leverage should they find the ultimate success at the Olympics this summer. American audiences love gold medals, sometimes to the point of extreme valorization, and U.S. Soccer has already scheduled its first post-Olympic friendlies in October against Iceland, no doubt hoping to parade a team of winners.
GO DEEPER
England Women announce USWNT, Germany friendlies
While Morgan’s time on the field is coming to an end, her impact off it is not. She’s still here. Still speaking up. Still feeling responsibility in situations that call for a voice of leadership. The example she sets is the standard many players follow for success.
There is an Alex-Morgan-shaped hole in the USWNT, but it’s also being filled by all types of players in all kinds of ways. Morgan, who fought so hard for the USWNT to be treated with respect, to be set up to win in any circumstances, is in some ways the architect of her own absence. This is a team that can exist without Morgan and that’s ultimately for the good.
(Top photo: Brad Smith/Getty Images; design: Dan Goldfarb)
Who doesn’t love a good what-if question, so let’s ask this one:
What if this baseball season had started in the middle of July instead of the last week of March? Have you thought much about how differently we’d be viewing nearly every contender in the sport?
Of course you haven’t. But that’s what we’re here for. So take a look at the second-half records of all the teams that would make the postseason if the tournament started today, with the Braves and Mets both included since they’re tied for the final NL wild-card spot. First, let’s look at …
Youknow which two teams jumped out at me? The Phillies and Guardians. Aren’t they the ultimate reminder that a baseball season can feel as long and winding as the Appalachian Trail?
For more than three months this season, the Phillies and Guardians owned the two best records in the sport. Then baseball happened.
On July 1, they were both on 100-win paces. Now, as that standings chart illustrates so vividly, they’ve spent the past two months playing more like an 80-win team than a 100-win team. Funny how that happens. The question is, what does it mean for their win-the-World-Series aspirations?
They’re not the first teams in history to discover how long a baseball season really is. But that isn’t the story here.
The story is: A rough second half, for teams like this, often means more than you’d probably guess it means. I’ve done the math so you don’t have to.
The wild-card era is 30 seasons old now. You’d think the wild-card safety net would have given many teams the rope to slog through a .500-ish second half — or worse — and still be ready to rock in October. But if that’s what you’d think, think again. Check out what’s actually happened, just in the theoretically more forgiving wild-card era (1995-present).
Losing second-half records, still made it to the World Series
Adam Wainwright celebrates after the Cardinals defeated the Tigers in Game 5 to win the 2006 World Series. (David E. Klutho / Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)
Yes, you read that right. In the wild-card era, only one team has survived a losing record after the All-Star break and still won the World Series. …
And only three teams have played .500 or worse and even lived to play in a World Series — where two of them (the 2006 Cardinals and Tigers) actually matched up with each other. …
But even if we raise the bar slightly, every World Series winner in these last three decades has been at least five games over .500 in the second half — except for the three teams above.
So what does that tell us about baseball? Let’s ask the manager of the club that had the worst second half of any of the teams on those lists — Torey Lovullo of the 2023 Diamondbacks.
“It’s an emotional roller coaster,” Lovullo told me and Doug Glanville on the latest episode of The Windup’s Starkville podcast. “This game is crazy. And it will wear you down.”
So how does any team spin through that roller coaster and survive with enough equilibrium to hit the reset button in October?
“We talk about consistency,” Lovullo said. “We just want to have guys that understand where they’re at and not get too high or not get too low. But eventually, we’re going to find our way. It’s the madness of a baseball season, and it does happen. And if you let it spiral, it will take you into a place that’s very dark. But if you believe that you’re going to find a way out of it, (you can).”
More on the Diamondbacks momentarily. But first, let’s look more closely at the Phillies and Guardians — and how worried they should be about their own second-half issues.
The Phillies
The Phillies were riding high when they swept the Dodgers in July. Then things went sideways. (Bill Streicher / USA Today)
THEIR GREATEST HITS — On July 9-10-11, the Phillies bulldozed Shohei Ohtani’s Dodgers in a three-game series in Philadelphia. So 93 games into their season, the Phillies were 61-32. They were on a 106-win pace. They were 6 1/2 games up on L.A. in the race for the National League’s No. 1 seed. They had the best pitching staff in the league and the deepest offense in the league. What could possibly go wrong? Ha.
HOW WRONG COULD IT GO? So naturally, over the Phillies’ next 35 games, they went 13-22. Only one team had a worse record over that six-week stretch. And it was — who else? — the White Sox. Just three teams had a worse ERA in that span. And the Phillies’ once-rampaging offense scored nearly 80 fewer runs in that stretch than Torey Lovullo’s Diamondbacks. So …
HOW’D THAT HAPPEN? There was one thing Dave Dombrowski knew: Whatever the heck was going on with his team, those 35 games were not telling him this group wasn’t talented enough.
“We had eight All-Stars, right?” the Phillies’ president of baseball operations said. “So that tells you you’re a very talented team. So you don’t go from a team that has a lot of talent to not having any talent.”
But Dombrowski did see several things that concerned him. One was the pitching — starting with a banged-up rotation whose issues wound up overtaxing the Phillies’ previously dominant bullpen.
Phillies pitching meltdown
March 28 – July 11
July 12 – Aug. 23
Starters’ ERA
3.17
4.58
Bullpen ERA
3.32
5.89
Overall ERA
3.22
5.10
But Dombrowski also was puzzled by the shocking decline of the offense after a consistently relentless first half. Next thing he knew, that same lineup spent a month re-enacting NLCS Games 6 and 7 against the Diamondbacks.
Phillies lineup meltdown
March 28 – July 11
July 12 – Aug. 23
.260/.331/.424/.755
.245/.309/.401/.710
3rd/3rd/4th/4th in MLB
18th/19th/22nd/22nd in MLB
Most of all, though, Dombrowski wondered if maybe they’d all gotten too comfortable after such a dominant first half. The Phillies had such a big lead by the middle of June, they seemed to start prioritizing what they could do to keep their core healthy for October. So Dombrowski admits he has asked himself if that possibly sent the wrong message.
“I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe we set the tempo somewhere. Maybe we started looking at the long term rather than the short term. But I’m not sure about that.”
He just knew there was time to fix what felt broken. And over the last couple of weeks, the Phillies seem to have done that, roaring through a 9-2 streak against the Royals, Astros, Braves, Blue Jays and Marlins. So what changed? We’ll get back to that momentarily. But first …
The Guardians
After a win over the White Sox on July 4, the high-flying Guardians were one of the worst teams in the AL over the next 48 games. (David Richard / USA Today)
THEIR GREATEST HITS — On the Fourth of July, the Guardians dusted off the White Sox to raise their record to 54-31. They led the AL Central by six games (after once leading by as many as nine in late June). They had the best record in the American League, the fewest runs allowed in the league and 80 more runs scored than they had at the same stage last season. So they were all set for a run at 100 wins, right? Oops.
HOW WRONG COULD IT GO? The marathon is always longer than it seems. Over the next 48 games, the Guardians went 21-27. Only two teams in the AL — the Angels and White Sox — had worse records in that stretch. The Guardians’ starting pitching imploded (10-24, 4.87 ERA). And going by their 83 wRC+, only two lineups in baseball were less productive.
By the end of play on Aug. 27, after a third straight loss at home to Kansas City, the Guardians’ nine-game pad had, shockingly, disappeared. The Royals had tied them in the standings. And a beautiful Cleveland baseball summer didn’t seem so balmy anymore. So …
HOW’D THAT HAPPEN? Was it really as bleak as all those messy factoids above made it seem? Not in the eyes of the Guardians’ unflappable president of baseball ops, Chris Antonetti.
“We had a really tough stretch of games after the All-Star break,” Antonetti said, “with seven of our nine opponents in playoff position at the time we played them.
“Last I looked,” he went on, “I think we have the second-most wins in the AL against teams with better than a .500 record. So we’ve held our own there.”
But does that record alone tell the full story of the Guardians? I’m not so sure it does.
Early in the season, balls were sailing over the fence. Steven Kwan seemed like he might make a charge at .400. And this looked like a completely different offense than the group that finished 27th in MLB in runs scored last year — and dead last in homers.
But what did the next seven weeks look like, after the White Sox left town on July 4? Not quite so picturesque!
Guardians lineup meltdown
March 28 – July 4
July 5 – Aug. 27
.245/.318/.410/.728
.220/.289/.360/.648
13th/11th/9th/12th in MLB
27th/29th/28th/28th in MLB
But also, there were …
Steven Kwan’s splits
First half
Second half
.352/.407/.513/.920*
.194/.277/.286/.563**
(*11th-best in MLB; **9th-lowest in MLB)
Like the Phillies, the Guardians seem to have rebounded in the last week or so. They’ve won five of their last seven. They’ve stretched their lead in the Central back to four games. And they averaged nearly seven runs per game in the five wins. So when Antonetti looks at these last two months, he sees just the normal “ebbs and flows to the regular season.”
He sees a rotation that looks much improved after the addition of Alex Cobb and Matthew Boyd. He sees an offense whose downturn stemmed mostly from matchups with a bunch of excellent staffs. So here was his big-picture read:
“Maybe I’m not thinking about it deeply enough,” he said. “But I’m not sure there’s too much I’d make of it. There’s not a lot of predictability to which teams win and advance once the postseason starts.”
Then he asked: “Didn’t Texas and Arizona (the two World Series teams in 2023) struggle in August last year before surging in September?”
Excellent question! The Rangers lost 16 of 20 in August and September, but then won 17 of their next 21 games. And the Diamondbacks rocked through a wilder ride to the World Series than any team ever.
On July 1, they were 16 games over .500 (50-34). But then … repeat after me … baseball happened. The Diamondbacks won only seven of their next 32, propelling them from 16 games over .500 to two games under, with 46 left to play. Whereupon they boomeranged again, going 27-15 before getting swept in their final series of the season in Houston.
It added up to a sub-.500 second half — but with a season-saving rebound in September. And if that feels like a blueprint for all the teams on our Not So Good list, it’s because it is.
For every one of those teams, September offers the opportunity to rediscover their first-half mojo. And the Diamondbacks leaned into that opportunity, then used the memory of that rebound again this season to fuel their torrid recovery from a 25-32 start.
“I think our guys have a very high baseball IQ … and this innate belief,” Lovullo said. “We used to hope we were going to win games. We were so concerned about what’s happening across the field, in the other dugout. (But now) we believe in so much of what’s going on in our space that we know we’re going to find a way to get something done every single night.”
“If you let it spiral, it will take you into a place that’s very dark. But if you believe that you’re going to find a way out of it, (you can),” said Torey Lovullo, who guided the 2023 D-Backs to an unlikely World Series appearance. (Joe Camporeale / USA Today)
So what have we learned from these rides on the baseball roller coaster? It’s as basic as a 3-and-2 fastball:
Wake me up before September ends
If all of this feels familiar to Dave Dombrowski, it’s because he has seen this movie before. Heck, he lived this movie — with the 2006 Tigers.
“It’s funny. I was talking to Jim Leyland (the manager of that Tigers team) about 2006 just recently,” Dombrowski said. “And we agreed that one of the common denominators was: You must have had a really good first half … to qualify for the postseason and still be below .500 in the second half. So basically, it usually means the talent is there. And for some reason, you’ve fallen off. So why?”
Why? Dombrowski believes there’s no more important question for any team to contemplate. When a team begins to slide, there is almost always more than one reason. But the danger sign he’s always on the lookout for is when a team with a big lead takes its foot off the accelerator.
“Sometimes,” he said, “some people will become somewhat, I don’t know if this is the right word, but content. They’ll lose a little bit of that extra fire. And even though that’s not good, what you need to do is rekindle that fire — to find it again in order to be successful in the postseason.”
That’s exactly what happened to that 2006 Tigers team, he believes. So “the key to getting back on track,” he said, “is the ‘why’ — and how do you fix it?”
In 2006, Leyland delivered a message to his troops that September: Let’s get focused. And over the past couple of weeks, Dombrowski said, his manager in Philly, Rob Thomson, has empowered the leaders in his clubhouse to sing that same tune.
“It’s something they’ve talked about,” Dombrowski said, “something they’ve worked on. And I think they’ve already gotten that message across. I think we’ve played much better (recently). And we really needed to get that back in gear.”
Is the baseball marathon a series of ebbs and flows? It always is. And sometimes those ebbs and flows even strike in September. But as October nears, Dombrowski has long understood, the best teams know it’s the ability to play with focus and energy every day that often separates the champs from everyone else.
So in baseball, September isn’t foliage time. It’s focus time.
“It’s just one of those things,” he said, “where you just need to kind of get it back. When you win a lot of games early, you put yourself in a position where you can withstand that little lull.
“But you’re not going to win a championship,” Dombrowski said, “if you continue to have that lull going into the postseason.”
(Top photo of Phillies outfielder Brandon Marsh: Matt Krohn / Getty Images)
When NASA released images of Sakaka from the International Space Station in December 2020, you could have been forgiven for thinking you were staring at the moon.
The weathered tops of the ancient buildings in the Saudi Arabian oasis town were almost indistinguishable from the rutted land and it was only on closer inspection you could see signs of modernity.
Sakaka, once part of a caravan route in the country’s far north, is home to the kingdom’s emerging renewable energy industry, and this explains the shards of sharp light reflecting from a field of solar panels.
The $320m (£243m) project, mainly funded by private investment, was announced through state channels in 2018, as it attempted to bring 400 new jobs to the remote and impoverished Al Jouf region.
When the plant opened three years later, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman described the development as a “pivotal moment” for Saudi Arabia’s renewable plans, with seven similar facilities to follow.
Sakaka is central to Vision 2030, Salman’s attempt to bring sustainability as Saudi Arabia diversifies away from its reliance on oil.
Football forms part of the same brochure. Saudi Arabia says it is opening up, it wants tourism and it will host the World Cup in 2034.
GO DEEPER
Saudi Arabia to host 2034 World Cup – what does it mean for wider world of football?
Since early last year, Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) has been the majority owner of four of the country’s Saudi Pro League teams — Al Ahli, Al Hilal, Al Ittihad and Al Nassr — and contributed much of the near $1bn (£760m) blow-out on foreign players in 2023.
Contributing towards that figure was the somewhat modest fee of $250,000 (£190,000) that took Brad Young at the end of the window from Cymru League champions The New Saints (TNS) to Al Orobah, a Saudi Pro League side who are based in Sakaka.
Brad Young was a surprise Saudi signing (Ben Roberts Photo/Getty Images)
It might be argued that any boom town requires a sporting focus to bring out its residents and this contributes towards why Young, from Birmingham, will trade playing for a borderland club between Wales and England, for one that is a relatively short drive away from Saudi Arabia’s frontier with Iraq.
Al Orobah’s recruitment approach over the last few months acts as a convenient entry point for some analysis of the Saudi Pro League in 2024.
While many of Saudi Arabia’s top clubs are stacked with foreigners on long-term deals, that was not the case for Al Orobah since their promotion in May, nor for Al Qadsiah, another promoted club, who are based in Khobar just south of Dammam, where Steven Gerrard manages Al Ettifaq on the east coast of Saudi Arabia.
Effectively, both Al Orobah and Al Qadsiah have been able to start again. Al Orobah began the summer by releasing each of their eight foreign players, including Vurnon Anita, who earlier in his career played 153 games for Ajax and 155 games for Newcastle United. Anita is 35 now and Al Orobah wanted fresher options.
To get ready for the top flight, they have hired a Portuguese manager in Alvaro Pacheco, who lasted just four games in his previous post with Vasco da Gama in Brazil, as well as 10 new foreign signings, including former West Ham United captain Kurt Zouma on loan, whose move to United Arab Emirates collapsed earlier in the window, and Johann Berg Gudmundsson, who was out of contract after leaving Burnley.
Under new rules, clubs are allowed to sign eight non-Saudi players without an age limit as well as two non-Saudi players born in 2003 or after, “in order to boost investment in young talent” according to a statement published by the Saudi Pro League in December 2023.
Young, born in January 2003, just about falls into this category. Four years ago, while on the books of Aston Villa, he was recovering in a Birmingham hospital having been stabbed three times after resisting a robbery attempt in a Solihull park. Following his release from Villa last summer, he became the Cymru Premier League’s Golden Boot winner after scoring 22 goals in 25 games for TNS.
Though it might seem strange he would attract interest from arguably the most ambitious new league in the world, middle men representing Saudi clubs were in attendance at Llanelli’s Stebonheath Park in March when the Wales C team beat their English equivalents 1-0. Though Young did not feature in that game, it showed how far some of the Saudi clubs were willing to look.
Iceland international Gudmundsson swapped Burnley for Sakaka (Julian Finney/Getty Images)
When Young scored twice on his European debut for TNS in their 3-0 Champions League first-qualifying-round, first-leg victory over Montenegro’s FK Decic, Saudi attention ramped up.
Yet Young would not be the first Saudi import from a Welsh club in the summer of 2024. That honour went to Andy Firth, a 27-year-old goalkeeper from Connah’s Quay Nomads, formerly with Liverpool and Rangers, who moved to Al Ettifaq in June to take up a coaching position, working beside Gerrard.
Al Qadsiah re-shaped its squad with some eye-catching signings, albeit without spending quite as much money as some agents thought they might.
This time last year, another Liverpool legend Robbie Fowler was in charge of Al Qadsiah but he was sacked with the team top of the league. His replacement Michel steered the team to promotion, after which — like Al Orobah — the club ditched each of its foreign players and replaced them with eight new signings plus one “2003-born” recruit.
Former Arsenal striker Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang and Real Madrid’s Champions League-winning defender Nacho were the biggest names recruited by Al Qadsiah, which is not PIF-owned but is bankrolled by oil company Aramco. But Al Qadsiah’s most expensive buy was Ezequiel Fernandez from Boca Juniors for $23million (£17.5m), an emerging midfielder who featured for Argentina at the Olympics.
Agents in Europe had anticipated that the window in Saudi Arabia was going to be a lot cooler than last summer for one logical reason: there was a willingness to spend but ultimately, most of the teams were already well stocked with foreign players and were having difficulties offloading. Some clubs had foreign players returning from loan spells elsewhere. This all contributed to clubs having to sell before they could enter the market.
Al Ahli, one of the two big teams in Jeddah, for example, had to find a buyer for former Newcastle United forward Allan Saint-Maximin before they could bring anyone in. Once he was sent on loan to Fenerbahce, it allowed them to redouble their efforts to sign Ivan Toney from Brentford.
Across the city, as soon as Portuguese winger Jota was sold to Rennes at a £15m loss, Al Ittihad were able to get Steven Bergwijn from Ajax, a move which prompted Dutch coach Ronald Koeman to “close the book” on the 26-year-old’s international career because of fears over the competitiveness of the Saudi league.
Bergwijn may have jeopardised his international career by moving to Saudi (John Macdougall/AFP/Getty Images)
Meanwhile, Riyadh side Al Shabab spent most of the summer trying to sell Senegalese forward Habib Diallo, a record signing of £20million from Strasbourg in 2023. Diallo’s story acts as a case study for the challenges Saudi clubs are having around money. Though Al Shabab wanted to offload the player, his salary limited the number of potential European buyers unless they continued to contribute a substantial percentage of his wages. In the end, Diallo stayed in the country by signing a loan deal with Damac. This allowed Al Shabab to complete the purchase of Daniel Podence from Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Of the other European players to arrive in Saudi Arabia this summer, perhaps only Mohamed Simakan and Joao Cancelo are somewhere near their peak. Simakan, a 24-year-old defender previously with RB Leipzig, moved to Al Nassr for €35m (£29.5m), where he was joined by Brazilian Angelo in a deal that allowed Chelsea to make a £5.5m profit on a winger who never played for the club.
It is suspected that the summer of 2026 will see the next significant tranche of spending because lots of foreign players will reach the end of their three-year deals, though next summer there could be some upwardly-mobile promoted clubs attacking the market again, in a similar vein to Al Orobah and Al Qadsiah.
A likely contender is Neom SC, a second-division club previously called Al Suqoor, who changed their identity late last year in preparation for a move to the futuristic city being built in the desert by the same name at an estimated cost of $1.5trillion.
Amongst Neom’s signings this summer was Ahmed Hegazy, the defender once of West Bromwich Albion. It remains to be seen whether his Egyptian international team-mate Mohamed Salah will join him in Saudi Arabia over the coming year or two.
The kingdom can certainly afford Salah, but it is a question of when a Saudi Pro League club can make the move work, and whether he relishes playing at a level where promoted clubs are fishing in Welsh streams.
GO DEEPER
Steven Gerrard looks trapped in Saudi football’s gilded cage
(Top photos: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Brad Young; Getty Images)
There is a point, as Fernando Rufino reels off the staggering list of mishaps and injuries that have shaped his life, when you begin to wonder whether you’ve been transported into some kind of alternate dimension.
One of Brazil’s most famous Paralympians, thanks to his efforts in canoeing, Rufino goes by the nickname ‘Iron Cowboy’, which alludes both to his past as a rodeo rider and to the metal plates that reinforce his spinal cord which he injured when, aged 21, he fell out of a moving bus, the wheels crushing his body.
That alone would make for an amazing story. But you haven’t heard the half of it.
There was the time he was trampled by an 800kg bull and dragged along the ground by a galloping horse. There have been car, motorbike and horse riding accidents, too.
“I broke this thumb,” Rufino tells The Athletic. “I severed the top of this finger, a small saw blade fell on my face and went right under my eye. My brother and I used to try to recreate fight scenes from films. On one occasion he hit me with a wooden plank and cut my head open.
“When I was a teenager, a bull broke my jaw. Then the bus ran me over. I drove my motorbike into a tree at 100kmh. I was doing weights at the gym and a metal bar fell on me, breaking my nose. I broke two ribs due to overtraining, I trained for two weeks with a broken leg, thinking it was just a muscle issue….
“Then I was struck by lightning”.
Lightning?
“Yes! On my front doorstep. I felt the energy of it going through me. It threw me up in the air. I landed on the back of my neck, cut my elbow open. I writhed on the floor for about 15 minutes with my muscles all seized up. I could smell burning for three days afterwards.
“I love it when accidents happen to me. It just gives me more stories to tell. I’m a guy from the backcountry, a warrior who wants to win at life, a cowboy who won gold at the Paralympics.”
And today, the reigning Va’a 200m VL2 Paralympic and three-time world champion will take to the water in a bid to defend his title.
Rufino was raised on a traditional farm in Mato Grosso do Sul, central-west Brazil. He and his parents still live there with the horses and bulls, the money Rufino earns from canoeing invested into the property which they run according to his grandparents’ way of life.
Rufino became a rodeo rider because he dreamed of travelling the world. But after his spinal cord injury, he knew that career was over.
With the help of his father, he relearned how to walk on the farm and did nearly all of his years of rehabilitation at home, riding horses and swimming in the reservoir. “Animals are part of my story and who I am,” he says. “They helped me walk again.”
Rufino still wanted to travel the world, though, and sport was a way to do that. A friend found a centre that trained disabled athletes. He tried a few sports and then on August 7, 2012 at 8am — he remembers the date with pinpoint clarity — he tried para canoe.
“I forget about my disability on the water,” he says. “I feel like everyone else. If you saw me paddling next to someone without any disability, they wouldn’t know which one of us was disabled. It’s liberating.”
The 39-year-old missed the 2016 Rio Paralympics because of high blood pressure and hypertrophy in his heart but his technique improved because the training load was lower. When he made his Paralympic debut at Tokyo 2020, delayed by 12 months because of the global pandemic, he made a statement with his tufted silver hair, becoming the first Brazilian to win a gold medal at the Paralympic Games.
Fernando Rufino had his big breakthrough in Tokyo (Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP via Getty Images)
Cheered on by his family from the farm at home, Rufino will go up against his good friend and compatriot Igor Tofalini, also a former rodeo cowboy, who was his best man at his wedding in 2018. They live, eat and train together at the national canoeing hub in Ilha Comprida, Brazil. Rivals on the water but good friends off it, they share everything.
“If he wins, we’ll have a barbecue to celebrate, and it’ll be the same if I win. But the gold and silver medals will be ours.”
The bald-headed, bushy-bearded Rufino, who has his cowboy hat in his room in the Paralympic village and annoys everyone with the “saddest country music” on race day, is ready mentally and physically for Friday’s heats and Sunday’s finals, should he qualify.
“Without wanting to sound big-headed, I’ve already won everything there is to win in my sport. I believe I can leave here as a double Paralympic champion.”
Rufino says the Los Angeles 2028 Games, when he will be 43 years old, will probably be his last Paralympics but all that matters to him is to be remembered as the “true Iron Cowboy”.
“I’m definitely going to die old. I’ve tried to die young but I’ve never managed it.”
U.S. Women’s National Team and San Diego Wave forward Alex Morgan announced she will be retiring as she and her husband Servando Carrasco are expecting their second child. Morgan, 35, will play one final game for the San Diego Wave on Sunday against the North Carolina Courage at home, she announced in a video posted to her social media Thursday.
“I have so much clarity about this decision, and I’m so happy to be able to finally tell you,” Morgan said. “It has been a long time coming and this decision wasn’t easy. At the beginning of 2024, I felt in my heart and soul that this was the last season that I would play soccer.
“Soccer was a part of me for 30 years, and it was one of the first things that I ever loved. I gave everything to this sport, and what I got in return was more than I could have ever dreamed of.”
Morgan played her final game with the USWNT in June before the Olympics, a 3-0 win over South Korea in Minnesota. Coach Emma Hayes made plenty of headlines for leaving her off the Olympic squad, and Morgan remained with the Wave during the summer.
Morgan has been with the Wave since 2022, having previously played for the Orlando Pride and Portland Thorns FC in the NWSL, along with international stints in Lyon in 2017 and with Tottenham during the COVID-19 pandemic.
She will retire a two-time World Cup winner with the USWNT in 2015 and 2019 and a two-time Olympic medalist (gold in 2012 and bronze in 2021). In her 224 USWNT appearances, she scored 123 goals — leaving her ninth on the all-time list for team appearances, and fifth for most goals scored in the program’s history.
Morgan first broke through with the United States U-20 team in 2008, when she was early in her collegiate career at the University of California, Berkeley. She debuted for the senior national team in 2010, picking up her first cap on March 31, 2010, against Mexico.
Morgan was the youngest member of the 2011 World Cup squad at age 22, scoring her first goal in the hallowed competition in a 3-1 semifinal victory before opening the scoring in the final against Japan. The showing made her undroppable for the USWNT for over a decade, as she became a natural heir to Abby Wambach at striker. Morgan also began her club career that year, kicking off a long-nomadic saga with the Western New York Flash, playing for five teams between 2011 and 2017.
Regardless of her club situation, Morgan remained consistent with the national team. She became the face of the program, winning the U.S. Soccer Female Athlete of the Year in 2012 and landing on the FIFA World Player of the Year shortlist that year. In terms of individual honors, she will retire as a four-time CONCACAF Player of the Year, a six-time member of the FIFPro Women’s World 11, the 2022 NWSL Golden Boot winner and a member of the USWNT All-Time Best XI in 2013.
“I grew up on this team, it was so much more than soccer,” Morgan said in U.S. Soccer’s official release about her retirement. “It was the friendships and the unwavering respect and support among each other, the relentless push for global investment in women’s sports, and the pivotal moments of success both on and off the field. I am so incredibly honored to have borrowed the crest for more than 15 years. I learned so much about myself in that time and so much of that is a credit to my teammates and our fans.
“I feel immense pride in where this team is headed, and I will forever be a fan of the USWNT. My desire for success may have always driven me, but what I got in return was more than I could have ever asked and hoped for.”
Morgan also contributed massively off the field, leading the USWNT players’ fight for equal pay — she was one of the five players who put their names to the first Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint that kicked off the long battle in 2016 before the team sued U.S. Soccer in 2019.
As important as that fight was, she built a legacy off the field in the NWSL as well, serving as a key witness for Mana Shim, and then Sinead Farrelly, as they went on record with The Athletic in 2019 to share their stories of abuse they had suffered in the NWSL. Morgan, in addition to going on record, was a key figure behind the scenes in pushing the league to add protections for players against harassment and other abuses of power.
She also posted emails between Shim, Farrelly and then-commissioner Lisa Baird proving the league was aware that the two players were trying to come forward with additional information. “If we don’t absolutely claw and fight for ourselves, we’ve seen that we’re not going to get anything,” Morgan told The Athletic in 2021.
Morgan has always been willing to enter that fight, and with her retirement announcement Thursday, has left the game better for it.
The crowd was roaring like it’d just seen a knockout in a heavyweight fight.
But this was not that. It was Week 1 of the 2018 season, and the New York Jets were at Ford Field in Detroit to play the Lions. The matchup was highly anticipated, a prime-time game on national television, because of the Jets’ new quarterback.
Wearing a white jersey with dark green trim, Sam Darnold crouched under center, turned his head and looked left down the line of scrimmage. He tapped his left foot backward. Once receiver Quincy Enunwa motioned across the formation, Darnold’s voice pierced the crowd noise.
“Ready, set!”
Immediately, the ball was snapped. Darnold faked a handoff and bootlegged to the right, focusing his eyes near the right sideline. A Lions pass rusher wiggled past his blockers and chased Darnold, who climbed forward, surveyed the field from right to left, reset his feet and launched a pass diagonally across his body back to the left.
The ball floated for what felt like an hour. It lingered long enough for Lions safety Quandre Diggs to stop backpedaling and sprint forward. Diggs snatched the ball out of the air for an interception, then raced the other way 37 yards for a touchdown.
The camera panned to the raucous crowd, mostly clad in Honolulu blue, and liquids spouted from cups into the sky. A horn resembling a freight train sounded through the stadium speakers. The camera then found Darnold, who gazed up at the video board for a replay and, for a second, presented such a self-deprecating facial expression that he looked like he might laugh.
The play and what happened after have a chance to be emblematic of Darnold’s entire career.
Sam Darnold looks on during that fateful first game against the Detroit Lions in 2018. (Joe Robbins / Getty Images)
So what happened after? Darnold reached the sideline and felt the muscles in his arms, which had felt like taut bungee cords, loosen. Well, it can’t get worse than that, he thought, then proceeded to complete 16 of his next 20 passes for 198 yards and two touchdowns en route to a 48-17 victory. It was a preposterous amount of adversity, then an inspiring response.
To this point, though, Darnold’s career contains much more of the former.
Still only 27, Darnold’s chance at turning the tide might ultimately hinge on his current opportunity. The Minnesota Vikings signed him to a one-year, $10 million contract this offseason, thinking he still has untapped potential but needs the right environment after three seasons with the Jets, two with the Carolina Panthers and one year behind Brock Purdy in San Francisco.
Minnesota’s skill players are exceptional. The play-action, rhythm-and-timing-oriented offense suits Darnold well. Throw in the deep bond between Darnold and Vikings quarterbacks coach Josh McCown, and the optimism sweeping the TCO Performance Center hallways makes sense.
But Darnold’s window of opportunity may not be open for long. This spring, the Vikings drafted Michigan quarterback J.J. McCarthy (who suffered a season-ending meniscus injury) to be their quarterback of the future. That plan remains, meaning Darnold’s 2024 season could be a de facto tryout to start elsewhere in 2025.
Still, many of Darnold’s former teammates and coaches are paying close attention. For one, they’re rooting for a guy who seems to be universally liked. But they also think Darnold’s story represents a broader issue: why so many top college quarterbacks fail in the NFL.
“Even the highly drafted guys need the perfect cocktail a lot of times for them to shine,” said former Jets center Jonotthan Harrison, “and very few of them get a sip of it.”
GO DEEPER
Why Sam Darnold is a vital piece of the Vikings’ draft plans at quarterback
The night before the first round of the 2018 NFL Draft, Jets staffers swiveled in their chairs in Florham Park, N.J., tapping away at their phones for intel. Multiple agents and rival team executives provided the same tidbit: that the Cleveland Browns were leaning toward Baker Mayfield with the No. 1 pick.
Some of the Jets scouts preferred Mayfield to Darnold. Others liked Darnold. Even those who wanted Mayfield agreed: Darnold was a safer bet.
The Jets had studied every aspect of these quarterbacks’ backgrounds for more than a year. They knew Darnold’s mother was a P.E. teacher at Shorecliffs Middle School in San Clemente, Calif. They knew Darnold’s father oversaw the plumbing at several medical facilities in Orange County. They knew Darnold’s grandfather, Dick Hammer, was a part-time actor who played the role of the Marlboro Man on billboards.
Jets executives attended Darnold’s rainy pro day. At the combine, they peppered him with questions about the New York media environment. He was not a perfect prospect — many flagged his tendency to turn the ball over — but he was young and easy-going. Several on the Jets staff joked he was a Southern California native with a Midwestern vibe. Late nights? Tabloid-filled headlines? No, sir. Just hard work.
On draft night, Cleveland proved the Jets’ intuition correct. The Browns took Mayfield, leaving Darnold to Gotham. The Jets’ executives and coaches collectively cheered the pick, which, mind you, is not always the case. After one of Darnold’s first practices, coaches and executives filled a meeting room and settled into their chairs. One of the coaches blurted out, “This guy is going to be pretty damn good.”
“I remember us talking about it, like, it’s so easy for him out on the field,” said Jimmie Johnson, then the Jets’ tight ends coach.
The early impressions traveled upstairs and reached ownership, which had already created a troubling dynamic. It was widely known internally that the coaches, including head coach Todd Bowles, needed to win to keep their jobs. But the staff knew that for as impressive as Darnold looked, and as much as ownership and the fan base wanted Darnold to play, he needed time to develop.
This created a dilemma: Do right by the kid? Or appease the bosses and the fans?
“Just because you’re drafted high doesn’t mean you’re ready to play,” Johnson said. “It just means you were drafted high because of your potential. But everything has to be instant in the NFL … and in the world.”
Darnold started in Week 1, threw the interception on his first pass and responded well. But in the ensuing weeks, his performance oscillated. The Jets had a subpar offensive line and an unimpressive receiving corps. Darnold threw three interceptions in an October matchup against Minnesota. Several weeks later, he threw four picks in Miami and sprained his foot. At that point, the Jets were 3-6.
When he injured his foot, Darnold was able to sit and learn from NFL journeyman McCown, a confidant who was then his backup. Walk past the quarterback meeting room late at night that season, and they were likely in there together, chatting about defensive structures and scribbling notes about where to throw and why. Their relationship kept Darnold afloat through the early shakiness, and when he returned in Week 14, he pieced together an effective four-game stretch, completing 64 percent of his passes and producing a 6:1 touchdown-to-interception ratio.
It was not enough to save Bowles’ job. He was fired at the end of the season, and the Jets replaced him with longtime offensive coordinator Adam Gase. When the news first surfaced, many of Gase’s former players, including Peyton Manning, publicly stated their belief in Gase as a top-notch offensive mind. A bolt of excitement flowed through the facility. Here was the perfect person to help Darnold fulfill his promise.
During his time with the Jets, Darnold developed a close relationship with backup quarterback Josh McCown, who is now his QB coach in Minnesota. (Patrick McDermott / Getty Images)
It did not play out that way for the 2019 Jets.
“No joke,” said Ryan Griffin, a longtime NFL tight end. “I would come home and be like, ‘More (crazy) Jets stuff today.’ We just had no direction.”
By August of Darnold’s second season, the initial excitement surrounding Gase’s hiring had faded. Seemingly everyone clashed with everyone: coaches, players, executives, even the training staff. Griffin had previously played for the Houston Texans and felt for players like Darnold who were dropped into the environment randomly.
“I just always felt I needed to help him out because it felt like he felt he had to do it all himself,” Griffin said. “That’s just not a recipe for success and growth.”
Then there was the subject of Gase’s offense. Five of his former players who spoke to The Athletic for this story agreed: Gase is a smart football mind. The issue lay in uploading those smarts to a second-year quarterback who was still only 21 years old. Gase was constantly hunting for the perfect play. This meant a bevy of motions and shifts, which meant lengthier verbiage for Darnold to spit out, which meant more time in the huddle.
“They were trying to fit a square peg in a round hole,” Harrison said. “I’m not saying the offensive philosophy at that time was garbage. It’s nothing negative. But it wasn’t for Sam.”
Adam Gase’s offense with the Jets was not particularly well suited to Darnold’s strengths. (Steven Ryan / Getty Images)
Center Ryan Kalil had played 12 NFL seasons in Carolina before that year. The Jets signed him as a backup, and on the practice fields in Florham Park, he quickly realized how much he’d taken system continuity for granted. He thought the longer he played, the easier it’d be to pick up any scheme. He was wrong.
The experience also fostered a deeper appreciation for the way the Panthers coaching staff had responded after drafting Cam Newton. They studied Newton’s Auburn tape, identifying the passes Newton read well and the plays where he appeared most comfortable. They played to his strengths. Newton benefitted from something totally out of his control.
“There’s so much luck that goes into this game,” Kalil said. “People don’t realize it. Lots of guys ended up being busts, and the biggest reason was because they were unlucky. They weren’t in the right system. They didn’t have the right coach. And vice-versa. Like, for every Tom Brady story, there’s a whole bunch of guys you never heard of.”
All of it affected Darnold. His sinuses flared up early in the season and his energy waned. He was diagnosed with mononucleosis. When he returned, he threw four interceptions against the New England Patriots and exited the game to find that a microphone had picked up a comment he made on the sideline: “I’m seeing ghosts.”
In the back half of the season, at the urging of offensive coordinator Dowell Loggains, the Jets simplified their passing concepts and leaned into more no-huddle. Behind Darnold, New York won six of its last eight games.
Darnold’s success did not carry over into 2020, however, and after a 2-14 season, the Jets traded him to Carolina. In his introductory news conference, he thanked the Jets for the opportunity and shouldered his own struggles. He spoke excitedly about the potential of a fresh start with the Panthers.
Yet familiar issues soon arose.
A few weeks after the Panthers added Darnold, former quarterback and 2002 NFL MVP Rich Gannon received a phone call from then-Panthers head coach Matt Rhule, who wanted to talk about his new signal caller. Gannon, who himself had gone from castoff to first-team All-Pro, had never met Darnold. But Rhule wondered if Gannon, in watching Darnold, saw a bit of himself.
“There’s a lot to like there,” Gannon told Rhule. “He’s athletic. He’s got good feet. He can extend plays. Big, live arm. Toughness.”
Rhule connected Gannon with Darnold so he could offer up his backstory as a vision for what Darnold could become.
Gannon relayed to Darnold how he’d begun his career in Minnesota and how his first couple of head coaches, Jerry Burns and Dennis Green, treated him poorly. Not until Jon Gruden’s car picked him up at the Oakland International Airport did Gannon feel like a coach truly believed in him.
The first day at the Raiders’ facility in Gruden’s offense, Gannon heard the words, “You’re my guy. We can do great things together.”
“It was the only time I felt that in my career,” Gannon said. “And you can feel that.”
Darnold’s first season in Carolina got off to a great start. The Panthers won their first three games as Darnold completed 68 percent of his passes and averaged 304 passing yards a contest. In Week 3, though, superstar running back Christian McCaffrey injured his hamstring, and the wheels began to fall off.
Darnold threw two interceptions in Week 4 against the Cowboys, three the following week against the Eagles and another in Week 6 against the Vikings.
“The weight starts to feel like it’s on his shoulders,” said one former Panthers staffer who requested anonymity to speak freely about Darnold’s experience in Carolina, “and people internally are starting to ask questions: ‘Why’s he not throwing the ball downfield? Why is the offense not explosive?’”
Coach Matt Rhule tried to cater the Panthers offense to what Darnold did well. (Jim Dedmon / USA Today)
The Panthers implemented a different approach in Week 8 against the Falcons. Darnold went just 13-of-24 passing for 129 yards but ran eight times for 66 yards, which spurred Carolina to a gritty win but also led to a shoulder injury.
Darnold didn’t practice the next week, but he played the following Sunday against the Patriots and threw three interceptions. He was then held out for the next six weeks as the shoulder healed. The Panthers finished 5-12, compelling Rhule to fire then-offensive coordinator Joe Brady and hire longtime NFL coach Ben McAdoo, who installed a system more similar to Jeremy Bates’ from Darnold’s rookie season.
Re-energized, Darnold met with McAdoo and dedicated himself to a rigorous offseason training regimen focused primarily on footwork and eye placement. During this process, the Panthers traded for quarterback Baker Mayfield, which many saw as a sign of their lack of belief in Darnold.
“You can say what you want,” the former Panthers staffer said, “but it wasn’t a fair competition. Signing a guy like that right before camp? We knew. Sam knew. And he didn’t bitch one time.”
Darnold sprained his ankle in the final preseason game, cementing the Panthers’ decision. But Mayfield struggled, and by Week 12, the coaches turned back to Darnold. McAdoo called the resulting six-game stretch, in which Darnold went 4-2, “some of the most fun I’ve had coaching football.”
In Week 17, Tom Brady erased a double-digit fourth-quarter deficit, essentially ending the Panthers’ season and Darnold’s time in Carolina. Darnold entered free agency, where he chose to move to one of the most trusted quarterback environments in the NFL in San Francisco. He spent a season behind the scenes there and surfaced this offseason in a similarly well-regarded infrastructure.
“I just believe in him,” McCown said. “I saw it. I know what he’s dealt with. He’s been through the wringer.”
Darnold was very hit or miss during his two seasons in Carolina. In 17 games as a starter, he went 8-9 and threw for 3,670 yards with 16 touchdowns and 16 interceptions. (Sarah Stier / Getty Images)
In May, during an otherwise ho-hum news conference at the Vikings’ practice facility, a reporter asked Darnold a question: What did you find out about being a young quarterback in the NFL that’s hard to understand if you’re not in that position?
Darnold listened and nodded.
He looked away, then back at the reporter and deadpanned: “Umm … I mean … How much time you got?”
The reporter laughed, which made Darnold laugh. He looked away again, then back at the reporter and said, “No, it’s a great question,” before offering a general answer. Darnold remained positive, didn’t throw anybody under the bus and moved on.
Even this is part of the NFL apparatus that contributes to young quarterbacks failing.
“We’re all glorified German shepherds in the NFL,” Harrison said. “We have to be loyal. Because if you’re not loyal to the team you’re on and if something were to slip out or you speak up, that could be your career. We’re almost sworn to secrecy if we want to get paid.”
GO DEEPER
How NFL journeyman Josh McCown is a key facet of the Vikings’ QB development plan
Players take coaching, even bad coaching, so as not to be seen as uncoachable. They portray a sense of being bulletproof, even when they’re struggling internally, to avoid being seen as weak. Narratives are often devoid of this context, breeding laziness.
“It’s just easier to say, ‘Well, he’s bad,’” McCown said. “But you don’t really know.”
This is not to say that Darnold is faultless. In private conversations with former coaches, he would chide himself for his turnover frequency. Some of his former coaches admit that Darnold’s processing speed is lacking at times. But while that may be a hindrance, they also agree it’s on the coaching staff to construct a play style and strategy that suits Darnold’s athletic traits and feel.
Maybe that means implementing more half-field reads. Maybe it means leaning heavily into boot-action plays that allow Darnold to use his athleticism. McAdoo did that in Carolina. Gase, with the Jets, did not. Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell likely will.
That’s how this would end if it were a Disney movie: with Darnold finally taking a sip of the perfect coaching cocktail, and the whole world understanding the recipe. There’s the innate talent, yes, but a whole heck of a lot more.
Croix Bethune’s head-turning rookie season came to an abrupt end when she suffered a torn meniscus while throwing out the first pitch at a Washington Nationals game last week.
The injury will require surgery and will land Bethune on the season-ending injury list, the Washington Spirit said Wednesday.
Spirit coach Jonatan Giráldez said the injury occurred during the ceremonial first pitch.
“She had a problem making the first pitch in the baseball game,” he said, according to the Associated Press. “She is not going to be available this season. It is part of life. You have to keep going.”
Croix Bethune will miss the remainder of the 2024 season with injury.
We are wishing you a healthy recovery, Croix! Sending our love and support your way 🫶https://t.co/6gn2kqiIC1
The 23-year-old packed more accomplishments in her first half-year as a professional than many players squeeze into a full career. Bethune was selected third in the 2023 NWSL Draft, with Washington trading defensive anchor Sam Staab to obtain the pick. It paid off swiftly as she became an instant starter in the wake of Ashley Sanchez’s departure via a trade on the same day. Bethune took home NWSL Rookie of the Month honors in March/April, May and June; no other player had previously won the award in back-to-back months, much less three in a row.
The strong form for her club helped her land on the United States women’s national team, first as a training player for Emma Hayes’ first camp in June and making her debut in a July tune-up friendly before being named as an alternate for the 2024 Olympics. An injury to Jaedyn Shaw saw Bethune get promoted to the 18-player squad, where she made one appearance from the bench as the USWNT returned to gold-medal standing.
(Jeff Rueter / The Athletic)
Despite this knee injury, Bethune still projects as the favorite to take home NWSL Rookie of the Year — if the litany of monthly honors wasn’t enough evidence toward that point — and challenge for a Best XI honor.
In 1,389 regular season minutes, she scored five goals and logged 10 assists. Her 15 goal contributions is tied for 5th in the league as of Sept. 4, 2024. Those 10 assists are far ahead of joint second-ranked Sophia Smith and Temwa Chawinga’s six, and had her tied with USWNT icon Tobin Heath for the NWSL’s single-season record, which Heath set in 2016.
The Spirit will understandably take a cautious approach to Bethune’s rehabilitation. The midfielder suffered three ACL tears during her time in high school and college, a fact that may explain why two teams passed on her in the 2024 Draft. In announcing her injury, Washington clarified that she will remain with the team throughout her recovery, working closely with the Spirit Performance, Medical and Innovation department.
Penny Hardaway has been an OK basketball coach through six seasons with the Memphis Tigers, but his program is nationally relevant only in its ability to generate embarrassing headlines.
The middling hoops product no longer justifies the off-court turmoil — the latest of which includes four members of Hardaway’s staff dismissed just before the start of preseason practice and the university confirming the existence of an anonymous letter alleging major violations, which has been turned over to the NCAA.
The next coach of this program may not be able to rally the fans, bring in top-notch players or reach 20 wins the way beloved Memphian and NBA legend Hardaway has. But it’s about time to find out. It’s not a Holy Grail quest to find a coach who can approximate Hardaway’s bottom line — two NCAA Tournament bids and one win in those six seasons — while also not keeping the lights on at NCAA Enforcement.
GO DEEPER
Memphis submits letter alleging potential violations to NCAA
This program has a championship heritage with legendary players and teams in the not-so-distant past. Scandal is part of that heritage, too, but that was back when people cared about NCAA scandals. It sometimes feels like Hardaway is trying to create optimal conditions for a sequel to “Blue Chips,” the delightfully tacky 1994 movie featuring Nick Nolte as a compromised hoops coach, Hardaway as a bought recruit and Ed “Al Bundy” O’Neill as an investigative reporter.
It’s been a steady stream of investigations, eligibility questions and suspensions for Memphis since Hardaway replaced Tubby Smith, whose two-season average of 20.0 wins wasn’t far behind Hardaway’s (22.2), and whose integrity was never an issue in his 31-year head coaching career.
Academic improprieties are the worst of what has been alleged. In this era of player empowerment and investment, programs that try to shortcut education are declaring they see these “student-athletes” as nothing more than a means to an end.
Even with all the player movement going on, and with NIL giving them an approved financial cut, emphasizing and fostering academic pursuits should be as important as ever for college athletics programs. Those that don’t conduct business as such should be called on it.
Some will call that naïve. No one can argue NIL and professional sports money will be lifetime money for more than a fraction of college athletes.
Academic violations involving multiple Memphis players are alleged in the anonymous letter, which has been viewed by The Athletic. The Memphis Commercial Appeal reported in February that Malcolm Dandridge was withheld from five games because of academic circumstances. The paper reported in March that men’s basketball academic advisor Leslie Brooks was fired the day before the school announced Dandridge would miss games.
It’s always possible a situation like this, if true, happens independently of the people who oversee a program. But that doesn’t absolve them of all responsibility.
And this is just the latest of many issues for Hardaway’s program, dating back to an 18-month investigation into the recruitment of James Wiseman. There’s been nothing terribly damning outside of the academics allegations. But the pattern is pretty clear at this point for a program that has employed at least 41 people — 17 in coaching or operations — since Hardaway was hired in 2018, according to The Daily Memphian.
The allegations in the letter include two improper payments. One of those, for $60,000 to a prospect, was alleged to have happened in 2022. Is it possible Hardaway didn’t realize that at that point you could take a few simple steps and legally pay a prospect through a third party? The overall sloppiness here, regardless of the veracity of that particular allegation, brings another major Tennessee sports coach to mind.
Jeremy Pruitt presumably learned how to conduct under-the-table business discreetly and professionally at various elite college football programs, then got to Tennessee and did all but hand out hundreds with stickers of his face on them. Pruitt, who would have been defended at all costs by UT if he were winning big, was instead fired for cause in 2021. As Memphis starts a new era with Ed Scott as athletic director, Pruitt’s demise comes to mind.
Hardaway, whose contract runs through 2027-28, has been an OK coach. He’ll always be a Memphis legend. Maybe his seventh team, with a virtually all-new roster and coaching staff, could find the magic for a third NCAA bid.
But it would be better for Memphis if this is someone else’s first team, even if that means an interim someone. The Tennessee administration turned a mess into an opportunity, and it worked out pretty well for them.
