👋 Good morning! The bad news: The weekend is over. The good news: The Blue Jays forced a Game 7 tonight.
In today's edition: Game 7 in Toronto, parity in college football, 3 stars of the weekend, KD passes LeBron, NFL Sunday scoreboard, Mad Max wins U.S. Grand Prix, and more.
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🏀 KD passes LeBron: Kevin Durant has signed a two-year, $90 million extension with the Rockets. He now holds the record for the highest career earnings in NBA history ($598.2M in current and future salary), surpassing LeBron James ($583.9M).
🏈 Napier out in Gainesville: Florida fired Billy Napier midway through his fourth season (22-23 record). His buyout is $20 million, 50% of which must be paid out within the next 30 days.
⚽️ MLS Decision Day: FC Dallas and Real Salt Lake clinched the last two playoff spots on the final day of the regular season, while San Diego overtook Vancouver to earn the No. 1 seed in the West. Here's the bracket.
⚾️ Giants targeting Vols skipper: The Giants are reportedly "closing in" on Tennessee's Tony Vitello as their next manager. The 47-year-old is one of the top college coaches but has never appeared in the majors (or minors) in any capacity.
🎾 Sinner tops Alcaraz: Jannik Sinner dominated Carlos Alcaraz, 6-2, 6-4, to win his second straight Six Kings Slam, pocketing $6 million for winning the exhibition tournament in Riyadh.
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COLLEGE FOOTBALL'S DYNASTY ERA IS OVER |
(Johnnie Izquierdo/Getty Images) |
Parity reigns in college football, as evidenced by yet another upset-filled Saturday that saw nine ranked teams lose.
From Yahoo Sports' Dan Wetzel:
Welcome to the new era of college football. We've known it and we've seen it, but as we reach the second half of the 2025 season, the impact of movement through the transfer portal, player compensation and an expanded playoff field have changed the sport in previously inconceivable ways.
Outside of Ohio State and maybe Alabama (at least until the next loss), every one of the sport's traditional blue bloods wakes up today in some stage of an existential crisis.
Meanwhile, Indiana is the nation's No. 2 team, Georgia Tech is looking increasingly like a favorite to make the CFP and ESPN's "College GameDay" is rightfully headed to Missouri at Vanderbilt next weekend. It's different, alright. And it's glorious.
"College football was built around this culture of two teams are going to be alive at the end, so we have to win every single game and if we don't we're going to have a massive meltdown," Texas A&M coach Mike Elko told Yahoo Sports last week.
"That's just how college football was built. You don't see that in the NFL. There's no internal meltdown from the Bills or the Chiefs if they lose a game. The Super Bowl champions are probably going to lose four or five times. That's what's happening in college football now. The end goal is to make a 12-team playoff and win the 12-team playoff and I'm not sure everybody has adapted to that new reality."
The handful of programs that hoarded all the high-end talent can no longer keep players on their roster with the goal of developing them into starters by their third year on campus. Coaches can't get by just being elite recruiters.
The margins have contracted to the point where, everywhere you look, it seems like games are coming down to the fourth quarter and a coaching decision here or one individual play there becomes the separator on a given day. In other words, it's starting to look a lot like the NFL.
Bottom line: The dynasty era is over. This is now a year-to-year, week-to-week enterprise and nothing in American sports is delivering more drama for a wider array of teams and fan bases.
Read the full story.
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(Ronald Martinez/Getty Images) |
⭐️ Shohei Ohtani
Shohei Ohtani almost single-handedly lifted the Dodgers to the World Series on Friday with the best game of his career — and perhaps the single greatest game in baseball history.
Two-way sensation: Ohtani hit three home runs and reached base safely in all four at-bats. He also had 10 strikeouts and pitched six scoreless innings.
From WashPost's Chelsea Janes:
This is Beethoven at a piano. This is Shakespeare with a quill. This is Michael Jordan in the Finals. This is Tiger Woods in Sunday red.
This is too good to be true, with no reason to doubt it. This is the beginning of every baseball conversation and the end of the debate:
Shohei Ohtani is the best baseball player who has ever played the game, the most talented hitter and pitcher of an era in which data and nutrition have made an everyman's sport a game for superhumans.
And Friday night, when he helped his Dodgers win the pennant with a 5-1 victory over the Brewers in Game 4 of the NLCS, was his Mona Lisa.
⭐️⭐️ Montie Quinn
Montie Quinn of D-III Curry College (Milton, Mass.) set a new NCAA single-game record with 522 rushing yards* in a 71-27 win over Nichols College.
By the numbers: 20 carries, 522 rushing yards, 7 TD. Quinn averaged a mind-boggling 26.1 yards per attempt and had TD runs of 30, 58, 64, 76, 84 and 85 yards. He could have had more too, but Curry held him out for its final two drives.
This was no fluke: Quinn was a preseason All-American and entered the game as the D-III rushing leader. He now has 1,450 rushing yards in six games (241.7 per game), and he's topped 200 yards in half of them.
*Rewriting the record books: Quinn broke the previous NCAA record of 465 yards set by D-III Heidelberg's Cartel Brooks in 2013. The FBS record is 427 yards, set by Oklahoma's Samaje Perine in 2014.
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Lionel Messi
Lionel Messi recorded the 60th hat trick of his legendary career in Inter Miami's 5-2 win over Nashville. That clinched his first Golden Boot (most goals) and all but locked up his second straight MLS MVP Award.
By the numbers: Despite missing six games, Messi finished the regular season with 29 goals (one fewer than D.C. United's entire team) and 19 assists, giving him 48 goal contributions* in just 2,420 minutes. That's a goal or assist every ~50 minutes.
*Season for the ages: Messi's 48 goal contributions are one shy of the MLS record of 49 set by LAFC's Carlos Vela in 2019.
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The Comeback Kid. (Matthew Stockman/Getty Images) |
The Broncos scored all 33 of their points in the fourth quarter to stun the Giants, 33-32, on Sunday in a rollercoaster of a game. The final five minutes alone featured four TDs, a missed extra point and a walk-off field goal.
What they're saying: "I felt bad for the people who left early," said Denver QB Bo Nix, who became the first player in NFL history to record 2+ passing TDs and 2+ rushing TDs in one quarter.
All-time choke job: NFL teams had won 1,602 straight games when leading by 18+ points in the final six minutes of regulation. The Giants (up 26-8 with six minutes left) snapped that streak.
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Micah Parsons celebrates a sack. (Norm Hall/Getty Images) |
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Packers 27, Cardinals 23 … First career 3-sack game for Micah Parsons.
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Eagles 28, Vikings 22 … Jalen Hurts (perfect 158.3 rating) captained a rejuvenated passing attack.
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Panthers 13, Jets 6 … Gang Green falls to 0-7. Justin Fields benched. Two straight games without a TD. It's bad.
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49ers 20, Falcons 10 … Christian McCaffrey (201 yds, 2 TD) starred on "Sunday Night Football."
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Bears 26, Saints 14 … Four straight wins for first-year head coach Ben Johnson and Da Bears.
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Colts 38, Chargers 24 … Jonathan Taylor (132 yds, 3 TD) is the early favorite for Offensive POY.
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Patriots 31, Titans 13 … Drake Maye was historically great (21/23, 222 yds, 2 TD; 62 rush yds) for the first-place Pats.
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Cowboys 44, Commanders 22 … Washington lost the game and Jayden Daniels (hamstring injury).
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Browns 31, Dolphins 6 … Mike McDaniel looks more and more like a coach with no answers.
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Rams 35, Jaguars 7 … Matthew Stafford threw 5 TD passes in the final London game of the season.
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Chiefs 31, Raiders 0 … Kansas City had 30 first downs. Las Vegas ran 30 plays.
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Where it stands: The Patriots (5-2), Steelers (4-2), Colts (6-1) and Broncos (5-2) are the division leaders in the AFC, while the Eagles (5-2), Packers (4-1-1), Buccaneers (5-1) and 49ers (5-2) are out front in the NFC. |
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(Clive Mason/Getty Images) |
🇺🇸 Austin, Texas — Max Verstappen cruised to victory at the U.S. Grand Prix to move within 40 points of leader Oscar Piastri with five races to go. Is he now a serious threat to win his fifth straight Formula 1 title?
Meanwhile, at Talladega: Chase Briscoe won Sunday's NASCAR Cup Series playoff race to clinch a spot in the championship alongside Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Denny Hamlin. There's still one Round of 8 race left before the season finale.
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(Carl Recine/Getty Images) |
🏴 Liverpool, England — Harry Maguire's aerial abilities helped Manchester United earn a huge 2-1 victory over Liverpool on Sunday, marking the club's first win at Anfield in almost 10 years.
Four straight Ls: Liverpool have lost four straight matches (across all competitions) for the first time in 11 years. Alarm bells are ringing for the reigning Premier League champs, who now sit in fourth place.
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Tommy celebrates with his son, Frankie. (Prakash Singh/Getty Images) |
🇮🇳 New Delhi, India — Tommy Fleetwood's career year got even better on Sunday when he added a win at the DP World India Championship to his FedEx Cup title and Ryder Cup victory.
Father-son moment: Tommy's 8-year-old son, Frankie, told him recently that he'd never been able to run out to the green to greet his dad after a victory. Mission accomplished. "All day today, I had in my mind, 'Could I put myself in position to make that happen?'" Fleetwood said. "It's just one of those little things it means a lot to me. It means so much to me. That was really cool."
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WATCHLIST: MONDAY, OCT. 20 |
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. after Sunday's Game 6 win. (Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images) |
⚾️ ALCS, Game 7 | 8pm ET, FOX
It all comes down to this. Will the Mariners reach their first-ever World Series? Or will the Jays be returning to the Fall Classic for the third time (and first time in 32 years)?
🏈 Buccaneers at Lions | 7pm, ABC
A pair of former No. 1 overall picks go head-to-head, with Jared Goff and the Lions (4-2) hosting Baker Mayfield and the Bucs (5-1).
🏈 Texans at Seahawks | 10pm, ESPN
Houston's defense is allowing just 12.2 points per game. Can Seattle's new-look offense crack the code?
Today's full slate.
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Joe Carter celebrates after hitting a walk-off home run to win the 1993 World Series. (Rick Stewart/Getty Images) |
The Blue Jays won back-to-back World Series titles (1992-93) in their only two appearances.
Question: Which two teams did they beat?
Hint: They hail from the same division.
Answer at the bottom.
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Trivia answer: Braves (1992) and Phillies (1993) |
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