When Royals pitcher Alec Marsh proposed to his longtime girlfriend Makenna Harper in mid-November 2023, the rush was on. Not to get married, but to set a date. Harper met Marsh at Arizona State University, where she played softball and he was on the baseball team. She knew what all baseball significant others know: There […]

MINNEAPOLIS — An hour before the Minnesota Vikings kicked off against the Chicago Bears on Monday night, I conducted a test. Upon walking onto the main concourse at U.S. Bank Stadium, into a sea of Vikings fans filing in to cheer on a team fighting for the No. 1 seed in the NFC, how long […]

It looks like Josh Allen is going to run away with the NFL MVP award (which might be unfair to two-time MVP Lamar Jackson, who is playing so well that he also deserves consideration), but that doesn’t mean there aren’t more players who deserve a little attention as the season comes to a close. The […]

“Howdy!” George Kittle says as he steps onto the podium on Nov. 24 in Green Bay, Wisc. It’s how he begins every news conference, and this time he seems disappointed when no one says howdy back. But it doesn’t seem like a howdy type of moment. The San Francisco 49ers have just lost 38-10 to […]

Dec. 15 has come and gone, which means NBA trade season has officially commenced. Players who changed teams over the offseason are now able to be traded, which opens up a world of functionality and flexibility across the trade market. It’s now a race to Feb. 6, a nearly two-month window for teams to figure […]

Houston Texans sensation C.J. Stroud had a chance to solidify himself this season among the NFL’s elite class of quarterbacks. The No. 2 pick in the 2023 draft was an easy choice for Offensive Rookie of the Year. During training camp, The Athletic asked coaches and executives which three quarterbacks they’d take to start a […]

LAS VEGAS – As expected, the upcoming NBA All-Star Game in San Francisco will be a mini-tournament of three teams composed of the top 24 players in the league and the team who wins the Rising Stars Challenge. The new format, announced jointly on Tuesday by the NBA and National Basketball Players Association, will include […]

They paid how much? For that guy? Free-agent prices in baseball seem astronomical, which isn’t only a bar-room conversation but might be something that’s driving smaller-market teams to use trades as their main way to add talent. But when back-end starting rotation options are pulling in deals in the $30-40 million dollar range, it does […]

As his teammates finished drills following the team’s shootaround Nov. 4 at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland, Giannis Antetokounmpo took a courtside seat. With a smile on his face, the Milwaukee Bucks forward started a conversation. Considering the state of his team at the time, Antetokounmpo’s disposition did not match what one might expect. Two […]

College football does have a salary cap. Every team’s budget is capped by how much its third-party NIL collective can raise and use to build its roster. In the first 12-team College Football Playoff field, those roster budgets are believed to vary widely among participants. This year, teams in contention had budgets at $3 million […]