2026-01-12 00:21:48
The Peach Bowl was over by halftime. It felt over after the first play of scrimmage. Oregon quarterback Dante Moore threw a pass intended for Malik Benson, in an attempt to be aggressive at the start of the drive. Bad idea. Indiana corner D'Angelo Ponds jumped the route for an interception, and ran it back 25 yards for a touchdown.
The Ducks had started the game with possession and lost it after only a few seconds. To their credit, they responded with a touchdown catch by Jamari Johnson, but then the Hoosiers' offense finally took the field to put together a touchdown drive—then, later in the second quarter, another. And another. And another. By halftime, Indiana led 35-7, and viewers at home would've been forgiven for doing something else with their Friday night.
2026-01-12 00:03:37
Comebacks are just what Caleb Williams does. The second-year quarterback drilled DJ Moore with a 25-yard touchdown pass with 1:43 left as his Chicago Bears beat the visiting Green Bay Packers, 31-27, in an unbelievably believable thriller of a wild-card playoff game Saturday night. The Williams-to-Moore hookup capped off the Bears' seventh fourth-quarter comeback win of the season.
Chicago hadn’t won a playoff game since 2011. That sorry skein seemed secure after the first half at Soldier Field, with the Green Bay Packers up 21-3 and moving the ball at will, and the Bears flailing and failing, never more obviously than their 1-for-4 fourth-down conversion rate over the first two quarters.
2026-01-11 23:44:18
A confession: For the past week, I grew convinced that the Carolina Panthers would do it. They had already beaten the Los Angeles Rams once in the regular season, in Charlotte, and this playoff game would be at the same stadium. The crummy weather forecast worked against the Rams, whose quarterback favored indoor conditions. Cam Newton and his big hat were going to show up before the game and pound the drum. Could this be a repeat of when the 7-9 Seahawks upset the Saints? Would there be another moment that matched the absolute euphoria of the Beast Quake?
Nope. After absorbing the derision that comes with an 8-9 team making the playoffs, the Panthers acquitted themselves well. They even took the lead with less than three minutes to go. Alas, the underachieving NFC South champions were unable to pull off an all-time upset, instead losing to Los Angeles, 34-31, in the typically staid Saturday afternoon time slot.
2026-01-10 04:39:06
This week, Rolling Stone published an article in which writer Marisa Fox interviewed hostages who were held in Gaza after Oct. 7, talking to them about how music helped them. The artists mentioned in the piece include Frank Sinatra, Bill Withers, and Avenged Sevenfold. What caught my attention was one specific paragraph that was illustrative of the low journalistic standard for writing about Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims.
The part in question is about 40-year-old Moran Stella Yanai, who was held hostage in Gaza for 54 days before she was released. As you read the following excerpt, your vision might be clouded by some unexplained yellow filter, and the bootleg adhan used in every Hollywood film set in the Arab World will begin to involuntarily play in your head:
2026-01-10 03:41:21
What is the point of Unrivaled? Or rather, how seriously should it be taken? It’s easy to understand what the players get out of it: Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart founded the startup basketball league in 2023 as an offseason option for a few dozen WNBA players, offering them equity and competitive salaries to play 3x3 games on a Miami soundstage. For them it’s a convenient way to get paid, stay in shape, and remain in the U.S. during the winter months, when their earning opportunities have historically been overseas.
As a media member, I still don’t exactly know how to value Unrivaled as the league begins its second season. The 3x3 game differs so much from WNBA basketball that Unrivaled’s utility as a gauge for player development is dubious. Last year, stars who had dismal Unrivaled seasons—Stewart, Aliyah Boston, Satou Sabally—went on to have their typically excellent WNBA seasons. It's certainly an appealing opportunity for media members to go to Miami in the winter: Last February, I watched games at the Unrivaled facility and found myself genuinely taken by the atmosphere and in-person product. But I also felt kind of silly attending press conferences afterward and asking players questions about a game that still did not feel totally “real.” From the practices I observed—practices of wildly varying rigor—I get the sense that some players take Unrivaled more seriously than others. It won’t shock any women’s basketball fans to know that Collier’s team, the Lunar Owls, practiced the hardest.
2026-01-10 03:02:12
The Supercopa de España is a bit of a shambolic mini-tournament in the middle of the Spanish domestic season. Since changing the format in 2020—prior to that date, Spain did the normal thing of pitting the winners of the league and the domestic cup against each other in a one-game preseason final, but now it is a four-team knockout between those two winners and the runners-up in their respective competitions—and moving the three matches to Saudi Arabia, the whole thing has become a glisteningly slimy exemplar of world soccer's insatiable greed (the same greed has threatened to move a La Liga match to the United States mid-season, though thankfully that has not happened ... yet). The tinpot nature of the Supercopa, however, does not rob it of all of its drama, and Thursday's Atlético Madrid vs. Real Madrid semifinal saw plenty of fireworks that had little to do with the match being played, thanks to the former's manager, Diego Simeone, and the latter's mercurial star, Vinícius Júnior.
