1. I think I have a Taylor Swift update for you! Breathless news! TRAVIS KELCE Gases up his car while dating Taylor Swift! Brother Jason Kelce told me on Sunday night: “It’s definitely been strange the level it’s at now. On the one hand, I’m happy for my brother that he seems to be in a relationship that he’s excited about and serious about. But there’s another ending where you say, ‘Man, that’s a lot.’ Paparazzi today are talking about him gassing up his car before the game, and I’m wondering, ‘Is it really necessary to share that information? ?” This is another level of celebrity that football players don’t usually get to grips with. And so, on the one hand, I’m really happy for my brother and where he’s in his current situation with Taylor, but on the other hand, I think sometimes there’s concern about, you know, people who chase too much. Overall, he can handle a lot of it. As long as it doesn’t become a threat to his safety and things like that.” Travis Kelce finds himself reaching a level of notoriety beyond even Brady-Bündchen’s.
2. I think it was refreshing to hear MacJones I don’t feel defeated by the Belichick coverage in New England over the last few weeks. After playing his best game in the league in nearly two years in the 29-25 loss to Buffalo in Foxboro, it became clear to me that Jones is predictably good at compartmentalizing the essence of football: letting the underdogs in the door of the locker room. Business is business. Don’t let outside things get in the way. “I wouldn’t say it’s hard,” Jones said. “They need to know that it doesn’t matter what happens outside the building – it only matters what we do inside the building. For me, being a Mac was important. I love the game, I love preparing for the game, and I think my teammates see that and respect it.” Jones praised the offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien for his creative use of motion, so Buffalo couldn’t always clearly see what the Patriots were doing. And he said Belichick “did a good job of getting the team together, getting us prepared and focusing on the things that really matter.”
3. I think if you listen Tua Tagovailoa Speaking to Michael Smith for Football Night in America, he doesn’t explain why he prefers this Mike McDaniel above Brian Flores, but he comes close when he describes his early days in Miami as “almost like he was people-pleasing, almost like a yes man.” That’s consistent with what he’s said in the past – he didn’t want to be overly critical of Flores’ coaching and relationship style, but suggested he’s much more comfortable now and feels freer under McDaniel. The full interview:
Tagovailoa finds the freedom to be himself with MIA
On this episode of Gets It, Michael Smith sits down with Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa to talk about how Mike McDaniel helped him find the freedom to be himself and overcame difficult moments in his career has.
4. I think I like the Eagles in Kelly Green, but are you like me – and when you turned on the TV on Sunday night, you wondered if the Jets had somehow snuck into Lincoln Financial Field?
5. I thinkregarding Ian Rapoport’s report Bill Belichick signed a contract extension with New England earlier this year: I seriously doubt, and I mean seriously, that this will matter if the Patriots finish last in the division and do so indecisively. Nothing stands in the way of executing the contract Robert Kraft do what he believes is best for the organization… and I am in no way suggesting that this is a done deal – not at all. I’m just saying that Kraft will do what he thinks is best for the franchise after the season, whether it’s keeping Belichick or moving on.
6. I think Trevor Lawrence Is that limited with a bad knee – eight carries, a career-high 59 yards (a long of 26) in the win over the Saints after he was doubtful to play – he’s either a lot braver than we thought he was, or the adrenaline a hard prime time is a very good thing. Lawrence showed a lot on Thursday night.
7. I think It’s cool, I think, that the 2028 Olympics will feature men’s flag football and women’s flag football. Just seems strange to me. I’m not saying that the International Olympic Committee has introduced a sport that is likely to give Americans two gold medals at the Olympics in America (Los Angeles), but rather two questions: If these Olympics were held in Athens or Beijing, would flag football to be there? And how many countries will field truly competitive flag football teams?
8. I think For those who don’t know what a “hip drop tackle” is (I’m one of them) and why the NFL seems determined and determined to ban it, Zaire Franklin feels you. Franklin, the Indianapolis linebacker, leads the NFL in tackles after seven weeks. He expressed what I thought on the subject on social media: “No one who has ever played football knows what…a ‘hip drop’ tackle is!” SMH. When you’re in the open field with someone who can get you on ESPN, all you’re thinking about is taking him down, not what type of tackle I’m going to use. “Who fights for the players?” I have never heard or seen a defensive coach teach a player to tackle someone with the intent of forcefully transferring his body weight onto the offensive player’s shin, lower leg, or ankle. It’s football. It happens.
9. I think The NFL needs to stop trying to legislate anything out of the game that could harm players.
10. I think These are my other thoughts of the week:
A. Steve Hartman is unique in American television, delivering good news when we need it most. Like this week from St. Louis with the story of a grandma making breakfast for some high school students:
B. It’s something more than that.
C. One Wednesday in 2021, Bishop DeBourg High School’s Wednesday Breakfast Club met with a group of students at a local restaurant.
D. Then, as Hartman reported, a student named Sam Crowe said, “You know, my grandma could cook better.” The next Wednesday, they all showed up [grandma Peggy] Winckowski’s front door. “I think, OK, and they came the whole school year — every Wednesday,” Winckowski said. The breakfast continued merrily until all joy was lost in July 2022.
e. Then Hartman, with a plot twist like he does so well.
F. Hoops Story of the Week: Sports Illustrated’s Emma Bacallieri on the Iowa guard’s explosive fame and basketball experience Caitlin Clark:
G. This story is a good example of a good author, Bacallieri, reducing the subject to a minimum and using it to create a clear and insightful profile. Good job on Clark’s maturation as a player and teammate.
H. Fame must be hard to bear sometimes. Bacallieri writes:
In August, Iowa announced that the entire women’s basketball season was sold out: demand for season tickets was so overwhelming that no single-game deals could be promised. The Hawkeyes set a Big Ten attendance record last year. But this was another level. Previously, the 15,056-seat arena only sold out a few games on the schedule, and now an entire season was full months before it began.
The mania had spread beyond campus: When the Triple A Iowa Cubs handed out a Caitlin Clark bobblehead in June, fans were lined up as early as 6 a.m. Playing at the John Deere Classic Pro-Am in July just over the border in Silvis, Ill., organizers couldn’t remember a gallery this big since Bill Murray played in 2015. (At the event, Clark was with the US Ryder Cup captain Zach Johnsonwho hesitated when asked if it had groundbreaking potential Tiger Woods But Clark called her “transcendent” and “spectacular.”) And Clark received perhaps the greatest honor of all in August: Her likeness was sculpted in butter at the Iowa State Fair.
“I mean, people go to the fair just to see the butter sculptures, especially the butter cow,” Clark says. “For me, being next to the Butter Cow is a pretty big deal.” (Previous Butter honorees have included Elvis, John Wayne, Abraham Lincoln and The Last Supper.)
I. Then there was the battle against DePaul last week. Outside. At Kinnick Stadium.
J. And 55,646 came to watch a women’s basketball duel. On a windy day, Clark had a triple-double, scoring 34 points. Naturally.
k. Team of the Week: The Las Vegas Aces, who went on the road and got beaten in Game 3 but survived to win Game 4 and claim the WNBA title with a 3-1 win over the New York Liberty. Detailed here by Sabreena Merchant of The Athletic.
l. The dealer wrote:
Las Vegas had every opportunity to fall apart, every excuse to back out and revive this streak [Nevada] for game 5. Already without Candace Parker The lack of personnel for most of the season was exacerbated by injuries that sidelined them in the finals Chelsea Grey And Kiah Stokes, two starters whose contributions anchored the offense and defense, respectively. Only eight Aces players were healthy. Four were not regular rotation players and one had never played non-garbage time minutes for the Aces.
Cayla George Stokes took over in the starting lineup after playing a total of six minutes in the first three games… [Becky] Hammon gave her the green light to shoot, and her presence on the field would only matter if she heeded her coach’s words.
The 34-year-old was a successful player overseas, winning the WNBL MVP in Australia last season, but that accomplishment never really translated to the United States. She had started three games in her WNBA career as of Wednesday and was in and out of the rotation in Las Vegas, but mostly during the playoffs. However, when her number was announced in the final, George delivered her best game of the year.
M. Vegas trailed by 12 in the third quarter, and the 34-year-old George hit two straight three-pointers to start the comeback. That’s a good player and that’s a good story. Congratulations to the Aces.
N. Hate Jose Altuve as much as you want. And I have my doubts about his role in the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal. But that’s a Hall of Fame player right there.
O. That game-winning three-run home run against the Rangers on Friday night, which turned a loss into a victory with one hit, was his 26th hit in 101 postseason games. This is a 5-foot-5 guy, and if we were to judge him based on a 162-game playoff season, Altuve would be on pace to hit 42 home runs in a full season. Who knows – maybe he’ll end up with 162 of them before he retires, and we’ll find out if he can keep that up.
P. Sports is about the D-backs giving a better team everything it can handle in a championship series.
Q. I wonder if Seattle bus drivers are still mourning the loss of Eclipse, the black lab, on the one-year anniversary of her death?
R. Eclipse became a Seattle legend by boarding a bus every day for seven years – often alone – after her owner Jeff Young showed her how it was done. It wasn’t that Young stopped taking them; Eclipse pushed the envelope and wanted to leave earlier than Young had planned. “One day,” Young said, “she was nervous, so she got on the bus, got off at the dog park and just kept going.”
S. When it started in 2015, Eclipse was a story:
T. Have a great, great day, Phil Bell. Good luck. And thank you for being a reader.
& RIP, Burt Young. Paulie defined the character actor in the Rocky films, just a perfect, angry, hard-drinking, egotistical guy with a certain good-heartedness who just seemed so real. Some of Paulie’s characters, he told the Observer, closely resembled Burt Young. “Of course I took on board his insecurity,” Young said.
v. RIP, Samantha Woll, the 40-year-old president of the Isaac Agree Downtown Detroit Synagogue, was found stabbed to death near her home Saturday morning. The more I have read and heard about Woll’s selfless life of service—for example, she worked to build bridges between the Jewish and Muslim communities—the sadder this death is.