That's A Bold Move

Happy Thursday, we’re officially a fortnight away from gobbling down turkey, stuffing, pies, and lots of football… and maybe a few brews. Speaking of fortnights, did you hear Aaron Rodgers thinks he’ll be making his return in a “few fortnights”? If his Achilles heals this fast, I hope he has a few more wishes from the genie’s bottle and can ask for a better offensive line.

That’s enough of the jokes for today, let’s start the show.

That’s a Bold Move

If you remember from yesterday, The University of Michigan had to respond to the Big 10 regarding the expectation that some discipline would be handed to the program for the sign-stealing scandal. Well, they responded so here’s a little taste of what the response looked like. (This was apparently leaked by someone in the Big 10)

📜 Michigan responded in a few ways to the Big 10. First, Michigan shared some news that other schools were involved in sign stealing and they also were awaiting a response since they asked the Big 10 to wait for the conclusion of the NCAA investigation as it looked like the NCAA is going to clear HC Jim Harbaugh of having any knowledge of the sign stealing scandal. It doesn’t mean that Harbaugh didn’t know, it just means the NCAA can’t prove it.

😎 Michigan took it a step further yesterday. They responded to the Big 10 and said the conference shouldn’t hand out any punishments. Why? Well for starters, this seems to be a conference-wide issue and this could set a precedent for punishments( I don’t know that I agree with this approach.. is it still cheating if every team is doing it? The whole point of cheating is you’re gaining an unfair advantage, but would you actually be if it’s common practice? There’s a Thursday morning ethics check-in for you). What was the other reason the conference shouldn’t hand any punishments out to Harbaugh? Apparently, the conference doesn’t have the power to do so. The conference bylaws are not the same as the NCAA, and there is no rule that the conference can hold a coach accountable for any misdeeds within a program. It’s a weird flex, but let’s see where it goes.

MLB News

🧢 The LA Angels have hired Ron Washington as their 4th manager in 5 years. Washington, who is 71, has signed a 2-year deal. He previously brought the Texas Rangers to a World Series in 2010 and 2011. He was also a 3rd base coach for the Atlanta Braves during their 2021 World Series win.

🧢 Here’s a wild story that has the baseball community up in arms. On Oct 2. Cubs owner Tom Ricketts said manager David Ross “is our guy” and almost a month later the Cubs have fired Ross and hired Brewers manager Craig Counsell to a 5-year, $40 million deal. The Cubs are willing to spend on players, let’s see what Counsell can do with more firepower.

NBA Scoreboard

🏀 Two of the top teams in the East battled it out last night. The Philadelphia 76ers hosted the Boston Celtics and the Sixers took the win 106-103. Joel Embiid led the way for the Sixers with 27 points and 10 rebounds and Tyrese Maxey also scored 25. Kristaps Porzingis scored 29 for the Celtics. 😕 Maybe the Sixers really don’t need Harden…. they are off to a 6-1 start.

🏀 The San Antonio Spurs traveled to New York and Victor Wembanyama had his Madison Square Garden debut against the Knicks. The Knicks defeated the Spurs 126-105 and held Wemby to just 14 points. The Knicks had 3 scorers in the 20s with Julius Randle, Jalen Brunson, and RJ Barrett dropping 23, 25, and 24, respectively.

🏀 The LA Clippers stayed in New York after their loss to the Knicks on Monday to face the Brooklyn Nets last night. That didn’t bode so well for the Clippers and James Harden, who faced one of his former teams. The Nets beat the Clippers 100-93. Harden finished with 12 points and Paul George had the high for LA with 24. If you put a future in on the Clippers, you might want to “cash out” if you have the option 😆

🏀 The Golden State Warriors lost in Denver to the Nuggets 108-105 last night. Clay Thompson had a fast break chance to pull up for a 3 with about 1 second remaining but lost grip on the ball.

🏀 Bradley Beal made his debut for the Phoneix Suns after being sidelined with a back injury since he was traded. Beal came out with limited minutes but scored 13 points. The Suns just scraped by the Chicago Bulls, winning 116-115.

NHL Scoreboard

🏒 The Florida Panthers took down the Washington Capitals 4-3 last night with an OT win.

🏒 The Vegas Golden Knights are now on a 2 game-losing streak after starting off without a loss in their first 12 games. The Golden Knight lost 4-1 to the LA Kings last night. The Kings had a goal from 4 different players.

Is NCAA Women’s Basketball Unfair?

Hear me out.

Don’t actually hear me out, just look and see for yourself.

There were 5 games with Top 25 teams last night and all but 1 of the games resulted in the ranked team more than doubling the opponent’s score. The only game it didn’t happen in was UConn vs Dayton. Dayton scored 58 but Uconn only beat them by 44.

I’m serious, check this out.

Thursday Night Football

I think the boys from Barstool summed up this week’s TNF matchup the best. If it was July and you said you’d have the Panthers and Bears playing on a summer night, we’d all take that game. Do we feel the same tonight? Probably not.

Cue the intro music because tonight, we’ve got the 1-7 Carolina Panthers traveling to the Windy City to face the 2-7 Chicago Bears!

📺️ Gametime is set for 8:15 pm ET on Prime Video

❤️‍🩹 Justin Fields is still healing his dislocated thumb and Tyson Bagent will get the start for the Bears tonight.

💰️ Chicago is the favorite at -3.5. The O/U is 38.5. I’m probably taking the Panthers and the under. The first half at 19.5 also looks good as Tyson Bagent is pretty, pretty bad.

That’s a well-rounded Thursday in sports. We’ll be back tomorrow with a College Football preview.

Have a day!

-The Daily Breakroom