Author: Michael

1. The Jaguars were 10-point favorites against the Joe Burrow–less Bengals last night.
During ESPN’s pregame show, Scott Van Pelt, Ryan Clark, Marcus Spears and Larry Fitzgerald all picked Jacksonville to win.

Fade these guys every week, if you like money. pic.twitter.com/pRyKSAlryu
— Don Van Natta Jr. (@DVNJr) December 5, 2023

Very often, when an entire pregame show panel picks one team to win, it’s a bad sign. That ended up being the case Monday night with the Bengals pulling off an inspired 34–31 overtime win.

Tom Brady closed the book on his Hall of Fame NFL career with his second retirement in February, but he recently teased a return to the league … of sorts. 
The seven-time Super Bowl champion caught wind of Chad Ochocinco’s suggestion of a “Current vs. Past” Pro Bowl game on ESPN’s ManningCast on Monday night, and Brady apparently already has some ideas about roster building.
Brady retweeted the ManningCast video and said, “With today’s rules? Give me Chad and Randy on the outside and we’re putting up 35 next week.

Photo by Courtney Culbreath/Getty Images
Jacksonville Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence was helped off with an ankle injury
The Jacksonville Jaguars entered Monday night’s game hoping to move into the top spot in the AFC with a win over the Cincinnati Bengals.
However, their immediate concern has now shifted to the status of quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who left Monday night’s game with an ankle sprain.
Update: On Tuesday, Jacksonville head coach Doug Pederson told the media that the quarterback has a high-ankle sprain, and that everything looks “stable.

Carmelo Anthony last played professionally for the Lakers in 2022, officially announcing his retirement in May. But, apparently, one organization and one country have tried to coax the future Hall of Famer out of retirement. 
In a sneak peek excerpt from his new podcast, 7PM in Brooklyn, alongside online personality The Kid Mero, Anthony was asked which teams tried recruiting him, and he couldn’t help but laugh. The first episode of the new podcast is set to drop Thursday. 
“China,” Anthony answered with a smile.

Photo by Eric Espada/Getty Images
The race for the 25-year-old Japanese ace is heating up.
As the MLB Winter Meetings roll on, a huge spotlight is on a right-handed pitcher from Japan with a devastating array of pitches, and the numerous clubs clamoring for his services.
We are of course talking about Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the 25-year-old right hander. Did you have someone else in mind?
While the Shohei Ohtani sweepstakes get the spotlight, another massive storyline is Yamamoto, who was posted by his current team, the Orix Buffaloes, last month.

Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow wasn’t on the field on Monday night during his team’s 34—31 win over the Jaguars, but ESPN play-by-play commentator Joe Buck still found multiple ways to work the injured signal-caller’s name into the broadcast. One of the ways Buck chose to do so was with a joke that didn’t land too well and ultimately was cringe-inducing.

Memphis’ loss at Ole Miss over the weekend was a painful one, literally, for Tigers head coach Penny Hardaway as he revealed on his weekly radio show he was dealing with an excruciating toothache on the sideline.
Memphis held a seven-point lead at halftime and a four-point edge with four minutes left in the contest, but ultimately fell 80-77 in Oxford. While Memphis looked like the better team for the majority of the contest, when it got done to crunch time the Rebels simply looked like the better-coached team despite having less talent on the floor.

In a letter to NCAA membership Tuesday, president Charlie Baker outlined a major new proposal to alter the association’s structure and create a new subdivision that would allow the richest programs to more directly compensate athletes through the use of “educational trust funds” and direct NIL arrangements.
Baker’s letter calls for those schools to “invest at least $30,000 per year into an enhanced educational trust fund for at least half of the institution’s eligible student-athletes.

NCAA president Charlie Baker proposed rule changes Tuesday that would allow Division I schools for the first time to pay their athletes in ways that are not tied to educational resources.

Initial tests showed that Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence sprained his right ankle late in the fourth quarter Monday night, a source told ESPN’s Adam Schefter. He is set to undergo additional testing.