Football is in the air, and after another summer filled with headlines about realignment and NCAA policy, it’s important to remember that the players are what make this whole thing go. Here are SI’s standouts heading into the 2023 season.
First Team
QB: Caleb Williams, USC
The USC superstar will try to do what has proven elusive since 1975: repeat as Heisman Trophy winner. He’ll have the stage and the relevancy to do so.
Author: Michael
For a minute there, it looked like the shared vision of the Chargers and Khalil Mack for 2022 was about to play out in a very, very big way.
Set opposite Joey Bosa, easily the best bookend Mack has ever had, the 2016 Defensive Player of the Year registered three sacks in the opener against the team that drafted him. What’s more, it was back-to-back sacks from him and Bosa that closed the Raiders out. It was, as those guys saw it, just the beginning. Or so they thought.
“It was like a high.
Anthony Richardson makes his money playing in the NFL, and that’s good because his outlook as a rapper is definitely not elite.
The fourth pick in the 2023 NFL Draft was officially named the starting QB Tuesday morning for the Colts. Fans are eager to see what he can do on the field.
Richardson has a strong arm and is a freak of nature athlete, but he’s also incredibly raw. The former Florida QB will go through some serious growing pains.
WHAT THE?!
Australia needed a heroic performance from Sam Kerr to have any chance of beating England in the semi-finals of the World Cup, and Kerr delivered. In the 63rd minute the prolific goal scorer took the ball at midfield and gave us the goal of the tournament.
SAM KERR YOU ARE NOT HUMAN
pic.twitter.com/aneifEPqIo
— SHE scores bangers (@SHEscoresbanger) August 16, 2023
Kerr had fleeting moments up to this point, and with daylight she wasn’t going to hand this one off.
There have been a number of really bad calls made by umpires this season but almost none of them have been as awful as the one that was made by the home plate umpire in Tuesday night’s Red Sox–Nationals game in Washington.
In case you missed it, Boston’s Justin Turner had his 10-pitch at-bat end on a called third strike by Bruce Dreckman that was nowhere near the zone. This pitch missed by so much that Dreckman should have instantly apologized and given Turner the walk that he deserved.
That didn’t happen, though. Instead, Turner had to take this strikeout in stride.
Netflix may have a hit on its hands with the upcoming documentary, “Untold: Swamp Kings.” The trailer presented a story centered on Tim Tebow and Urban Meyer’s crazed run in Gainesville, leading the Florida Gators.
Tebow Expects ‘Swamp Kings’ To Be ‘Really Entertaining’
Multiple storylines around this specific Gators era pique the interest of most college football fans. When the material ranges from Tebow’s celebrity-like status to having Aaron Hernandez on the team, “Swamp Kings” has what it needs to hook audiences.
In her first start at the 2023 Women’s World Cup, Sam Kerr showed the world exactly what this tournament was missing all along.
Against powerhouse England in the semifinals, Kerr scored her first goal of the tournament in stunning fashion in the 63rd minute to knot the score at 1–1.
Kerr missed the entire group stage due to calf injury suffered on the eve of the tournament and only played sparingly as a substitute throughout the knockout stage. Until Wednesday, her biggest contribution was a penalty converted during a quarterfinal penalty-kick shootout win over France.
Texas Governor Gregg Abbott signed into law the Save Women’s Sports Act on August 7. Given that the law seeks to prohibit transgender women (biological men) from competing against biological females, a group of about 250 protesters showed up to shout their opinion that men can be women and that women’s sports shouldn’t be exclusive to biological females.
The protests didn’t remain peaceful all that long according to eyewitnesses, however. Riley Gaines, host of the OutKick’s ‘Gaines For Girls‘ podcast, sat beside Gov.
It’s been nearly a full year since Trey Lance was set to take over under center for the 49ers ahead of the 2022 NFL season. But with everything that’s happened at the quarterback situation in San Francisco since that point, it feels much longer.
Fans are long removed from Lance as the team’s QB1, potential franchise quarterback and a player surrounded by a massive amount of buzz and excitement. Brock Purdy has since emerged as the clear-cut starter for the 49ers, while Lance is competing with another former first-round draft pick in Sam Darnold for the backup quarterback job.
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