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🚨 Headlines
💔 Tragedy in Guinea: 56 people were killed in a stampede on Sunday at a soccer stadium in Nzerekore, Guinea, after a disputed red card during the final of a local tournament led to a clash between fans.
🏀 AP polls: The UConn men plummeted 23 spots to No. 25 after losing three straight games to unranked opponents and Auburn moved up to No. 2; the TCU women climbed to No. 9 for their first top-10 ranking ever and Notre Dame fell seven spots to No. 10.
🏈 McCaffrey to IR: Just four weeks after returning to the field, Christian McCaffrey will be placed on injured reserve (PCL) and could miss the rest of the season. To make matters worse for the 49ers, his backup Jordan Mason is also going on IR (ankle).
🏀 Schedule released: The WNBA released the schedule for the 2025 season, which tips off on May 16 and features a record 44 games per team (up from 40 the last two seasons).
🏁 Red Bull seeks new driver: Red Bull Racing plans to part ways with Sergio Pérez after Sunday’s season finale. Pérez has been Max Verstappen’s teammate for all four of his F1 titles, but he’s struggled this year with just four podiums and no wins.
🏀 No win November
There have been 16 winless months in NBA history. The Wizards have two of them since February.
Déjà vu: Washington went 0-14 in November to fall to 2-16 overall, putting them on pace to match the 1972-73 Sixers for the worst record in NBA history (9-73). They also went 0-12 last February as part of a 16-game losing streak and 15-67 season, both franchise worsts.
By the numbers: The Wizards aren’t just losing; they’re getting blown out. 15 of their 16 losses have come by double digits, including seven by at least 20 points. And their -14.1 net rating (point differential per 100 possessions) is on pace to be the third-worst mark ever recorded.
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Washington’s historic futility is no great mystery: they have the NBA’s most poorly constructed roster, led by two overpaid veterans in Kyle Kuzma and Jordan Poole.
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That duo is making $53 million this year to shoot 43% from the field while recording nearly as many turnovers (5.8 per game) as assists (6.8).
Waving the white Flagg: There is, of course, a reward for all this losing. Next year’s draft class is loaded, and the Wizards are tanking their way towards potentially landing a generational talent like Cooper Flagg (Duke) or Ace Bailey (Rutgers) to join their young core of Alex Sarr, Bub Carrington, Bilal Coulibaly and Kyshawn George — all first-round picks under 21 years old.
Yes, but: Tanking comes at a cost, and there is some fear that losing this much this badly could have a lasting impact on such a young team (average age: 25.46). “To run into this much adversity early stings,” four-year vet Corey Kispert told The Athletic ($). “It’s testing the culture.”
Looking ahead: Things don’t get easier for the Wizards anytime soon, beginning with tonight’s NBA Cup road game against the first-place Cavaliers. And with the next two coming against the Mavericks (13-8) and Nuggets (10-8), a franchise-worst 17-game losing streak may be inevitable.
🏈 Whew, that was fun!
The NFL played 16 games this week. 12 of them were decided by one score, tied for the most ever in a single week. It looked like we were headed for a record 13 on “Monday Night Football”… before Jameis Winston threw a pick in the end zone.
Flashback… The last time there were this many close games was Week 15 in 2022, which was arguably the wildest week in NFL history. Not only were 12 games decided by one score, but all 16 games were decided by 12 points or fewer. There were also three comebacks of at least 17 points (most ever in one week), and the Vikings’ 33-point comeback was the largest ever.
🇺🇸 Breakout season: Pulisic thriving in new role
For roughly half a decade, Christian Pulisic could be confidently described as a winger. Now, the 26-year-old has moved to a more central position for AC Milan and the USMNT — and he’s playing the best soccer of his career.
From Yahoo Sports’ Henry Bushnell:
Pulisic is no stranger to central areas. He often played there as a teen. He was a No. 10 for U.S. youth national teams. He was a central creator in the early days of previous USMNT head coach Gregg Berhalter.
But at Borussia Dortmund, and then Chelsea, he wasn’t prepared for or trusted with the responsibility that comes with a central role in elite European leagues. And with the national team, he [mostly] played on the left of a 4-3-3.
Then Mauricio Pochettino arrived and began to tinker. Simultaneously, in Italy, AC Milan manager Paulo Fonseca has moved Pulisic to the middle. He doesn’t come deep to get on the ball, as some old-school No. 10s would; rather, he drifts in search of space and detects opportunities to dart in behind the opposing defense.
The results: In just over three months, the young American has already contributed to 17 goals for club and country, and many of his best moments came from a classic No. 10 position, which has quietly become his.
⚽️ Watch: What does Pulisic’s future look like at AC Milan? (Soccer Cooligans)
🇺🇸 Photos across America
Denver — A pair of pick-sixes and a 93-yard TD pass helped the Broncos beat the Browns, 41-32, on “Monday Night Football,” spoiling career games by Jameis Winston (franchise-record 497 passing yards) and Jerry Jeudy (235 receiving yards vs. his former team).
Minneapolis — The Lakers had their lowest-scoring game of the LeBron James era in Monday’s 109-80 blowout loss to the Timberwolves. James scored a season-low 10 points and has now missed 19 consecutive 3-point attempts over his last four games.
New York — The Devils beat the Rangers, 5-1, to snap a four-game losing streak against their cross-river rivals and reclaim first place in the East over the Capitals. The Rangers have lost six of their last seven games and look all out of sorts.
📆 Dec. 3, 1944: The “Car-Pits”
80 years ago today, the historically unsuccessful one-year merger of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Chicago Cardinals concluded following their dreadful winless season.
Why’d they merge? With NFL players enlisting during World War II, some teams were left shorthanded. Once each year between 1943-45, the solution was to merge two teams.
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1943: The Steelers and Eagles became the Steagles, going 5-4-1. (They played their home games at Philly’s Shibe Park and Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field.)
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1944: The Steelers and Cardinals became Card-Pitt, going 0-10. (Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field and Chicago’s Comiskey Park.)
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1945: The Boston Yanks and Brooklyn Tigers became the Yanks, going 3-6-1. (New York’s Yankee Stadium and Boston’s Fenway Park.)
By the numbers: Card-Pitt had one of eight winless seasons* in NFL history (min. 10 games), and it wasn’t as if they were just a little unlucky. After nearly winning their season-opener, they lost their final nine games by an average of 24 points.
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Their QBs completed just 34% of their passes and combined for 8 TDs against 41 INTs, tied for the third-most ever.
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Even their punters were terrible: Their 32.7 yards per punt remains the fewest in NFL history.
The last word: In an angry letter to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, an irate fan gave this team a perfect moniker: “Why don’t they call themselves the Car-Pits? I think it’s very appropriate as every team in the league walks over them.”
*The other seven winless seasons… 1942 Lions (0-11), 1943 Cardinals (0-10), 1944 Brooklyn Tigers (0-10), 1960 Cowboys (0-11-1), 1976 Buccaneers (0-14), 2008 Lions (0-16), 2017 Browns (0-16)
📺 Watchlist: Who will advance?
The NBA Cup’s group stage concludes today with 11 games, including a doubleheader on TNT: Magic at Knicks (7:30pm ET) and Warriors at Nuggets (10pm).
Where it stands: The Rockets, Warriors and Hawks have clinched spots in the eight-team knockout round, and 14 teams have been eliminated, leaving 13 teams competing for the final five spots.*
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West: Eight teams are fighting for two spots, and six of them play each other: Grizzlies at Mavericks (8:30pm), Spurs at Suns (9pm) and Trail Blazers at Clippers (10:30pm). The others are the Nuggets (vs. Warriors) and Thunder (not playing).
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East: Five teams are fighting for three spots, and four of them play each other: Bucks at Pistons (7pm) and Magic at Knicks. The fifth team is the Celtics (not playing).
More to watch:
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🏀 NCAAM: Syracuse at No. 3 Tennessee (7:30pm, ESPN); Michigan at No. 11 Wisconsin (9pm, Peacock); No. 4 Kentucky at Clemson (9:30pm, ESPN)
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⚽️ Friendly: Netherlands vs. USWNT (2:45pm, TNT) … In The Hague, Netherlands.
*Tiebreaker rules: Any ties will be broken first by head-to-head record in group play, then by point differential in group play, then by total points scored in group play, and finally by regular-season record.
🏈 NFL trivia
“Hard Knocks” returns tonight (9pm ET, HBO/Max) with another in-season edition of the long-running docuseries. Instead of following a single team, this year’s show will follow the entire AFC North (Bengals, Browns, Ravens, Steelers).
Question: Without looking, what do the AFC North standings currently look like? Bonus points if you include each team’s record.
Answer at the bottom.
⚾️ Japanese slugger eyes MLB move
Shohei Ohtani is MLB’s biggest star, Rōki Sasaki is MLB’s most sought-after free agent not named Juan Soto, and now another Japanese phenom has his sights set on America.
Coming soon: Japanese slugger Munetaka Murakami announced Monday that 2025 will be his final season in Nippon Professional Baseball, after which he’ll look to sign with an MLB team.
Who is this guy? The 24-year-old lefty has already compiled quite the résumé, recording 224 HR, 600 RBI and a .945 OPS through seven seasons (836 games) with the Tokyo Yakult Swallows. He’s the youngest player in NPB or MLB history to reach 200 home runs, and his 56 dingers in 2022 broke Sadaharu Oh’s longstanding record for a Japanese-born player.
💣 Watch: Dude’s got some serious power…
Trivia answer: 1. Steelers (9-3), 2. Ravens (8-5), 3. Bengals (4-8), 4. Browns (3-9)
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