ESPN Daily

While the College Football Playoff technically doesn’t start for another month, if you look closely you can see that in many ways it already has. Look no further than the fireworks of Rivalry Week: while appearing to keep up with decades old traditions, they are actually setting the table for the win-or-go-home repercussions of this weekend's conference championships. So today, Ryan McGee joins us to talk about the chaos of this unofficial bracket, and then dares to take a look at the unpredictable future of college football – our favorite Saturday pastime. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The past two seasons have been tumultuous, to say the least, for Draymond Green. Throughout the Warriors dynasty of the past decade, Green has been the enforcer of the team, playing a crucial role in bringing four NBA championships to the Bay Area, pushing the envelope on league rules in the process. But now, Green’s latest suspension – for putting Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert in a chokehold – has everyone questioning where he currently stands with the team.  Marc J. Spears has covered the NBA and Bay Area sports for decades, so he takes us inside the mind of Draymond Green – and inside the Warriors franchise – as all parties figure out how to move forward. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Throughout human history, the allure of rare and mysterious artifacts has always summoned our bravest and most intrepid explorers to scour the ends of the earth. The Ark of the Covenant. The Holy Grail. And now, the Dallas Mavericks Barbie.   The ultra-rare Mavs Barbie, the product of a late 90’s collaboration between Mattel and the NBA, has given collectors everywhere headaches for years as the missing piece to their Barbie collections. She is so hard to find, in fact, that some collectors have even questioned her existence. So today, as the holiday gift-giving season kicks into full gear, we revisit a conversation between Jeremy Schaap and Dave Fleming on his quest for Mavericks Barbie, why she’s so hard to find…and how Dave helped put an end to one collector’s 25-year pursuit. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s that time of year, America. It’s time to grab a plate and have a seat for Thanksgiving dinner. And while we may not have the same foods on our table, there is one dish we all get to dive into: the Detroit Lions playing on Thanksgiving day. If you’re a Lions fan, most of those Thanksgiving games this century have sat in your stomach like leftovers gone bad…but as a quick look at the standings show, it’s a new day in Motown. So today, Eric Woodyard, our Michigan native and Lions insider, shares his experience growing up around this tradition, tells us where this first-place team is going and what you can expect to eat if you stop by Mama Woodyard’s house. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Earlier this month, the Ultimate Fighting Championship, more commonly known as UFC, celebrated its 30th anniversary. The company’s explosive growth is unprecedented in the history of sports, recently earning a $12 billion valuation. But the UFC didn't just create a new kind of sports entertainment. It brought a relatively unknown fighting style out of the underground and into the mainstream, upending our understanding of human combat. So today, Ryan Hockensmith tells the tale of the first-ever UFC event, through the eyes of one fighter who had no idea what he was getting into. Back in 2017, our friends at 30 for 30 Podcasts went even deeper on the origins of UFC. Check out their episode No Rules: The Birth of UFC. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After more than a few lackluster primetime games over the first half of the NFL season, tonight’s Monday Night Football matchup between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs is sure to deliver a feast to kick off Thanksgiving Week.  Not only is it the two best teams from each conference, with two presumptive MVP candidates at quarterback on each side, it’s also only the second time we’ve seen a rematch from the previous year’s Super Bowl on Monday Night Football. So today, Andrew Hawkins joins the show to break down every major aspect ahead of tonight’s game, and gives his take on one…well actually two… of the most anticipated meetings of the season. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nine games into CJ Stroud’s NFL career, and he’s already taking the league by storm. He resurrected a lifeless Houston Texans organization, and etched his name in the record books. Forget Rookie of the Year, he might be the NFL’s Most Valuable Player this season. Period. But there is so much more to Stroud than his heroics on the field…so today, ESPN’s Liz Merrill joins the show to tell us about where he comes from, who shaped him…and what sets him apart, as a quarterback, and as a person. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Even if you don’t follow basketball, odds are that you heard of Paige Bueckers. Even before she stepped foot on the floor at the University of Connecticut, clips of her getting buckets had gone viral as far back as when she was in middle school. And she arrived at UConn in 2020 as the next big thing; the next superstar that would lead the storied Huskies program to another national championship.  But for the past couple of years, injuries have plagued Bueckers, turning her charmed tale into a story about adversity, struggle, and mental fortitude.  So today, ESPN’s Alexa Philippou takes us inside Bueckers’ road back to the court, and shows us how time away has changed her approach to the game, all while keeping a national championship run in her sights. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Colorado’s final home game of the 2023 season ended in agony last Saturday, a heart-wrenching 34-31 defeat — their fourth in a row — at the paws of the Arizona Wildcats. The prime time games and celebrities on the sidelines are gone for now, and with their record now sitting at 4-6, the Buffaloes need to win out just to be bowl eligible. But with Deion Sanders taking over a program that won one game a year ago, what does a successful season really look like for them? So today, as the sun sets on Coach Prime’s first year with the Buffs, ESPN’s Spencer Hall joins the show to give us his review on year one of the Deion Sanders Experience in Boulder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Billy Preston was thought to be the next one-and-done player when he signed with the University of Kansas basketball team back in 2017. But before he could make that leap, a minor fender bender opened the door into a world of illegal corporate payouts that unraveled his future in an instant. So today as Kansas, and their coach Bill Self – the highest paid coach in the sport – prepare to take on Kentucky, Paula Lavigne joins us to talk about how corporate America, the Federal Government, and the NCAA extinguished a hoop dream before it even began. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Week 10 gave us some of the craziest finishes of the NFL season. The Houston Texans pulled off a last second victory over the Cincinnati Bengals, where rookie QB CJ Stroud basically “out-Burrowed” Joe Burrow himself, inserting himself into the MVP conversation in the process. Elsewhere in the AFC North, the Browns came from behind to steal a win from the Baltimore Ravens, who had been gaining momentum as a Super Bowl contender in recent weeks. The 49ers offense is back at full strength with the returns of Trent Williams and Deebo Samuel, and they look like the world beaters we saw back in Week 1 again. And in Los Angeles, the Detroit Lions had maybe their biggest win of the season over the Chargers in a shootout…which might make Brandon Staley’s seat a little bit warmer. So today, Kevin Clark, host of This is Football, joins the show to discuss his biggest takeaways from Week 10. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michigan has been one of the top teams in college football for the past few seasons. Ever since head coach Jim Harbaugh stepped on campus, they’ve stayed in the headlines, for better or worse. And now, In the midst of their undefeated season, allegations of sign stealing have taken over the narrative surrounding the team. The near-daily developments have been unexpected, and sometimes downright odd, making this situation feel as if it was pulled right from the silver screen. Sunglasses with spy cameras, fake play call signs, and 600-page manifestos have put Michigan’s run to the National Championship in jeopardy.   So today, Mark Schlabach joins the show to explain how this all has unfurled, the difficult choices facing the Big Ten, and what the consequences for Michigan and Harbaugh might be. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Caitlin Clark is one of the greatest college basketball players we have ever seen. She’s the reigning NCAA women’s basketball Player of the Year after leading Iowa to the Final Four; and now in her senior season, she’s poised to set or break several more records. But regardless of what Clark accomplishes, she’ll do it all while holding her favorite title: Being just another kid from Des Moines. So today, Basketball Hall of Famer Michael Voepel joins the show to tell us all about Clark’s connection with her roots, and why it could continue to shape Iowa’s basketball program and Clark’s career, for years to come. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

University of Wisconsin’s star sophomore Laila Edwards is the first Black woman to make the U.S. Women’s National Hockey Team. After an incredible freshman season that ended with Wisconsin’s record seventh national title, she now adds representing the U.S. to her resume.  Inspired by a chance meeting with Blake Bolden, the first Black woman to play professional hockey, Laila is showing a new generation that they can not only play hockey, but thrive in the sport.  Ahead of tonight’s Team USA vs Team Canada matchup, Andscape’s Branson Wright shares Laila’s story, how crucial her family was to her journey to the U.S. National Team, and what her future holds. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Few jobs are more thankless than that of the referee. At best, your existence is completely invisible. No one notices when you do a terrific job. At worst, you become enemy #1 for fans or coaches or in lower levels, angry parents. Combine that with low pay and high pressure, and it's no wonder why officiating is undergoing a crisis at the moment. Not enough people are willing to do the job –– a job without which, the games quite literally cannot go on. But, today, ahead of Veteran’s Day weekend, we revisit the story of Battlefields to Ballfields, an organization working to make military vets part of the solution. And in many cases, it’s the kind of opportunity some struggling former soldiers have dreamed of. For more on Battlefields to Ballfields, you can read McGee’s story here. This episode first ran on November 11, 2022. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The playoff picture is slowly starting to take shape as we get deeper into the NFL season. Teams like the Cincinnati Bengals and Baltimore Ravens, who got off to slow starts, are finally hitting their stride.  Meanwhile, other teams are starting to raise more questions than answers. Can the Kansas City Chiefs defense carry a lackluster offense to the Super Bowl? How far can the Dallas Cowboys really go with Dak Prescott under center? And will the real Miami Dolphins please stand up? So today, ESPN NFL senior writer Jason Reid joins the show to break down four of Sunday’s biggest matchups, and he helps us make sense of what they mean at this point of the season. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Across the American sporting landscape, Pride Nights have become a popular way to reach out to the LGBTQIA+ community, a simple show of support meant to signify that sports are for everyone. In the NHL, teams have worn themed warm up jerseys that were later auctioned off for charity. But last year, Pride Nights became the epicenter of a public relations disaster for the league.  A small handful of players publicly refused to participate in their team’s respective Pride Night, citing their religion or fear of retribution in their home countries, and some teams opted out of wearing the warmups entirely.  Backlash and debate ensued, and the NHL banned all specialty jerseys ahead of this season. They also banned the use of Pride Tape, a rainbow-patterned wrap that players would use on their sticks. But rather than make the issue go away like the league had hoped, it blew up in their faces and created even more of a PR firestorm.  The ban was eventually rescinded, but the initial decision itself was a damning tell of the state of LGBTQIA+ support, or lack thereof, in society at large. So today, Emily Kaplan joins us for a candid discussion about what happened in hockey, how we can learn from it…and who’s really affected when we talk about this subject. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are few professions with a shorter leash than the job of an NFL coach. The league is a results-based business with 32 teams all vying for a Super Bowl ring. So if you can’t build a perennial contender, you can pretty much expect to be looking for other work sooner rather than later, with the fans all too eager to see you go.  That’s what’s going on right now in Pittsburgh, where offensive coordinator Matt Canada has drawn the ire of so many fans that the calls for his job have now transcended outside of the Acrisure Stadium walls. The chants and signs and memes have spread to Penguins games, wrestling matches, and NFL stadiums everywhere.  So today, Steelers beat reporter Brooke Pryor joins the show to explain how the “Fire Canada” phenomenon started in the first place, how the unique psychology of Steelers fans catapulted it into the mainstream, and if the fun and games have gone too far. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Another season of men’s college basketball is upon us…and we really don’t know what to make of it. The usual teams adorn the top of the preseason polls: Kansas, Duke, and Michigan State, but there’s really no clear frontrunner that looks primed to stand above the crowd. Add to the wide-open field a whole crop of familiar faces in new places, as NIL deals and the transfer portal continue to dominate the sport.  So today, Myron Medcalf returns to give us some clarity as the marathon towards March Madness starts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The rhythms of the NBA regular season have been remarkably consistent since the 82-game schedule was introduced in the 1960s –– a grueling six-month march toward the playoffs, where, from night to night, the importance of any one game can often feel pretty negligible.  But this year, the league is shaking things up. Enter the In-Season Tournament, a five-week-long competition running alongside the regular season, and tipping off this Friday. The World Cup-style format starts with group play and culminates with the top eight teams facing off in a single elimination tournament and the champion winning the new NBA Cup.  So today, Zach Lowe explains everything you need to know about the entire event –– how it’s more than a gimmick, why the players actually will care, and all the components that should make the entire affair pretty fun. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices