Sports

This article is part of our Origin Stories series, an inside look at the backstories of the clubs, drivers, and people fueling the sport.

As Chloe Chambers navigated the final lap of Race 2 in Barcelona on her way to her first win in F1 Academy, she took a different approach.

The American driver was laser-focused, making sure to keep the lap clean. But with the gap she built to the rest of the field, she could take the final corner around Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya slower than usual.

“I just drove that last lap and took the time to realize what had happened in the race because, of course, while you’re racing, you don’t really think about that,” Chambers said. “You just think about the next thing coming up the next corner. And so I was able to use that last lap to think about things, think about what I was going to say on the radio. That’s always important.”

Chambers is proof that a driver can thrive in motorsports without making the full-time Europe jump. Haas supports the 20-year-old in F1 Academy, the all-women racing series that is the latest addition to the Formula One pyramid. She climbed to that point while still residing in the United States.

Waiting for her in parc ferme after her first F1 Academy victory, aside from Campos Racing and members of Haas, was her father, who she describes as “a very emotional guy.” She added, “I don’t know if you saw the video of him in Barcelona, but he was a mess after my win.”

The hard work and waiting for the right moment paid off. Chambers sits fourth in the standings with four races to go in 2024 but feels finishing in the top three “is a reasonable goal.” And she already knows she’ll be on the grid next season, sporting blue as part of Red Bull Ford.

Chambers has found a way to live a balanced life, furthering her education while pursuing her motorsports career. Her goal? Reach the pinnacle of motorsport—her own way.

“I hope that (my story) gets people involved in motorsport. I think a lot of people assume that you have to be rich and come from money and be from Europe to be involved in motorsport, especially on the F1 side,” Chambers said to The Athletic, later adding, “This year has been the best year for my racing, and, of course, for me having fun as well. I’ve had the most fun this year driving than I ever have.”

Chloe Chambers has had a successful first season in F1 Academy. (Pauline Ballet/Formula 1 via Getty Images)

Chapters of Chambers’ life may surprise fans.

She appeared on a 2019 episode of David Letterman’s My Next Guest Needs No Introduction, which also happened to include Lewis Hamilton. Most know Letterman for his T.V. work, but Chambers knew him for his IndyCar ties. She and one other karter raced with Letterman in go-karts, spending an entire day at the track.

“He was really trying,” Chambers recalls. “He was trying so hard. He even spun out and hit the wall, and they actually showed it on the episode.”

Then, before she jumped to single-seaters in 2021 for a partial season in the F4 United States Championship, she became a Guinness World Record holder at 16 years old for the fastest vehicle slalom. Looking back, she realized, “I don’t think I’d ever driven any car at that point.” She only had her permit when she drove a Porsche 718 Spyder at a record-breaking time of 47.45 seconds.

Chambers says many people notice that she comes from an adoptive family, likely because she attends most of her races without them by her side.

She was born in Guangdong, China, a southeast coastal province that borders Macau and Hong Kong. At 11 months old, she was adopted and originally started living in Texas. Her younger siblings are also adopted — her sister is from northern China, and her brother is from Ethiopia.

“I can remember when they started the process with my brother, but with my sister actually, it’s kind of a unique thing where it actually ended up taking them, like, seven years or something like that, to get it all finished,” Chambers said. “I can’t remember exactly what happened, but originally, my sister was supposed to only be a couple years younger than me. And then I think that was about the time when there were a bunch of just issues happening in China with the social climate and everything. So they halted adoptions for a little bit.”

This detail of her life story remains at the top of her mind as her motorsports career grows, as she’s been an ambassador for the Gift of Adoption Fund since 2021. “We try to help out wherever we can,” she said. “Of course, having their logo on my suit and being able to spread the message as I go through my travels and everything has been something that I’ve been able to continue on with.”

After living in Texas for a year, Chambers’ family moved to the northeast, spending over a decade in New Jersey and New York. This is where Chambers’ motorsports journey began. Though living with an American family, NASCAR and IndyCar weren’t the series that caught her eye. Her family didn’t watch much of either, aside from the Indianapolis 500, of course.

But Chambers remembers watching F1 with her father.

“My dad was always a big motorsport fan since he was young,” she said. “He grew up in the U.K., so it was a little bit more in their culture than it was for us, but I grew up with it.”

Her dad took her to her first karting outing, and Chambers remembers it being right before the track closed for winter. She was seven years old, “when you’re trying out every sport ever to see which one you like if you like any.” She fell in love with it and asked throughout the winter months when she could return.

“My dad took me to some indoor tracks during the winter time. I didn’t like that very much. And then, as soon as the track opened again in April, we were there, and we did that full season together.”

As Chambers puts it, her father was “a mess” after her first F1 Academy win at Barcelona this year. (Pauline Ballet/Formula 1 via Getty Images)

Chambers began competing at age eight and won numerous regional and national championships across the next nine years. But motorsports wasn’t the only sport in her life. Though shorter in stature, swimming has also been a passion.

“I liked the racing, so to say. But I wanted something a little more and something that wasn’t so heavily up to physical attributes as swimming is,” Chambers said. “I knew I was never going to be the tallest person ever, so swimming was probably going to end at some point. So that’s where I found racing, and it kind of made up for all the things that I was lacking when I was swimming.”

From swimming, she learned the coaching style that works best for her. Chambers said she went through numerous coaches, some of whom she liked more than others, and learned how key it was to have the right people surrounding you to extract the best performance.

Unlike other drivers across different series, especially those who end up in the F1 pyramid, Chambers never made the jump to living full-time in Europe. Instead, she competed in karting mainly in the United States and  Canada and lives full-time in Indiana. She described European karting as “the pinnacle of karting” but says, “I think that there are a lot of drivers in the U.S. as well that have a lot of talent and can race on the same level as the European racing can.”

Not making that jump to Europe did raise a few questions. Chambers’ partial F4 season happened at the end of her junior year of high school and the beginning of her senior year, prime time for college applications. The world was still bouncing back from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“My parents and I said we’ll continue on racing as long as we can, but being in the U.S., not quite making it over to Europe yet, and being able to get some of the European sponsorship as well, we weren’t sure how long I would be able to race for. And even if I did continue on, you’re not going to be able to drive forever.”

Chambers delivered Haas its first Formula series win this season. (Pauline Ballet/Formula 1 via Getty Images)

So she continued applying to colleges and ended up at Arizona State University, pursuing a fully online degree in Business Administration and Management. Chambers grew up managing her career alongside her parents, so this degree was a natural fit. Given that she did not know the future of her racing career, Chambers did apply to different universities as if she would be in person. However, the online format provided flexibility for when W Series eventually came knocking for her to test at the end of 2021 in Arizona.

Her racing career continued with the W Series in 2022 when she teamed up with series champion Jamie Chadwick at Jenner Racing. The following year, she competed in the 2023 Porsche Sprint Challenge North America and Formula Regional Oceania Championship in New Zealand. In the latter series, she became the first woman to secure pole position and win in its history. She believes that moment helped her get to F1 Academy in 2024 with Haas F1 Team and Campos Racing.

But she is still pursuing her college degree, balancing the travel, competition and pressure of online exams.

“I find the great importance in (that balance),” Chambers said, “and it’s also something that’s very unique within racing drivers.”

F1 Academy debuted in 2023, and Marta García won the inaugural championship. Many questions surrounded F1 Academy, especially considering the other all-women series, the W Series, didn’t finish the 2022 season and entered administration in 2023.

Chambers wanted to see where F1 Academy would go in its first season, a decision she still stands by. The category only allows women to compete for two years, and over half of the grid, including points leader Abbi Pulling, will not compete in 2025. Chambers is the first move in the drivers’ market for next season, moving from Haas to join Red Bull Ford.

She’s been sitting on the news for quite some time. Conversations with teams about 2025 began to pick up around mid-season, around when Chambers’ F1 Academy results started picking up. She finished third and fourth in Miami and came in third and first in Barcelona in June.

Chambers will race F1 Academy for Red Bull Ford in 2025. (via Red Bull)

But she had been on Ford’s radar before her first F1 Academy win. Chambers competed in the first round of the Mustang Challenge earlier in June, stepping in for a driver who was injured earlier in the year. She said, “When given the opportunity to go drive a race car, I always say yes. So I went and did that just for fun and, of course, to get some experience in a different kind of car. And it turned out to be something even bigger.”

It was the first race of the year, and numerous “big people from Ford” attended that weekend. Jim Farley, the CEO who also competed, and  Ford Performance Motorsports Global Director Mark Rushbrook met Chambers and hosted a dinner for the competitors.

“It’s also big news when an F1 Academy driver goes and does other racing elsewhere. So I think, of course, there were a lot of eyes on me that weekend regardless.”

Chambers said you must adapt your driving style to a heavier car like the Mustang, similar to jumping between open-wheel racing and another motorsports category. While there is the hope of competing in other series outside of F1 Academy, she said there haven’t been a whole lot of discussions around it. However, “Ford being Ford, I think (they) would love to have me back in Mustang again. It’s one of their most iconic cars ever, an American race car as well.”

Chambers put pen to paper in August, before F1 Academy’s race weekend at Zandvoort. But she had to keep it under wraps aside from sharing the news with her family and close friends. She said the company filming a docuseries on F1 Academy, Hello Sunshine, knew and did attempt to fish it out of her.

A big move is on the horizon for Chambers. And she’s got aspirations to race for wins and championships at “the pinnacle level of motorsport” — in any given series. The American driver’s current focus is the open-wheel racing path, like F1, but she’s open to the World Endurance Championship, IMSA and the prestigious Le Mans.

She’s a racer at heart.

“My idea of success is having a nice long career, maybe some good results here and there. But I’m not somebody who thinks winning is the only way to see success for me,” Chambers said. “Ever since I started racing karts, my dad always told me that the weekend will be a success in our book as long as I drove to my full potential. So even though that weekend might not have been my best weekend results-wise, if I drove to my full potential and didn’t leave anything else on the table, then that’s a good weekend for us, and I think that kind of can be said for my career as a whole.

“As long as I continue on with my career and continue performing at whatever my potential is, then I think that’ll be something that I’m happy with.”

Origin Stories series is part of a partnership with Chanel.

The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication.

Top photo via Red Bull Racing

It may seem like it, but 432 minutes isn’t that much time.

That’s how much playing time Toronto Raptors starting point guard Immanuel Quickley and centre Jakob Poeltl got to play together last season.

In a disappointing campaign where Toronto’s roster underwent a significant overhaul, Quickley and Poeltl had just the 25th most of minutes all possible Raptors pairings last season.

They’ve been working on making up for that this past summer.

“He’s a very smart basketball player,” Quickley said, adding that he texts Poeltl almost every day. “I don’t know if a lot of players know that, but just the intelligence he has, especially when you talk to him, you can understand how he’s a very smart player.

“I’m just really trying to pick his brain, see where he likes the ball.”

Quickley was traded with RJ Barrett of Mississauga, Ont., from the New York Knicks to Toronto on Dec. 30 in a deal that sent O.G. Anunoby, Precious Achiuwa and Malachi Flynn the other way. Quickley began to transition from the two-guard to point after the move, making him pick-and-roll partners with Poeltl.

They had just 18 games together before Poeltl dislocated his left pinky finger. He needed surgery to repair that injury, ending his season.

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Quickley and Poeltl averaged 24 minutes per game together over that 18 game span. They combined for 60.4 points per game, with a 49.7 per cent field goal percentage and 40.9 per cent three-point shooting. They averaged 22.3 rebounds — 16.8 on the defensive end — with 15.3 assists.

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As a comparison, backup centre Kelly Olynyk of Kamloops, B.C., and shooting guard Ochai Agbaji both joined Toronto after the Quickley trade, but managed to play more time together with a total of 451 minutes.

New York Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson and centre Julius Randle, who has since been traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves, led the NBA with an average of 31 minutes per game together last season.

“It was something we’re working on,” said Poeltl on Monday at the Raptors’ media day. “I’ve had individual conversations with Quick as well, trying to figure out what would be the best way for us to get our chemistry going as fast as possible.

“I think we were off to a pretty good start last year, it felt fairly natural. But we’re working on those nuances.”

There are some statistics that back up Poletl’s impression of his partnership with Quickley.

They had a 3.3 plus/minus rating per game, the best of the Raptors’ top 25 pairings. Their average of 60.4 points per game together last year is second-best of still viable pairings Toronto, behind Quickley and Barrett’s average of 63.4.

Also, for 24 of their precious few 432 minutes together, Dennis Schroder was also on the floor and would have been the Raptors’ point guard.

Poeltl and Quickley have tried to make up that deficit of court time together working together extensively at Raptors mini-camps in Miami and Spain this off-season.

“We had a couple times after practice where we’d get together just the two of us with a couple coaches and go through some reps,” said Poeltl. “We had some time in Miami as well working out with the same trainers, just getting a little more experience in.

“That’s really all it’s about, just being out there on the court together, and you’ll pick things up or you’ll learn more and more about each other, and it will get better and better from there.”

Quickley agreed with Poeltl.

“Obviously, a lot of his scoring is off of pocket passes and he has a great touch around the rim,” he said. “Just trying to understand where my teammates like the ball and where I can help them be successful.”

Toronto head coach Darko Rajakovic wants to see Quickley drive to the net more often this season, a critical final option for a successful pick-and-roll with Poeltl. That means understanding where the big man will be moving to after setting his pick to clear out space and possibly getting in position for a rebound if Quickley misses his layup.

“We’re making the effort to try to perfect it in a way,” said Quickley. “It’s not going to come easy.

“You’ve got to hit the hammer every single day that you that you come in, and I think we’ve done that.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 3, 2024.

&copy 2024 The Canadian Press

In difficult times during the regular season, New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone often remarked that the team’s path to the playoffs remained wide open, saying, “it’s right in front of us.”

The same can now be said of the American League title.

After 14 years of wandering through the October desert, the Yankees have stumbled onto an oasis. Or maybe the upsets of the Baltimore Orioles and especially the Houston Astros in the Wild Card Series are more like a baseball parting of the Red Sea.

The Yankees suddenly loom as favorites to capture their first AL title since 2009, the year they last won the World Series. Boone might not say it out of respect for the competition, but yes, it’s right in front of them. The Yankees will have no excuses if they cannot survive an AL field that includes three Central clubs with payrolls approximately one-third of their own.

Of course, big-money teams don’t always prevail, not in the regular season, not in short postseason series. The Astros, fielding a payroll more than double that of the Detroit Tigers, got swept at home. The Yankees’ Division Series opponent, the Kansas City Royals, features the likely AL MVP runner-up, Bobby Witt Jr., and two potential top-five finishers in the AL Cy Young voting, Cole Ragans and Seth Lugo. The other AL team with the bye, the Cleveland Guardians, won only two fewer games than the Yankees during the regular season.

Think Yankees fans want to hear it?

The Yankees are mostly healthy. They feature two of the game’s biggest stars, Aaron Judge and Juan Soto. And no longer must they deal with the Astros, who defeated them in the ALCS in 2017, 2019 and 2022, going a combined 8-1 at Minute Maid Park.

Yes, the 2017 triumph occurred during a postseason in which the Astros stole signs illegally, but in four games at Minute Maid, the Yankees scored three runs. Some Yankees fans would like to believe the 2019 ALCS also was tainted, but the Jose Altuve buzzer controversy was never proven to be anything more than a social media creation. And in 2022, the Astros swept the Yankees in four straight, erasing any doubt about their superiority once and for all.

This season was shaping up as more of the same. An eighth straight ALCS appearance by the Astros – and fourth showdown with the Yankees – looked quite possible. The Orioles are 15-11 against the Yankees the past two years but did not appear a serious threat, fading for months, scoring only one run in two games against the Royals. The Astros, once again, figured to be another matter.

After starting the season 12-24, Houston rallied to finish 76-49 and win its fourth straight AL West title and seventh in the past eight years, the only exception coming in the shortened 2020 season. But after its shocking loss to the Tigers, a team that sold at the trade deadline and has virtually no starting rotation beyond AL Cy Young favorite Tarik Skubal, the end of the Astros’ dominance finally might be near.

Third basemen Alex Bregman seems likely to depart as a free agent. Right fielder Kyle Tucker and left-hander Framber Valdez are eligible to hit the open market after next season. The Athletic’s Keith Law in February ranked the Astros’ farm system 27th out of 30 – and at the deadline, the team traded three young players for left-hander Yusei Kikuchi.

The Astros owe a combined $32 million in 2025 to first baseman José Abreu and reliever Rafael Montero, two players they signed while owner Jim Crane was operating without a general manager, then released in the second year of three-year deals. The return of Justin Verlander at last year’s deadline cost the team Top 100 prospects outfielder Drew Gilbert and outfielder/first baseman Ryan Clifford. Verlander, since rejoining the team, had a 4.55 ERA in 28 starts.

The Yankees’ foundation is not exactly solid, either, not with Soto unsigned beyond this season. That’s why it’s incumbent upon this team to seize the moment. The Orioles and Astros had the third- and fourth-best records in the AL, respectively. And now they are gone.

Mind you, the Yankees are far from flawless. Their rotation of Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodón, Luis Gil and Clarke Schmidt might be as good as any remaining in the postseason. But their bullpen will require deft managing by Boone. Their offense led the AL and ranked third in the majors in runs, but beyond Judge and Soto, the combined OPS of their hitters was a Miami Marlins-like .676. The team also is prone to sloppiness at times, both on the bases and in the field.

Likewise, the Central teams warrant more respect than they received playing in the same division as the Chicago White Sox, whose 121 losses were the most in AL/NL history. True, the Royals were 12-1 and the Tigers 10-3 against the White Sox, while the Guardians were a mere 8-5. True, none of those teams boast strong offenses – the Royals ranked 13th in the majors in runs, the Guardians 14th, the Tigers tied for 19th. Each, though, has shown a certain pluckiness, a knack for winning. Witt Jr. and the Guardians’ José Ramírez, like Judge and Soto, are top-10 players in the sport.

Underrated as the competition might be, Yankees fans won’t settle for another October collapse, not when the Yankees’ payroll is $302 million, compared to $114 million for the Royals, $104 million for the Tigers and $103 million for the Guardians. (Two Tigers players earning a combined $39 million, shortstop Javier Báez and righty Kenta Maeda, are not even on the team’s postseason roster.)

Could the Yankees have asked for anything more than the early eliminations of two of their biggest rivals? Call it an oasis. Call it a baseball parting of the Red Sea. But enough about water. For the Yankees, the American League playoffs had better end in champagne.

(Top photo of Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton: Luke Hales/Getty Images)

Having etched her name across the record book during the 2024 WNBA season, Caitlin Clark has been named the league’s Rookie of the Year, receiving 66 of 67 total votes, the WNBA announced Thursday. Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese received one vote from the national panel of sportswriters and broadcasters.

Clark and Reese were also named to the 2024 All-Rookie Team on Thursday, along with Los Angeles Sparks forward Rickea Jackson, Chicago Sky center Kamilla Cardoso and New York Liberty forward Leonie Fiebich.

Your 2024 WNBA All-Rookie Team 🙌

Caitlin Clark (IND)
Rickea Jackson (LAS)
Angel Reese (CHI)
Kamilla Cardoso (CHI)
Leonie Fiebich (NYL)#WelcometotheW pic.twitter.com/TgU5hoEztP

— WNBA (@WNBA) October 3, 2024

That Clark won the Rookie of the Year award came as little surprise considering how prolific her debut season was.

Clark broke both the WNBA’s single-season and single-game assist records. She scored the most points by a rookie ever, and the most points by a point guard ever. She became the first rookie to record two triple-doubles and the first Fever player ever to record a triple-double.

GO DEEPER

Caitlin Clark grades her rookie season as ‘solid’ after playoff exit

Those are just some of her many accomplishments among averaging 19.2 points and 8.4 assists per game — numbers that were even better in the second half of the season — and led the Fever to their first postseason appearance since 2016. Indiana also improved its win total by seven in 2024.

“I am incredibly honored to be named Rookie of the Year, but more than that, I am grateful to everyone that supported me throughout this past season — my family and friends, my teammates, the Fever organization and everyone that cheered us on all season,” Clark said in a statement Thursday. “I am so proud of what we accomplished and so excited for what the future holds.”

Clark, the No. 1 pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft, entered the league as the most-anticipated rookie in league history. She flourished at Iowa for four seasons, leading the Hawkeyes to two Final Fours and setting the women’s NCAA Division I and major college women’s basketball scoring records.

The spectacle around Clark followed her to the professional ranks. While Clark dazzled fans and tormented opponents, she also played an instrumental role in a season of explosive growth for the WNBA. Six different league television partners set viewership records this year for its highest viewed WNBA game, and all six included the Fever.

Attendance in Indianapolis hit a record high, with an average of 17,036 fans packing Gainbridge Fieldhouse for home games. Indiana led the league in attendance for the first time in WNBA history.

Thursday’s news, however, is not a reflection of the off-court Clark Effect, but her successes between the court’s four lines.

“She’s been special,” Indiana coach Christie Sides said ahead of the playoffs. “She came into the best league in the world, the best women’s basketball league in the world. She found her footing. She’s continued to get better. She’s put herself in position to be called one of the best players in the league. That’s incredible for a rookie.”

GO DEEPER

From shaky start to playoff bound, how Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever revived their season

For the first half of the season, the Rookie of the Year race seemed as if it would be among the tightest ever. Through the first two months of the season, Reese helped the Sky remain in playoff contention. She had 14 double-doubles in 20 games and broke Candace Parker’s consecutive double-double streak.

Reese, like Clark, earned All-Star honors and was awarded WNBA Rookie of the Month in June. She set the league’s single-season total rebound record (446) and recorded the highest per-game rebound average in WNBA history (13.1).

The No. 7 draft pick, Reese would have become only the third player taken after No. 6 in the WNBA Draft to win Rookie of the Year. But her second half proved different than her first. Chicago slumped and Reese eventually was ruled out for the rest of the season on Sept. 8 with a wrist injury. The Sky missed the postseason.

During the season Clark and Reese downplayed the importance of the race.

“I’m sure (Angel) would give you the same exact answer—I’m sure she has given you the same exact answer,” Clark said in late August. “So for us, everybody can write that, but our focus is on winning basketball games. It’s as simple as that.”

Said Reese: “We don’t either care about Rookie of the Year. I think you guys have made it a big thing. We haven’t. We both want to win. We’ve been wanting to win, and that’s what we’ve done in our collegiate career.”

Clark became the third consecutive No. 1 pick to win top rookie honors.

“I know there’s a lot of room for me to continue to improve,” Clark said after the Fever were knocked out of the playoffs by the Connecticut Sun. “I feel like I had a solid year, but for me, the fun part is I feel like I’m just scratching the surface.”

Evaluating the All-Rookie Team

Despite Los Angeles failing to make the postseason, Jackson was productive throughout the year. She was efficient, averaging 13.4 points, 3.9 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game while shooting 45.6 percent from the field and nearly 35 percent from 3-point range. She also became the first WNBA rookie, and sixth WNBA player ever, with a game of at least 25 points, three three-pointers and three blocks.

Cardoso, the No. 3 pick in April’s draft, missed the start of the season due to injury. But upon her return in early June, she also made an instant impact. Cardoso led all rookies in field goal percentage (52.1 percent) and averaged 9.8 points, 7.9 rebounds and 1.4 blocks per game. On June 23 against Indiana, Cardoso and Reese became the first rookie duo in league history since 1998 to record double-doubles over multiple games in the same season. They later also became the first rookie teammates since 2010 to record more than 10 rebounds in the same game.

Fiebich elected to join the Liberty this season, having most recently been the MVP of the professional league in Spain. The 24-year-old German averaged 6.7 points, 3 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game while shooting 47.8 percent from the field and 43.3 percent from deep. During the regular season, she recorded the second-highest plus-minus by a rookie in WNBA history. She has continued to make a key impact this playoffs, where, now in the starting lineup full-time, she has led the Liberty in plus-minus in three of their first four postseason games.

Collier wins DPOY award

From the beginning of the regular season until its conclusion, the Minnesota Lynx had one of the WNBA’s top defenses. And that defense now boasts the league’s top defender after Napheesa Collier won the 2024 WNBA Defensive Player of the Year Award, the league announced Sunday.

Collier received 36 of the 67 votes from a national panel of sportswriters and broadcasters. Las Vegas Aces forward A’ja Wilson finished in second (26 votes).

The Lynx finished the year first in opponent field goal percentage (41), first in opponent 3-point percentage (30.1), first in opponent assist rate (18.6), and a close second in defensive rating (94.8). Collier’s versatility was key to all their success as an anchor of Minnesota’s defense.

Often Collier was tasked with guarding an opponent’s top frontcourt players. At other moments, she rotated over to provide crucial help.  She was especially impactful against top competition as the Lynx went 7-4 against the other top-four playoff seeds, including Minnesota’s Commissioner’s Cup victory.

Collier finished second in the WNBA in steals per game (1.9) and eighth in blocks (1.4 per game). According to Synergy Sports, opponents shot only 34.3 percent against her.

“I’m so proud of Phee’s defensive work in 2024. Her commitment to all aspects of our defense — deflections, denials, steals, blocks, rebounds — anchored one of the top defensive teams in the league and led to her best season yet as a pro,” Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve told the AP.

Minnesota finished second in the WNBA standings and swept the Phoenix Mercury in the first round of the playoffs. The Lynx, winners of four WNBA titles, will be looking to win their fifth this postseason. If they do, they would move into first place for titles won by an active WNBA franchise, breaking a tie with the Seattle Storm.

Tipoff for Game 3 of their semifinal series against the third-seeded Sun is set for 7:30 p.m. ET on Friday. The series is tied 1-1.

2024 WNBA All-Defensive Teams

The WNBA also announced the first and second All-Defensive Teams on Sunday.

First Team:

Second Team:

Required reading

(Photo: Dylan Goodman / NBAE via Getty Images)

Follow live coverage of Buccaneers vs. Falcons on Thursday Night Football today

The first quarter of the NFL season is in the books, and although there’s a lot of football left to play, you can sense things starting to fall into place for many teams (and developing concerns for others). Let’s take a look at some of the things we’ve learned after four weeks, and also award some superlatives.

What we’ve learned

Fit is everything

Minnesota Vikings quarterback Sam Darnold’s career resurrection is among the best stories of the young season. Cast off by the New York Jets and then Carolina Panthers, Darnold used a season as a backup in San Francisco to help reset his career, and then signed with the Vikings this offseason to serve as a bridge to eventual first-round pick J.J. McCarthy. But through four weeks, Darnold has been a star. He’s leading the NFL with 11 touchdown passes and a 118.9 passer rating and has completed a career-best 68.9 percent of his passes while helping lead the Vikings to a 4-0 record.

GO DEEPER

Is the Vikings’ scorching 4-0 start to the season sustainable?

While Darnold continues this revival, quarterbacks Baker Mayfield, Geno Smith and Jared Goff are also enjoying second-chance success with Tampa Bay, Seattle and Detroit, respectively. Derek Carr looks revitalized under new Saints offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak and Justin Fields has exhibited promise in Pittsburgh. These reclamation projects provide a valuable lesson, that seemingly debilitating struggles aren’t always the fault of the quarterback. It doesn’t always matter how talented a prospect is if he’s on a team led by a general manager who doesn’t understand how to properly build around him, or if he’s playing for a coach who doesn’t understand how to tailor his system to that passer’s strengths. But if blessed with the opportunity to pursue a more stable situation, some quarterbacks can make good on second chances.

Sure, Darnold — now 27 and in his seventh NFL season — has probably learned a lot more than he could have ever imagined as a 21-year-old rookie. But Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell and GM Kwesi Adofo-Mensah get it, and have used a strong rushing attack, quality offensive line, supremely talented wide receiver in Justin Jefferson and dominant defense to ease pressure on Darnold while capitalizing on his strengths.

Defense is making a comeback

We’re often told the NFL is “a passing league,” but through four weeks, passing numbers are down across the NFL. Teams have averaged 202.8 passing yards a game compared to 217.9 per contest through four weeks last season. Passing numbers have declined every season since 2020, when teams averaged 249.8 per game. Rushing numbers have increased slightly, but as a whole offenses have found it more challenging to move the ball this season.

Why? Have the league’s defensive gurus cracked the code on these high-powered offenses despite rule changes that make it harder to cover wide receivers?

Yes and no, said three NFL coaches with offense expertise. It’s true that defensive coordinators are finding ways to take away explosive plays. They’re using more two-high safety looks in an attempt to guard against getting beat deep by wide receivers. That has in part forced quarterbacks to settle for shorter, underneath passes. But offensive coaches also report that as defenses opt to cover the pass with seven players, that has left them with more four-man fronts, which lends itself to more favorable run opportunities. Some of these offensive coaches also believe that deteriorating offensive line play has factored into the decline in passing yards. Even though quarterbacks are facing more four-man fronts, sacks have still gone up slightly. Decreased practice time and less full-contact action in training camp and the preseason are among the potential reasons for offensive line struggles.

Will this trend continue, or after limited work together in preseason games, did offensive starters simply spend the first month of the season honing their skills as they gear up for an explosion?

The Cowboys’ Brandon Aubrey has made field goals of 65 and 60 yards this season. (Andrew Dieb / Imagn Images)

Kickers are up

The new “dynamic” kickoff generated a lot of buzz this offseason, and the rule change has made this element of the game slightly more relevant. Teams have combined for 187 returns this season, compared to 112 at this point last year, according to NFL Research. But the real buzz involves field goals, on which kickers are booming the ball through the uprights from greater distances than ever.

Already, we have seen Cowboys kicker Brandon Aubrey make two field goals of 60 yards or greater (a 65-yarder in Week 3 and 60-yarder in Week 4). New England’s Joey Slye nailed a 63-yarder on Sunday. Thus far, kickers have successfully kicked 61 field goals of 50 yards or longer, which is a record through four weeks, according to NFL Research. The previous record was 46 (2023).

The Chiefs are still the Chiefs, but …

Some things never change. Fresh off their repeat as Super Bowl champions, the Kansas City Chiefs have kicked off their three-peat quest with a four-game win streak. The Chiefs haven’t lost a game since Week 16 of the 2023 season, putting them on a 10-game win streak when including the playoffs.

The Chiefs’ approach has differed to start this season. Travis Kelce got off to a slow start, but Patrick Mahomes relied heavily on second-year wide receiver Rashee Rice and rookie Xavier Worthy while leading his team to wins over the Ravens, Bengals, Falcons and Chargers. The Chiefs’ success has come despite the the losses of free-agent wideout Marquise Brown and top running back Isiah Pacheco to injuries. But now Mahomes and the Chiefs will be tested further. Rice suffered a serious knee injury in Sunday’s win over the Chargers. Already shorthanded, Kansas City will need other players to step up. Kelce did have his most productive day of the season (seven catches, 89 yards). But can Worthy assume the No. 1 role? Will the Chiefs have enough firepower to defend their title, or will their hopes fizzle down the stretch of the season?

Panthers’ dysfunction is hard to cure

Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper’s impatience prompted him to fire Frank Reich after just 11 games last season. This past offseason, Tepper charged Dave Canales with the task of fixing top 2023 pick Bryce Young. But after two dismal performances, the Panthers’ rookie head coach benched Young (24 hours after pledging loyalty to him) and turned to Andy Dalton. The 14th-year veteran did help the Panthers win a game in his first start. But Carolina faces all kinds of uncertainty regarding Young’s future. Will Canales help the Alabama product reset his career and better understand the pro game as a backup? Or will the Panthers eventually trade him?

Superlatives

The second pick of the 2024 draft is off to a historic start, completing a league-best 82.1 percent of his passes. He has passed for three touchdowns and just one interception while rushing for another four touchdowns to lead the Commanders to a 3-1 start. Give offensive coordinator Kliff Kingsbury props for his work in developing Daniels and easing him into his role as starting quarterback.

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Biggest surprise: Vikings QB Sam Darnold

As mentioned, Darnold looks like a man reborn after stepping in as the Vikings’ replacement for Kirk Cousins. Leading the league in touchdown passes and passer rating, and ranking second in yards per attempt (8.8 yards), Darnold has Minnesota looking like a playoff team.

Best coaching job: Packers’ Matt LaFleur

There’s stiff competition for this distinction. Minnesota’s O’Connell and Washington play-caller Kingsbury both deserve consideration. But LaFleur took Titans castoff Malik Willis, inserted him into the Packers’ offense for an injured Jordan Love, tailored the system to capitalize on Willis’ strengths and positioned him for effective play and wins in both starts.

After playing all 17 games last season following a concussion-plagued 2022 campaign, the Dolphins’ quarterback suffered yet another concussion in Week 2. Now Tagovailoa faces an uncertain future. The Dolphins have placed him on injured reserve to give him time to heal and seek additional medical advice, but it’s unknown when/if he will return. Without Tagovailoa, the Dolphins are 0-2 after using Skylar Thompson and Tyler Huntley as starters. Huntley will start again Sunday at the Patriots.

Derrick Henry and the Ravens have won two in a row, against the Cowboys and the Bills. (Tommy Gilligan / Imagn Images)

Scariest 2-2 team: Ravens

After an 0-2 start, the retooled Ravens broke out of their funk with a much-needed win at Dallas and then rolled to an authoritative 35-10 victory over Buffalo. Offseason pickup Derrick Henry rushed for 199 yards against the Bills while backup Justice Hill had 18 rushing yards and 78 receiving yards and a touchdown. Lamar Jackson rushed for a touchdown and passed for two more. The Ravens defense had struggled to find its footing following former coordinator Mike Macdonald’s departure to become Seattle’s head coach, but had its way with Josh Allen and the Bills, restoring confidence that Baltimore can contend in the AFC this season.

Most suspect winning record: Bills

After a comeback win over Arizona and a thumping of Miami, the Bills looked elite and Allen an MVP candidate. But then came Sunday night’s loss at home to the Ravens, which raises questions about the Bills’ legitimacy. Arizona is inconsistent, and Miami struggled mightily against the same defense that Baltimore walloped. Buffalo (3-1) may win the AFC East because of the Dolphins’ Tua-related misfortunes, the Patriots’ rebuilding and the fact the Jets will always be the Jets even with Aaron Rodgers. But can the Bills really go toe-to-toe with the conference’s elite teams?

Hottest coaching seat: Doug Pederson or Nick Sirianni?

Pederson was supposed to rescue the Jaguars from the dysfunction of the short-lived Urban Meyer era. He was supposed to help Trevor Lawrence live up to the billing of a generational talent, one who just earned a new $275 million contract. But three years in, Pederson appears no closer to these goals than when he started. Sure, Lawrence showed promise in 2022 in helping Jacksonville make an unlikely playoff push. But rather than build on that success, Lawrence and the Jaguars regressed in 2023, losing five of their last six games to miss the postseason. And now they’ve opened the year 0-4 as Pederson continues to defend highly criticized offensive coordinator Press Taylor. Can Pederson, whose team has back-to-back games in London in Weeks 6 and 7 after hosting the Colts on Sunday, get this thing turned around?

Meanwhile, Pederson’s replacement in Philadelphia finds himself under a great deal of pressure as well after a listless 33-16 loss to the Buccaneers dropped the Eagles to 2-2. Nick Sirianni started hot, taking Philly to the Super Bowl in Year 2 at the helm. But the Eagles regressed last season and continue to struggle. Sirianni has a very good roster with which to work, and offseason signee Saquon Barkley has already made his presence felt. But Jalen Hurts has yet to regain the excellence and consistency the Eagles hoped for under new offensive coordinator Kellen Moore. Injuries to wideouts A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith have hampered the offense. But as a whole, this unit continues to underperform, and defensive guru Vic Fangio (hired this offseason) has yet to cure the ills that plagued the Eagles on that side of the ball.

Eagles brass positioned this team to contend, but things remain shaky. That ultimately could cost Sirianni, who admitted last week he hadn’t prepared his team adequately for Tampa Bay.

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Unluckiest team: Rams

After going 5-12 in 2022, one year after winning the Super Bowl, the Rams went 10-7 last season and returned to the postseason. They aimed to make a deep playoff run in 2024, but injuries have hit L.A. hard across the offensive line, in its secondary (cornerback Darious Williams) and at receiver (Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp). At 1-3, the Rams already find themselves in an early hole in the competitive NFC West.

Earliest big-spending return: Falcons QB Kirk Cousins

The Falcons believed they had a roster fit for contention, and just needed a quarterback to put them over the top. So they armed new head coach Raheem Morris with Cousins, signing the 13th-year veteran and four-time Pro Bowler to a four-year, $180 million contract with $140 million guaranteed despite the fact he was coming off surgery for a torn Achilles tendon. The Falcons offense isn’t quite a well-oiled machine yet, but Cousins already is making his presence felt, leading his team on game-winning drives twice in the first four weeks.

There were rumblings during the preseason that this relationship might quickly sour. And while the Raiders are 2-2, Adams has requested a trade, and Las Vegas has let teams know he’s available for the right price.

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What team makes sense for Adams? The Ravens certainly could use an explosive pass-catching threat for Jackson, and Adams could potentially put them over the top. The Chiefs are desperate with Rice and Brown injured. But would the Raiders trade within the division? Buffalo drafted Keon Coleman to replace Stefon Diggs, but Adams certainly would look good catching passes from Allen. And Justin Herbert is working with a thin supporting cast, but the Chargers also reside with the Raiders in the AFC West.

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(Top photos of Jayden Daniels and Sam Darnold: Stacy Revere and Christian Petersen / Getty Images)

BALTIMORE — The backslapping of goodbyes in the Baltimore Orioles clubhouse was deafening, the official obituary for a team that has been playing dead for months.

This much is clear: The honeymoon is over.

Last year, when this group was swept out of the American League Division Series by the eventual champion Texas Rangers, the reasons seemed valid. They were young, inexperienced. They had simply run out of gas in October. There was dejection, but it was hard to be too upset at a team that had stunned the sport by winning 101 games and the AL East. Over and over, those around the team offered variations of the same phrase: It was just the beginning of a long window for this young core.

The window is here. And if the organization, everyone from general manager Mike Elias on down, doesn’t learn from its mistakes, it could slam shut sooner than anyone thought.

A new ownership group, led by David Rubenstein, will take a close look at the business in its first full offseason, and the list of upgrades and to-dos is long. This front office would be wise to do its own autopsy, after a listless 2-1 loss to the Kansas City Royals that should send shock waves through every corner of Camden Yards.

“It all came crashing down on us sooner than anyone expected it to,” catcher James McCann said of an Orioles team with World Series expectations that was 20 games over .500 in the first half of the season.

This isn’t just about Jordan Westburg’s injury, though when Westburg fractured his hand, the Orioles’ offense took a nosedive in August and September. Nor is it about the alarming play of catcher Adley Rutschman, who is either hurt or just went the better part of four months as a below-average offensive player.

And it isn’t just about playing things too safe at the trade deadline, though you could certainly start there. The Orioles were a .500 team in the second half of the season, and were it not for the acquisition of Wednesday’s starter, Zach Eflin, the deadline could be chalked up as a total failure. It is the second successive season Elias and his group opted not to make a big splash but to instead hold on to most of their top prospects and carefully cultivated farm system.

Maybe bigger moves weren’t out there, but there were other paths to upgrade. One, closer Lucas Erceg, stared them in the face as he finished the job for the Royals in both wild-card games. Two more, the San Diego Padres’ Tanner Scott and Jason Adam, were significant enough bullpen upgrades that it makes you wonder: How many games could they have changed for the Orioles? Being bold can invigorate a clubhouse. Being safe, for the second season in a row, can be deflating. “It’s better than nothing,” a member of last year’s team texted me after the team acquired Jack Flaherty and Shintaro Fujinami, both busts, last July. Was it, though?

Optics matter. Clubhouse dynamics matter. Experience matters. Especially in the postseason.

Kansas City, a small-market team, infused its club with four new players at the deadline and added another trio in August on waivers. It prioritized veterans, knowing postseason experience was important. Who in the Orioles lineup has the experience and cache to call a pregame meeting to light a fire, or keep things loose in the dugout? Veterans matter, even when they don’t show up in the numbers.

Of course, the Orioles could have added Scott, Adam, Erceg and vintage Mariano Rivera at the deadline and it still wouldn’t have helped much against Kansas City. The O’s lineup looked flummoxed and miserable the past two days, flailing at pitches outside the zone, desperate to hit a three-run homer with no one on base. In perhaps the lasting image of this series, Colton Cowser struck out swinging at a ball that hit him in the fifth inning with the bases loaded. Had he kept his bat on his shoulders, the Orioles would have taken the lead.

The O’s scored one run the entire series, running the organization’s playoff losing streak to 10 in the process. They never led and, dating back to last year’s sweep against Texas, have had the lead in just one inning in five postseason games. These don’t just feel like losses; they feel almost inevitable. That is what needs to change.

O’s became the 4th team to win ≥ 90 regular-season games, make the playoffs and go winless in the playoffs in consecutive seasons. Brewers are about to join them.
Others:
2021-22 Cardinals
2018-19 A’s
1969-70 Twins@Stathead

— Rob Daniels (@oriolesfactoids) October 3, 2024

“Last year, Game 1 (we had an) opportunity, didn’t win, but then the next two kind of got out of hand,” Orioles manager Brandon Hyde said. “This year, you felt like these were two winnable games.”

The Orioles front office and coaches will spend a long time unpacking all the reasons they became a .500 team: injuries, underperformance, over-reliance on their young stars. The players, eyes red-rimmed and shocked, will retreat to their offseason homes and wonder what could have been.

“For it to happen two years in a row is a tough pill to swallow,” said first baseman Ryan Mountcastle, who, like many of his teammates, had no answers for how this team slid so far from July on. For how the entire lineup dipped in runs per game, slugging percentage, OPS and every other tangible metric as the season wore on.

Someone better find those answers. Next year, the Orioles won’t have ace Corbin Burnes — who came over last offseason in a fantastic trade by the front office — or Anthony Santander, who hit a team-leading 44 home runs and is also headed to free agency. Those are big shoes to fill.

Make no mistake: This is still a talented young team. But never has an offseason felt more critical. Never has there been a time to aggressively chase upgrades and not waste another year of a young, controllable, cheap core.

Windows change. Injuries happen; players age. The Orioles don’t even have to leave the division for proof of how quickly things can turn sour. Just look at the Toronto Blue Jays.

The front office has proved it can build a minor-league system and develop an enviable group of young, big-league talent. It has done a terrific job turning around an organization that was in dire straits. Now it’s time to figure out how to take the next step.

Good isn’t good enough anymore. And just getting to October can’t be, either.

(Photo: Patrick Smith / Getty Images)

The NFL’s biggest surprise teams through Week 4 reside at opposite ends of the standings.

The Minnesota Vikings are 4-0 after losing their highly drafted rookie quarterback and substituting the well-traveled Sam Darnold in his place.

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The Jacksonville Jaguars are 0-4 less than four months after rewarding their quarterback, Trevor Lawrence, with a $275 million extension.

Here’s another surprise: Lawrence’s statistical production through his 54 career starts mirrors the production for Darnold to the same point in his career (Darnold has made starts No. 57-60 this season).

It’s early for a Jaguars autopsy, but so far, Jacksonville fits the profile of a team that overestimated itself, symbolized most resoundingly when paying its quarterback. The team is facing tough questions earlier than anticipated because winnable games slipped away, leaving the Jaguars 0-4 for the second time in four seasons with Lawrence, and for the fourth time in 13 seasons with owner Shad Khan.

The schedule delivers beatable opponents over the next three weeks in the Indianapolis Colts (2-2), Chicago Bears (2-2) and New England Patriots (1-3), but enough has gone wrong through the Jaguars’ first four games to examine the evidence. Including that Darnold-Lawrence comp.

“It will not end well”

The Jaguars are not the only team to invest market-setting dollars in a quarterback carrying question marks long before there was a deadline for making a decision. The Miami Dolphins acted similarly with Tua Tagovailoa, as did the Arizona Cardinals with Kyler Murray. Both Lawrence and Murray signed extensions with two years remaining on their rookie contracts.

Shortly after the Jaguars extended Lawrence’s deal for $55 million annually, 50 coaches and executives voting in my 2024 Quarterback Tiers survey combined to place Lawrence in Tier 3. Lawrence ranked 16th. Tagovailoa was one spot higher. Murray was one spot lower. (Those three quarterbacks’ teams are a combined 2-10 this season.)

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The deal for Lawrence came after the Jaguars lost five of their final six games last season, with the only victory coming against Carolina, when Lawrence was unavailable because of injury.

“They have a quarterback they think is a superstar, and he is not a superstar,” a QB Tiers voter said over the summer. “Ownership thinks he is a superstar. It will not end well.”

The implication was that Lawrence can be good, but not great, and that he isn’t good enough consistently enough to meet sky-high expectations.

“Make no mistake, this is the best team assembled by the Jacksonville Jaguars, ever,” Khan told fans in late August. “Best players, best coaches. But most importantly, let’s prove it by winning now.”

The Darnold comp

Through 54 starts, Darnold and Lawrence had identical won-lost records (20-34), the same yards per pass attempt (6.7) and nearly the same average air yards per attempt. Their passer ratings lagged. Darnold took more sacks. Lawrence suffered from more dropped passes.

Lawrence had the better expected points added (EPA) per pass play, but in looking at the table below, we would never conclude that one of these quarterbacks deserved a market-setting extension, while the other was an abject failure.

Both players experienced terrible team situations early in their careers — Darnold with the New York Jets in the NFL’s largest media market, Lawrence with Jacksonville in its smallest.

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“Good players can be in bad situations, bad players can be in good situations and it takes a little while to figure out the true merit sometimes,” a veteran coach said.

Lawrence badly missed two open receivers, Christian Kirk and rookie Brian Thomas Jr., for what would have been long touchdown passes during the Jaguars’ 24-20 defeat at Houston in Week 4.

With those throws presumably in mind, coach Doug Pederson pushed back when asked after the game about possibly taking over play-calling duties from offensive coordinator Press Taylor.

“For what?” Pederson replied. “I thought he called a great game. As coaches, we can’t go out there and make the plays. It’s a two-way street.”

Lawrence missed Thomas along the right sideline for what would have been another big gain. Receivers made diving catches to secure two shorter throws. Other passes were imprecise enough to limit yards after the catch. Most of the misses were overthrows.

“When someone is so consistently spraying the ball and they are a guy who was a No. 1 overall (draft choice), I almost always feel like there is some element of, I don’t want to say the yips, but some sort of mechanical, fundamental thing,” NFL quarterback-turned-analyst J.T. O’Sullivan said while breaking down every Jaguars offensive play from Week 4 for his Patreon subscribers.

O’Sullivan noted that Lawrence in this game hopped backward unnecessarily while throwing. Bad habits can set in when quarterbacks do not trust their pass protection. Lawrence took a punishing hit early in the Houston game as the Texans’ physical defensive front asserted itself.

The Jaguars rank 16th in ESPN’s pass-block win rate metric and 23rd in Pro Football Focus’ pass-block grading, which doesn’t seem so bad. Reviews from within the league have been harsher.

“They play up front like they can’t wait until the play is over — tough to watch,” a personnel executive said before the Houston game. “The quarterback is missing easy throws. There’s bad body language. Just in general, offensively, a downtrodden group.”

Considering a potential Wentz parallel

The Philadelphia Eagles ranked 18th in offensive EPA per play during Pederson’s Super Bowl-winning tenure as their coach from 2016 to 2020. That period encompassed the rise and fall of Carson Wentz. Is Lawrence following a similar arc on a smaller scale?

The chart above compares the cumulative pass EPA for Wentz and Lawrence when both were with Pederson, pegged to career start number. The line for Wentz begins at career start No. 1, while the line for Lawrence begins at career start No. 18. There’s nothing definitive here, but this could be worth revisiting as the 2024 season progresses.

Pederson benched Wentz late in their fifth and final season together. Lawrence remains early in his fourth NFL season and third with Pederson. His five-year contract extension begins in 2026. He’s likely going to be in Jacksonville for years to come, no matter who is coaching.

Nine consecutive defeats for Lawrence

Lawrence’s current nine-game losing streak as a starter moves him one away from matching Carson Palmer (2010) and Jared Goff (2020-21) for the longest such streaks since 2000 for quarterbacks drafted No. 1.

Ten would also match the Jaguars’ franchise record, held by Chad Henne and Blake Bortles.

Darnold has been there before, once losing nine straight with the Jets. But his recent team and individual production far outpaces that of Lawrence, as the table below shows.

The decision to extend Lawrence’s contract at such an expensive price does not stand alone among choices inviting scrutiny for Jacksonville. They used the first pick in the 2022 draft for Travon Walker instead of Aidan Hutchinson. Bigger-picture defensive changes also stand out.

Last season, the Jaguars ranked 23rd on offense and 11th on defense as measured by EPA per play. They fired defensive coordinator Mike Caldwell and seven defensive assistants.

The offense ranks about the same this season (24th), but the defense ranks much worse (30th) while transitioning to a new style. Under coordinator Ryan Nielsen, Jacksonville is playing man coverage at the second-highest rate (42 percent) after having the third-lowest rate (15 percent) last season.

Darnold, backed by the NFL’s top-ranked defense by EPA per play, has attempted only two passes while trailing this season. The Jaguars’ record and Lawrence’s role in it would likely be footnotes if Jacksonville were getting that kind of production from its defense this season.

The defensive changes could still pay off. Lawrence and the offense could still hit stride.

The Jaguars were close to breaking open their season-opening game at Miami, but running back Travis Etienne fumbled as he neared the goal line. The Dolphins scored an 80-yard touchdown two plays later. Jacksonville led Houston 20-17 late in the third quarter when Tank Bigsby’s 58-yard run gave the Jaguars first-and-goal from the 4. Jacksonville turned over the ball on downs.

The 24-20 defeat to Houston dropped the Jaguars to 1-4 since the start of last season in games decided by four or fewer points. Such things tend to even out. The evening out cannot happen fast enough for a team set to induct its only winning coach, Tom Coughlin, into its Ring of Honor in Week 5.

(Photo of Trevor Lawrence, right, and Doug Pederson: Bryan Bennett / Getty Images)

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In “The Last Dance,” ESPN’s documentary on the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls, Michael Jordan never actually said “And I took that personally.” That line is the stuff of memes, but Jordan did not utter it.

What Jordan really said was this: “It became personal with me.” Maybe it’s a small difference, but the actual quote packs more of a punch.

Read it again: “It became personal with me.” Instead of merely saying I’m offended by that, the context translates more to You’ve crossed into different territory now. You’ve awoken something inside of me.

As even the most casual of sports fans know, that’s pretty scary when it comes to Michael Jordan — a man who would rather get a root canal every day for the rest of his life than lose at anything. And if someone thinks they can make Jordan look like a fool while beating him? Buckle up.

Somewhere, hidden between the lines of a 46-page antitrust lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court, that message was sent loud and clear. Less than a month ago, it appeared NASCAR essentially won its lengthy charter battle with race teams by convincing 13 of the 15 owners to sign new agreements. Jim France, the 79-year-old chairman and CEO of NASCAR and a member of its founding family, had seemed to succeed with his old-school approach after many were initially skeptical of his methods.

The owners raised a fuss for more than two years and complained about the terms of the deal, upset at how NASCAR used a divide-and-conquer strategy instead of dealing with them as a group. But ultimately, France held firm and used NASCAR’s weight to strong-arm the teams. When a final deadline was given, almost all of them got in line and signed.

Jordan’s 23XI Racing, along with Front Row Motorsports, suddenly found themselves isolated. The powerhouse team owners like Rick Hendrick and Roger Penske left the holdouts to fend for themselves, and they seemingly had no leverage to do anything about it.

Jordan’s team stood to be the biggest losers after making the most noise, all while looking silly in the process of accomplishing nothing.

“Do they really think they’re going to get a better deal by dragging this out?” one team executive scoffed.

Is it possible that somehow, with all that is known about Jordan, he was still underestimated? If so, that seems like a grave miscalculation. Regardless of the lawsuit’s outcome, NASCAR has a serious case on its hands, brought by the same attorney — Jeffrey Kessler — responsible for changing the landscape in other major professional sports (as well as college athletics).

As of now, it seems hard to believe this situation could actually be decided by the courts. NASCAR and France would have to completely open their books, exposing financial records to the public that provide a first-of-their-kind peek behind the curtain of how the money really flows through big-league stock car racing. After all, it’s more likely NASCAR and the teams would settle, perhaps addressing some of the key items that were rejected or ignored during the negotiations (or lack thereof, if you ask the owners).

Either way, the suit threatens NASCAR’s virtual undefeated streak in matters like these. NASCAR has always prevailed when challenged, with the France family’s ability to retain power and control passed down and practiced over multiple generations. It has given the aura that taking on NASCAR in any significant way will always end poorly, and that’s been largely accepted by those in the garage as the cost of doing business.

Michael Jordan looks on during qualifying at Nashville Superspeedway in June 2023. His 23XI Racing is in its fourth season in the Cup Series. (Logan Riely / Getty Images)

It’s entirely possible that could happen again now, with NASCAR emerging unscathed. Perhaps the courts won’t agree with 23XI and Front Row, and maybe there’s no pathway to a reasonable settlement other than a few minor concessions that allow both sides to declare victory and move on. Perhaps it’s enough just to increase transparency on both sides; while we don’t know the closely held details of NASCAR’s finances, we also haven’t seen the teams’ books (aside from their constant claims of losing money or barely breaking even).

Both parties should show where the money is going, and that might help the sport more than anything. Is it really that the France family is greedy and keeping most of the revenue for themselves? Or are some teams crying poor while actually generating plenty of money? Until that transparency comes to fruition, it’s unlikely both sides will ever truly get on the same page.

This suit could be the catalyst. The longer this goes on, the greater the chance this legal action delivers significant, unprecedented change to NASCAR. And Jordan is not likely to settle for anything less.

“We can’t give you a specific, ‘This will do it.’ There must be significant change,” said Kessler, the attorney. “No one is bringing this type of fight, this type of lawsuit, to move from a (Grade) D-plus deal to a D deal. That is not going to happen.”

And make no mistake: Even though 23XI co-owner Denny Hamlin and Front Row’s Bob Jenkins are fully on board, it’s unlikely all of this would have happened without Jordan.

If Hamlin were on his own, could he really stare down the prospect of losing close to $100 million in charters and not blink? Without 23XI, would Jenkins really be the lone holdout among the team owners and take NASCAR to court by himself?

It’s impossible to imagine the various implications that could accompany a successful suit. Would NASCAR be forced to sell its tracks? Make the teams partners in a league, like NFL and NBA owners?

If the teams end up prevailing or at least sparking meaningful change in how the Cup Series operates — making stock car racing more lucrative and attracting further investments in the process — it would somehow only add to Jordan’s sports legacy. He would not just be a transformational figure in basketball, but credited with something that would have been unthinkable even five years ago: Being the figure who helped alter the face of NASCAR forever.

GO DEEPER

Why are 23XI and Front Row suing NASCAR? Here’s what you need to know

(Top photo of Michael Jordan: Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images)

What makes a tennis rivalry?

Ideally, the players are of a similar standard, but have different personalities and styles. There is a degree of unpredictability to the results of their matches, and those matches push them to greatness, while elevating the profile of the sport as a whole.

In men’s tennis, a great new rivalry is emerging that ticks these boxes. Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz have now met 10 times, most recently on Wednesday in an instant classic in Beijing, and they are building something akin to their tennis forebears.

In the latest installment of their tussle for supremacy, Alcaraz won a thrilling China Open final 6-7(6), 6-4, 7-6(3) in three hours and 20 minutes. The tennis wasn’t just exceptional; it was played in the rareified air that no-one else on the tour right now can experience.

The match also embodied the contrast in style and personality that all the best rivalries have. Alcaraz is more expressive emotionally and plays high-risk, high-reward tennis compared to Sinner’s more serene, violent efficiency. When Alcaraz detonates a forehand, he emotes behind it; the only sound from Sinner is the crack of racket on ball. Alcaraz, 21, is shorter, but possesses an unrivalled explosiveness; Sinner, 23, is long-limbed with a thin frame.

Both are so quick that they look like they could be Olympic sprinters, and where Alcaraz lunges and bends like his limbs are putty, Sinner dives and twirls like a superhero escaping from a burning building.

Pushing each other to the LIMIT 🔥@carlosalcaraz @janniksin #ChinaOpen pic.twitter.com/nxDkbwzH5b

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) October 2, 2024

As things stand, these two are the best male tennis players in the world by a distance. They split the four Grand Slams of 2024, and as of this week, are once again the No. 1 and No. 2-ranked players.

Their own head-to-head stands at 6-4 in Alcaraz’s favour. He has won the last three meetings, but only after losing the first set each time, and only three of their 10 matches have been won in straight sets by either player. Those last three have all gone to a deciding set and have all taken place in 2024 — in Beijing, at the French Open, and at Indian Wells. Alcaraz’s three wins in those matches account for half of Sinner’s six defeats this year, and the Italian was on a 16-match winning streak before Alcaraz cut it down.

With 10 matches worth of data, comparisons with Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic or the battle between Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi are premature at this point, but trends are emerging. All the signs point to a rivalry that will endure at the top of the sport and perhaps transcend it, now and long after Sinner and Alcaraz have gone.

How Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic reconfigured tennis

Unlike the first 10 meetings between Nadal and Federer, Nadal and Djokovic and Federer and Djokovic, this looks to be a balanced beginning.

All three of those rivalries started with a 7-3 advantage, for Nadal, Nadal and Federer respectively. The Nadal-Federer rivalry was initially defined by a match-up problem, especially on clay, where the heavy topspin on the former’s forehand would wreak havoc with the latter’s single-handed backhand. With Djokovic, Nadal and Federer were both too wily and big-match tough when Djokovic first arrived on the tour and that initially gave them a big advantage.

In the case of Sinner and Alcaraz, despite the latter being two years younger, neither has been able to establish much of an edge over the other within matches. Alcaraz’s three consecutive wins have been very different: he came back from a first-set annihilation in Indian Wells by lofting his groundstrokes and breaking Sinner’s metronomic baseline game in the process. He then edged a battle of mutually enforced discomfort in the captivatingly scratchy French Open semifinal, and in Beijing was the dominant player for much of the match without converting, before seizing the title when he looked most likely to lose it.

Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz’s brands of tennis cause a thrilling clash on court (Shi Tang / Getty Images)

One of the most enjoyable elements of their rivalry so far was also on full display in Beijing: the way that they push each other to greater heights. This was a staple too of the Big Three, and of Agassi and Sampras before them — the 1999 Wimbledon final and 2001 U.S. Open quarterfinal matches between the latter led to arguably the two finest performances of Sampras’s career.

This has happened a few times with Sinner and Alcaraz already, first at the 2022 U.S. Open quarterfinal, which introduced what was then an embryonic rivalry to a much wider audience. Alcaraz won the match in five sets, but the story was the computer game tennis the pair produced, constantly pushing each other to hit even more outrageous shots. Their Miami encounter in 2023 was similar, and so too was Wednesday, with a point in the final-set tiebreak which helped to shift things Alcaraz’s way showcasing all of their combined athleticism and court craft.

Both seem to relish this aspect of playing each other, like two child geniuses finally being put in an environment that is appropriate for their otherworldly talents. By playing each other and raising their games to an even higher level, they also pull further clear of the rest of the field, perhaps with the exception of Novak Djokovic when fully fit.

This dynamic will be familiar to fans of that Big Three era, which tennis writer Matthew Willis accurately coined an ouroboros. Each meeting between them, and the different stylistic and psychological battles therein, took Federer, Nadal, and Djokovic to a level that everybody else could not reach. They also played each other so often, especially in the latter stages of the Grand Slam tournaments, that they locked off the vital experience of losing a final or semifinal, let alone winning one.

As for their relationship, if it’s needle you want in a rivalry, Sinner-Alcaraz possibly isn’t for you. These two get along well and have practised together. After his win on Wednesday, Alcaraz said of Sinner: “I respect you a lot as a player but even more as a person.”

At the French Open in June both players were far more serious in the tunnel than they’d been at Indian Wells a few months earlier, when ahead of their semifinal they looked like two mates hanging out at a cocktail party.

Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz with their trophies in Beijing (Lintao Zhang / Getty Images)

The exhibition feel to their matches, in which it can sometimes feel that they are conspiring to produce the most spectacular points possible, is in reality a disguise. It’s not that they want to be hyper-aggressive and attacking as early in a point as possible, so much as they need to be, because if they aren’t, the other one will be. When they do settle into long rallies, there is the lurking promise that things are going to get absurd sooner or later.

On Wednesday there were numerous points like this, drawing gasps from the crowd and bringing to mind some of the exchanges between Nadal and Djokovic or Djokovic and Andy Murray when they used to face off against each other (such as in the 2012 U.S. Open final that lasted almost five hours, the long rallies getting better and better the longer they got). It can also seem as though the scoreboard is being drawn magnetically to a tight finish, with neither player able to run away from the other — this happened on Wednesday with the final set tiebreak and in New York two years ago too.

There is a cloud in this tennis sky. An independent hearing, convened by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA), had found Sinner bore “no fault or negligence” for two positive tests for the banned substance clostebol in March, but the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) announced on Saturday that it would appeal that ruling at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). It is seeking a ban of one or two years for the world No. 1, which would curtail this rivalry and fundamentally reshape men’s tennis.

That aspect of Sinner’s career remains shrouded in uncertainty. What isn’t in any doubt is the excitement tennis feels about his developing rivalry with Alcaraz. Ten meetings in, it promises to get better and better.

(Top photo: Wang Zhao / AFP via Getty Images)

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The shoeys. The jokes. The tattoos. The infamous, exaggerated “Pierreee Gaslyyyyyy!!!” and Nico Hülkenberg shouts.

Daniel Ricciardo isn’t a world champion or among the Formula One all-time greats based on his results — eight wins, three pole positions and 32 podium finishes over 13 seasons. But in the sport’s modern era, the Australian driver cemented himself as a one-of-a-kind icon by wearing his heart on his sleeve. The authenticity and humanity Ricciardo brought over the years drew in fans, new and old.

The Ricciardo glimpses over six seasons of Netflix’s ‘Drive to Survive’ docuseries is the same driver media saw in the paddock. But beneath the surface is a fierce competitor. His peak came during his Red Bull days, from 2014-2018, and his last time on the podium happened in 2021 when he won the Italian Grand Prix, McLaren’s first F1 win since 2012.

“For anyone who thought I left, I never left,” he said over the team radio that day. “Just moved aside for a while.”

But he also experienced two hiatuses, one when he departed McLaren in 2022 and again in 2023 as he recovered from surgery while competing for AlphaTauri (now known as RB). His speed is evident, but Ricciardo lacked consistency in 2024. Questions arose whether Ricciardo could make a comeback to the senior team — a goal that never came to fruition.

“This year, the purpose was to try and do good enough to get back into Red Bull and fight for wins again, see if I’ve still got it,” Ricciardo said in Singapore. “I felt like I came up short with that, so I think it’s then, ‘OK, what else am I fighting for here? What else is going to give me fulfillment?’”

RB announced last week that Liam Lawson would replace Ricciardo for the remainder of the 2024 season. The seemingly awkward exit for Ricciardo led to mass criticism from fans on social media, given Ricciardo’s widespread popularity and a legacy bigger than just statistics and unique in the sport’s history.

Ricciardo recorded eight wins in 14 seasons on the grid. (Charles Coates/Getty Images)

Ricciardo’s F1 career started similarly to how it ended.

The Australian joined the grid with HRT partway through the 2011 season, replacing Narain Karthikeyan. The team hadn’t scored in the first eight races of the year and opted to hand the reins to the Red Bull Academy driver. During Ricciardo’s first season, he often was near the back of the grid; however, he often out-qualified and finished ahead of teammate Vitantonio Liuzzi, one of Red Bull’s first F1 drivers.

Red Bull promoted Ricciardo the following year to Toro Rosso, its sister team now known as RB. The Australian scored his first points in 2012 and continued to improve, finishing behind teammate Jean-Eric Vergne in 2012 but ahead in 2013. It was enough for Red Bull to call Ricciardo up to the senior team when Mark Webber left F1 at the end of the 2013 campaign.

The Red Bull chapter (from 2014-2018) became Ricciardo’s glory years. The 2014 season was the dawn of a new hybrid engine era for F1, and he thrived over the next four seasons, showing flashes of F1 world champion potential. It was easy to assume he would be Red Bull’s No. 2 to teammate Sebastian Vettel, who was a four-time world champion by that point. But while Mercedes’ duo of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg dominated, they were defeated three times in 2014 — by Ricciardo each time.

Montreal was the Australian driver’s first F1 win, passing Rosberg with two laps to go. The other wins in 2014 came in Hungary (with impressive overtakes on Hamilton and Fernando Alonso) and Belgium (remember Hamilton and Rosberg’s collision?). By season’s end, he finished third in the driver standings and 71 points ahead of Vettel.

Even though Red Bull fell to the midfield in 2015, Ricciardo managed to secure a few podium finishes. When Max Verstappen joined part-way through 2016, Ricciardo’s biggest battle became his rising teammate. When the two went wheel-to-wheel in Malaysia, Ricciardo came out victorious. As Verstappen grew, the pair battled, memorably crashing out at the 2018 Azerbaijan GP.

Come 2019, Ricciardo left Red Bull for Renault, a decision many have questioned as Red Bull became a powerhouse. The two-year stint only led to a few podium finishes before he moved to McLaren. His time with the Woking-based team, though, ended a year before his contract was set to expire (McLaren signed Oscar Piastri for 2023 instead). Red Bull swooped in to keep Ricciardo around the sport as its “third driver.”

The win at Monaco was the pinnacle of Ricciardo’s F1 peak. (Dan Istitene/Getty Images)

“I didn’t recognize the Daniel (he was) at the end of his tenure at McLaren,” Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said on the F1 Nation podcast. “I said to him, ‘Why don’t you come and join us, rediscover your passion for your sport?’” Horner added Ricciardo had “picked up some really bad habits” during his time at McLaren. “And bit by bit, working with his old engineering team, he started to find his form again.”

Ricciardo’s hunger came back. When Nyck de Vries got cut from AlphaTauri, the Australian was tapped as the replacement. Ricciardo later missed five races that season after injuring his hand, and Lawson served as the replacement, making a big impression.

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How Daniel Ricciardo’s F1 hiatus prepared him to make an injury comeback

But on the senior team, Sergio Pérez struggled in late 2023. Ricciardo essentially was the Milton Keynes-based team’s safety net and publicly desired a return to Red Bull. During the 2024 campaign, Ricciardo’s form lacked consistency. However, Pérez’s struggles reemerged, which led to many wondering ahead of summer break whether a return to Red Bull would be possible for the Australian.

“I would have loved to see him use it as a springboard to get back to where he was, to have completed the story. But it wasn’t to be,” Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said on F1 Nation, after news broke of Ricciardo being replaced at RB. “Daniel’s honest about that, and he knows in his heart he gave it his best shot. He’s had a great career, he’s had a great run, but unfortunately the next chapter wasn’t to be.”

Ricciardo’s career, during its prime, was marked by being the last of the late-brakers — a fearless driver who courted dreams of contending for a world championship before they slipped away for various reasons (like Mercedes’ decade-long domination). But several of his wins featured passing masterclasses, like in China 2018 when Ricciardo famously said, “Sometimes you just have to lick the stamp and send it.”

But one of the most iconic victories was likely Monaco 2018 — yes, that photo. He nursed mechanical issues for 50 laps, and even his race engineer was surprised, saying after the Australian crossed the line, “I don’t know how you did that, Daniel.”

His final race at Singapore behind him, it’s end of an era for Ricciardo, at least on-track.

“He’s a natural entertainer and a showman,” Horner continued, “he will be for sure in front of the camera at some point and I’m sure there will be a documentary or something, that will be fascinating.”

“I’m Daniel Ricciardo, and I’m a car mechanic.”

His voice is the first you hear on the pilot episode of ‘Drive to Survive.’ He is shown as the first sit-down interview, and he didn’t disappoint, quick to joke on one of the first questions he was asked. With Mercedes and Ferrari not participating in the first season, Ricciardo stepped into the spotlight and became part of why the newest wave of fans fell in love with F1.

Ricciardo’s star turn on ‘Drive To Survive’ made him an overnight F1 superstar. (Peter Fox/Getty Images)

In a sport where the athletes spend most of their time in cars with helmets on, Netflix allowed fans to get closer to the sport’s personalities than ever before. Ricciardo brought the human element from the get-go while decked in his Red Bull gear during Season 1. As the seasons wore on, several moments throughout his career that we recounted became immortalized on Netflix. The Monaco pool belly flop. Ricciardo’s move to Renault. The emotions of the 2021 Italian GP victory with McLaren.

Leaving Red Bull for Renault saw his on-track results dip, but his popularity took off as Ricciardo’s career unfolded. He became a superstar of the Netflix docuseries, a show partially credited with F1’s popularity boom. The sport and fandom grew alongside him as critical moves in his career post-Red Bull were captured intimately on camera. When his time at McLaren was coming to an end in 2022, Netflix put together a segment reflecting on his time in F1, showing various clips from across the years.

Before the montage ran in the finale of season five, a producer said off camera, “This might be the last time you’re sat in this chair.” Ricciardo replied, “Yeah,” while the producer asked, “Thought about that?”

Ricciardo sighed.

“I mean, the show wouldn’t be the same without me, so… what do you do?”

DANIEL RICCIARDO. Forever our Honey Badger. pic.twitter.com/19Rf0P3yHs

— Netflix (@netflix) September 27, 2024

Fan edits began surfacing on social media after the Singapore GP, with posts on different platforms honoring the Australian and paired with songs like ‘Pink Skies’ by Zach Bryan (one of Ricciardo’s favorite music artists). When news broke that Lawson was replacing him, plenty of current and previous drivers, as well as multiple teams, shared their thoughts about the Australian driver.

“(Daniel), it’s been a honour to compete with you over the years. I’ll never forget the battles, the laughs, and drinking out of your shoe. It was gross, but glad I got to do it with you bud,” Hamilton posted on Instagram. “You leave a legacy of always being yourself, which in this sport is never easy. You’ve taken it all with the biggest smile and I salute you for it. There is so much more for you up ahead and I can’t wait to see what you do next. Always here for you, man.”

But Ricciardo became bigger than the sport, his popularity extending beyond the confines of the F1 world. He appeared on podcasts and talk shows, gracing the couches of Jimmy Kimmel and Stephen Colbert’s shows. He attended the Met Gala for the first time in 2023, something Hamilton has done five times. He created his merchandise line, Enchanté, and launched a wine collection. Non-F1 official sports accounts even weighed in about the late driver drop, like the Vegas Golden Knights and the NFL Australia and New Zealand account with the Buffalo Bills.

The departure is not a complete surprise, though a swap before the final six races (and three sprints) does raise eyebrows. Ricciardo’s performance lacked consistency, and the idea of a Red Bull comeback started having question marks.

It remains to be seen what Ricciardo’s next move will be. Interestingly, the word retirement has yet to be used publicly, but the sentiment seems to be there.

With F1 behind him, Ricciardo has plenty of career options ahead. (Dan Istitene – Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images)

“I’m proud of the career. I tried to become world champion, I tried to become the best at something in the world,” Ricciardo said in Singapore. “I think it is a tall task that we ask from ourselves. Some achieve it, some don’t. In the end, if I came up a little short, I also can’t be too hard on myself.

“Happy with the effort I put in, and for that, there’s no sadness or feeling or regret or what could have been.”

It is natural to wonder whether he’ll look at other motorsports series, like NASCAR or Supercars, to name a few. Perhaps, one day, he’ll try his hand at broadcasting like Jenson Button, Jolyon Palmer or David Coulthard. Given the fan response to his departure, many likely hope the 35-year-old will stay around the world of F1. Horner does.

“We’ve made it very clear that we want him to remain in an ambassadorial capacity with the team, and of course, one never really knows. I mean, if Liam doesn’t get the job done, if Checo doesn’t get the job done, we know what Daniel’s capability is,” Horner said on F1 Nation. “But I think for him, he knows, at the age that he’s at, he’s had a great career. So many memories.

“The most disgusting thing ever was drinking champagne out of his sweaty boot! But he made it his own, and he got some incredible people to drink the champagne from his sweaty shoe.”

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Top photo: Vince Mignott/MB Media via Getty Images; Design: Dan Goldfarb/The Athletic