Sports

LAS VEGAS – From the shady corner at Rebel Fields, the view stretches clear from Mandalay Bay to the MGM Grand to the southeast tip of The Cosmopolitan. Only a few palm trees break it up. The sky is cloudless. Temperatures haven’t cracked 80 degrees yet. There’s a Zach Bryan tune on the speaker system as the nationally ranked UNLV football team lines up to stretch, just like it did the day before, at the same time, with the same backdrop.

It is a Wednesday. It’s pretty much the same as Tuesday. Except everyone knows the starting quarterback is not here.

“I expected a bigger turnout,” a support staffer says, passing by a small group of onlookers. “No. 1 trend in America!”

This is well past online-only upheaval, though, during the most tantalizing start in program history. The previous night, quarterback Matthew Sluka, who ran the undefeated Rebels’ kinetic offense to a first-ever appearance in a Top 25 poll, quit. He cited unfulfilled promises in the realm of name, image and likeness payments. He wished everyone continued success and then left the toaster in the bathtub.

By sunrise, there are denials and warring narratives. Coast-to-coast howling about the state of the sport. By the fifth period of practice, Sluka is wiped from the online roster. And it’s not even the first flashpoint of the week. Another round of conference realignment tug-of-war has forced UNLV to choose its future home, quickly. So, in sum, a long-forgettable program prepares for its first game as a ranked team, another step toward possibly redefining its future as a Cinderella in the 12-team College Football Playoff era, while university officials and powerbrokers navigate an existential dilemma and trip into the anarchic world of NIL.

That’s all.

“Focus, focus, focus!” second-year Rebels coach Barry Odom barks after a brief post-stretch huddle. If only. Everything great and terrible about college athletics in 2024 has descended upon Las Vegas in the span of a few days. But then, that’s the way it is for a team aspiring to be what UNLV wants to be.

It’s going to be 104 degrees here by Saturday, too. No hiding from the heat.

In 47 seasons at the Division I level, UNLV football has won double-digit games once. This was the 11-2 campaign of 1984, with future NFL star Randall Cunningham under center … which the NCAA eventually vacated entirely due to the use of ineligible players. Before the current staff’s arrival, the program reached three bowl games, total. Before 2023, the Rebels had posted one winning season since the turn of the century. Moses spent less time wandering in the desert. “Growing up,” Nicco Fertitta says, “it was as if UNLV didn’t exist.”

The Vegas native, former player at powerhouse Bishop Gorman High and current Rebels safeties coach is sitting in the media room of the Fertitta Football Complex. It opened in 2019, cost $35 million to build and, yes, bears his family name. (A $10 million pledge from his father, a former UFC CEO, and his uncle kickstarted the project.) It features a 10,000-square-foot weight room, a 120-seat cafeteria, an academic center and a barber shop. It is not the biggest or most ostentatious facility in the country. It is nevertheless a crisp, modern, one-stop operations hub. It is very much a sign of life.

Though the front doors don’t completely work right. “We’re still trying to get it fixed,” Barry Odom says, setting his lunch of Diet Coke and Cheez-Its aside in an office with a sprawling vista of The Strip.

A nuisance more than a problem. For one thing, the current head coach was once on a recruiting trip in the area for Arkansas when he drove by the facility and deemed it too cool not to explore. He parked his rental car in the lot and found the janky entrance propped open. He walked in, encountered nobody and began a self-guided tour.

He’d probably be here now anyway, he thinks, steering the Rebels to nine wins in Year 1 and this auspicious start in Year 2, which includes victories at Houston and Kansas, their first win against Fresno State in seven years and debuts in both major national polls. It just didn’t hurt to see before he believed. “We can be in the conversation on a national scope every single year,” Odom says. “If you schedule correctly, non-conference-wise, and you’re able to win those games, then now there’s the opportunity for a seat at the big table.”

This is what any coach tells anyone who’ll listen. The trajectory of the last 17 months makes it sound credible, at least.

“The rapid growth we’ve had is pretty crazy, honestly,” says fifth-year tackle Tiger Shanks.

Mostly because the bones were reset properly.

Odom’s steady career ascent hit a security bollard in 2019, when his alma mater fired him after three years as head coach. He still hates what happened at Missouri. There are scars, he admits. But he also concedes the people who told him it could be a blessing were right. He became the defensive coordinator at Arkansas and, for four years, immersed himself in a structure and system that traced back to Nick Saban’s Alabama monolith, brought to Georgia by Kirby Smart and then brought from Georgia to Arkansas by Sam Pittman.

Odom tried to do it all at Missouri. Defensive boss. Marketing coordinator. Recruiting chief. And so on. When he couldn’t do enough, he tried harder. He recognized his folly while at Arkansas. He’s still enough of a maniac to get stuck in traffic on Tropicana Avenue at 4:45 a.m., on the drive into work. But once he gets there, Odom says, the job has slowed down. “I don’t know if there’s enough hours in the day – for me, some guys can do it – to do it the right way,” he says. “So it’s been really good to hire a great staff and understand and see it a little bit better.”

The Rebels are unapologetic copycat strivers, at least in terms of approach and structure. “It is an SEC blueprint,” Odom says. For one, the staff expects to compete for talent at Bishop Gorman, a top-10 national program 20 minutes from campus – not to shrug and cede recruits to Power 4 schools. “Then you’re a loser, because you’re taking a back seat,” Fertitta says. On the practice field, Odom applies lessons learned from that league. He didn’t totally understand why sometimes players were spread across two fields at Arkansas practices, so he discussed it with Smart and Pittman. It amounted to coaching cataract surgery: Split into four offense versus defense groups, and everyone gets the same reps. Everyone develops.

And there’s UNLV, for a few periods every day anyway, with basically no one standing around.

“My guess is, if you called Kirby Smart today, this practice plan would be almost identical to what they do,” Odom says. “And that’s by design.”
UNLV’s new way of doing things has carried water to a parched roster. “Seeing where this program came from when I first got here to where it is now, I feel like he’s just almost flipped it upside down,” all-purpose player Jacob De Jesus says. “Some of the players that are not here anymore would complain about the new way Coach Odom is doing things. And they ended up getting out of here real quick.”

To wit: Wednesdays and Saturdays were scheduled off-days during the offseason. Showing up for stretching and player-led walkthroughs was optional. The Rebels – unofficially, of course – had 100 percent attendance on off-days last summer. “When you show up to a college program on Saturday and it looks like a Tuesday practice?” says defensive end Antonio Doyle Jr., a transfer who previously played at Texas A&M and for Deion Sanders at Jackson State. “That explains everything you need to know.” Mandatory meetings begin in the Fertitta Football Complex during game weeks at 6:55 a.m. At 5 a.m. most days there are Rebels on site, for treatment or stretching or film work.

“That’s what winning is – relentless,” linebacker Jackson Woodard says. “It never sleeps.”

And yet it’s taken a football program in this city so long to wake up.

There may not be a ton of space between what UNLV tries to do and what power conference programs do. But there is massive space between UNLV and what defines big-time, power-conference football. Filling in the blanks is the animating dynamic of Odom’s tenure. It is the job.

“If you’re in this industry, your eyes are always open,” Erick Harper says, sitting at the end of a conference table, at the end of a much longer week.

The UNLV athletic director guesses he has slept three hours a night since his phone began buzzing the previous weekend. He was in Texas for the 40th anniversary of his state champion high school football team, and college sports realignment had another good laugh at sentimentality. Because the Pac-12 still needed more teams. “I probably spent more time on the phone than I did where I was at,” says Harper, who knows even a reunion can’t compete with discussing terms of separation.

Over the next few days, UNLV goes there and back to stay right where it is.

A Thursday morning conference call of school officials ratifies a decision made late Wednesday night: UNLV says thanks-but-no thanks to the Pac-12 and recommits to the Mountain West. The Mountain West effectively gives UNLV a signing bonus to do so, a sum estimated to be between $10 million and $14 million, plus another $1.5 to $1.8 million annually on top of UNLV’s share of established revenue streams. Just another few days in the deep end, looking for the best ladder.

It’s this life choosing UNLV, and UNLV choosing this life, all at once. To be a department with saucer-sized eyes for national football relevance, in 2024, is to seek the best and most profitable conference affiliation. At all times. Ambition costs.

UNLV practices feature people on the field whose jobs you’re not quite sure of, just by looking. But not nearly as many as there are at SEC or Big Ten schools. Odom plainly states that he wants the best recruiting department among Group of 5 schools. It’s currently a staff of two. “I don’t necessarily know that, always, more is better,” he says. “But there’s some things that we’re still trying to catch up to in support-staff areas. And those will happen.” The easiest way to make it happen is by hiring more people, which makes a massive direct deposit from the Mountain West in 2025 look pretty enticing.

So the school from Vegas places its bets, with no expectation the wheel stops spinning. “Obviously, there’s going to be a camera on us pretty consistently,” Harper says. “And this helps us achieve (national relevance) by solidifying who we are and what we want, as an institution. And that’s to be at the highest level. And that’s an autonomous conference. Whether we get there or not, who knows? But we’re going to put our best foot forward and try to get there.”

They will do so down one quarterback, who stacks a calamity on top of a dilemma when he says someone promised him $100,000 and leaves.

Sluka, a transfer from FCS Holy Cross, claims UNLV failed to follow through on NIL payments it said it would make during the recruiting process. He received $3,000 in “relocation” funds after enrolling and completing a charity appearance – this much everyone confirms – and that is it. As a result, Sluka’s UNLV career ends with 21 completed passes in three games. “We were never contacted by football, that they had an agreement with this kid,” says longtime donor Bill Paulos, who is helping spearhead UNLV’s nascent NIL operation. “If there is a monetary agreement, it comes directly to me. So if there’s a kid that’s getting $100,000, I’ll know about it.” Moreover, UNLV equates Sluka’s request, made via an agent, to a pay-for-play scenario. Which is illegal in Nevada. It’s a mess.

But maybe a necessary one.

Four decades of irrelevance means people are just noticing UNLV football again. It does not guarantee that they understand NIL payments have been permissible since July 2021, nor how elemental NIL is to a modern program luring and retaining top talent. Sluka isn’t even an outlier; last offseason, Rebels quarterback Jayden Maiava entered the transfer portal and left it with a reported NIL windfall from USC. “You have to educate the city on how important it is,” Odom says, hours before the Sluka news breaks. “Whether you like it or not, we have to be active in it.” He says NIL efforts were “zero” when he arrived at UNLV. Paulos describes the current football NIL budget as “miniscule.” But the root problem is bigger than someone finding $100,000 somewhere. It’s that people here might not even know that’s a thing.

This episode, Paulos believes, can be another neon sign in town. Because the starting quarterback left over money, and the phones started ringing. Circa CEO Derek Stevens even reportedly offered to foot the bill to keep Sluka, albeit too late to repair that particular bridge. “It’s an awareness,” Paulos says. “We’re not Corvallis. We’re not Albuquerque. We’re Las Vegas. There’s a billion things to do here. The competition is heavy. To get through the messaging is very, very difficult. But we’re getting our footing on getting the messaging out there.”

Hours after “Golddigger” plays during one of the Rebels’ final practice periods, after huddling his team and reminding them that success rests only on the people in that circle, Barry Odom briskly walks into PKWY Tavern far west of campus for his weekly radio show. To goose the attendance numbers, he’d promised to buy anyone wearing UNLV gear one Miller Lite. By the looks of it, many on hand order something stronger.
Odom flashes a thumbs-up and shakes hands on his way to the dais. The show goes live and he acknowledges a “roster change” at quarterback and that’s that.

He says he feels like his team is on the path to playing its best football on Saturday against Fresno State. As usual with these things, the hour is lacquered in spin and optimism.

It’s something that goes as expected, anyway.

UNLV quarterback Hajj-Malik Williams scores against Fresno State during a Mountain West Conference game Saturday at Allegiant Stadium. (Jeff Speer / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

On Friday night, they meet at Born and Raised, a 24-hour bar about 10 miles southwest of The Strip. On Saturday morning, they reconnect in Lot G at Allegiant Stadium for a tailgate, catered by their alma mater. And at the first media timeout of the Fresno State game, the 1994 UNLV football team leaves its reserved suite and heads down to field level, to continue to remember and be remembered.

They smile. They hug. They pose with a bowl trophy. Some of them introduce their kids to their old pals. Everyone sports a gray commemorative T-shirt … except for Mark “The Terminator” Byers. For this occasion, the man who recorded 20.5 sacks that year and later went into competitive bodybuilding sports a black No. 48 jersey. TERMINATOR is the name plate.

Between quarters, the old Rebels line up in the south end zone. A video plays. And UNLV honors its most recent conference champion — a team that won the Big West and the Las Vegas Bowl three decades ago. A team that finished …  7-5.

Great to have members of our 1994 UNLV Football team back in Allegiant stadium

🔴 Big West Champions
🔴 Las Vegas Bowl Champions pic.twitter.com/KyjvBAyjc5

— UNLV Football (@unlvfootball) September 28, 2024

That is how hard it has been to do something worth memorializing here. It’s what qualifies as good old days. But by the end of this day, a better kind of history remains dead ahead.

During starting lineup introductions, the new man under center receives the biggest ovation, and it’s not close. Hajj-Malik Williams then runs for a touchdown and throws for three more. He’s a comet in broad daylight. He leaves the field to chants of “That’s our quarterback!” from fans near the tunnel. There are also four interceptions, a blocked punt returned for a touchdown, a kickoff returned for another, and, all told, a 59-14 erasure of Fresno State for the program’s best start since before it was a Division I program, to cap its most tumultuous week in forever.

HAJJ TO RICKY TO PUT US UP BY 21

📺: FS1 pic.twitter.com/WkRj0ExnOE

— UNLV Football (@unlvfootball) September 28, 2024

A crowd of 24,638 doesn’t set records – there were two better-attended home games late in 2023 – but it fills the lower bowl, and enough stick around to chant “We want 60” as the clock winds down. “There was never any buzz around the city about UNLV,” Fertitta says, “and now … that’s all everybody’s talking about, are the Rebels. And the one thing that sticks with me is everybody always says, ‘Man, it’s about time.’”

Afterward, with his hat pulled low as Saturday evening creeps up on the desert, Odom talks about turning the page very, very quickly before turning to a prepared statement about the Sluka ordeal. UNLV’s coach laments “very strong opinions about the events of last week without full knowledge of the facts,” among other things, and that’s the end of his comments on the matter. It’s a predictable open-and-shut move.

After all, he is the coach who sits in his office a few days earlier and notes that a 12-team playoff means hope … but no margin for error. And up next is Syracuse. Then road games at Utah State and Oregon State. Then a possible playoff-eliminator showdown with No. 21 Boise State. “And is that pressure?” Odom says. “Hell yes, it’s pressure. But that’s exactly what we signed up for. I would much rather have it that way than no shot at all.”

A week-long immersion in modern college football chaos, and this much remains true at UNLV: The door’s still open.

(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb, Kelsea Peterson / The Athletic; photos: Jeff Speer / Getty Images)

Damaja Jones conducts offseason workouts for the Helix High football team at 6:30 a.m., starting in January.

“It’s open to the whole school,” said Jones, who has been the head coach at the San Diego area school since 2022.

Many students express interest. Very few actually show up.

Aubrey Laue did, starting in January 2023, eager to make the varsity roster after playing on the JV team the year before. So she showed up every morning. The only female in the room.

“She did it,” Jones said. “And the rest is history.”

Laue was a third-string kicker in 2023 as a junior and didn’t get many opportunities beyond occasional PATs and kickoffs, only after games got out of hand. This year, however, she is in a starting role after beating out two other kickers in a preseason competition.

“Growing up, one of my best friends’ older brother, he kicked in high school, and we were both soccer players growing up,” Laue said. “So we made a promise to each other, like, ‘Oh, we’ll both kick in high school,’ kind of as a joke. And then I followed through with it.”

Last month — in her finest moment yet — Laue drilled a 27-yard field goal with 23 seconds remaining to lift Helix to a Homecoming victory over Madison.

What a story!! @HelixFootball kicker Aubrey Laue gets the game winning field goal with 23 seconds left. Her team takes the 23-20 win to “Aubrey” chants on homecoming night. Sports are awesome! pic.twitter.com/spcey4MJgQ

— Allison Edmonds (@aedmondstv) September 14, 2024

“I was talking to one of the (Helix) coaches the other day,” said Laue, who is believed to be the only female starter this year in the San Diego section of the CIF. “And (he) was saying: ‘You’re a player. You actually are a football player. You’re not just a girl who plays football; you’re a football player.’

“So I guess that’s kind of what I’m hoping (for). (That) I’m not just gonna be the girl that was just on the team to just be on the team. I’m actually on the team. And actually playing.”

And this isn’t at some small school that struggles to field a team. Helix is the alma mater of former USC star and Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush, former NFL quarterback Alex Smith and former UCLA and Colorado coach Karl Dorrell, to name a few. The Highlanders are down this year — 2-3 through five games — but they are one of California’s blue-blood programs.

Somewhere in the Laue family archives, there’s a photo of Aubrey as a young girl wearing a football jersey and throwing her hands up, signaling a touchdown.

Laue has loved football for as long as she can remember.

But before she tried out for the Helix team, she first had to make sure she knew how to kick a football. Up until a few years ago, she’d only kicked soccer balls as a goalie.

“It was definitely a little bit different,” Laue said. “I just went out one day by myself just to see how it was, and then I started going to a kicking coach. I started doing private lessons and stuff, and then I just started getting used to it and getting better at it.”

Laue’s current range is about 40 yards. But on Homecoming night, she was crushed when she missed an extra point earlier in the game.

“She beat herself up more than anything,” Jones said. “It’s interesting because I asked her, like, ‘Hey, what happened?’ And she didn’t blame the snap, she didn’t blame the hold; she didn’t blame anything. She said, ‘Coach, I just hit it too far left.’”

Helix believed it had scored the game-winning touchdown on a fourth-and-short play in the final seconds, but it was negated for a holding call. Jones had a decision to make with the score tied at 20-20.

“We had to move it back to the 10,” Jones said. “And I was like, ‘Well, it’s fourth-and-10. I know Aubrey’s range.’ I said, ‘You know what? We’re kicking a field goal. We’re gonna give her (a chance).’”

As Laue prepared herself to take the field, the nerves started to creep in. She knew that if she hadn’t missed that extra point earlier in the game, Helix would have been ahead 21-20 and wouldn’t have needed any late-game heroics.

When she trotted onto the field, she heard screams from the crowd — from the opposition and from the Helix fans, who were chanting her name in unison.

Laue took a deep breath and blocked out the noise.

“Before I went out there, my holder was like, ‘Oh, you got this. This is nothing.’ He kind of hyped me up and stuff,” she said. “I’m like, ‘OK. It’s just like practice. I can do this. There’s no difference.’”

Laue immediately knew her kick was good. She almost fell over when her teammates mobbed her, jumping up and down all around her to celebrate the biggest moment of her career. As she skipped off the field with her pink mouth guard still in place and her blonde pigtails whipping in the wind, the pep band fired up the fight song and Helix’s coaching staff waited on the sidelines, ready to celebrate.

“She’s our player, and we love her,” Jones said.

It remains Laue’s only field goal attempt of the season to date.

“I’m so proud of her,” said Evan Arapostathis, a former NFL punter and Helix alum who now works with specialists on the football team.

“You have no idea.”

Last summer, Laue told Jones she needed to miss a few days of offseason workouts.

“As a coach,” Jones said, “I was like, ‘Why are you missing?’”

That’s when Laue opened up about her medical condition.

“I have a congenital heart disease,” she said. “So for me, basically, I was born with holes in my heart.”

Laue had her first heart procedure at age 1. Because of her condition, her oxygenated and deoxygenated blood would mix, she said, meaning her heart wouldn’t have enough oxygen when it pumped out blood to the rest of her body.

She wore a heart monitor as a toddler and visited a cardiologist monthly. When she was 3, she had a second catheter procedure to help fix the holes but needed emergency open-heart surgery a week later when her mother noticed she was urinating blood the color of black coffee.

Doctors were able to manually patch Laue’s holes. She now visits her cardiologist every other year for checkups.

Last summer was her final time as a camper at Camp del Corazon, a five-day, free-of-charge camp on the California coast for children ages 7 through 17 with heart disease. That’s why she needed a few days off from football workouts.

Laue initially didn’t tell her coaches about her condition because she didn’t want to be treated differently.

She now has no restrictions and can play any sport.

“I’m really grateful for that because I know some kids are still limited to what they can do even after all their treatment,” she said. “It’s been a part of my life.”

Laue is applying to colleges and plans to study medicine and eventually become a pediatric cardiologist, helping children just like her.

She knows a cardiologist who also has congenital heart disease and has always admired how he relates to his patients. Starting in 2026, she plans to become a counselor at Camp del Corazon.

But football will always be with her. Two dozen females played organized football in the San Diego section of the CIF in 2023, and Laue is hoping that trend continues.

“Definitely do it. Don’t be afraid to do it,” she said of her message to other young girls curious about playing.

“When I first started to do it, wanting to do it, people were like, ‘Oh, but you’re going to be the only girl.’ They were doubting. I was like, ‘No, if I really want to go do it, I’m gonna go do it.’ So that’s what I would say. If there’s something you really want to do in life, go do it. Because it could be amazing.”

And though she has no plans to play football in college, her future school better have a team.

“I’ve been looking at a few schools. And then I was like, ‘Oh, you don’t have football?’” she joked of her college application process. “Off my list.”

(Photo courtesy of Manorack Sukhaseum)

The ‘other guy’ theory of coaches is a sporting truism.

A team that loses more than it wins with a so-called ‘players’ coach’, someone who specializes in relating to athletes and creating an easygoing atmosphere, will often replace them with a disciplinarian. Reserved coaches who don’t find success get replaced by high-energy, emotional types big on motivation. The bookish sort who focusses on the X’s and O’s comes back when that act wears thin.

Tennis players are no different, the latest cases being Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka, who dueled on Tuesday in Beijing at the penultimate WTA 1000 tournament of the year.

Both players entered the year with high hopes but did not meet them. After early eliminations from the U.S. Open — Gauff lost in the fourth round, Osaka in the second — they both announced coaching changes. 

Gauff jettisoned Brad Gilbert, one of the biggest personalities in the sport. He is an ESPN commentator and the former coach of Andy Roddick and Andre Agassi, with a grand unified theory of tennis, otherwise known as Winning Ugly. Gauff then brought in Matt Daly, a little-known grip specialist, to work alongside Jean-Christophe Faurel, the low-profile French coach who has worked with Gauff on and off since she was 14.

Faurel most recently rejoined Gauff’s entourage last spring, to work alongside Gilbert. Gilbert and Gauff barely knew each other when she hired him in the summer of 2023. Weeks later, she was U.S. Open champion.

Osaka, meanwhile, pivoted from Wim Fissette, the quiet, cerebral Belgian who helped her win two Grand Slam titles in 2020 and 2021. Fissette would be fine if he never appeared on television. Osaka’s new coach is Patrick Mouratoglou, the former coach of Serena Williams. He has a gift for motivation and self-promotion, with a brand empire that includes an academy in the south of France, plus the freewheeling Ultimate Tennis Showdown (UTS) tennis exhibition events and coaching camps at luxury resorts.

Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka have made coaching changes, but from different tennis perspectives. (Yanshan Zhang / Getty Images)

He was almost too recognizable for Osaka. Mouratoglou’s history with Williams and his presence in the game made her want to avoid him. 

“His persona is so big,” Osaka said in a press conference in Beijing. So big that she was skeptical of his coaching abilities: anyone coaching the greatest female player of the modern era might have enjoyed their part in the success of Williams.

“Then I met him, talked to him, worked with him on the court,” she said.

“He absolutely is a really good coach.”

GO DEEPER

Patrick Mouratoglou says ‘something has to be done’ for tennis’ future. Is he that something?

John Kerry, the longtime senator, U.S. secretary of state and American climate czar, once reduced his philosophy of governing, war and diplomacy to, essentially, ‘getting things right as quickly as you can when you are wrong’.

Sporting aphorists often cite the first law of holes: when you are in one, stop digging. 

Both basically sum up Osaka’s and Gauff’s coaching pivots. Players usually make these moves once the season ends, rather than with another two months to go. Gauff and Osaka are on the Asian swing, which is especially important for Osaka, Japan’s torchbearer at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago. Then come the WTA Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which Gauff may qualify for, and the Billie Jean King Cup in Malaga, Spain, which Osaka plans to play.

But by mid-September, they already had all the data they needed to conclude that they were either heading in the wrong direction (Gauff) or stalling (Osaka). 

While Gauff’s results were off target — with a fourth-round exit at Wimbledon to Emma Navarro before Donna Vekic defeated her in the third-round of the Paris Olympics — the bigger issue was of technique. Gilbert’s ability to cover up her weaknesses, one of his greatest strengths as a coach, had faded.

Quality opponents had figured out how to counter the looping forehand that he introduced to cover up her shakiness on that side. They would step in and take the ball on the rise, before it bounced high enough to trap them at the back of the court. 

Against Navarro at Wimbledon, she pleaded with Gilbert to tell her something, realizing in the moment that she did not have the tools she needed to escape Navarro.

Then there is her serve. At the U.S. Open, her fourth-round defeat to Navarro included 19 double faults.

“I don’t want to lose matches like this anymore,” she told reporters afterwards.

Gilbert, who has forgotten more about tennis than most people know, would never peddle himself as a serve specialist, or even the kind of coach that someone as mired in technical limitations as Gauff is right now would need. Even during Gilbert’s tenure, Gauff had worked with Roddick on some minor serve adjustments. 

In an interview last week, Gilbert declined to get specific about his work with Gauff, but said it was a positive experience overall.

He believes that the ultimate parameters of tennis have not changed. Players have to figure out their strengths, then they have to figure out what their opponent does well. Then they plan to impose their own strengths on the match, while nullifying those of their opponent. But at 63, after more than four decades around the pro game, Gilbert knows the drill. Once a player wins one of the Grand Slams, expectations rise, even though the competition remains fierce. Everyone wants to win and there are only four majors each year.

The women’s game has a little more unpredictability, Gilbert said, but still, “there isn’t a lot of opportunity”.  

“Each coaching experience is a unique experience and you move on,” he added. “That is a beautiful thing.”

Gauff, still only 20 years old, is impatient for success but she is taking the long view. She is approaching the fall tournaments in Asia as an extended pre-season, prioritizing improvement over wins and a top-eight finish for the season, which would qualify her for those season-ending tour Finals.

Coco Gauff’s forehand has long been a vulnerability against top-level opponents. (Yanshan Zhang / Getty Images)

Her team prefers that her coaches speak little about her; she is finding that the subtle changes Daly has made have already begun to pay dividends. 

Daly, 45, played at Notre Dame and briefly coached Denis Shapovalov. He is the founder of a company that sells a gadget called GripMD, which wraps around the handle of a racket to help players use a traditional continental grip. 

Gauff hits her forehand with a heavy western grip, essentially holding the racket underneath the handle. Don’t look for her to switch to a continental grip on her forehand anytime soon — it just doesn’t cut it. Her immediate focus is her serve, but it might take some time before the dividends show up on the stats sheets. She had six double faults and 27 unforced errors across the two sets Tuesday, which she and Osaka split before Osaka retired with a back injury.

If Gauff is taking the long view, Osaka wants results now. It wasn’t always this way.

She has been handed tough draws all season, most notably when she came within a point of knocking Iga Swiatek out of the French Open. At the time, she was introspective, coining a little aphorism of her own: the results weren’t resulting, she told reporters. Fissette and Osaka were focussing her comeback in the long lens — for this season and the next five years. Wait for summer and fall, when tennis moves to the hard courts on which Osaka built her reputation, was the mantra.

That waiting steadily chipped away at Osaka’s confidence. After Karolina Muchova defeated her in New York, she told reporters that a part of her dies when she loses. That Osaka was not the wry, magnanimous Osaka of Paris. The French Open was a lifetime ago in her world, and she had believed that she would have more success on her favorite surface. Muchova, who floated to the U.S. Open semifinals and was likely one stuck volley away from the final, is pretty much doing what Osaka wants to be doing.

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Osaka and the rest of the locker room know she needs to return better, improve her second serve and regain the confidence that, in her best moments, made her an absolute banker in crunch time. More than anything, that had been her superpower, and it’s been mostly missing this year.

This is why she switched to Mouratoglou with two months to go in the 2024 season. She is world No. 73, and desperately wants to get into the top 32, so she can be seeded at the Australian Open in January. 

Fissette, her former coach, is known as a master strategist and tennis technician. Confidence comes from results in his world. He shares with Mouratoglou a belief in playing aggressively, and building that intensity up when it brings results, but he is no one’s definition of a hype man. Mouratoglou could get a letter carrier fired up about delivering the mail.

The China Open is Naomi Osaka and Patrick Mouratoglou’s first official tournament together. (Robert Prange / Getty Images)

Osaka had considered hiring Mouratoglou before she linked back up with Fissette, when she was plotting her comeback from maternity leave. She went with the Belgian then because of their history of success. When it didn’t return, she and Mouratoglou worked together in California after the U.S. Open, then decided to take on the women’s tour together. 

“I don’t want to have regrets,” Osaka added last week in Beijing. 

“I really need to learn as much as possible in this stage of my career. Patrick seemed like the guy with the information.” 

They were off to a good start, with three consecutive wins, including Osaka’s first comeback from a set down in over two years, against Yulia Putintseva. But even the best coach can’t have much success with an injured player. 

After shaking hands with Gauff at one set all, before the American carried her bag off court, Osaka said that her back had stiffened to the point of locking in practice. She was able to start but her condition worsened as the match wore on.

“Totally worth it though lol,” she wrote on Threads.

Sounds like something Mouratoglou would say.

(Top photo: Yanshan Zhang / Getty Images)

Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen is widely regarded as one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. He has all of the desirable traits one could ask for in a quarterback: size, a cannon of an arm, elite-level athleticism, keen instincts, strong leadership traits and an intense competitive fire.

Ever since he ascended to a full-time starter role during his second season in Buffalo (2019), Allen has made the Bills a contender, having carried them to double-digit wins and perennial playoff berths.

Allen consistently ranks among the league’s passing leaders and annually draws consideration for Pro Bowl honors. But thus far, aside from a Super Bowl victory, one distinct honor has eluded Allen: the title of Most Valuable Player. The seventh-year veteran has garnered votes for both MVP and Offensive Player of the Year, but has always finished behind rivals like Patrick Mahomes (twice) and Lamar Jackson (twice).

However, because of his all-around dominant level of play, many of Allen’s peers predict that his wait for his first MVP could soon end. Allen was the leading vote-getter when NFL players were asked, as part of The Athletic’s second anonymous player poll, to name who would join Mahomes, Jackson and Aaron Rodgers to become the next active player to win an MVP award. That trio has combined to win the last six MVPs, with each player winning twice. Tom Brady in 2017 was the last player other than those three to win an MVP; no other active player has won the award.

The Athletic’s NFL beat writers conducted the poll in August and September. Reporters asked 110 players the same set of questions, though not every player answered every question. They were granted anonymity to freely offer their opinions on opponents, coaches, NFL rules, playing surfaces and more.

The results are as follows …

(Editor’s note: In some cases, the combined percentages of all the answers to a question may not add up to 100 percent, because individual percentages have been rounded up or down to the nearest tenth of a percentage point. Half-votes were awarded if a player gave two answers to a question. Players were not required to answer every question.)

Allen, with 18 votes, received his props from peers across the league. He led the Bills to a 3-0 start this season before falling Sunday night to the Baltimore Ravens. He’s sporting a career-best completion percentage of 69.3, has seven touchdown passes, no interceptions and two rushing touchdowns. He had close competition as the Cincinnati Bengals’ Joe Burrow finished just two votes behind, followed by San Francisco 49ers running back Christian McCaffrey (11 votes) in third. But a lot of players like Allen to earn some hardware.

“I feel like he’s due for one,” one player who picked Allen said. “I don’t know when, but he’s going to get one.”

Added another: “Josh should have won it the year (2023) Lamar did. If you look at any stat in that category, put them together, tell me how that worked out. I don’t get it.”

Said a third, “Josh Allen. It should be a defensive player, but it won’t be.”

If a defensive player were to take home the honor, who would it be? The Las Vegas Raiders’ Maxx Crosby and Cleveland Browns’ Myles Garrett both received votes.

Other non-quarterbacks receiving votes included the Atlanta Falcons’ Bijan Robinson, Philadelphia Eagles’ Saquon Barkley and Miami Dolphins’ Tyreek Hill.

As the NFL has evolved into a pass-happy league over the last two decades, a game-changing wide receiver has become essential. Understanding this, the players polled chose Hill (15 votes) and the Minnesota Vikings’ Justin Jefferson (13 1/2 votes) as their building blocks.

Hill’s impact on the game is undeniable. After helping the Kansas City Chiefs win a Super Bowl, he went to Miami, where he helped elevate Tua Tagovailoa to one of the NFL’s top passers and the Dolphins to the playoffs the past two seasons. Hill has recorded 1,700-plus receiving yards in back-to-back seasons and in 2023 led the league in yards (1,799) and receiving touchdowns (13).

“Tyreek Hill,” one player said definitively. “When I play Madden, that’s who I use.”

Another argued, “Got to take the highest-paid non-quarterback, and that’s Justin Jefferson.”

Pass rushers also garnered a great deal of consideration and respect.

Garrett finished third in the voting with 11 1/2 votes while the Dallas Cowboys’ do-it-all linebacker Micah Parsons finished fourth with 11 votes.

“That’s a great question. … I think Micah Parsons is a solid choice,” one player said. “I think that as a defensive lineman, he’s very versatile. You put him inside, outside, he can cover guys. So, kind of got a bit of a Swiss Army knife on defense.”

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NFL players crisscross the country (and at times, the globe) traveling to games, and they get a pretty good idea of what a city has to offer in terms of stadium atmosphere, hotel accommodations, restaurants and entertainment. So, when asked about their favorite road trip city, 18 players made Los Angeles the top choice.

“I feel like I don’t want to do too much on road trips anyways because it’s a business trip,” one player said. “But in terms of scenery, weather and all the rest of it, probably Los Angeles.”

Another said: “Anytime we go to L.A., Rams or Chargers. It’s L.A. The scenery is one of a kind.”

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Las Vegas, Seattle and Miami followed.

“It’s got to be Vegas. Vegas is sweet,” one player said. “You get the full glitz and glam of it. It’s got a great stadium. A ton of food options if you’re playing a night game there that you can go out to the night before.”

Some players voted for cities based on history or the stadium atmosphere, despite the undesirable aspects of the same trip.

“It may change but I would say Kansas City,” one voter said. “The locker room is trash but the stadium and atmosphere are cool. So I don’t think it gets any better, which I hate saying because I hate the Chiefs.”

History isn’t everything for some. The leading vote-getter for least favorite trip was Green Bay despite Lambeau Field ranking among the most hallowed grounds in football.

“It’s always cold,” one player said. “There’s not a lot to do there. I love the stadium, though.”

Added another, “It sucks. There’s nothing to do. The food stinks. It’s cold, obviously. It just feels like you’re in a tundra.”

Others listed a limited number of dining options for their dissatisfaction with Green Bay.

Despite Lambeau Field’s iconic history, players do not enjoy visiting Green Bay’s frozen tundra. (Stacy Revere / Getty Images)

A lack of bustling entertainment, diverse food options and unfavorable weather conditions prompted other players to pick Buffalo, with one player lamenting, “They ain’t even got Uber Black.”

Interestingly, New York ranked third in the voting, but some of that has to do with the fact that the Jets and Giants play in East Rutherford, N.J., and teams have to stay too far away from New York City to enjoy the Big Apple. Players mentioned MetLife Stadium’s playing surface as another negative.

Meanwhile, others had strong words for Pittsburgh.

“I would say Pittsburgh, because it smells like piss in their locker room,” one player said.

“Pittsburgh. Even though it’s my vibe: tough. It’s just always gray and s—ty weather there,” another added.

Playing surfaces have generated a lot of discussion in recent years because of the commonly held belief among players that natural turf is more forgiving and leads to fewer injuries than artificial turf.

The NFL Players Association has encouraged players to lobby for the NFL to require all teams to switch to natural grass fields, and the players’ union leaders have urged owners and league officials accordingly. So it’s no surprise players voted stadiums with natural grass as their favorite surfaces.

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San Francisco’s Levi’s Stadium (10 votes) led the way with Kansas City’s GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium (nine votes) and Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium (nine votes) following closely behind. Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium — which is a dome but stores the playing surface outdoors on transportable plates and then rolls the surface inside for game days — drew high marks as well with 8 1/2 votes.

“Anybody with grass,” one player said. “I don’t think I can complain about anything with grass.”

One of his peers pointed out an exception, however.

“Any place with grass — except Green Bay. Their grass stinks.”

Grass is always the top choice, but some artificial surfaces prove better than others, players say, as evidenced by SoFi’s ranking.

“I like the surface in Las Vegas. It was real nice,” one player said, before adding, “SoFi wasn’t too bad even though it’s turf and your body feels like crap after. It was a pretty good feeling. The Cowboys one wasn’t bad either but that’s obviously turf again. Your body doesn’t feel good after the game, but during the game, you feel a lot quicker, which is cool. But I’d probably go Raiders. I like that grass a lot.”

Another offered the following insight: “I like (Philadelphia’s) Linc a lot. Obviously, a big fan of grass fields, and also like the deeper grass. It makes you feel like you really got stability and the ability to cut whenever you need to.”

One of the most popular figures of the 2023 NFL season wasn’t even a member of the league. Pop superstar-turned-Chiefs fan Taylor Swift may have generated as many headlines as Mahomes, the quarterback of her boyfriend Travis Kelce’s team.

What seemed like half of the NFL’s fan base bemoaned the three-second spurts in which TV cameras captured Swift cheering at Chiefs games while the other half couldn’t get enough of her.

But what did the football players themselves think of the Swiftie craze?

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A whopping 74 of the 102 players who answered this question said they viewed the singer’s interest in the game (and the coverage that stemmed from it) as a positive. Just five players viewed it as a negative while 23 were somewhere in the middle on the Swift-NFL union.

“I think it’s been positive for the league,” one player said. “I think that at the end of the day, it’s a business and you need to get as many eyes on it as possible. And she brings a lot of eyes, so, you know, if that increases the salary cap, I don’t think anybody’s gonna be too mad about that one.”

An opposite opinion: “I feel like she is getting unnecessary coverage,” a player said. “There was the whole NFL opening season video on Twitter and she was featured five times and our quarterback was featured none. That’s not even right. She is not the NFL.”

FOOTBALL IS BACK THIS WEEK 🏈 🚨 pic.twitter.com/YVR8kbZnfm

— NFL (@NFL) September 2, 2024

Another player viewed Swift’s presence at games as both positive and negative.

“It’s bringing more attention to the game,” he said, “but I feel like they’ve been using her face. If she’s at a game, they probably show her like six, seven times. People get … sick of it if they keep doing it over and over again. So I think they’ve got to find a balance.”

Some players simply didn’t care.

“I’ll jam to some Taylor Swift, but I don’t give a s— if she’s at the game or not,” one player said.

Last season we asked players to name the biggest trash-talker. This year, we broadened the question to most annoying, leaving it to the players’ discretion to decide what qualified as annoying. Well, last year’s biggest trash-talker, Philadelphia Eagles defensive back C.J. Gardner-Johnson, took the crown again.

“Yap yap yap,” one player said of the sixth-year veteran.

Philadelphia’s C.J. Gardner-Johnson has a well-earned reputation for in-game talking. (Mitchell Leff / Getty Images)

Gardner-Johnson led the field with 14 votes. Second place went to Raiders defensive tackle Christian Wilkins (eight votes), who was described as “a different type of s— talker,” while his teammate Crosby came in third with five votes. This was the question most often skipped by players, with only 67 of the 110 we spoke to offering a response.

Kelce received three votes, though at least one was due to no fault of his own.

“It’s because the camera pans over to Taylor Swift every time he catches a pass,” he said. “It’s so annoying. That’s annoying.”

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The decision to make flag football an Olympic sport beginning with the 2028 games has sparked debate over which NFL players would shine on this global stage, and so we asked this group of players for their thoughts on this matter.

It’s no surprise that Mahomes — a true wizard on the field — received a number of votes. But he wasn’t the most popular nomination for best potential flag football star.

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That distinction went to Hill, who is among the fastest, shiftiest and most elusive players in the NFL. It wasn’t even close. Hill received 76 votes while Jefferson finished second with 47. Jackson and Mahomes shared third-place honors as the top quarterbacks with 33 votes apiece.

“Oh, I would go Tyreek Hill No. 1,” one player said. “I’m assuming I’ve got to get a quarterback to throw the ball. Probably go Patrick Mahomes, No. 1. I feel like he already kind of plays backyard football, so that’d be a pretty natural thing for him. And then, I think three, I would go Justin Jefferson.”

Said another, “Lamar, No. 1. One hundred percent Tyreek Hill and bro from the Chiefs, the fast cat, Xavier Worthy.”

Another player called for a reunion of Rodgers and his former Packers teammate Davante Adams, who just so happens to be back on the trade block after requesting a departure from Las Vegas.

“That chemistry between Rodgers and Adams, they’ve got the best chemistry as a quarterback-receiver duo in my opinion,” he said.

The legalization of sports betting caused the NFL to add another set of rules to the collective bargaining agreement. The rules prohibit players from betting on NFL games and also bar them from betting on any non-NFL sporting event on team property or while on work trips. Violation of those rules has led to the suspensions of 11 players since 2022.

To ensure that players have a painstakingly clear understanding of what constitutes a gambling violation and what punishments they would face, the NFL this year instituted mandatory in-person training sessions during the offseason and in the preseason.

Players were asked if they believed that the NFL is doing enough to educate them on the expectations and rules regarding gambling.

The overwhelming majority of players polled (90 out of 108) gave the league a thumbs up.

“I believe so,” one player said. “I feel like they tell you what you need to know, what not to do. … Sometimes guys maybe forget, but I feel like they did enough.”

Just 13 players believed the NFL could do more to educate players, while five said they remained undecided.

Some players said that before this year, the NFL wasn’t as thorough in its education, but that they believed the intensified efforts have cleared things up.

“The first year, there was a little bit of gray area of what guys could do,” one player said. “I know a guy got suspended who didn’t truly understand that if you’re on a (team) bus, then you can’t do it. I think once those types of things happened, they’ve done a way better job for sure.”

Every few years, the NFL seemingly opens a new stadium to replace an aging structure. In other cases, stadiums require multi-million dollar renovations. Leading up to the construction or renovation projects, a great deal of negotiating takes place between teams and the officials in the localities that house those stadiums. The matter often sparks great debate because most NFL owners request funding to assist in these construction or renovation projects.

NFL players appear divided on whether the NFL — a multi-billion dollar industry — should use taxpayer funds to build or improve stadiums, with 43 players supporting taxpayer funds and 36 against. Another 22 players were either undecided, didn’t have enough information or felt it depended on the situation.

Los Angeles’ SoFi Stadium, opened in 2020, is a rare NFL stadium built entirely with private funding. (Harry How / Getty Images)

“To an extent, I’m for it,” one player said. “A lot of these franchises and stadiums are huge parts of these cities and the fabric of entire regions, but I also get that tax money could go to a whole hell of a lot better things than football stadiums.”

Others disagreed.

“I think the NFL makes enough money to be able to afford nice stadiums without it coming from the taxpayers from those respective cities,” another player said. “When you talk about stuff that actually affects the community, like police and schooling and medical stuff, I think those things come first.”

(Top illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photos of Justin Jefferson, Josh Allen and Tyreek Hill: Alika Jenner, Michael Owens and Perry Knotts / Getty Images)

Denise Ilitch was tired of being told no.

For the last few years, she had been championing the idea of varsity women’s hockey to the University of Michigan administration. Because while the school is known as a men’s hockey powerhouse — with nine national championships, the second most all-time — Michigan has never iced a women’s Division I hockey team.

Ilitch — a regent at the University and the daughter of Marian and the late Mike Ilitch, who bought the Detroit Red Wings in 1982 — had been told repeatedly that it couldn’t be done. The reason? It was too expensive, though Ilitch had never been given any specific figures to back up the rejection.

“I had not heard a good enough reason on why we couldn’t have women’s hockey DI at Michigan,” Ilitch told The Athletic.

So, during the March regents meeting, Ilitch went public with her pitch: It’s time for the University of Michigan to launch a varsity women’s hockey program.

The women’s club team will be in its 30th year when the puck drops for the 2024-25 season on Wednesday. And the appetite for women’s hockey in the State was apparent when a Professional Women’s Hockey League game at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit drew a record crowd for a game back in March.

“Part of our mission statement at the University of Michigan says ‘to serve the people of Michigan.’ And right now, the people of Michigan are not being served. There is a demand for women’s hockey at (Michigan),” Ilitch said during the meeting. “Women belong on the same ice as men. The University of Michigan must show that on our ice, we support varsity women’s hockey. That’s leadership. Hockey is for everyone, and we are ‘HockeyTown.‘”

Michigan president Santa Ono said he would look into launching a feasibility study with athletic director Warde Manuel.

The athletic department launched the study in May; it is expected to be completed sometime in the fall.

The study is a significant step toward a potential future for elite women’s hockey at one of the biggest schools in college athletics. It’s the first real look at adding the sport in decades. This time, though, the push for women’s hockey comes at a historic moment for the sport, with a new professional league and more eyes on the game than ever before.

“It almost feels like we’ve got this perfect storm,” said Jenna Trubiano, the club team’s head coach. “I personally would have wished it happened many years ago. We can’t change the past but you can focus on the future.”

There’s reason to believe a women’s DI program would make sense at Michigan.

But the questions remain: Why has it never worked before? And can they make it happen now?

It’s been 26 years since women’s hockey was seriously considered for varsity appointment at Michigan.

The club team was founded in 1994 by a group of women who played hockey in the area — mostly on men’s teams or in open adult leagues — and wanted to see more opportunities exclusively for women. By the 1997-98 season, Michigan was looking to promote two teams to varsity status and women’s hockey — which was about to debut at the 1998 Nagano Olympics — appeared to be high on the shortlist.

According to archived board minutes, business plans for the addition of women’s hockey and men’s soccer began development in March 1998. That process was not unlike the current feasibility study: The athletic department dug into how it could add women’s hockey as a varsity sport, and how much it would cost.

Plans were submitted in September 1998, according to the records, but only two months later the department moved on from hockey. In the end, the school opted to elevate men’s soccer and women’s water polo.

“It was just a money decision,” said Sue McDowell, one of the co-founders of the women’s club hockey team who became a longtime assistant coach.

Water polo, McDowell was told, would cost significantly less than hockey. And the women’s team could share a facility, the Canham Natatorium, with the men. Soccer already had fields in place. For hockey, though, Yost Ice Arena — with only one ice sheet and one up-to-standard locker room — isn’t easily shared.

The varsity men’s hockey team is the only full-time tenant at Yost Ice Arena. (Steven King / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

“That was pretty much the nail in the coffin,” McDowell said. “Whenever you brought it up, it was ‘this is too expensive,’ and ‘there’s no way we can do it.’”

While Michigan passed on women’s hockey, other varsity programs started popping up, including at Big Ten rival schools Minnesota, Wisconsin and Ohio State. Since the NCAA sanctioned women’s hockey in 2000-01, Minnesota (6) and Wisconsin (7) have won the most championships. Ohio State — Michigan’s biggest rival — has won two championships in the last three years, which might actually be the biggest argument in favor of women’s hockey at Michigan in most circles.

“If Ohio State wins national championships, they should have to run through Michigan,” said Michigan regent Jordan Acker, who supported Ilitch’s argument in favor of a varsity team at the March meeting. “It absolutely plays a role (in the desire for a team), there’s no question about it.”

Female hockey registration has also grown in the state of Michigan in the decades since that late ’90s decision. Last season, Michigan ranked fourth behind major hockey hotbed states Minnesota, Massachusetts and New York in female registration, per USA Hockey. And yet, save for the Wayne State program, which folded in May 2011, there have been no DI women’s hockey programs in the state of Michigan. In contrast, there are seven men’s programs that will play in 2024-25.

This has resulted in homegrown talent from successful youth programs such as Little Caesars or HoneyBaked having to leave Michigan to pursue elite college hockey opportunities. Four players from Michigan — Kirsten Simms, Megan Keller, Abby Roque and Taylor Girard — appeared on Team USA rosters last season. All four left the state for college hockey; Simms — who grew up in Plymouth, Mich., and is a junior at Wisconsin — led all NCAA players in scoring last season.

For McDowell, it’s easy to feel like Michigan missed a critical window in 1997-98. “It’s always been a sore spot,” she said.

When the feasibility study is complete it will provide decision makers with a comprehensive overview of what it will actually cost to run a program. This includes everything from the cost of scholarships, salaries, and travel budgets, to Title IX implications, and an evaluation of potential venues, which could mean updating an existing facility or building an entirely new one.

Michigan has hired Collegiate Sports Associates, an executive search and consulting firm, to lead the study. College Hockey Inc. is also involved. A spokesperson from the Michigan athletic department confirmed that the study is ongoing, but did not have anything to share publicly at this time.

A feasibility study can provide a clear path toward setting up a team. That was the case for the University of Delaware when the school announced at a press conference last year that it would add women’s hockey as a varsity sport for the 2025-26 season. The athletic department had already committed to move to the Football Bowl Subdivision — the highest level of college football in the nation — and was committed to adding a women’s sport to remain Title IX compliant.

“As we considered all of the NCAA-sponsored sports, women’s ice hockey did make the most sense at the highest level,” said Chrissi Rawak, Delaware’s athletic director.

Delaware’s study laid out the finances and found that Fred Rust Ice Arena, where the team will play — one of two rinks on campus — only needed small-scale renovations, which made women’s hockey more feasible financially.

Typically, the lack of an existing facility is the biggest hurdle when it comes to adding DI hockey. For Michigan, Yost Ice Arena is going to play a central role in the study and the future of a women’s varsity program. It was built in 1923 as a field house and was turned into a hockey facility in 1973. It’s an iconic venue in college hockey, but it has only one sheet of ice and one locker room — the men’s home locker room — that would be considered quality enough.

The varsity men’s hockey team is also the only full-time tenant at Yost. The women’s and men’s club teams do not have locker room space in the arena, and usually practice during off hours because the men’s team has priority. The women’s club team is required to pay to play at Yost, at a cost of between $30,000- $40,000 — it will cost players $2,500 in dues to play hockey at Michigan this season — though President Ono has reimbursed the team for most of its rink bill the last few years.

“We can’t change the past but you can focus on the future,” said Jenna Trubiano, coach of the women’s club team. (Courtesy of Jaime Crawford)

If a second team were to move into Yost on a full-time basis, renovations would likely be required, either to add another ice sheet or more locker rooms. But an expansion is unlikely given how old the arena is and the footprint it already has on campus — it backs up onto the baseball facility and sits between the football training facility and an academic building.

There are rinks in Ann Arbor — such as the Ann Arbor Ice Cube — that could potentially be used as practice facilities to make sharing Yost only necessary for games. The study will examine all of the possible facility options, including other sites on campus that could be renovated to accommodate hockey.

Donors will likely play an important role in women’s hockey at Michigan, especially if a new building is required.

In 2011, Michigan promoted men’s and women’s lacrosse teams to varsity; two years later the athletic department received a $100 million donation from Stephen M. Ross, the owner of the Miami Dolphins, which helped fund the new athletic campus that includes a lacrosse stadium. In hockey, Penn State men’s and women’s hockey debuted in 2012-13 after a $102 million donation from Terry and Kim Pegula, the owners of the Buffalo Bills and NHL Sabres, which funded the construction of the Pegula Ice Arena.

“I think that there’s cautious enthusiasm for this,” Ilitch said. “I’ve received numerous calls from people that want to help, that want to get involved, that want to donate. Generally you have to call donors. Donors don’t call you.”

Another major consideration for Michigan will be where the team plays. Delaware is joining Atlantic Hockey America, which already includes Lindenwood, Mercyhurst, Penn State, Rochester Institute of Technology, Robert Morris University, and Syracuse.

For Michigan, the most likely options are the AHA and the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. The Big Ten doesn’t currently sponsor women’s hockey like it does for men’s hockey, but it’s fair to wonder if that would change if Michigan entered the picture.

The WCHA makes a lot of sense with three Big Ten teams (Wisconsin, Ohio State and Minnesota) and would allow Michigan to capitalize on preexisting rivalries. But, the conference’s footprint stretches over 900 miles between Bemidji, Minn., and Columbus, Ohio, which would impact travel costs. Joining the AHA would mean more drivable trips, and would likely be easier to compete in — that’s ultimately what made it a “perfect league” for Delaware, Rawak said.

AHA commissioner Michelle Morgan said she’s had some “very preliminary” conversations with Michigan about league dues and travel. When asked if Michigan would be a fit for the WCHA, commissioner Michelle McAteer said, “Like everyone in women’s hockey, the momentum, interest and potential around Michigan elevating to DI status is very exciting. We would work with College Hockey Inc., institutional representatives and the other DI hockey conferences to help make that happen.”

The current push for women’s hockey at Michigan appears to have all the right pieces assembled: the support of the regents — including the power and influence of Denise Ilitch — and President Ono, potential donors, and the desire to beat Ohio State in every sporting arena.

Two years ago, those ingredients might have led to an easy yes. But now?

“It might be the worst time to add a varsity sport to an athletic program,” said Greg Dooley, a professor at Michigan who teaches courses about the history of college athletics.

College athletics are on the cusp of unprecedented change. The explosion in NIL compensation for athletes has already changed the landscape. And now — after the NCAA and the nation’s five biggest conferences have agreed to pay nearly $2.8 billion to settle several antitrust claims — the stage is set for millions of dollars to go directly to student athletes.

A groundbreaking revenue-sharing model outlined in the March settlement proposal would have schools each provide up to $21 million annually to student athletes. That has already led to budget cuts across the NCAA, with more difficult decisions — particularly when it comes to Olympic or “non-revenue sports” — sure to come.

“Most athletic departments right now are going to be making decisions about which programs to support and possibly cut,” Dooley said. “Who is going to add a hockey program right now?”

In June, the Michigan athletic department projected total operating revenues for 2024-25 to be $255.7 million — a $25 million increase from the 2024 fiscal year — with projected operating expenses of $253.4 million. Michigan athletics financially benefits from its football program — the defending national champions — and the Big Ten’s $8 billion media rights deal that began last season. But even Michigan, with its large revenues, is going to face major challenges in the new landscape of college athletics.

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“It has to make sense financially for the athletic department to support all the teams in this new world, which we’re not quite clear on yet,” Dooley said. “If you’re running a business, you probably wait to make any significant changes until you understand the real impact.”

When Delaware decided to move forward with women’s hockey, the athletic department had no sense of what was to come. Rawak said the looming changes wouldn’t have altered their decision, given the increased exposure and national visibility that comes with a move to FBS football. But she did admit this is a much more complicated time to add significant expenses to an athletic department.

And while Dooley has many reservations about the changes to come, if there’s a school that can pull this off at this time in collegiate athletics, it’s Michigan.

“I think it’s the right thing to do at the right time,” he said. “I think people in this town will support it, and frankly most people wished they had this team 20 years ago.”

(Illustration: Meech Robinson / The Athletic. Photos of Denise Ilitch, Michigan hockey and Yost Ice Arena: AP; Scott W. Grau / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Two and half years ago, the Las Vegas Raiders traded for Davante Adams. It was a big day. There might have been balloons. They gave up a first- and a second-round pick to get one of the elite receivers in the league, and some members of the media got pretty excited about it.

But the Raiders never even sniffed the playoffs, let alone the Super Bowl, and bad decisions and a general lack of success chipped away at the relationship to the point where Adams has most likely played his last game for the Silver and Black.

According to a league source, Adams requested a trade on Monday, one day after the Raiders beat the Cleveland Browns without him. Adams was out with a hamstring injury, but apparently his feelings were hurt when coach Antonio Pierce liked an Instagram post insinuating Adams might be traded. Pierce hasn’t said whether or not that was a mistake; he is scheduled to speak to the media at 10 a.m. PT on Wednesday. But even if it was an accident, a trade would fix a problem with Pierce that has been lingering since training camp — and with the organization long before that.

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See, Adams and the Raiders were never on the same page. That covers two front-office regimes and six starting quarterbacks in Adams’ 37 games with the franchise.

Adams signed off on the trade to the Raiders partly because he grew up a fan of the team in East Palo Alto, Calif. — but mostly because he wanted to play with his good friend and college quarterback at Fresno State, Derek Carr. General manager Dave Ziegler and coach Josh McDaniels not only traded two premium picks for Adams but gave Carr a contract extension and signed free-agent pass rusher Chandler Jones to signal they were all in.

But … they weren’t. There were holes on the roster, and Ziegler and McDaniels soured on Carr to the point where they benched him for the last two games of the 2022 season. They wound up cutting the franchise’s all-time leader in passing yards without getting anything in return.

Adams tried to say the right things, but he started to lose his patience when McDaniels brought in Jimmy Garoppolo to be the starting quarterback in 2023. Teammates have always loved Garoppolo, but this version — the one who failed a physical when he signed, needed foot surgery and then couldn’t deliver accurate passes — was hard for the six-time Pro Bowl receiver to stomach.

A loss to the Detroit Lions the day before Halloween was the last straw for Adams, who slammed his helmet to the turf during the game, and, it turned out, for owner Mark Davis, who fired Ziegler and McDaniels the next day. Pierce, previously the linebackers coach, was promoted to interim head coach, and he immediately benched Garoppolo for rookie Aidan O’Connell.

Adams had a camera crew following him around last season for the Netflix documentary “Receiver,” and his contention on the show that he “signed off” on the Garoppolo benching irked some in the Raiders’ building. (He would use the same phrase again after Gardner Minshew II beat out O’Connell for the starting quarterback job this August.) Adams and his family members also took some verbal shots at Garoppolo on the show.

Some saw Adams putting himself before the team at times, and many teammates rolled their eyes at how he came across on the show. There was a lot of dramatic sulking and “me” talk instead of “we” talk that didn’t go over well when the program aired just before training camp this summer.

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Adams had talked about a “fresh slate” as recently as July, but during training camp and the preseason, it felt like something was off. Adams left the team during camp for the birth of his first son, and while the team thought it would be just for a couple of days, Adams was gone for 10. Then when he came back, he said he didn’t want to play in the second preseason game. (He hasn’t gotten his uniform dirty in the preseason since 2017.)

Pierce was told of Adams’ preference the next day and replied, “No, if you’re healthy, you’ll play.”

Guess who came up with an injury the next day?

Adams does have a legitimate hamstring injury now and was unlikely to play Sunday against the Denver Broncos anyway. It’s unfortunate that many on social media thought he was making a “business decision,” thanks to comments Pierce made after an embarrassing Week 3 loss to the Carolina Panthers. The coach openly questioned his players’ effort — a mistake, he later admitted. And while Adams did not play well in that game, totaling just four receptions on nine targets for 40 yards, it seemed Pierce was instead referring to several defensive players (cornerback Jack Jones was benched for the first quarter against the Browns).

To be clear, Pierce liking the Instagram post was another mistake. Regardless of his culpability or intent, that kind of thing simply can’t happen. I can’t imagine Andy Reid spending much of his free time on social media.

“It’s always some sort of drama,” Adams said on his weekly paid appearance on the “Up & Adams” show. “But, at the end of the day, 17 doesn’t create any of it.”

3x All Pro WR Davante Adams addresses his HC Antonio Pierce liking a post suggesting Adams will be traded…

“I haven’t heard from him (Pierce)… I don’t really know exactly what that’s all about.”@heykayadams @tae15adams @Raiders pic.twitter.com/xMusj9nMFx

— Up & Adams (@UpAndAdamsShow) October 1, 2024

The Raiders have indeed been a ridiculous telenovela for two decades now, but Adams is no innocent victim. He has talked about his frustrations and the potential of reuniting with former Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers regularly for two years now, and he may soon get his chance if the New York Jets offer the Raiders a second- or third-round draft pick.

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But you can’t really blame him. The Raiders were 6-11 in 2022 and 8-9 last season. This year, nine wins seem like a best-case scenario after a measured free-agent approach by new general manager Tom Telesco and some season-ending injuries on defense.

Adams has had enough. And whether they trade him this week or closer to the Nov. 5 trade deadline, so have Pierce and the Raiders.

(Photo: Ethan Miller / Getty Images)