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🚨 Headlines
🏀 Another day, another buzzer-beater: A day after No. 8 Michigan State won on a half-court buzzer-beater, No. 15 Michigan beat Rutgers, 84-82, on their own buzzer-beating three. The Wolverines and Spartans are also now tied atop the men’s Big Ten with three games left.
🏈 Kelce’s not done yet: Travis Kelce will return to the Chiefs this fall for his 13th NFL season, telling Pat McAfee via text that he didn’t want to end his career on such a sour note. “I’m coming back for sure. … I can’t go out like that!”
🏀 Women’s Top 16 reveal: UCLA, Texas, USC and Notre Dame were the top four seeds in the NCAA selection committee’s latest Top 16 reveal — their last one before Selection Sunday on March 16.
🏈 No workouts for Hunter: Travis Hunter, the potential No. 1 pick, will not work out at the scouting combine this weekend. Instead, the reigning Heisman winner will do drills at both CB and WR during Big 12 Pro Day, adding that he wants to continue playing both sides in the NFL.
⚽️ NWSL jersey refresh: All 14 NWSL clubs revealed the new Nike-designed jerseys they’ll wear for the upcoming season, which begins two weeks from today.
⛳️ Knapp makes history at PGA National
Jake Knapp made history on Thursday at the Cognizant Classic, carding a 12-under 59 for the 15th sub-60 round ever on the PGA Tour.
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The 30-year-old California native made 12 birdies, and was so dialed in with his approach shots at PGA National that he only had to make one putt longer than 12 feet all day.
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He was also inches away from a Tour-record 57, lipping out for birdie on 17 and nearly making eagle on 18.
The sub-60 club: Jim Furyk, the only PGA Tour golfer to shoot a 58, is also the only one to card multiple sub-60 rounds.
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Furyk: 58 (2016 Travelers Championship)
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Knapp: 59 (2025 Cognizant Classic)
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Hayden Springer: 59 (2024 John Deere Classic)
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Cameron Young: 59 (2024 Travelers Championship)
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Scottie Scheffler: 59 (2020 Northern Trust)
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Kevin Chappell: 59 (2019 Military Tribute at The Greenbrier)
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Brandt Snedeker: 59 (2018 Wyndham Championship)
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Adam Hadwin: 59 (2017 CareerBuilder Challenge)
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Justin Thomas: 59 (2017 Sony Open)
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Furyk: 59 (2013 BMW Championship)
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Stuart Appleby: 59 (2010 Greenbrier Classic)
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Paul Goydos: 59 (2010 John Deere Classic)
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David Duval: 59 (1999 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic)
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Chip Beck: 59 (1991 Las Vegas Invitational)
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Al Geiberger: 59 (1977 Memphis Classic)
Taming “The Bear Trap”: PGA National is generally considered to be pretty tough, particularly The Bear Trap — the three-hole stretch from 15-17 named after Jack Nicklaus, who redesigned the course in 1990.
Yes, but: It played much easier on Thursday, and Knapp wasn’t the only one who took advantage: Three golfers are tied for second after shooting an 8-under 63 (two strokes shy of the previous course record), and another 11 golfers shot 65 or better.
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“The rough’s not long enough. It’s not penal enough when you miss the fairway,” said Billy Horschel (-5), who explained that the usual bermudagrass was overseeded with rye, which “looks prettier on TV.”
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“This will be the lowest scoring average in the history of this tournament,” he added. “It’s just a little disappointing.”
A long time coming: Knapp, known for having one of the smoothest swings on tour, turned pro in 2016 but didn’t earn his PGA Tour card until last year. Heck, he worked as a bouncer at a nightclub to pay the bills as recently as 2022. But he captured his inaugural victory almost exactly a year ago at the Mexico Open, has made six of seven cuts so far this season and is in pole position to add more hardware to his trophy case this weekend.
🏀 Steph goes nuclear
There may be nothing in sports quite as exciting as when Stephen Curry catches fire, and on Thursday night in Orlando the greatest shooter of all time delivered a masterpiece.
Steph doing Steph things: Curry scored a season-high 56 points (!) and nailed 12 three-pointers (!!) — including a three-quarter court buzzer-beater at the half — in the Warriors’ 121-115 win over the Magic.
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This was his third career game with at least 12 threes, tying former teammate Klay Thompson for the most ever.
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It was also his ninth 50-point game since turning 30, the most in NBA history (Wilt Chamberlain had seven).
Wild stat: Curry had 11 games with 40+ points and 10+ threes in the 2010s and now has 11 such games in the 2020s, too. No other player has more than seven such games in their entire career.
Watch out for Golden State: The Dubs (32-27) have won five straight and seven of eight to move within a half-game of the all-important six seed an an automatic playoff berth.
Elsewhere… Giannis Antetokounmpo (28-19-7) and the Bucks won a heavyweight clash, 121-112, against Nikola Jokić (32-14-10) and the Nuggets … LeBron James (33-17-6) and Luka Dončić (21-13-5) powered the Lakers’ 111-102 win over the Timberwolves.
💰 The world’s most valuable sports franchises
The Dallas Cowboys sit atop Sportico’s second annual list of the world’s 100 most valuable sports teams, with the franchise worth $10.3 billion when combining its market value, team-related businesses and real estate holdings.
The big picture: The top 100 teams are collectively worth $470 billion, up 16% year-over-year as valuations continue skyrocketing. Consider this: Every team in this year’s top 100 is worth at least $2 billion; in 2010, not a single team eclipsed that mark*.
Top 10:
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🏈 Cowboys ($10.3B)
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🏀 Warriors ($9.1B)
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🏀 Knicks ($8.3B)
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🏀 Lakers ($8.1B)
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⚾️ Yankees ($7.9B)
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🏈 Rams ($7.8B)
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🏈 Giants ($7.7B)
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🏈 Patriots ($7.3B)
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🏈 49ers ($6.9B)
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🏈 Jets ($6.8B)
By league: The NFL unsurprisingly dominated the list, with all 32 teams making the top 100 and even the least valuable of the bunch coming in at No. 52 (Bengals, $4.7B).
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The NBA also had full representation, with all 30 teams making the cut from the Warriors at No. 2 overall ($9.1B) to the Grizzlies at No. 84 ($3.1B).
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The rest came from MLB (15), European soccer (10), the NHL (8) and Formula 1 (5).
*2010 leaders: The Cowboys, Yankees and Manchester United led the way in 2010, all valued at roughly $1.8 billion.
🥊 Primo Carnera: A legacy of disgrace, 100 years later
Depending on who you ask, Primo Carnera is either the biggest fraud (literally and figuratively) in boxing history, or a misunderstood man mountain who, because he was too trusting and guileless, was the perfect patsy at a time when boxing was most ripe for underworld plucking.
From Uncrowned’s Ben Fowlkes:
Go to the International Boxing Hall of Fame in Canastota, New York, and you’ll see a cast of the big fella’s fist. There it is, right next to a little notecard identifying it as “one of the largest fists in boxing history,” belonging to Primo Carnera, world heavyweight champion from 1933 to 1934.
Even under the glass it looks huge and menacing, which is of course the point. Carnera is not an inductee in this hall of fame and likely never will be. To the extent he is there at all, it is only as a physical oddity. Maybe that’s fitting, since it is generally how the boxing world treated him when he was alive.
That is to say, it’s how he was treated when he was still fighting and winning. Later he was treated much worse. He was lambasted as a fraud, a shameful mirage, a great big joke that everyone was in on but him.
The sportswriter and novelist Paul Gallico once described him as a “floundering giant” who was never anything more than “a freak and a fourth-rater at prizefighting.”
“There is probably no more scandalous, pitiful, incredible story in all the record of these last mad years than the tale of the living giant, a creature out of the legends of antiquity, who was made into a prizefighter,” Gallico wrote of Carnera in “Farewell To Sport,” his 1937 memoir of his career as a writer for the New York Daily News.
“He was taught and trained by a wise, scheming little French boxing manager who had an Oxford University degree, and he was later acquired and developed into the heavyweight champion of the world by a group of American gangsters and mob men; then finally, when his usefulness as a meal ticket was outlived, he was discarded in the most shameful chapter in all boxing.”
On paper, Carnera owns the record for the most knockouts of any heavyweight champ. His 72 wins by KO/TKO put him ahead of George Foreman, Joe Louis and Max Baer. Not that anyone believes that, of course. Not really.
Looking back now, nearly 100 years after his pro debut, there are some things we may never know about him. Carnera and his handlers are gone. Those who fixed fights or didn’t, those who took dives or just claimed to, they’re all long since dead. But after all the ways boxing used and denigrated Carnera, then hated him for it, maybe the least the sport owes him is some attempt at an honest reckoning.
Keep reading.
📸 In photos: Sports in miniature
Tilt-shift photography is a technique in which a specific camera lens is used to alter both the focal plane (tilt) and perspective (shift) of an image, creating an illusion of a miniature scene. Here are a few of our favorite examples from the past month.
Acapulco, Mexico — Ben Shelton serves against David Goffin in his Round of 16 loss on Wednesday at the Mexican Open.
Milan, Italy — Skaters compete in the men’s 500m quarterfinals at the Short Track Speed Skating World Cup on Feb. 15.
Nottingham, England — Nottingham Forest and Brighton play a Premier League match on Feb. 1.
Toronto — Maple Leafs star Auston Matthews warms up prior to a game against the Wild on Jan. 29.
📺 Watchlist: Welcome to March
March begins tomorrow, and to celebrate the occasion the college basketball scheduling gods have gifted us a cornucopia of ranked-on-ranked men’s and women’s matchups this weekend.
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Men: No. 1 Auburn at No. 17 Kentucky (Sat. 1pm ET, ABC); No. 6 Alabama at No. 5 Tennessee (Sat. 4pm, ESPN); No. 12 Texas A&M at No. 3 Florida (Sat. 8:30pm, SEC); No. 22 Arizona at No. 9 Iowa State (Sat. 9pm, ESPN); No. 11 Wisconsin at No. 8 Michigan State (Sun. 1:30pm, CBS)
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Women: No. 4 USC at No. 2 UCLA (Sat. 9pm, Fox); No. 25 Louisville at No. 3 Notre Dame (Sun. 12pm, ESPN); No. 15 Kentucky at No. 6 South Carolina (Sun. 2pm, ESPN); No. 20 Alabama at No. 13 Oklahoma (Sun. 2:30pm, SEC+); No. 12 Ohio State at No. 19 Maryland (Sun. 4:30pm, Fox); No. 16 Duke at No. 24 FSU (Sun. 6pm, ACC); No. 10 TCU at No. 17 Baylor (Sun. 6:30pm, FS1)
More to watch:
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🏀 NBA: Cavs at Celtics (Fri. 7:30pm, ESPN); Clippers at Lakers (Fri. 10pm, ESPN); Warriors at Sixers (Sat. 8:30pm, ABC); Nuggets at Celtics (Sun. 1pm, ABC); Thunder at Spurs (Sun. 7pm, ESPN); Timberwolves at Suns (Sun. 9:30pm, ESPN)
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🏒 NHL: Bruins at Penguins (Sat. 3pm, ABC); Red Wings at Blue Jackets (Sat. 6pm, ESPN); Maple Leafs at Penguins (Sun. 1pm, TNT); Bruins at Wild (Sun. 3:30pm, TNT); Blues at Stars (Sun. 6pm, TNT)
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⚽️ MLS: 15 games (Sat-Sun, Apple TV) … Saturday’s Charlotte-Atlanta game (2:30pm) will also air on Fox.
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🏈 NFL Combine: On-field workouts (Fri-Sun, NFL) … QBs, WRs and RBs take the field on Saturday (3pm).
Plus… The PGA’s Cognizant Classic (Fri-Sun, Golf/NBC) and LPGA’s HSBC Women’s World Championship (Fri-Sat, Golf); NASCAR at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas (Sun. 3:30pm, Fox) and IndyCar’s season-opening St. Petersburg GP (Sun. 12pm, Fox); the ATP’s Dubai Tennis Championships (Fri-Sat, Tennis) and WTA’s ATX Open (Fri-Sun, Tennis); Unrivaled (Fri-Sat, TNT/truTV); PWHL (Sat. 2pm, YouTube).
🏈 NFL trivia
Ja’Marr Chase should receive a lucrative extension this offseason, with a top Bengals executive saying Wednesday that his star WR will “end up being the No. 1 paid non-QB in the league.”
Question: Who is currently the NFL’s highest-paid non-QB? (by average annual value)
Hint: Also a receiver.
Answer at the bottom.
💔 RIP, Gene Hackman
Gene Hackman has sadly passed away at age 95, found dead in his home on Wednesday along with his wife and dog.
Sports movie Hall of Fame: The two-time Oscar winner had too many legendary roles to count, but perhaps none more so than his turn as coach Norman Dale in the 1986 classic “Hoosiers,” on the short list for the greatest sports movie ever made. And as good as “I’ll make it” is, it’s Hackman’s performance during the “measurements” scene that stands as the most memorable.
“10 feet. I think you’ll find it’s the exact same measurements as our gym back in Hickory.”
Trivia answer: Justin Jefferson ($35M)
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