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Friendly Fights: Jordan Love’s happy hold-in
The NFL QB holdout is a special breed of contract dispute. It can hijack an entire franchise’s present and, if things get bad enough, its future. The tension can spread through a locker room like a virus.
Not in Green Bay, though — at least not yet. Jordan Love, franchise QB of the future for a team that has an absurd hit rate with such players, is not practicing until he gets a new deal. Gasp, right? Wrong:
- Love is present at Packers training camp, which is your first sign things are actually amicable between the two sides. Green Bay general manager Brian Gutekunst echoed the sentiment yesterday, saying he feels a resolution is close and that he understands Love’s strategy. Risking injury days before signing a gargantuan contract would be bad business.
- And the deal should be huge. Most experts believe Love’s contract will reset the market and become the richest deal in NFL history. Jaguars QB Trevor Lawrence just signed for $55 million per year. Expect Love’s to be slightly more than that, around the five-year, $280 million mark. The big question is whether his guaranteed money tops the numbers of Lawrence ($142 million) or Joe Burrow ($146 million). I do not expect him to beat Cleveland’s nonsensical $230 million guaranteed deal for Deshaun Watson, but you never know.
- Is he worth it? Yes, as Ted Nguyen writes, despite the fact that Love has started just 18 NFL games. He was arguably the best quarterback in football down the stretch last year, and some of the throws he’s made have been otherworldly.
You should read Matt Schneidman’s column on the situation, which goes into much more depth than I did here. Matt does say that if this “dispute” last a few more weeks, it might be time to worry.
News to Know
LeBron’s big day
LeBron James began Monday by learning he will be one of two flag bearers for Team USA at the Olympics Opening Ceremony on Friday, becoming the first American men’s basketball player to do so. He finished the day by leading Team USA to a close 92-88 victory over Germany in its final tuneup before the Games, scoring a team-high 20 points, 11 of those in the last four minutes of the game. Again, this man is doing all this at 39 years old.
ACC commish fires back at FSU and Clemson
While the Big Ten and SEC are settling into their new conference realignment realities, the ACC — whose leading members Florida State and Clemson are suing to leave for money reasons — is still in major flux, though commissioner Jim Phillips doesn’t see it that way. Yesterday, Phillips doubled down on the conference’s position, simply stating that both schools signed the conference’s bill of rights: “Either you believe in what’s been signed, or you don’t.” Brendan Marks writes that Phillips no longer has his head in the sand on this.
More news
TV Wars: TNT starts a fight
A big update in the NBA broadcast rights saga: The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand reports that TNT, initially left out of the new rights deal, has filed to match the package given to Amazon, which represents the smallest tier of the agreement.
Two notable layers:
- In the current deal, TNT has a contractual right to match any package agreed to in the new framework. Yet Andrew reports the league is expected to decline TNT’s match and go ahead with Amazon as its new partner. Legally, it’s unclear if the NBA can do so. A court fight will be messy, and extremely awkward if TNT wins.
- TNT still has a lot going for it here, namely the giant popularity of “Inside the NBA.” David Zaslav, CEO of TNT’s parent company Warner Bros. Discovery, has talked about losing the NBA for months — but don’t think TNT is bowing out quietly. Andrew mentioned a possible financial settlement or addendum to the rights deal before it’s signed.
The fun news in all this: TNT’s match for Amazon’s package confirms the NBA will return to NBC after two decades away. Still waiting on news that “Roundball Rock” will return, though.
Women’s basketball: Team USA vs. Germany
3 p.m. ET on FS1
In the Americans’ final test before the Olympics begin, they’ll try to bounce back from the weekend’s loss to Team WNBA.
MLB: Mets at Yankees
7:05 p.m. ET on TBS
Subway Series when these two teams are actually good? Sign me up. It feels like every Juan Soto at-bat, along with the resulting fan clamor, counts twice as the Yankees try to convince him to stay in the Bronx.
Get tickets to games like these here.
Pulse Picks
A fascinating story from Dan Robson to start your day: Why the ongoing tax case of Maple Leafs center John Tavares could have a massive impact on all Canadian professional sports teams.
Diana Taurasi is in her sixth Olympics this month at age 42, which is incredible. What was she like as a rookie?
Also, make sure to bookmark this guide to the USWNT’s roster at the Olympics. First match is Thursday
Super useful: Tim Britton and Aaron Gleeman’s MLB Trade Deadline Big Board, which features the top 50 players most likely to be dealt between now and July 30.
Speaking of conference realignment: The Pac-2 and Mountain West are still far apart on merge talks. There might not be a shared future there.
Our fantasy football draft kit went live this morning. This will occupy a permanent tab in my browser.
Over at The New York Times, Jeré Longman and Oleksandr Chubko have a stunning piece on the Olympic hopeful decathlete who picked up a gun to fight in Ukraine’s war. Worth your time today.
Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: Brendan Quinn’s story on the productive time spent apart for Xander Schauffele and his father, who had been inseparable before this season.
Most-read on the website yesterday: An intriguing report from overseas about the spread of snus, a smokeless tobacco, across soccer.
Top podcast in The Athletic network: Our football podcasts have two huge interviews, which we’ll cover more tomorrow: Saquon Barkley opened up on Scoop City, while Sean McVay was great on The Athletic Football Show.
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