Wake up to the best sports story you'll hear all day. Monday through Friday, we bring you an inside look at the most interesting stories in sports, as told by ESPN's top reporters and insiders. The breaking news of SportsCenter. The deep dive storytelling of 30 for 30. Get the very best of ESPN. Daily. Hosted by Clinton Yates.
The explosion of women’s basketball over the last few years has pulled plenty of new names – and teams – into the national conversation. Among them? USC and UCLA women’s basketball teams, two programs that have spent decades living in the shadow of past legacies, to say nothing of LA’s true love, the Lakers. But now they are playing to sold out crowds with household names like JuJu Watkins and…
The American football season may now be over, but the drama in Europe’s club football season, aka soccer, is just heating up. Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City squad has been England’s most dominant club, with six home league trophies in the past seven years and a Champions League title in 2023. But this year’s campaign has been a struggle, as they sit five spots back in the English Premier League…
There was little debate about the fact that the Philadelphia Eagles were the more complete team heading into Super Bowl LIX. Better up front on defense and offense. Better at running back and wide receiver than the Kansas City Chiefs. But the Chiefs still had Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid. So the Chiefs were still dangerous. Well that proved to not be anywhere near enough, as the Eagles cruised to…
Super Bowl LIX is literally just a couple of days away, and after a long season, it’s down to the Kansas City Chiefs and the Philadelphia Eagles battling for the Lombardi Trophy…Again. Our own Ben Solak has made the trip down to New Orleans, and with so many of the people that we love to talk ball with in town alongside him, he was able to get Kevin Clark, the host of This is Football, to join him…
The Super Bowl is one of the most high attended events in the American cultural landscape every year. And New Orleans, the site of this year’s game, is a city known for letting folks have a good time. But in the wake of the New Year’s Day domestic terror attack on Bourbon Street, concerns about safety and security at the NFL’s biggest game are at an all time high. So today, ESPN investigative…
The Kansas City Chiefs may not be the offensive juggernaut they once were, but they keep raising trophies nonetheless. And though every member of this franchise would love to become the first in NFL history to win three Super Bowls in a row, their ultimate plan goes far beyond this season. So today, Adam Teicher, our man on the Chiefs beat, tells Michele Steele how the team’s unique approach to…
Last offseason, the Philadelphia Eagles were confronted with countless questions about the future of the franchise. The biggest one being just how the Birds could overcome the lingering hangover from a loss in Super Bowl XLVII and then a flameout in the playoffs the following year. But an offseason that started in chaos, ended with the signing of MVP candidate Saquon Barkley, a restructuring of…
On Saturday night, the sports world got hit with the news of the Dallas Mavericks’ shocking decision to trade superstar Luka Dončić, as well as Maxi Kleber and Markieff Morris to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis, Max Christie and their 2029 first-round draft pick. Senior ESPN NBA writer Tim Bontemps joins host Clinton Yates to discuss the Mavericks’ motives and the long history of Lakers…
It goes without saying that January is a high stakes time of year for the football world, and this year, that was more true than ever. The first 12-team College Football playoff brought us three compelling rounds, mirroring the NFL’s own longtime playoff tradition. We of course covered all of it on ESPN Daily. But there are often other stories, or different angles on stories, that we don't always…
If there’s one name to know in men’s college basketball this season, it’s probably Cooper Flagg. The nation’s number one recruit is playing in his freshman season at Duke, and living up to all of the hype. But his college career is about to experience a new chapter on Saturday, when Flagg and the Blue Devils host North Carolina on ESPN. Jay Bilas, the voice of college basketball at ESPN, joins the…
When the lights go down at recess at KIPP AMP Middle School in Brooklyn, it’s not time to zone out or to take a nap. It’s showtime. It’s time for The Wrestling Club. Founded by an innovative teacher looking to connect with his students during the pandemic, this club turns watching pro wrestling inside out to teach students about storytelling, conflict resolution, inclusion and more. And it doesn’t…
For years, the NFL has been trying to make the hiring of people of color in leadership positions a more fair and more equitable process. Through initiatives like accelerator programs meant to introduce prospects to owners and other people with hiring ability, alongside the widely controversial Rooney Rule which literally mandates that people of all backgrounds get interviews, the league has been…
Super Bowl LIX is set. The Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs will meet in New Orleans, for a rematch of Super Bowl LII. Patrick Mahomes, Andy Reid, Travis Kelce and the rest set their sights on becoming the first NFL team to ever win three consecutive titles, while Saquon Barkley looks to put a championship stamp on an MVP-level first season in Philadelphia. But before we set our sights…
The championship round is upon us. Sunday, in the AFC, the Buffalo Bills travel to Kansas City for another showdown with the Chiefs –– their fourth playoff date in five years. And in the NFC, the upstart Washington Commanders will try to knock off Saquon Barkley and the Philadelphia Eagles. It’s all for the right to play in Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans. So today, Bill Barnwell breaks down these…
The National Baseball Hall of Fame announced its latest class of enshrinees on Tuesday evening. Ichiro Suzuki, CC Sabathia, and Billy Wagner, will join Dick Allen and Dave Parker in the MLB Hall of Fame Class of 2024. But as those stars are enshrined in Cooperstown, we remember a baseball legend we lost recently. RIcky Henderson passed away on December 20th, at 65 years of age, just days before…
When Jimmy Butler arrived in Miami in 2019, the initial thought was that this was a perfect marriage. You had a fanatically driven, yet volatile, All Star linking up with a celebrated NBA institution, better known as Heat Culture. And with two NBA Finals appearances in four years, everything was going as planned. But then stories of special treatment and feelings of disrespect started to bubble to…
Last night, we saw a champion crowned in college football. Ryan Day and the Ohio State Buckeyes got the proverbial monkey off their backs with a clutch performance over Notre Dame. And there to witness it all, live and in person, were our friends from the College Gameday podcast, Rece Davis and Pete Thamel. So today, we’re turning our show over to Rece and Pete, plus special guest Harry Lyles Jr.,…
For college football blue bloodsNotre Dame and Ohio State, the realities of modern big time college football are a whole new ball game. As NIL deals and the transfer portal give players more control over their careers than ever, and big money collectives blur the lines between amateur and professional athletics, the Buckeyes and Irish need to balance the new against decades of tradition. The…
For many people, the NFL’s divisional round is the most exciting weekend of football on the calendar all year long. Eight teams, four games, with trips to the conference championships on the line. And this year’s matchups are bangers. Whether it’s an MVP showdown between Lamar Jackson and Josh Allen, or the dynamic Jayden Daniels vying for an upset of the Lions in Motor City, or Saquon Barkley…
As the NFL season comes to a close, some teams are scrambling to find new coaches, kicking off the frenzy known as the NFL coaching carousel. ESPN NFL Insider Dan Graziano joins ESPN Daily’s own NFL expert Michele Steele to analyze the Patriots’ signing of Mike Vrabel, and look at some of the other choices that are more up in the air. Could these meetings between Jerry Jones and Deion Sanders land…
When Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors won 12 of their first 15 games this season, it seemed they might have solved what's ailed them the past few years. But in the ensuing weeks and months, wins have been exceedingly hard to come by, and with Curry playing fewer minutes than ever. Warriors fans are growing increasingly restless. So with Golden State taking the national TV stage against…
This weekend marks the debut of The Unrivaled, an ambitious 3-on-3 women’s basketball league loaded with WNBA talent. This new venture has spared no expense to build their cutting edge venue in Miami. And thanks to a series of A-List investors, these athletes will have every amenity they could ever ask for. But what happens when these players finally take the court? Will the players buy in? And…
The NFL playoffs are underway, and aside from tonight’s Monday Night Football clash between the Los Angeles Rams and Minnesota Vikings, we know who is moving on. But before next week’s divisional round matchups suck up all of the air in the room, ESPN sports analytics writer Seth Walder and Ben Solak breakdown how the winners punched their tickets to the next round. Before previewing tonight’s…
The NFL playoffs are set to begin tomorrow. 14 teams still have a chance at lifting the Lombardi Trophy in a few weeks, some with better odds than others. But it all starts with the Wild Card round. Six games over three days to determine who will move on. So before the action kicks off our old friend Mina Kimes breaks down each matchup with host Michele Steele to make sure that you know everything…
New Year’s Day’s Peach Bowl brought us an all-time classic, as Arizona State’s Cam Skattebo grew his legend, helping the Sun Devils to storm back in the 4th quarter, only to fall short against Texas in double-overtime. Beyond that, there hasn't been much drama in this inaugural twelve team College Football Playoff. But with two compelling matchups Thursday and Friday, that may be about to change.…
It’s no secret that times are hard for fans of Chicago sports. The White Sox, Cubs, Bulls, and Bears are all in the midst of middling, or worse, performance in recent years. And the same is true of the team that used to be the reliable winner, the Blackhawks. When they drafted generational prospect Connor Bedard first overall in the 2023 NHL draft, the future appeared to be bright. An idea…
Every year the NBA Draft produces a crop of rookies that are full of expectations. And some are stamped with labels like “can’t miss” or “generational”. But where their careers go from there aren’t always inline with the guarantees they come into the league with. So today we talk with veteran NBA reporters Tim MacMahon and Michael Wright about two of the most recent prospects to have been deemed…
The NFL regular season has come to a close. And the league saved the best for last, with the hunt for the NFC’s one seed coming down to a Sunday night matchup between the Detroit Lions and Minnesota Vikings. So with all of the byes determined, and playoff pairings set - Ben Solak and Michele Steele explore how the 14 playoff teams locked down their spots, and what the offseason holds in store for…
As we settle into the new year, the phrase “deer in headlights” feels like an apt description for the state many members of “sports Twitter” currently find themselves in. More than two years after Elon Musk took over Twitter, now known as X, the platform has become an increasingly unpleasant space for sports conversations. While many users have already migrated to other platforms like Threads and…
The sports world is transforming in 2025, with new rule changes, new playoffs formats, and many other innovations across the landscape. So we brought on some of our favorite regular guests — Katie Barnes, Bill Barnwell, Elle Duncan, Luis Miguel Echegaray, Andreas Hale, Ryan McGee, Jeff Passan — and Clinton Yates, who will be back in the host’s chair later this month, to tell us not only what…
On September 26th, 2024, the Athletics played their final game ever in Oakland, the city they’ve called home for 57 years. As friend of the show Jeff Passan wrote, baseball in the East Bay was “killed by greed… John Fisher did not have to move this team… This was a choice. A wrong one. History will sneer.” For the conclusion of our Death of a Sports Town series, we trekked to the Oakland Coliseum…
In covering Oakland’s unraveling as a big time sports town, we’ve documented the greed, the loss, the dubious decisions, and the rich sports community soon to be left behind. But we’ve yet to fully examine the most pertinent question of all––does the Athletics planned move to Las Vegas make any sense at all? Today, in part four of our series Death of a Sports Town, we take stock of why the A’s…
The loss of three professional sports teams in five years has thrust Oakland into the media spotlight, with coverage focusing on every twist, turn, stadium proposal, and relocation rumor. But amid all that noise, a central experience has been overshadowed: the story of the fans. In part three of our series, Death of a Sports Town, we turn our attention to the diehard Oakland sports fans who refuse…
Any time a franchise owner threatens to leave a city, the pressure and scrutiny on civic leaders intensifies. But in Oakland, a parallel story emerged—a group of activist fans who refused to let the Athletics go quietly. In the second part of our series, Death of a Sports Town, we examine the three men who led the Warriors, Raiders, and Athletics away from “the Town,” the reasons behind their…
On the afternoon of September 26th, the Oakland Athletics played the Texas Rangers in their final game ever in the city they’ve called home for 57 seasons. Following the lead of the Warriors and Raiders, they are the third major sports franchise to leave the city in just five years. This exodus is the culmination of decades of decisions, negotiations and missteps. And now, Oakland is no longer a…
It’s one of the most infamous fan stories in sports history: when Eagles fans booed Santa at halftime of a game played at Franklin Field. But who was the Santa in question - and why was he booed and pelted with snowballs? It’s ESPN Daily’s Christmas tradition to bring you this episode, so hear an encore with Jeremy Schaap and Mina Kimes as they reflect on the enduring legacy of the Philadelphia…
By the time the end of the year rolls around, it’s easy to forget what has gone down in the previous 365-ish days. A story that felt like the center of the world in February, is lost to the passing of time as winter turns to spring turns to summer turns to fall turns to winter. But don’t fear, because today Michele Steele, David Dennis Jr., and Greg Wyshysnki hand out their awards for the biggest…
As the NFL season heads into its final few weeks, the jockeying for playoff position is getting more intense. There are three teams grouped at the top of the NFC, and with the Lions and Vikings poised to face off in week 18, and the Eagles coming off a tough loss in Washington on Sunday, it looks like the road through the NFC could run through the north. Meanwhile in the AFC, the Chiefs and Bills…
After months of games, upsets, rankings, arguments and prognostications – the College Football Playoff is finally here. And tonight the race for the national championship starts in earnest in the heart of college football: Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana. That showdown between Indiana and Notre Dame is just an appetizer for a full meal of games this weekend that could somehow create more…
The 1970s were a tough decade for the New York Jets. After winning the Super Bowl in 1969, they quickly became the laughing stock in the NFL, unable to post a single winning season throughout the decade. But in 1981, four promising young defensive lineman changed everything. Mark Gastineau, Adbul Salaam, Marty Lyons and Joe Klecko became such a prolific force on the Jets defense that they earned…
It's hard to believe that Indiana, which has lost more college football games than any other FBS program, has earned a spot in the inaugural twelve team college football playoff. And no matter what happens in their instate showdown with Notre Dame Friday night, it's already been a dream season for head coach Curt Cignetti and the Hoosiers. A decade ago, Cignetti made a risky bet on himself, moving…
It started out as a rumor — one that most people thought was a joke — but now it’s all very, very real: Bill Belichick is the new head coach of the University of North Carolina football team. Just what would make someone with eight Super Bowl rings decide that an ACC afterthought should be the next stop in his career? And while many people could argue that the transfer portal and NIL deals are…
After 15 weeks of NFL football, the playoff picture is becoming more clear. But almost as important as who is going to get in, is how they are going to get there. We saw both the Kansas City Chiefs and Seattle Seahawks finish their games with questions about the health of their signal callers. While in Detroit, the Lions, already seriously injured on defense, suffered through more pain in a loss…
Few rivalries are as bitter as the ones that exist between two teams in one city. Ask New York Mets fans and New York Yankees fans, where the hatred can divide households. Or Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox fans whose team alliances mix with the pride in their neighborhoods. While out west, Los Angeles Lakers fans play the big brother, to their neglected stepsiblings, Los Angeles Clippers fans.…
In 2008, Lisa Salters reported an E60 documentary called Blood Brothers about the family of former NBA star Carlos Boozer and their quest to save their son, Carmani, from sickle cell disease. But it turns out that journey was just the tip of the iceberg, because in April of this year — 16 years later — Blood Brothers was back on for a very different reason. ESPN NBA Draft Analyst Jonathan Givony…
The field for the College Football Playoff is set and with a new expanded 12-team format, this looks to be the most exciting path to the title that we have ever seen. And as we are quickly reminded, no matter how big the playoff bracket gets, someone is always going to be left out, and that someone is always going to have something to say about it. But what about those other 36 bowls? The ones…
The Emirates NBA Cup is now in year two and we're all still trying to feel out what place it will take in the league’s attention economy. But one thing is clear –– nearly everyone is thrilled to have some bigger stakes on the table this early in the NBA season. Are the Oklahoma City Thunder ready to avenge their playoff elimination against the Dallas Mavericks? Can the New York Knicks prove their…
14 weeks into the 2024 NFL season, and the playoff picture is starting to come into focus. The Kansas City Chiefs, Buffalo Bills, Detroit Lions, and Philadelphia Eagles are in. And both the Minnesota Vikings and Pittsburgh Steelers are sure to punch their tickets to the postseason soon. In the NFC, the competition for the rest of the landscape is fierce, while in the AFC, all but one of the teams…
The 2024 Formula 1 season wraps up this weekend in Abu Dhabi and in many ways nothing is different, but at the same time, everything has changed. First off, you have Max Verstappen. The Dutch driver wrapped up his fourth straight title a couple weeks ago. But his team, Red Bull, has somehow fallen off the map. And now legendary names like McClaren and Ferrari – who haven’t won a team title in…
In recent years MLB’s Hot Stove has been kind of lukewarm. Even with big ticket free agents on the market, the pursuit of free agents dragged well into the New Year each winter. But ESPN’s Jeff Passan tells today’s host, David Dennis Jr., that won’t be the case with Juan Soto this offseason. The transcendent lefty slugger has virtually every big market owner chasing after him with a blank…