This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.
Good morning, Winners! Today, I am a loser. Or, a tie-er, I guess? I don’t know if that’s a thing. But I certainly feel like a loser today.
Somehow, despite my fantasy football league employing fractional scoring to prevent this sort of thing from happening, my weekly fantasy football matchup ended in a tie.
A TIE. This is unbelievable. The number 124.04 is the stuff of nightmares.
I’m Thee Green Bubble. My opponent is Pitts and Giggles. Somehow, we managed to tie. So why does it feel like everyone here lost? Me. My guy. The Saints. We all just had an awful night.
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WELL, ACTUALLY: The Chiefs had fun, at least. Xavier Worthy had himself a GAME.
When the Saints got the ball back against the Chiefs with about three minutes left, I knew my matchup was on the line. I had Alvin Kamara. My opponent had Chris Olave. All I needed was a catch, a run, or literally any sort of positive play from Kamara to pull ahead. I also needed Olave to be inexplicably quiet the entire drive, which, thankfully, he did exactly that.
So, there I sat, on pins and needles, hoping for literally anything. What did I get? Three targets. Zero catches. Everything was just out of his reach. Kamara ended with 12.6 points. Olave ended with 3.0.
I’m not mad at Kamara. I’m not mad at Derek Carr (who I hope is actually OK after getting injured on Monday!). Mostly, I’m mad at myself. This is my fault. I deserve this for two reasons.
The first one is simple: I had DJ Moore on my bench. That’s, like, 27 points right there. I wouldn’t have been sweating this if I’d trusted my gut and played him over Diontae Johnson. But I’m an idiot so I did not.
The second reason I deserve this is more existential. I broke my own rule and played fantasy football in the first place.
Let me tell you guys something. Normally, I don’t play fantasy football. Why, you ask? Read the headline. Because it is evil and you should never play it. So I don’t.
It always tricks you, man. You feel great after a couple of weeks, sure. You check your record and you’re 2-0. Great! Nice work. Next thing you know, you’ve dropped two straight games. Your entire bench is injured and you’re somehow getting the short end of the stick in the waiver wire. And, now look, you’ve tied a game you absolutely should’ve won. What a numbskull.
Whoops. That got deeply personal.
My group chat created the Green Bubble league and I basically had to participate because I am THEE Green Bubble as the lone Android user in our chat (hence, the name. Yes, I’m that guy). There was no way I could skip this one.
Clearly, that was a mistake. A mistake I will never make again. Maybe I’ll finally buy an iPhone to avoid this in the future.
Well, that is, unless you’re rooting for one of these teams. If that’s the case, you’re probably not having a very good time right now.
But, as for the rest of us, this is awesome. After the Royals and Tigers’ underdog wins in their respective games on Monday, every league division series is tied 1-1 for the very first time in Major League Baseball history, according to MLB Network.
Baseball has been around for a really, really, really long time. It’s always shocking when stuff like this happens for the first time. It feels like something that should probably have happened before — especially considering how many MLB playoff upsets we’ve gotten in recent years. You’d think 1-1 ties across the board would be fairly common.
There’s drama is stewing:
— The beef between the Padres and Dodgers got even beefier with Dave Roberts seemingly accusing Manny Machado of throwing a ball at him.
— Jazz Chisolm and the Yankees are brushing off the Royals win. He said they “got lucky.” Lucky! That’s bulletin board material.
— Tarik Skubal is also talking trash to Guardians fans now, too, which I’m sure will go over extremely well.
October is the gift that keeps on giving. We love to see it.
Remember when folks were (reasonably!) wondering if Travis Kelce was cooked? Seems like he’s found his groove recently.
He still doesn’t have any touchdowns on the season, but he’s totaled 16 receptions and 159 yards in the last couple of games. Those numbers aren’t huge, but are a bit closer to what we’re used to from him.
You also know he’s back because he’s just out there trying stuff. He lateralled the ball on a 3rd-and-22 on Monday Night Football that Patrick Mahomes said was completely improvised.
Here’s Mahomes talking about it:
“I told him before the play — I said, ‘I’m [going to] throw it to you. So, we can get in field goal range.’ And he underhand shoveled it across the the entire field…”
“It’s like I’m talking to, like, Sterling…That’s Travis, man. He’s a special player. [As] long as he does it and it works, man, no one’s going to say anything.”
This guy, man. That’s so fun. Glad to see he’s still got a bit of juice left in him.
READ MORE:Meg Hall has more on the full play here.
— Here’s Tyler Netunno with winners and losers from CFB Week 6, including Kalen DeBoer getting flamed by Bama fans.
— Bob Costas’ energy on this Yankees’ double play is getting him roasted by MLB fans. Charles Curtis has more.
— We’ve got Week 6 NFL Power Rankings from Robert Zeglinski and Christian D’Andrea here.
— Here’s Mary Clarke with her first NHL Power Rankings of the season.
— Prince Grimes has Week 6 betting lines for this NFL season.
— Taylor Swift looked like she had a blast at the MNF game. Caroline Darney has more.
That’s a wrap, folks. Thanks so much for reading today. We appreciate you. Have a fantastic Tuesday. Peace.
-Sykes ✌️
