Good morning, all! It’s Fridayyyyyyy!
On Sunday, the Jaxson Dart era begins for the New York Giants. Expect a long afternoon. I give you my winners in Week 4 of my Picks for Kicks segment.
Here are some other thoughts as I process how MLB teams can blow big leads in the standings:
We mentioned in Thursday’s newsletter how Netflix is making a push for rivalry games, especially when it comes to football. Well, add MLB to the mix. Andrew Marchand of The Athletic is reporting that MLB’s standalone 2026 Opening Day game, Mar. 26, between the Yankees and Giants will be televised by Netflix. In other words, your YES subscription will not get you the Opening Day game. You will have to subscribe to Netflix to watch the Yankees at Giants. Hey! There’s always radio.
Sunday night’s Chiefs-Giants game on NBC brought in 25.3M viewers. Cowboys-Bears on FOX, earlier in the day, garnered 25.47M viewers.
New York Giants coach Brian Daboll, the darling of the media, when he led the team to the playoffs in his first season, has become an absolute bore. His demeanor at press conferences is unacceptable. On Wednesday he was repeatedly asked why he decided to switch quarterbacks and his answer, he would not disclose private conversations he had with Russell Wilson and Jaxson Dart, was a big time dodge. That was not the question. No one wanted to hear what Daboll told those two. They wanted an explanation why he (Daboll) decided to make the switch. The normally persistent New York media should have pressed the issue more.
Highest paid NFL coaches you ask? Well Sportico has the answer:
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic is predicting upwards of 15 MLB managers and executives could lose their jobs, after the regular season ends on Sunday.
Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Paul Skenes finishes his season with a 1.97 ERA. That is the lowest by a Pirates pitcher in the live-ball era.
No. 3 Penn St. is a 3.5-point favorite against No. 6 Oregon on Saturday in Happy Valley. Should be a fun game.
How valuable are NFL teams? The Patriots are the latest to add a private-equity investor. In this case the franchise is adding two. Private-equity firm Sixth Street is buying 3% ownership and Greek-American billionaire Dean Metropoulos is purchasing a 5% stake. The Patriots are valued at more than $9B, meaning that will be a cash influx of more than $80M for the team. The Kraft family, majority owners of the franchise, say the team is not for sale. Meanwhile, this latest move by NFL teams - the Patriots are the fourth - to sell small stakes in their team, is a great way for majority ownership to take in more cash for their highly, valued franchises, without giving up control. What a world!
That is going to do it for today’s newsletter. Thank you for subscribing!
DAN
