Yankees forced a winner-take-all Game 3 with a tight win in the Bronx.
Thursday’s Game 3 victor faces the Toronto Blue Jays in the ALDS.
Boston has won the last three postseason series between the teams: 2021, 2018 and 2004.

NEW YORK – Let’s be honest: Nobody swings a whiffle bat in their backyard, mimicking the roar of the crowd and imagining not that it’s Game 7 of the World Series, but rather …

Game 3 of the American League wild card series?

Still, it is the Boston Red Sox vs. the New York Yankees in a winner-take-all game, the circumstances just like Game 7s in the epic 2003 and 2004 American League Championship Series, even if the stakes are far lesser.

The winner gets a trip to Toronto to face the Blue Jays in the AL Division Series.

The loser goes home, making the winter all the more bitter for fans already despondent a promising season came to an end, let alone at the hands of Those Guys.

And after the Red Sox stole Game 1 with a seventh-inning rally, the Yankees broke back to win Game 2 4-3, square the series 1-1 and, they believe, seize the momentum before some 48,000 bipartisan supporters cram into Yankee Stadium one more time Oct. 2.

“We’re at home,” says Yankees reliever Fernando Cruz, who bailed out starter Carlos Rodón and escaped a bases-loaded, seventh inning situation in Game 2.

“We are at Yankee Stadium, the Castle, and it’s time to go.’

And it’s not just any old elimination loss when it’s Yankees-Red Sox. The ramifications run deeper for all the parties, from manager to reliever to superstar. With that, let’s break down the six people with the most at stake when Game 3 jumps off in the Bronx:

Aaron Boone

Look, it’s just part of the deal.

Life as Yankees manager is an absurd existence, knowing that the game’s capricious nature takes so much out of your control, yet you have to play along and mollify the fans and media demanding grim repentance after every setback.

So it was in Game 1, when Boone caught some moderate heat for lifting starter Max Fried in the seventh inning – at worst, a 50-50 call – and keeping red-hot Ben Rice on the bench against Boston ace lefty Garrett Crochet.

The worm turned in Game 2, when Boone hooked Rodón perhaps a little too late but got away with it when Cruz clutched up in relief, and Devin Williams backed it up with a sterling eighth inning to set up closer David Bednar.

And so the binary outcome returns for Game 3: Capable Custodian or Idiot. The rest of us can simply enjoy some good ball.

“Look, it has been two great games,” says Boone, who is 0-2 against counterpart Alex Cora in postseason situations, losing the 2018 ALDS 3-1 and the 2021 wild card game.

“I think both sides have played really well. So look forward to tomorrow and, you know, try and move on.”

Or hear about it.

Aaron Judge

When you’re the captain and resident face of the game’s most valuable franchise, any year that ends without a championship is another missed opportunity. And while Judge has again produced an MVP-worthy season, those chances are getting slimmer.

He’ll be 34 in April, and while this mini-series hasn’t harmed his rep – he had an RBI single in Game 2 and a ninth-inning knock to set up a near-miracle rally in Game 1 – it wouldn’t hurt if he had a vaster October canvas with which to paint.

At the least, he and the Yankees are still alive, perhaps with momentum on their side.

“I know we lost the first game but the boys in here are ready to go,” says Judge. “ The energy is the same. We can’t wait to get tomorrow’s game started.

“We were hoping to play at 12 to get this thing rolling.”

Soon enough, big fella.

Jazz Chisholm

This was the year Chisholm married his charisma and buzz factor with brilliance: Just the third player in Yankee history to produce a 30-30 season, fully justifying his position in the baseball zeitgeist.

Then he was benched for Game 1, and perhaps was a little too upset about it.

Chisholm’s brooding after the Game 1 loss was a mild talking point before Game 2, and then the second baseman saved the Yankees’ season – first with a diving stop on a potential go-ahead hit by Masataka Yoshida in the seventh, and then a thrilling trip from first to home on a single that banged off the side wall in short right field to score the eventual winning run in the bottom of the eighth.

Another win in Game 3, and there’s still a chance this  turns into Jazztober.

“After I left the field yesterday, it is win the next game. It is win or go home for us,” says Chisholm. “It is all about winning.”

Alex Bregman

What a first season for Bregman in Boston, leading the Red Sox back to the postseason for the first time since 2021, peppering the Fenway Park wall for an .821 OPS and lending his gravitas to a young clubhouse.

What a last season for Bregman in Boston?

That’s a question to be answered come wintertime, when Bregman figures to opt out of the final two years of a $120 million contract and test the market. He’ll be unencumbered by draft pick compensation, and should find his forever home, for sure.

And while his nearly decade-long track record is more than enough for clubs to pore over, deep October runs have a way of jacking up the price tag on boutique players. It would not hurt his cause if this month turned into a Bregman infomercial.

But first – Game 3.

“This is what baseball is all about – two great teams competing, unbelievable atmosphere. Looking forward to tomorrow,” he said after Game 2, putting on his Brevity Breggy, rather than Brash Breggy face. “Just be aggressive. Be yourself. Trust yourself. Prepare and compete and go out and try to execute.”

Alex Cora

Sure, he’s got that championship ring and an 18-9 record and the apparently unconditional trust of the brass in Boston. But Cora’s genius might take a mild hit if the Red Sox become the first team in the four-year history of this format to lose a Game 3 after winning Game 1 (the Cubs and Tigers will have first crack at that ignominious title earlier in the day).

Cora was his typically hyperaggressive playoff self in Game 2, yanking starter Brayan Bello after just 2 ⅓ innings and 28 pitches. A bullpen relay to Toronto, then.

They almost pulled it off, at least until elite set-up man Garrett Whitlock got struck by lightning in his second inning of work: A two-out walk to Chisholm and Wells’ single to win it.

Hey, they all can’t be masterpieces.

“We are all in,” says Cora of stretching Whitlock to two innings, perhaps rendering him unavailable for Game 3. “He is one of the best pitchers. We were doing everything possible to get to, you know, the top of the ninth with a tie game.”

Jarren Duran

Technically, Duran was not charged with an error on Judge’s fifth-inning fly to left that he came in on, dove for and then, simply, dropped. Catching it would’ve ended the inning, kept the score tied 2-2, and Trevor Story’s homer the next inning would’ve given Boston the lead, rather than tie it.

The final four innings had enough drama that Duran’s semi-muff got largely forgotten. Duran will have a lot more trouble turning the page.

“This one’s going to sting a little bit. I know this game is 100% on me,” says Duran. “Trevor hits the homer, we take the lead. I messed it up, gave them momentum. But that one’s on me. I’m going to have to wear that one.

“I’m excited to play tomorrow and redeem myself.”

Or else the winter might be a bit longer.

Baseball enjoyers have a big day on tap Thursday, Oct. 2 with a tripleheader of winner-take-all games set to decide Major League Baseball’s wild card series.

The Los Angeles Dodgers’ swept the Cincinnati Reds, but all the other best-of-three series were pushed to the limit on Wednesday. Things get underway at 3 p.m. ET with the Cleveland Guardians hosting the Detroit Tigers. The Chicago Cubs and San Diego Padres face off at Wrigley Field at 6 p.m. ET and then the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox clash in the nightcap.

The winners advance to the best-of-five Division Series, which begin on Saturday.

Here’s how USA TODAY Sports’ MLB experts see the winner-take-all games playing out:

Guardians vs Tigers prediction

Bob Nightengale: Guardians 4, Tigers 2
Gabe Lacques: Tigers 4, Guardians 2
Jesse Yomtov: Guardians 5, Tigers 3

Cubs vs Padres prediction

Bob Nightengale: Cubs 5, Padres 3
Gabe Lacques: Padres 7, Cubs 4
Jesse Yomtov: Padres 6, Cubs 3

Yankees vs Red Sox prediction

Bob Nightengale: Yankees 5, Red Sox 4
Gabe Lacques: Red Sox 5, Yankees 3
Jesse Yomtov: Red Sox 7, Yankees 2

MLB playoff bracket

A new book argues that Pat Summerall and John Madden were the greatest NFL broadcast duo of all time.
Summerall and Madden worked together for 21 years, first at CBS and later at FOX.
The book highlights how Madden, a former Super Bowl-winning coach, became a beloved football teacher for the nation.

Pat Summerall and John Madden, the greatest NFL broadcast duo to ever do it. 

That’s what author Rich Podolsky argues in his new book, “Madden & Summerall: How They Revolutionized NFL Broadcasting” (Lyons Press, hardcover $32.95). 

Over 21 years, Madden and Summerall became the voice of the NFL, from their early days together at CBS in the 1980s to their joint transition to FOX in 1994 until 2001. 

The next year debuted the broadcast pairing of Joe Buck and Tory Aikman (Cris Collinsworth was there, too) on FOX, and together Buck and Aikman became the modern-day version of Summerall and Madden for new NFL fans. 

With this being their 24th season under their belt, they are the longest-serving television duo to call the NFL.

Buck and Aikman wrote the dual forewords of Podolsky’s book – Aikman honored Madden, while Buck wrote about Summerall, mirroring the roles they hold in their respective books. And like Madden and Summerall went to FOX together, Buck and Aikman arrived at ESPN in a package deal. 

By bringing in Buck and Aikman, Disney solved its problem of a struggling “MNF” booth in one fell swoop and the move allowed the NFL to bring the company back into its Super Bowl rotation; ESPN and ABC have Super Bowl 61 in 2027, and Aikman and Buck will be on the call. 

Best NFL TV pairings ever? Madden, Summerall might be No. 1

What’s interesting about Madden’s rise is that it was one of those “gradually, then suddenly” deals. After his early retirement from coaching, which included a Super Bowl title with the Oakland Raiders, Madden agreed to call five games in 1979. He hadn’t been anointed as some superstar announcer before he entered the booth (although the cottage industry that traffic in sports media coverage was not yet as robust). But after a few games, it became clear of his potential, hence the tryout between Summerall and Vin Scully to be Madden’s full-time partner.

Summerall’s backstory as a player who was a defensive end and kicker and his transition to being a full-time radio man in New York in the 1960s is well-chronicled. The book does a good job of making the breakup of the Tom Brookshier-Summerall partnership the big deal it was at the time. The duo’s partying had irked CBS executives, the book details, with their nights on the town reaching levels of “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” according to the Philadelphia Inquirer. That opened the seat next to Summerall, which Madden filled for 21 years. 

An ideal booth pairing is capable of playing off one another. Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth excel at this, and their call of the tie between the Dallas Cowboys and Green Bay Packers on Sunday was a perfect example. Even though both were talking as the frenetic final throw from Jordan Love occurred, they managed to play off one another. 

And that’s the magic Summerall and Madden had. It didn’t take a book to be written for the world to know that he said a lot without saying much. The style paired perfectly with Madden, who could go on his tangents and lean into his teaching. Often, Podolsky notes, Summerall could lead Madden down the desired path with a simple “Yes?” or “Really?” 

Aikman and Buck have worked together enough to achieve a similar level of shared-brain broadcasting.

The best TV partnerships are more fortuitous than manufactured. Look at Ian Eagle and JJ Watt currently on CBS. Buck and Aikman had met only once before they started working together. FOX doesn’t have to look far for what Burkhardt and Greg Olsen had, but it’s worth noting that pairing benefited from the good fortune that the two had known each other for decades. 

The tales of Madden essentially saving his job at a luncheon for advertising executives the week of the Super Bowl and how he reluctantly entered the business – although his dissatisfaction with the announcers piqued his interest in the gig – were amusing.

Madden is known beyond the broadcasting booth. The video game franchise. The turducken. The All-Madden team. The Madden Mobile. But the main idea the book conveys about Madden is that he was the nation’s foremost football teacher. The professorial nature has been marred by the Frank Caliendo impersonation that influences the modern generation, but the level to which film breakdowns have become popular starts with Madden bringing it mainstream on TV. 

Another interesting note was how those who worked on Madden-Summerall broadcasts now call shots for the biggest games and still affect how we consume the NFL. Richie Zyontz, for example, is now FOX’s lead game producer for the NFL and works on a weekly basis with Brady and Burkhardt – he started as a CBS security guard before breaking into the production truck. 

The fingerprints of both Madden and Summerall remain all over NFL television broadcasts.

Paul Finebaum says he’s thinking about running for U.S. Senate seat in Alabama as a Republican.
Finebaum, a college football media personality, earns attention for his hot takes, but he’s also a proven listener.
Finebaum’s ability to make people feel heard could be a trump card in a political campaign.

Paul Finebaum’s hot takes are legendary, but they are not his super skill. Nor is it his quick-wittedness that could give Judge Judy a run for her money.

Finebaum’s ability to listen and make people feel heard helped him turn a Birmingham sports radio show into a national brand with a dedicated audience. With Finebaum’s devotees serving as the show’s life blood, Finebaum’s celebrity grew throughout Alabama and across the Southeast before finally his show became national TV on the SEC Network.

Finebaum’s craziest callers are like fable brought to life. One caller infamously admitted, live on air, to committing the felonious act of poisoning the Toomer’s Corner trees at Auburn. He was prosecuted for his crimes.

The epic calls, though, overshadow that Finebaum’s four-hour talk show, at its core, is a town hall where college football fans gather and say their piece. Callers opine and debate. They mourn and they yearn. They joke and they jab. And they do it all while talking to a host they know will listen. (And, sure, he might respond sarcastically, but he’ll listen first.)

So, I didn’t laugh or roll my eyes when Finebaum revealed this week to OutKick’s Clay Travis he’s considering entering the race for the U.S. Senate seat opening in Alabama.

We need more elected officials like Finebaum — who are just as capable at mediating and making people feel heard as they are at bloviating.

We’d be better served if our politicians spent a little more time listening and a little less time rehearsing their next takedown for social media, in hopes of farming engagement and pitting the audience against one another.

Paul Finebaum, the great unifier?

Seems so many of our politicians’ super skill is fomenting anger and divisiveness. Finebaum brings enemies — Alabama and Auburn fans — together on one show.

Finebaum would run as a Republican and join what’s already a crowded GOP primary. Tommy Tuberville’s Senate seat is opening, as Tuberville runs for governor. Finebaum told OutKick he’d like to decide within the next 45 days whether he’s going to run. At age 70, he’s almost old enough to be eligible for elected office. (That’s a joke.)

Finebaum’s adept at turning up the heat — Lane Kiffin still maintains Finebaum’s rebuke on “College GameDay” in 2013 got Kiffin fired at Southern California — but he also knows when to dial down the temperature and mediate conflict.

When COVID harpooned our sense of normalcy in 2020, Finebaum’s show became therapeutic for callers and listeners who were struggling, with the joy and distraction of sports removed and our way of life altered.

Throughout that tumultuous time, one sense of normalcy remained, at least: People could call and talk to Paul.

Paul Finebaum calls potential pivot into politics ‘very intriguing’

In the spirit of disclosure, I’m a regular guest on Finebaum’s show. I contacted him this week to see if he’d be willing to discuss this potential pivot into politics, but he declined.

Finebaum told OutKick, in a wide-ranging interview, he considers the Senate opportunity “very intriguing” and he’s “thinking about it constantly.”

Finebaum remains a smooth operator in the media space. Even as podcasts grow in popularity and show hosts operate in monologue form or steer alongside a co-host, Finebaum keeps giving listeners a voice. He’s a throwback, still taking phone call after phone call.

Finebaum could host his show and make his television appearances for several more years and ride off into the sunset, but I wonder if he’s maybe a little bored with sports and a bit weary of his circuit on the SEC Network and ESPN.

I mean, once you’ve climbed out of a casket during a pregame skit, what stunts are left to pull? How many times can he appear on ESPN to discuss the latest minutiae surrounding Arch Manning, before professional fatigue sets in?

Several years back, Finebaum talked with television executives about a potential sitcom based on his life as a sports media personality. COVID hit, and the show never materialized.

Finebaum grew up in Memphis and majored in political science at Tennessee, and he’s said throughout his career he’s more likely to be found watching news channels than sports shows. He’s a man of varied interests, the Jewish son of two liberal New Yorkers (his words). Perhaps, that made for an unlikely rise to the “Mouth of the South” pulpit, but Finebaum spoke the language of Southerners. Fire everybody!

Also, he listened. That’s a super skill for a talk show host, and a quality we need more of in Washington.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s senior national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.

Reprehensible as her comments to Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier were, they aren’t what’s going to cost Cathy Engelbert her job as WNBA commissioner.

A commissioner’s main responsibility is to handle the messy stuff so owners don’t have to, and make sure the money keeps rolling in. Why do you think NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has lasted for as long as he has? It’s not because of his wit and charm.

Engelbert, however, has done the exact opposite. She’s created multiple messes herself and, in the process, alienated the players. That ineptitude is likely going to cause a labor stoppage right as the WNBA is taking off, putting a clamp on the profit spigot.

How are owners, many of whom have spent multiple millions keeping their teams and the league afloat, going to react when their long-awaited payday is delayed because Engelbert is incapable of reading a room? How are the folks who just spent $250 million each for expansion franchises going to feel when the league’s growth stagnates because Engelbert underestimated the savvy and resolve of the players?

What will NBA commissioner Adam Silver, who shares responsibility for this dumpster fire, think when he’s watching a rival league thrive while the WNBA is still trying to get out of its own way?

“We have the best players in the world, we have the best fans in the world, but right now we have the worst leadership in the world,’ Collier said in a prepared statement on Tuesday.

‘The real threat to our league isn’t money, it isn’t ratings or even missed calls or even physical play. It’s the lack of accountability from the league office.’

Collier made it clear her teardown of Engelbert wasn’t sour grapes because the top-seeded Lynx lost in the semifinals or even because she got hurt in Game 3 on Friday night. She and other WNBA players have been keeping receipts for months — years, really — and with the current collective bargaining agreement expiring at the end of the month, it’s time to bring them.

There is Engelbert’s tone-deafness on the racism and misogyny that underpins the “rivalry” between Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese and the toxicity its’s spread to the entire league. There is Engelbert and the league being woefully unprepared for the arrival of Clark, Reese and Paige Bueckers, players who were already multimillionaires and household names when they were still in college.

There’s Engelbert’s complete indifference to the game’s growing physicality and the trash officiating that enables it. Her incomprehension of the players’ value and their role in the skyrocketing interest in the league. Her ham-handed handling of the sale of the Connecticut Sun.

And while Engelbert’s choice to wear a New York City-themed dress to last year’s deciding Game 5 of the WNBA Finals, when the New York Liberty were one of the teams playing in those Finals, might seem like a minor faux pas, it just spotlights how out of touch she is.

“I have tried to have these conversations in private, but it’s clear there is no intention of accepting there’s a problem,’ Collier said. ‘The league has made it clear it isn’t about innovation, it isn’t about collaboration. It’s about control and power.’

But Engelbert, and Silver, are making a gross miscalculation.

Business professors could devote an entire semester to the leagues and organizations that paid a price for underestimating women athletes.

The NCAA is still being, rightfully, scorned for short-changing the women’s basketball tournament. U.S. Soccer’s then-president was forced to resign after the federation thought belittling the four-time World Cup champions was a good way to resolve an equal pay lawsuit by the U.S. women’s national team. The PWHL exists while several other professional hockey leagues are in the dust bin of history because the best women’s players refused to accept substandard conditions.

I could go on.

The point is, Collier and other WNBA players not only know their value, they know how to protect it. Engelbert, and Silver, don’t seem to recognize the days of women being grateful for anything, let alone the respect and compensation they have earned, are over.

The sponsors, the merch deals, even the fat new media rights deals — those didn’t come about because Engelbert is a terrific commissioner or a savvy dealmaker. (That $200 million a year the league will get beginning next season already looks like a steal.) The league is now a goldmine because of its players, a fact underscored by the wild success of Unrivaled, the offseason 3-on-3 league Collier co-founded with Breanna Stewart.

A league that’s already expanding in Year 2, I might add.

“I’m very appreciative that we have people like Phee in our players association representing us, because that’s what we’re going to have to continue to make the push to stand on what we believe in,” four-time MVP A’ja Wilson said Tuesday night. “I’m grateful to have those types of people be able to continue to speak up for us.

“I’m gonna ride with Phee always. … We gotta continue to stand on business.’

Owners, in the WNBA or any other league, don’t much care who their commissioner is. They care about their bank accounts and Engelbert’s actions aren’t helping grow them. Out of all her missteps, that’s the one that will cost her.

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.

San Diego Padres reliever Mason Miller was dealing once again Wednesday, Oct. 1, striking out five batters over the seventh and eighth innings in the Padres’ 3-0 win over the Chicago Cubs.

The 27-year-old flamethrower acquired by the Padres from the Athletics on trade deadline day really brought the heat on his second strikeout of the day. He sat down the Cubs’ Carson Kelly with a 104.5 mph fastball, which, per MLB, is the fastest pitch ever recorded in the playoffs since pitch tracking began in 2008.

It was also the fastest pitch Miller has thrown in his career, per the Padres.

Aroldis Chapman had held the record for fastest pitch in the postseason (104.2 mph) since 2010, per MLB.com.

Miller, in his first postseason, struck out five consecutive batters Wednesday before he hit Michael Busch with a pitch. That ended Miller’s run of consecutive strikeouts at eight, after he also struck out the side in the seventh inning in Tuesday’s Game 1.

Wednesday’s victory kept the Padres’ season alive and forces a decisive Game 3 on Thursday.

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Jazz Chisholm returned to the Yankees’ lineup after his controversial benching in Game 1.
Chisholm made a key defensive play and used his speed to create a run.

NEW YORK – After the New York Yankees’ Game 1 loss against the Boston Red Sox, second baseman Jazz Chisholm moped, sighed, and didn’t bother to turn around to face the media.

The All-Star was frustrated after not starting the game to face Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet, as Yankees manager Aaron Boone filled his lineup with right-handed hitters to combat the lefty who led the major leagues in strikeouts with 255.

Chisholm, who hit 31 home runs and stole 31 bases this season, was back in the lineup for Game 2, and Yankees manager Aaron Boone knew before the crucial elimination game that his sometimes-enigmatic star would come through.

“I don’t need him to put a happy face on it right now,” Boone said before Game 2. “I need him to go play his tail off, which I know he’s going to do. Hopefully can help us, do his thing and impact us winning a game.”

It was Chisholm’s tail that was ultimately the difference in the game.

Chisholm worked a walk against Boston reliever Garrett Whitlock, who was tagged with the loss, with two outs in the eighth inning. With Austin Wells up to bat, Chisholm took off from first when the count was full, and Wells laced a hit down the right-field line, ricocheting off the stands. Chisholm slid head-first into home plate, just beating the tag from Carlos Narváez on right fielder Nate Eaton’s throw.

“Any ball that an outfielder moves to his left or right, I have to score, in my head,” Chisholm said. “That’s all I was thinking.”

After the thrilling 4-3 victory on Wednesday, Chisholm admitted that he was surprised not to see his name in the lineup a day earlier. To get over that frustration, the two-time All-Star played the video game ‘MLB The Show’ and “mercy-ruled” his opponent.

‘That’s how I get my stress off,’ he said.

‘There was never a problem between me and Aaron Boone. He’s been my manager all year and I’ve stood behind him all year,” Chisholm said. “We always have disagreements – I mean, I played third base this year and we had a little bit of a disagreement in that – but at the end of the day, I always stand with Boonie because he understands where I come from. He knows I’m a passionate player and he knows I wear my feelings on my sleeve. He knows that I’m here to compete.’

Chisholm’s defense was also a key to the win, making a diving stop on an infield single from pinch-hitter Masataka Yoshida, saving a run when the score was tied at three in the seventh. In the third, he started a key double play to get out of the frame.

The defense, which has been shaky at times this season for New York, was solid all around; the Yankees committed one error in Game 2 but turned three double plays.

“The double play they turned on (Alex) Bregman with his left to (Anthony) Volpe was special,” Boone said. “Obviously, to save a run with the infield hit by Yoshida was excellent, and a really good, patient at-bat. … You know, obviously moving on the pitch gave him a little bit of head-start there. And, you know, his speed comes into play big time there.”

The MLB playoffs are underway, and the NHL regular season starts next week.

So ESPN tried to get in a little cross-promotion for its Oct. 7 NHL tripleheader that will include the Florida Panthers raising a Stanley Cup banner for the second year in a row.

Only it didn’t go so well.

Asked by ESPN announcer Kevin Brown during ABC’s Oct. 1 broadcast of the San Diego Padres-Chicago Cubs game whether the Panthers could three-peat, analyst Ben McDonald answered, ‘If you say so, I mean good luck to them. Are you asking if I’m going to be watching?’

Brown responded that, of course, McDonald would be watching because he’s an EPSN employee.

McDonald responded, ‘There is zero chance I’ll be watching. I’m just going to be honest with you.’

He added: ‘I will be somewhere, but there’s zero chance I’ll be watching.’

‘OK, thanks man,’ Brown said. ‘We’ll be watching. Thanks for the ratings boost,’ as laughter erupted in the booth.

ESPN hockey announcer John Buccigross was quick to respond on social media to McDonald, a former No. 1 overall pick who pitched nine seasons in the majors.

‘Zero is also how many postseason innings Ben McDonald pitched in his MLB career,’ Buccigross posted on X.

The same promo was read later Wednesday during the Boston Red Sox-New York Yankees game.

There was silence afterward this time.

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Hill’s injury is a reminder of what a spectacular yet complex career he’s had to date.
Tyreek Hill’s contract could make it very hard for the Dolphins to keep him in 2026.
Hill’s numbers and career are now paused, but his Hall of Fame clock continues to wind down.

As Tyreek Hill was torqued out of bounds Monday night, his left knee winding up in a highly unnatural anatomical position, it was only natural to wonder if he’d played his final snap in the NFL.

I’m quite obviously no doctor, but anyone who’s watched or covered the league for an appreciable amount of time gains a pretty good understanding of the ramifications certain injuries entail.

In the near term, the Miami Dolphins superstar is facing months – at a minimum – of grueling, lonely rehab. Beyond that? Even if Hill’s body responds, he could be de-cleated again by the business of football and maybe even its politics.

Hill’s career, employment and perhaps even his legacy could very well hang in the balance as he tries to come back from this major setback.

How bad was Tyreek Hill’s injury?

As he lay on the sideline after landing awkwardly following a hard hit against the New York Jets on Monday night, Hill’s left leg looked as if it had been improperly attached to his body. It was a gruesome looking sight for one of the league’s most physically dominant players and one sure to keep him out for a lengthy period.

After confirming Hill’s knee had been dislocated Monday, Miami coach Mike McDaniel revealed more details Tuesday afternoon after the wideout underwent surgery.

“Several ligaments, including the ACL, are part of the dislocation,’ said McDaniel while confirming the obvious − Hill won’t play again in 2025. (He was officially placed on injured reserve Wednesday.)

Not great. Yet there were also apparently some very evident silver linings even after Internet doctors had tried to diagnose the extent of the damage in the aftermath of the injury.

“I think there was some competitive greatness from our doctors for critical execution in a very timely fashion that did very well for the injury for him,” said McDaniel.

“The medical care was topflight when we absolutely needed it, in its most absolute necessity.”

Translation? McDaniel confirmed that being able to postpone the surgery until Tuesday was indeed a good sign and that Hill didn’t appear to suffer any nerve damage in addition to the structural nature of the injury. The fact that he apparently won’t need multiple operations is another encouraging development.

Truly great. But …

Hill will be 32 when the 2026 season starts. It only takes one bad injury to end NFL careers that inherently hang by a thread no matter the quality of the player. And for a wideout on the small side – Hill is listed at 5-10, 191 pounds – he has always been reliant on his world-class speed and quickness to be an impact performer. He’s not going to suddenly grow five inches and add 25 more pounds of muscle to reinvent himself as a possession receiver or situational red-zone target. Furthermore, Hill recently admitted he’s only now begun to grasp Miami’s playbook.

‘I didn’t understand the offense for the first three years of me being here,” he said during training camp.

Not a helpful admission to potential future employers even if still a testament to the heretofore physical gifts that have allowed Hill to be such a dominant and productive player for the Dolphins regardless. And there’s going to be a steep burden of proof he’ll ever be that caliber of player again given the way reconstructed knees tend to rob older players of their wheels.

Hill may not be facing an Everest-level climb amid the lengthy recovery he faces. But an ACL injury alone usually sidelines NFL players for nine months to a year, and they typically don’t feel fully healed until the season after they return. Hill’s dealing with more than an ACL, to say nothing of Father Time’s hourglass for a player who was already on the back side of his career.

How does Tyreek Hill’s contract impact his future?

Whether or not Hill plays again in the NFL, it’s a very good bet Monday was his final game with the Dolphins.

The three-year, $90 million extension he’s playing on is scheduled to run through the 2026 season. Yet Hill is owed $36 million next year, including a $29.9 million base salary that’s triple his 2025 figure. None of Hill’s income for 2026 is currently guaranteed – yet the Dolphins will have to make some kind of decision on him by March given Miami will owe Hill about $16 of that $36 million on the third day of the 2026 league year.

There will be no certainty in March that Hill will even be ready to physically play in 2026, nor at what level that might be no matter how well his comeback bid might unfold. That doesn’t even account for the uncertainty already hovering over this team, McDaniel’s job security seemingly among the most precarious among NFL coaches and obviously not stabilized by a 1-3 start. Prior to the injury, there had already been speculation that Hill might be moved by the Nov. 4 trade deadline.

And when the headaches a player tends to cause (more on that later) pull even or outweigh whatever ability he brings to the table, teams tend to quickly move on.

Even if Miami suddenly goes on a hot streak, wins its first playoff game in a quarter century and hands McDaniel a four-year extension, it’s really difficult to envision a scenario where Hill returns – barring an extraordinary pay cut that very few NFL players are willing to stomach.

Conversely, becoming a free agent in 2026 would be a tricky endeavor for Hill. No matter how good he was and might be again, he’ll nevertheless be an aging receiver trying to rebound from a cataclysmic injury – not the kind of circumstances that lend themselves to multi-year offers or sizable guarantees.

It’s not a pretty financial picture no matter where Hill lands in 2026 … if anywhere.

Is Tyreek Hill a Hall of Famer?

Perhaps it’s something of an insensitive question to ask in this moment. But, admittedly, it popped into my head as I watched Hill being carted to the locker room, smiles and all, and ultimately the hospital Monday night.

One of the league’s more complicated characters is currently facing domestic abuse allegations from his estranged wife. Hill’s problematic history with women was part of the reason he was a fifth-round draft pick (by the Kansas City Chiefs) in 2016. Prior to that, he’d been kicked off of Oklahoma State’s squad, charged in a domestic abuse case for choking and punching his pregnant girlfriend. Hill eventually pleaded guilty as part of a plea agreement.

There was also his infamous traffic stop prior to the 2024 regular-season opener in Miami – the one when police overreacted by dragging Hill out of his car and handcuffing him on the periphery of Hard Rock Stadium … after Hill had done himself few favors given how he interacted with the officer who stopped him for speeding on a crowded Miami Gardens road in the first place.

Hill has also been investigated for child abuse and assault among other legal issues.

Why mention this stuff?

Ask Terrell Owens, who eventually got into the Hall of Fame, though well after his numbers dictated he probably should have. And his shenanigans were basically limited to the field and locker room.

Ask Antonio Brown. He should be celebrated as one of the most dominant receivers in league history, his game adjacent to Hill’s. But nearly every headline Brown has generated this decade has been of the troubling variety as he’s devolved into a controversial caricature.

Perhaps Hill’s copious accomplishments on the positive side of this equation are sufficient to outweigh the concerns over the negatives he’s been associated with. He can be a gregarious character. He’s been generally beloved by teammates through the years and widely credited as a leader in Miami’s locker room.

‘It’s just sad anytime you see someone go down. But a guy of that stature − what he means to the team, what he means to the game of football,’ said fellow Dolphins wideout Jaylen Waddle when asked about Hill on Monday.

‘Just his legacy and everything that he did in his career, it’s always tough.”

Of course, that’s occurred in the context of a team that’s been trying to fix its accountability issues – and that notably includes Hill. He wasn’t voted a team captain in 2025 in the aftermath of his in-game shutdown during Week 18 of the 2024 season, when the Dolphins were getting blown out by the lowly Jets in a defeat that would definitively end Miami’s playoff aspirations.

All of that being said − what a football player Hill has been.

In a survey of his peers conducted by NFL Network last year, Hill was voted the league’s best player coming off a 2023 campaign when he paced the NFL with 1,799 receiving yards and 13 touchdown catches – figures that could have easily been higher had he been healthy in the latter stages of that season.

While it’s been four years since he last played for the Chiefs, Hill was a major factor on their road to dynasty status. He made the 44-yard catch on third-and-15 in the fourth quarter of Super Bowl 54 that sparked K.C.’s comeback win against the San Francisco 49ers and catapulted the Chiefs to their first Lombardi Trophy in 50 years – and first in a period when they’ve won three of the past six (and nearly two others). And he made some massive plays, including a 64-yard TD, in the Chiefs’ 42-36 overtime defeat of the Buffalo Bills in the 2021 playoffs, one of the greatest games in league history.

But his case for Canton is no stone cold lock, not presently anyway.

While there’s little argument that the dynastic Kansas City offense was at its best with Hill – he frequently cleared the field for tight end Travis Kelce, incidentally – it’s also incontrovertibly true that the Chiefs reached, well, “New Heights” after trading him in 2022 and leveraging the draft haul they got in return from Miami into younger, cheaper players who have sustained Kelce, Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes at their championship apex. Meanwhile? Hill’s Dolphins continue treading water in a sea of mediocrity.

As for his stats? Try 813 catches, 11,363 yards and 96 career touchdowns (including rushing and special teams). They’re fantastic. They’re also going to be stagnant, perhaps permanently.

And remember, Hill plays a premium position, and retired players like Larry Fitzgerald, Steve Smith Sr., Torry Holt, Julio Jones and Reggie Wayne are already queued up for gold jackets. Hill’s peers include Davante Adams, DeAndre Hopkins and Keenan Allen, among others, who already have better numbers than he does, and now those gaps will grow. So does Mike Evans, who also owns a ring – one won at Hill’s expense with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in their Super Bowl 55 blowout of the Chiefs. Justin Jefferson and Ja’Marr Chase are at the vanguard of the next wave of great wideouts who threaten to equal or surpass Hill. And none of these guys have off-field considerations muddling their résumés.

Hill’s signature touchdown celebration, one typically penalized, is to flash the peace sign at a flailing DB as he smoothly pulls away for his latest quick-strike score.

But now it’s Hill, who seemed to have so much football on the table just days ago, who faces an unfair race to catch back up to an unforgiving league that could say deuces to him at any time.