Initially, Rocket Mortgage was rebuffed in its effort to stage a Super Bowl singalong.

A staple of Super Bowl Sunday advertising and a two-time winner of USA TODAY’s Ad Meter contest, Rocket’s new chief marketing officer, Jonathan Mildenhall, was determined to maximize a campaign built around the use of John Denver’s iconic tune, “Take Me Home, Country Roads.”

And after a summit between Rocket and its creative and ad agencies resulted in a creative blurting out something unprecedented – ‘Why don’t we do a live singalong at the game?’ – Mildenhall was obsessed.

Yet overtures to Fox Sports were initially rebuffed, citing the many logistics and unusual ask on such short notice. A half-measure – a pre-recorded, pregame singalong – was hatched.

“I agreed on a compromise and honestly my enthusiasm for the idea had diminished from say a 10 out of 10 to an 8 out of 10,” Mildenhall said this week. “It would still be historic – we’d be shooting and producing an ad in the stadium and that’s never been done before.

AD METER 2025: Sign up to rate all the commercials from the big game!

“But we wouldn’t have had that live magic.”

Yet just two weeks before Sunday’s Super Bowl, Fox Sports had a change of heart. The singalong was a go.

“At that moment in time, I about threw up” says Mildenhall. “Because the risk is apparent.”

And midway through the second quarter Sunday, the vision came into focus.

NFL Network reporter Colleen Wolfe beseeched the crowd inside the Superdome to embrace the moment and, moments after the Philadelphia Eagles kicked a field goal to take a 10-0 lead.

Fans on the stadium screen were engaged in the moment, and shortly thereafter, it was back to football.

With that, the annals of Super Bowl advertising can cross off yet another, as Mildenhall calls them, “NBDBs,” or, Never Been Done Before.

Certainly there have been live activations within the game before. In 2023, the NFL’s ad featured a plausibly live shot of Erin Andrews – she’d dressed in the same outfit to pre-record the bit – within the stadium as the protagonist of the commercial, flag football star Diana Flores, eludes stadium staff portrayed by NFL stars.

Yet capturing the attention of a live audience, urging them to sing along right on the heels of an advertisement, all within a 15-second window that extends your ad buy to 75 seconds? That’s a far trickier proposition than your garden variety card stunt.

This is where Rocket anticipated “Country Roads” would do most of the heavy lifting.

While also dovetailing with the former Quicken Loans brand’s appeal to potential homeowners, the song crosses cultures deftly, from postgame salutes at West Virginia University to Japanese karaoke bars and cover versions by Lana Del Rey, Toots and the Maytals and Reina del Cid, among others.

“When I really started to appreciate how affectionate Take Me Home, Country Roads is to all demographic groups of America, it was very clear that would be the appropriate bedrock,” says Mildenhall. “As we started to play it in the commercial, we started to think more ambitiously about not just being an advertiser but being an activator for this year’s Super Bowl and get the stadium to sing along just after the commercial break.

“It is unprecedented, but because of the affection America holds for Take Me Home, Country Roads, that in itself is mitigating some of the risk.”

Well, scratch another one off the Never Been Done Before list.

Well, that was uncomfortable.

To showcase the legendary career of Pro Football Hall of Famer Jimmy Johnson ahead of Super Bowl 59, Fox used A.I. to go through each step of his coaching career, all the way from his humble start as an assistant coach at Louisiana Tech in 1965, to the glory days of being at the helm of the Miami Hurricanes and Dallas Cowboys before he became an analyst for Fox. In each phase of Johnson’s career, the generated image and voice showed Johnson at that stage of his career, showing his younger self and his mouth not exactly syncing up to what was being said.

While it was a sweet sentiment to the 81-year-old and he got emotional, it was without a doubt some nightmare fuel that made viewers watch in agony.

Social media reaction to Jimmy Johnson A.I. tribute

People that watched the segment didn’t feel comfortable with what they watched, and also pointed out some of the flaws from it.

NFL STATS CENTRAL: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more.

The video felt like it would lead to Johnson announcing he was retiring from the Fox desk, but he didn’t announce he would be leaving.

Soccer star Lionel Messi is in attendance for the Super Bowl in New Orleans on Sunday night, ahead of a major announcement anticipated after the game.

He arrived wearing an adidas branded sweater, while two of his sons wore black Patrick Mahomes jerseys as they entered the SuperDome. This is no unified front for the Chiefs, however. Messi’s oldest son, Thiago, wore an Eagles jersey with the No. 1 on it for quarterback Jalen Hurts.

Messi was also joined by Inter Miami teammates Luis Suarez, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba with their families for the game. The teammates made it to the big game despite a quick turnaround. He scored a goal and had two assists during an Inter Miami preseason game in Honduras on Saturday night.

As the 2025 NFL season ends with the big game between the Chiefs and Eagles, Messi’s presence is a reminder the 2025 soccer year will be underway shortly.

Messi and Inter Miami will be featured in the first game of the MLS season, when they host New York City FC on Feb. 22. Inter Miami will also participate in several tournaments during the MLS season, including this summer’s FIFA Club World Cup and the Concacaf Champions Cup later this month.

NFL STATS CENTRAL: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more.

Who is Messi rooting for in Super Bowl 59, Chiefs or Eagles?

Messi may not have a dog in the fight between the Chiefs and Eagles, but he briefly met Kansas City Chiefs star quarterback Patrick Mahomes before a soccer game last year. That, coupled with the majority of his sons’ rooting for Mahomes, makes us think he’d be happy with a Chiefs win.

Mahomes was asked about Messi attending the Super Bowl earlier this week.

“He’s the GOAT of his profession. To have someone like that at the game would be awesome. I get to showcase who I am and what talent that I have,” Mahomes said. “I got to watch him when he played in Kansas City, I think it was last year… And he had two goals in that game. And you see the greatness, the greatness that he displays every single day. And so [he’s] someone else that I can look up to and try to get to his level someday.” 

Messi and Mahomes met before he scored a goal and an assist (so yeah, two goals) to help Inter Miami defeat Sporting Kansas City 3-2 at the Chiefs’ Arrowhead Stadium on April 13, 2024. A reported crowd of 72,610 attended, marking it the most-attended soccer match in state of Missouri and the third-most attended MLS game in history.

Messi also had one of the most popular Super Bowl commercials last year with Michelob Ultra, featuring Miami Dolphins legend Dan Marino. 

Messi, the reigning MLS MVP, is widely regarded as one of the best soccer players of all time. He’s certainly the most famous athlete living in the United States with more than 500 million followers on Instagram. 

Tom Brady built his reputation through the Super Bowl. He won more of them than anybody else. Ten times he made it to the NFL’s big game, winning a record seven times, and he was almost always the star on the field. But for Super Bowl 59, Brady’s presence was instead felt from the FOX broadcast booth – and beyond.

Brady starred in Duracell’s first national Super Bowl commercial, which aired during the first half of Sunday’s game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles. The former New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback, is serving as the color analyst on FOX’s national broadcast for the first time this year and the battery company had some fun tying itself with Brady’s new gig.

For this Super Bowl-themed version of Duracell’s ‘Built Different’ advertising campaign, Brady suffers an on-air power failure and needs the help of a Duracell scientist. It’s a new character the battery company introduced this past fall to highlight its products’ power boost ingredients and help customers make good battery decisions. Brady, who won an NFL-record seven Super Bowls, is ‘built different’ in this case.

Tom Brady Duracell Super Bowl commercial

Brady has become a regular in Super Bowl commercials over the years, particularly toward the end of his 23-year NFL career and since he retired. He was slated to appear in multiple commercials Sunday, including a ‘Stand Up to Hate’ ad with Snoop Dogg financed by Patriots owner Robert Kraft’s foundation, and another for Brady’s apparel company featuring former Eagles quarterback Nick Foles.

AD METER 2025: Sign up to rate all the commercials from the big game!

Brady, 47, is finishing the first season of a 10-year, $375-million contract with FOX as the network’s lead NFL analyst alongside play-by-play announcer Kevin Burkhardt. Though his debut behind the mic has been met with some criticism, Brady said he plans to return to the booth next year.

A 30-second ad during this year’s Super Bowl costs about $8 million, making it the most expensive Super Bowl in history for those airing commercials.

Whether the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl 59 on Sunday, they can at least take credit for orchestrating one of the game’s more heartwarming gestures ahead of kickoff. The Eagles, back in the NFL’s big game for the second time in three years, brought perhaps their oldest fan along with them to the Super Bowl this time.

Eloise Brown, a Philadelphia native who turned 102 years old in December, has been alive 11 years longer than the city’s NFL franchise has even existed – and a dedicated Eagles’ fan since the 1960s. She became more well-known earlier this season when she was presented with a custom-made No. 102 jersey by the team while celebrating her birthday at its NFC East-clinching win over the Dallas Cowboys on Dec. 29.

It turns out the Eagles wanted her around again for ‘a little extra good luck,’ according to the team’s website, as they try to prevent a Chiefs’ three-peat and get even after their Super Bowl 57 loss to Kansas City. Team president Don Smolenski surprised Brown earlier this week with a trip to New Orleans and tickets to Super Bowl 59 as a guest of the team. Brown was also greeted by Eagles wide receiver A.J. Brown and defensive lineman Brandon Graham upon arriving in town.

Videos of the encounter posted by the Eagles to social media show Eloise Brown wearing earrings with A.J. Brown jerseys dangling from them and that No. 102 jersey. A.J. Brown gave her a hug and another Eagles’ jersey ‒ a kelly green No. 11 with his autograph ‒ before posing for photos.

NFL STATS CENTRAL: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more.

‘And little ol’ me, sitting in my little apartment, I can’t believe it,’ Brown told the Philadelphia Inquirer afterwards. ‘It’s unreal, but it is real because I held some of them, hugged some of them, and gave some of them a kiss, and I know they’re going to be fine.’

Eloise Brown, according to a TODAY show profile that aired earlier this week, had been planning to watch the game with her children and grandchildren before the team stepped in and surprised her with the trip to New Orleans.

Her family says she never misses watching a game and received a game ball from Eagles coach Nick Sirianni back in December. It was just the fifth Eagles’ game she had attended in person.

Brown, perhaps most important of all for Philadelphia faithful, is also confident the Eagles will beat the Chiefs on Sunday. ‘I know they’re going to win, and that’s it,’ she said, ‘And then, I can go to sleep and be comfortable knowing my dream has come true.’

‘The opportunity to share in the experience is what makes going to the Super Bowl special,’ Smolenski said.

DeAndre Hopkins fulfilled the vow he made to honor his late father at Super Bowl 59.

The Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver arrived at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans on Sunday in the mink jacket he said his father gave to him.

‘My dad died in 1992, and he left me a couple things. And one of the things he left me was a mink jacket,’ Hopkins said at Super Bowl Opening Night. ‘And so I always said I would wear that mink jacket to my wedding or to the Super Bowl, whichever one happened first. And so, obviously I’m not married, so I’ma wear my daddy’s mink jacket.”

Hopkins, 32, was an infant when his father died in a car accident. His mother, Sabrina Greenlee, was blinded and severely burned in 2002 when a woman threw acid in her face. A victim of domestic violence, she wrote ‘Grant Me Vision: A Journey of Family, Faith, and Forgiveness,’ which was released in 2024.

Greenlee has been on hand for the Super Bowl festivities this week and was set to host a brunch on empowering women before taking in the next steps of her son’s journey.

NFL STATS CENTRAL: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more.

‘It means a lot to bring my mother to the Super Bowl,’ Hopkins said Monday. ‘She comes to just about all my games anyway. But this one has a little more significance.’

A 12-year veteran and five-time Pro Bowl selection, Hopkins is playing in the Super Bowl for the first time in his career after being traded from the Tennessee Titans – who tied for the NFL’s worst record at 3-14 and hold the No. 1 overall pick in April’s NFL draft – to the Chiefs in October. The magnitude of the moment wasn’t lost on the receiver.

In a post earlier in the week on X, Hopkins wrote: ‘To all the kids out there living in small towns, in small houses, with single parents. To the kids who see violence, who see loss, who don’t get the resources they deserve, but who still have big dreams. Know that I was a kid in your exact shoes and this week I’m playing in the Super Bowl. Don’t give up, work hard, keep believing. Where you start doesn’t determine where you end up.’

NEW ORLEANS – Travis Kelce was nearly at the end of his news conference Thursday morning when it was suggested that maybe he doesn’t have the same spring in his legs or perhaps gets caught from behind more often than he used to in the open field before he was explicitly asked if he thinks he’s lost a step.

Kelce, 35, smiled good-naturedly while pounding a fist against his lectern a few times just days before his Kansas City Chiefs face the Philadelphia Eagles in Super Bowl 59.

“That’s motivation right there, isn’t it?” the 10-time Pro Bowl tight end asked rhetorically.

“I’ve been eating clean, I haven’t been drinking as much, I’m a little lower on the pounds this week. So, hopefully I can run away from some Eagles out there.” (More on that later.)

It was a fairly playful response to a fairly playful question posed by former NFL linebacker Will Compton. But the notion that Kelce is slowing down gained steam this season – his worst statistically in terms of yards per game (51.4), yards per reception (8.5), total receiving yards (823) and touchdowns (3) since he was a rookie in 2013, when he didn’t play one offensive snap.

NFL STATS CENTRAL: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more.

Yet Kelce’s resurgence in the postseason, where he’s established any number of records (particularly at his position), has reaffirmed what an important component he is to the Chiefs as they try to complete the first Super Bowl three-peat Sunday.

“We’ve heard all year long, ‘Kelce’s lost a step,’ this and that. Then all of a sudden the playoffs come – they know how to turn it up another notch,” Fox analyst and Hall of Famer Charles Woodson told USA TODAY Sports, citing Kelce’s intelligence and craftiness and Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ ability to extend plays.

“Those guys understand every inch of the field. So, there’s gonna be big plays that are gonna be made on Sunday where you’re gonna see Travis Kelce is going to be wide open, and you’re going to wonder why the hell he is wide open. Because he understands where to be, and he knows his quarterback is going to be able to get it to him.”

But why the hell is Kelce, Mahomes’ favorite target over the past seven seasons, constantly open? Especially in the most high-leverage situations?

“We all game plan, we scout our opponents, we see the way you’re lined up, we know the situation, so we know sometimes where a guy is supposed to be,” explained Woodson.

“The problem becomes when that play breaks down, and then Mahomes starts moving – now you’re kind of in a conundrum. Because you try to figure out ‘Do I leave this post and try to go help out and stop Mahomes or help on another receiver, or do I stay with Kelce?’

“People vacate the zone, all of a sudden there’s Kelce – the ball’s gonna hit him in the numbers. It’s tough to guard against.”

Just ask the Houston Texans, who were burned by Kelce for seven receptions and 117 yards, including a 49-yarder, in the divisional round. Kelce also found a soft spot in the end zone and practically stood still as Mahomes hit him off a scramble for the decisive fourth-quarter touchdown.

“The two of them are always talking about how they see the field. Travis sees it as a quarterback, because that’s obviously what he started as, and he keeps that mindset,” Kansas City tight ends coach Tom Melvin told USA TODAY Sports, while referencing Kelce’s football roots.

“So he’s able to talk with Pat about that. The two of them are so fast on how they can see things … obviously have great chemistry.”

Chiefs linebacker Cole Christiansen has repeatedly witnessed and been victimized by Kelce’s savant-level feel for the game during practice.

“Oh, he’s brilliant,” Christiansen told USA TODAY Sports. “I don’t know how much of it is X’s and O’s on paper but more his ability to know where he is on the field, and his savviness and technique are elite. That’s what makes him so unique. I know he’s smart X’s and O’s-wise, but I do know that he ad-libs all the time – him and Pat both do go off-script – and it’s Travis’ ability to weave and lean … that kind of thing is what makes him so good.

“He’s Pat’s escape valve, because he knows he’s gonna get open eventually one way or another – if Pat gets in trouble, Travis is going to find a way to get open.”

A superstar practice player with an evolved attitude

While he may go down as the greatest tight end in NFL history, Kelce’s pop culture footprint has grown way beyond that in recent years thanks to his occasional acting, commercials, the very popular “New Heights” podcast he co-hosts with his brother (former Eagles All-Pro center Jason Kelce), and – of course – his high-profile relationship with singer Taylor Swift, perhaps the most recognizable woman on the planet.

Yet when asked about Kelce, K.C. players unfailingly cite his relentless work ethic between games.

“Even in my rookie year, just seeing how he worked – I mean, like, you see Travis Kelce, and you see obviously being on TV shows, or having the personality that everyone loves, and being the fun guy and being funny,” said Mahomes. “But people don’t understand how hard he works on a day-to-day basis. He continues to work that hard even to this day. That motivates me to know that I can’t be complacent with where I’m at.

“He’s getting older, so we’re trying to like cut back some of his reps, and he won’t do it. He gets mad at you if you take him out of practice. That feeds into the entire team. Whenever you’re tired, and whenever you’re not wanting to take a practice seriously or take a rep seriously – you look at him, and he’s going full speed, scoring touchdowns every catch. And it motivates you to take your game up to another level.”

Why such an unrelenting approach when the cameras are off and after a dozen seasons when the NFL has taken a toll on his body?

“Those (moments) are how you find real answers,” said Kelce. “Practicing a hundred miles per hour is the only way you find that timing with the quarterbacks, you find that feel for the defenses and the zones you gotta find.”

And the investment of so much time is something that can’t be replicated for a franchise that’s already an established dynasty but now on the verge of uncharted historical territory.

“I’m doing everything within the scheme. So, Coach (Andy) Reid’s scheme has given me the ability to find those voids for Pat. It’s a full, I don’t know, science experiment when you put all the pieces together, I guess. It’s just a lot of fun, man,” Kelce continued. “So we’ve just been building this thing and getting on the same page.”

Yet the grind with Mahomes and his other teammates also represents a shift in Kelce’s thinking through the years, from inwardly focused to collectively focused.

“Early on in my career, I think a lot of my motivation was driven off of individual success,” he said, “wanting to get that acknowledgment (from) my peers, of the people watching the game, that I was somebody fun to watch, or I was worth watching, or I was worth having on your team.

‘Nowadays, it’s just – I just love going to work with the guys that I’m in the building with. I love sharing these memories, I love figuring out these game plans, figuring out how we’re going to attack a defense. There’s just a certain love that I’ve found in it, and I think it’s because of the people that I go to work with.”

Melvin says Kelce is counseling every player in the huddle – during practice and games – whether he be the primary option or the fourth one, advising them how to affect a play and search for ways he can set his teammates up for success.

“I used to really, really care about that, man, like I used to want to be known as the greatest tight end ever,” Kelce admits. “But I think it’s just more so just enjoying these moments that I have with my teammates and trying to get these wins and create these memories. This entire year has been such a battle for every single person that comes into that building every week.

“I’ve gotten away from wanting to be known as that. I think I want to be known as one of the best teammates these guys have ever had.”

Even if, as he says, it wasn’t always that way.

“It’s night and day different, I was a lot more focused on individual success,” said Kelce. “I think with that individual success, I’ve started to really understand what’s real. And what’s real is, this game’s only fun when you win football games with the people around you, man. Once I figured that out, it really just took off for me, and I’ve loved playing in the league ever since, man.”

What’s next for Kelce, Chiefs as retirement questions linger?

Always in great demand by media members, Kelce tends to be one of Kansas City’s best interviews, typically giving expansive, thoughtful answers – even to the most inane questions. And he spent a fair amount of time during Super Bowl week both reflecting and looking ahead regarding a career that could be in its twilight … if not its conclusion.

“I thought that I was gonna be the next best quarterback ever and save the Cleveland Browns,” said Kelce, an Ohio native who used to be a part-time quarterback at the University of Cincinnati before switching to his familiar position.

“Found out that my place in this world was to be a tight end. And, I’ll tell you what, I really transitioned into loving the game of football so much more once I got into the tight end position, because it just suited who I was as a person so much more.”

Indeed. His 1,004 career receptions are more than any active player. His 174 catches in the playoffs are an all-time record, 23 more than Jerry Rice, and he needs two more TD grabs to match Rice’s all-time postseason record (22). With three snags Sunday, Kelce will overtake Rice (33) for the most career Super Bowl receptions.

Yet he’s felt his role with the Chiefs evolving and even feels like some of his biggest contributions this season didn’t come on game day.

“I feel like this year I kinda stepped into a role of being more of a voice for the guys – I mean we have a lot of new faces,” said Kelce.

“Just being able to be there for the young guys and help them understand the offense better and hopefully understand how to weather the storm of a week like this.”

But for a guy purportedly slowing down, he could still be the storm against Philadelphia.

In last year’s overtime victory against the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl 58, Kelce hit the accelerator to reach 19.68 mph on a 22-yard reception that set up the game-tying field goal for Kansas City in the waning seconds of regulation. He hadn’t been timed that fast in a game in seven years.

Which is why the Eagles would be wise not to take him lightly, and why Kelce says he probably has a lot left to give to the game as a player.

“I got a full heart of football left in me. I really love this game,” he said.

“It’s moments like these – the playoffs, these memories that I’ll have with the teammates and coaches that I’d go to war with – wanting to keep that legacy or keep finding new ways to create those memories I think will just keep fueling me and my love for football.”

Time to get Super Bowl ready: Sign up for USA TODAY’s 4th and Monday newsletter for NFL news.

MESA, Ariz. — It took only 78 seconds into the Chicago Cubs’ first news conference of the spring Sunday for their front office executives to be asked about the topic that continues to saturate sports talk in Chicago.

Are the Cubs going to make a major acquisition before opening day, or, specifically, sign free-agent third baseman Alex Bregman?

‘Unclear,’ said Jed Hoyer, Cubs president of baseball operations. ‘I think you always look for opportunity, but right now we’re going to focus on the guys we have in camp. That’s the plan.’

The news conference lasted another 30 minutes, with just about every question alluding to Bregman or the Cubs’ payroll. And no matter how many times it was brought up, directly or indirectly, Hoyer and Cubs GM Carter Hawkins offered no clues.

The reality is that the Cubs already are favored to win the NL Central, and even run away with it according to the PECOTA projections, which would end a four-year postseason drought.

Follow every MLB game: Latest MLB scores, stats, schedules and standings.

Would Bregman make them a legitimate power, perhaps even the best NL team outside the Los Angeles city limits?

‘Whatever clubhouse he walks into,’ Cubs veteran starter Matthew Boyd says, ‘he’s going to make that team better. The guy’s a winner. Everyone would tell you that.’

Yet, while the Cubs continue to talk to agent Scott Boras about Bregman, there’s no indication that the Cubs would be willing to offer more than a three-year contract. There’s also no sign that Bregman would dramatically lower his asking price when he already has at least one six-year offer on the table.

The Detroit Tigers, Boston Red Sox and the Houston Astros have all made offers of at least four years to Bregman, but no one has been willing to meet his asking price.

The Astros made a six-year, $156 million offer to Bregman in November and, while they say the door is open for a reunion, they’re openly pessimistic.

The Tigers and Red Sox have made their interest clear all winter, but not with offers lucrative enough to satisfy Bregman’s demands.

The fact that Bregman remains unsigned has led the Cubs to at least inquire about potentially signing him – and perhaps may be willing to offer the highest annual salary if he’s willing to accept a short-term deal.

The Cubs’ projected payroll is $191 million, leaving them well below the $241 million luxury tax and, of course, far below the payrolls of the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Mets and New York Yankees, which will exceed $300 million.

Cubs owner Tom Ricketts, who insists the Cubs lost money last year, says they can’t compete financially with those teams, raising the fury of frustrated Cubs’ fans.

‘I think our fans somehow think we have all these dollars that the Dodgers have, or the Mets have, or the Yankees have,’ Ricketts said at the Cubs Convention last month, ‘and we just keep it. It’s not true. We just try to break even every year.’

Hoyer was asked whether the spending, particularly by the Dodgers and Mets, was bad for baseball’s competitive balance, but he refused to be drawn into the debate.

‘I don’t think anyone wants my opinion on whether it’s good or bad for baseball,’ Hoyer said. ‘I’m not going to give that opinion. Those teams are National League teams. Those are teams we’re going to play. Those are teams that will potentially take playoff spots in the National League. So it doesn’t matter whether I think it’s good or bad for the game. It matters that’s our competition.’

Certainly, Hoyer realizes that life, much less his job security, would be a whole lot easier if he was permitted to offer a blank check to Bregman instead of having to rely on their best prospect, Matt Shaw, to be their everyday third baseman.

Hoyer, who has been with the Cubs for the past 14 years, is on the final year of his contract with no talks about a potential extension. If the Cubs win the NL Central, or at least earn a playoff berth, he’s expected to return. If they miss the playoffs again, Hoyer likely will be out of work. It’s the business of baseball.

‘Does it feel different than it has in the past? A little bit,’ Hoyer said. ‘I’ve been here for 14 years, and sort of generally in my career, I haven’t had much uncertainty. So I think with uncertainty does come a level of anxiety. I think that would be a lie to say that it doesn’t.

‘Has it caused some introspection along the way? I think that’s fair to say.’

Hoyer acknowledges that last year’s 83-79 season, after spending $40 million on manager Craig Counsell, was a bitter disappointment. They may have overachieved to go 83-79 in 2023, but certainly underachieved a year ago, finishing 10 games behind the Milwaukee Brewers, the team Counsell left.

‘I thought we outperformed our expectations in 2023, to be candid,’ Hoyer said. ‘Our hope was that we would do it again, and it didn’t. I found it to be a tremendously frustrating season. The goal was to make the postseason.’

Simply now, it’s playoffs or bust.

‘It feels like there’s increased pressure,’ Hoyer said. ‘I think there probably should be given that we’ve spent some time to get to this place. It should be a lot of fun.’

If the Cubs didn’t believe they’d win the division, they certainly wouldn’t have traded for Astros All-Star outfielder Kyle Tucker and late-inning reliever Ryan Pressly, even though both could walk as free agents after the season. They bolstered their bullpen with six acquisitions, including trading for Ryan Brasier of the Dodgers and Eli Morgan of the Cleveland Guardians. They signed Boyd to a two-year, $29 million to fill out their rotation.

‘I think we’re a better team, absolutely,’ Counsell said.

Said Brasier, trying to become the first player to win a World Series with the Red Sox, Dodgers and Cubs: ‘There’s so much young talent in here, why not? You can see it.’

Said Boyd: ‘We got a lot of talented guys on this pitching staff, a very talented offense, and are extremely talented defensively. And what really stands out is the cohesiveness in here. We’ve got something special.’

And yet, despite the optimism inside their spring-training complex, Cubs’ fans are clamoring for more, in particular, a certain third baseman out of Houston that’s keeping the rumors churning in Chicago.

‘We are in the entertainment business,’ Hoyer said, ‘and I think that there’s times that there’s rumors out there that have no basis in reality. You’ll read an article that’s thousands of words based on something that’s never come up. So, that’s the nature of this business. …

‘People deeply care about us. They want us to be a really good team. They want to talk about it. They want to think about different possibilities. And that leads to a lot of rumors.’

So you’re saying there’s still a chance Bregman walks through the Cubs’ clubhouse doors?

‘I don’t ever rule out adding anything …,’ Hoyer said, without uttering Bregman’s name. ‘Starting today, that’s what it’s about: How do we try to shore up any areas where we think are weaknesses? …

‘I won’t rule out anything.’

Follow Nightengale on X: @Bnightengale