ESPN Daily

It’s a weird time for Bowl Games, if we’re being honest. More players than ever are skipping out on them to either enter the transfer portal or preserve their NFL Draft stock…and the underlying argument of the College Football Playoff system is that the ceremony of these weird, one-off, de facto playoff games, just isn’t important enough. Enter Ryan McGee, who joins us to explain why college bowl...

Lionel Messi is finally a World Cup champion! It took a penalty shootout, but Argentina was able to hold off the French comeback attempt, which was led by a hat trick from Kylian Mbappe. We called up our friend Roger Bennett for his reaction to Argentina’s victory…and what it means for Messi’s legacy. And in the other football world, Alex Smith tells us what he saw in the snow on Saturday between...

As Lionel Messi prepares to take the pitch in what will be his final World Cup appearance on Sunday, there’s another Argentinian legend that you should know about. Andres Cantor, the Spanish-language commentator for Telemundo known for his soulful call of “GOOOL”, will be in the booth for his 12th World Cup Final. In Latin America, he’s almost as much of an institution as the sport of soccer itsel...

Weather forecasting is kinda like football forecasting. You examine history. You try to account for randomness by building complicated, mathematical models. But whether you’re right or wrong, and no matter which team you root for, you’re gonna wind up yelling at clouds. Especially in mid-December. So, today, with cold fronts buffeting the East Coast, we show our coastal bias and ask our human dopp...

The college football world, and frankly all of sports, got a lot less interesting yesterday with the news that Mike Leach passed away at the age of 61. The Mississippi State head coach leaves behind a legacy as one of college football’s most eclectic, interesting, and controversial figures. So we called in our friend Ryan McGee, who covered Leach for years, and he helps us unpack just how far Leac...

Any given TV show is lucky if it makes it to season No. 2, but this year marks two decades of Around The Horn. Twenty years of mutes and facetimes and competitive banter, every weekday – adding up to more than 4,500 episodes and counting. So ahead of tonight’s 20th anniversary Around The Horn TV special, we wanted to take you way behind the curtain of the show that still scores the argument…and co...

How did 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy’s first NFL start go? Purdy…purdy…purdy good. The Niners trounced Tom Brady and the Bucs 35-7, with Christian McCaffrey also pitching in on the scoreboard. Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs looked like they were putting together a blowout in Denver…until the Broncos scored 21 unanswered points to close the gap, with Mahomes throwing three interceptions, but the C...

What if I told you...women in Iran *can’t even go to a soccer game.* They’re banned from stadiums. New from 30 for 30 Podcasts, ‘Pink Card’ tells the tale of Iranian women who dare to risk it all – for the simple right to watch a soccer match. Creator Shima Oliaee (Oh-lee-eye) reports on generations of women – who’ve fought to take back their stadiums – and their joy of the game. ‘Pink Card’ will...

No team has ever faced a more impossible task than the Ukrainian Men’s National Soccer Team. On Feb. 23, the team was a month away from playing Scotland, with a trip to the 2022 FIFA World Cup on the line. The following day, their lives and the lives of their countrymen were changed forever when Russia invaded Ukraine, with catastrophic results. Many thousands have died, millions have been displac...

When the United States needed to beat Iran to make the knockout stage of this World Cup, the story of the ongoing protests in Iran captured the attention of American media. How thousands of protesters had been arrested and hundreds had been killed while fighting for the basic rights of women. How players on the Iranian national team were being threatened for being sympathetic to that cause. And ho...

You may be familiar with some of the NHL’s biggest stars. Names like Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin, and Connor McDavid have transcended the sport…but there’s a new star in Dallas who is currently rising above ALL of them. Jason Robertson is a 23-year-old winger for the Dallas Stars, leads the NHL in goals…and is in the conversation for MVP. So we called in our old friend Emily Kaplan, and she...

Andrew Luck’s football career was bright. He was the first overall pick in the 2012 NFL Draft, a generational, cerebral quarterback who played for the Indianapolis Colts and actually lived up to the hype, making Pro Bowl after Pro Bowl after Pro Bowl. But in 2019, at the age of 29, Luck shocked the world when he suddenly announced he was retiring from football entirely. Since then, the onetime sup...

For San Francisco 49ers fans, Sunday was…tough. On the first drive of the game, Niners QB Jimmy Garoppolo was injured, and later revealed to have sustained a broken foot, placing him on injured reserve for the season. Enter Brock Purdy, aka “Mr. Irrelevant,” who took over for San Fran under center and beat the Tua and the Dolphins 33-17. In Cincinnati, Joe Burrow and the Bengals earned another vic...

If you thought that US match against Iran on Tuesday was stressful…just wait for Saturday. After years of anticipation, geopolitical strife, and endless debates about ethical concerns, the USMNT has finally made it back to the knockout stage of the World Cup. USA’s first quarterfinal berth in 20 years hangs in the balance, with just the Netherlands standing in the way. Sam Borden sets the scene fo...

Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson is having a season unlike any other. From a highlight reel catch against the Bills to breaking records for most receiving yards through a player’s first three seasons, Jefferson has been this season’s breakout player. But despite his almost immediate dominance in the NFL, Jefferson was just the 5th wide receiver taken in his draft class, and coming out of hig...

USC quarterback Caleb Williams does kinda look like Patrick Mahomes. They’ve got similar heights, and builds, and almost the same mop of curly hair, kept high and tight beneath a headband. And Williams also plays like Mahomes: making tackle-defying scrambles and ridiculous throws on the run. His playmaking magic has brought the Trojans back to life: they’re somehow one win away from the college fo...

Iran faces the US today in the final game of their group stage. It’s a win or go home for young Team USA, who earned two draws in their earlier group stage games vs. Wales and England. Off the field, Iran remains under a global spotlight after months of protests against their own regime because of the country’s stance on women’s rights. This isn’t the first time Iran and the US have met on the fie...

Sunday’s slate of NFL action saw multiple game winning 2-point conversions, an 86 yard walk-off overtime TD run, and most unlikely of all, a dominant Jets QB performance. In Jacksonville, Trevor Lawrence led the Jags to a comeback win against the Ravens. Jets QB Mike White delivered 3 touchdowns in New York’s victory over the Bears, after replacing the currently benched Zach Wilson. And the Bronco...

The story of Barry Bremen, a.k.a. “The Great Imposter” was already sufficiently ridiculous. Bremen was an average, suburban dad, husband, and insurance salesman who’d risen to national fame by sneaking into major sporting events. But in 2019, nearly a decade after Barry Bremen’s death, his family received a mysterious letter that changed everything. The Barry Bremen legacy was bigger and more prof...

It’s a story so wild we couldn’t fit it into one podcast. If you’re of a certain age, you probably remember Barry Bremen. In the late 70’s, Barry was best known for dressing up as pro athletes and sneaking into televised sporting events…beginning with the 1979 NBA All-Star Game, where he shot layups on the court with stars like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Moses Malone. And while his “Great Imposter” p...

Athletes often say they love the city where they play, but Giannis Antetokounmpo takes it to a new level. He’s called Milwaukee home since the team drafted him in 2013. It wasn’t a given that the Greek native, a son of Nigerian immigrants, would stay in the midwestern city. But his massive 2020 contract extension shows the love is mutual. In an encore of one of our favorite episodes from the last...

10 years ago today, the “Butt Fumble” was born. On November 22, 2012, a crisp Thanksgiving night, Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots visited the Mark Sanchez-led New York Jets at MetLife Stadium…where in the second quarter, Mark Sanchez turned the wrong way after a snap and ran right into his right guard’s butt and fumbled the ball to an awaiting Patriots defense that promptly ran it in f...

Week 11 in the NFL had the makings of a snoozefest…until the Chargers and Chiefs battled it out on Sunday night, with the Chiefs pulling off yet another last-second comeback. Just a week after putting the NFL on notice with a win over the Bills in the game of the year, the Vikings got embarrassed at home by the Dallas Cowboys. The NFC East’s good day continued as the Washington Commanders beat the...

It’s no surprise that the athlete's mental health has been one of the biggest topics in sports in recent years, as more and more players are coming forward with the struggles they face in dealing with the constant pressure. But screaming fans and high-stakes moments are exactly what makes sports so compelling. So today, in a special crossover episode with The Old Man & The Three podcast, we offer...

The World Cup, the biggest sporting event on the planet, begins this Sunday. While every World Cup is extreme in its own way, nothing compares to what’s going on in Qatar right now. There is the migrant worker crisis (which this podcast reported on two weeks ago). There’s the fact that Qatar is the smallest country to ever host the World Cup. And there are concerns about the rights of the LGBTQ co...