Weekend Watchlist, headlined by NFL Week 10, MLS playoffs and WTA Finals

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🚨 Headlines

💔 Tragedy in Dallas: Cowboys defensive end Marshawn Kneeland died on Thursday of an apparent suicide. The 24-year-old was a second-round pick last year and played in seven games this season, scoring his first career TD last week after recovering a blocked punt against Arizona.

⚾️ Padres hire skipper: Former Padres reliever Craig Stammen has been hired as the team’s new manager. Stammen, 41, retired in 2022 after a 13-year big league career and joined the Padres as an assistant last season. He will now manage many of his former teammates.

🏈 Antonio Brown extradited: Former NFL player Antonio Brown was extradited from Dubai on an attempted murder charge, per multiple reports. Brown was booked in the Essex County jail in New Jersey on Thursday and will be transported to Miami, where he’s set to face trial in connection to an incident in May at influencer Adin Ross’s boxing event.

🏀 LeBron nears return: LeBron James, who has been sidelined with sciatica, has been cleared for contact basketball activities and will be re-evaluated in 1-2 weeks. He’ll now begin ramping up to 5-on-5 action while eyeing a mid-November return.

⚽️ Pochettino names November roster: The USMNT’s 25-player roster for upcoming friendlies against Paraguay and Uruguay features the return of Gio Reyna and Ricardo Pepi. Notable absences include Christian Pulisic (injury), Tim Weah (injury), and Weston McKennie.

📺 Weekend Watchlist

After the 49ers beat the Rams on the road in Week 5, the Rams will try to return the favor on Sunday. (Harry How/Getty Images)

🏈 NFL, Week 10

Sunday’s slate begins with the Colts and Falcons playing the NFL’s first game in Berlin (9:30am ET, NFL). The rest of the day is headlined by three games between teams with winning records: Patriots at Buccaneers (1pm, CBS); Rams at 49ers (4:25pm, Fox); Steelers at Chargers (8:20pm, NBC).

Best of the rest: The Ravens and Vikings, both looking to put early struggles behind them, meet in Minnesota (1pm, Fox); the red-hot Seahawks host the Cardinals (4pm, CBS), who’ll start Jacoby Brissett for the fourth straight game after Kyler Murray (foot) was placed on IR.

🏈 NCAAF, Week 11

Saturday’s marquee matchup is the top-10 clash in Lubbock between No. 8 Texas Tech and undefeated No. 7 BYU (12pm, ABC). The other ranked matchups: No. 3 Texas A&M at No. 22 Missouri (3:30pm, ABC) and No. 9 Oregon at No. 20 Iowa (3:30pm, CBS).

Best of the rest: No. 5 Georgia at Mississippi State (12pm, ESPN); No. 2 Indiana at Penn State (12pm, Fox); Navy at No. 10 Notre Dame (7:30pm, NBC); LSU at No. 4 Alabama (7:30pm, ABC).

⚽️ MLS Playoffs

The first round concludes with five winner-take-all Game 3s streaming on Apple TV: No. 4 Charlotte vs. No. 5 NYC FC (Fri. 7pm); No. 4 Minnesota vs. No. 5 Seattle (Sat. 4pm); No. 2 Cincinnati vs. No. 7 Columbus (Sat. 6pm); No. 3 Miami vs. No. 6 Nashville (Sat. 8pm); No. 1 San Diego vs. No. 8 Portland (Sun. 9pm).

Looking ahead: No. 1 Philadelphia, No. 2 Vancouver and No. 3 LAFC have already qualified for the single-elimination conference semifinals, which begin in two weeks.

⚽️ NWSL Playoffs

The postseason kicks off with four single-elimination quarterfinal matches: No. 4 Orlando vs. No. 5 Seattle (Fri. 8pm, Prime); No. 2 Washington vs. No. 7 Louisville (Sat. 12pm, CBS); No. 1 Kansas City vs. No. 8 Gotham (Sun. 12:30pm, ABC); No. 3 Portland vs. No. 6 San Diego (Sun. 3pm, ABC).

Beware the juggernaut: KC just completed the best regular season in league history, setting records for wins (21), points (65), shutouts (16) and goals conceded (13). Their biggest star is Temwa Chaŵinga, who should capture her second straight league MVP after securing her second straight Golden Boot (15 goals).

🎾 WTA Finals

We’re down to the final four in Riyadh, with Jessica Pegula and Elena Rybakina facing off in today’s first semifinal (10am, Tennis), and Aryna Sabalenka and Amanda Anisimova facing off in the second (11:10am, Tennis). The winners will face off in the season-ending championship on Saturday at 11am.

Prize money: All of these women are going home much wealthier than they arrived thanks to a record $15.5 million purse. Round-robin wins were already worth $355,000 each, semifinal wins are worth $1.3 million and the champion will take home an additional $2.5 million.

⚽️ Premier League

The top four teams on the table all play each other this weekend, with fourth-place Sunderland hosting first-place Arsenal on Saturday (12:30pm, NBC) and second-place Manchester City hosting third-place Liverpool on Sunday (11:30am, USA).

Club on the rise: Three years ago, Sunderland was in the third tier. Last year, they were in the second tier. This year? They’ve won 18 points from their first 10 games back in the top flight (5-3-2) and bring an undefeated home record into Saturday’s match against the league leaders.

More to watch:

🏀 NBA: Rockets at Spurs (Fri. 7:30pm, Prime); Warriors at Nuggets (Fri. 10pm, Prime) … Day 2 of the in-season tournament.
🏀 NCAAM: No. 19 Kansas at No. 25 UNC (Fri. 7pm, ESPN); No. 15 Alabama at No. 5 St. John’s (Sat. 12pm, FS1); No. 14 Arkansas at No. 22 Michigan State (Sat. 7pm, Fox) … Potential No. 1 pick Darryn Peterson (Kansas) scored 21 points in 22 minutes in his debut.
🏀 NCAAW: No. 24 Richmond at No. 4 Texas (Fri. 8pm, SEC+); No. 18 USC at No. 9 NC State (Sun. 3pm, ESPN) … Longhorns junior Madison Booker was a first-team All-American last season and a preseason All-American this fall.
🎾 Tennis: ATP Finals (Sun. 8am, Tennis) … Group stage begins for the season-ending tournament in Turin, Italy, featuring the world’s top eight men.
🏒 NHL: Rangers at Red Wings (Fri. 7pm, NHL); Avalanche at Oilers (Sat. 10pm, ESPN+) … Perennial MVP candidates Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon square off in Edmonton.
🏎️ F1: Brazilian Grand Prix (Sun. 12pm, ESPN2) … McLaren’s Lando Norris (357 points) and Oscar Piastri (356) are virtually tied with four races left, while Red Bull’s Max Verstappen (321) isn’t far behind.
⛳️ DP World Tour: Abu Dhabi Championship (Fri-Sun, Golf) … 70 golfers including Rory McIlroy and Tommy Fleetwood battle for 50 spots in next week’s Tour Championship.
🏒 Women’s Hockey: USA vs. Canada (Sat. 6pm, NHL) … Buffalo hosts the second of four games in the annual Rivalry Series.

Full weekend slate.

🌎 Sports on Earth

Bo Nix celebrates with Troy Franklin after scoring their only touchdown. (Tyler Schank/Getty Images)

🇺🇸 Denver — The Broncos’ defense smothered Geno Smith and the Raiders, while their offense did just enough to escape with their seventh straight win, a 10-7 victory that was one of the uglier games you’ll see all year.

By the numbers: The teams combined for 15 punts (one of which was blocked), three interceptions, two missed field goals and one turnover on downs. Guess how many drives went fewer than three yards? 12! 12 drives went fewer than three yards!

🇸🇦 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia — Aryna Sabalenka defeated Coco Gauff, 7-6, 6-2, to become the first player to reach four straight semis at the WTA Finals since Maria Sharapova (2004-07).

Up next: Sabalenka will meet a familiar foe in today’s semifinal when she faces Amanda Anisimova for the fourth time this year, all in huge matches. Sabalenka won the US Open final and French Open fourth round, while Anisimova won the Wimbledon semifinals.

The second hole at El Cardonal. (Alex Slitz/Getty Images)

🇲🇽 Cabo San Lucas, Mexico — The World Wide Technology Championship teed off on Thursday at El Cardonal at Diamante, a Tiger Woods-designed course whose wide fairways helped a pair of struggling golfers shoot the lights out in the first round.

Course records: Nick Dunlap and Sami Välimäki both matched the course record with an 11-under 61, hitting all 14 fairways despite coming into the day ranked 153rd (Välimäki) and 175th (Dunlap) this season in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee.

🏈 NFL midseason awards

Patriots QB Drake Maye is the midseason NFL MVP, according to Yahoo Sports’ Nate Tice. The second-year signal-caller ranks first in dropback success rate, “has shown the ability to push the ball to all areas of the field,” and is explosive as both a passer and as a runner.

More Midseason Awards:

OPOY: Jaxon Smith-Njigba, WR (Seahawks)
DPOY: Myles Garrett, Edge (Browns)
OROY: Grey Zabel, G* (Seahawks)
DROY: Abdul Carter, Edge (Giants)
Protector Of The Year: Creed Humphrey, C (Chiefs)
Coach Of The Year: Shane Steichen (Colts)
Asst. Coach Of The Year: Chris Shula, DC (Rams)

*A lineman as top rookie?! “In a wide open OROY race, I went with a player that deserves as much recognition as possible despite playing a position that will likely never give him the award (but we should, dang it!),” writes Nate. “Grey Zabel was a polished player entering the NFL, but it’s still a tough transition from college to the NFL, especially from the FCS level. The North Dakota State product has already played like a good starter, and I would say even at a Pro Bowl level, over the first two months of his career.”

🏈 Heisman watch: Sayin, Mendoza, Simpson

Ohio State QB Julian Sayin. (John Fisher/Getty Images)

It’s a three-man race for the Heisman Trophy with about a month to go in the 2025 college football season. Unsurprisingly, all three frontrunners are QBs. And if the College Football Playoff began today, they’d be leading the No. 1, No. 2 and No. 4 teams in the field.

Ohio State QB Julian Sayin (+150 bat BetMGM)

Passing stats: 176-218, 2,188 yds, 23 TD, 3 INT
Schedule: at Purdue, vs. UCLA, vs. Rutgers, at No. 21 Michigan

Sayin has emerged as the Heisman favorite in his first full season as a starter thanks to his historic accuracy. The California native’s completion percentage (80.7%) is on pace to shatter the single-season record (77.44%) set by Oregon’s Bo Nix in 2023.

Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza (+250)

Passing stats: 162-225, 2,124 yds, 25 TD, 4 INT
Schedule: at Penn State, vs. Wisconsin, at Purdue

The Cal transfer has consistently showed why he’s the top QB on our NFL Draft board in his first season with the Hoosiers. He’s thrown for multiple TDs in six of nine games so far and has also rushed for 220 yards and four scores.

Alabama QB Ty Simpson (+350)

Passing stats: 177-261, 2,184 yds, 20 TD, 1 INT
Schedule: vs. LSU, vs. No. 11 Oklahoma, vs. Eastern Illinois, at Auburn

Will marquee games over the next two weeks help Simpson’s case? Being the top QB on the top team in the SEC can be an advantage in the Heisman race, and there’s a chance Alabama could have a spot in the SEC title game locked up with wins over the Tigers and Sooners.

Other Heisman contenders: Texas A&M QB Marcel Reed (+750); Georgia QB Gunner Stockton (+2000); Vanderbilt QB Diego Pavia (+2500); Ole Miss QB Trinidad Chambliss (+3500); Ohio State WR Jeremiah Smith (+4000); Oregon QB Dante Moore (+4000); Notre Dame RB Jeremiyah Love (+400); Georgia Tech QB Haynes King (+5000); Notre Dame QB CJ Carr (+6000).

🏀 College hoops trivia

Kansas and UNC players during the 2022 National Championship. (Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

Kansas (2,415 wins) plays UNC (2,396) on Saturday in a matchup of the second- and third-winningest programs in men’s D-I history.

Question: Can you name the other three programs that fill out the top five?

Hint: Three different conferences.

Answer at the bottom.

🏀 Good reads: NBA edition

Dan Devine: Is this the best Luka Dončić we’ve ever seen? The Lakers star is on a historic season-opening heater

Dončić is averaging 40 points, 11 rebounds and 9 assists per game after another monster performance on Wednesday. Asked to describe what he’s seen from Dončić so far, Marcus Smart found himself forced past grammar, diction and sense. “Fantasticness,” he said.

Tom Haberstroh: The Victor Wembanyama takeover isn’t being televised nearly enough

The Spurs were originally slated to be on national TV only 22 times, which wasn’t even among the top 10 teams. It’s time to correct that and treat Wemby like the global phenomenon he is. Put him in front of American audiences as much as possible. The future of the NBA’s popularity depends on it.

Steve Jones: NBA rookie ranking: Top 10 players

VJ Edgecombe (76ers) scored 34 points in his NBA debut, the third most ever by a rookie, and has not looked back since. He tops our list, followed by Cedric Coward (Grizzlies), Cooper Flagg (Mavericks), Dylan Harper (Spurs) and Kon Knueppel (Hornets).

Kelly Iko: The only thing seemingly pointing up for the Grizzlies? Bad vibes

Ja Morant is distant. The spacing is poor. The shooting is off. Add it all up, and little is going right for the Grizzlies, who have lost four straight games and look like a shell of the fun-loving, energetic brand they’ve worn proudly for years.

Trivia answer: Kentucky (2,423 wins), Duke (2,336), UCLA (2,026)

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