Edition 14

A quick rundown of the biggest stories in sports—without assuming you know every player, rule, or stat. Whether you’re at happy hour, in the office, watching with friends, or on a date with a sports fanatic, you’ll have something to contribute to the conversation.

I’m trying VERY hard not to overreact this week.

The Panthers went into Philly and won. The Dodgers got SWEPT. Five of the top seven college football teams lost. The WNBA Finals are underway.

Oh — and just when you thought there were enough sports to keep up with…

The NBA is back.

October really said clear your schedule.

Let’s get into it.

Carolina went into Philadelphia and beat the Eagles 25–14, giving the Panthers their second straight win and — everybody stay calm — a winning record.

Bryce Young threw for 281 yards and two touchdowns, Chuba Hubbard ran for 120 yards and a touchdown, and Tommy Tremble caught both of Bryce’s touchdown passes.

Was it perfect?

Absolutely not.

The Panthers somehow racked up around 150 penalty yards and STILL won the game. Which honestly may be the most Panthers way possible to get to 3–2.

I am not saying anything crazy yet.

But I am looking at the standings a little longer than usual.

The Brewers just did something nobody saw coming:

They swept the Dodgers.

Milwaukee won the NLCS 4–0, eliminating the back-to-back defending champs and reaching the World Series for the first time since 1982.

And it wasn’t like they just cruised through four easy games.

The Brewers became the first team ever to sweep a best-of-seven postseason series despite trailing at some point in every single game.

Meanwhile, Tampa Bay currently leads Cleveland 3–2 in the ALCS, meaning Milwaukee is just waiting to find out who it gets Friday night.

The World Series is officially almost here.

The Golden State Valkyries won Game 1 of the WNBA Finals 68–64 over the Atlanta Dream.

Gabby Williams led the way with 26 points, and Golden State basically slammed the door defensively at the end — Atlanta didn’t score for the final three-plus minutes.

Reminder:

The Valkyries are in their SECOND YEAR OF EXISTENCE.

They made the playoffs in Year 1.

Now they’re three wins away from a championship in Year 2.

Completely normal behavior.

If your favorite college team was ranked near the top this weekend… statistically, you should have been nervous.

Five of the top seven teams lost.

No. 1 Georgia lost to unranked Auburn. No. 2 Notre Dame lost to BYU. No. 7 Texas lost to Florida. Alabama lost. And apparently nobody wanted to keep their ranking.

The aftermath?

Miami is now No. 1 in the country for the first time since 2002, and BYU is No. 2 — its highest ranking since its 1984 national championship season.

College football makes absolutely no sense.

Which is exactly why it’s fun.

🏀 THE NBA IS BACK (Tuesday, Oct. 20)
The NBA regular season officially starts Tuesday with a full opening-night tripleheader.

The one I’d circle?

76ers @ Knicks — 7 PM ET

The Knicks are raising their 2026 championship banner at Madison Square Garden before the game, and Philly shows up with its very new-look roster.

Then Thunder @ Spurs at 9:30 PM ET gives us a rematch of last season’s Western Conference Finals.

🏀 WNBA FINALS

Game 3 - (Wednesday, Oct. 21 - 8PM ET)

Game 4 - (Saturday, Oct. 24 - 1PM ET)
The series moves to Atlanta — and into the much bigger State Farm Arena — for Games 3 and 4.

🏈 Patriots @ Bears (Thursday, Oct. 22 - 8:15PM ET)
Thursday night. Soldier Field. Simple enough.

⚾️ WORLD SERIES - GAME 1 (Friday, Oct. 23 - 8PM ET)
Milwaukee hosts either Tampa Bay or Cleveland.

After waiting 44 years to get back here, Brewers fans are going to be LOUD.

🏈 No. 14 Houston @ No. 10 Utah (Saturday, Oct. 24 - 10:15PM ET)
Two ranked Big 12 teams, Utah is still undefeated, and College GameDay is heading to Salt Lake City.

Yes, it’s late.

Consider it your Saturday night plans.

🏈 Buccaneers @ Panthers (Sunday, Oct. 25 - 1PM ET)
Carolina comes home at 3–2 with a chance to keep this little winning streak going against a division rival.

I’m saying nothing else.

I’ve learned my lesson.

🏈 Chiefs @ Seahawks (Sunday, Oct. 25 - 8:20 PM ET)
An undefeated Kansas City team under the lights in Seattle?

Yeah, I’ll be watching.

🏈 Cowboys @ Eagles (Monday, Oct. 16 - 8:15PM ET)
Dallas and Philly.

Two teams that desperately need something good to happen.

This should be peaceful and normal!

🩺 Jalen Hurts is out for the rest of the season. The Eagles announced Monday that Hurts has blood clots in his lungs and will be on blood thinners, meaning he can’t play contact sports for now. The good news: he’s stable and doctors expect him to make a full recovery.

😳 Tennessee finally won a football game. The Titans came back to beat Indianapolis 26–20 and picked up their first win of the season. Somewhere, Titans fans remembered what happiness feels like.

🐶 Cleveland beat Baltimore?! The Browns stunned the Ravens 13–10 on a late field goal. They are now the #1 team in the AFC North.

🔥 The Chiefs are still perfect. Kansas City moved to 5–0, and Patrick Mahomes tied Tom Brady for the fastest quarterback to reach 100 career wins — 131 starts. Casual.

🤯 Five of the top seven college team lost in ONE weekend. That had never happened before in the history of the AP poll. Again: nobody is safe.

Okay… we need to talk about what happened during Bills–Raiders because apparently tackling people wasn’t enough.

Just before halftime, Bills safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson and Raiders tight end Brock Bowers were going back and forth after a play.

Normal NFL trash talk.

Until Gardner-Johnson SPIT at him.

An official was standing right there, saw the whole thing and immediately tossed him from the game. Gardner-Johnson later apologized, admitted he let his emotions get the best of him and said he knew there would probably be consequences.

And consequences there were.

The NFL officially suspended him for one game for violating its sportsmanship rules.

The extra layer? Gardner-Johnson already has a reputation for getting under people’s skin. He’s been ejected before, fined plenty of times and is basically one of those players who seems to find himself in the middle of something wherever he goes.

Trash talk? Fine.

Getting into someone’s face? It’s football.

Spitting???

Yeah… we’ve officially crossed into gross.

The Bills still won 33–30, but somehow CJGJ managed to make himself one of the biggest stories of the game anyway.

And that is exactly why he’s in The Tea this week. ☕️

So last week I said I was choosing optimism against Philly.

And then the Panthers actually WON.

We somehow committed enough penalties to fill an entire rulebook, Bryce threw two touchdowns, Chuba ran for 120 yards, and we walked out of Philadelphia 3–2.

I went into the season asking for competitive football.

Now I’m checking the standings???

Dangerous territory.

But Carolina was somehow only part of the chaos this week.

The Dodgers got SWEPT, which I absolutely did not have on my October bingo card.

Then I look at college football and suddenly five of the top seven teams lost?? At this point, rankings apparently mean nothing.

And CJGJ SPITTING at another player??

Sir.

There is trash talk, and then there is whatever that was.

Between the Panthers winning, playoff baseball getting weird, college football imploding and the NFL continuing to provide unnecessary drama, I spent most of the weekend saying some version of:

“Wait… WHAT just happened?”

Honestly, exactly how I like my sports weekends.

The last time Milwaukee went to the World Series — 1982 — the Brewers were actually an American League team.

They didn’t move to the National League until 1998.

So this is officially the first World Series appearance in franchise history as an NL team.

Forty-four years and an entire league later…

They’re back.

“Five of the top seven college teams lost in one weekend”

Translation: the rankings basically got thrown in a blender.

I don’t really know what’s happening anymore.

The Panthers have a winning record. The Dodgers got swept. Miami is No. 1 in college football. A two-year-old WNBA franchise could win a championship.

And now the NBA is back too???

At this point, I’m just along for the ride.

October sports continue to do the absolute most — and honestly, I wouldn’t want it any other way.

See you next week.

Now you know. 💚