This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.
Goooood morning, Winners! Welcome back to the Morning Win. Thanks so much for reading today. We appreciate you giving us a bit of your time.
It’s training camp time in the NFL, folks. And you know what that means — it’s also contract negotiation time. Veterans around the league are holding out to give their contract negotiations a bit more juice.
The biggest holdout of the summer this year is Jordan Love’s by far. Well, I mean, it’s technically not a holdout. He showed up at practice this week. He’s just not practicing until the deal is done.
The Packers should want to get it done quickly! First, QB holdouts are always headliners. You don’t want any distractions for the team heading into the season.
Second, he’s earned this deal. Yes, he’ll get the most lucrative contract in NFL history, but that’s what the market dictates. Trevor Lawrence signed a $275 million extension earlier this summer and, simply put, Jordan Love was better last season. He’s earned this.
Our Christian D’Andrea has more:
“Love could have been relegated to a supporting role and walked away with less than maximum value for his rookie contract. Instead, he stepped into a hedged bet and won big. His poise in the pocket was invaluable to a team stuck in limbo after Aaron Rodgers decided he wanted out and the state of Wisconsin around him collectively said “fine.” Per Sumer Sports, his expected points added (EPA) of 85.9 was fifth-best in the NFL, trailing only Brock Purdy, Tua Tagovailoa, Dak Prescott and Josh Allen.”
The full piece is well worth your time. Christian breaks down how Love bet on himself and how that bet has paid off. What’s more, the Packers are in a position to be able to afford to pay him. The team has $28 million in cap space to absorb a contract this season and have $47 million in projected cap space for 2025, D’Andrea writes. The money is not an issue.
That brings me to the third and final reason why Green Bay should be rushing to get this done. This team is staring at potentially 40 years of sustained excellence at quarterback — something very few other teams can claim.
From 1992 to 2022, the Packers played 497 games. Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers started in 476 of those games. They threw a combined 916 touchdowns against 390 interceptions and amassed over 120K passing yards over a 30-year period.
The football gods have blessed Green Bay with talent at quarterback over and over again. Now, the team is staring at an opportunity to nail down Jordan Love, the heir apparent to Green Bay’s QB crown these days.
That’s not just Jordan Love signing on the dotted line — it’s potentially 40 years of excellence.
Love’s got a long way to go to meet the bar his predecessors set before him, but there’s no question that he’s on his way. It’s only a matter of time before Green Bay gets this done.
But I’ll be honest. It needs to be done, like, yesterday.
There’s a chance, folks
TNT might not be done with the NBA quite yet. The company has decided to evoke its matching rights on the NBA’s new broadcast deal with Amazon, according to the latest from The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand.
That means there’s a chance that Inside the NBA might actually survive beyond next season. But, even with the matching rights being used here, that chance is still slim.
The NBA still wants to work with Amazon. And that’s where things could get messy. We explain more here:
“Though TNT has evoked its matching rights, it still isn’t a done deal that the NBA will return to the network after next season. Remember, TNT still retains the rights for the 2024-25 NBA season. The league’s new broadcast deal doesn’t kick in until the 2025-26 season.
The NBA reportedly intends to move forward with the Amazon deal, according to Marchand’s reporting. The agreed upon deal between the NBA and Amazon features things TNT wouldn’t be able to offer.”
The NBA wants TNT to get out of the way here. Either the league will have to negotiate a separate package for the company and retain it as a partner, pay it off somehow to go away or they just take this thing to court.
Nobody wants to see that, but there just aren’t many other options moving forward. The ball is back in the NBA’s court again. It’s time for the league to make a move.
One last shot
Andy Murray is turning this summer’s Olympics into his swan song. He’ll be retiring after his appearance for Great Britain in the Games, he announced via social media.
Arrived in Paris for my last ever tennis tournament @Olympics
Competing for 🇬🇧 have been by far the most memorable weeks of my career and I’m extremely proud to get do it one final time! pic.twitter.com/keqnpvSEE1— Andy Murray (@andy_murray) July 23, 2024
What a career it’s been for Murray. His only downfall was being born at the wrong time — arguably, the three greatest men’s tennis players who ever existed during his prime were Rodger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.
Still, he won three Grand Slam singles titles (twice at Wimbledon, once at the U.S. Open) and was even the World’s No. 1 player for a stint in 2016. It’s been quite the career for Murray as he shuts it down here. That’s worth celebrating.
I hope he goes out with a bang.
Quick hits: Racing against Olympians … Jordan Love’s big bet on himself … and more
— Our Michelle Martinelli jumped in the pool to race against two of the best swimmers in the world. You surely know how she did, but watch it anyway here.
— Make sure you read Christian’s full piece on how Jordan Love’s big bet on himself paid off. This is a great story.
— Those anti-sex beds in the Olympics village don’t seem very, uh, anti at all. Charles Curtis has more here.
— Cory Woodroof says Aaron Rodgers being named a top 100 player in the NFL is confusing. I agree.
— Here’s Cory again ranking all of the X-Men movies ahead of Deadpool & Wolverine’s release later this week.
— Arike Ogunbowale called Caitlin Clark one of her favorite players. This is awesome. Meg Hall has more.
That’s a wrap, folks! Thanks for reading. Let’s do this again tomorrow. Peace.
-Sykes ✌️
