{"id":91758,"date":"2025-08-18T11:52:18","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T11:52:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/91758\/"},"modified":"2025-08-18T11:52:18","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T11:52:18","slug":"the-most-interesting-man-in-college-football-plus-nfl-trades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/91758\/","title":{"rendered":"The most interesting man in college football, plus NFL trades"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pulse Newsletter \ud83d\udce3 | This is The Athletic\u2019s daily sports newsletter. Sign up here<\/a> to receive The Pulse directly in your inbox.<\/p>\n

Good morning! Don\u2019t give up on that fly ball today.<\/p>\n

Prodigal Sons: The intriguing arc of Andrew Luck<\/p>\n

College football seems to change by the month, or week even. Even to the most astute viewer, it\u2019s hard to remember which team plays in which conference now, or which rules apply to anyone at any given time. But there are flashes when you realize how this sport has truly changed at the granular level.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I can tell you a crystal one for me: Stanford\u2019s firing<\/a> of former coach Troy Taylor, which came last March amid a bullying investigation. It wasn\u2019t Taylor\u2019s dismissal itself that stuck, it was who made the call: general manager Andrew Luck.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At some schools, the general manager is a ceremonious one, given to a program\u2019s famous alumnus who can help gin up interest and money. Luck fit that profile at Stanford, but he also had real power \u2026 much like an NFL GM would.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I filed that moment away then, and it\u2019s a perfect window today into Zak Keefer\u2019s interview<\/a> this morning with Luck, which I found compelling on multiple levels. Two quick things:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Luck may be the most interesting man in this sport, just by story arc alone. A quirky, uber-talented QB drafted No. 1 by the Colts and retired by 30. After some years in the emotional wilderness, he\u2019s found his love for the game again. He\u2019s still just 35 years old, and clearly wants to succeed at his alma mater.
He clearly feels pain and regret over how his NFL career ended. Not that it did, but how. He\u2019s always been a thoughtful quote, and that\u2019s no different today.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The full story is really great. Read it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

News to Know<\/p>\n

Scheffler gobbles up another win
What\u2019s left to say about Scottie Scheffler these days? We\u2019ve written at length about his Tiger Woods-like presence on Sundays, and yesterday\u2019s BMW Championship was no different, as Scheffler erased a four-shot deficit against poor Bob Macintyre to win his 18th career PGA Tour title. It\u2019s also his fifth win of the season, which includes two majors. What a year. Read more on his electric performance \u2014 including a chip-in \u2014 here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

An NFL transactions flurry
It was surprisingly busy on the NFL trade market yesterday, as the Texans sent wide receiver John Metchie III to the Eagles, a source told The Athletic<\/a>, in exchange for tight end Harrison Bryant and a fifth-round pick. Metchie is a big talent who has not broken out yet, as leukemia kept him off the field for his rookie year. In other possible trade news yesterday: Cincinnati is listening to offers<\/a> on Pro Bowl pass rusher Trey Hendrickson as the two sides continue to spar over a contract extension. \ud83d\udc40<\/p>\n

More news<\/p>\n

The Brewers lost their 14-game win streak<\/a> in extra innings despite a ninth-inning comeback against the Reds yesterday. Milwaukee is still an MLB-leading 78-45.
\nSpike Lee\u2019s multipart docuseries about former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick is no longer coming to ESPN after the parties experienced \u201ccreative differences.\u201d More context here<\/a>.
\nAlabama starting tailback Jam Miller is expected to miss the season opener vs. FSU with an upper-body injury suffered in Saturday\u2019s scrimmage. The senior\u2019s return timetable is uncertain<\/a>.
\nAstros slugger Yordan Alvarez will begin a minor-league rehab assignment tomorrow, moving him closer to a return after missing over three months with a fractured hand. Catch up on this injury saga<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udceb\u00a0Love The Pulse? Check out our other newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Things You Need to See: The ol\u2019 knee catch<\/p>\n

Giants center fielder Jung Hoo Lee pulled off what I can only call a Little-League catch yesterday, and I meant that as a high compliment. Just look at this:<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Little-League because he missed the initial catch: It\u2019s also Little-League because he somehow kept his focus and trapped the ball between his knees. Still counts!\u00a0<\/p>\n

Speaking of Little League baseball:<\/p>\n

What to Watch<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcfa LLBWS: Latin America vs. Japan
1 p.m. ET on ESPN
Once again, here\u2019s a placeholder for an entire day\u2019s worth of Little League action on ESPN. Four consecutive games ending with the 7 p.m. window.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcfa EPL: Everton at Leeds
3 p.m. ET on USA
Need more Premier League soccer after a great first weekend? Leeds has a ton to prove after earning a promotion to the EPL last season, and coach Daniel Farke might have the most pressure of anyone, as Phil Hay told us Friday<\/a>. Nerves make for good matches.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udcfa MLB: Mariners at Phillies
6:45 p.m. ET on MLB Network
Seattle sits tied atop a tight AL wild-card race right now while Philadelphia maintains a solid but loseable lead in the NL East (5 games). Good stretch game here.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Get tickets to games like these here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pulse Picks<\/p>\n

After The Athletic\u2019s excellent investigative series on the stalking of sports figures last week, reporters Carson Kessler and Nathan Fenno shared their takeaways. Make time for this one<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Chris Vannini unveiled his preseason ranking of all 136 FBS teams<\/a> today, with a comment on every single one. Whew.<\/p>\n

Despite the U.S. women\u2019s loss in the flag football final at the World Games yesterday, it\u2019s worth familiarizing yourself with star receiver Isabella Geraci and her meteoric rise<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another fun one from last week: The Atlanta Dream are now the only WNBA team without a mascot, so Steven Louis Goldstein shared a few ideas for them<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: Our interview with Greg Olsen<\/a> on the state of youth sports. He was spitting fire.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Most-read on the website yesterday: The Spike Lee story<\/a> mentioned above. <\/p>\n

(Top photo: Eakin Howard \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pulse Newsletter \ud83d\udce3 | This is The Athletic\u2019s daily sports newsletter. Sign up here to receive The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":91759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[1607,399,398,396,397,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-91758","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-college-football","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-football","12":"tag-ncaafootball","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}