Ball Girl #069: Guess who ESPN is role playing?

Captain Obvious.

ESPN recently conducted a poll on the most GOATed QB in the NFL among league experts. Surprise surprise, Tom Brady won. Kinda feels like a waste of marketing dollars, but sometimes we just need outside validation, I guess? Or is this just what happens when you put a group of grown men together in a room with nothing else to talk about?

Can I have your number?

1: Number of NFL teams that have neither hosted nor played in the Super Bowl. This impressive accolade goes to the Cleveland Browns! Congrats, guys.

TLDRs

⚾ Juan Soto- Washington Nationals STAR- is going to the San Diego Padres in a blockbuster trade.

🏌️ The Wyndham Championship kicks off Thursday in Greensboro, NC. Players will compete not only for moola, but more importantly to make their way into the post-season. Read on for more.

🏁 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes, 7-time world champ) is joining the Walmart family in ownership of the Denver Broncos. Yup, the professional football team. And you thought your friends from high school meeting your college friends was worlds colliding…

🏈 The season has yet to begin but key players like James Washington and Tim Patrick are already getting injured- Read on for more.

🎓🏈 DraftKings recently released their current predictions for the 2023 CFB winner. You can see the full list here but the biggest takeaway is that half of the top 10 teams are in the SEC. Not that we needed more evidence for how nastyyyy the SEC is.

MLB

The trade deadline has come and past; the top prospects can never last

  • What is the trade deadline and how does trading work? The deadline was on Tuesday — it was the last day that teams could trade for new players before the postseason. Trading in the MLB usually involves swapping bundles of players, including players still in the minor leagues who are considered top prospects.

  • The biggest story from the trade deadline? Juan Soto is officially going to the Padres.

  • Juan Soto is one of the best hitters in the league. He leads the league in walks this season, and hits for average and with power (meaning: he gets hits consistently, and hits a lot of homers).Everyone was fighting for him, but the Padres came up with a sweet deal that the Nationals couldn’t turn down. The deal was, you give us Juan Soto, and we’ll give you basically every top minor league prospect we have. Oof. The Padres are stacked now, but they had to sacrifice a lot of future talent.

NFL

Training camp has wide receivers HURTING (literally)

  • Dallas Cowboys — James Washington, newly acquired wide receiver for Dallas, suffered a foot injury and is expected to miss 6-10 weeks. This does not bode well for the Cowboys… Dak Prescott (QB) will have to depend heavily on CeeDee Lamb, the only other solid wide receiver left (Cedarian DeLeon is his full name, btw).

  • Denver Broncos — Tim Patrick, another wide receiver, tore his ACL in a practice yesterday. This is a huge hit for the Broncos’ offense — Patrick led the team in touchdown receptions last year and was expected to be a big target for their new QB, Russell Wilson.

Golf 

Up next for PGA: Wyndham Championship

  • The Wyndham Championship kicks off Thursday at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, NC. Players will compete for a slice of a $7.3mm purse, but the real prize here is making way to the post-season. Webb Simpson (117th), Rickie Fowler (123rd), and Cameron Champ (130th) remain on the bubble. Betting odds have Will Zalatoris taking first, followed by Shane Lowry.

What’s up with LIV?

  • The next LIV tournament isn’t for a little while (September 2-4 in Boston). LIV is likely taking a break to find more money for these absurd purses. This past weekend’s tournament purse was $20mm.

Must Watches This Week:

Wednesday August 3rd

  • 9:45pm ET, LA Dodgers vs. San Fran Giants, MLB

Thursday August 4th

  • 3:45pm ET, LA Dodgers vs. San Fran Giants, MLB

Time Out for the Tea 

Just as everyone expected…

  • Kendall Jenner and Devin Booker are officially back together. Who is surprised? Literally no one. After recently breaking up after dating for two years because Kendall felt they were on “different paths”, an insider told E! News that "they worked out their issues and decided they want to move forward and be together.” Jenner recently posted a video of their recent vacation on her IG, showing Booker throwing axes at a tree. How wholesome.

Superwomen row across the Pacific

  • In just thirty-four days, 14 hours and 11 minutes, the team of Libby Costello, Sophia Denison-Johnston, Brooke Downes and Adrienne Smith made it across the Pacific (2,400 nautical miles), from San Francisco to Hawaii. The girls rowed in pairs for two hours at a time and slept in 90-minute increments. Read on and watch video of their journey below.