The Athletic

The best leadership lesson former running back and coach Sherman Smith learned in his 25+ years in the NFL? "If you treat the people you lead the way they are, that’s what they’ll stay. If you treat them the way you want them to be, that’s what they’ll try to become. I saw the people that I led as future oak trees, not acorns."

3 daily habits Kansas City Royals general manager J.J. Picollo uses to be successful: 1) Make the bed every morning I am diligent about that. It’s from the book; everybody’s read it or heard the speech. But it makes a lot of sense and I passed that on to my kids. Before you’ve even brushed your teeth, you’ve accomplished something for the day. It’s that simple. 2) Go for a long walk every morning I try to go for an hour walk. It’s not an intentional thing; I don’t have a checklist of things I want to go through in my head. But I just get into the day a lot better. I work through some things in my mind that are there but without intentionally trying to address them. That walk helps me quite a bit. 3) Get away from the job every night I need something to bring me down, and it’s usually something unrelated to baseball. I put something mindless on TV (His favorite show: Peaky Blinders). You can’t work 24/7. You’ve got to have some sort of outlet. In my case, I try to get into a show for the last hour of the day so I’m not thinking about everything.

Quote of the day: “We should…enjoy our successes and learn to forgive ourselves for our failures.” — Hockey Hall of Famer Bobby Orr Source: "Orr: My Story"

A book recommendation...from USC athletic director Jen Cohen: "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron. Cohen: "I was lucky to read it during graduate school and it had a tremendous impact on how I developed and continue to develop myself holistically. Creativity fosters self-awareness, risk-taking and innovation — all so important to leadership. I go back to the lessons learned from this book any time I feel stuck or off-track."

Quote of the day: “You can lose, but you are not beaten unless you quit.”  — College Football Hall of Fame coach Don James

The NBA has finalized contracts with NBC and Amazon Prime Video, while maintaining ESPN as the home of The Finals, under agreements that will extend for 11 seasons and be worth $76 billion. TNT Sports continues to threaten to match.

Pat McAfee's exclamation mark to his opening monologue was calling Caitlin Clark the b-word. If you went down to Bristol and described anyone that way, you would likely be suspended or worse. Our Andrew Marchand on how McAfee and ESPN came up short ⤵️ https://lnkd.in/gpp3v4p5

Dat Nguyen forged his parents’ signatures to sign up for the football team in junior high. He went on to become a legend at Texas A&M and then drafted by the Dallas Cowboys, becoming the NFL’s first Vietnamese player. His story: https://lnkd.in/gPUbfJZB

BREAKING: TNT Sports is adding College Football Playoff games starting this season in a five-year sub-licensing agreement with ESPN, per The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand. The deal will see Warner Bros. Discovery’s TNT Sports and Max have two first round games over the initial two seasons of the contract. More details: https://lnkd.in/g43K5pMx

Would you pay up to $145 per month to watch every NFL game on TV this season?