Sports
Wetzel: A coach’s lessons on fatherhood … from 1948
Inside a tiny courtroom in a tiny (population 202) Mississippi town on Thursday, the football world awaited a decision on the college eligibility of Ole Miss star quarterback Trinidad Chambliss.
Chambliss would eventually be granted an injunction against the NCAA that would provide him with a sixth year of eligibility and send him back to Oxford as a Heisman favorite for the championship-contending Rebels. The NFL draft would have to wait another year.
Yet for all the significance of the decision, the most passionately discussed item to emerge was about … fatherhood?
Part of Chambliss’ argument was that in 2022, a severe case of tonsillitis significantly impacted his sleep and caused him to not see any on-field action, entitling him to a medical redshirt season.
Ole Miss quarterbacks coach Joe Judge, formerly the head coach of the New York Giants, was called in to testify for Chambliss. One of the questions was about the importance of sleep for football players.
Judge decided to lean on his experience in both the pros and college and discuss how he handled players who had a child born during the season — and their significant others.
“We would have to educate,” Judge said of the conversations he would have with the baby’s mother. “This is always a tough conversation to have. It’s not even popular.
“We would have to educate significant others who may have been pregnant during the season or have a baby during the season,” Judge continued.
“And you have to educate them on, ‘You have this baby in the middle of season, that father has to play good football, right? It’s a day-by-day production business. He has to be ready to perform and go out there and play … You need to let him sleep. He needs to be in another room, detached.'”
“You have to explain to the mother like, ‘Hey, listen, he ain’t waking up for midnight feedings. After the season, he’s full-metal jacket. You do whatever you want with him. He can change every diaper. But in season, he’s got to have different priorities,'” Judge concluded.
Football coaches, they don’t just teach the game, they teach life lessons … from 1948.
Let’s give Joe Judge a little grace here. The married father of four is known in football for his decency and for being extremely family-oriented, which isn’t universal in that business. Testifying can also be nerve-racking, and given a do-over, he’d probably have left that analogy out or at least added further explanation.
He was trying to make a point to help his player get an injunction; he certainly didn’t expect it to go viral.
And look, if one parent wants to go through the meat grinder of handling every single middle-of-the-night feeding, diaper change and so on, all so the other parent can rack out in another room 10 hours a night because he has to play Arkansas next week, hey, that’s up to the couple.
Or maybe what Judge was suggesting — given how much money college players, let alone his former NFL players, earn — was to hire a night nurse or get family help to ease the burden.
That said, a passionate debate about fatherhood erupted.
“Don’t listen to this, young men,” DeMarvion Overshown, a Dallas Cowboys linebacker (and father of two boys) wrote on social media above a video clip of Judge’s comments. “Be there for the mother of your child and let the rest take care of itself.
“Those midnight feedings turn into financial freedom, because nothing will inspire you more than being a great father,” Overshown concluded.
Overshown couldn’t be more correct about that.
Being a father isn’t about being one when it’s convenient and you’re properly rested. It’s about being there for the hard stuff, and there will be more hard stuff than a new dad can even fathom, far harder than 2 a.m. wakeups (little kids, little problems; big kids, big problems).
Those early moments are about connecting with a child that you love more than you could have ever imagined, a bond that will refocus your entire world to the point where you would do anything for them, including pushing to become the best version of yourself.
That includes trying to embrace maturity and accountability, focus and perspective. It can drive you to be a better student, better worker, a better friend and certainly a better partner.
There is no doubt that proper rest helps athletes, but so can exchanging selfishness for selflessness and teamwork. Showing a child respect for their mother may be the most important thing you can do.
Balancing work and home is one of the great challenges of life, whether the office is a sold-out football stadium or not. Providing for your family is part of every father’s job, but providing means far more than just money.
Those midnight feedings tend to produce midnight lessons you can’t learn any other way.
SYDNEY: As Twenty20 cricket competitions explode around the world, Australia’s Big Bash League is struggling to chart a vision for the future, after plans to privatise its franchises stalled.
Cricket Australia chief Todd Greenberg is adamant that outside investment is necessary to shore up the game’s financial future and keep pace with a boom in other well-funded leagues played in a similar time slot.
They include the UAE’s ILT20, South Africa’s SA20, and New Zealand’s privately-backed NZ20 scheduled to start in December 2027, all bidding for the best local and overseas players.
“If those salary caps (of other leagues) are significantly higher than ours over the coming years, and players can earn more in those areas, then players will follow those. That’s a real risk to us,” Greenberg told local media.
“I want to make sure that for Australian cricket, our ambition is to have a league that runs at the key part of the year for us, which is the December-January window, and it’s the best T20 league in the world at that moment in time.
“To do that, we have to have a significant amount of money in our salary caps to attract not only the best players from overseas, but to retain and attract our own best players.”
He added: “The concept of bringing private capital to cricket is inevitable at some point.”
While not a direct competitor as it runs in a different window, the benchmark Indian Premier League has seen massive success thanks to wealthy benefactors, with England’s The Hundred also on a roll after an influx of private capital.
But it is a thorny issue in Australia with an initial proposal to sell stakes in each of BBL’s eight teams stalling last month amid concerns about a loss of control for the game’s local custodians.
While the Victorian, Western Australian and Tasmanian cricket associations voiced support and South Australia said it was open to the idea, New South Wales and Queensland rejected the move.
Queensland Cricket, which controls the Brisbane Heat, said it was worried about player payments skyrocketing to unsustainable levels, and that private owners may not be as invested in the grassroots game.
Cricket NSW, which operates the Sydney Sixers and Sydney Thunder, was similarly concerned that it could be detrimental to how the sport is governed and how local players are produced.
‘Sugar hit’
There are also fears about an Indian takeover, with the most likely buyers seen as the rich IPL team owners who have invested in other short-form competitions around the globe.
Former Australian captain Greg Chappell is in the “No” camp, arguing that the BBL belongs to the states and communities that have built it into a successful and well-attended product.
While acknowledging the commercial realities, he said selling it off was not the answer.
“The moment you introduce private ownership at scale, you introduce a set of priorities that may not always align with the long-term health of the game,” he wrote in the Sydney Morning Herald.
“Private investors, however well-intentioned, answer to shareholders, not to Australian cricket.”
Andrew Jones, a former head of strategy at Cricket Australia who was instrumental in the launch of the BBL, is similarly unconvinced.
“A one-off sale is a sugar hit, not a solution,” he said in The Australian newspaper, arguing that revenues can be better grown through sponsorships, wagering, ticketing, and more focus on commercialising the women’s game.
Despite scepticism, Greenberg remains confident and is now eyeing a hybrid ownership model.
This would allow the BBL franchises keen to sell stakes to do so while allowing those against to maintain complete ownership.
“If we end up not going together at the same time, can we still extract the same level of revenue, and can we extract the same level of value?” he said.
“I think we can, but I’ve got to do the work to satisfy a recommendation that would ultimately go to the members and our board.”
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The New York Knicks took a commanding 3-0 lead in the Eastern Conference Finals on Saturday as the franchise eyes its first NBA Finals berth since 1999.
Jalen Brunson scored 30 points to lead New York to a 121-108 win over Cleveland, while Mikal Bridges added 22 as the Knicks never trailed in Game 3.
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The New York Knicks bench reacts during the fourth quarter against the Cleveland Cavaliers in game three of the Eastern Conference finals at Rocket Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, on May 23, 2026. (David Richard/Imagn Images)
New York is the seventh team in NBA history to win at least 10 straight during a postseason run. The last team to do it was the Boston Celtics, who also went on a 10-game run on their way to the 2024 title.
All but one of the Knicks’ wins have been by double digits, with an average margin of victory of 22.5 points.
Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell finished with 23 points in 38 minutes, while teammate James Harden added 21. Cleveland shot 12 of 41 from 3-point range and 12 of 19 from the foul line.
Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell (45) drives to the basket against New York Knicks guard Landry Shamet (44) during the first quarter in Game Three of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals at Rocket Arena on May 23, 2026 in Cleveland, Ohio. (Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
Cleveland rallied and tied it at 50-all on a jumper by Harden before the Knicks countered with a 10-1 run. They went into halftime with a 60-54 advantage.
Music superstar Taylor Swift was courtside for Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals on Saturday night alongside fiancé and Ohio native Travis Kelce.
Swift and Kelce, who recently signed a three-year, $54 million contract with the Kansas City Chiefs, took their seats in Rocket Arena shortly before the opening tip.
Singer Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce attend Game Three of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals between the New York Knicks and Cleveland Cavaliers at Rocket Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, on May 23, 2026. (Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
With the Cavs trailing 91-82 at the end of the third quarter, Kelce and Swift were shown on the arena’s giant scoreboard. Fans cheered wildly as Kelce showed off his team cap and wine-and-gold shirt.
Game 4 is set for Monday night at Rocket Arena in Cleveland. The series will return to Madison Square Garden for Game 5 on Wednesday, if necessary.
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Meanwhile, in the Western Conference, the San Antonio Spurs will host the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 4 on Sunday night. Oklahoma City enters the matchup with a 2-1 series lead.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Sports
NASCAR’s Truck Series and O’Reilly Autoparts Series honor Kyle Busch with moments of silence at Charlotte
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The NASCAR world is paying tribute to Kyle Busch this weekend, and that includes some classy ones from two series in which the late driver had a lot of success.
While Busch — who passed away Thursday after “severe pneumonia [that] progressed into sepsis” — had been a full-time driver in NASCAR’s top series, the Cup Series, for more than 20 years, he still competed occasionally in both the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series and the Craftsman Truck Series.
He was especially known for his dominance in the Truck Series, winning 69 of his 184 races, and at one point owned a team. In fact, the final win of Busch’s career came just under a week before his death in a Truck Series race at Dover.
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Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 7 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, is introduced before the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series SpeedyCash.com 250 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Texas, on May 1, 2026. (James Gilbert/Getty Images)
On Friday, the Truck Series was in Charlotte as part of the Coca-Cola 600 weekend for a race that Busch was supposed to take part in.
NASCAR, RACING WORLD REACTS TO KYLE BUSCH’S SHOCKING DEATH AT 41: ‘CANNOT COMPREHEND THIS NEWS’
Corey Day was in the No. 7 Chevrolet for Spire Motorsports, the truck in which Busch took his final win, and it was set to start on pole after Friday’s qualifying was rained out.
Kyle Busch celebrates the final win of his NASCAR career at Dover Motor Speedway. (Photo by David Hahn/Icon Sportswire)
Before the race was set to begin on Friday evening, teams and fans held a moment of silence for Busch.
Unfortunately, the race never got underway and was postponed until Saturday morning and then again to Saturday night.
The O’Reilly Autoparts Series, which Busch raced in many times and won many times during his career, also took a moment to remember him before their race at Charlotte on Saturday.
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That race was also suspended due to rain.
There will be some heavy hearts on Sunday when the Coca-Cola 600, the NASCAR Cup Series’ longest race of the year, gets started at 6 p.m. ET.
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