Aaron Rodgers looks solid against 49ers, plus the latest on Deshaun Watson

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Good morning! We got Scorigami in NFL Week 1. What a life.

While You Were Sleeping: Aaron Rodgers is just fine

Aaron Rodgers played a football game last night. Did you hear? It really happened, in maybe the most anticipated matchup of Week 1, a 32-19 Jets loss to the 49ers.

Both teams have got to be OK with this. Two takeaways:

  • For the Jets, Rodgers is healthy and showed plenty of spark despite a mediocre stat line (13-of-21, 167 yards with one touchdown and one pick). The bigger problem might be the run game’s struggle (68 yards rushing). They also sorely missed newly acquired pass rusher Haason Reddick, who’s still holding out.
  • For the 49ers, an offseason full of bad vibes seemed to disappear. Brock Purdy was efficient. Christian McCaffrey didn’t play, but unheralded Jordan Mason did his best CMC impression with 147 yards rushing and a touchdown. This team should be atop the NFC rankings until further notice.

Get a full look at Week 1 from Zak Keefer as we prepare for Thursday. We also had two (nearly opposite) Rodgers news items yesterday:

  • Netflix will release the docuseries “Aaron Rodgers: Enigma” in December after chronicling last year’s lost season. More details here.
  • You know who doesn’t care much about Rodgers’ controversies? His hometown of Chico, Calif., where he has made an incredible difference to nearly everyone. Zack Rosenblatt traveled to Chico to tell the story. It’s worth a read this morning.

Onward:

Zoinks: Big Number Watch is on

This is the time of year when baseball (maybe unfairly) falls to the proverbial back burner while football gets going. Our eyes drift toward the gridiron as a marathon season on the diamond draws to a close. Feels wrong, right? 

We’ll have more later this week on the brewing playoff races. Today, we cede the floor to the Big Number chasers:

  • Aaron Judge is trying to break his own AL home run record of 62, set two seasons ago. He has 51 dingers right now with 18 games to play. At his current pace, he’ll finish with 57 homers. New York’s remaining opponents: Kansas City, Boston, Seattle, Oakland, Baltimore and Pittsburgh. I hope he gets close for our sake.
  • Shohei Ohtani, meanwhile, is trying to become the first 50-50 player in MLB history. He stole a base last night in the Dodgers’ 10-4 loss to the Cubs, giving him 46 home runs and 47 steals with 18 games left in the season. I think he’s going to get there.

Big Number Watch will continue.

News to Know

Watson accused of sexual assault in new lawsuit
A Texas woman sued Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson yesterday, accusing him of sexual assault, sexual battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The alleged incident occurred in October 2020, squarely in the same timeframe of Watson’s previously alleged sexual misconduct. Two dozen women filed suit against the quarterback. The new suit contains troubling details, and the woman states she had been discouraged to come forward after seeing how the previous accusers were treated. Read our full report here.

MLB prospects get the call
Top Yankees prospect Jasson Domínguez went 1-for-4 with a single in New York’s 10-4 win over the Royals last night. It was his season debut, which had been a long time coming, if you ask pundits and fans. Across the country, Texas called up star farmhand Kumar Rocker, twice a first-round draft pick, who will make his MLB debut Thursday. Rocker had an, ahem, rocky road to the majors but has been nails since returning from Tommy John surgery.

Hanson apologizes for Brady zing
NFL RedZone host Scott Hanson said he was sorry for his criticism of Tom Brady on Sunday, when Hanson said Brady had to “get more excited than that in the booth” after the Cowboys toyed with kicking a 71-yard field goal. Hanson called the potshot “tongue in cheek.” More context here.

More news

The Replay: Wait, how much was FSU’s NIL budget?

Welcome back to The Replay, where The Athletic’s Yifan Wu circles back to a story you might’ve missed.

Last week, this story about Florida State’s NIL budget became my Roman Empire. Our own Bruce Feldman reported that the Seminoles spent almost $2 million on their starting front out of a $12 million team budget. 

The math doesn’t math for me. Conventional thinking says a bigger budget leads to a better roster. Yet preseason No. 10 Florida State’s record is 0-2 after losing to Georgia Tech in Dublin, Ireland, and then falling to Boston College in Tallahassee, the Dublin of northwest Florida.

The nuance of NIL science might be too complex for me or Dabo Swinney to comprehend. But after taking some classes from the Brian Kelly School of Week 1 existential crises, I want to report that my Big Ten comrade Oregon might have escaped an upset due to NIL math. Spoiler alert: A bigger budget helped the Ducks two weekends ago, and the realities of college football in 2024 caught up with Idaho.

What have we learned? You’re gonna have to spend, so spend carefully, I guess.

Thanks as always, Yifan. We are now adjusting the Pulse NIL budget.

Watch and Listen

đŸ“ș MLB: Orioles at Red Sox
7:10 p.m. ET on TBS
Both teams have playoff implications here. Baltimore is still locked in a tight battle with the Yankees for the AL East crown, while Boston sits three games back of the last AL wild-card spot.

đŸ“ș WNBA: Lynx at Dream
7:30 p.m. ET on NBA TV
Minnesota has its playoff spot secured, but Atlanta is one of three teams vying for the eighth and final slot with five games left in the season. Drama ahead.

Stream games like these here and get tickets here.

🎧 The Windup hosted Joey Votto for what was an insightful convo about his retirement, the state of the game and more. I’d listen to anything with Votto, really. Catch it here.

Pulse Picks

Arizona — yes, Arizona — has a superstar quarterback-wide receiver duo. They helped lead the Wildcats to a 10-win season last year, but both pondered leaving after former coach Jedd Fisch’s departure. Brian Hamilton has the story on how Noah Fifita and Tetairoa McMillan decided to stay, thanks to a close friendship and a Panda Express fortune cookie.

Chris Vannini is back with his ranking of college football teams Nos. 1-134. Texas is extremely back. 

Always worth a read: Mike Sando’s weekly Pick 6 column, which was particularly insightful yesterday on the debuts of Jim Harbaugh and Jerod Mayo. 

Jake Ciely has fantasy football waiver wire recommendations for Week 2. An invaluable resource. 

Want to buy an Aaron Judge card? We have a full guide on the wide array of options, from rookie cards to 
 pieces of corn stalks. Sure. 

Our hockey crew ranked NHL rebuilds and picked which non-playoff teams from last year could contend for the Stanley Cup this season. See where your team landed. 

Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: Our story on Kendrick Lamar getting the Super Bowl halftime show. 

Most-read on the website yesterday: Andrew Marchand’s story on Tom Brady’s shaky debut.

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(Top photo: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)



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About The Author

Avatar of Rachel Thomas
Rachel Thomas is a writer who focuses on arts, automotive, travel, and fashion. She also writes about her hobbies: cooking, reading, and playing video games. Rachel has been a writer for Free Press Georgia since 2016. In that time she has written about everything from the best restaurants in Atlanta to how to make your own face mask at home. When she's not writing for FPG she spends her time with her husband and two cats in their apartment.

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