The Sporting Tribune Today

NBA opening day is here, and the Sixers walked into Madison Square Garden on the Knicks' ring night and won. Tyrese Maxey led the way with 28, Jaylen Brown and LeBron James filled the stat sheet in their debuts, and an 11-0 run closed the third quarter. John Browner says Joel Embiid looked in the way and needs to live on the low block; Tim Parker joins to argue Maxey is being built as the guy, and they go a second round on whether Embiid should be forced into the post now or saved for April. Plus the Celtics blow...

The Niners survived Washington 23-17 on Monday night to move to 6-0 — after leading 23-3 — but may have lost Mike Evans to an Achilles injury, and John Browner has questions for the broadcast that compared Brock Purdy to Joe Montana. He has bigger ones for Jayden Daniels, who was sacked on a Hail Mary against a three-man rush a week after letting the clock run out. Arash Markazi joins on the best story in Los Angeles: UCLA beat Oregon, is undefeated and top 10 under Bob Chesney — and still couldn't crack 40,000 at the Rose Bowl, per Ben Bolch of the Califo...

The Rams were 12.5-point favorites at home. Arizona never scored a touchdown, went 0-for-5 in the red zone, and still won. Grant has seen enough: between the special teams, the offense McVay called, and new kicker Blake Grupe getting hurt trying to make a tackle on the kickoff after his first field goal, he says this team isn't making the playoffs. John isn't there yet — he wants to see the Rams with Myles Garrett and says the next four games are winnable. Josh Tariff joins with a stat for the week: for the first time since 2009, nobody in standard fa...

The three-peat is over. Milwaukee swept the Dodgers out of the NLCS, finishing it with six unanswered runs in Game 4 after Los Angeles led 4-0, and outscoring them 21-11 with seven home runs to one. John Browner gives the Brewers full credit and says the Dodgers simply looked tired after three straight deep October runs; Grant, who played the game through Division I, says Milwaukee played baseball the right way and LA didn't. The crew also asks why none of the NLCS games at Dodger Stadium sold out. Beav joins to call it a blue-collar city taking out the...

Grant was at SoFi Stadium for one of the best Monday Night Football games of the year — and it ended the way Rams games keep ending. Josh Allen and Matthew Stafford traded blows through eight lead changes and 35 fourth-quarter points before Buffalo blocked a 48-yard field goal to drop the Rams to 2-3. Grant is done giving Sean McVay the benefit of the doubt on special teams and the red zone; John says this one isn't on McVay at all, and that the real season starts when Myles Garrett comes back. John also worries about Puka Nacua's 24 targets. Tim Pa...

A winless team with an undrafted rookie quarterback walked into AT&T Stadium on Thursday Night Football and left with a 24-16 win. Bucky Irving ran for 165 yards and a touchdown, including a 72-yard burst to open the second half, Dak Prescott threw two tipped interceptions, and a fan in the tunnel told Dak the team was embarrassing — which Grant says was hard to argue with. John Browner puts it on the coaching, and goes further: Jerry Jones hires coaches he can control, the same reason Jimmy Johnson and Bill Parcells were shown the door. The crew also gives To...

Lane Johnson retired and Cam Jurgens was traded to Baltimore in the same week, and Beav says it's a state of emergency in Philadelphia — but one he's happy about, because ripping the Band-Aid off early means Howie Roseman can rebuild with two first-round picks and two seconds next spring. Then Beav goes full tinfoil hat: Saquon Barkley to Minnesota, Jalen Hurts to Houston or Pittsburgh, and Landon Dickerson to the Chargers, while John hits the cap button after every one. John also calls out Stephen A. Smith for going after Lane Johnson on air, and says if you're going to...

The Dodgers are one win from their third straight NLCS after beating the Braves 3-1 in Atlanta. Yoshinobu Yamamoto struck out a postseason-career-high 10 over seven innings to move to 8-1 in October, and John Browner says he's already the pitching version of Mr. October. Grant explains why Shohei Ohtani hitting fifth isn't the scandal people think, and the crew tracks the Padres' must-win game live as it happens. Then the Lakers' honeymoon: Luka's 21 in 16 minutes and Cam Carr's 19 have fans buying in, Grant included — but John says it was the Kings, and he isn't buying fake gold yet. The WN...

Atlanta went into New Orleans on Monday night and ran the Saints off their own field, with Bijan Robinson and Brian Robinson Jr. both finding the end zone and Michael Penix Jr. looking more comfortable by the week. John Browner says the NFC South is a two-team race between Atlanta and Carolina now that Baker Mayfield is hurt. Josh Tariff joins to explain why Kevin Stefanski is getting the most out of this offense, and the conversation turns to Philadelphia: if you fire Nick Sirianni, who do you hire? John says firing a coach without a plan sends a...

Grant Mona and John Browner recap NFL Week 4. The Eagles led the Rams 20-10 at halftime at home. They lost 24-20. Philadelphia failed on fourth-and-goal with seven and a half minutes left, Kyren Williams scored twice in the final four minutes, and Byron Young sacked Jalen Hurts twice on the final drive. John Browner calls it a bullet dodged for the Rams, not a fix, and says the loss exposes Nick Sirianni now that his coordinators are gone.

Tim Parker joins with his Eagles takeaways — Sirianni's decisions, Hurts' passing performance, and Philadelphia's outlook. Plus the Chiefs go to...

Cleveland beat Pittsburgh 27-24 on Thursday night, and Grant Mona and John Browner break down Deshaun Watson's resurgence, Aaron Rodgers and the Steelers' defense. Eric Lambkins II joins to preview Rams at Eagles with Puka Nacua back. The conversation then turns to Jalen Duren accepting the $200 million contract, the NBA's disappearing middle class, Karl-Anthony Towns' extension talks with the Knicks, and A'ja Wilson and the Aces eliminating Caitlin Clark and the Fever.

The Sporting Tribune Today airs weekday mornings at 7AM & 11AM ET on SportsGrid and wherever you get podcasts.

Episode topics
00:00 Browns-Steelers reaction<...

Week 4 picks with pivotal games everywhere. Grant and John Browner start with Thursday's Browns-Steelers (John says this is Pittsburgh's game to lose) and the big one for LA: Rams at Eagles, with Puka Nacua expected back and the Rams favored by three on the road. John's warning: after Ben Johnson ran circles around Philadelphia, Sean McVay has to do the same or the comparisons start. Steve Cofield joins with the Patriots plus 6.5 in Buffalo on a buy-low spot, the Niners laying 2.5 against Denver, a Bucs win total he's buying even without Baker Mayfield, and a fade of the 3-0...

Sacramento's media day turned into a story about the people covering the players, after a live stream caught reporters discussing Ben Simmons' and Zach LaVine's appearances. John Browner shares what he learned from watching Lisa Salters work a Lakers locker room a decade ago, and lays down the rule every reporter should live by: if there's a microphone in the room, assume it's on. Beav joins and draws the line at access, not employment — pull the locker room credential, don't end careers. Then Jalen Duren: the Pistons offered five years and $200 million fully guaranteed, he wants the full $287 million ma...

Clippers media day was supposed to be about a fresh start. Instead, when Grant asked Trent Redden about Brandon Ingram's readiness, the new president of basketball operations revealed that Ingram's heel procedure in May also repaired a partially torn Achilles — with no return date set. John Browner says the trade now stinks in every direction: Ingram's game was built on length, not explosion, and the Clippers took on damaged goods on the heels of the most tumultuous offseason in franchise history. Add Darius Garland's toe (John will be shocked if he plays 60 games) and Bradley Beal's knee inflammation, and Jo...

The Rams outgained Denver 273 to 67 in the first half and still left Mile High with a loss. Bo Nix and the Broncos did what they've done since Sean Payton arrived — owned the second half, scored 16 unanswered, and turned the building into a genuine home-field advantage — and Grant is officially out of patience with Chris Shula's defense. John sees twelve bad minutes of football; Grant sees three seasons of the Rams dropping games against good teams, and a revamped secondary that got cooked the exact way it was brought in to prevent. Mykell Mathieu joins with the stat that tells the...

For two weeks, John Browner called Kevin Stefanski everything but a coach. Thursday night, he had to retract one of them. Atlanta walked into Lambeau and ran Green Bay off its own field 35-14 — Bijan Robinson nearly 200 yards on the ground, Drake London 194 through the air, and a coach who finally threw his own philosophy out the window when he saw the Packers couldn't stop the run. John won't give Michael Penix Jr. full credit for the stat line, but he'll give the night an A-plus. Beav joins to point out Stefanski is now 6-0 on Thursday nights, and th...

Steve Cofield told everyone to trust the Colts at plus 6.5, and after Indianapolis took Kansas City to overtime, John Browner says the man has officially become a verb: we got Cofielded. Steve's back with four more against the grain — the Chargers plus seven in Buffalo, the Titans on the road against a Giants team without Jaxson Dart, Washington at home against Seattle, and the Bucs against Brian Flores' Vikings. Grant and John open with Thursday night's Falcons-Packers (Michael Penix Jr.'s return from the ACL tear, and John's case that nobody feels anything about Green Bay anymore), then tackle Ra...

Kawhi Leonard just signed a two-year extension with the Raptors worth up to $115 million, and John Browner says it makes perfect sense for both sides — Toronto is the only place he hasn't burned, and he'll get a statue there no matter how the 2019 title was won. But John also has a warning: last season was a contract year, and nobody claws money out of your pocket like the Claw. Grant makes the case that Toronto wouldn't have traded for a 1A star if they believed Scottie Barnes was one. Before that, the Bears' quarterback room gets thinner: Tyson Bagent is...

Grant and John Browner break down a wild Monday night: the Rams beat the Giants 28-6, and Aaron Donald played 58% of the snaps in his first game in years, drawing seven double teams and never once getting pushed around. John's comparison is Michael Jordan's baseball-to-basketball return — except Donald looked nothing like a shell of himself. But the story of the night is Jaxson Dart's knee injury, caught on a live mic as a Giants trainer told John Harbaugh "four to six weeks." John explains why that changes everything for New York — Jameis Winston looked like one of the most unpr...

Grant and John Browner open with the worst news of the weekend: Caleb Williams left the Bears' loss to Minnesota with a non-contact hamstring injury, and John gives the game ball to Vikings DC Brian Flores for completely scrambling a Chicago offense that had scored 59 points the week before. Tim Parker joins to call it a tragedy for a Bears franchise that's never had a real championship quarterback — and just watched one go down with the NFC wide open.

Then the recurring fight nobody can resolve: the Eagles escaped Tennessee on a Jalen Hurts game-winning drive, and Ti...

Grant and John Browner react to Thursday night's blowout: Buffalo dominated Detroit 41-31, jumping to a 27-7 halftime lead and getting five combined passing/rushing touchdowns from Josh Allen across two games. Josh Tariff joins to make the case this is a genuinely different Bills team under new head coach Joe Brady, while John isn't so sure — Buffalo's still one dropped pick away from being 0-2. DJ Moore left with a shoulder scare that turns out to be a stinger, and Detroit's defense has now allowed 71 points and nearly 1,000 total yards through two weeks. John wonders aloud whether Dan Ca...

Grant and John Browner kick off Week 2 with the Thursday night marquee: Buffalo hosting Detroit in the first real game at the new Highmark Stadium, with both taking the Bills to build on their Week 1 escape. Steve Cofield joins with the picks nobody else is making — sharp money on the Texans over the Bengals despite Cincinnati's Week 1 win, the Broncos favored at home off a bad loss, and the one that stops the show cold: the Colts plus 6.5 against the Chiefs in Kansas City. John can't let it go. Along the way, John unloads on the Chargers' offseason at wi...

It's finally official. Kawhi Leonard is a Raptor, Grady Dick and Brandon Ingram are Clippers, and LA gets a pick swap plus two unprotected first-rounders in 2031 and 2033 — which John Browner says was essential, because going forward with no picks for five years takes the legs out from under a franchise nobody trusts in free agency anymore. Then he drops the take of the night: this Toronto team will be worse than last year's Clippers. Ten Eastern Conference teams he'd put ahead of them, and a vibes-and-chemistry group that loses its chemistry the moment Kawhi walks in. Grant zags hard — 27.9 poin...

Week 1 is officially in the books, and the Chiefs closed it by clobbering the defending AFC West champions. Grant and John Browner explain why this is a fundamentally different Kansas City team: four straight runs to open the game, 38 carries total, Kenneth Walker going 23 for 173, and John's comparison of the night to Denver pairing Terrell Davis with John Elway. Patrick Mahomes looked rough coming off major knee surgery and it didn't matter — because Eric Bieniemy is back calling plays and Matt Nagy is as far from him as the organization could manage. On the other side, Denver was atrocious: 176 to...

Late Sunday, Steve Ballmer blinked: the Clippers will comply with the NBA's punishment rather than pursue legal action — a complete reversal from the book-length letter to Adam Silver and weeks of denials, and the franchise's first statement to its fans since any of this began. Grant calls it the right call and the only real one, pointing to the 2000 Timberwolves, who complied and got two of five picks back. John's verdict lands harder: you just watched one of the richest men in the world be held accountable, and when there was nothing left to do but comply, he complied li...

49ers 27, Rams 7 — and Grant is angrier than he's been since last October. John Browner calls it the most gutless performance he's seen under Sean McVay and, for the first time in McVay's career, uses the words coaching malpractice. The reigning MVP looked like old-school Detroit Stafford, Myles Garrett didn't make the stat sheet in his Rams debut, and Trent Williams put him in a jail cell. E Lamb joins with the receipts: Stafford was pressured on 44% of his dropbacks, the highest rate in any game since the start of last season, Raheem Morris knew the book because he helped wr...

The season starts tomorrow, so the crew launches a weekly tradition: every game that matters, picked on the record. Grant and John Browner open with the Wednesday-night Super Bowl rematch (John takes the Patriots, because this is AJ Brown's "told y'all it wasn't me" game), then the Melbourne main event — Aaron Donald won't play Week 1, and John doesn't care: Rams by 14, because it's still the best front four in football without him. Steve Cofield joins from Las Vegas fading BOTH Super Bowl teams and taking the Niners plus the points ("they traveled more wisely"), the rapid-fire round produces instant cl...

NFL week is finally here, and the crew previews the entire NFC division by division. Grant and John Browner open with the North — the division of No. 1 picks, where John argues any team could finish first OR last and it would all make sense, the Lions question is really a Dan Campbell question, and the Vikings are his shocker because Kyler Murray just landed with the league's second-best quarterback whisperer. Mykell Mathieu takes the West (pick the Rams in any video game you want; don't sleep on Seattle), the East brings John's annual confession — he hates the Cowboys, and this...

The punishment was yesterday. The reckoning is tonight.

Grant and John Browner start with the question hanging over everything: the NBA's verdict and ESPN's reporting can't both be true — so who lied? John's journalism monologue ("a journalist is only worth their name") sets up the theory the whole show runs on: Lawrence Frank got six months while everyone above him got a year, and cooperation is the only math that explains it. Beav joins with the 2000 Timberwolves precedent — cooperate and picks come back — and a simple message for the owner: just say you did it. Then, mid-show, Pablo...

Twelve months almost to the day after this show first tried to make sense of the Aspiration story, the NBA made it official — and Grant and John Browner walk through one of the harshest punishments in league history, line by line: a $30 million fine, five first-round picks gone (2029 through 2033, including the voided Pacers pick), Steve Ballmer suspended a year, Gillian Zucker a year, Lawrence Frank six months, Uncle Dennis banned five years — and Kawhi Leonard fined $700,000 with his contract intact. John's verdict: they dropped a nuke, and the only people truly punished are Ballmer and the fans. Josh Tariff join...

Everything in sports is for sale — and this time the buyer matters. Stan Kroenke is purchasing the Angels for a reported $3.9 billion, an MLB record, and Grant and John Browner explain why Angels fans just hit the owner jackpot: the land around the stadium, the LA Live-style build-out coming to Anaheim, and John's prediction that the Ducks end up in the Kroenke orbit next. Mykell Mathieu joins as a lifelong Angels fan ("the Galactic Empire has come to an end") and Steve Cofield of ESPN Las Vegas explains why the rest of baseball's owners should be nervous about a sp...

Grant and John Browner dig into the NFL Top 100, where Lamar Jackson — a multiple-time MVP who was No. 2 a year ago — fell 67 spots to No. 69 in a list voted on by the players themselves. John's read: this isn't a snub, it's confirmation that locker rooms don't fear him anymore. Arash Markazi joins fired up about the USC attendance story the whole country piled on: 100 degrees, San Jose State, a 38-point spread, and a noon kickoff nobody chose. John argues the schedule is the real problem, and the two land on the truth about Los Angeles — there are two of everyt...

The first show on SportsGrid lands on the perfect day: Aaron Donald is officially coming out of retirement, one year, $20 million. Grant and John Browner break down whether he plays Week 1, why a lowball offer was never possible, and John's only real question — under which mattress did the Rams find that money? Mykell Mathieu joins live from Rams practice, where he asked Donald himself what brought him back, and makes the case this was one of the greatest offseasons any team has ever had. Josh Tariff arrives with the fantasy math on what might be the best statistical defense ev...

A special live reaction show from the Chargers-Rams preseason finale, with Tim Parker reporting live from SoFi.

The crew gets the full Justin Herbert experience — a fumble on the first drive, then a 60-yard bomb to Quentin Johnston — and John makes his case that this is finally Herbert's first complete season, just not a Super Bowl one. Tim's brutal read on Ty Simpson explains why Stetson Bennett still has the backup job, the preseason ending means Aaron Donald's clock has officially run out, and John explains what the Chargers actually broke in San Diego.

Then it t...

It's official-official: The Sporting Tribune Today joins SportsGrid on Monday, August 31 — 7AM and 11AM Eastern — and Grant, John Browner and Arash Markazi open with the celebration (and the suspiciously buff AI promo art). Then the news: the NFL has eliminated the Pro Bowl Games entirely, and John delivers the eulogy — the players ended this themselves, the Hawaii era gave way to the nothing era, and if the owners are smart, the "Pro Bowl bonus" leaves contracts next. The crew breaks down the league's new three-strikes suspension list (hip-drop yes, launching?!) and John's theory that gambling money is what's really soften...

A night of firsts. Arash Markazi joins with the announcement six years in the making: this is the show's final week on terrestrial radio — because The Sporting Tribune Today is coming to television. From the pandemic-era Mightier 1090 relaunch to TV: the full origin story gets told, and John's only career advice — keep the same energy — hits different on a night like this.

Then the sports world's own first: the Browns are waiving TE Daquan Wright, who has a deal in place to go BACK to college at LSU — the first NFL-to-college player ever. John's take: no rules broken...

The offseason was supposed to be quiet. Instead: Deshaun Watson is the Browns' Week 1 starter over Shedeur Sanders, and the crew — Grant, John Browner and Beav — isn't buying a word of the press conference. John's verdict: this decision came from the man who cut the $225M check, not Todd Monken, and no apology un-rings the boos that are coming. Beav calls it a slap in the face to Sanders and says the only move was cutting Watson and eating the money.

Then the story nobody had on their card: 49ers owner Jed York arrested in Ohio in a so...

Special edition! The Rams blanked the Saints 34-0 at SoFi Stadium in Week 2 of the preseason, and Grant Mona and John Browner went live right after the final whistle.

They break down Stetson Bennett's two-touchdown day and the QB2 battle with Ty Simpson, a dominant Rams defense, CJ Daniels making his case at WR3, Jarquez Hunter's roster push, and the latest on Aaron Donald's comeback.

Arash Markazi joins from SoFi Stadium, and Mykell Mathieu and Eric Lambkins II hop on with what they saw from the locker room.

This is the first of...

A trade broke minutes before showtime: the Peyton Watson saga is over.

Watson lands in Cleveland on a four-year, $88M deal, Max Strus becomes a Clipper, and Denver walks away with picks. John says it falls at Lawrence Frank's feet — too much smoke to come up empty — while Grant sees the real play: a free $16M expiring to flip at the deadline.

Josh joins to explain why Denver actually won, why the Cavs' 2031 pick is a doomsday asset, and what the Harden money means.

Plus: AJ Brown torches his old Eagles teammates at join...

Grant and John Browner pick up the story that ate Monday alive — and it got wilder on Tuesday. The Lakers sale isn't a Buss family story anymore; it's a Mark Walter story. New reporting says Walter tried to pull payments years early out of the Dodgers' Spectrum TV deal, he's selling Chelsea, and John does the arithmetic nobody at the press conference will: Bob Iger and Josh Kushner combined aren't worth $13 billion. So who is? The name that surfaced — Khaldoon Al Mubarak, the Manchester City chairman and front man for Sheikh Mansour — and the crew walks through how a contro...